,,secular ,,annotations ,,on ,,scripture ,,texts4 ,scripture ,texts ,illustrated ,,by ,,general ,,literature4 ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,,francis ,,jacox1 ,b4,a4 ,illustration ,,new ,,york3 ,,thomas ,,nelson ,,sons1 #db1 ,,bleecker ,,street4 #ahga4 ,issued in this country by special arrangement with ,messrs4 ,,hodder ,,stoughton1 of ,london1 ,england4 ,,contents4 ,,page ,,fellowship ,,in ,,achan',s ,,fall #a ,,joshua xxii4 #bj4 ,,silent ,,sympathy #f ,,job ii4 #ac4 ,,the ,,tempter',s 8,,it ,,is ,,written0 #aj ,,st4 ,,matthew iv4 #f1 sq4 ,,royalty ,,reminded ,,of ,,the ,,poor #ae ,,daniel iv4 #bg4 ,,wind1 ,,earthquake1 ,,fire1 ,,and ,,still ,,small ,,voice #cb #a ,,kings xix4 #aa1 #ab4 ,,haman ,,hanged ,,on ,,his ,,own ,,gallows #da ,,esther vii4 #aj4 ,,to-,,day',s ,,sufficing ,,evil1 ,,and ,,to-,,morrow',s ,,forecast ,,care #dg ,,st4 ,,matthew vi4 #cd4 ,,medicamental ,,music #ee #a ,,samuel xvi4 #bc4 ,,free ,,from ,,righteousness #fj ,,romans vi4 #bj4 ,,the ,,service ,,of ,,freedom #ff ,,st4 ,,matthew xi4 #bi1 #cj4 ,,the ,,discreet ,,silence ,,of ,,folly #gj ,,proverbs xvii4 #bh4 ,,penal ,,prevision #gf #a ,,samuel xxvii4 #ai1 #bj4 ,,beatific ,,vision ,,and ,,overshadowing ,,cloud #hf ,,st4 ,,luke ix4 #cd4 ,,the ,,spreading ,,gourd ,,and ,,the ,,speeding ,,worm #ia ,,jonah iv4 #f-h4 ,,self-,,praise #if ,,proverbs xxvii4 #b4 ,,painted ,,face1 ,,tired ,,head1 ,,and ,,exposed ,,skull #aja #b ,,kings ix4 #cj1 #ce4 ,,the ,,carcase ,,of ,,jezebel ,,on ,,the ,,face ,,of ,,the ,,field #ajd #b ,,kings ix4 #cg4 8,,consider ,,the ,,lilies0 #aji ,,st4 ,,matthew vi4 #bh4 ,a ,,histrionic ,,aspect ,,of ,,life #aad #a ,,corinthians vii4 #ca4 ,,pharaoh',s ,,alternations ,,of ,,amendment ,,and ,,relapse #abe ,,exodus vii4-x4 passim4 ,,sleep ,,and ,,death #acd ,,st4 ,,john xi4 #aa-ad4 ,,eliab ,,and ,,david ,,in ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,elah #aci #a ,,samuel xvii4 #bh4 ,,the ,,prophet ,,in ,,his ,,own ,,country #adc ,,st4 ,,luke iv4 #bd4 ,,desired ,,boon3 ,,realized ,,bane #adg ,,psalm cvi4 #ae2 lxxviii4 #bb1 sq4 8,,and ,,he ,,died0 #aef ,,genesis v4 passim4 ,,an ,,ultra-,,protester #afe ,,st4 ,,matthew xxvi4 #cc-ce2 #fi-ge4 ,,fleeting ,,shadows #agj ,,job xiv4 #b4 ,,haran ,,taken3 ,,terah ,,left #ahb ,,genesis xi4 #bh4 ,,the ,,mote ,,and ,,the ,,beam #ahg ,,st4 ,,matthew vii4 #e4 ,,strangers ,,and ,,pilgrims #aib #a ,,peter ii4 #aa4 ,,the ,,falsity ,,of ,,the ,,familiar ,,friend #bjj ,,psalm xli4 #i4 8,,judge ,,not0 #bjh ,,st4 ,,matthew vii4 #a4 ,,part-,,knowledge #bbd #a ,,corinthians xiii4 #i4 ,,ruling ,,the ,,waves #bca ,,psalm cxiv4 #a-e2 ,,st4 ,,mark iv4 #ci4 ,,in ,,deadly ,,peril ,,unawares #bcg #a ,,samuel xxvi4 #h-be4 ,,no ,,leisure #bdb ,,st4 ,,mark vi4 #ca4 ,a ,,prophylactic ,,knife ,,to ,,the ,,throat #bdi ,,proverbs xxiii4 #b4 ,,hazael',s ,,abhorrent ,,repudiation ,,of ,,his ,,future ,,self #bee #b ,,kings viii4 #ac4 ,,the ,,open ,,right ,,hand',s ,,secret ,,from ,,the ,,left #bei ,,st4 ,,matthew vi4 #c4 ,,to-,,morrow #bfc ,,st4 ,,james iv4 #ac1 #ad4 ,,the ,,divine ,,authorship ,,of ,,order #bgc #a ,,corinthians xiv4 #cc1 #dj4 ,,sweet ,,sleep ,,and ,,its ,,forfeiture #bhb ,,proverbs iii4 #bd4 ,,once ,,denied1 ,,thrice ,,denied #bhf ,,st4 ,,matthew xxvi4 #fi1 sq4 ,,linked ,,lies #bij ,,genesis xxvii4 #ai-bd4 ,a ,,time ,,to ,,weep1 ,,and ,a ,,time ,,to ,,laugh #bif ,,ecclesiastes iii4 #d4 ,,disallowed ,,designs #cja ,,proverbs xix4 #ba ,,man ,,devising3 ,,god ,,directing #cje ,,proverbs xvi4 #i4 ,a ,,pursebearer',s ,,protest ,,against ,,purposeless ,,waste #cji ,,st4 ,,john xii4 #e4 ,,light ,,at ,,evening-,,time #cac ,,zechariah xiv4 #g4 ,,wished-,,for ,,day #cbc ,,acts xxvii4 #bi4 ,,the ,,more ,,than ,,brotherhood ,,of ,a ,,bosom ,,friend #cbh ,,proverbs xviii4 #bd4 ,,many ,,years ,,to ,,enjoy ,,life3 ,,this ,,night ,,to ,,die #ccc ,,st4 ,,luke xii4 #ai1 #bj4 ,,great ,,babylon ,,built3 ,a ,,builder',s ,,boast #ccg ,,daniel iv4 #bi-cc4 ,,invocation ,,and ,,inaction #cdb ,,exodus xiv4 #ae4 ,,co-,,operant ,,units #cdh ,,ephesians iv4 #af4 ,,subordinate1 ,,not ,,superfluous2 ,,or1 ,,depreciated ,,membership #cec #a ,,corinthians xii4 #bb4 ,,the ,,wrath-,,dispelling ,,power ,,of ,a ,,soft ,,answer #ceg ,,proverbs xv4 #a4 ,a ,,twice-,,told ,,tale ,,of ,,years #cfa ,,ecclesiastes vi4 #f4 ,,daybreak ,,no ,,solace3 ,,nightfall ,,no ,,relief #cfe ,,deuteronomy xxviii4 #cf1 #cg4 ,,buyer',s ,,bargain ,,and ,,boast #cfg ,,proverbs xx4 #ad4 ,,gray-,,haired ,,unawares #cgb ,,hosea vii4 #i4 ,,restrained ,,anger #cgf ,,proverbs xvi4 #cb4 ,,evanescence ,,of ,,the ,,early ,,dew #cha ,,hosea vi4 #c4 ,,ears ,,to ,,hear #chf ,,st4 ,,luke viii4 #h4 ,,not ,,alone ,,in ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,shadows #chi ,,psalm xxiii4 #d4 ,,secular ,,annotations ,,on ,,scripture ,,texts4 ,,fellowship ,,in ,,achan',s ,,fall4 ,,joshua xxii4 #bj4 ,when ,achan the son of ,zerah committed a trespass in the accursed thing1 wrath fell not alone upon ,achan1 but upon all the congregation of ,israel2 8and that man perished not alone in his iniquity40 ,the text is one to arrest the thoughtless1 and to suggest even to the most thoughtful matter for very serious consideration4 8,should one man sin1 and would ,god be wroth with all the congregation80 ,that deprecatory question had been put twenty years before ,achan's trespass1 by the congregation of ,israel1 in the matter of ,korah1 when they fell upon their faces and pleaded with ,god1 the ,god of the spirits of all flesh4 ,and some centuries later the confession of ,king ,david in time of pestilence took this form3 that he had sinned and done wickedly2 but those sheep--those subjects of his1 involved in the penalty of his transgression1 and dying off like sheep in a flock to the right and left of him1 seventy thousand of them from morning to evening1 from ,dan even to ,beersheba1--what had they done8 ,if1 indeed1 says ,dr4 ,south1 a man could be wicked and a villain to himself alone1 the mischief would be so much the more tolerable4 ,but the case1 as he goes on to show1 is much otherwise3 the guilt of the crime lights upon one1 but the example of it sways a multitude2 especially if the criminal be of any note or eminence in the world4 8,for the fall of such a one by any temptation 7be it never so plausible7 is like that of a principal stone or stately pillar1 tumbling from a lofty edifice into the deep mire of the street2 it does not only plunge and sink into the black dirt itself1 but also dashes or bespatters all that are about it or near it when it falls40 ,it is by no very subtle and far-fetched reasoning that a living divine essays to show that we may sin in the persons of other men1 and so may sin in other countries which we never saw1 and in years after we are in our graves4 ,for may we not1 he asks1 be partakers in other men's sins of which at their commission we knew not1 indeed at whose commission we would shudder8 ,may we not in the moral world sometimes set the great stone rolling down the hill1 with little thought of the ruin it may deal below8 8,ah1 you may live after you are dead1 to do mischief2 live in the evil thoughts you instilled1 the false doctrines you taught1 the perverted character you helped to form40 ,and just as a righteous exemplar1 8being dead1 yet speaketh10 and is a living means of good ages after he has been in his grave1 8so may you1 insignificant though you be1 have left some impress of yourself upon minds more powerful than your own1 and so be exercising a power to do harm to people you have never heard of1 years after you are dead40 ,thus it is that far down into unknown time1 and far away into the unknown distance1 the moral contagion of our sin may be proved to spread2 so that we may still be incurring guilt after the green turf is over us1 and in lands which we have never seen and shall never see4 8,the evil principle we instilled1 the evil example we set1 may ripen into bitter fruit in the murderous blow which shall be dealt a century hence upon ,australian plains60 ,well may the note of exclamation follow3 how strange1 yet how inevitable1 the tie which may link our uneventful life with the stormy passions of numbers far away6 ,more wonderful than even the ,atlantic cable is declared to be that unknown fibre1 along which1 from other men's sins1 responsibility may thrill even to our departed souls3 8a chain whose links are formed perhaps of idle words1 of forgotten looks1 of phrases of double meaning1 of bad advice1 of cynical sentiment hardly seriously meant2 yet carried on through life after life1 through soul after soul1 till the little seed of evil sown by you has developed into some deed of guilt at which you shudder1 but from participation in responsibility for which you cannot clear yourself40 ,every sin1 we are in fine reminded1 may waken its echo2 every sin is reduplicated and reiterated in other souls and lives4 ,a distinguished ,french preacher1 of the ,reformed faith1 has a striking discourse on what he entitles the solidarity of evil2 and he too dilates upon the mysterious links which connect together persons and acts that appear to have nothing in common1--suggesting melancholy examples of the contagion of guilt and its consequences1 of the expansive power of corruption and its almost boundless results4 ,our most powerful female writer of fiction has emphatically taught1 if a striking story can teach1 that there is no sort of wrong deed of which a man can bear the punishment alone2 you can't isolate yourself1 and say that the evil which is in you shall not spread4 ,men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other as the air they breathe2 evil spreads as necessarily as disease4 8,i know1 ,i feel the terrible extent of suffering this sin of ,arthur's has caused to others10--so the good rector tells one who cherishes vengeance on the wrong-doer2 8but so does every sin cause suffering to others besides those who commit it40 ,the problem how far a man is to be held responsible for the unforeseen consequences of his own deed this speaker pronounces to be one that might well make us tremble to look into it2 the evil consequences that may lie folded in a single act of selfish indulgence being a thought so awful that it ought surely to awaken some feeling less presumptuous than a rash and vindictive desire to punish4 ,in another of her books the same authoress takes pains to prove how deeply inherent it is in this life of ours that men have to suffer for each other's sins2 so inevitably diffusive is human suffering that we can conceive no retribution which does not spread beyond its mark in pulsations of unmerited pain4 ,there is a passage in one of ,madame de ,charrire's letters in which1 avowing her full recognition of the fact that she must pay in person for the costly experience of life1 she expresses the futile wish that others might not have to share in the costs1 but owns with a sigh that the wish is futile1 for one does nothing absolutely alone she says1 and nothing so happens to us as to entirely exclude the participation of others3 8,on ne fait rien tout seul1 et il ne nous arrive rien nous seuls40 ,we are taught by modern science that the slightest movement1 of the smallest body1 in the remotest region1 produces results which are perpetual1 which diffuse themselves through all space1 and which1 though they may be metamorphosed1 cannot be destroyed4#a ,or again1 as ,mrs4 ,browning reminds us1-- 8,each creature holds an insular point in space3 ,yet what man stirs a finger1 breathes a sound1 ,but all the multitudinous beings round1 ,in all the countless worlds1 with time and place ,for their conditions1 down to the central base1 ,thrill1 haply1 in vibration and rebound1 ,life answering life across the vast profound1 ,in full antiphony44440 ,if no good work that a man does is lost--the smallest useful work1 as an octogenarian essayist assures us1 continuing to be useful long after the man is dead and forgotten1 so neither do bad actions die with the doer4 8,future generations suffer for the sin of their ancestors1 and one great crime or act of folly causes the misery of unborn millions40 ,so all things1 it is added1 hang together in one unbroken chain1 of which we see a few links1 but the beginning and the end we see not and never shall see4 ,seneca was writing for all time when he said that no man's error is confined to himself1 but affects all around him1 whether by example1 or consequences1 or both3 8nemo errat uni sibi40 ,a latter-day philosopher assigns to a place among the most insoluble riddles propounded to mortal comprehension what he calls the fatal decree by which every crime is made to be the agony of many innocent persons as well as of the single guilty one4 8,ah60 exclaims ,hilda to guilty ,miriam1 in the story of 8,transformation10--8now ,i understand how the sins of generations past have created an atmosphere of sin for those that follow4 ,while there is a single guilty person in the universe1 each innocent one must feel his innocence tortured by that guilt4 ,your deed1 ,miriam1 has darkened the whole sky60 ,to apply the lines of a reflective poet1-- 8',tis not their own crimes only1 men commit2 ,they harrow them into another's breast1 ,and they shall reap the growth with bitter pain40 ,very forcibly ,mr4 ,isaac ,taylor warns us that in almost every event of life the remote consequences vastly outweigh the proximate in actual amount of importance2 and he undertakes to show1 on principles even of mathematical calculation1 that each individual of the human family holds in his hand the centre lines of an interminable web-work1 on which are sustained the fortunes of multitudes of his successors2 the implicated consequences1 if summed together1 making up therefore a weight of human weal or woe that is reflected back with an incalculable momentum upon the lot of each4 ,the practical conclusion is that every one is bound to remember that the personal sufferings or peculiar vicissitudes or toils through which he is called to pass are to be estimated and explained only in an immeasurably small proportion if his single welfare is regarded1 while their 8full price and value are not to be computed unless the drops of the morning dew could be numbered40 ,so the most popular of domestic story-tellers expatiates in an early work on the impossibility of wiping off from us1 as with a wet cloth1 the stains left by the fault of those who are near to us4 ,another of the tribe1 but more 8sensational0 in subject and style1 is keen to show how the influence of a man's evil deed slowly percolates through insidious channels of which he never dreams2 how the deed of folly or of guilt is still active for evil when the sinner who committed it has forgotten his wickedness4 8,who shall say where or when the results of one man's evil-doing shall cease8 ,the seed of sin engenders no common root1 shooting straight upwards through the earth1 and bearing a given crop4 ,it is the germ of a foul running weed1 whose straggling suckers travel underground beyond the ken of mortal eye1 beyond the power of mortal calculation40 ,and so again the caustic showman of 8,vanity ,fair10 in his last completed work1 paused to explain how a culprit's evil behaviour of five and twenty years back1 brought present grief and loss of rest to three unoffending persons2 and he characteristically utters the wistful wish that we 8could all take the punishment for our individual crimes on our individual shoulders10 but laments the futility of any such wish1 recognising as he does so plainly that when the culprit is condemned to hang1 it is those connected with him who have to weep and suffer1 and wear piteous mourning in their hearts long after he has jumped off the ,tyburn ladder4 ,we conclude with a suggestive stanza of ,mr4 ,robert ,browning's1 worth learning by heart in more senses than one3 he is speaking of the soul declaring itself by its fruit--the thing it does3-- 8,be ,hate that fruit1 or ,love that fruit1 ,it forwards the general deed of ,man2 ,and each of the many helps to recruit ,the life of the race by a general plan1 ,each living his own1 to boot40 ,,silent ,,sympathy4 ,,job ii4 #ac4 ,job's friends have long since been a sort of bye-word4 ,but be it not forgotten that the friendship of ,eliphaz1 ,bildad1 and ,zophar1 to the ruined and desolate man of ,uz1 evidences itself as very genuine in one or two salient points1 before it came to be1 what it is apt to be now exclusively considered1 all talk4 ,before the talk there was prolonged silence2 and before the silence there was lamentation of undoubted earnest4 ,coming from afar to mourn with him1 and to comfort him1 from afar off they caught sight of him1 but so altered--heu1 quantum mutatus6--that they lifted up their voice and wept2 and they rent each one his mantle1 and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven4 ,and then they 8sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights1 and none spake a word unto him2 for they saw that his grief was very great40 ,the sonnet of a ,quaker poet has thus far vindicated the sincerity of their friendship1 and on the ground of their silent sympathy3 8,however ye might err in after-speech1 ,the mute expression of that voiceless woe ,whereby ye sought your sympathy to show ,with him of ,uz1 doth eloquently preach1-- ,teaching a lesson it were well to teach ,some comforters1 of utterance less slow1 ,prone to believe that they more promptly know ,grief's mighty depths1 and by their words can reach4 ,seven days and nights1 in stillness as profound ,as that of chaos1 patiently ye sate ,by the heart-stricken and the desolate4 ,and though your sympathy might fail to sound ,the fathomless depth of his dark spirit's wound1 ,not less your silence was sublimely great40 ,in his vivid picture of the desolation of a bereaved husband1 ,sir ,richard ,steele goes on to say1 8,i knew consolation would now be impertinent2 and therefore contented myself to sit by him1 and condole with him in silence40 8,les consolations indiscrtes10 says ,rousseau1 8ne font qu'aigrir les violentes afflictions4 ,l'indiffrence et la froideur trouvent aisment des paroles1 mais la tristesse et ,,le ,,silence sont alors le vrai langage de l'amiti40 ,gray writes to ,mason1 while yet uncertain whether the latter is already a widower or not1--8,if the last struggle be over 444 allow me 7at least in idea1 for what could ,i do were ,i present more than this17 to sit by you in silence1 and pity from my heart1 not her who is at rest1 but you who lose her40 ,so it happened that ,mason received this little billet at almost the precise moment when it would be most affecting4 ,horace ,walpole1 again1 writes to an afflicted correspondent1--8,i say no more1 for time only1 not words1 can soften such afflictions1 nor can any consolations be suggested1 that do not more immediately occur to the persons afflicted4 ,to moralize can comfort those only who do not want to be comforted40 ,so ,marcia replies to ,lucia1 in ,addison's tragedy3 8,lucia4 ,what can ,i think or say to give thee comfort8 ,marcia4 ,talk not of comfort1 'tis for lighter ills40 ,words are words1 says ,shakspeare's ,brabantio1 and never yet heard he that the bruised heart was relieved through the ear4 ,when1 towards the close of ,campbell's metrical tale of fair ,wyoming1 on ,susquehanna's side1 8prone to the dust1 afflicted ,waldegrave hid his face on earth1 him watched1 in gloomy ruth1 his woodland guide2 but words had none to soothe the grief that knows not consolation's name40 ,but the ,oneyda chief was not on that account ,waldegrave's least efficient comforter4 ,what though others around him1 less reticent1 and more demonstrative1 found utterance easy1 and shaped their kind common-place meaning into kind common-place words8 8,of them that stood encircling his despair1 he heard some friendly words1 but knew not what they were40 ,wise-hearted1 too1 was ,southey's young ,arabian1 in watching silently the frantic grief of the newly childless old diviner3 in pitying silence ,thalaba stood by1 and gazed1 and listened3 8not with the officious hand of consolation1 fretting the sore wound he could not hope to heal40 ,it has been called the last triumph of affection and magnanimity1 when a loving heart can respect the suffering silence of its beloved1 and allow that lonely liberty in which alone some natures can find comfort4 ,a late author portrayed in one of his tales a dull1 common-place fellow enough1 of limited intellect and attainments1 whose1 however1 was one of those kind and honest natures fortunately endowed with subtle powers of perception that lie deeper than the head4 ,accordingly he is described1 in the capacity of an unofficious condoler1 as appreciating perfectly the grief of his friend2 at his side throughout the day1 but never obtruding himself1 never attempting jarring platitudes of condolence3 8in a word he fully understood the deep and beautiful sympathy of silence40 ,so with ,adela and ,caroline in ,the ,bertrams1--interchanging those pressures of the hand1 those mute marks of fellow-feeling1 8which we all know so well how to give when we long to lighten the sorrows which are too deep to be probed by words40 ,but though we all may know so well how to give these mute marks1 we do not all and always practice what we know4 ',tis true1 'tis pity2 pity 'tis 'tis true4 ,adam ,bede's outburst of maddened feelings1 uttered in tones of appealing anguish1 when the loss of ,hetty is first made clear to him1 is noted in silence by the discreet rector1 who is too wise to utter soothing words at present1 as he watches in ,adam that look of sudden age which sometimes comes over a young face in moments of terrible emotion4 ,as ,bartle ,massey elsewhere describes this silent sympathizer1 8,ay1 he's good metal2 444 says no more than's needful4 ,he's not one of those that think they can comfort you with chattering1 as if folks who stand by and look on knew a deal better what the trouble was than those who have to bear it40 ,madame de ,svign frankly deposes of her capacity as regards wordy consolation3 8,pour moi1 je ne sais point de paroles dans une telle occasion40 ,mr4 ,tennyson submits what is applicable to any telle occasion1 8,that only silence suiteth best4 ,words weaker than your grief would make ,grief more4 ',twere better ,i should cease40 ,miss ,procter sings the praises of a true comforter in little ,effie1--8just ,i think that she does not try1--only looks with a wistful wonder why grown people should ever cry40 ,it is such a comfort to be able to cry in peace1 adds that sweet singer 7with larmes dans la voix73 8,and my comforter knows a lesson ,wiser1 truer than all the rest3-- ,that to help and to heal a sorrow1 ,love and silence are always best40 ,,the ,,tempter',s 8,,it ,,is ,,written40 ,,matthew iv4 #f4 8,it is written10 said the ,tempter1 quoting ,scripture for his purpose1 when it was his hour and the power of darkness1 in the day of temptation in the wilderness4 ,the quotation was refuted on the spot1 and the ,tempter was foiled4 ,but his failure has not deterred mankind1 at sundry times and in divers manners1 from venturing on the same appeal1 with no very unlike design4 ,the wise as serpents 7there was a serpent in ,eden7 who are not also harmless as doves1 have now and then essayed to round a sophistic period1 or clench an immoral argument1 with an ,it is written4 ,among the crowd of pilgrims who throng the pages of his allegory1 ,bunyan depicts one ,mr4 ,selfwill1 who holds that a man may follow the vices as well as the virtues of pilgrims2 and that if he does both1 he shall certainly be saved4 ,but what ground has he for so saying8 is ,mr4 ,greatheart's query4 ,and old ,mr4 ,honesty replies1 8,why1 he said he had ,scripture for his warrant40 ,he could cite ,david's practice in one bad direction1 and ,sarah's lying in another1 and ,jacob's dissimulation in a third4 ,and what they did1 he might do too4 8,i have heard him plead for it1 bring ,scripture for it1 bring arguments for it10 etc41 quoth old ,honesty with a degree of indignation that does credit to his name4 8,the devil can quote ,scripture for his purpose4 ,an evil soul1 producing holy witness1 ,is like a villain with a smiling cheek1 ,a goodly apple rotten at the core40 ,such is ,antonio's stricture on ,shylock's appeal to ,jacob's practice1 8,when ,jacob grazed his uncle ,laban's sheep02 and there is a parallel passage in the next act1 where ,bassanio is the speaker3-- 8,in religion1 ,what damnd error but some sober brow ,will bless it and approve it with a text1 ,hiding the grossness with fair ornament80 ,against divines1 indeed1 of every school and age1 the reproach of citing a text in support of doctrine or practice the reverse of divine1 has been freely cast1 with more or less of reason4 ,orthodox and heterodox1 each has flung against the other his retort uncourteous4 8,have not all heretics the same pretence ,to plead the ,scriptures in their own defence8 ,how did the ,nicene ,council then decide ,that strong debate8 ,was it by ,scripture tried8 ,no1 sure2 to that the rebel would not yield3 ,squadrons of texts he marshall'd in the field4 444 ,with texts point-blank and plain he faced the foe2 ,and did not ,satan tempt our ,saviour so80 ,a ,dublin synod of the ,irish ,roman ,catholic bishops1 a few years since1 which distinguished itself by its enthusiasm for ,pope ,pius ,,ix41 against the ,king of ,italy1 and by its arrogation of a divine right of practical monopoly in overseeing the schools and colleges of ,ireland1 was made the theme of comment by unsympathetic ,british critics2 who remarked that when the question of education is stirred in such quarters1 the dullest heretic can divine that the national system is to be denounced2 and that it is easy to guess at the text of ,scripture to be quoted in support of the pretensions of the ,church4 8,the command to #8go and teach all nations' vested in the successors of the ,apostles a rightful monopoly of instruction in ,greek1 mathematics1 and civil engineering40 ,according to the same elastic authority1 the 8,puritans10 we are reminded1 were justified in shooting and hanging their enemies1 because ,samuel hewed ,agag in pieces1 or because ,phineas arose and executed judgment4 8,there never was a proposition which could not be proved by a text2 and perhaps the effect is more complete when the citation is taken from the ,vulgate40 ,gray's malicious lines against ,lord ,sandwich1 a notorious evil-liver1 as candidate for the ,high ,stewardship in the ,university of ,cambridge1 include this stanza1 supposed to be uttered by a representative ,d4,d41 of the old port-wine school1 and a staunch supporter of his profligate lordship3 8,did not ,israel filch from th' ,egyptians of old ,their jewels of silver and jewels of gold8 ,the prophet of ,bethel1 we read1 told a lie2 ,he#b drinks--so did ,noah3--he swears--so do ,i40 ,gray's jeu d'esprit was1 throughout1 not in the best of taste2 but it was vastly relished at the time1 as an election squib4 ,the reference to spoiling the ,egyptians is a well worked one in the history of quotations4 ,coleridge has a story of a ,mameluke ,bey1 whose 8precious logic0 extorted a large contribution from the ,egyptian ,jews4 8,these books1 the ,pentateuch1 are authentic80 8,yes40 8,well1 the debt then is acknowledged3 and now the receipt1 or the money1 or your heads6 ,the ,jews borrowed a large treasure from the ,egyptians2 but you are the ,jews1 and on you1 therefore1 ,i call for the repayment40 ,such conclusions1 from such premises1 and backed by such vouchers1 are open to logicians of every order1 sacred and profane4 8,hence comment after comment1 spun as fine ,as bloated spiders draw the flimsy line2 ,hence the same word that bids our lusts obey1 ,is misapplied to sanctify their sway4 ,if stubborn ,greek refuse to be his friend1 ,hebrew or ,syriac shall be forced to bend3 ,if languages and copies all cry1 ,no6 ,somebody proved it centuries ago40 ,burns was never any too backward in having his fling at a 8minister02 and there is exceptional 7and perhaps exceptionable7 gusto in his averment that1 8,e'en ministers1 they have been kenn'd1 ,in holy rapture1 ,a rousing whid1 at times1 to vend1 ,and nail't wi' ,scripture40 ,there was a time in the life of ,diderot when that freest of free-thinkers made a living1 such as it was1 by writing sermons to order--half a dozen of them1 for instance1 a missionary bespoke for the ,portuguese colonies1 and is said to have paid for them very handsomely at fifty crowns each4 ,mr4 ,carlyle is caustic in his commemoration of this incident in ,denis ,diderot's career4 8,further1 he made sermons1 to order2 as the ,devil is said to quote ,scripture40 ,in ,mr4 ,carlyle's latest and longest history1 we find once and again the like allusion4 ,frederick ,william1 and his advisers1 bent on a certain match for the ,princess ,wilhelmina1 which the queen1 her mother1 as steadfastly opposed1 took to quoting ,scripture by way of subduing her majesty's resistance4 8,there was much discourse1 suasive1 argumentative4 ,grumkow quoting ,scripture on her majesty1 as the devil can on occasion10 says ,wilhelmina4 8,express scriptures1 #8,wives1 be obedient to your husbands1' and the like texts2 but her majesty1 on the ,scripture side1 too1 gave him as much as he brought40 ,and at a later stage of the negotiation1 the same ,grumkow appears again1 citing the ,vulgate to a confidential correspondent1 in reference to their political schemings4 8,but #8,si ,deus est nobiscum'--#8,if ,god be for us1 who can be against us8' ,for the ,grumkow can quote ,scripture2 nay1 solaces himself with it1 which is a feat beyond what the devil is competent to40 ,shakespeare embodies in ,richard of ,gloster a type of the political intriguer of this complexion2 as where that usurper thus answers the gulled associates who urge him to be avenged on the opposite faction3 8,but then ,i sigh1 and with a piece of ,scripture1 ,tell them1 that ,god bids us do good for evil4 ,and thus ,i clothe my naked villany ,with old odd ends1 stolen forth of holy writ2 ,and seem a saint when most ,i play the devil40 ,an unmitigated scoundrel in one of ,mr4 ,dickens's books is represented as overtly grudging his old father the scant remnant of his days1 and citing holy writ for sanction of his complaint4 8,why1 a man of any feeling ought to be ashamed of being eighty--let alone any more4 ,where's his religion1 ,i should like to know1 when he goes flying in the face of the ,bible like that8 ,threescore and ten's the mark2 and no man with a conscience1 and a proper sense of what's expected of him1 has any business to live longer40 ,whereupon the author interposes this parenthetical comment1 and highly characteristic it is3 8,is any one surprised at ,mr4 ,jonas making such a reference to such a book for such a purpose8 ,does any one doubt the old saw that the devil 444 quotes ,scripture for his own ends8 ,if he will take the trouble to look about him1 he may find a greater number of confirmations of the fact in the occurrences of a single day than the steam-gun can discharge balls in a minute40 ,fiction would supply us with abundant illustrations--fiction in general1 and ,sir ,walter ,scott in particular4 ,as where ,simon of ,hackburn1 the martial borderer1 backs his hot appeal to arms1 for the avenging a deed of wrong1 by an equivocal reference to holy writ4 8,let women sit and greet at hame1 men must do as they have been done by2 it is the ,scripture says it40 8,haud your tongue1 sir10 exclaims one of the seniors1 sternly2 8dinna abuse the ,word that gate2 ye dinna ken what ye speak about40 ,or as where the ,templar essays to corrupt the ,jewess by citing the examples of ,david and ,solomon3 8,if thou readest the ,scriptures10 retorts ,rebecca1 8and the lives of the saints1 only to justify thine own licence and profligacy1 thy crime is like that of him who extracteth poison from the most healthful and necessary herbs40 ,one other example4 ,undy ,scott1 that plausible scamp of ,mr4 ,trollope's making1 propounds an immoral paradox1 to the scope of which one of his dupes is bold enough to object4 ,but how is the objector disposed of8 8#8,judge not1 and ye shall not be judged1' said ,undy1 quoting ,scripture1 as the devil did before him40 ,dupes can quote ,scripture1 too1 and perhaps that is more demoralizing still4 ,for ,cowper did not rhyme without reason when he declared1 that 8,of all the arts sagacious dupes invent1 ,to cheat themselves1 and gain the world's assent1 ,the worst is--,scripture warped from its intent40 ,,royalty ,,reminded ,,of ,,the ,,poor4 ,,daniel iv4 #bg4 ,great was ,nebuchadnezzar king of ,babylon1 even as the tree that he saw in his dream2 for1 by the avowal of the ,hebrew prophet who interpreted that dream1 the king was indeed become strong1 and his greatness was grown1 and reached unto the heaven1 and his dominion unto the ends of the earth4 ,but sentence had gone forth1 as against the tree1 so against the king4 ,nebuchadnezzar was to be degraded2 despoiled of his kingdom1 cast down from his throne1 and driven from men1 to eat grass as oxen4 ,this counsel1 however1 the prophet urged upon the sovran1 that he should break off his sins by righteousness1 and his 8iniquities by showing mercy to the poor02 if it might be a lengthening of his tranquillity1 or a healing of his error4 ,what error8 ,that of which ex-king ,lear accused himself1 when he owned1 amid words of frenzy1 all however with more or less of tragic significance in them1 that he had taken too little care of this1--of sympathy with desolate indigence1 and of readiness to relieve the sufferings of the destitute and forlorn4 ,the storm is raging on the heath1 and faithful ,kent implores his aged master to take shelter1 such as it is1 within a hovel hard by2 some friendship will it lend him against the tempest2 the tyranny of the open night's too rough for nature to endure4 ,but ,lear would be let alone4 8,wilt break my heart80 he exclaims1 in answer to ,kent's fresh entreaty3 ,kent had rather break his own4 ,again the drenched1 discrowned old man is urged to enter the hovel on the heath4 ,but he stays outside1 to reason on his past and present1 till reason gives way4 ,kent may think it a matter of moment that this contentious storm invades them to the skin2 and so it is to him4 ,but ,lear has deeper griefs to shatter him2 and 8where the greater malady is fixed1 the lesser is scarce felt40 ,let ,kent go in1 by all means3 the king enjoins it--at least the ex-king desires it3 let ,kent seek his own ease--and perhaps ,lear will follow him in4 ,meanwhile1 in draggling robes1 drenched to the skin1 chilled to the heart1 ,lear's thoughts perforce are turned to 8houseless poverty10 to the indigent and vagrant creatures once1 and so lately1 his subjects1 equally exposed to the downpour of the wrathful skies1 of whom he had seldom1 if ever1 thought till now4 ,poor naked wretches1 he apostrophises them1 wheresoever they are1 that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm1--how shall their houseless heads1 and unfed sides1 their looped and windowed raggedness1 defend them from seasons such as these8 ,and then1 in an outburst of repentant self-reproach1 he that had been ,king of ,britain breaks forth into the avowal1 8,o1 ,i have ta'en ,too little care of this6 ,take physic1 pomp2 ,expose thyself to feel what wretches feel2 ,that thou mayst shake the superflux to them1 ,and show the heavens more just40 ,between the history of ,lear and that of ,gloster1 in the same play1 there is a curious and significant parallel maintained throughout4 ,and it is observable that when ,gloster too1 another duped and outcast father1 is wandering in his turn on the same heath1 and is accosted by 8poor mad ,tom10--the sightless1 miserable father thus addresses the 8naked fellow0 whose identity he so little suspects3 8,here1 take this purse1 thou whom the heaven's plagues ,have humbled to all strokes3 that ,i am wretched1 ,makes thee the happier3--,heavens1 deal so still6 ,let the superfluous and lust-dieted man1 ,that slaves your ordinance1 that will not see ,because he doth not feel1 feel your power quickly2 ,so distribution should undo the excess1 ,and each man have enough40 ,strictly a parallel passage to the one just cited from the lips of ,lear1 even as the disastrous personal experiences of ,king of ,britain and ,duke of ,gloster were along parallel lines1 as we have said4 ,the words of ,amos1 the herdman of ,tekoa1 include a denunciation of woe to them that lie upon beds of ivory1 and eat the lambs out of the flock1 and the calves out of the midst of the stall1 and drink wine in bowls1 and anoint themselves with costly ointments1 and chant to the sound of the viol1--but are not grieved for the affliction of ,joseph4 ,as the minor prophet with his woe to them that are thus at ease in ,zion1 so a major prophet declares this to have been the iniquity of a doomed race--pride1 fulness of bread1 and abundance of idleness1 with disregard of all means to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy4 ,lazarus the beggar was1 as some scholars interpret the passage1 8content to be fed0 on the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table2 in which case he would not appear to have been refused the crumbs3 indeed1 had this been the case1 it would scarcely1 they contend1 have been omitted in the rebuke of ,abraham4 8,the rich man's sins were ravenousness and negligence rather than inhumanity40#c ,he took too little care of this--that beggary lay in helpless prostration before his doorway1 the while he clothed himself in purple and fine linen1 and fared sumptuously every day4 ,la ,bruyre observes that 8la sant et les richesses tent aux hommes l'exprience du mal1 leur inspirent la duret pour leurs semblables20 and adds1 that 8les gens dj chargs de leur propre misre sont ceux qui entrent davantage1 par leur compassion1 dans celle d'autrui40 ,if these by comparison become wondrous kind1 it is their fellow-feeling that makes them so4 ,haud ignari mali1 miseris succurrere discunt4 ,in another chapter of his 8,characters10 ,la ,bruyre sketches the portrait of one he styles ,champagne1 who 8au sortir d'un long dner qui lui enfle l'estomac1 et dans les douces fumes d'un vin d',avenay ou de ,sillery1 signe un ordre qu'on lui prsente1 qui terait le pain toute une province1 si l'on n'y remdiait3 il est excusable4 ,quel moyen de comprendre1 dans la premire heure de la digestion1 qu'on puisse quelque part mourir de faim80 ,il est excusable1 on the principle of ,horace ,walpole's similar plea1 or apology1 for unheeding royalty4 ,he writes to ,miss ,hannah ,more that he used to hate that king and t'other prince--but that on reflection he found the censure ought to fall on human nature in general4 8,they are made of the same stuff as we1 and dare we say what we should be in their situation8 ,poor creatures6 think how they are educated1 or rather corrupted1 early1 how flattered6 ,to be educated properly1 they should be led through hovels as ,lear was on the heath--somewhat late in life1 and hospitals1 and prisons4 ,instead of being reprimanded 7and perhaps immediately afterwards sugar-plum'd7 for not learning their ,latin or ,french grammar1 they now and then should be kept fasting2 and1 if they cut their finger1 should have no plaster till it festered4 ,no part of a royal brat's memory1 which is good enough1 should be burthened but with the remembrance of human suffering40 8,il y a une espce de honte d'tre heureux la vue de certaines misres10 writes ,la ,bruyre again4 ,adam ,smith1 however1 made a dead set against what he calls those 8whining and melancholy moralists10 who he complains1 are perpetually reproaching us with our happiness1 while so many of our brethren are in misery1 who regard as impious the natural joy of prosperity1 which does not think of the many wretches that are at every instant labouring under all sorts of calamities1 in the languor of poverty1 in the agony of disease1 etc4 8,commiseration for those miseries which we never saw1 which we never heard of1 but which we may be assured are at all times infesting such numbers of our fellow-creatures1 ought1 they think1 to damp the pleasures of the fortunate1 and to render a certain melancholy dejection habitual to all men40 ,adam ,smith opposes this 8extreme sympathy0 as altogether absurd and unreasonable2 as unattainable too1 so that a certain affected and sentimental sadness is the nearest approach that can be made to it2 and he further declares that this disposition of mind1 though it could be attained1 would be perfectly useless1 and could serve no other purpose than to render miserable the person who possessed it4 ,this1 of course1 is assuming the wretchedness in question to be beyond the sympathiser's relief4 ,dr4 ,smith may be supposed to have had in view ,thomson's celebrated passage3 8,ah6 little think the gay licentious proud1 ,whom pleasure1 power1 and affluence surround2 ,they1 who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth1 ,and wanton1 often cruel1 riot waste2 ,ah6 little think they1 while they dance along1 ,how many feel this very moment death ,and all the sad variety of pain40 ,many variations on that theme of sad variety the poet sings3 moving accidents by flood and fire1--pining want1 and dungeon glooms1--the many who drink the cup of baleful grief1 or eat the bitter bread of misery--sore pierced by wintry winds1 how many shrink into the sordid hut of cheerless poverty 7the hovel on the heath again71 etc41 etc41 etc4 8,thought fond man ,of these1 and all the thousand nameless ills ,that one incessant struggle render life ,one scene of toil1 of suffering1 and of fate1 ,vice in his high career would stand appalled1 ,and heedless rambling impulse learn to think2 ,the conscious heart of charity would warm1 ,and her wide wish benevolence dilate2 ,the social tear would rise1 the social sigh1 ,and into clear perfection1 gradual bliss1 ,refining still1 the social passions work40 ,this may1 perhaps1 said ,baron ,alderson1 in winding up a charge to a grand jury1 whom he exhorted at that winter season to show sympathy and kindness to the distressed1--this1 perhaps1 may be one of the objects for which ,god sends suffering1 that it may tend to re-unite those whom prosperity has severed4 ,so ,burns-- 8,o ye who1 sunk in beds of down1 ,feel not a want but what yourselves create1 ,think for a moment on his wretched fate ,whom friends and fortune quite disown4 ,ill-satisfied keen nature's clam'rous call1 ,stretch'd on his straw he lays himself to sleep1 ,while through the ragged roof and chinky wall1 ,chill1 o'er his slumbers1 piles the drifty heap4 444 ,affliction's sons are brothers in distress3 ,a brother to relieve1 how exquisite the bliss60 ,again and again the question recurs1 to quote from an able casuist on casual charity1 why one man should be literally dying of want1 whilst another is able to send him a cheque for #ajj without thinking about it1 or knowing that the money is gone8 ,if ,dives1 it is asked1 feels bound to give ,lazarus so much1 where does he draw the line8 ,if the demand upon the superfluities of the rich is to be measured by the wants of the poor1 why stop at #ajj rather than #ajjj or #aj1jjj or #ajj1jjj8 8,this is the question which lies at the root of half the melancholy sarcasms and still more melancholy wit of the present day4 ,the writings of such men as ,hood are little more than embodiments of it in a variety of forms1 ludicrous or pathetic4 ,it forms the burden of a whole class of literature1 not the less influential because it is somewhat vague in its doctrines1 and rests rather on sentiments than on dogmas40 ,now this writer believes it to be always the best to look such questions in the face1 and to attempt at least to give the true answer to them4 ,and the answer1 at least in part1 in this instance1 he takes to be that the antithesis is only sentimental1 and not logical4 ,the poverty of the very poor is not1 he contends1 either a cause or an effect of the riches of the very rich1 nor would it be relieved by their permanent impoverishment4 8,that it is not a cause of their riches1 is obvious from the fact that if by any change pauperism and misery were suddenly abolished1 the rich would be all the richer40 ,but not to follow out a line of argument that would take us too far afield1 we may advert to a corresponding essay1 in the same ,review1 if not by the same contributor1--in which a picture is drawn of a rich man at church1 who hears some stray verses in the second lesson1 or some eloquent menace from the pulpit1 which makes him very uncomfortable about the contrast between his own easy life and the massive wretchedness of ,spitalfields or ,poplar4 ,the uneasiness is supposed to rankle in him for some time1 spoiling his digestion1 and making him very cross to his wife and daughters4 ,not that he 8for a moment dreams of literally obeying the texts in the ,new ,testament that have hit him hard2 for he has a shrewd notion that they imply a very different state of society from the busy nineteenth century4 ,he feels that he has no time for visiting the sick1 and that if he had1 the sick would think him a great nuisance2 and he knows that when he got to the bedside1 he would probably be at his wits' ends for anything to say1 and would end by twisting his watch-chain1 and remarking that it was a cold day40 ,the practical inference is1 that if he is to do any of the corporal works of mercy1 he must do them by commission2--and so1 at last1 the irritation in his conscience throws itself out in the form of a liberal cheque upon his bankers4 ,he1 at least1 will vindicate himself1 so far as that vicarious beneficence may avail1 from any possible charge of branded fellowship with such as the poet of the ,seasons depicts1 in 8,the cruel wretch ,who1 all day long in sordid pleasure rolled1 ,himself a useless load1 has squandered vile ,upon his scoundrel train1 what might have cheered ,a drooping family of modest worth40 ,horace ,walpole1 on being complimented by letter on the patience with which he bore an acute attack of his chronic malady1 replies3 8,if people of easy fortunes cannot bear illness with temper1 what are the poor to do1 who have none of our comforts and alleviations8 ,the affluent1 ,i fear1 do not consider what a benefit-ticket has fallen to their lot out of millions not so fortunate2 yet less do they reflect that chance1 not merit1 drew the prize out of the wheel40 ,crabbe portrays this non-reflecting complacency in one of his metrical tales3 8,month after month was passed1 and all were spent ,in quiet comfort and in rich content3 ,miseries there were1 and woes1 the world around1 ,but these had not her pleasant dwelling found2 ,she knew that mothers grieved1 and widows wept1 ,and she was sorry1 said her prayers1 and slept4 ,thus passed the seasons1 and to ,dinah's board ,gave what the seasons to the rich afford2 ,for she indulged10 etc4 ,not so serenely does ,bishop ,jeremy ,taylor imagine a gazer from the skies to look down on the sorrows of this earth of ours1 in the celebrated paragraph beginning1 8,but if we could from one of the battlements of heaven espy how many men and women lie fainting and dying10 etc4 ,and1 by the way1 there is another of ,crabbe's ,tales1 in which1 too late1 a self-upbraiding spirit thus accuses itself for neglecting a ruined wrong-doer1 whose death she has just discovered3 8,to have this money in my purse--to know ,what grief was his1 and what to grief we owe2 ,to see him often1 always to conceive ,how he must pine and languish1 groan and grieve2#d ,and every day in ease and peace to dine1 ,and rest in comfort6--what a heart is mine60 ,richard ,savage1 as ,mr4 ,whitehead pictures him1 bitterly conversant with cold and hunger1 a houseless vagrant through the streets by night1 and a famishing lounger in them by day1 apostrophises ,mr4 ,overseer in his pursy prosperity1 much as 7mutatis mutandis7 ,lear apostrophises pomp4 8,turn out1 fat man of substance1 and bob for wisdom and charity on the banks of ,southwark4 ,they are best taken at night1 when ,god only sees you--when the east wind is abroad1 making you shake like the sinner who was hanged for breaking into your dwelling-house4 #8,the air bites shrewdly1 it is very cold1' sayest thou8 ,it is so4 ,but tell me whether1 on the fourth night1 when thou liest stretched on thy blessed bed1 thy heart is not warmer than it was wont to be--whether thou dost not pray prayers of long omission--whether thou wilt not1 in the morning1 bethink thee of the poor1 and relieve them out of thy abundance8 ,sayest thou1 no8 ,god help thee60 ,as ,van den ,bosch tells the big-wigs of ,ghent1 8,ah1 sirs1 you know not1 you1 who lies afield ,when nights are cold1 with frogs for bedfellows2 ,you know not1 you1 who fights and sheds his blood1 ,and fasts and fills his belly with the east wind40 ,diderot rose one ,shrove ,tuesday morning1 and groping in his pocket1 found nothing wherewith to dine that day--which he spent in wandering about ,paris and its precincts4 ,he was ill when he got back to his quarters1 went to bed1 and was treated by his landlady to a little toast and wine4 8,that day10 he often told a friend1 in after life1 8,i swore that1 if ever ,i came to have anything1 ,i would never in my life refuse a poor man help1 never condemn my fellow-creature to a day as painful40 ,as the sailor says1 after the wreck1 in one of ,mr4 ,roscoe's tragedies3 8,we may be wrecked a dozen times1 for what our betters care2 but being aboard themselves1 they see some spice of danger in it1 and that breeds a fellow-feeling40 ,and1 proverbially1 a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind4 ,mr4 ,ruskin demands whether1 even supposing it guiltless1 luxury would be desired by any of us1 if we saw clearly at our sides the suffering which accompanies it in the world4 8,luxury is indeed possible in the future--innocent and exquisite2 luxury for all1 and by the help of all2 but luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant2 the cruelest man living could not sit at his feast1 unless he sat blindfold40 ,gibbon records to the honour of at least one ,pontiff's temporal government of ,rome1 that he--,gregory the ,great--relieved by the bounty of each day1 and of every hour1 the instant distress of the sick and needy--his treasurers being continually summoned to satisfy1 in his name1 the requirements of indigence and merit4 8,nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a frugal repast1 till he had sent the dishes from his own table to some objects deserving of his compassion40 ,a non possumus this1 in its beneficent nisi prius scope1 more appreciable by ,protestants at least than that of some other ,holy ,fathers4 ,a sovran's interest in the sufferings of his or her subjects is always of exceptional interest in the eyes of fellow-subjects4 ,leigh ,hunt knew this1 when he pictured1 in her early happy wifehood1 our ,sovran ,lady the ,queen of these realms1 8,too generous-happy to endure ,the thought of all the woful poor ,who that same night lay down their heads ,in mockeries of starving beds1 ,in cold1 in wet1 disease1 despair1 ,in madness that will say no prayer2 ,with wailing infants some2 and some ,by whom the little clay lies dumb2 ,and some1 whom feeble love's excess1 ,through terror1 tempts to murderousness4 ,and at that thought the big drops rose ,in pity for her people's woes2 ,and this glad mother and great queen ,weeping for the poor was seen1 ,and vowing in her princely will ,that they should thrive and bless her still40 ,madame de ,chevreuse1 in a popular ,french romance1 is made to say to1 and at1 ,anne of ,austria1 that kings are so far removed from other people1 from the 8vulgar herd10 that they forget that others ever stand in need of the bare necessaries of life4 ,she likens them to the dweller on ,african mountains1 who1 gazing from the verdant table-land1 refreshed by the rills of melted snow1 cannot comprehend that the dwellers in the plains below him are perishing from hunger and thirst in the midst of their lands1 burnt up by the heat of the sun4 ,when1 in the same romance--by courtesy historical2 only the proportion of history to romance in it is much about that of ,falstaff's bread bill to his running account for sack--one of ,anne of ,austria's sons1 the reigning king1 young ,lewis the ,fourteenth1 is substituted in the ,bastille for his ill-starred brother1 and so comes to taste of suffering in propri person1--the royal prisoner tries to remember at what hour the first repast is served to the captives in that fortress--but his ignorance of this detail occasions a feeling of remorse that smites him like the keen thrust of a dagger3 8that he should have lived for five and twenty years a king1 and in the enjoyment of every happiness1 without having bestowed a moment's thought ,o1 ,i have ta'en too little thought of this6 on the misery of those who had been unjustly deprived of their liberty4 ,the king blushed for very shame4 ,he felt that ,heaven1 in permitting this fearful humiliation1 did no more than render to the man the same torture as was inflicted by that man upon so many others40--,it is in a glowing description of one of the great ftes at ,versailles under the auspices of this1 the ,grand ,monarque1 that ,m4 ,arsne ,houssaye delivers himself of this pensive aside3 8,et la musique de ,lulli achve d'enivrer tout ce beau monde1 qui ne pense pas un seul instant que prs de l1 la grille mme du chteau des merveilles1 une pauvre femme prie et pleure1 tout affame1 pour ses enfants4 ,qu'importe6 passe ton chemin1 et reviens plus tard4 ,comment t'appelles-tu1 bonne femme8--,je m'appelle la ,france3 je reviendrai40 ,part of the education of the royal heir-apparent of the ,incas consisted in a course of gymnastic training1 with competitive trials of skill--during which1 for a period of thirty days1 8the royal neophyte fared no better than his comrades1 sleeping on the bare ground1 going unshod1 and wearing a mean attire1--a mode of life1 it was supposed1 which might tend to inspire him with more sympathy with the destitute40 ,it is to royalty that ,jeanie ,deans is pleading1 when she exclaims1 8,alas6 it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves1 that we think on other people's sufferings4 ,our hearts are waxed light within us then4444 ,but when the hour of trouble comes--and seldom may it visit your leddyship--and when the hour of death comes1 that comes to high and low--lang and late may it be yours--,o my leddy1 then it isna what we hae dune for oursells1 but what we hae dune for others1 that we think on maist pleasantly40 ,an ,english traveller in ,russia1 discussing the difficulty with which news of starving peasants reaches the ears of the czar1 and tracing the roundabout track by which1 at last1 when many have died1 and many more are dying1 a stifled wail penetrates through the 8official cotton-stuffed ears of district police auditoria1 district chambers of domains1 military chiefs of governments1 and imperial chancelleries without number10 and comes soughing into the private cabinet of the czar at the ,winter ,palace or ,peterhoff1--goes on to say3 8,the empress1 good soul1 sheds tears when she hears of the dreadful sufferings of the poor people so many hundred versts off4 ,the imperial children1 ,i have no doubt1 wonder why1 if the peasants have no bread to eat1 they don't take to plum-cake2 the ,emperor is affected1 but goes to work10 etc4 ,which last expression1 by the way1 reminds us of a quasi quotation by ,mr4 ,carlyle of ,shakespeare's text in juxtaposition with mention of the greatest of czars3 8,descend1 ,o ,donothing ,pomp2 quit thy down-cushions2 expose thyself to learn what wretches feel1 and how to cure it6 ,the czar of ,russia became a dusty toiling shipwright2 444 and his aim was small to thine40 ,there was a miserable day in the ,highland wanderings of ,prince ,charles when1 with ,ned ,burke and ,donald ,macleod for companions1 after roving about all night1 excessively faint for want of food1 he was obliged to subsist on meal stirred in brine--there being no fresh water within reach4 ,the prince is said to have expressed himself thankful for even this nauseous food--8salt-water drammock0--and to have declared1 on the occasion1 that if ever he mounted a throne1 he should not fail to remember 8those who dined with him to-day40 ,when ,flora ,macdonald and ,lady ,clanranald1 not long afterwards1 came to the royal outcast1--on entering the hut they found him engaged in roasting the heart and liver of a sheep on a wooden spit2 a sight at which some of the party could not help shedding tears4 8,charles1 always the least concerned at his distressing circumstances1 though never forgetting the hopes inspired by his birth1 jocularly observed that it would be well perhaps for all kings if they had to come through such a fiery ordeal as he was enduring40 ,at a subsequent period we find him living for days together on a few handfuls of oatmeal and about a pound of butter--referring to which he afterwards told a ,highland gentleman that he had come to know what a quarter of a peck of meal was1 having once subsisted on such a quantity for the better part of a week4 ,another time we find him spending the night in an open cave1 on the top of a high hill between the ,braes of ,glenmorriston and ,strathglass1--a cave too narrow to let him stretch himself1 and in which he lay drenched to the skin1 with no possibility of getting a fire to dry him4 8,without food1 and deprived of sleep by the narrowness and hardness of his bed1 the only comfort he could obtain was the miserable one of smoking a pipe40 ,hardly was ,lear himself more thoroughly exposed to feel what wretches feel1 on that night beside the hovel on the heath4 ,in that paradoxical essay of his1 on saying grace before meat1 ,charles ,lamb remarks that the indigent man1 who hardly knows whether he shall have a meal the next day or not1 sits down to his fare with a present sense of the blessing1 which can be but feebly acted by the rich1 into whose minds the conception of wanting a dinner could never1 but by some extreme theory1 have entered4 ,according to the essayist1 the heats of epicurism put out the gentle flame of devotion3 the incense which rises round is pagan1 and the belly-god intercepts it for his own4 8,the very excess of the provision beyond the needs1 takes away all sense of proportion between the end and means4 ,the ,giver is veiled by his gifts4 ,you are startled at the injustice of returning thanks--for what8--for having so much1 while so many starve4 ,it is to praise the gods amiss40 ,taking for his text the apprenticeship of good ,abbot ,samson at ,st4 ,edmund's shrine1 ,mr4 ,carlyle moralises on how much would many a ,serene ,highness have learnt1 had he travelled through the world with water-jug and empty wallet1 sine omni expens1 and returned only to sit down at the foot of ,st4 ,edmund's shrine to shackles and bread and water4 ,patriotism itself1 a political economist has remarked1 can never be generated by a passive enjoyment of good2 the evil tendency of which he bids us see by merely looking to a city like ,london2 where the rich who live together in streets of fine houses many miles long1 and have every comfort provided for them without their interference1 and need nothing from the poor but what they buy for money1 and conclude that the same ,state which cares for them will care equally for the poor1--such rich men1 it is alleged1 have every inducement to become isolated from all but the few with whom it is pleasant to live4 ,we may choose1 says ,professor ,kingsley1 to look at the masses in the gross as subjects for statistics--and of course1 where possible1 for profits4 8,there is ,one above who knows every thirst1 and ache1 and sorrow1 and temptation of each slattern1 and gin-drinker1 and street boy4 ,the day will come when ,he will require an account of these neglects of ours--not in the gross40 ,mrs4 ,gaskell ably describes the fear of ,margaret ,hale1 in 8,north and ,south10 lest1 in her ,west-end ease1 she should become sleepily deadened into forgetfulness of anything beyond the life that was lapping her round with luxury4 8,there might be toilers and moilers there in ,london1 but she never saw them2 the very servants lived in an underground world of their own1 of which she knew neither the hopes nor the fears2 they only seemed to start into existence when some want or whim of their master and mistress needed them40 ,mr4 ,thackeray presents ,ethel ,newcome in the fairest light when he shows her studious to become acquainted with her indigent neighbours--giving much time to them and thought2 visiting from house to house without ostentation2 awe-stricken by that spectacle of poverty which we have with us always1 of which the sight rebukes our selfish griefs into silence1 the thought compels us to charity1 humility1 and devotion4 8,death never dying out2 hunger always crying2 and children born to it day after day1--our young ,london lady1 flying from the splendours and follies in which her life had been passed1 found herself in the presence of these2 threading darkling alleys which swarmed with wretched life2 sitting by naked beds1 whither by ,god's blessing she was sometimes enabled to carry a little comfort and consolation2 or whence she came heart-stricken by the overpowering misery1 or touched by the patient resignation1 of the new friends to whom fate had directed her40 ,no longer ignara mali1 miseris succurrere discit4 ,an essayist of ,mr4 ,thackeray's school1 on the topic of parliamentary trains1 breaks out1 or off1 into the apostrophe3 8,ah1 judges of ,amontillado sherry2 crushers of walnuts with silver crackers2 connoisseurs who prefer ,french to ,spanish olives1 and are curious about the yellow seal2 gay riders in padded chariots2 proud cavaliers of blood-horses1--you don't know how painfully and slowly1 almost agonisingly1 the poor have to scrape and save1 and deny themselves the necessaries of life1 to gather together the penny-a-mile fare40 ,lord ,jeffrey eagerly asserted the even painful interest with which one of ,mr4 ,dickens's ,christmas books affected him3 8sanative1 ,i dare say1 to the spirit1 but making us despise and loathe ourselves for passing our days in luxury1 while better and gentler creatures are living such lives as make us wonder that such things can be in a society of human beings1 or even in the world of a good ,god40 ,lord ,lytton has compared the stray glimpses one gets of want and misery1 to looking through a solar microscope at the monsters in a drop of water1 when the gazer wonders how things so terrible have hitherto been unknown to him3 8,lapped in your sleek comforts1 and lolling on the sofa of your patent conscience 444 you are startled and dismayed0 at the sight3 you say within yourself1 8,can such things be8 ,i never dreamed of this before6 ,i thought what was invisible to me was non-existent in itself--,i will remember this dread experiment40 ,the like is the moral of ,hood's poem of the ,lady's ,dream4 ,from grief exempt1 she had never dreamt of such a world of woe as appals her in apocalyptic visions of the night2 never dreamt till now of the hearts that daily break1 and the tears that hourly fall1 and the many1 many troubles of life that grieve this earthly ball--disease1 and hunger1 and pain1 and want2 but now she dreams of them all--of the naked she might have clad1 the famished she might have fed1 the sorrowing she might have solaced2 of each pleading that1 long ago1 she scanned with a heedless eye4 8,i drank the richest draughts2 ,and ate whatever is good-- ,fish1 and flesh1 and fowl1 and fruit ,supplied my hungry mood2 ,but ,i never remembered the wretched ones ,that starve for want of food4 ,i dressed as the noble dress1 ,in cloth of silver and gold1 ,with silk1 and satin1 and costly furs1 ,in many an ample fold2 ,but ,i never remembered the naked limbs ,that froze with winter's cold4 ,the wounds ,i might have healed6 ,the human sorrow and smart6 ,and yet it never was in my soul ,to play so ill a part ,but evil is wrought by want of ,thought ,so ,lear's 8,o1 ,i have ta'en too little thought of this60 ,as well as want of ,heart6 ,she clasped her fervent hands1 ,and the tears began to stream2 ,large1 and bitter1 and fast they fell1 ,remorse was so extreme1 ,and yet1 ,o yet1 that many a dame ,would dream the ,lady's ,dream60 ,an ,edinburgh ,reviewer of mortality in trades and professions1 dwelling on the fatal conditions under which very many classes earn their daily bread1 and sometimes not so much as that1--observes that the great middle and upper classes1 accustomed to be furnished with all the appliances of easy life and luxury1 seldom give a thought as to the manner in which their wants are supplied4 8,accustomed to sip the honey1 it never strikes us that perhaps its product involves in some cases the life of the working-bee4 ,the lady1 who1 from the silken ease of her fauteuil1 surveys her drawing-room1 may learn a lesson of compassion for the poor workmen in nearly every article that lies before her40 ,to take one example out of the many upon which ,dr4 ,wynter dilates--the case of the silverer of looking-glasses3 8,if the charming belle1 as she surveys her beauty in the glass1 could but for a moment see reflected this poor shattered human creature1 with trembling muscles1 brown visage1 and blackened teeth1 she would doubtless start with horror2 but1 as it is1 the slaves of luxury and vanity drop out of life unobserved and uncared for1 as the stream of travellers disappeared one by one through the bridge of ,mirza40 8,o let those cities that of plenty's cup1 ,and her prosperities1 so largely taste1 ,with their superfluous riots1 hear these tears6 ,the misery of ,tharsus may be theirs40 ,the moral of the eastern tale of ,nourjahad is practical and pertinent4 ,he delivers himself up to luxury and riot4 ,he forgets that there are wants and distresses among his fellow-creatures4 ,he lives only for himself1 and his heart becomes as hard as the coffers which hold his misapplied treasures4 ,but before it is too late he is awakened to remorse1 and looks back with shame and horror on his past life4 ,what shall he do to expiate his offences8 ,one thing at least is within his power1 and that will he do at once3 expend his riches in the relief of want--nor rest until he has found out every family in ,ormuz whom calamity has overtaken1 that he may restore them to prosperity4 ,henceforth he spends his days in his closet1 laying plans for the benefit of his fellow-creatures4 ,ben ,jonson's ,sordido promises the like amendment3-- 8,pardon me1 gentle friends1 ,i'll make fair 'mends ,for my foul errors past4444 ,my barns and garners shall stand open still ,to all the poor that come1 and my best grain ,be made alms-bread1 to feed half-famished mouths4 ,though hitherto amongst you ,i have lived ,like an unsavoury muck-hill to myself1 ,yet now my gathered heaps1 being spread abroad1 ,shall turn to better and more fruitful uses4 444 ,o how deeply ,the bitter curses of the poor do pierce6 ,i am by wonder changed2 come in with me ,and witness my repentance3 now ,i prove ,no life is blest that is not graced with love40 ,so again with the rich man in one of ,crabbe's ,borough sketches from life2 that rich man1 to wit1 who 8built a house1 both large and high1 ,and entered in and set him down to sigh2 ,and planted ample woods and gardens fair1 ,and walked with anguish and compunction there2 ,the rich man's pines to every friend a treat1 ,he saw with pain and he refused to eat2 ,his daintiest food1 his richest wines1 were all ,turned by remorse to vinegar and gall3 ,the softest down by living body pressed ,the rich man bought1 and tried to take his rest2 ,but care had thorns upon his pillow spread1 ,and scattered sand and nettles in his bed3 ,nervous he grew--would often sigh and groan1-- ,he talked but little1 and he walked alone2 ,till by his priest convinced1 that from one deed ,of genuine love would joy and health proceed1 ,he from that time with care and zeal began ,to seek and soothe the grievous ills of man2 ,and as his hands their aid to grief apply1 ,he learns to smile and he forgets to sigh4 ,now he can drink his wine and taste his food1 ,and feel the blessings ,heaven has dealt are good2 ,and since the suffering seek the rich man's door1 ,he sleeps as soundly as when young and poor40 ,,wind1 ,,earthquake1 ,,fire1 ,,and ,,still ,,small ,,voice4 #a ,,kings xix4 #aa1 #ab4 ,while ,elijah stood upon the mount before the ,lord1 there arose a great and strong wind that rent the mountains1 and brake in pieces the rocks2 but the ,lord was not in the wind3 and after the wind an earthquake2 but the ,lord was not in the earthquake3 and after the earthquake a fire2 but the ,lord was not in the fire3 and after the fire a still small voice4 ,we are not told that the ,lord was not in the still small voice4 ,we find that ,he was4 ,and with that voice ,he addressed ,elijah1 reasoned with him1 admonished1 sustained1 and directed him4 ,may it not be said1 in applying and adapting the narrative1 which things are an allegory8 ,the import of the narrative sublimely anticipates the homely fable of sun and wind4 ,wind1 earthquake1 and fire1 are mighty agents2 but they may pass by without tangible result as regards real influence on the spirit of man2 whereas the gentle influence of a still small voice speaks home to it at once1 and it responds to the strain1 and is subdued by the spell4 ,the drift of the present annotations1 in their applied sense1 finds expression in ,ben ,jonson's reminder3 8,there is ,a way of working more by love than fear3 ,fear works on servile natures1 not the free40 ,in ,landor's ,parable of ,asabel1 the angel's gentleness wrought upon that turbulent1 refractory spirit1 8even as the quiet and silent water wins itself an entrance where tempest and fire pass over40 ,it is written that other angels did look up with loving and admiration into the visage of this angel on his return2 and he told the younger and more zealous of them1 that whenever they would descend into the gloomy vortex of the human heart1 under the softness and serenity of their voice and countenance its turbulence would subside4 ,plutarch tells us of ,fabius ,maximus1 that he thought it hard that1 while those who breed dogs and horses soften their stubborn tempers1 and bring down their fierce spirits by care and kindness1 rather than with whips and chains1 he who has the command of men should not endeavour to correct their errors by gentleness and goodness1 but treat them in even a harsher and more violent manner than gardeners do the wild fig-trees1 pears1 and olives1 whose nature they subdue by cultivation1 and which by that means they bring to produce very agreeable fruit4#e ,we read of the distinguished ,spanish author and statesman1 ,fermin ,caballero1 that while under the care of a kind and judicious instructor1 he1 as a boy1 made rapid advance in the study of classical literature2 but that on being removed from this tutor1 and subjected to harsh and grinding discipline1 he lapsed into idleness and obstinacy beyond all control4 ,not the least wise of the maxims to be culled from the pages of ,terence is that in which satius esse credit ,pudore et liberalitate liberos retinere1 quam metu4 ,southey insists that no man was ever more thoroughly ignorant of the nature of children than ,john ,wesley1 as when he enjoins3 8,let a child from a year old be taught to fear the rod1 and to cry softly2 from that age make him do as he is bid1 if you whip him ten times running to effect it40 ,if ,wesley had been a father himself1 urges that tenderest of fathers1 ,robert the ,rhymer1 8he would have known that children are more easily governed by love than by fear40 ,and as with children1 so with men1 who are but children of a larger growth2 and especially so with women1 if we may take the word of one of ,shakspeare's most winsome women for it3 8,you may ride us ,with one soft kiss a thousand furlongs1 ere ,with spur we heat an acre40 ,so with ,landor's ,filippa1 on whom harsh treatment and compulsory measures are simply thrown away3 8,rudeness can neither move nor discompose her3 ,a word1 a look1 of kindness1 instantly ,opens her heart and brings her cheek upon you40 ,and as with men and women1 so with peoples1 who are made up of men and women4 ,and yet1 although1 as the author of the 8,wealth of ,nations0 expresses it1 management and persuasion are always the easiest and safest instruments of government1 as force and violence are the worst and most dangerous2 such1 it seems1 is the natural insolence of man1 that he almost always disdains to use the good instrument1 except when he cannot or dare not use the bad one4 ,not that nations are without diversities of character1 and so of susceptibility to diverse modes of government4 ,gibbon apologises1 as it were1 for ,diocletian's utter destruction of those proud cities1 ,busiris and ,coptos1 and for his severe treatment of ,egypt in general1 by the remark1 that the character of the ,egyptian nation1 insensible to kindness1 but extremely susceptible to fear1 could alone justify this excessive rigour4 ,the tone is that of the courtier ,crispe1 to ,phocas1 in ,corneille's 8,heraclius30 8,il faut agir de force avec de tels esprits 444 ,la violence est juste o la douceur est vaine40 ,and ,coke maintains that if they are the best whom love induces1 they are the most whom fear restrains3 ,si meliores sunt quos ducit amor1 plures sunt quos corrigit timor4 ,la ,fontaine's fable of the fishes and the flute-playing shepherd1 intimates the sheer futility of wasting sweet sounds on ears not to be so caught4 ,there are men1 sententiously quoth ,dr4 ,tempest1 in the 8,last ,chronicle of ,barset10 who are deaf as adders to courtesy1 but who are compelled to obedience at once by ill-usage4 ,educationists must provide for the contingency of having to deal with abnormal natures of this crabbed and distorted kind4 ,but as exceptions only4 ,the ,jesuits are confessedly masters of the arts of education2 and the rule of the ,jesuits is to lead not to drive1 their pupils2 to allure and win1 not to coerce and constrain them4 ,winsome womankind is mistress of the like arts4 ,those of the sex who are winsome1 it has been said1 with their plastic manners and non-aggressive force1 always have their own way in the end4 8,they coax and flatter for their rights1 and consequently they are given privileges in excess of their rights2 whereas the women who take their rights1 as things to which they are entitled without favour1 lose them and their privileges together40 ,kitely's advice is good1 in 8,every ,man in his ,humour10 and of general application3 8,but rather use the soft persuading way1 ,whose powers will work more gently1 and compose ,the imperfect thoughts you labour to reclaim2 ,more winning1 than enforcing the consent40 ,the first bishop sent from ,iona for the ,northumbrian ,church was ,corman1 a man described by ,dean ,milman as of austere and inflexible character1 who1 finding more resistance than he expected to his doctrines1 in a full assembly of the nation sternly reproached the ,northumbrians for their obstinacy1 and declared that he would no longer waste his labours on so irreclaimable a race4 ,a gentle voice was heard3 8,brother1 have you not been too harsh with your unlearned hearers8 ,should you not1 like the apostles1 have fed them with the milk of ,christian doctrine1 till they could receive the full feast of our sublimer truths80 ,all eyes1 it is added1 were turned on ,aidan1 a humble but devout monk2 and by general acclamation that discreet and gentle teacher was saluted as bishop4 ,the same historian describes ,aldhelm of ,malmesbury1 in minstrel's garb1 arresting the careless crowd of church-goers on a bridge they must pass1 and having fully enthralled their attention by the sweetness of his song1 anon introducing into it some of the solemn truths of religion2 thus succeeding in winning to the faith many hearts1 which he would have attempted in vain to move by severer language1 or even by the awful excommunication of the ,church4#f ,when ,fnlon was intrusted by ,lewis the ,fourteenth with a mission to ,poitou1 to convert the ,protestants1 he refused the aid of dragoons1 and resorted to suavity of persuasion alone as an instrument of conversion4 ,of the ,protestant missions in the west of ,ireland1 complaint has been made of their being conducted too offensively1 like raids upon heathendom3 the ,romanist1 who might possibly open his bosom to the warm rays of charity1 only folds the cloak of his hereditary faith more closely round him1 when assailed by the bitter wind of a propagandism which seeks its way to the heart by violence and insult4#g ,it is at once1 on the one part pleasant1 on the other painful1 to find the ,lord ,treasurer ,burleigh1 who had ever been the fast friend of ,whitgift1 frequently expressing his disapprobation of the primate's severity against non-conformists1 and his wish 8that the spirit of gentleness might win1 rather than severity40 ,and being here on ,elizabethan ground1 let us note ,mr4 ,froude's reference to the diverse procedure of ,cecil and ,throgmorton in their several dealings with the queen1--she being one of the many strong-willed people1 on whom menaces and reproaches operate only as a spur4 ,cecil understood best ,elizabeth's disposition4 8,by #8practices1' by #8bye-ways1' as he afterwards described it1 by affecting to humour what he was passionately anxious to prevent1 he was holding his mistress under delicate control2 and he dreaded lest his light leading-strings should be broken by a ruder touch40 ,as with the queen1 so with her people4 ,when ,catherine de ,medici expressed astonishment to ,sir ,thomas ,smith1 at a certain deference paid by his sovereign to the nation she ruled1 8,madam10 he replied1 8her people be not like your people2 they must be trained by douceur and persuasion1 not by rigour and violence40 ,the greatest of ,russian empresses emulated in this respect the greatest of ,english queens4 ,indeed1 her tendency to indulgence was imputed to ,catharine ,,ii4 as a fault1 advantage being taken of her constant reluctance to punish4 ,but how far greater things did she1 on the whole1 achieve with her subjects1 exclaims ,mr4 ,herman ,merivale1 8thus gently led1 than those of her predecessors and successors who employed on them in such abundance the more forcible methods of government60 ,mr4 ,freeman1 in the course of showing that ,harold's way of bringing in the proud ,danes of the ,north to his obedience was not exactly the same as ,william's way1 describes him as determining1 with that noble and generous daring which is sometimes the highest prudence1 to trust himself in the hands of the people who refused to acknowledge him4 8,these his enemies1 who would not that he should reign over them1 instead of being brought and slain before him1 were to be won over by the magic of his personal presence in their own land40 ,to apply what the ,gaulish ambassador says of a great ,roman in ,jonson's tragedy1 8,this magistrate hath struck an awe into me1 ,and by his sweetness won a more regard ,unto his place1 than all the boisterous moods ,that ignorant greatness practiseth1 to fill ,the large1 unfit authority it wears40 ,the ,antwerp authorities had reason and experience on their side when they sought to persuade the ,prince of ,parma1 in #aehe1 that the hearts of1 not the ,antwerpers only1 but of the ,hollanders and ,zealanders1 were easily to be won at that moment3 give them religious liberty1 and 8govern them by gentleness rather than by ,spanish grandees10 and a reconciliation would speedily be ensured4 ,two years later1 but then two years too late1 we find the prince averring that he liked 8to proceed rather by the ways of love than of rigour and effusion of blood40 ,this was in answer to ,queen ,elizabeth1 who1 at a previous juncture1 angrily derided any 8slight and mild kind of dealing with a people so ingrate10 and was all for corrosives instead of lenitives for such festering wounds4 ,rulers1 who fail to secure what they wish by gentle means1 are apt very soon to resort to the less excellent way2 like ,chilperic1 the 8,nero of ,france10 coaxing the ,jew ,priscus to turn ,christian2 first employing argument1 then trying blandishments1 and anon taking to more powerful reasoning by throwing the ,jew into prison4 ,tytler remarks of the 8violent instructions0 enforced by ,henry ,,viii4 on his envoy to ,james ,v41 that had the overbearing ,tudor adopted a suaver tone1 a favourable impression might have been made2 but the ,king o' ,scots was 8not to be threatened into a compliance with a line of policy which1 if suggested in a tone of conciliation1 his judgment might have approved10 and his unwounded sense of self-respect have consented to carry into effect4 ,simon the glover1 in ,scott's story of medival ,perth1 is well described as watchful over the tactics his daughter employs towards ,henry ,smith1 8whom he knew to be as ductile1 when influenced by his affections1 as he was fierce and intractable when assailed by hostile remonstrances or threats40 ,par un chemin plus doux1 says a shrewd counsellor in ,racine1 vous pourrez le ramener2 whereas les menaces le rendront plus farouche4 ,archbishop ,whately deprecates the bullying and browbeating system in vogue with certain barristers1 and declares it to be a mistake as a means of eliciting truth3 he cites his own observation of the marked success of the opposite mode of questioning1 and maintains that1 generally speaking1 a quiet1 gentle1 and straightforward examination will be the most adapted to elicit truth2 the browbeating and blustering which are likeliest to confuse an honest1 simple-minded witness1 being just what the dishonest one is the best prepared for4 8,the more the storm blusters1 the more carefully he wraps round him the cloak which a warm sunshine will often induce him to throw off40 ,we are told of ,dr4 ,beattie1 in his relations as a professor with his class1 that his sway was absolute1 because it was founded in reason and affection2 that he never employed a harsh epithet in finding fault with any of his pupils2 and that when1 instead of a rebuke1 which they were conscious they deserved1 they met merely with a mild reproof1 it was conveyed in such a manner as to throw1 not only the delinquent1 but sometimes the whole class into tears4 ,fielding's boy-hero is at once in tears when the kind squire takes him in hand1 instead of the harsh tutor2 his 8guilt now flew in his face more than any severity could make it4 ,he could more easily bear the lashes of ,thwackum than the generosity of ,allworthy40 ,mrs4 ,fry used to bear eager record of the docility she had found1 and the gratitude she had experienced1 from female prisoners1 though the most abandoned of their sex3 kind treatment1 even with restraint obviously for their good1 was so new to them1 that it called forth1 as ,sir ,samuel ,romilly says1 8even in the most depraved1 grateful and generous feelings40 ,true to the life is the picture ,mr4 ,reade has drawn of the effect on the actress1 of a young wife coming to her as a supplicant1 instead of inveighing against her1--coming with faith in her goodness1 and sobbing to her for pity3 8a big tear rolled down her cheek1 and proved her something more than an actress40 ,in another of his books he illustrates the truth that men can resist the remonstrances that wound them1 and so irritate them1 better than they can those gentle appeals which rouse no anger1 but soften the whole heart4 8,the old people stung him2 but ,mercy1 without design1 took a surer way4 ,she never said a word2 but sometimes1 when the discussions were at their height1 she turned her dove-like eyes on him1 with a look so loving1 so humbly inquiring1 so timidly imploring1 that his heart melted within him40 ,so with ,janet ,dempster1 in ,george ,eliot's story of clerical life1 who 8was not to be made meek by cruelty2 she would repent of nothing in the face of injustice1 though she was subdued in a moment by a word or a look that recalled the old days of fondness40 ,in fine1 we may conclude with the conclusion of old ,master ,knowell1 in the ,elizabethan play3 8,there is a way of winning more by love1 ,and urging of the modesty1 than fear3 ,force works on servile natures1 not the free4 ,he that's compelled to goodness1 may be good1 ,but 'tis but for that fit2 where others1 drawn ,by softness and example1 get a habit40 ,,haman ,,hanged ,,on ,,his ,,own ,,gallows4 ,,esther vii4 #aj ,harbonah was one of the chamberlains of that king ,ahasuerus1 who reigned from ,india even unto ,ethiopia1 over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces4 ,and ,harbonah it was that said before the king1--when ,haman1 the son of ,hammedatha the ,agagite1 the ,jews' enemy1 had gone one step too far in his enmity to the ,jews1 and had let his vaulting ambition overleap itself in his insolent confidence in royal favour1--,harbonah it was that prompted royal vengeance with the suggestive reminder1--8,behold also1 the gallows fifty cubits high1 which ,haman had made for ,mordecai1 who had spoken good for the king1 standeth in the house of ,haman40 ,then the king said--catching at once at the chamberlain's suggestion--8,hang him thereon40 8,so they hanged ,haman on the gallows that he had prepared for ,mordecai40 ,somewhat musty is the adage that no law is more equitable than that by which the deviser of death perishes by his own device3 nec lex est quior ulla1 quam necis artificem arte perire su4 ,musty it might be even in ,harbonah's days2 but the chamberlain1 in the excitement of so signal an example1 would feel that time cannot stale1 nor custom wither1 the force and import of that retributive law4 ,mr4 de ,quincey1 in his memorable narrative of the revolt of the ,tartars1 or flight of the ,kalmuck ,khan and his people from the ,russian territories to the frontiers of ,china 7#agga71 relates in conclusion how ,zebek-,dorchi1 the author and originator of this great ,tartar exodus1 perished after a manner specially gratifying to those who compassed his ruin2 the ,chinese morality being exactly of that kind which approves in everything the lex talionis4 8,finally1 ,zebek-,dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge1 together with all his accomplices2 and under the skilful management of the ,chinese nobles in the emperor's establishment1 the murderous artifices of these ,tartar chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves1 and the whole of them perished by assassination at a great imperial banquet40 ,iterated and reiterated in holy writ is the retributive law that the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness2 that transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness2 that he that seeketh mischief it shall come unto him4 ,the presidents and princes under ,king ,darius1 who sought occasion against ,daniel1 and persuaded their reluctant sovereign to cast the prophet into the den of lions1 who however wrought him no manner of hurt1--upon them the lex talionis vindicated its literal severity when they in their turn were cast into the lions' den1 and the lions had the mastery of them1 and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den4 ,the early ballads of almost every literature delight in these retributive surprises4 ,genuine was the zest of our fathers for such a retort as that of ,william of ,cloudesly on the ,justice who is having him measured for his grave3-- 8#8,i have seen as great a marvel1' said ,cloudesly1 #8,as between this and prime ,he that maketh a grave for me ,himself may lie therein4'0 ,so fond is popular history of teaching this sort of philosophy by examples1 that examples to the purpose are widely accepted which are yet not historical4 ,cardinal ,balue1 under ,louis ,,xi41 is pointed out in his iron cage1 as a malignant inventor punished in and through his own invention2 but ,michelet has exposed the fallacy of supposing ,balue the inventor of those iron cages which had long been known in ,italy4 ,still he had the 8merit0 of being their importer into ,france2 and the lex talionis has its application to him4 ,one remembers of course the ,regent ,morton hugged to death by the 8maiden0 he had been the means of introducing into ,scotland4 ,the ,french doctor1 ,guillotin1 is even now not uncommonly believed to have perished in the reign of terror by the instrument invented by and named after him2 whereas he quietly died in his bed1 many1 many years later than that4 ,but the ,revolution history is well stored with instances like that of ,chlier1 condemned to death by the criminal tribunal at ,lyons1--the guillotine1 which he had sent for from ,paris to destroy his enemies1 being first destined to sever his own head from his body4 ,a bungling executioner prolonged the last agonies of this man1 who in fact was hacked to death1 not decapitated4 ,he tasted slowly1 as ,lamartine says1 of the death1 a thirst for which he had so often sought to excite in the people2 8he was glutted with blood1 but it was his own40 ,alison recognises in the death of ,murat a memorable instance of the moral retribution which often attends upon 8great deeds of iniquity1 and by the instrumentality of the very acts which appeared to place them beyond its reach40 ,he underwent in #ahae the very fate to which1 seven years before1 he had consigned a hundred ,spaniards at ,madrid1 guilty of no other crime than that of defending their country2 and this1 as ,sir ,archibald adds1 8by the application of a law to his own case1 which he himself had introduced1 to check the attempts of the ,bourbons to regain a throne which he had usurped40 ,no man1 ,lord ,macaulay affirms1 ever made a more unscrupulous use of the legislative power for the destruction of his enemies than ,thomas ,cromwell2 and it was by an unscrupulous use of the legislative power that he was himself destroyed4 ,those who tauntingly reminded ,fenwick1 when attainted in #afif1 that he had supported the bill which attainted ,monmouth1 were warned that they might perhaps themselves be tauntingly reminded in some dark and terrible hour1 that they had supported the bill which attainted ,fenwick4 8,god forbid that our tyrants should ever be able to plead1 in justification of the worst that they can inflict upon us1 precedents furnished by ourselves60 ,again1 it is in recording how1 late in life1 a horrible calumny settled upon ,cicero1 that ,mr4 de ,quincey1 without lending a moment's credit to the foul insinuation1 nevertheless is free to recognise the equity of this retribution revolving upon one who1 he asserts1 had so often slandered others in the same malicious way4 8,at last the poisoned chalice came round to his own lips1 and at a moment when it wounded the most acutely40 ,spe1 as ,seneca has it1 in magistrum scelera redierunt sua4 ,for 8in these cases ,we still have judgment here2 that we but teach ,bloody instructions1 which1 being taught1 return ,to plague the inventor3 this even-handed justice ,commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice ,to our own lips40 ,plutarch rejoices in showing in ,hercules an avenger who adapted the special mode of vengeance to the distinctive deserts of the wrong-doer4 ,he punished with the very mode of punishment devised by those who were now made to suffer it4 ,antus he killed in wrestling1 and ,termerus by breaking his skull1--it being the specialit of ,termerus to destroy the passengers he met by dashing his head against theirs4 ,theseus was the imitator of ,hercules in this retributive system2 he punished ,sinis1 a bandit1--who used to kill travellers by binding them to the boughs of two pine-trees1 which were then allowed to swing back and separate--by making an end of him in the self-same way2 ,procrustes again he stretched on his own bed4 ,phalaris1 the tyrant of ,agrigentum1 infamous for his cruelty1 and specially for the device devised for him by ,perillus of a brazen bull in which he burnt his victims--this ,phalaris first tried the device on this ,perillus2 and when ,phalaris was deposed an indignant mob practised upon him the self-same torture to which he had subjected so many4 ,and ever memorable among other tales of antiquity1--old wives' fables if you will1 but then have not all fables a moral8--is that of ,diomedes1 who was devoured by the horses he had himself taught to feed on the flesh and blood of men4 8,ashes always fly back in the face of him that throws them10 is a proverb in the ,yoruba language1 quoted by ,archbishop ,trench as equivalent to our 8,harm watch1 harm catch10 and perhaps to the ,spanish1 8,he that sows thorns1 let him not walk barefoot40 ,an overruling ,power disposes of what the malignity of man proposes1 and 8,thus doth it force the swords of wicked men ,to turn their own points on their masters' bosoms40 ,the psalmist felt that he was praying in accordance with the ,divine will1 when he prayed that the ungodly might fall into their own nets together1 while he ever escaped them4 ,so again with his prayer that the mischief of their own lips might fall upon the heads of them that compassed him about4 ,for it was a matter at once of faith and of experience with the psalmist1 that the evil deviser and evil-doer1 travailing with mischief1 conceiving sorrow1 and bringing forth ungodliness1 who had graven and digged up a pit1 was apt to fall himself into the destruction that he made for other4 8,for his travail shall come upon his own head1 and his wickedness shall fall on his own pate40 ,owen ,feltham delights to recall1 from the stores of ancient and medival story1 how ,bagoas1 a ,persian nobleman1 having poisoned ,artaxerxes and ,artamenes1 was detected by ,darius1 and forced to drink poison himself2 how ,diomedes1 as we have already seen1 for the beasts he had fed on human flesh was by ,hercules made food2 and how ,pope ,alexander ,,vi41 having designed the poisoning of his friend ,cardinal ,adrian1 by his cup-bearer's mistake of the bottle1 took the draught himself1 8and so died by the same engine which he himself had appointed to kill another0--a sort of enginery glanced at in ,ben ,jonson3-- 8,i have you in a purse-net1 ,good master ,picklock1 with your worming brain1 ,and wriggling engine-head0 too clever by half4 ,luther1 in his ,table-talk1 welcomes the import of the ,jewish story of ,og1 king of ,bashan1 who they say had lifted a great rock to throw at his enemies1 8but ,god made a hole in the middle1 so that it slipped down upon the giant's neck1 and he could never rid himself of it40 ,the fourth book of ,southey's 8,thalaba0 closes with a shriek from ,lobaba the sorcerer1 which this final stanza sufficiently explains3 8,what1 wretch1 and hast thou raised ,the rushing terrors of the wilderness1 ,to fall on thine own head8 ,death6 death6 inevitable death6 ,driven by the breath of ,god1 ,a column of the desert met his way40 ,nor1 among the lyrical pieces of the same poet1 be forgotten that ballad of the ,inchcape rock1 which tells how the bell put up by the abbot of ,aberbrothok to warn ships of their peril1 was taken down by a sea pirate1 ,sir ,ralph the ,rover1 who in the words of an old ,scottish topographer1 8a yeare thereafter perished upon the same rocke1 with ship and goodes1 in the righteous judgment of ,god40 ,many and many 8stories have been told of men whose lives ,were infamous1 and so their end4 ,i mean ,that the red murderer has himself been murdered2 ,the traitor struck with treason2 he who let ,the orphan perish came himself to want3 ,thus justice and great ,god have ordered it6 ,so that the scene of evil has been turned ,against the actor2 pain paid back with pain2 ,and poison given for poison40 ,prescott's narrative of the decline and fall of ,luna1 minister under ,john ,,ii4 of ,castile1 is pointed with this moral to adorn the tale2 that 8by one of those dispensations of ,providence which often confound the plans of the wisest1 the column which the minister had so artfully raised for his support served only to crush him40 ,spe intereunt aliis meditantes necem2 and that by the very means mediated4 8,for 'tis the sport1 to have the engineer ,hoist with his own petard10 says ,hamlet1 in vindictive anticipation of such an issue1 or rather upshot4 ,the guilty king1 his uncle1 suggests misgivings lest his arrows1 by a certain mischance1 might 8have reverted to my bow again1 ,and not where ,i had aimed them20 and arrows1 so returning1 are by poetical justice apt to do the foiled bowman a mischief4 ,that king's fellow-conspirator1 ,laertes1 is thus punished1 and owns it3-- 8,osric4 ,how is't1 ,laertes8 ,laertes4 ,why as a woodcock to my own springe1 ,osric2 ,i am justly killed with mine own treachery40 ,and so is the king himself2 and he1 ,laertes testifies1-- 8is justly served3 ,it is a poison tempered by himself0 for ,hamlet1 which ,claudius has just drank of1 and drinking died4 ,the tragedy of the prince of ,denmark does indeed abound in instances of what ,horatio calls 8,accidental judgments1 casual slaughters1 ,and deaths put on by cunning and forced cause2 ,and1 in this upshot1 purposes mistook ,fallen on the inventors' heads40 ,,to-,,day',s ,,sufficing ,,evil1 ,,and ,,to-,,morrow',s ,,forecast ,,care4 ,,st4 ,,matthew vi4 #cd4 ,with a divine calm fall those words from the ,sermon of the ,mount--spoken as never man spake--which bid us take 8no thought for the morrow2 for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself4 ,sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof40 ,pagan philosophy had1 and natural theism has1 its approximation to the same point of view4 ,horace is all for letting the mind enjoy the enjoyable present1 and for leaving no room or resting-place for the sole of the foot of ,black ,care1 raven and unclean bird that she is4 ,the morrow may be hers1 but to-day at least is his1 and the morrow shall take care for the things of itself3 8,ltus in prsens animus quod ultra est ,oderit curare40 ,david ,hume1 again1 meets the doctrine that we should always have before our eyes1 death1 disease1 poverty1 blindness1 calumny1 and the like1 as ills which are incident to human nature1 and which may befall us to-morrow1--by the answer1 that if we confine ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of human life1 such a vague procedure can have no effect to prepare us for them2 and that if1 on the other hand1 by close and intense meditation we render them present and intimate to us1 we realise the true secret for poisoning all our pleasures1 and rendering us perpetually miserable4 ,he grieves more than need be1 who begins to grieve before he need1 is one of ,seneca's sententious sayings3 ,plus dolet quam necesse est1 qui ante dolet quam necesse est4 ,one of ,mrs4 ,gore's women of the world--who might probably be counted by the hundred--is sprightly and smart in her rebuke of her husband and his sister for their delight in perplexing the brightest moments of existence by all the agonies of second sight1 and whom she represents as quite indignant when they find her sympathy waiting the actual occurrence of evil4 8,i hate10 she says1 8to turn back my head towards the dark shadow that follows me1 or direct my telescope towards a coming storm40 ,and herein was she wise1 if not with all the wisdom of those ,christian morals1 of which we have so impressive an expositor in ,sir ,thomas ,browne4 8,leave future occurrences to their uncertainties10 writes the fine old physician1 ,religiosus ,medicus1 8think that which is present thy own2 and1 since 'tis easier to foretell an eclipse than a foul day at some distance1 look for little regular below4 ,attend with patience the uncertainty of things1 and what lieth yet unexerted in the chaos of futurity40 ,shakspeare's noble ,roman1 at the dawn of the day of battle on which so much depends1 is natural man enough to utter the aspiration3 8,o1 that a man might know ,the end of this day's business1 ere it come60 ,but he is also stoic philosopher enough to check that prospective yearning1 with the reflection1 8,but it sufficeth that the day will end1 ,and then the end is known40 ,swift opens his ,birthday ,address to ,stella with the assurance1 8,this day1 whate'er the fates decree1 ,shall still be kept with joy by me3 ,this day1 then1 let us not be told1 ,that you are sick and ,i grown old2 ,nor think on our approaching ills1 ,and talk of spectacles and pills2 ,to-morrow will be time enough ,to hear such mortifying stuff40 ,for once1 however1 it is only in the opening verses that the dean is jocose2 and he soon turns aside from his strain of levity to bid ,stella accept some serious lines 8from not the gravest of divines40 ,schleiermacher1 in one of his rather gushing letters1--for he1 too1 though nothing of a ,swift1 and though of real weight in divinity1 was not in all senses the gravest of divines1--implores his 8dearest ,jette0 not to look so much into the future4 ,he cannot beg this too earnestly and too often1 he says1--so depressed is ,jette apt to be by anticipation of things to come1 and from a perverse habit of condensing advent difficulties4 8,it is easy to see through one pane of glass1 but through ten placed one upon another we cannot see4 ,does this prove that each one is not transparent8 or are we ever called upon to look through more than one at a time8 ,double panes we only have recourse to for warmth2 and just so it is with life4 ,we have but to live one moment at a time4 ,keep each one isolated1 and you will easily see your way through them40 ,so again writes good ,frederick ,perthes to his wife1 whose fearful and hopeful longings1 he tells her1 are indeed guarantees for the great future beyond the grave1 but whom he urges to bear in mind that a vigorous grasp of the present is our duty so long as we are upon earth4 ,it is the present moment1 he reminds her1 that supplies the energy and decision that fit us for life2 retrospect brings sadness1 and the dark future excites fears1 so that we should be crippled in our exertions were we not to lay a vigorous grasp upon the present4 ,and 8,labour with what zeal you will1 ,something still remains undone2 ,something uncompleted still ,waits the rising of the sun4 ,by the bedside1 on the stair1 ,at the threshold1 near the gates1 ,with its menace or its prayer1 ,like a mendicant it waits2 ,waits1 and will not go away2 ,waits1 and will not be gainsaid3 ,by the cares of yesterday ,each to-day is heavier made2 ,till at length the burden seems ,greater than our strength can bear2 ,heavy as the weight of dreams ,pressing on us everywhere4 ,and we stand from day to day1 ,like the dwarfs of times gone by1 ,who1 as ,northern legends say1 ,on their shoulders held the sky40 ,quite exceptional is the temperament impersonated by ,wordsworth in one who seemed a man of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows4 ,longfellow has his midnight reflection on ,to-morrow2 himself a watcher and contemplative1 his little ones asleep3 and thus the penses end3 8,to-morrow6 the mysterious1 unknown guest1 ,who cries to me1 #8,remember ,barmecide1 ,and tremble to be happy with the rest4' ,and ,i make answer1 #8,i am satisfied2 ,i dare not ask2 ,i know not what is best2 ,god hath already said what shall betide4'0 ,there is never1 observes ,madame d',arblay1 in her diary1 such a superfluity of actual happiness as to make it either rational or justifiable to feed upon expected misery4 8,that portion of philosophy which belongs to making the most of the present day1 grows upon me strongly2 and1 as ,i have suffered infinitely from its neglect1 it is what ,i most encourage1 and1 indeed1 require40 ,kindly ordained1 she takes it1 is the concealment of 8the day of sorrow2 ,and enough is the present tense of toil-- ,for this world1 to all1 is a stiffish soil-- ,and the mind flies back with a glad recoil ,from the debts not due till to-morrow40 ,it is one of ,scott's young heroes who opens a letter of troublous tidings with the confession that1 until now1 he had rarely known what it was to sustain a moment's real sorrow2 what he called such was1 he now felt assured1 only the weariness of mind which1 having nothing actually present to complain of1 turns upon itself1 and becomes anxious about the future--disregarding the ,scriptural monition that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof4 ,is there1 ,armstrong asks1 8an evil worse than fear itself8 ,and what avails it that indulgent ,heaven ,from mortal eyes has wrapt the woes to come1 ,if we1 ingenious to torment ourselves1 ,grow pale at hideous fictions of our own8 ,enjoy the present2 nor1 with needless cares ,of what may spring from blind misfortune's womb1 ,appal the surest hours that life bestows3 ,serene1 and master of yourself1 prepare ,for what may come2 and leave the rest to ,heaven40 ,prevision and imagination1 as ,rousseau says1 multiply the evils of our lot3 8,pour moi10 he professes--however the profession may have squared with the practice--8j'ai beau savoir que je soufrirai demain1 il me suffit de ne pas souffrir aujourd'hui pour tre tranquille40 ,it is certainly a frenzy1 quoth old ,montaigne1 to go now and whip yourself1 because it may so fall out that fortune may one day decree you a whipping1 and to put on your furred gown at ,midsummer1 because you will stand in need of it at ,christmas4 ,it was one of ,madame de ,svign's maxims in life to 8regarder l'avenir comme une obscurit1 dont il peut arriver des biens et des clarts quoi l'on ne s'attend pas40 ,milton's ,adam laments the mournful privilege of 8visions ill foreseen40 ,better had he lived ignorant of future6 so had borne his part of evil only1 each day's lot enough to bear4 ,so again1 in ,milton's ,masque1 the elder brother bids the younger be not over-exquisite to cast the fashion of uncertain evils3 8,for grant they be so1 while they rest unknown1 ,what need a man forestall his date of grief1 ,and run to meet what he would most avoid80 ,and once more1 ,milton himself1 in one of those ,sonnets which stand in the like relation of merit to his great epic that ,shakspeare's do to his great dramas1 admonishes his scholar1 ,cyriack ,skinner1 that heaven disproves the care1 8though wise in show1 ,that with superfluous burden loads the day1 ,and when ,god sends a cheerful hour1 refrains40 8,melancholy commonly flies to the future for its aliment10 says ,sydney ,smith1 8and it must be encountered10 he adds1 8by diminishing the range of our views40 ,the great remedy for melancholy1 he insists in another place1 is to 8take short views of life40 ,are you happy now8 ,then why destroy present happiness by a distant misery1 which may never come at all8 ,for 8every substantial grief has twenty shadows1 and most of them shadows of your own making40 ,one of his correspondents he emphatically counsels to dispel that prophetic gloom which dives into futurity1 to extract sorrow from days and years to come1 and which considers its own unhappy visions as the decrees of ,providence4 8,we know nothing of to-morrow1 our business is to be good and happy to day40 ,in effect1 like ,maucroix1 8,il rit de ces prudents qui1 par trop de sagesse1 ,s'en vont dans l'avenir chercher de la tristesse ,et des soucis cuisants40 ,once and again in his autobiography does the most influential1 perhaps1 of ,french philosophers avow his resolve vivre dsormais au jour la journe1 to take short views of life1 and regard distant objects as at once illusive and elusory4 8,usons de chaque jour sans trop de prvoyance du lendemain10 says another4 ,and it was an old ,french poet1 fourscore and upwards1 who in #agjj wrote the four verses which since then have been often cited3 8,chaque jour est un bien que du ciel je reois1 ,je jouis aujourd'hui de celui qu'il me donne2 ,il n'appartient pas plus aux jeunes gens qu'a moi1 ,et celui de demain n'appartient a personne40 ,dr4 ,boyd recognises as sound philosophy in ,sydney ,smith1 the advising us1 whether physically or morally1 to 8take short views40 ,one of his illustrations to the purpose is1 that it would knock you up at once if1 when the railway carriage moved out of the station at ,edinburgh1 you began to trace in your mind's eye the whole route to ,london4 ,never do that1 he says2 think first of ,dunbar1 then of ,newcastle1 then of ,york1 and1 putting the thing thus1 you will get over the distance without fatigue of mind4 ,what little child1 he asks1 would have heart to begin the alphabet1 if1 before he did so1 you put clearly before him all the school and college work of which it is the beginning8 8,the poor little thing would knock up at once1 wearied out by your want of skill in putting things4 ,and so it is that ,providence1 kindly and gradually putting things1 whiles us onward1 still keeping hope and heart1 through the trials and cares of life40 ,every dog has its day1 quaintly observes ,a4 ,h4 ,k4 ,b4 on another occasion2 but the day of the rational dog is overclouded in a fashion unknown to his inferior fellow-creatures2 it is overclouded by the anticipation of the coming day which will not be his4 ,and the essayist reminds us accordingly how 8that great though morbid man1 ,john ,foster10 could not heartily enjoy the summer weather1 for thinking how every sunny day that shone upon him was a downward step towards the winter gloom--each indication that the season was advancing1 though only to greater beauty1 filling him with a sort of forecast regret4 8,i have seen a fearful sight to-day10 he would say1 8,i have seen a buttercup40 ,and we know1 of course1 adds his critic1 8that in his case there was nothing like affectation2 it was only that1 unhappily for himself1 the bent of his mind was so onward-looking1 that he saw only a premonition of ,december in the roses of ,june40 ,waife1 in ,lord ,lytton's story1 checks his grandchild's query when1 happy1 and unaccustomed to happiness1 and therefore distrusting its continuance1 she wistfully exclaims1 8,it cannot last1 can it80 8',tis no use in this life1 my dear10 ,waife tells her1 8no use at all disturbing present happiness by asking1 #8,can it last8' ,to-day is man's1 to-morrow his ,maker's40 ,life being a succession of stages1 urges another practical philosopher1 we should think of one stage at a time4 ,most people1 he judiciously reminds us1 can bear one day's evil2 what breaks men down is the trying to bear on one day the evil of two days1 twenty days1 a hundred days4 8,we can bear a day of pain1 followed by a night of pain1 and that again by a day of pain1 and thus onward4 ,but we can bear each day and night of pain1 only by taking each by itself4 ,we can break each rod1 but not the bundle40 ,and the sufferer1 in real great suffering1 is well described as turning to the wall in blank despair1 when he looks too far on4 ,to cite another illustration of ,a4 ,k4 ,h4 ,b4's1 we should1 for certain purposes1 look not at the entire chain1 but at each successive link of it2 we know1 of course1 that each link will be succeeded by the next2 but we should think of them one at a time4 ,do not say1 wait the end1 is a maxim of ,paul ,louis ,courier's1 who declares that1 saving the respect due to the ancients1 nothing is more false than that rule4 8,the evil of to-morrow shall never deprive me of the good of to-day10 is one of the brilliant ,frenchman's resolves4 ,another brilliant but highly bilious ,frenchman testifies from observation and experience to the necessity1 in the long run1 of living from day to day1 without indulgence either in unavailing regrets or anxious forecast1 8on s'aperoit qu'il faut vivre au jour le jour1 oublier beaucoup1 enfin ponger la vie msure qu'elle s'coule40 ,but it may too truly be said of this philosopher that he wrote1 and lived1 as one having no hope1 and without ,god in the world4 ,horace was in his placid ,il ,penseroso mood when he counselled the acceptance of each new-born day as possibly one's last1 and appropriating it accordingly3 8,inter spem curamque1 timores inter et iras1 ,omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum3 ,grata superveniet qu non sperabitur hora40 ,we might suggest suggestive parallels by the score1 as this from a play of ,leigh ,hunt's1 8,one day--could you not try one day and then ,enjoy or fear another as it suited8 ,ay1 one--one--one4 ,try but one day1 and then ,trust me if one day would not give you strength10 for morrows in store4 ,or this1 from a poem of ,owen ,meredith's3 8,be quiet6 ,take things as they come2 ,each hour will draw out some surprise4 ,with blessing let the days go home3 ,thou shalt have thanks from evening skies40 ,,medicamental ,,music4 #a ,,samuel xvi4 #bc4 ,in the days when ,saul loved ,david greatly1 and found comfort in the constant presence of his favourite1 it sometimes 8came to pass that when the evil spirit from ,god was upon ,saul1 that ,david took an harp1 and played with his hand3 so ,saul was refreshed1 and was well1 and the evil spirit departed from him40 ,that there is something more than ordinary in music1 ,bishop ,beveridge1 in his 8,private ,thoughts10 infers from this fact--that ,david made use of the harp for driving away the evil spirit from ,saul1 as well as for bringing the good spirit upon himself4 ,the gentle prelate therefore recognises in music a sort of secret and charming power1 such as naturally dispels 8those black humours which the evil spirit is apt to brood upon10 and such too as composes the mind into a more regular1 sweet1 and docile disposition1 thereby rendering it 8the fitter for the ,holy ,spirit to work upon1 the more susceptive of ,divine grace1 and more faithful messenger to convey truth to the understanding40 ,and he cites his personal experience--experto crede--in favour of this view4 ,anatomizing melancholy1 old ,burton adds to the instance of ,david that of ,elisha1 who when he was troubled by importunate kings1 called for a minstrel1 8and when he played1 the hand of the ,lord came upon him40 ,of course the erudite anatomist heaps up corroborative instances of all kinds and ages1 mythological1 classical1 medival2 and he quotes many of those obscure and obsolete authorities whom it has been the cheap policy of many a bookmaker to cite from ,burton's thesaurus second-hand4 ,spenser opens a canto of his 8,faerie ,queene0 with a tribute to the powers of minstrelsy as exercised by ,orpheus1-- 8,or such as that celestial psalmist was1 ,that when the wicked fiend his lord tormented1 ,with heavenly notes1 that did all others pass1 ,the outrage of his furious fit relented40 ,or again1 to quote a parallel passage from a later poet of the didactic school1 whom1 perhaps simply because he 7,dr4 ,armstrong7 was didactic1 some people think as essentially prosy as ,spenser is on all sides allowed to be quintessentially poetical3-- 8,such was the bard1 whose heavenly strains of old ,appeased the fiend of melancholy ,saul40 ,buretti declares music to have the power of so affecting the whole nervous system as to give sensible ease in a large variety of disorders1 and in some cases a radical cure4 ,particularly he instances sciatica as capable of being relieved by this agency4 ,theophrastus is mentioned by ,pliny as recommending it for the hip gout2 and there are references on record by old ,cato and ,varro to the same effect4 sculapius figures in ,pindar as healing acute disorders with soothing songs4 8,music exalts each joy1 allays each grief1 ,expels diseases1 softens every pain1 ,subdues the rage of poison and of plague3 ,and hence the wise of ancient days adored ,one power of ,physic1 ,melody1 and ,song40 ,over ,luther1 as ,sir ,james ,stephen has remarked1 there brooded a constitutional melancholy1 sometimes engendering sadness1 but more often giving birth to dreams so wild that1 if vivified by the imagination of ,dante1 they might have passed into visions as awful and majestic as those of the 8,inferno40 ,various were the spells to which ,luther had recourse1 to cast out the demons that haunted him2 and of these remedial agencies the most potent perhaps was music4 8,he had ascertained and taught that the spirit of darkness abhors sweet sounds not less than light itself2 for music 7he says71 while it chases away the evil suggestions1 effectually baffles the wiles of the tempter4 ,his lute1 and hand1 and voice1 accompanying his own solemn melodies1 were therefore raised to repel the vehement aggressions of the enemy of mankind40 ,a story is told of ,farinelli1 the famous singer1 being sent for express to ,madrid1 to try the effect of his magical voice on the king of ,spain1 who was then buried in the profoundest melancholy--proof against every appeal to exertion1 living without signs of life in a darkened chamber1 the unresisting prey of dejection beyond relief4 ,but relief came with ,farinelli4 ,the vocalist was desired by the physicians to sing in an outer room1 which for a day or two he did1 without any apparent effect upon the royal patient4 ,but at length it was noticed that the king seemed partially roused from his stupor1 and became an evident listener2 next day tears were seen starting from his eyes2 the day after he ordered the door of his chamber to be left open2 and at last 8the perturbed spirit entirely left our modern ,saul1 and the medicinal voice of ,farinelli effected what no other medicine could40 ,well known in modern verse is the poet's picture of a despairing sufferer1 whom nought avails to move until-- 8,at last a slave bethought her of a harp3 ,the harper came1 and tuned his instrument2 ,at the first notes1 irregular and sharp1 ,on him her flashing eyes a moment bent1 ,then to the wall she turned as if to warp ,her thoughts from sorrow through her heart re-sent4 444 ,anon her thin wan fingers beat the wall ,in time to his old tune 444 444 ,and in a gushing stream ,the tears rushed forth from her o'erclouded brain1 ,like mountain mists at length dissolved in rain40 ,nor be forgotten the impressive instance of ,schiller's ,wallenstein1 in his hour of darkness1 tranquillised by ,thekla's voice and lute3-- 8,come here1 my girl4 ,seat thee by me1 ,for there is a good spirit on thy lips4 ,thy mother praised to me thy ready skill2 ,she says a voice of melody dwells in thee1 ,which doth enchant the soul4 ,now such a voice ,will drive away from me the evil demon ,that beats his black wings close above my head40 ,william ,godwin makes his savage ,tyrell amenable to well warbled melody4 ,readers of ,scott will remember how a frenzied ,highlander is soothed into self restraint by the minstrelsy of ,annot ,lyle4 ,goethe makes the first bar of an air by ,gretchen suffice to lull the sorrows of young ,werter1 who protests that 8instantly the gloom and madness which hang over me are dispersed1 and ,i breathe freely again40 ,another ,charlotte--our ,english ,richardson's--is less successful in her manipulation of medicinal melody1 when essaying to subdue an angry spirit by the spells of song3 8,i go to my harpsichord2 music enrages him4 ,he is worse than ,saul2 for ,saul could be gloomily pleased with the music even of the man he hated10 ,but this is antedating ,saul's aversion2 in those days ,saul loved ,david greatly4 ,dr4 ,croly1 in an eloquent paragraph of his elaborate eastern romance1 records how carefully music1 8of all pleasures the most intellectual1 that glorious painting to the ear1 that rich mastery of the gloomier emotions of our nature10 was studied by the ,jewish priesthood1 and with a skill that influenced the habits of the country4 8,how often10 exclaims ,salathiel1 8have my fiercest perturbations sunk1 at the sounds that once filled the breezes of ,juda6 ,how often1 when my brain was burning1 and the blood ran through my veins like molten brass1 have ,i been softened down to painless tears by the chorus from our hills1 the mellow harmony of harp and horn1 blending with the voices of the youths and maidens of ,israel60 ,it is characteristic1 as ,herr ,kohl observes1 of music-loving ,bohemia1 that in the lunatic asylum of its capital1 music should be considered one of the chief aids and appliances for the improvement of the patients4 ,in addition to the garden concerts1 in which all assist who can1 there is chamber music--quartets1 trios1 etc41--every morning and evening in the wards2 and a musical director takes high rank in the official staff of the establishment4 ,elizabeth ,charlotte of ,orleans1 mother of the ,regent1 describes in one of her letters a ,madame de ,persillie1 well born and well bred1 but a dangerous lunatic2 who however1 if you could but slip a guitar into her hand when the fury-fit came on1 would become calm again as soon as she began to play4 8,i pity her greatly10 writes the good-natured duchess 7whose homely ,german nature never became properly assimilated to the ,french court72 8she was very fond of me1 and used to address me as ,mon aimable2 but whenever she came to see me ,i always had a guitar quite ready for her40 ,it was but common prudence to be thus prepared for the worst2 and when the worst came to the worst1 then a guitar was best4 ,schleiermacher exclaims in one of his letters1 8,surely1 if there was any good in ,saul's innermost soul it must have been an adagio that exorcised the evil spirit40 ,the evil spirit in question is introduced by name1 ,malzah1 in a recent ,canadian drama1 and is made to avow the accomplished fact of exorcism in the following strain3-- 8,music1 music hath its sway3 ,music's order ,i obey1 ,i have unwound myself at sound ,from off ,saul's heart1 where coiled ,i lay40 ,which snaky or serpentine similitude is akin to a passage in ,mr4 ,browning's 8,paracelsus0--distant as the kinship between the two poems may be in other respects3 8,my heart6 they loose my heart1 those simple words2 ,its darkness passes1 which nought else could touch2 ,like some dank snake that force may not expel1 ,which glideth out to music sweet and low40 ,again and again in ,shakspeare is the remedial agency of music resorted to by afflicted royalty4 ,at one time it is ,queen ,katharine1 fading and heartsore1 who bids one of her women cease working1 and sing-- 8,take thy lute1 wench2 my soul grows sad with troubles2 ,sing1 and disperse them if thou canst40 ,and the singer's theme is how 8in sweet music is such art1 killing care and grief at heart40 ,at another time it is dying ,harry ,,iv41 who prays his attendants1 as they bear him to an inner room-- 8,let there be no noise made1 my gentle friends6 ,unless some dull#h and favourable hand ,will whisper music to my weary spirit40 ,and once more1 we have ,lear's physician prescribing music for the safer awakening of the distraught old man from that long sleep which was only not his last4 ,,free ,,from ,,righteousness4 ,,romans vi4 #bj4 ,in being1 and so long as they continued1 slaves of sin 7 71 the recipients of ,st4 ,paul's epistle to the ,romans are forcibly described by him as having been1 ipso facto1 free from righteousness 7 74 ,but what fruit had they in the freedom of which they were now ashamed8 8,he is the freeman whom the truth makes free1 ,and all are slaves beside40 ,they knew that to whom men yield themselves servants to obey1 his servants they are to whom they are obedient1 whether of sin unto death1 or of loyal service unto righteousness4 ,there is a freedom from righteousness1 which is servitude to sin2 and there is that service of ,god which1 though a service1 or rather because a service1 is perfect freedom4 ,gray1 in the best known of his odes 7best known by heart7 devises this expressive phrase1 8,constraint1 that sweetens liberty40 ,it refers to schoolboys1 enjoying all the more their playground freedom for the previous and succeeding restraints and constraints of the schoolroom4 ,all work and no play makes a dull boy2 but so does all play and no work4 ,in this sense1 as in so many others1 does the paradox hold good that half is more than the whole 7 71 and even a schoolboy can find by experience that a half holiday may be more than a whole one4 ,wordsworth sounds the depths of this philosophy in his magnificent ,ode to ,duty4 ,he is fatigued by freedom2 he would be no longer the sport of every random gust2 he would no longer stray in smooth walks1 but would serve ,duty more strictly if he might3-- 8,through no disturbance of my soul1 ,or strong compunction in me wrought1 ,i supplicate for thy control2 ,but in the quietness of thought3 ,me this uncharted freedom tires2 ,i feel the weight of chance desires2 ,my hopes no more must change their name1 ,i long for a repose that ever is the same40 ,whose service is perfect freedom--that is ,god's service only4 ,the true character of that service 7in ,greek ,testament phrase1 slavery7 is aptly indicated by ,st4 ,paul to the ,ephesians1 where he speaks of with good will doing service--' 1 4 ,the law of the ,spirit of life makes free from the law of sin and death1 that the righteousness of spiritual law may be fulfilled in those who sometime were free from righteousness4 ,freedom from righteousness is1 in fact1 identical with that bondage of corruption from which they are delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of ,god4 ,he that is so called1 being free1 is yet ,christ's servant1 4 ,and1 as a servant1 whatsoever he doeth he is to do heartily1 as to the ,lord1 and not to men-- 4 ,goethe's biographer tells us how he would assert1 against the encyclopedists1 that 8whatever frees the intellect1 without at the same time giving us command over ourselves1 is pernicious20 or would utter one of his profound and pregnant such as ,nur das ,gesetz kann uns die ,freiheit geben1 i4e41 only within the circle of law can there be true freedom4 8,we are not free when we acknowledge no higher power1 but when we acknowledge it1 and in reverence raise ourselves by proving that a ,higher lives in us40 ,we may wrest to our purpose the lines of ,schiller1 in ,wallensteins ,tod3 8,nay1 let it not afflict you that your power ,is circumscribed4 ,much liberty1 much error6 ,the narrow path of duty is securest40 ,liberty of will is likened by ,jeremy ,taylor to the motion of a magnetic needle towards the north1 full of trembling and uncertainty till it be fixed in the beloved point3 8it wavers as long as it is free1 and is at rest when it can choose no more40 ,what is liberty8 asks ,m4 ,jules ,simon2 and answers1 ,the power of doing or not doing4 ,but1 he proceeds to inquire1 can this liberty exist independent of law8--cette libert peut-elle subsister sans rgle8 ,nay1 liberty without rule1 or law1 so far from ennobling him who possesses it1 degrades him4 ,liberty is not given to us to withdraw us from the authority of law1 but that we may obey it in recognising its great ,first ,cause4 ,unrestrained liberty is our ruin2 liberty subjected to law1 and that an immovable law1 is the instrument and the token of our true greatness4 ,wordsworth philosophically affirms that 8all men may find cause1 when life is at a weary pause1 and they have panted up the hill of duty with reluctant will10 to 8,be thankful1 even though tired and faint1 ,for the rich bounties of constraint2 ,whence oft invigorating transports flow1 ,that choice lacked courage to bestow40 ,the truth admits of exemplification in a thousand minor details of every-day life4 ,mrs4 ,gaskell relates how she heard ,charlotte ,bront declare1 in reference to the 8exact punctuality and obedience to the laws of time and place0 enforced by her somewhat despotic aunt on the motherless family at ,haworth parsonage1 that no one but themselves could tell the value of this control in after life3 8with their impulsive natures it was positive repose to have learnt obedience to external laws40 ,in the last of her own fictions--and1 though unfinished1 the ripest and best--,mrs4 ,gaskell herself suggestively observes of a patient who1 when a medical adviser is at length called in1 finds it a great relief to be told what to do1 what to eat1 drink1 and avoid1 that 8such decisions ab extra are sometimes a wonderful relief to those whose habit has been to decide1 not only for themselves1 but for every one else20 and that occasionally the relaxation of the strain which a character for infallible wisdom brings with it does much to restore health4 ,m4 de ,vigny1 in one of his highly finished historiettes1 speculates on the nature and power of the instinct which seems to urge mankind1 as by a kind of necessity1 to seek pleasure in obedience1 and to feel a desire to depose1 as it were1 their free agency and consequent responsibility in other hands2 as if thereby a burden was laid down1 too weighty to be voluntarily supported2 and how this sensation of relief seems to give a secret feeling of complacency1 and a freedom to the act of obedience1 which reconcile it to the pride of human nature4 ,soldiers1 observes ,sir ,walter ,scott1 are always most pleased when they are best in order for performing their military service2 and licence or inactivity1 however acceptable at times1 are not1 when continued1 so agreeable to men of the camp as strict discipline and a prospect of employment4 8,i have heard men talk of the blessings of freedom10 says ,wamba to himself1 when suddenly freed from sharing the captivity of his master2 8but ,i wish any wise man would teach me what use to make of it now that ,i have it40 ,so ,elia1 in his essay on ,the ,superannuated ,man1 to whom life being now one long holiday has no holiday henceforth2 where he expatiates on the sight of 8busy faces to recreate the idle man1 who contemplates them ever passing by--the very face of business a charm by contrast to his relaxation from it40 ,many an individual experience can put its own private interpretation on the averment of one of ,rousseau's correspondents--,ce lien si redout me delivre d'une servitude beaucoup plus redoubtable4 ,of significant application again is ,de ,quincey's denial of the truth of ,lessing's sthetical assertion1 that the sense of necessary and absolute limitation is banished from the idea of a fine art4 ,on the contrary1 he maintains this sense is indispensable as a means of resisting 7and therefore realizing7 the sense of freedom3 8the freedom of a fine art is found not in the absence of restraint1 but in the conflict with it40 ,so in literature4 ,that certain rules of composition sustain themselves at all is due1 according to ,mr4 ,w4 ,caldwell ,roscoe1 to the fact that creative genius of a high order is not impatient of forms1 but rather loves1 on the contrary1 to have certain limits defined for it1 and to be freed to some extent from 8the weight of too much liberty40 ,shakspeare1 he adds1 did not fret because tragedies are limited to five acts1 nor ,milton quarrel with the formal conditions of an epic poem4 ,here again shall we find in ,wordsworth a passage to the point3-- 8,in truth the prison1 unto which we doom ,ourselves1 no prison is3 and hence for me1 ,in sundry moods1 'twas pastime to be bound ,within the ,sonnet's scanty plot of ground2 ,pleased1 if some souls 7for such there needs must be71 ,who have felt the weight of too much liberty1 ,should find brief solace there1 as ,i have found40 ,the biographer of ,edward ,irving tells us how deeply he was affected when the decision of the presbytery against him removed him from the range of their control1 so that1 8notwithstanding all his independence1 the profound loyalty of his soul was henceforth baulked of its healthful necessities40 ,he felt himself with a pang to be cast unnaturally free of restraint--8that lawful1 sweet restraint1 444 to which the tender dutifulness so seldom wanting to great genius naturally clings40#i ,habits of instant and mechanical obedience are affirmed by ,sir ,henry ,taylor to be those that give rest to the child1 and spare its health and temper4 ,men are but children of a larger growth2 and though as regards obedience to a ,father which is in heaven1 8mechanical0 obedience may not be the word1 yet is cheerfully implicit obedience the thing2 obedience is the privilege of the child4 8,for obedience is nobler than freedom4 ,what's free8 ,the vexed straw on the wind1 the frothed spume on the sea4 ,the great ocean itself1 as it rolls and it swells1 ,in the bonds of a boundless obedience dwells40 ,the next section takes up the same theme under another heading1 and with a fresh set of variations4 ,,the ,,service ,,of ,,freedom4 ,,st4 ,,matthew xi4 #bi1 #cj4 ,it is in tones of winning promise and invitation that men are offered the wearing of ,christ's yoke4 ,let all who are weary and heavy laden come to ,him3 come1 that they may take ,his yoke upon them4 ,there is a seeming paradox in the invitation4 ,should not the weary be invited by promised freedom from all yoke-bearing8 ,should not the heavy-laden be attracted by a pledge of entire immunity from burdens grievous to be borne1 whether heavy or light8 ,not so4 ,christ's yoke is easy1 but it is a yoke4 ,the burden he imposes is light1 but a burden of some sort ,he does impose4 ,being made free from sin1 men become the servants--servitors1 slaves even1 1 of righteousness4 ,but in so being made free from sin1 and becoming servants1 1 to ,god1 they have their fruit unto holiness1 and the end everlasting life4 ,and the yoke of privilege promised by ,christ differs from the irksome bonds and rigid constraint of scribes and rabbis2 a yoke which1 says ,st4 ,peter1 neither we nor our fathers were able to bear1 inasmuch as it implies and involves a purely spiritual service--that we should serve 77 in newness of spirit1 and not in the oldness of the letter4 8,if the ,son therefore shall make you free1 ye shall be free indeed40 ,keble says of men1 in the 8,christian ,year10 that1 8,freely they own1 or heedless prove1 ,the curse of lawless hearts1 the joy of self-control40 ,the joy of self-control4 ,for what ,wordsworth expressively calls 8unchartered freedom10 as revelled in by those who ignore a holy and happy-making law of duty1 is not in the long run1 a boon1 but a bane4 ,true1 that1 as ,cowper has it1 8',tis liberty alone that gives the flower ,of fleeting life its lustre and perfume1 ,and we are weeds without it4 ,all constraint1 ,except what wisdom lays on evil men1 ,is evil40 ,but the constraint that sweetens liberty is excepted2 the control that enfranchises from servitude to self1 and exalts to a liberty which monarchs cannot grant3 8',tis liberty of heart1 derived from ,heaven10 8and held by charter20 8a clean escape from tyrannizing lust40 8,grace makes the slave a freeman20 for 8,he is the freeman whom the truth makes free1 and all are slaves beside40 ,byron was drawing on his own bitter experience when he wrote the lines1 8,lord of himself--that heritage of woe1 ,that fearful empire which the human breast ,but holds to rob the heart within of rest40 ,imlac1 the sage1 describes1 in 8,rasselas0 the placid flow of life enjoyed by a devout brotherhood1 whose 8time is regularly distributed2 one duty succeeds another1 so that they are not left open to the distraction of unguided choice1 nor lost in the shades of listless inactivity4 ,there is a certain task to be performed at an appropriated hour10 and the constraint is to them a pledge of happiness1 hallowed as it is with a ,divine sanction1 and promissory of 8an ampler ether1 a diviner air0 to come1 in which they shall breathe more freely1 and inhale more deeply1 the breath of life4 ,freedom is not the being free to do nothing1 or to do just what one likes1 and when1 and how1 without why or wherefore4 ,la libert n'est pas oisivet1 says ,la ,bruyre2 and then he proceeds to say what liberty is3 8,c'est le choix de travail et de l'exercice3 tre libre1 en un mot1 n'est pas ne rien faire1 c'est tre seul arbitre de ce qu'on fait1 ou de ce qu'on ne fait point4 ,quel bien en ce sens que la libert60 ,but how much worthier of that note of admiration the gospel definitions1 explicit or implicit1 of ce que c'est la libert6 ,there is a touching suggestiveness in what ,frederick ,perthes says in a letter after the death of his wife4 ,all his doings and plannings for four and twenty years past had been solely1 he declares1 in reference to her4 8,but now all this is over4 ,i am no longer bound2 ,i can do what ,i will1 and next to the yearning after her1 ,i am most oppressed in my solitude by the consciousness of freedom40 ,fain would he be in those dear bonds again2 to apply a passage in one of ,shakspeare's minor poems1 he 8,in her fillet still would bide1 ,and1 true to bondage1 would not break from thence40 ,or as ,ferdinand says of ,miranda1 in the 8,tempest10 8,all corners else o' the earth ,let liberty make use of2 space enough ,have ,i in such a prison40 ,in this sense may be applied in earnest what ,butler writes in sport1 of an independent spirit who 8,disdains control1 and yet can be ,nowhere1 but in a prison1 free40 ,so the sculptor in ,hawthorne's tale of 8,transformation10 intent on winning winsome ,hilda for his own1 8would try if it were possible to take this shy1 yet frank and innocently fearless creature captive1 and imprison her in his heart1 and make her sensible of a larger freedom there than in all the world besides40 8,i have read somewhere10 says a simple maiden in one of ,lord ,lytton's fictions1 8that the slave is gay in his holiday from toil2 if you free him1 the gaiety vanishes1 and he cares no more for the dance under the palm-tree40 ,don ,alphonse1 in ,madame de ,rmusat's 8,lettres ,espagnoles10 writes to his sister an account of the courtiers' embarrassment on being released by the king from ceremonial attendance1 and allowed to do each one as he liked4 8,l'improvisation en tout est chose assez difficile1 et particulirement celle de la libert4 ,il faut que je confesse que nous n'avons su que faire de la ntre40 ,the moral of the fable may be read in ,landor's lines1 supposed to be indited by the caged nightingales so tenderly tended by ,agapenthe1 and brought to ,athens for her from ,thessaly1 and who bid the reader think not 8,that we would gladly fly again ,to gloomy wood or windy plain4 ,certain we are we ne'er should find ,a care so provident1 so kind4444 ,o may you prove1 as well as we1 ,that e'en in ,athens there may be ,a sweeter thing than liberty40 ,apply1 again1 to the general subject the special fact1 by way of illustration1 that restrictions and shackles are essential to rhythmic writing1 and voluntary thraldom the natural condition of poetry4 ,the ,chevalier de la ,faye1 in his 8,apology0 for the supposed difficulties of rhyme in our ,cisalpine dialects 7one ,italian poet being 8distinguishable among his fellow-captives by the light arial nature of his fetters107 suggests an ingenious parallel to the jets d'eau that ornament the gardens of the ,tuileries1 ,versailles1 and ,st4 ,cloud1 in a copy of verses which have been thus ,englished by ,father ,prout3-- 8,from the rhyme's restrictive rigour ,thought derives its impulse oft1 ,genius draws new strength and vigour1 ,fancy springs and shoots aloft4 ,so1 in leaden conduits pent1 ,mounts the liquid element1 ,by pressure forced to climb3 ,and he who feared the rule's restraint ,finds but a friendly ministrant ,in ,reason's helpmate1 ,rhyme40 ,pithy and pertinent too are ,mr4 ,coventry ,patmore's lines on those who 8,live by law1 not like the fool1 ,but like the bard1 who freely sings ,in strictest bonds of rhyme and rule1 ,and finds in them1 not bonds1 but wings40 ,they who so live are in every sense the happier1 without an 8except these bonds10 but because of them4 ,they find in them not bonds1 but wings2 and thenceforth have free course1 and go on their way rejoicing4 ,they1 like the repentant rebels in ,shakspeare's 8,king ,john10 and by the same river metaphor1 8,leaving their rankness and irregular course1 ,stoop low within those bounds they had o'erlook'd1 ,and calmly run on in obedience40 ,what they are no longer free to do1 is to do ill4 ,and that freedom is as perfect servitude as the service of ,god is perfect freedom4 ,in fine1 and in the words 7but expanding the meaning7 of one of ,samuel ,butler's metrical reflections3-- 8,law does not put the least restraint ,upon our freedom1 but maintain't2 ,or if it does1 'tis for our good1 ,to give us freer latitude2 ,for wholesome laws preserve us free ,by stinting of our liberty40 ,,the ,,discreet ,,silence ,,of ,,folly4 ,,proverbs xvii4 #bh4 ,it is written among the ,proverbs of ,solomon1 that 8,even a fool1 when he holdeth his peace1 is counted wise40 ,even the fool that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding4 ,the wise king declares in another place1 that a fool's mouth is his destruction1 and that his lips are the snare of his soul4 ,let him keep his mouth closed1 and his folly is an unknown quantity2 out of sight1 out of mind4 ,let him keep his lips shut1 and wisdom shall be imputed unto him4 ,of him lookers-on will say1 a discreet man that4 ,for they are only lookers-on1 not listeners4 ,to listen would break the spell4 ,as it is1 they are apt to count him as deep as he is still4 ,do not still waters run deep8 ,sir ,thomas ,browne--himself a silent man1 but no fool2 quite the other way--bids us1 in one of his stately sentences1 think not silence the wisdom of fools2 but if rightly timed1 the honour of wise men1 who have not the infirmity1 but the virtue of taciturnity1 and speak not out of the abundance1 but the well-weighed thoughts of the heart4 8,such silence may be eloquence1 and speak thy worth above the power of words40 ,would the author of 8,vulgar ,errors10 however1 have sanctioned for one moment the reference of the proverb on reticent foolishness to that limbo8 ,on the contrary1 the drift of his argument is wholly in favour of the proverb2 for1 if the silence of the wise is wisdom1 as he contends1 much more is a tongue-tied condition expedient in the fool4 ,stultitiam dissimulare non potes nisi taciturnitate1 says the ,latin adage3 there is no way to conceal folly but by holding your tongue4 ,there is something at once of pathos and almost of humorous reproach1 in the appeal of the ,man of ,uz1 in his extremity1 to his too didactic and complacently dogmatical friends3 8,oh that ye would altogether hold your peace6 and it should be your wisdom40 ,montaigne exclaims1 8,to how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanour procured the credit of prudence and capacity60 ,note the counsel of ,carlo to ,sogliardo1 in one of ,ben ,jonson's heaviest comedies3 8,when anything is propounded above your capacity1 smile at it1 make two or three faces1 and 'tis excellent2 they'll think you've travelled2 though you argue a whole day in silence thus1 and discourse in nothing but laughter1 'twill pass40 ,elsewhere rare ,ben cites approvingly the 8witty saying10 about one who was taken for a great and weighty man so long as he held his peace3 8,this man might have been a counsellor of state1 till he spoke2 but having spoken1 not the beadle of the ward40 ,denouncing in his strong dialect the vapid verbiage of shallow praters1 ,mr4 ,carlyle exclaims1 8,even ,triviality1 ,imbecility1 that can sit silent1 how respectable is it in comparison60 ,michelet says of the ,spanish grandees of ,charles the ,fifth's time1 that the haughty silence they maintained1 scarce deigning even a syllable of reply1 served them admirably to conceal their dearth of ideas4 ,silence and imperturbability1 according to the author of 8,the ,gentle ,life10 are the two requisites for a man to get on in the world4 ,if there are two things not to be hidden--love and a cough--there is a third1 contends ,nello1 the barber of ,florence1 and that is ignorance1 when once a man is obliged to do something besides wagging his head4 ,charles ,lamb shrewdly observes that a man may do very well with a very little knowledge1 and scarce be found out1 in a mixed company2 everybody being so much more ready to produce his own than to call for a display of your acquisitions4 ,but in a tte--tte1 he adds1 there is no shuffling2 the truth will out4 ,the ,abb de ,choisy hugged himself on the success of a discreet silence during his residence in ,batavia1 where he had special reasons to beware of committing1 and of exposing1 himself4 8,often when ,i utter not a word1 they suppose it is because ,i don't choose to talk2 whereas the real motive for my silence is a profound ignorance1 such as it is best to keep concealed from the gaze of mortals40 ,molire's sprightly chevalier1 ,dorante1 counsels a fatuous marquis not to talk of what he knows nothing at all about--bidding him hope that in virtue of a scrupulously observed silence1 he and the like of him may haply come to be regarded as clever fellows4 8,et songez qu'en ne disant mot1 on croira peut-tre que vous tes d'habiles gens40 ,a story is told of ,zeuxis1 how he reproved a certain ,megabyzus1 high priest of great ,diana of the ,ephesians1 who discoursed of pictures in the painter's studio with so reckless an audacity of ignorance1 that the very lads who were grinding colours there could not refrain from giggling2 whereupon quoth ,zeuxis to his too-eloquent friend1 8,as long as you kept from talking1 you were the admiration of these boys1 who were all wonder at your rich attire1 and the number of your servants2 but now that you have ventured to expatiate upon the arts1 of which you know simply nothing1 they are laughing at you outright40 ,plutarch tells the same story of ,apelles4 ,again to draw upon ,molire3 a fool who keeps his folly tongue-tied1 is not to be distinguished from a savant who hold his peace3 8,un sot qui ne dit mot ne se distingue pas ,d'un savant qui se tait40 ,not to be distinguished1 possibly1 from a savant who talks1 and talks to the purpose too4 ,there are two opposite ways1 on ,washington ,irving's showing1 by which some men get into notice--one by talking a vast deal and thinking a little1 and the other by holding their tongues and not thinking at all4 ,by the first1 he says1 many a vapouring1 superficial pretender acquires the reputation of a man of quick parts2 by the other1 many a vacant dunder-pate1 like the owl1 the stupidest of birds1 comes to be complimented1 by a discerning world1 with all the attributes of wisdom4 ,silent1 quiet people1 as ,miss ,jewsbury incidentally remarks1 have a charmed mystery about them which gives them a great advantage over more demonstrative mortals2 8nobody knows exactly what they think1 nor the impression made on them by anything2 all within them has the prestige of an oracle2 the extent of what they indicate is unknown2 and what little is uttered goes so far40 ,the best1 perhaps1 as well as the best-known of all stories illustrative of our theme1 is that of ,coleridge admiring a certain dinner-guest1 so impregnable in his sublime reserve1 so inexorably proof against every temptation to join in the table-talk1 such a model 7in appearance7 of dignified superiority--until there was carried in that unlucky dish of apple-dumplings1 the very first glance at which roused ,sir ,oracle to the enthusiastic outburst1 8,them are the jockeys for me60 ,goldsmith had1 long before1 recorded a somewhat parallel passage of disenchantment4 ,his travelled ,chinese1 ,lien ,chi ,altangi1 is present at a dinner-party of dignitaries and dons in whose company and from whose converse he expects to find a feast of reason as well as turtle1 and a flow of soul as well as claret4 ,their silence before dinner is served1 rather puzzles and disappoints the eager expectant2 who1 however1 accounts for and excuses it by the reflection1 that men of wisdom are ever slow of speech1 and deliver nothing unadvisedly4 8,silence10 says ,confucius1 8is a friend that will never betray40 ,the dons and dignitaries were now by the mandarin's surmise1 inventing maxims1 or hard sayings1 for their mutual instruction1 when some one should think proper to begin4 8,my curiosity was now wrought up to the highest pitch2 ,i impatiently looked round to see if any were going to interrupt the mighty pause2 when at last one of the company declared that there was a sow in his neighbourhood that farrowed fifteen pigs at a litter40 ,broken at once was the spell1 and disillusion was the ,chinaman's doom4 ,pope1 being satirist of the first class1 as well as poet of 7say7 the second1 took care1 in his imitative stanzas on ,silence1 not to be all sentiment and rhapsodical rapture on that subject4 ,hence1 one or his stanzas begins1 8,silence1 the knave's repute20 and another declares ,dulness to be her bosom-friend3 8,and in thy bosom lurks in ,thought's disguise2 ,thou varnisher of fools1 and cheat of all the wise40 ,the moral of one of ,gay's fables is to the purpose--that one1 namely1 in which a young dog1 ignorant of game1 gives tongue as lustily as if he knew all about it1 and gets well lashed for his pains4 ,to the astounded puppy's remonstrance the whip-bearing huntsman replies3-- 8,had not thy forward noisy tongue ,proclaim'd thee always in the wrong1 ,thou might'st have mingled with the rest1 ,and ne'er thy foolish nose confess'd2 ,but fools1 to talking ever prone1 ,are sure to make their follies known40 ,so a ,french satirist of the last century bids le sot remember1 that by simply holding his tongue1 he will acquire not a little respect--hopeless as the reminder in such a case may be2 for you might as well counsel the coward not to tremble1 as the fool not to expose himself in words1 words1 words3 8,souvenez-vous qu'un sot doit garder le silence1 ,il serait respect beaucoup plus qu'il ne pense2 ,mais vouloir le contraindre ne jamais parler1 ,c'est1 sans espoir1 dfendre au poltron ne trembler40 ,could it but be enforced1 the one injunction to be laid upon the fool might be condensed into an applied line from ,molire1 where ,orgon bids ,dorine hold her tongue1 and regard that as a standing order3-- 8,taisez-vous4 ,c'est le mot qu'il vous faut toujours dire40 ,all silent people1 ,lord ,lytton affirms1 can seem conventionally elegant4 ,and he tells the story of a groom married to a rich lady1 and in consequent trepidation as to the probability of being ridiculed by the guests in his new home and her old one1 to whom an ,oxford clergyman gave this bit of advice3 8,wear a black coat1 and hold your tongue40 ,the groom took the hint1 and1 we are assured1 was always considered the most gentlemanly man in the county4 ,elsewhere1 again1 the same author relates his meeting with a diplomatist of weighty name1 a stock example of political success1 but of whom he could make nothing whatever1 except indeed that he was a preposterous numskull4 ,when1 therefore1 the ,prime ,minister1 some days later1 spoke to our author of this 8superior man10 he got for a reply1 8,well1 ,i don't think much of him4 ,i spent the other day with him1 and found him insufferably dull40 8,indeed60 said the minister1 with something of horror in his tone2 8why then1 ,i see how it is4 ,lord has been positively talking to you60 ,had he but altogether held his peace1 it had been his wisdom4 ,according to ,la ,bruyre1 everything tells in favour of the man who talks but little2 the presumption is that he is a superior man2 and if1 in point of fact1 he is not a sheer blockhead1 the presumption then is that he is very superior indeed4 ,his comparative freedom from folly is positively presumed to exist in the superlative degree4 ,in another place the same observant philosopher describes in his best style the sort of people who1 by a grand talent for silence1 win golden opinions from all sorts of men2 they look wise1 and now and then enforce and re-enforce the look by a timely shrug of the shoulders1 or significant shake of the head2 but the assumed depth of wisdom don't really go two inches down2 scratch the surface1 and you come to the bottom at once4 ,for1 as ,shakspeare has it1 8,there are a sort of men whose visages ,do cream and mantle like a standing pond2 ,and do a wilful stillness entertain1 ,with purpose to be dress'd in an opinion ,of wisdom1 gravity1 profound conceit4 444 ,o1 my ,antonio1 ,i do know of those1 ,that therefore only are reputed wise1 ,for saying nothing2 who1 ,i am very sure1 ,if they should speak1 would0 not be reputed wise1 but the uttermost opposite1 whatever that may be called4 ,,penal ,,prevision4 #a ,,samuel xxvii4 #ai1 #bj4 ,why had ,saul disquieted ,samuel1 to bring him up from the place of the dead1 by the midnight agency of the 8wise woman0 of ,endor8 ,because he would fain pry into futurity1 and learn from supernatural sources his coming fate4 ,the desired foresight was vouchsafed him4 ,by to-morrow he and his sons were to be with the dead-and-gone seer1 whose spirit he had rashly invoked4 ,the prevision had its present penalty4 8,then ,saul fell straightway all along on the earth1 and was sore afraid1 because of the words of ,samuel40 ,the secret things belong unto the ,lord our ,god1 and only those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children4 ,the tree of foreknowledge of good and evil may offer fruit that is pleasant to the sight1 and seemingly to be desired to make one wise2 but it is fatal food1 not to be eaten of1 nor to be touched1 by any but the venturesome profane4 ,indulged to his cost with previsions of what should befall his posterity1 ,milton's ,adam1 at sight of the ,flood and its ravages1 breaks out into the exclamation1 8,o visions ill foreseen6 ,better had ,i ,lived ignorant of future6 so had borne ,my part of evil only1 each day's lot ,enough to bear40 ,warned by so distressful an experience1 he would have no man seek henceforth to be foretold what shall befall him or his children2 8evil he may be sure1 which neither his foreknowing can prevent2 and he the future evil shall1 no less in apprehension than in substance1 feel grievous to bear40 ,it has been asked what would become of men1 were their future absolutely foreknown by them3 would they not become in imagination1 and therefore in reality1 the passive slaves of an inevitable fate1 with all hope extinguished1 all fear intensified1 awaiting in terror the foreseen evil1 and looking with indifference on the promised good1 darkened as it would be by the shadow of intervening calamities1 and stripped of the bright colouring of hope8 ,and yet1 8,with eager search to dart the soul1 ,curiously vain1 from pole to pole1 ,and from the planets' wandering spheres ,to extort the number of our years1 ,and whether all those years shall flow ,serenely smooth1 and free from woe1 ,or rude misfortune shall deform ,our life with one continual storm2 ,or if the scene shall motley be ,alternate joy and misery1-- ,is a desire which1 more or less1 ,all men feel1 though few confess40 ,so at least affirms the author of the 8,rosciad10--who in another of his writings puts the query3 8,tell me1 philosopher1 is it a crime ,to pry into the secret womb of time2 ,or1 born in ignorance1 must we despair ,to reach events1 and read the future there80 ,assuredly1 says ,cicero1 the ignorance of evils to come is of more advantage than the knowledge of them3 certe ignoratio futurorum malorum utilior est quam scientia4 ,and ,horace1 in a celebrated passage3 8,prudens futuri temporis exitum ,caliginos nocte premit ,deus3 ,ridetque1 si mortalis ultra ,fas trepidat40444 ,caliginosa nox forms a thick black curtain4 8,what hangs behind that curtain8--would'st thou learn8 ,if thou art wise1 thou would'st not40 ,a thoughtful mind1 sententiously observes ,miss ,clarissa ,harlowe1 is not a blessing to be coveted1 unless it has such a happy vivacity with it as her friend ,miss ,howe's3 a vivacity which enables one to enjoy the present1 without being anxious about the future4 ,it is1 according to ,goldsmith1 the happy confidence in bright illusions that gives life its true relish1 and keeps up our spirits amidst every distress and disappointment4 8,how much less would be done1 if a man knew how little he can do6 ,how wretched a creature would he be1 if he saw the end as well as the beginning of his projects6 ,he would have nothing left but to sit down in torpid despair1 and exchange enjoyment for actual calamity40 ,the warrior in ,mr4 ,roscoe's tragedy argues judiciously when he says1 8,what is't to me1 that ,i should vex my soul ,in dim forebodings of what is to be8 ,it is enough ,i know1 and ache to know1 ,what on this bridge of time ,i have to do1 ,not overlook the abysm till my head fail40 ,fortunately for us mortals1 ,mr4 ,froude says1 necessary as any future may be1 and inevitable as by our own actions we may have made it1 it is kindly kept from us wrapt up in clouds1 and we are not made wretched about it by anticipation4 8,o my fortune10 prays ,agrippina1 in one of ,jonson's ,roman tragedies1 8let it be sudden thou preparest against me2 strike all my powers of understanding blind1 and ignorant of destiny to come60 ,seek to know no more1 is in vain the joint appeal of the three witches to ,macbeth1 beside the magic caldron in the cave2 but as to the future of ,banquo's issue he will be satisfied4 ,cranmer1 predicting a glorious reign for the infant ,elizabeth1 parenthesises a sigh on the common lot-- 8,would ,i had known no more6 but she must die40 ,shakspeare's ,king ,henry the ,fourth1 again1 in one place utters the aspiration1 8,o ,heaven6 that one might read the book of fate60 ,hardly an aspiration1 however1 as the context shows2 a privilege to be deprecated rather2 for could there be foreseen all the changes and chances of one's mortal life1 8how chances mock1 and changes fill the cup of alteration with divers liquors10 8,o1 if this were seen1 ,the happiest youth1--viewing his progress through1 ,what perils past1 what crosses to ensue1-- ,would shut the book1 and sit him down and die40 ,mr4 de ,quincey describes an ,installation of the ,knights of ,st4 ,patrick at which he was present1 during the ,lord-,lieutenancy of ,lord ,cornwallis--the narrator's companions on that occasion being ,lord and ,lady ,castlereagh1 who 8were both young at this time1 and both wore an impressive appearance of youthful happiness2 neither1 happily for their peace of mind1 able to pierce that cloud of years1 not much more than twenty1 which divided them from the day destined in one hour to wreck the happiness of both40 ,vision ill foreseen it were to know the times and the seasons1 the manner how1 and the place where4 8,o tell me1 cried ,ereenia1 for from thee ,nought can be hidden1 when the end will be4 ,seek not to know1 old ,casyapa replied1 ,what pleaseth ,heaven to hide4 ,dark is the abyss of ,time4 ,but light enough to guide your steps is given2 ,whatever weal or woe betide1 ,turn never from the way of truth aside1 ,and leave the event1 in holy hope1 to ,heaven40 ,the hermit in ,scott's 8,talisman10 who1 after failing to read aright the fate of others1 has to own himself uncertain whether he may not have miscalculated his own1--withdraws from the action of the story with the reflection that ,god will not have us break into ,his council-house1 or spy out ,his hidden mysteries4 8,we must wait ,his time with watching and prayer--with fear and with hope4 ,i came hither the stern seer--the proud prophet1 skilled1 as ,i thought1 to instruct princes1 and gifted even with supernatural powers1 but burdened with a weight which ,i deemed no shoulders but mine could have borne4 ,but my bands have been broken6 ,i go hence humble in mine ignorance10 etc4 ,in ,scott's other and less popular ,tale of the ,crusaders1 ,eveline deprecates the ,lady of ,baldringham's offer to show her niece how the balance of fate inclines1 and shrinks from the asserted privilege 8enjoyed0 by their house of looking forward beyond the points of present time1 and seeing in the very bud the thorns or flowers which are one day to encircle their head4 8,for my own sake1 noble kinswoman10 answered ,eveline1 8,i would decline such foreknowledge1 even were it possible to acquire it without transgressing the rules of the ,church4 ,could ,i have foreseen what has befallen me within these last unhappy days1 ,i had lost the enjoyment of every happy moment before that time40 ,so again reasons the ,italian adept1 ,baptista ,damiotti1 in one of ,sir ,walter's shorter tales1 when dismissing the two agitated ladies who have been consulting his magic mirror4 8,few10 he added1 in a melancholy tone1 8leave this house as well in health as they entered it4 ,such being the consequence of seeking knowledge by mysterious means1 ,i leave you to judge of the condition of those who have the power of gratifying such irregular curiosity40 ,cowper observes in one of his letters that man often prophesies without knowing it2 but that did he foresee1 what is always foreseen by him who dictates what he supposes to be his own1 he would suffer by anticipation as well as by consequence2 and wish perhaps as ardently for the happy ignorance to which he is at present so much indebted1 as some have foolishly and inconsiderately done1 for a knowledge that would be but another name for misery4 ,even in the ecstasy of rapturous foresight the ,seer exclaims1 8,visions of glory1 spare my aching sight1 ,ye unborn ages1 crowd not on my soul60 ,when ,harold and ,haco1 8pale king and dark youth10 in ,lord ,lytton's historical novel1 would read the riddle of the future1 and 8climb to heaven through the mysteries of hell10 the witch bids them--poor 8worms0--crawl back to the clay--to the earth3 8,one such night as the hag ye despise enjoys as her sport and her glee1 would freeze your veins1 and sear the life in your eyeballs10 etc41 etc4 ,what says the wizard1 again1 in ,tasso8 8,but that ,i should the sure events unfold ,of things to come1 or destinies foretel1 ,too rash is your desire1 your wish too bold40 ,cagliostro1 professing to foresee the fate of ,la ,perouse1 is importunately asked by his fellow-guests at that memorable dinner-party commemorated by ,m4 ,dumas1 why then he did not forewarn and save that brave man before setting out4 ,at the very least1 why not have told him to 8beware of unknown isles0--that he might at any rate have had the chance of avoiding them8 ,but1 8,i assure you no1 count10 is the mystic's reply2 8and1 if he had believed me1 it would only have been the more horrible1 for the unfortunate man would have seen himself approaching those isles destined to be fatal to him1 without the power to escape from them4 ,therefore he would have died1 not one1 but a hundred deaths1 for he would have gone through it all by anticipation4 ,hope1 of which ,i should have deprived him1 is what best sustains a man under all trials40 8,yes10 says ,condorcet1 the sceptical and sententious1 8the veil which hides from us our future1 is the only real good which ,god has vouchsafed to man40 ,and what again1 to the same purport1 says the ,hermit ,monk to ,alpine's ,lord3-- 8,roderick1 it is a fearful strife ,for man endowed with mortal life1 ,whose shroud of sentient clay can still ,feel feverish pang and fainting chill1 444 ',tis hard for such to view1 unfurl'd1 ,the curtain of the future world4 ,yet witness every quaking limb1 ,my sunken pulse1 mine eyeballs dim1 ,my soul with harrowing anguish torn1-- ,this for my chieftain have ,i borne60 ,and therefore1 says ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 in his moralisings on the undesirableness of all such foresight1 8and therefore the wisdom of astrologers1 who speak of future things1 hath wisely softened the severity of their doctrines2 and even in their sad predictions1 while they tell us of inclination not coaction from the stars1 they kill us not with ,stygian oaths and merciless necessity1 but leave us hopes of evasion40 ,tant mieux for those who1 like ,hudibras1 444 8still gape to anticipate ,the cabinet-designs of fate1 ,apply to wizards to foresee ,what shall1 and what shall never be20 like ,hudibras1 bursting with the wish1 8,oh1 that ,i could enucleate ,and solve the problem of my fate2 ,or find1 by necromantic art1 ,how far the destinies take my part60 ,vanity and vexation of spirit1 these visionary previsions all4 ,sacred1 therefore1 be1 in ,thomson's phrase1 the veil that kindly clouds a light too keen for mortals1 444 8for those that here in dust ,must cheerful toil out their appointed years40 ,in a feeling paragraph on the pains of a first separation1 ,miss ,ferrier observes1 or rather asks1 if in the long and dreary interval that ensues1 it were foreseen what griefs were to be borne1 what ties severed1 what hearts seared or broken--8who of woman born could bear the sight and live8 ,but 'tis in mercy these things are hidden from our eyes40 ,looking back upon a certain year's accumulated troubles1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell's ,margaret ,hale 8wondered how they had been borne4 ,if she could have anticipated them1 how she would have shrunk away and hid herself from the coming time60 ,and yet day by day1 it is explained1 had of itself1 and by itself1 been very endurable--small1 keen1 bright little spots of positive enjoyment having come sparkling into the very middle of sorrows4 ,margaret ,hale does but exemplify in prose what ,home's ,lady ,randolph enunciates in sonorous verse3 8,had some good angel oped to me the book ,of ,providence1 and let me read my life1 ,my heart had broke when ,i beheld the sum ,of ills which one by one ,i have endured40 ,whereupon the lady's faithful ,anna remarks3 8,that ,god1 whose ministers good angels are1 ,hath shut the book1 in mercy to mankind40 ,not but that this doctrine has found special recusants1 if too generally taken1 or1 in their own instance1 too particularly applied4 8,i have somewhere read10 says ,caleb ,williams1 8that ,heaven in mercy hides from us the future incidents of our life4 ,my own experience does not well accord with this assertion40 ,and mentioning one critical occasion1 he adds1 that this once at least he should have been saved from insupportable labour and indescribable anguish1 could he have foreseen what was then impending4--,sometimes the natural complaint is like that of ,duke ,ferdinand in ,john ,webster's tragedy3 8,oh1 most imperfect light of human reason1 ,that mak'st us so unhappy to foresee ,what we can least prevent60 ,sometimes a solace is found in such a reflection as this3 8,then did ,i see how that presentient shroud ,of grief1 which raiseth many a fond complaint ,in mortal bosoms1 is a friendly cloud4 ,storms fall less heavily which men fore-paint4 ,and the struck spirit utterly would faint1 ,hurl'd from full joy40 ,to be ignorant of evils to come1 as well as forgetful of past1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne hails as a merciful provision of nature1 8whereby we digest the mixture of our few and evil days40 ,in another of his works the fine old physician would have us1 in the heyday of prosperity1 8think of sullen vicissitudes10 but beat not our brains to foreknow them4 8,be armed against such obscurities1 rather by submission than fore-knowledge4 ,the knowledge of future evils modifies present felicities1 and there is more content in the uncertainty or ignorance of them4 ,this favour our ,saviour vouchsafed unto ,peter1 when he foretold not his death in plain terms1 and so by an ambiguous and cloudy delivery damped not the spirit of ,his disciples4 ,but in the assured fore-knowledge of the deluge1 ,noah lived many years under the affliction of a flood1 and ,jerusalem was taken unto ,jeremy before it was besieged40 ,holy ,george ,herbert is scarcely more quaint in verse than ,sir ,thomas ,browne in prose3 8,only the present is thy part and fee4 ,and happy thou1 ,if1 though thou didst not beat thy future brow1 ,thou couldst well see ,what present things required of thee4 ,they ask enough2 why shouldst thou further go8 ,raise not the mud ,of future depths1 but drink the clear and good4 ,dig not for woe ,in times to come2 for it will grow4 ,man and the present fit2 if he provide ,he breaks the square4 ,this hour is mine3 if for the next ,i care1 ,i grow too wide1 ,and do crusade upon death's side3 ,for death each hour environs and surrounds4 ,he that would know ,and care for future chances1 cannot go ,unto those grounds1 ,but thro' a churchyard which them bounds40 ,the assured knowledge of the exact minute of one's death may be treated religiously as a privilege1 after the manner of appeals by gaol-chaplains to condemned-cell criminals2 as where the clergyman of the ,tolbooth ,church bade ,wilson and ,robertson1 convicted ,porteous rioters1 not despair on account of the suddenness of the summons1 8but rather to feel this comfort in their misery1 that1 though all who now in that church lifted the voice1 or bent the knee in conjunction with them1 lay under the same sentence of certain death1 they only had the advantage of knowing the precise moment at which it should be executed upon them40 ,but how does ,professor ,henry ,rogers treat the question1 in its practical aspect1 in his so-called 8,vision about ,prevision08 ,the seer1 or foreseer1 in that fantasiestck1 when asked1 concerning those who consult him as to the future1 whether some at least do not wish to know the hour of their death--that they may duly prepare for it8 answers1 8,that least of all4 ,not a soul will hear his tale told to the end2 they won't let us unveil to them the hour or the mode of their dissolution4444 ,they prefer having a veil thrown over the closing scene of their life4 ,like other play-goers1 they do not like death to be actually exhibited on the stage1 and willingly let the curtain fall ere the catastrophe40 ,well1 but the seer himself3 he at any rate is above that weakness3 he at any rate has inquired into the secret of his end8 8,for what purpose80 is his reply3 is not that knowledge the very misery of prisoners in the condemned cell8 are they not accounted miserable precisely because they are to die just that day month8 will not hundreds1 who pity them for that very circumstance1 in fact die before them8 and yet are not these accounted happy in comparison1 because they know it not8 8,e'en the great shadow1 ,death1 lost half its gloom ,in kind oblivion of impending doom10 says one philosophical poet4 ,another1 and a greater1 in a poem on presentiments1 has this among many stanzas addressed to them3 8',tis said1 that warnings ye dispense1 ,emboldened by a keener sense2 ,that men have lived for whom1 ,with dread precision1 ye made clear ,the hour that in a distant year ,should knell them to the tomb4 ,unwelcome insight60 that is the comment1 that the note of exclamation1 with which ,wordsworth commences the stanza next ensuing4 ,when death has invaded the quiet rectory in ,miss ,tytler's ,huguenot story1 we have each servant mysteriously and fanatically delivering her experience in the matter of corpse-candles1 death-spells1 death-watches1 etc41 so that one might have learned for all one's life afterwards to look on one's death as a dark fate1 haunting and hovering over one's own person and those of beloved friends1 from which there is no escape1 not even by prayer and fasting2 might have learned to 8look out for it in dim prognostications1 to watch for it1 and anticipate its cruel blows in incipient madness4--#8,our ,bibles say we know not the day nor the hour1' said ,grand'mre2 #8but ,he knows--that is enough4'0 ,one of ,la ,bruyre's penses sur la mort is1 that 8ce qu'il y a de certain dans la mort1 est un peu adouci par ce qui est incertain3 c'est un indfini dans le tems1 qui tient quelque chose de l'infini1 et de ce qu'on appelle ternit40 ,byron indeed utters the remonstrant query1 8,ah6 why do darkening shades conceal ,the hour when man must cease to be80 ,but his sigh was little in the spirit of the ,psalmist's prayer to be made to know his end1 and the measure of his days1 what it was4 ,,beatific ,,vision ,,and ,,overshadowing ,,cloud4 ,,st4 ,,luke ix4 #cd4 ,to the three favoured apostles it was granted by their ,master to be eye-witnesses of ,his majesty1 when they were with ,him on the holy mount4 ,they saw the fashion of ,his countenance altered1 and ,his raiment become white and glistering4 ,they saw with ,him in glory ,moses1 whose burial-place no man knew1 and ,elijah1 who was translated that he should not see death4 ,and ,peter said it was good to be there1 and he desired to make that mount of transfiguration a dwelling-place1 and to prolong the splendours of that beatific vision4 ,three tabernacles he proposed to rear1 in that eager impetuosity which so often marked his character2 at present scarcely knowing what he said1 but conscious of a privileged apocalypse1 and deprecating its speedy withdrawal4 ,but 8while he thus spake1 there came a cloud1 and overshadowed them2 and they feared as they entered into the cloud40 ,so it was again at a later day1 and upon another mount1 when the risen ,master was asked by ,his assembled apostles would ,he at this time restore again the kingdom to ,israel8 ,brief was the reply1 and no sooner uttered than1 while they beheld--gazed wistfully1 hopingly1 longingly1 on the ,presence they had so lately lost1 and were now eager to retain--while they beheld1 8,he was taken up1 and a cloud received ,him out of their sight40 99 99 99 99 99 ,the overshadowing cloud to mar the sunshine is one of the commonest of common-places in man's experience4 ,perpetually being verified in prosaic reality1 all too real1 is the poet's image-- 8,across the sunbeam1 with a sudden gloom1 ,a ghostly shadow flitted10 ,medio de fonte leporum surgit amari aliquid4 ,the very exuberance of human happiness tends to suggest its opposite4 ,gibbon felt simply as a man when he felt what he has described in a memorable passage relating to his sense of gratified triumph at the conclusion of his magnum opus4 ,it was between the hours of eleven and twelve1 he records1 on a calm night in ,june1 that he wrote the last lines of his last page in a summer-house in his garden at ,lausanne4 ,after laying down his pen1 he took several turns in a covered walk of acacias1 which commanded a prospect of the country1 the lake1 and the mountains4 ,the air was temperate1 the sky was serene1 the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters1 and all nature was silent4 8,i will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom1 and1 perhaps1 the establishment of my fame4 ,but my pride was soon humbled1 and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind1 by the idea that ,i had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion1 and that whatsoever might be the future date of my history the life of the historian must be short and precarious40 ,it is the common lot4 ,it is but another reading of the complaint in ,prior's pastorals-- 8,yet thus beloved1 thus loving to excess1 ,yet thus receiving and returning bliss1 ,in this great moment1 in this golden ,now1 444 ,a melancholy tear afflicts my eye1 ,and my heart labours with a sudden sigh2 ,invading fears repel my coward joy1 ,and ills foreseen the present bliss destroy40 ,or as elsewhere the same poet gloomily exclaims1 and fruitlessly supplicates-- 8,o impotent estate of human life1 ,where hope and fear maintain eternal strife6 ,where fleeting joy does lasting doubt inspire1 ,and most we question what we most desire6 ,amongst ,thy various gifts1 great ,heaven1 bestow ,our cup of love unmixed2 forbear to throw ,bitter ingredients in2 nor pall the draught ,with nauseous grief40 ,hardly can it be called1 though the author of 8,the ,ring and the ,book0 does call it1-- 444 8strange how1 even when most secure ,in our domestic peace1 a certain dim ,and flitting shade can sadden all2 it seems ,a restlessness of heart1 a silent yearning1 ,a sense of something wanting1 incomplete40 ,a thought comes over us sometimes in our career of pleasure1 ,lord ,lytton remarks1 or in the exultation of our ambitious pursuits1 a thought comes over us like a cloud1 that around us and about us ,death1 ,shame1 ,crime1 ,despair1 are busy at their work4 ,he tells us what he has read somewhere of an enchanted land where the inmates walked along voluptuous gardens1 and built palaces1 and heard music1 and made merry2 while around and within the land were deep caverns1 where the gnomes and the fiends dwelt2 and ever and anon their groans and laughter1 and the sounds of their unutterable toils or ghastly revels1 travelled to the upper air1 mixing in an awful strangeness with the summer festivity and buoyant occupation of those above4 ,and this he claims to be a picture of human life4 ,always there is a black spot in our sunshine1 exclaims ,mr4 ,carlyle2 and he tells us what it is1 8the shadow of ourselves40 ,at a seeming crisis of assured prosperity the heroine of a ,french roman is made to exclaim1 8,the future is all our own--the radiant future1 without cloud or obstacle1 pure in the immensity of its horizon1 and extending beyond the reach of sight40 ,but while she thus speaks her features suddenly assume an expression of touching melancholy1 as she adds1 in a voice of profound emotion1 8,and yet--at this very hour--so many unfortunate creatures are suffering pain60 ,so with the young hero in one of ,mr4 ,hannay's fictions3 8,in that moment he felt that he had attained a new stage of life2 yet1 an instant's reaction seized him1 as in every fruition through one's progress in time comes that curious moment's speck1 the touch of an unseen hand1 that seems to tell you1 #8,too much joy is not for you here4' ,it passed away1 having just dashed his triumph as it always does40 ,at a later stage in this adventurer's career the ebb of his spirits is made the text of a paragraph comparing them to a ship in the tropics1 where a light wind comes1 and dies again1 and leaves you becalmed1 or the horizon blackens suddenly and death seems impending in the unhealthy air4 8,few things are more touching than that peculiar melancholy which sometimes comes over one in theatres or at feasts1 and reminds us of the dark element in nature and the heart 444 which chills the philosopher and the pleasure-taker4444 ,when the light southerner of old got a glimpse of it he called for his lyre and his garlands2 but roses will not charm it away from the deep heart of the child of the ,teuton1 and he sees its awful shadow trembling in the wine40 ,the ,english ,opium-eater somewhere professes to derive from the spectacle of dancing1 where the motion is continuous and the music not of a trivial character but charged with the spirit of festal pleasure1 8the very grandest form of passionate sadness which can belong to any spectacle whatever40 ,wordsworth is treating of presentiments when he says that-- 8,the laughter of the ,christmas hearth ,with sighs of self-exhausted mirth ,they feelingly reprove40 ,and of such is ,currer ,bell too treating in a passage that tells of the writer's fancy budding fresh and her heart basking in sunshine2 only these feelings 8were well kept in check by the secret but ceaseless consciousness of anxiety lying in wait on enjoyment1 like a tiger crouched in a jungle4 ,the breathing of that beast of prey was in my ear always40 4 8,who knows what that low sullen murmur means1 ,the river's fall sends up to blast life's fairest scenes80 ,the happiest1 as ,pope's ,homer has it1 8taste not happiness sincere1 but find the cordial draught is dashed with care40 ,what biography of successful ambition but has its parallel passage to one in ,prescott's history of the conqueror of ,peru3 8,amidst this burst of adulation the cup of joy commended to ,pizarro's lips had one drop of bitterness in it that gave its flavour to all the rest06 ,as ,m4 ,ampre's ,cleopatra owns1-- 8,oui1 parmi les plaisirs1 la joie et les festins1 ,je mdite du sort les arrts incertains40 ,how apt1 at a bright banquet1 is the thought of death to flash across the mind1 is trite among the truisms of experience4 ,it was at ,belshazzar's feast1 while they drank wine out of the golden vessels of the temple1 and praised the gods of gold1 and of silver1 of brass1 of iron1 of wood1 and of stone1 when the revelry was at its height and the revellers at their best1 that in the same hour there came forth fingers of a man's hand1 and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace2 and then was king ,belshazzar greatly troubled1 and his countenance was changed in him1 and his lords were astounded4 ,in ,hawthorne's allegory of the ,maypole at ,merry ,mount1 the lord and lady of the ,may are abruptly overcome with a shadow of sadness1 just when the minstrelsy of pipe1 cittern1 and viola is pealing forth in such a mirthful cadence that the boughs of the maypole quiver to the sound2 and just then too1 as if a spell had loosened them1 down comes a little shower of withering roseleaves from the maypole4 ,there is sometimes1 says ,fielding1 a little speck of black in the brightest and gayest colours of fortune1 which contaminates and deadens the whole4 8,in every joy there lurks ,an impulse of decay2 ,with silent speed it works1 ,while all without is gay30 --with silent speed1 like the worm at ,jonah's gourd4 8,fleurs1 vous aussi10 so ,branger apostrophizes them1 444 8vous avez vos souffrances4 ,le ver est l2 le vent peut accourir40 ,le ver1 as the worm prepared for ,jonah's gourd2 le vent1 as the vehement east wind to wither ,jonah's strength4 8,while blooming love assures us golden fruit1 ,some inborn poison taints the secret root2 ,soon fall the flowers of joy40 ,but ,jonah's gourd must have a section apart4 ,,the ,,spreading ,,gourd ,,and ,,the ,,speeding ,,worm4 ,,jonah iv4 #f-h4 ,as ,elijah the ,tishbite sat down in the wilderness under a juniper-tree1 heavy-hearted1 and fleeing for his life from the grasp of ,jezebel1 yet requesting for himself that he might die2 as he said1 8,it is enough2 now1 ,o ,lord1 take away my life10 yet anon found rest and refreshment under the juniper-tree1 and did eat and drink1 and lay down again1 and went in the strength of that rest and that meat1 forty days and forty nights1 unto ,horeb the mount of ,god2 so ,jonah the son of ,amittai1 displeased exceedingly1 and very angry1 prayed in bitterness the same prayer1 8,o ,lord1 take1 ,i beseech thee1 my life from me2 for it is better for me to die than to live40 ,did he well to be angry8 ,did ,elijah well to despair8 ,under a juniper-tree ,elijah recovered strength1 took heart1 and became of good courage4 ,for ,jonah there was preparing a gourd4 ,a gourd2 and a worm to make short work of the gourd4 ,jonah left the city in wrath1 and made him a booth1 and sat under it in the shadow1 till he might see what would become of the city--the city which he had doomed and ,god had spared4 ,under the burning sun he awaited the judgment of ,nineveh4 8,and the ,lord ,god prepared a gourd1 and made it to come up over ,jonah1 that it might be a shadow over his head1 to deliver him from his grief4 ,so ,jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd4 8,but ,god prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day1 and it smote the gourd that it withered40 ,and when the sun arose1 there arose too another thing of ,god's preparing4 ,as ,he had prepared the gourd1 and prepared the worm to smite the gourd1 so1 at sunrise1 8,god prepared a vehement east wind2 and the sun beat upon the head of ,jonah1 that he fainted1 and wished in himself to die40 ,and not only so1 but again expressed the wish1 with the old bitterness and even increasing wrath4 ,did he well to be angry for the gourd8 8,i do well to be angry1 even unto death10 he exclaimed4 ,the gourd was so gladdening a creation1 it made even that morose spirit exceeding glad4 ,but scarcely had he time to congratulate himself on this relief1 in complacent assurance of its continuance1 when the sheltering gourd was eaten to the heart by a speeding worm1 and what came up in a night1 perished in a night2 and this also was vanity1 vanity and vexation of spirit4 ,a perverse fate seems to lie in wait for man1 8,and though he in a fertile climate dwell1 ,plague him with flies3 though that his joy be joy1 ,yet throw such charges of vexation on't1 ,as it may lose some colour40 ,in the words of another of ,shakspeare's dramas1 8joy cannot show itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness40 ,inter delicias semper aliquid svi nos strangulat1 says the ,latin adage2 the aliquid svi answering to the aliquid amari of ,lucretius1 quod in ipsis floribus angat2 or again to the aliquid solliciti of ,ovid1 444 8,nulla est sincera voluptas2 ,sollicitique aliquid ltis intervenit40 ,why1 ,byron asks himself1 in his diary 7at ,ravenna71 why1 at the very height of desire and human pleasure1 does there mingle a certain sense of doubt and sorrow--a fear of what is to come--a doubt of what is--a retrospect of the past1 leading to a prognostication of the future8 ,mrs4 ,browning has penned a suggestive sonnet to which the title is superscribed of ,pain in ,pleasure3 8,a thought lay like a flower upon my heart1 ,and drew around it other thoughts like bees ,for multitude and thirst of sweetnesses1-- ,whereat rejoicing1 ,i desired the art ,of the ,greek whistler1 who to wharf and mart ,could lure those insect swarms from orange-trees1 ,that ,i might hive me with such thoughts1 and please ,my soul so1 always4 ,foolish counterpart ,of a weak man's vain wishes6 ,while ,i spake1 ,the thought ,i called a flower1 grew nettle-rough-- ,the thoughts called bees1 stung me to festering1 ,oh1 entertain 7cried reason1 as she woke17 ,your best and gladdest thoughts but long enough1 ,and they will all prove sad enough to sting40 ,as ,shakspeare words it in one of his sonnets1 8,roses have thorns1 and silver fountains mud2 ,clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun1 ,and loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud10 and every gourd has its worm4 ,so again ,cowper3 8,here every drop of honey hides a sting2 ,worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers40 ,on the same text moralizes the meditative sire of the ,cid1 in ,corneille's tragedy3 8,jamais nous ne gotons de parfaite allgresse3 ,nos plus heureux succs sont mls de tristesse2 ,toujours quelques soucis en ces vnements ,troublent la puret de nos contentements40 ,semper amari aliquid4 ,it is like ,johnson's reflections on his first transports at ,ranelagh4 ,when first he entered those festive gardens1 it gave1 he tells ,boswell1 an expansion and gay sensation to his mind1 such as he never experienced anywhere else4 ,but1 as ,xerxes wept when he reviewed his immense army1 and considered that not one of that great multitude would be alive a hundred years afterwards1 so it went to the doctor's heart to consider that there was not one in all that brilliant circle but was afraid to go home and think2 that 8the thoughts of each individual there would be distressing when alone40 ,boswell approves the reflection as 8experimentally just10 and appends a commonplace of his own1 upon the feeling of langour1 which succeeds the animation of gaiety1 being itself a very severe pain4 ,it was in the mid hey-day of military triumph that ,paulus milius astonished his encircling admirers by1 first1 a prolonged silence1 and next1 a sombre homily on the vicissitudes of fortune1 and of human affairs4 ,what time for confidence can there be to man1 he asked1 when in the very instant of victory he must necessarily dread the power of fortune1 and the very joy of success must be mingled with anxiety--aliquid solliciti--from a reflection on the course of unsparing fate1 which humbles one man to-day1 and to-morrow another6 ,gladdening is the gourd1 with its pleasant promise of protection against the arrow that flieth by day from a burning sun2 but only him can it make1 like ,jonah1 exceeding glad1 who knows not1 or makes a point of forgetting1 what a worm can do1 between a setting and a rising sun4 ,the night thoughts of man in general are one with the ,night ,thoughts of ,young in particular1 when he exclaims1 8,how sad a sight is human happiness ,to those whose thoughts can pierce beyond an hour6 --,know1 smiler6 at thy peril thou art pleased3 ,thy pleasure is the promise of thy pain40 ,this is the state of man1 by the experience of ,shakspeare's ,wolsey3 to-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hope2 to-morrow blossoms1 and bears his blushing honours thick upon him4 ,he is exceeding glad1 even as the prophet of his gourd2 but a worm is preparing1 or if not1 a frost2 and next day1 or at latest 8,the third day1 comes a frost1 a killing frost2 ,and1--when he thinks1 good easy man1 full surely ,his greatness is a ripening1--nips his root1 ,and then he falls40 ,the worm may speed in its mission1 or otherwise2 but the fulfilment of its mission is only a question of time4 ,there is a 444 8little rift within the lute1 ,that by-and-by will make the music mute1 ,and ever widening slowly silence all4 8,the little rift within the lover's lute ,or little pitted speck in garner'd fruit1 ,that1 rotting onward slowly moulders all40 ,slowly1 sometimes1 but surely4 ,not so slowly as surely4 ,remembering both the 8foolish pride0 of ,jonah in his gourd1 and his 8impious discontentment0 at the decree which smote it1 which of us but might1 for ourselves1 do worse than adopt the words and the spirit of one verse at least of ,pope's ,universal ,prayer1 8,save me alike from foolish pride ,and impious discontent ,at aught ,thy wisdom hath denied1 ,or aught ,thy bounty lent40 ,,self-,,praise4 ,,proverbs xxvii4 #b4 8,let another man praise thee1 and not thine own mouth2 a stranger1 and not thine own lips40 ,our ,english adage1 8,self-praise is no recommendation10 has its analogue in the ,latin3 ,laus in proprio ore sordescit--8,a man's own laudation of himself is unseemly40 ,another bit of good old ,latin admonition is1 to enlarge rather upon the praises of one's friends1 than upon one's own3 ,amicorum1 magis qum tuam ipsius laudem1 prdica2 which seems to be1 however1 but a literal transcript of the second line in a couplet from the ,greek ,anthology3 4 ,syrus1 again1 utters the caution1 8,that whoso praiseth himself will soon find some one to laugh at him0--,qui seipsum laudat1 cito derisorem inveniet4 ,it was sop's derisive counsel to an unreadable author1 who did all his own praising and puffing1 and therefore did it well--well1 at least1 in quantity1 if not in quality--to stick by all manner of means to that home-brewed system2 for it was the poor creature's only chance of ever tasting the sweets of praise at all4 8,ego1 quod te laudas1 vehementer probo1 ,namque hoc ab alio nunquam continget tibi40 ,in one of the wordy encounters between ,shakspeare's ,beatrice and ,benedick1 the lady imputes signal unwisdom to the signor1 when she tells him 8,there's not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself40 ,benedick scouts this as an old1 old apophthegm1 quite out of date2 for1 says he1 8if a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies1 he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings1 and the widow weeps40 ,and how long is that8 ,why1 an hour in clamour 7the bell71 and 7the widow7 a quarter in rheum4 ,therefore1 he infers1 8it is most expedient for the wise to be the trumpeter of his own virtues1 as ,i am to myself4 ,so much for praising myself 7who1 ,i myself will bear witness1 is praiseworthy740 ,shakspeare often expatiates1 with dramatic diversities of phase and aspect1 of character and incident1 upon this worldly-wise theme1 by the worldly-wise held worthy of all acceptation1 of every man his own trumpeter4 ,to a few examples out of these many we may recur anon4 ,swift is writing after his own humour when he says1 in the work he seems to have admired the most of his voluminous opera omnia1 but to which some refer as the distinct cause of his never getting a bishopric--8,that as for the liberty he has thought fit to take of praising himself upon some occasions or none1 he is sure it will need no excuse1 if a multitude of great examples be allowed sufficient authority2 for it is to be noted10 he goes on to say1 that praise was originally a pension paid by the world2 but the moderns1 finding the trouble and charge too great in collecting it1 8have lately bought out the fee simple2 since which time the right of presentation is wholly in ourselves40 ,but it is in the simpler states and stages of society1 according to a latter-day essayist on social subjects1 that the man who values himself highly has little scruple in confessing as much4 8,savages have no more reticence in parading their good points than peacocks40 ,north ,american ,indians1 and the like1 sublimely ignore any such courses of conduct as that1 ,not he that approveth himself is commended4 ,their faith and practice run counter to this kind of self-discipline4 ,chateaubriand gives an example of the style of chant in which a jubilant warrior1 ,sioux or ,iroquois1 proclaims his doughty prestige3--8,brave and renowned were my forefathers4 ,my grandsire was the wisdom of his tribe1 and the thunder of war4 ,my father was a pine-tree in strength4 ,my great-grandmother gave birth to five men of war2 my grandmother was alone worth a council of sachems2 my mother makes first-rate soup4 ,as for myself1 ,i am stronger and wiser than all my ancestors40 ,later ,americans1 not of the redskin family1 are charged with a scarcely inferior knack of extolling themselves in all the simplicity of an ignorance which knows nothing higher or better1 and with being frankly astonished at their own successes4 ,among them1 it is alleged by caustic ,cis-atlantic criticism1 nobody is thought the worse of for praising himself2 whereas among ourselves1 8the practice is out of date2 a man cannot here puff himself off with impunity--without in fact1 being taken for a fool2 and therefore1 if he have ordinary sagacity1 he will keep within bounds40 ,but not the less1 it is allowed1 must the thought of the heart find some outlet2 men draw wide distinctions between pride and vanity1 but both have at least this in common1 that they like to feel and be acknowledged 8first20 and both1 it is added1 8agree in the instinct to gain their end by a side-wind--to boast themselves by implication1 if circumstances will not permit the more agreeable incense of positive praise and adulation40 ,plutarch does not blame ,cato 7the elder7 for perpetually boasting and exalting himself1 although the old censor somewhere pronounces it absurd for a man either to praise or to disparage himself4 ,but ,plutarch does 8think the man who is often praising himself1 not so complete in virtue as the modest man1 who does not even want others to praise him40 ,he takes frequent note of the habit of self-commendation in some of his heroes1 and of the absence of it in others4 ,cato1 8who was never sparing in his own praises1 and thought boasting a natural attendant on great actions10 was nothing like so grievous an offender in this respect1 to ,plutarch's thinking1 as ,cicero1 whose writings1 says he1 8were so interlarded with encomiums on himself that1 although his style was elegant and delightful1 his discourses were disgusting and nauseous to the reader2 for the blemish stuck to him like an incurable disease40 ,comparing this greatest of ,roman orators with the greatest of the ,greek1 ,plutarch observes of their respective writings1 that ,demosthenes1 when he touches on his own praise does it with an inoffensive delicacy1 never1 indeed1 giving way to it at all unless he has some important matter in view2 whereas ,cicero1 habitually and systematically1 8speaks in such high terms of himself that it is plain he had a most intemperate vanity40 ,modern critics not a few1 ,german1 ,english1 and ,french1 have made the most--not to say made the best--of this foible of ,cicero's4 ,in particular1 ,mr4 de ,quincey makes merry over it1 without mercy1 at the father of his country's expense4 ,isaac ,barrow points the moral of the text which these heterogeneous annotations are meant to illustrate1 with a special warning against ,cicero's infirmity4 8,if a man have worthy qualities and do great deeds1 let them speak for him10 urges that masterly divine2 they will of themselves extort commendation2 his silence about them1 his seeming to neglect them1 will enhance their worth in the opinion of men4 8,prating about them1 obtruding them upon men1 will mar their credit1 inducing men to think them done1 not out of love to virtue1 but for a vain-glorious design4 ,thus did ,cicero1 thus have many others1 blasted the glory of their virtuous deeds40 ,it is quaintly said by ,owen ,feltham1 that whoso makes boast of the good he truly has1 obscures much of his own worth1 in drawing it up by so unseemly a bucket as his own tongue4 8,though the vaunts be true1 they do but awaken scoffs2 and instead of a clapping hand1 they find a look of scorn40 ,when a soldier bragged too much of a great scar in his forehead1 he was asked by ,augustus if he did not get it when he turned his back on the enemy4 ,so1 8,if ,i have done anything well0--this is one of ,feltham's 8,resolves10--8,i will never think it worth while to tell the world of it40 8,o sir1 to such as boasting show their scars1 ,a mock is due10 says ,shakspeare's ,troilus to ,ulysses--modest1 valiant ,trojan1 to shrewd1 circumspect ,greek4 ,so another ,trojan to another ,greek1 in the same play--which ,coleridge reckoned almost the most wonderful of ,shakspeare's all--neas1 namely1 to ,agamemnon2 or rather1 indeed1 neas to himself1 in ,agamemnon's hearing3-- 444 8,but peace1 neas1 ,peace ,trojan2 lay thy finger on thy lips6 ,the worthiness of praise disdains his worth1 ,if that the praised himself bring the praise forth3 ,but what the repining enemy commends1 ,that breath fame follows2 that praise1 sole pure1 transcends40 ,and in yet another scene1 ,agamemnon1 ,king of ,men1 pithily and pointedly tells that stalwart dullard--big1 blustering1 boisterous ,ajax--who1 for the life of him1 cannot see the pith or point of it1 that 8whatever praises itself but in the deed1 devours the deed in the praise40 ,ajax suspects not the general to mean that he1 son of ,telamon1 is his own praise1 his own chronicle4 ,one more excerpt from our myriad-minded poet3--8,then we wound our modesty1 and make foul the clearness of our deservings1 when of ourselves we publish them40 ,the wise saw drops from the sententious lips of the sage old steward of the ,countess of ,roussillon in what is probably as little read and slightly relished as any of ,shakspeare's plays4 99 99 99 99 99 ,years ago there used to perambulate the streets of ,london1 a prodigy of a hat1 some seven feet high1 the trade-mark advertisement of a hatter in the ,strand4 ,this gigantic puff ,mr4 ,carlyle once made the text for some characteristic strictures on the puffery of the age4 ,every man his own trumpeter3 that he alleged was1 to an alarming extent1 the accepted rule4 8,make loudest possible proclamation of your hat40 ,against which doctrine our strenuous censor morum objected1 that nature requires no man to make proclamation of his doings and hat-makings2 but1 on the contrary1 forbids all men to make such4 ,there is not1 he contends1 a man1 or hat-maker born into the world but feels1 or has felt1 that he is degrading himself if he speak of his excellences1 and prowesses1 and supremacy in his craft4 ,his inmost heart says to him1 8,leave thy friends to speak of these3 if possible1 thy enemies to speak of these2 but at all events1 thy friends40 ,,painted ,,face1 ,,tired ,,head1 ,,exposed ,,skull4 #b ,,kings ix4 #cj1 #ce4 ,jezebel's painting her face and tiring her head1 is so immediately followed1 in the narrative of her death and non-burial1 by there being found no more of her left than the skull1 besides the feet and the palms of the hands1 that the connection is grimly suggestive of certain stanzas in the 8,vision of ,sin30 8,you are bones1 and what of that8 ,every face1 however full1 ,padded round with flesh and fat1 ,is but modell'd on a skull4 8,death is king1 and ,vivat ,rex6 ,tread a measure on the stones1 ,madam--if ,i know your sex ,from the fashion of your bones40 ,byron muses on a skull#aj from among scattered heaps1 as now a shattered cell which even the worm disdains2 he ponders on its broken arch1 its ruined wall1 its chambers desolate1 and portals foul2 yet1 444 8this was once ,ambition's airy hall1 ,the dome of ,thought1 the palace of the ,soul3 ,behold through each lack-lustre1 eyeless hole1 ,the gay recess of ,wisdom and of ,wit ,and ,passion's host1 that never brook'd control40 ,it is ,yorick's skull that ,hamlet is apostrophizing when he says1 8,now get you to my lady's chamber1 and tell her1 let her paint an inch thick1 to this favour she must come40 ,tt ou tard1 as le bon rligieux in 8,atala0 reminds his fair young listener1 quelle qu'et t votre felicit1 ce beau visage se ft chang en cette figure uniforme que le spulcre donne la famille d',adam4 ,the good king ,rn had painted on the walls of one of the rooms in the ,celestine monastery at ,avignon1 a skeleton--it was that of a once surpassing beauty who had won his heart4 ,how would the moral have lost its point had the head of the skeleton been replaced1 like that in the painter's room in the ,strada ,vecchia of ,rome1 so graphically described in 8,dutch ,pictures10 by a mask1 or cardboard 8dummy0 of a superlatively inane cast of beauty--the blue eyes and symmetrical lips 7curved into an unmeaning and eternal simper71 the pink cheeks1 and silken doll's tresses1 8contrasting strangely with the terribly matter-of-fact bones and ligaments beneath--the moral to my lady's looking-glass40 ,gwillim1 the ,pursuivant1 as quoted1 not approvingly1 in ,southey's 8,doctor10 counsels all gentlewomen that are proud of their beauty to consider that they 8carry on their shoulders nothing but a skull wrapt in skin1 which one day will be loathsome to be looked on40 ,the old ,french poet ,villon1 aux charniers des ,innocents1 speculates in a manner that to one critic recalls the graveyard scene in 8,hamlet10 on the destiny of corps fminin1 qui tant est tendre1 poli1 suave1 gracieux--for how can he help his thoughts running thitherward 8quand il considre ces ttes entasses en ces charniers08 ,who1 indeed1 as ,keats once asked1 8,who hath not loiter'd in a green churchyard1 ,and let his spirit1 like a demon mole1 ,work through the clayey soil and gravel hard1 ,to see skull1 coffin'd bones1 and funeral stole2 ,pitying each form that hungry ,death has marr'd1 ,and filling it once more with human soul80 ,in such a spot ,blair lingers1 to apostrophize beauty1 as a pretty plaything1 a dear deceit1 which the grave discredits4 ,the charms expunged1 the roses faded1 and the lilies soiled1 what has beauty more to boast of8 ,will the lovers of it flock round it now1 to gaze and do it homage8 8,methinks ,i see thee with thy head low laid1 ,while1 surfeited upon thy damask cheek1 ,the high-fed worm1 in lazy volumes roll'd1 ,riots unscared4 ,for this was all thy caution8 ,for this thy painful labours at the glass1 ,t' improve those charms1 and keep them in repair1 ,for which the spoiler thanks thee not80 ,so that much less known1 but much more powerful1 writer1 ,thomas ,lovell ,beddoes1 muses in ,death's cabinet1 the ,campo ,santo of ,ferrara1 on the 8unfashionable worm10 respectless of1 alike1 the crown-illumined brow and the cheek's bewitchment1 as he creeps to his repast--on what8 8,no matter how clad or nicknamed it might strut above1 what age or sex1--it is his dinner-time40 ,the final residuum of such repasts becomes an unrecognisable skull1 about which some chance possessor of it shall1 in after days1 perhaps1 indulge in cynical conjectures and speculations in a tone and to a tune like this3 8,did she live yesterday1 or ages back8 ,what colour were the eyes when bright and waking8 ,and were your ringlets fair1 or brown1 or black1 ,poor little head6 that long has done with aching80 ,mercury1 in ,lucian's dialogue1 shows ,menippus the skulls of several world-famous beauties2 and the philosopher falls to moralizing upon that of ,helen4 8,was it for this10#aa he exclaims1 8that a thousand ships sailed from ,greece1 so many brave men died1 and so many cities were destroyed80 ,menippus was so far of the ,ralph ,nickleby type1 8not a man to be moved by a pretty face10 with a grinning skull beneath it3 men like him profess to look and work below the surface1 and so to see the skull1 and not its delicate covering4 ,where1 asks the author of 8,esmond10 are those jewels now that beamed under ,cleopatra's forehead1 or shone in the sockets of ,helen8 ,with ,mr4 ,thackeray in another place1 again1 we take the skull up1 and think of the glances that allured1 the tears that melted1 of the bright eyes that shone in those vacant sockets1 and cheeks dimpling with smiles that once covered that ghastly yellow framework4 8,they used to call those teeth pearls once4 ,see6 there's the cup she drank from1 the gold chain she wore on her neck1 the vase which held the rouge for her cheeks1 her looking-glass1 and the harp she used to dance to4 ,instead of a feast we find a gravestone1 and in place of a mistress1 a few bones40 ,and has not ,macaulay his 8,sermon in a ,churchyard08 wherein one practical improvement of the subject1 as conventional pulpiteers phrase it1 runs thus3-- 8,dost thou beneath the smile or frown ,of some vain woman bend thy knee8 ,here take thy stand1 and trample down ,things that were once as fair as she4 ,here rave of her ten thousand graces1 ,bosom1 and lip1 and eye1 and chin1 ,while1 as in scorn1 the fleshless faces ,of ,hamiltons and ,waldegraves grin40 ,,the ,,carcase ,,of ,,jezebel ,,on ,,the ,,face ,,of ,,the ,,field4 #b ,,kings ix4 #cg4 ,in the portion of ,jezreel--by a retributive local coincidence--were to lie the mangled remains of ,jezebel--what the dogs should leave of her4 8,and the carcase of ,jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of ,jezreel2 so that they shall not say1 ,this is ,jezebel40 ,this1 ,jezebel8 how could this be identified with the superb wife and superior of the king of ,israel1 as she was in her prime of life and pride of place8 or even with the faded form of her that1 newly a widow1 but energetic and manuvring to the last1 and defiant in her fall1 painted her face1 and tired her head1 and looked out at the window as ,jehu entered in at the gate8 ,imperious ,jezebel1 thrice puissant and insatiably presuming1 transformed into a heap of bone dust--reduced to her lowest terms as mere organic matter--resolved into just so much manure upon the face of the field4 8,imperious ,csar1 dead1 and turn'd to clay1 ,might stop a hole to keep the wind away3 ,o that the earth which kept the world in awe ,should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw40 ,so muses and speculates ,hamlet1 on the theme of 8to what base uses we may return1 ,horatio10 when his imagination traces the noble dust of ,alexander1 till he find it stopping a bunghole4 ',twere to consider too curiously to consider so1 ,horatio may object4 ,not a jot1 is ,hamlet's answer to the objection2 for look you1 ,alexander died1 was buried1 was resolved into dust2 the dust is earth2 of earth we make loam4 8,and why of that loam1 whereto he was converted1 might they not stop a beer barrel80 ,quod erat demonstrandum4 ,the ,prince of ,denmark was in the like mood when1 in other company1 he talked1 to the same purpose1 of how a man may fish with the worm#ab that hath eat of a king2 and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm4 ,well may ,juvenal bid the meditative moralist1 expende ,annibalem1 and expound the text that ,mors sola fatetur quantula sint hominum corpuscula4 ,but it needs a ,shakspeare to reduce these to their lowest terms1 in the style of ,hamlet with imperious ,csar1--a reductis ad absurdum indeed4 ,sydney ,smith somewhere girds at the idea of doctrinaire legislators making irrevocable laws for men who toss their remains about with spades1 8and use the relics of these legislators1 to give breadth to brocoli1 and to aid the vernal eruption of asparagus40 ,hawthorne once designed a symbolical tale of a young man being slain and buried in the flower garden of his betrothed1 and the earth levelled over him4 ,that particular spot1 which she happens to plant with some peculiar variety of flowers1 produces them of admirable splendour1 beauty1 and perfume2 and thus the classic fantasy is realized1 of dead people transformed to flowers4 ,sir ,thomas ,browne--how pregnant his hints are6--touches on ,mummy as having become merchandize3 ,mizraim curing wounds1 and ,pharaoh being sold for balsams4 ,the heroic dust1 as ,chateaubriand calls it1 of the heart of ,duguesclin1 stolen during the ,revolution1 was on the point of being pounded up by a glazier to mix his paints4 ,so again we read of the slaughtered hosts during the retreat from ,moscow3 8,some industrial companies have transported themselves into the desert with their furnaces and their caldrons2 the bones have been converted into animal black2 whether it come from the dog or from the man1 the varnish is equally valuable1 and is as brilliant when drawn from obscurity as from glory40 ,cornelia ,knight mentions a ,parmese canon1 who one day1 while the ,french were in occupation of ,piacenza1 found the church in possession of three surgeons1 or surgeons' mates1 of that army1 8busily skinning0 the dead body of a ,french soldier4 8,horrified at the sight1 he asked the meaning of this ghastly proceeding1 and was told that some scientific men had discovered that the human skin made excellent leather10 and that it had been therefore ordered that all dead bodies should be skinned1 for the purpose of providing boots and shoes for the soldiers4 ,ziska's skin-deep drum-destiny was at least a seeming nobler1 if not essentially a more useful one4 ,xenophon makes his pattern-prince desirous of having his body turned to beneficial uses after death1 by being incorporated with mother earth2 positively enjoining his sons not to enshrine it in gold or silver1 but to bury it in the ground as soon as the life was gone out of it4 ,little would trouble him the anticipated contingency of such a peut-tre as ,burns surmises1 in the case of a recently deceased acquaintance--like ,xenophon1 a sportsman to the core3-- 8,there low he lies1 in lasting rest2 ,perhaps1 upon his mould'ring breast ,some spitefu' moorfowl bigs her nest1 ,to hatch and breed40 ,cyrus1 like the essentially practical statesman in ,mrs4 ,gore's tale1 would presumably have detected no irony in ,hamlet's assignment of purpose to the ashes of imperious ,csar3 8,it seemed a relief to his mind that emperors1 when turned to clay1 could be turned to account40 ,no more objection to that1 than to such a circumstance as 8,the ,traveller0 deplores1 that 444 8in those domes where ,csar once bore sway1 ,defaced by time1 and tottering in decay1 ,there in the ruin1 heedless of the dead1 ,the shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed40 ,have we not heard ,liebig indignantly complain of our importing immense quantities of bones from abroad1 thereby draining the fair foreign fields of their very life-blood--scouring as we are said to do foreign battle-plains1 that the bony reliques of warriors who fought a good fight in their day1 may now be of further avail to make our bread8 ,an ,english satirist of ,german sentimentalism pictures a contemplative young ,teuton1 at dinner time1 pausing over his sauer kraut1 as he calls to mind that the churchyard wherein his ancestor was decently deposited1 has been converted into a kitchen garden2 and the conviction flashes upon him that what was a distinguished man is now on the table in the form of cabbage4 ,have we not1 again1 heard ,monseigneur ,dupanloup1 ,bishop of ,orleans1 indignantly brand1 as the outcome of current materialism1 such a 8practical suggestion0 as that of a certain ,m4 ,moleschott1 that1 in the interest of humanity1 8the honour of the dead should be abolished10 and all cemeteries desecrated after being used a twelvemonth1 that the bones contained in them may 8supply to plants the power of creating fresh men08 ,it is1 ,i think1 in one of ,mr4 ,dicey's letters from the ,east that mention is made of the writer's seeing at ,sakhara a half score of camels pacing down from the mummy pits to the bank of the river1 laden with nets in which were human bones1 some two hundredweight in each net on each side of the camel2 while among the pits were to be seen people busily engaged in searching out1 sifting1 and sorting the bones with which the ground is almost encrusted4 ,the cargoes were to be sent on to ,alexandria1 and thence shipped to manure manufacturers in ,england4 ,it is a strange fate1 as the tourist reflects1 to preserve one's skeleton for thousands of years in order that there may be fine ,southdowns and ,cheviots in a distant land2 and he stops to muse on the idea of a gigot that consists in great part of the dwellers in ,memphis4 ,that is a graphic picture the historian of the ,united ,netherlands paints1 of the artificial earthworks devised in extremity during the siege of ,ostend1 in #afjd1 when there was no earth left for the defenders to use1 nearly everything solid having been scooped away in the perpetual delving4 ,the very sea-dykes had been robbed of their material1 so that the coming winter might find besiegers and besieged all washed together into the ,german ,ocean1 and it was hard digging and grubbing among the scanty cellarages of the dilapidated houses4 ,but there were plenty of graves1 ,mr4 ,motley proceeds to relate2 and now1 not only were all the cemeteries within the precincts shovelled and carted in mass to the inner fortifications1 but rewards being offered of ten stivers for each dead body1 great heaps of disinterred soldiers were piled into the new ramparts4 8,thus these warriors1 after laying down their lives for the cause of freedom1 were made to do duty after death40 ,who1 exclaims ,owen ,feltham1 would have thought when ,scanderbeg was laid in his tomb1 that the ,turks would afterwards break into it1 and wear his bones for jewels8 ,but telle est la vie--or rather1 in such a connection1 la mort4 ,the ,rev4 ,john ,eagles1 avowing an inclination to join in ,shakspeare's anathema on the movers of bones1 adverts incidentally to the alleged fact of ,swift's larynx having been stolen1 and being now in possession of the purloiner in ,america1--of an itinerant phrenologist now hawking about ,pope's skull1--and of ,mathews's thigh-bone circulating from house to house4 ,coupling such corporeal vicissitudes post mortem with the text with which we started1 of ,jezebel's scattered remains on the face of the field1 we call to mind ,ben ,jonson's description 7only too historically true7 of the dispersed fragments of him that the other day had been virtually master of ,rome1 and so of the wide world4 ,contending hands have appropriated all that is left of him3 some have ravished an arm1 others a thigh2 this spoiler has the hands1 and that the feet2 8these fingers1 and these toes2 that hath his liver1 he his heart4444 8,the whole1 and all of what was great ,sejanus1 ,and1 next to ,csar1 did possess the world1 ,now torn and scatter'd1 as he needs no grave2 ,each little dust covers a little part2 ,so lies he nowhere1 and yet often buried40 8,,consider ,,the ,,lilies40 ,,st4 ,,matthew vi4 #bh4 ,vulgar utilitarianism--for there is a vulgar and shallow phase of it1 as well as a scientific and a misrepresented one--can surely find little to its fancy 7but then it has no fancy7 the invitation1 or monition1 even though uttered in the ,sermon on the ,mount1 of 8,consider the lilies40 ,why consider them1 it would fain object1 seeing that they toil not1 neither do they spin8 ,but that is the very reason for considering them4 ,they are clothed from above with surpassing beauty1 without taking thought for themselves2 so clothed1 not for utilitarian ends1 except in the large sense that the dulce too is utile1 that a thing of beauty is a joy for ever2 and that is undeniably to be of some 8use0 in the world4 ,herein lies the simple answer to the query in the laureate's poem1-- 8,oh1 to what uses shall we put the wildweed flower that simply blows8 ,and is there any moral shut within the bosom of the rose8 ,but any man that walks the mead1 in bud1 or blade1 or bloom1 may find1 ,according as his humours lead1 a meaning suited to his mind40 ,and liberal applications lie in art as nature4 ,the ,warwickshire justice tells ,shakspeare1 after hearing him recite his stanzas on a sweetbriar1 8,thou mightest have added some moral about life and beauty3 poets never handle roses without one40 ,but then ,justice ,shallow is the critic4 ,the author of the 8,citation and ,examination0 in which the criticism is uttered1 has an imaginary dialogue between ,vittoria ,colonna and ,michel ,angelo--the former of whom defines the difference betwixt poetry and all other arts1 all other kinds of composition1 to be this3 in them1 utility comes before delight2 in this1 delight before utility4 ,buonarotti submits that in some pleasing poems there is nothing whatsoever of the useful4 ,but ,vittoria thinks he is mistaken3 an obvious moral is indeed a heavy protuberance1 which injures the gracefulness of a poem2 but there is wisdom of one kind or other1 she alleges1 in every sentence of a really good composition1 and it produces its effect in various ways4 8,the beautiful in itself is useful by awakening our finer sensibilities1 which it must be our own fault if we do not often carry with us into action40 ,leigh ,hunt1 in his 8,song of the ,flowers10 makes them exult in the fact1 by their mere existence demonstrated1 that heaven loves colour2 that great ,nature clearly joys in red and green3 8,what sweet thoughts she thinks of violets1 and pinks1 and a thousand flashing hues1 made solely to be seen30 8,uselessness divinest ,of a use the finest ,painteth us1 the teachers of the end of use2 ,travellers weary eyed ,bless us far and wide2 ,unto sick and prison'd thoughts we give sudden truce2 ,not a poor town window ,loves its sickliest planting1 ,but its wall speaks loftier truth than ,babylon's whole vaunting40 ,so again ,mr4 ,procter apostrophizes ,nature in his 8,song of the ,snowdrop10 as having surely sent it forth alone to the cold and sullen season1 like a thought at random thrown1--8sent it thus for some grave reason4 8,if 'twere but to pierce the mind ,with a single gentle thought1 ,who shall deem thee hard or blind1 ,who1 that thou hast vainly wrought80 ,bishop ,copleston1 in his plea for a free cultivation of the poetic faculty1 contends that its being entirely neglected must prove an irreparable injury to young minds--losing as they do that intellectual charm from which life borrows its loveliest graces3 hence he takes exception to ,locke's expression1 that educators should beware of making 8anything a boy's business but downright virtue40 ,surely1 argues his critic1 the improvement of the faculties which ,god has implanted in us is itself a virtue3 our attention may be given in undue measure to one1 and so may violate that just harmony without which nothing is virtuous1 nothing lovely4 ,the faculty itself1 which the philosopher seems to condemn1 the divine claims to be one of the kindest gifts of heaven4 ,and why1 then1 it is asked1 should man be niggardly where ,providence has been bountiful8 8,why should he think scorn of that pleasant land1 and undervalue those fair possessions1 which were not thought beneath the care of the ,almighty80 ,in the garden of ,eden1 we are reminded1 was made to grow1 not only what was good for food1 but every tree also that was pleasant to the sight3 and in that garden man was placed1 to keep it1 and to dress it4 ,it is1 as ,isaac ,taylor remarks1 by her diversities1--her gay adornments1 her copious fund of forms1 and her sportive freaks of shape and colour1 that ,nature allures the eye of man1 while she draws him on toward the more arduous1 but more noble pursuit of her hidden analogies4 ,an insensible process goes on1 the effect of which is gradually to invest general truths with a sort of majesty1 as well as beauty2 so that1 at length1 this new charm is found to prevail over the graces and attractions of the exterior diversity of things4 ,even philosophy1 however1 has been said to teach us that nature scatters the lavish beauties of form and colour not always with a utilitarian purpose2 or rather1 that beauty--merely to display beauty--is often1 as in birds and flowers and shells and crystals1 the object of material organization4 8,there is no special use in the metallic lustre on the plumage of the humming-bird1 and tropical blossoms blaze for the mere sake of being splendid40 ,yet is it owned to be noticeable that only in the lower ranks of the kingdom of being is nature lavish of beauty for the mere sake of the beautiful2 and that as we advance upward in the scale of created things1 a certain severity and reserve seem to grow upon nature itself4 ,shenstone--a now all but forgotten poet--in a now quite forgotten ode1 asserts1 as in duty bound1 the uses beyond use of ,nature's fancy work3 8,search but the garden or the wood1 ,let yon admired carnation own ,not all was meant for raiment1 or for food1 ,not all for needful use alone2 ,there while the seeds of future blossoms dwell1 ',tis colour'd for the sight1 perfumed to please the smell4 8,why knows the nightingale to sing8 ,why flows the pine's nectareous juice8 ,why shines with paint the linnet's wing8 ,for sustenance alone8 for use8 ,for preservation80444 ,an art-poet significantly and suggestively writes1 in lines to which the contributory reader1 must1 on his part1 supply readings as it were between the lines3 8,this wild white rose-bud in my hand hath meanings meant for me alone1 ,which no one else can understand3 to you it breathes with altered tone2 ,how shall ,i class its properties for you8 or its wise whisperings ,interpret8 ,other eyes and ears it teaches many other things40 ,the dull of hearing and seeing1 it teaches very little4 ,josiah the curate1 in ,colonel ,hamley's tale1 finds nothing suggestive in a rose in a buttonhole--not that he lacks interest in the flower in what he thinks its proper place4 ,he never1 he owns1 could see any possible affinity between flowers and broadcloth2 and why people should pluck blossoms from the stems and leaves that harmonize so well with them1 to stick them into a dingy produce of the loom1 he holds to be one of the puzzles of humanity4 ,but ,josiah is indulgent to that sister ,rosa of his1 who confessedly resembles the lilies in so far that she toils not1 neither does she spin2 and who1 idle child1 seems to think human beings ought to be content with merely blooming4 ,we like our churches to be beautiful1 and our temples1 and our whole symbolic creations1 ,mr4 ,hannay somewhere observes2 their beauty represents the general beauty of the universe1 and that is one of the modes by which ,god is pleased to appeal to our faculties of love and wonder and admiration4 8,the ,romanists call the ,virgin ,mary a #8mystical rose1' and a beautiful woman is a mystical rose2 attractive1 and yet1 at the same time1 a religious symbol--an object which keeps alive in you the sense of wonder and love of beauty1 and thankfulness to the ,supreme for the glories of ,his creation40 ,it has been said by an art-poet already quoted1 that 8the girl who twines in her soft hair the orange-flower1 with love's devotion1 by the mere act of being fair1 sets countless laws of life in motion40 ,dr4 ,croly1 in his 8,salathiel10 pleading for the right of beauty to have a natural power over the heart1 urges1 for instance1 that all that overcomes selfishness--the besetting sin of the world--is an instrument of good2 and goes on to say that beauty is but melody of a higher kind--both alike softening the troubled and hard nature of man4 8,even if we looked on a lovely woman but as on a rose1 an exquisite production of the summer hours of life1 it would be idle to deny her influence in making even those summer hours sweeter40 ,we may apply the suggestion in one of ,mrs4 ,browning's last poems-- 8,what if ,god has set her here ,less for action than for ,being8-- ,for the eye and for the ear4 8,just to show what beauty may1 ,just to prove what music can40 ,a ,,histrionic ,,aspect ,,of ,,life4 #a ,,corinthians vii4 #ca4 ,the apostle would have his brethren so to use this world1 as not abusing it2 and for this reason1 that 8the fashion of this world passeth away40 ,in the original the phrase runs3 4 ,the expression is said by ,grotius and others to be borrowed from the theatre1 and to refer to the scene-shifting of the stage4 ,life here below has verily its histrionic aspects2 the fashion of it passeth away much as do the scene-painter's creations1 the stage-carpenter's framework1 the spectacular effects and dissolving views1 nay the very actors themselves4 ,for1 all the world is in some sense a stage1 and all the men and women merely players-- 8,they have their exits and their entrances2 ,and one man in his time plays many parts1 ,his acts being seven ages40 ,considering his own profession1 the figure is one that must often have crossed and occupied ,shakspeare's mind--at once so keenly observing and so profoundly meditative4 ,not that he harps much upon it1 so much as might1 perhaps1 have been expected1 in his plays4 ,still he does now and then recur to the histrionic metaphor4 ,and it is in his graver mood1 not his lighter1 that he does so2 in sober sadness1 not with gibing glee4 ,as where ,lear1 in the extremity of his distraction1 intent on preaching to ,gloster1 takes for his text the wail of infancy1 crying1 the first time that it smells the air3 for 8,when we are born1 we cry1 that we are come ,to this great stage of fools40 ,or again1 as where ,antonio1 the care-fraught merchant of ,venice1 assured by a friend that he is looking far from well1 indeed 8marvellously changed10 and remonstrated with for not taking life more easily1 replies3 8,i hold the world but as the world1 ,gratiano1 ,a stage where every man must play a part1 ,and mine a sad one40 ,mundus universus exercet histrioniam1--the saw is ,petronius ,arbiter's4 ,there is an obverse reading1 by some other old ,eminent ,hand3 ,totum mundum agit histrio4 ,if all the world's a play1 so again there's not in all the world a character the player won't act4 ,lucretius had the stage simile of life in his mind's eye1 when he said of those who hide certain of their doings1 vit post-scenia celant1--the post-scenium being what we call 8behind the scenes10 where the actors dress and 8make up0 for their parts4 ,and what says a distich in the ,greek ,anthology3 8 1 1 1 40 8,life is a stage1 a play3 so learn thy part1 ,all cares removed1 or rend with grief thy heart40 ,sir ,thomas ,browne professes1 in his large utterance and stately style3 8,the world to me is but a dream or mock show1 and we all therein but pantaloons and anticks1 to my severer contemplations40 ,to the same effect1 though not in the same spirit1 ,wordsworth's recluse avows himself tired 8,of the ostentatious world a swelling stage ,with empty actions and vain passions stuffed40 ,when both ,swift and ,bolingbroke had closed the tenth lustre of their years1 his cynical lordship wrote from ,brussels to the cynical dean1 that he thought it high time to determine how they should 8play the last act of the farce4 ,might not my life10 adds accomplished ,st4 ,john1 8be entitled much more properly a what-d'ye-call-it than a farce8 ,some comedy1 a great deal of tragedy1 and the whole interspersed with scenes of ,harlequin1 ,scaramouch1 and ,dr4 ,baloardo40 ,accomplished ,st4 ,john was always1 and to the last an accomplished actor4 ,as for ,dr4 ,swift1 he expanded the histrionic similitude of life into some eighteen stanzas on the puppet show--which record how wit1 8the life of man to represent1 and turn it all to ridicule1 did once a puppet show invent1 where the chief actor is a fool0--and of which1 perhaps1 the gravest runs thus3 8,this fleeting scene is but a stage ,where various images appear2 ,in different parts of youth and age1 ,alike the prince and peasant share40 ,don ,quixote tells ,sancho ,panza how like human life is to a play4 ,one takes the part of a ruffian1 another of a liar1 a third of a merchant1 a fourth of a soldier4 ,this man is for the occasion the lover2 that man is the judicious friend4 ,at last the play is ended4 ,each takes off the clothes which belong to his part1 and the players remain equal4 ,so it is in the comedy of this world1 says ,don ,quixote4 ,there are emperors and popes1 and all the characters that can be introduced into a play2 but it is played out1 death takes away the outward trappings which made them seem to differ1 and they remain equal in the tomb4 ,where1 is the author of the ,complaint's complaining query1 or querulous plaint1 8,where1 the prime actors of the last year's scene2 ,their port so proud1 their buskin1 and their plume80 ,it is a trite topic1 indeed1 with ,dr4 ,young1--that of 8,life's gay stage1 one inch above the grave10 whereon those strut and fret their hour1 that shall soon be seen no more for ever4 ,all1 merely players4 8,each1 in his turn1 some tragic story tells1 ,with now and then a wretched farce between40 ,dr4 ,maginn takes note of the frequency with which ,lucian compares life to a theatrical procession1 in which magnificent parts are assigned to some1 who pass before the eyes of the spectators clothed in costly garments1 and bedecked with glittering jewels2 but1 the moment the show is over1 are reduced to their original nothingness1 no longer kings and heroes1 but poor players whose hour has been strutted out4 ,no wonder that the master ,showman of ,vanity ,fair should pen an envoi after this fashion3 8,the play is done2 the curtain drops1 ,slow falling to the prompter's bell3 ,a moment yet the actor stops1 ,and looks around1 to say farewell4 ,it is an irksome word and task2 ,and when he's laughed and said his say1 ,he shows1 as he removes the mask1 ,a face that's anything but gay40 ,horace ,walpole will be found iterating and reiterating in his letters a favourite apophthegm of his--that the world is a comedy to those who think1 a tragedy to those who feel4 ,one might safely assume beforehand that a people of so histrionic a turn as the ,french would make good use of the histrionic metaphor of life1 in their belles lettres1 of whatever date4 ,and in point of fact the figure is a well-worked one in ,french literature4 ,now it is a ,cardinal de ,retz1 who1 on being named coadjutor to his uncle1 the ,archbishop of ,paris1 describes himself as thereupon ceasing to be 8in the pit1 or at best in the orchestra1 playing and funning with the fiddles10 but mounting thence to the stage itself4 ,indeed1 a modern critic has remarked that ,retz is perpetually making use of these expressions and images of thtre and comdie4 ,he was an accomplished actor from first to last--not above the line of low comedy now and then1 and quite an adept in the ,cloak-and-,sword business4 ,now again it is his contemporary1 ,madame de ,motteville1 who so frequently represents herself as an occupant of one of the best boxes1 intent on diverting herself with the belle comdie that was being played under her eyes4 8,les cabinets des rois10 says ,madame--who ought to know--are theatres in which pieces of universal interest are for ever being played3 some simply comic2 others decidedly tragical1 though so frequently occasioned by the merest trifles4 ,so1 again1 ,madame des ,ursins 7the ,princess ,orsino71 another habitue behind the scenes1 and herself a star of the first magnitude in any working company1 describes the world as une comdie o il y avait souvent de bien mauvais acteurs4 ,then1 too1 we have the ,abb ,chaulieu1 when dancing attendance on the ,duke of ,vendme1 and assisting at all the ftes and galas got up in that prince's honour1 writing in a sort of apologetic strain to his sister-in-law1 that since all the world's a stage1 one must just be content to don cap and bells with the rest#ac--;for if all your men and women are merely players1 motley's your only wear4 ,of another spirituel1 and very unspiritual1 abb of that period1 ,choisy1 it has been observed1 that his life resembled a comedy1 rife with all that is most various and most improbable3 his career of fourscore years composed a complete masquerade2 for 8this man in his time play'd many parts10 and in each of them he seems to have acted with professional aptitude1 facility1 and zest4 ,such another actor1 with a difference1 was ,voltaire4 ,as ,voltaire himself said of the ,duchess of ,maine1 8,elle aimera la comdie jusqu'au dernier moment1 et1 quand elle sera malade1 je vous conseille de lui administrer quelque belle pice10 etc41 etc41--so of the mocking philosopher of ,ferney1 playing his many parts1 it has been said1 that he had a genius for transformations1 having always more than one rle to play in the comedy of life--which diversity of rles jumped with his humour1 and just hit the mobile preferences of a man who so early in his existence turned player4 ,the life of ,voltaire is a comedy1 says ,sainte-,beuve3 his correspondence with ,d',alembert shows us the coulisses and background--and lets us in to damaging and disenchanting revelations behind the scenes4 ,elsewhere he may be seen to fret and strut his hour upon the stage1 carefully made up1 and all in point device costume2 but here we have him in undress1 and by dusty daylight1 and off his guard4 ,tous les comdiens ne sont pas du thtre1 is rightly reckoned one of the prettiest provrbes of ,m4 ,thodore ,leclerc4 ,in the ,proverbe which bears that pregnant title1 a nephew incidentally tells his uncle1 8,vous qui tes un homme du monde1 vous appelez cela l'esprit du monde2 moi qui suis un comdien1 j'appelle cela de la comdie4 ,c'est toujours la mme chose1 sous un nom diffrent40 ,the salon and the stage are on a level4 ,to be a real man of the world1 is to be an actor of the first class4 ,m4 ,scribe puts the proverb as a practical epigram into the mouth of old ,michonnet1 when trying to soothe and inspirit his pet pupil for the stage3 8,calme toi et tudie2 444 il y a dans le monde de plus grands comdiens que nous60 ,indeed1 according to ,chamfort1 there is no choice in the matter2 every man1 however wise and unsophisticated and open-hearted1 must1 sooner or later1 turn actor1 on this great stage of fools4 ,for1 8la fortune et le costume qui l'entourent font de la vie une reprsentation au milieu de laquelle il faut qu' la longue l'homme le plus honnte devienne comdien malgr lui40 ,we are all actors and actresses1 says one of ,miss ,eden's characters1 and 8none of us quite up to our parts1 though we act all day long40 ,not that every one plays just the part he or she would have chosen4 ,the distribution of rles would seem often to make this a mad world1 my masters4 8,le monde1 mon avis1 est comme un grand thtre1 ,o chacun en public1 l'un par l'autre abus1 ,souvent ce qu'il est1 joue un rle oppos40 ,this1 one might almost paraphrase in the words of ,john ,webster's wobegone ,duchess ,mariana3 8,i account this world a tedious theatre1 ,for ,i do play a part in't 'gainst my will40 ,by way of introducing his elaborate narrative of ,darnley's fate1 ,mr4 ,froude tells us of ,mary ,stuart1 that on the political stage she was 8a great actress4 ,the #8woman' had a drama of her own going on behind the scenes2 the theatre caught fire2 the mock heroics of the ,catholic crusade burnt into ashes2 and a tremendous domestic tragedy was revealed before the astonished eyes of ,europe40 ,and later again1 describing ,mary's caressing wiles to beguile and tranquilise her doomed husband1 on the eve of the catastrophe1 the same historian employs the same histrionic figure3 8,mary ,stuart was an admirable actress2 rarely1 perhaps1 on the world's stage has there been a more skilful player40 ,but the part1 he adds1 was a difficult one2 she had still some natural compunction2 and the performance was not quite perfect4 ,most of our business is farce1 writes old ,montaigne3 ,mundus universus exercet histrioniam 7which the old ,french essayist's old ,english translator renders1 8,all the world's a stage1 and all the men and women merely players074 ,we must play our part well1 he adds1 but withal as the part of a borrowed personage2 we must not make a real essence of a mask and outward appearance1 etc4 ,so it is one of ,ben ,jonson's 8,discoveries10 8de vit human10 that our whole life is like a play--wherein every man1 forgetful of himself1 is in travail with expression of another4 ,in one of his comedies1 rare ,ben makes a sham inn-keeper1 taking his ease in his own inn1 and following his own fancies there1 8imagine all the world's a play3-- 8,the state1 and men's affairs1 all passages ,of life1 to spring new scenes2 come in1 go out1 ,and shift1 and vanish4444 ,i have got ,a seat to sit at ease here1 in mine inn1 ,to see the comedy2 and laugh1 and chuck ,at the variety and throng of humours ,and dispositions1 that come justling in ,and out still1 as they one drove hence another40 ,for every man1 in the play of this world1 says pious ,master ,feltham1 is not only an actor1 but is a spectator1 too3 8,at the beginning 7that is1 in his youth7 it promises so much that he is loth to leave it2 when it grows towards the middle 7the act of virility71 then he sees the scenes grow thick1 and fill1 and would gladly understand the end3 but1 when that draws near1 and he finds what it will be1 he is then content to depart and leave his room to others40 ,fielding's philosopher asks if the actor is esteemed happier to whose lot it falls to play the principal part1 than he who plays the lowest8 and yet the drama may run twenty nights together1 and so outlast our lives2 but at the best1 says he1 8life is only a little longer drama2 and the business of the great stage is consequently a little more serious than that which is performed at the theatre-royal40 8,if the world be1 indeed1 as 'twas said1 but a stage1 ,the dress only is changed 'twixt the acts of an age4 ,from the dark tiring-chamber behind straight reissue ,with new masks the old mummers2 the very same tissue ,of passionate antics that move through the play1 ,with new parts to fulfil and new phrases to say40 ,an old ,greek writer1 speaking of ,alexander of ,pher1 who reigned in ,thessaly only ten months1 and then was slain1 calls him1 in derision of his brief lease of power1 a theatrical tyrant1 a mere stage king1 who1 as it were1 walked on only to walk off again4 ,but the palace of the ,csars1 ,plutarch remarks1 received four emperors in a less space of time1 one entering1 and another making his exit1 as if to fret and strut each his little hour upon the stage4 ,how soon the stage directions1 ,enter ,galba1 enter and exit ,otho1 enter and exit ,vitellius1 lapse in ,exeunt omnes6 ,in ,charles the ,sixth's ordinance1 authorising the players of the 8,mysteries of the ,passion0 7towards the close of the fourteenth century71 that poor crazed monarch' styles them his 8loved and dear co-mates40 ,and what could be juster8 ,michelet asks4 8,a hapless actor himself1 a poor player in the grand historic mystery1 he went to see his co-mates'--saints1 angels1 and devils1 perform their miserable travestie of the ,passion4 ,he was not only spectator2 he was spectacle as well4 ,his people went to see in him the ,passion of royalty40 ,players1 the abstract and brief chronicles of the time1 ,hazlitt calls the motley representatives of human nature4 ,they are the only honest hypocrites1 he says 7and hypocrite1 by the way1 is classically a correct name for them1 though ,hazlitt may not have remembered or meant it73 their life is a voluntary dream1 a studied madness--it being the height of their ambition to be 8beside themselves30--to-day kings1 to-morrow beggars1 it is only when they are themselves that they are nothing3 made up of mimic laughter and tears1 they wear the livery of other men's fortunes1 till their very thoughts are not their own4 8,they are1 as it were1 train-bearers in the pageant of life1 and hold a glass up to humanity1 frailer than itself4 ,we see ourselves at second-hand in them4444 ,the stage is an epitome1 a bettered likeness of the world1 with the dull part left out3 and indeed1 with this omission1 it is nearly big enough to hold all the rest40 ,sir ,thomas ,overbury had1 two centuries before1 written characteristically to the same purport4 8,all men have beene of his occupation10 writes the ill-starred knight of a good actor2 8and indeed1 what hee doth fainedly1 that doe others essentially3 this day one plays a monarch1 the next a private person4 ,here one acts a tyrant1 on the morrow an exile3 a parasite this man to-night1 to-morrow a precisian10 and so of divers others4 8,and why not players strut in courtiers' clothes8 ,for these are actors1 too1 as well as those40 ,or1 to top 7,pope7 ,alexander the ,great with ,glorious ,john 7,dryden73 8,even kings but play1 and when their part is done1 ,some other1 worse or better1 mount the throne40 ,as we cannot be monarchs1 says the ,porpora of fiction1 we are artists1 and have a kingdom of our own3 we dress ourselves as kings and great men1 we ascend the stage1 we seat ourselves upon a fictitious throne1 we play a farce1 we are actors4 ,the world1 he continues1 sees us1 but understands us not4 8,it is only when ,i am at the theatre that ,i see clearly our true relations to society4 ,the spirit of music unseals my eyes1 and ,i see behind the footlights a true court1 real heroes1 lofty inspirations2 while the wretched dolts who flaunt in the boxes upon velvet couches are the real actors4 ,in truth1 the world is a comedy2 and we must play our parts in it with gravity and decorum1 though conscious of the hollow pageant which compasses us on every side40 ,and ,godolphin pronounces life to differ from the play only in this--that it has no plot1 all being vague1 desultory1 unconnected1 till the curtain drops with the mystery unsolved4 ,all this is in ,mr4 ,carlyle's vein--of the ,sartor ,resartus date at least2 or as when he depicted the family vagaries of ,mirabeaudom1 which produced 8such astonishing comico-tragical ,french farces0--with the eight chaotic volumes of family correspondence1 wherein the various personages speak their dialogue1 unfold their farce-tragedy3 8,seen or half seen1 it is a stage2 as the whole world is4 ,what with personages1 what with destinies1 no stranger house-drama than that of the ,mirabeau family was enacting on the earth at that time40 ,the same figure ,mr4 ,carlyle elsewhere applies to our own revolution times1 in the century before3 8,such is the drama of life1 seen in ,baillie of ,kilwinning2 a thing of multifarious tragic and epic meanings1 then as now4 ,a many-voiced tragedy and epos1 yet with broad-based comic and grotesque accompaniments1 done by actors not in buskins2--ever replete with elements of guilt and remorse1 of pity1 instruction1 and fear40 99 99 99 99 99 ,,act ,,well ,,your ,,part3--there all the moral lies4 ,though the world be histrionical1 and most men live ironically1 says ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 8yet be thou what thou singly art1 and personate only thyself40 ,it has been sadly and severely said of the ,emperor ,augustus1 who was loved by no one1 that if1 at the moment of his death1 he desired his friends to dismiss him from this world by the common expression of scenical applause 7vos plaudite671 in that valedictory injunction he expressed inadvertently the true value of his own long life1 which1 in strict candour1 may be pronounced one continued series of histrionic efforts1 and of excellent acting1 adapted to selfish ends4 ,l'honnte homme1 writes an epigrammatic thinker1 joue son rle le mieux qu'il peut sans songer la galerie4 ,remember1 says ,epictetus1 so to act your part upon this stage as to be approved by the master1 whether it be a short or a long one that he has given you to perform4 ,if he will have you to represent a beggar1 endeavour to act the beggar's part well2 and so1 a cripple1 a prince1 or a plebeian4 ,it is your part to perform well what you represent3 it is his to choose what that shall be4 ,thus spake the stoic philosopher4 ,and how speaks the ,christian divine8 ,as the merit of an actor1 says ,robert ,hall1 is not estimated by the part which he performs1 but solely by the truth and propriety of his representation1 and the peasant is often applauded where the monarch is hissed2 so when the great drama of life is concluded1 ,he who allots its scenes and determines its period will take an account of ,his servants1 and assign to each his due1 in his own proper character4 ,since the life of man is likened to a scene1 8,i had rather10 writes ,john ,milton1 8that all my entrances and exits might mix with such persons only whose worth erects them and their actions to a grave and tragic deportment1 and not to have to do with clowns and vices40 ,and this1 lest such a player have to echo1 in spirit1 if not to the letter1 the bitter conviction of blinded1 blundering ,leontes--,io anche-- 8,and ,i ,play too2 but so disgraced a part1 whose issue ,will hiss me to my grave40 ,the measure of a happy life1 writes ,lord ,shaftesbury--he of the 8,characteristics0--is not from the fewer or more suns we behold1 the fewer or more breaths we draw1 or meals we repeat2 but from the having once lived well1 acted our part handsomely1 and made our exit cheerfully--or1 to print it as he wrote it1 for the lovers of old books' sake--8and made our ,exit cheerfully1 and as became us40 ,it is well remarked by ,archbishop ,trench that we have forfeited the full force of the statement1 8,god is no respecter of persons10 from the fact that 8person0 does not mean for us now all that it once meant4 8,person10 from 8persona10 the mask constantly worn by the actor of antiquity1 is by natural transfer the part or rle in the play which each sustains1 as is in ,greek4 8,in the great tragi-comedy of life each sustains a #8person2' one that of a king1 another that of a hind2 one must play ,dives1 another ,lazarus4 ,this #8person' ,god1 for whom the question is not what #8person' each sustains1 but how he sustains it1 does not regard40 ,,pharaoh',s ,,alternations ,,of ,,amendment ,,and ,,relapse4 ,,exodus vii4-x41 passim4 ,his land of ,egypt covered with frogs1 ,pharaoh was urgent with ,moses and ,aaron to 8intreat the ,lord0 for him1 and with conciliatory proposals in favour of the children of ,israel4 ,the plague of the frogs abated accordingly1 ,pharaoh hardened his heart as soon as he saw that there was respite4 ,so with the plague of flies that came in grievous swarms into the house of ,pharaoh1 and into his servants' houses1 and into all the land of ,egypt1 so that the land was corrupted by reason of the flies2 again ,pharaoh besought ,hebrew intercession1 and pledged himself to acts of clemency2 and again no sooner was the plague removed1 than ,pharaoh hardened his heart at that time also1 neither would he let the people go4 ,plague after plague ensued--the murrain of beasts1 the plague of boils and blains1 and the plague of hail and fire2 and so grievous was the last--smiting all that was in the field1 both man and beast1 as well as every herb and tree--that ,pharaoh once more importuned ,moses and ,aaron1 confessing his sins1 imploring forgiveness1 and promising amendment4 ,once and again he was heard and answered4 8,and when ,pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased1 he sinned yet more1 and hardened his heart 444 neither would he let the children of ,israel go40 ,the plague of locusts1 destroying all that the hail had left1 made him call for the ,hebrew brothers again in hottest haste1--entreating forgiveness 8only this once10 and deliverance 8from this death only40 ,but the mighty west wind that swept away the ravagers had no sooner ceased to blow1 than the hardening process again set in1 and the tyrant revelled as of yore in his accustomed tyranny4 ,how many more plagues might have been added to the ten--decade upon decade--with the like result1 each facile amendment merging in a more and more facile relapse1 it is superfluous to guess4 ,we read in ,homer1 as versified by ,pope1 that-- 8,the weakest atheist-wretch all heaven defies1 ,but shrinks and shudders when the thunder flies40 ,so ,boileau satirises the 8intrepid0 scoffer1 who puts off believing in ,god until fever prostrates him2 who is almost as quick as the lightning to lift up his hands to heaven when the lightning glares across it1 but laughs at poor feeble humanity as soon as the atmosphere is cleared and the storm quite spent3 8,attend pour croire en ,dieu que la fivre le presse2 ,et1 toujours dans l'orage au ciel levant les mains1 ,ds que l'air est calm1 rit des faibles humains40 ,lady ,mary ,wortley ,montagu describes in one of her vivacious letters a stormy passage she has just made from ,calais to ,dover1 and diverts herself not a little1 as her ladyship's manner is1 at the distress of a fellow-passenger1 in alternations of anxiety as to being lost herself and losing her smuggled head-dress4 8,she was an ,english lady that ,i had met at ,calais1 who desired me to let her go over with me in my cabin4 ,she had brought a fine point-head1 which she was contriving to conceal from the custom-house officers4 ,when the wind grew high1 and our little vessel cracked1 she fell very heartily to her prayers1 and thought wholly of her soul4 ,when it seemed to abate1 she returned to the worldly care of her head-dress20 and the alternative exclamations of the distracted creature are liberally specified by ,lady ,mary2 who then adds3 8,this easy transition from her soul to her head-dress1 and the alternate agonies that both gave her1 made it hard to determine which she thought of greatest value40 ,lord ,lytton1 in one of his fictions1 comments on the instinct1 as he calls it1 of that capricious and fluctuating conscience1 belonging to weak minds1 8which remains still and drooping and lifeless as a flag on a mast-head during the calm of prosperity1 but flutters and flaps and tosses when the wind blows and the wave heaves40 ,and an example to the purpose is given in the case of a selfish uncle1 whose orphan nephews are all but coldly discarded until his own son is in extremis4 8,mr4 ,beaufort 444 thought very acutely and remorsefully of the condition of the ,mortons1 during the danger of his own son4 ,so far indeed from his anxiety for ,arthur monopolising his care1 it only sharpened his charity towards the orphans2 for many a man becomes devout and good when he fancies he has an immediate interest in appeasing ,providence40 ,such a man1 in such a case1 becomes at any rate lavish of promises1 which perhaps at the moment he even intends to keep4 ,but how are promises of this kind usually kept8 ,much after the manner predicated of ,bajazet1 by ,acomat1 in the ,french tragedy2 a vaguely worded intimation1 but definite enough in its scope3 only let the pressure that extorts the promise be withdrawn1 and gone will be the value of the promise too3 8,promettez3 affranchi du pril qui vous presse1 ,vous verrez de quel poids sera votre promesse40 ,pope would consign such trifles light as air to the lunar sphere1 8,where broken vows and death-bed alms are found1 ,and lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound1 ,the courtier's promises1 the sick man's prayers40 ,why do these last make so slight an impression on by-standers8 ,mr4 ,whitehead says because it is not a living but a dying man that speaks2 and a dying man who wants to live4 8,it is fear that cries out in agony1 not penitence that prays40 ,fielding1 in his masterpiece1 moralises on the truism that be men ever so much alarmed and frightened when apprehending themselves in danger of dying1 yet no sooner are they cleared from this apprehension1 than even the fears of it are erased from their minds4 ,it is much later in the same story1 that the 8hero's0 avowed resolution1 at a crisis in his fortunes1 to sin no more1 lest a worse thing happen unto him1 is ridiculed by a cynical acquaintance1 as the effect merely of low spirits1 and confinement--with the quotation of 8some witticisms about the devil when he was sick40 ,the epigram in question is a favourite allusion with novelists and moralists of all sorts and sizes4 ,there is a border freebooter of ,scott's1 who1 having recovered from a severe illness1 thanks to the medical skill of the ,black ,dwarf1 greets his benefactor1 on horseback1 all in bandit array1 as soon as convalescent4 8,so10 said the dwarf1 8rapine and murder once more on horseback60 8,on horseback80 said the bandit2 8ay1 ay1 ,elshie1 your leech-craft has set me on the bonnie bay again40 8,and all those promises of amendment which you made during your illness forgotten80 continued ,elshender4 8,all clear away1 with the water-saps and panada10 returned the unabashed convalescent4 8,ye ken1 ,elshie1 for they say ye are weel acquent wi' the gentleman1 8#8,when the devil was sick1 the devil a monk would be2 ,when the devil was well1 the devil a monk was he4'0 ,for it is not every vow taken in a panic1 to become a monk if spared1 that is kept as ,luther's was--8devil0 though the anti-,lutherans of his day might account and call him4 ,young ,martin saw one of his friends struck dead by his side1 by a stroke of lightning1 in #aeje2 and the sight moved him to utter on the instant a vow to ,st4 ,anne that he would become a monk if he were himself spared4 8,the danger passed over1 but he did not seek to elude an engagement wrung from him in terror4 ,he solicited no dispensation from his vow40 ,brother ,martin ipso facto approved himself no member of the fraternity of what ,le ,sage calls vous autres1 messieurs les diables1 in a passage that indirectly bears upon our theme1 for it refers to the proverbial worthlessness of promises coming from that quarter3 8,voil de belles promesses1 rpliqua l',ecolier2 mais vous autres1 messieurs les diables1 on vous accuse de n'tre pas fort rligieux tenir ce que vous promettez40 ,the epigram runs1 if not rhymes1 as well in ,latin as in ,english3 8grotat dmon1 monachus tunc esse volebat2 ,dmon convaluit1 dmon ut ante fuit40 ,referring to proverbs of this kind it is that ,archbishop ,trench says1 that sometimes an adage1 without changing its shape altogether1 will yet on the lips of different nations be slightly modified--the modifications1 slight as they often are1 being not the less eminently characteristic4 8,thus in ,english we say1 ,the river past1 and ,god forgotten1 to express with how mournful a frequency ,he whose assistance was invoked1 it may have been earnestly1 in the moment of peril1 is remembered no more1 so soon as by ,his help the danger has been surmounted4 ,the ,spaniards have the proverb too2 but it is with them3 ,the river past1 the saint forgotten3 the saints being in ,spain more prominent objects of invocation than ,god4 ,and the ,italian form of it sounds a still sadder depth of ingratitude3 ,the peril passed1 the saint mocked40 ,men indulge in doubts of a ,supreme ,being1 says ,la ,bruyre1 when they are lusty and strong2 but with sickness comes belief1 such as it is4 8,l'on doute de ,dieu dans une pleine sant4444 ,quand on devient malade1 et que l'hydropisie est forme 444 l'on croit en ,dieu40 ,believes8 ,as to that1 the devils believe1 and tremble4 ,but how when the dropsy is relieved and the trembling fit over8 ,dr4 ,johnson once adverted in conversation with ,seward and ,boswell to the evil life he led until sickness wrought a reformation1 which1 in his case1 had been lasting4 ,mr4 ,seward thereupon observed3 8,one should think that sickness1 and the view of death1 would make more men religious40 ,but ,johnson replied to this3 8,sir1 they do not know how to go about it2 they have not the first notion4 ,a man who has never had religion before1 no more grows religious when he is sick than a man who has never learnt figures can count when he has need of calculation40#ad ,it is to be observed that the doctor claimed for himself a previous regard for religion in quite early life2 for some years it had1 to use his own phrase1 8dropped out of his mind10 but 8sickness brought it back10 and he hoped he had never lost it since4 ,it is an old1 old story1 that of the generation which tempted ,god in the desert1 whose days ,he therefore consumed in vanity1 and their years in trouble4 ,when ,he slew them1 then they sought ,him2 and they returned1 and inquired early after ,god4 ,but it was only to start aside again1 like a broken bow4 8,tamen ad mores natura recurrit ,damnatos1 fixa et mutari nescia40 8,when men in health against physicians rail10 says ,crabbe1 8,they should consider that their nerves may fail2 ,nay1 when the world can nothing more produce1 ,the priest1 the insulted priest1 may have his use40 ,there is a passage in ,montesquieu's ,persian ,letters that reads like a paraphrase and expansion of this3 8,quand le mdecin est auprs de mon lit1 le confesseur me trouve son avantage4 ,je sais bien empcher la religion de m'affliger quand je me porte bien2 mais je lui permets de me consoler quand je suis malade3 lorsque je n'ai plus rien esprer d'un ct1 la religion se prsente1 et me gagne10 etc4 ,plutarch tells us of ,tullus ,hostilius1 that he exulted in irreligious opinions while in health1 but was frightened into superstition when taken ill4 ,to this passage1 one of ,plutarch's translators1 ,dr4 ,langhorne1 appends a footnote1 about none being so superstitious in distress as those who1 in their prosperity1 have laughed at religion2 and cites as an instance the famous ,canon ,vossius1 who was 8no less remarkable for the greatness of his fears1 than he was for the littleness of his faith40 ,cowper would cite to the same purpose a more distinguished example3 8,the ,frenchman first in literary fame2 ,mention him1 if you please4 ,voltaire8 ,the same4 444 ,the ,scripture was his jest-book1 whence he drew ,bon-mots to gall the ,christian and the ,jew3 ,an infidel when well1 but what when sick8 ,oh1 then a text would touch him to the quick40 ,swift gives a satirical narrative of 8what passed in ,london during the general consternation of all ranks and degrees of mankind0 on account of the predicted destruction of the world by a comet1 on a given day4 ,friday was the declared day2 and during ,tuesday1 ,wednesday1 and ,thursday1 public bewilderment and terror are described as extreme--the churches crowded1 and thousands praying in the public streets4 ,at length ,friday came4 ,but as the day wore on1 popular fears began to abate1 then lessened every hour2 8at night they were almost extinct1 till the total darkness that hitherto used to terrify1 now comforted every freethinker and atheist4 ,great numbers went together to the taverns1 bespoke suppers1 and broke up whole hogsheads for joy4 ,the subject of all wit and conversation was to ridicule the prophecy and rally each other4 ,all the quality and gentry were perfectly ashamed1 nay1 some utterly disowned that they had manifested any signs of religion4 8,but the next day1 even the common people1 as well as their betters1 appeared in their usual state of indifference4 ,they drank1 they swore1 they lied1 they cheated1 they quarrelled1 they murdered4 ,in short1 the world went on in the old channel40 ,to apply what ,butler says of 8saints0 in his application of the word1 as a cant term then of political significance3 8,for saints in peace degenerate1 ,and dwindle down to reprobate2 444 ,and though they've tricks to cast their sins1 ,as easy as serpents do their skins1 ,that in a while grow out again1 ,in peace they turn mere carnal men2 ,and from the most refined of saints ,as naturally turn miscreants1#ae ,as barnacles turn solan geese ,i' th' islands of the ,orcades40 ,that is a fine stroke of nature1 in the ,knight's ,tale 7from ,chaucer71 where ,dryden makes ,arcite resolve1 only when and not until moribund1 to avow the wrong he has done to ,palamon1 and own his fear of repeating it should he recover3 8,when 'twas declared all hope of life was past1 ,conscience 7that of all physic works the last7 ,caused him to send for ,emily in haste4 ,with her1 at his desire1 came ,palamon20 to whom ,arcite owns the faithless part he has played1 and desires forgiveness1 but at the same time makes this frank avowal3-- 8,and much ,i doubt1 should ,heaven my life prolong1 ,i should return to justify my wrong2 ,for while my former flames remain within1 ,repentance is but want of power to sin40 ,mr4 ,tennyson pictures for us a similar instance in ,sir ,lancelot3 8,yet the great knight in his mid-sickness made ,full many a holy vow and pure resolve4 ,these1 as but born of sickness1 could not live2 ,for when the blood ran lustier in him again1 ,full often the sweet image of one face1 ,making a treacherous quiet in his heart1 ,dispersed his resolution like a cloud40 ,treating of missions in ,abyssinia in the sixteenth century1 ,gibbon relates how1 in a moment of terror1 the emperor promised to reconcile himself and his subjects to the ,catholic faith4 8,but the vows10 adds the historian1 8which pain had extorted1 were forsworn on the return of health40 ,swift again1 in his history of ,england1--for the ,dean of ,st4 ,patrick wrote one--tells how ,william ,rufus fell dangerously sick at ,gloucester1 on his return from ,scotland1 and being moved by the fears of dying1 began to discover great marks of repentance1 with many promises of amendment and retribution4 8,but as it is the disposition of men who derive their vices from their complexions1 that their passions usually beat strong and weak with their pulses1 so it fared with this prince1 who1 upon recovery of his health1 soon forgot the vows he had made in his sickness1 relapsing with greater violence into the same irregularities10 etc4 ,michael ,germain--who1 however1 is allowed to have looked upon the religious observances of ,rome with the eye of a ,french encyclopdiste--makes merry1 as one of ,mabillon's ,italian expedition 7in #afhe71 at the expense of that indolent and hypochondriacal ,pope 7so ,sir ,james ,stephen calls him71 ,innocent ,,xi4 8,if ,i should attempt10 writes this ,french ,benedictine1 8to give you an exact account of the health of his ,holiness1 ,i must begin with ,ovid1 #8,in nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas4' ,at ten he is sick1 at fifteen well again1 at eighteen eating as much as four men1 at twenty-four dropsical4444 ,the worst of it is1 that they say he has given up all thoughts of creating new cardinals1 forgetting in his restored health the scruples he felt when sick2 like other great sinners20 like ,louis ,,xv41 for instance1 at the commencement of whose last illness ,mr4 ,carlyle so vividly depicts the consternation of the infamous ,du ,barry1 lest she should have to take flight1 as her predecessors had been constrained to do when the ,well-beloved 7,bien-aim7 had been sick before4 8,should the ,most ,christian ,king die1 or even get seriously afraid of dying6 ,for1 alas6 had not the fair1 haughty ,chateauroux to fly1 with wet cheeks and flaming heart1 from that fever scene at ,metz1 long since2 driven forth by sour shavelings8 ,she hardly returned1 when fever and shavelings were both swept into the background4 ,pompadour1 too1 when ,damiens wounded ,royalty #8slightly1 under the fifth rib1' 444 had to pack1 and be in readiness2 yet did not go1 the wound not proving poisoned40 ,his ,most ,christian ,majesty was of no distant kin with that profligate viscount in ,mr4 ,thackeray's story1 who used to recount misdeeds 8with rueful remorse when he was ill1 for the fear of death set him instantly repenting2 and with shrieks of laughter when he was well1 his lordship having a very great sense of humour40 ,of the same kindred comes the same author's ,miss ,crawley1 as we see her ill with fright1 in her lonely1 loveless old age4 ,when in health and good spirits1 this venerable inhabitant of ,vanity ,fair1 we are assured1 had as free notions about religion and morals as ,monsieur de ,voltaire himself could desire2 but 8when illness overtook her1 it was aggravated by the most dreadful terrors of death1 and an utter cowardice took possession of the prostrate old sinner40 ,nor be forgotten1 as a scion of the same stock1 that puffy1 pursy1 pusillanimous creature1 ,jos4 ,sedley1 of whom we read that1 in the course of his voyage home from ,bengal1 he disappeared in a panic during a two-days' gale1 and remained in his cot reading a religious tract left on board by a missionary's wife2 while1 8for common reading he had brought a stock of novels and plays10 to which of course he would return with all the more zest and devotion when the perils of the gale were past4 ,comparing the influence on the mind of danger of death1 and of danger from a storm1 or from some other external cause than sickness1 ,archbishop ,whately ascribes to the storm a much larger virtue of 8wholesome discipline0 than to the deadly sickness4 ,he says1 8,the well-known proverb1 #8,the devil was sick1' etc41 shows how generally it has been observed that people1 when they recover1 forget the resolutions formed during sickness4 ,one reason of the difference1 and perhaps the chief1 is1 that it is so much easier to recall exactly the sensations felt when in perfect health and yet in imminent danger1 and to act over again1 as it were1 in imagination1 the whole scene1 than to recall fully1 when in health1 the state of mind during some sickness1 which itself so much affects the mind along with the body40 ,and yet the effects defective of a storm are a commonplace with the satirists4 ,peter ,pindar devotes a 8poem0 to the subject2 and a greater poet--if the said ,peter can be called poet at all--has a forcible stanza on the equinoxes1 when the ,parc cut short the further spinning 8,of seamen's fates1 and the loud tempests raise ,the waters1 and repentance for past sinning ,in all who o'er the great deep take their ways3 ,they vow to amend their lives1 and yet they don't2 ,because1 if drown'd1 they can't--if spar'd1 they won't40 ,,sleep ,,and ,,death4 ,,st4 ,,john xi4 #aa-ad4 ,to ,his disciples our ,lord spoke of ,his friend1 and theirs1 8our friend1 ,lazarus10 as sleeping2 intimating at the same time ,his intention of going on to ,bethany1 that ,he might awaken him out of sleep4 8,then said ,his disciples1 ,lord1 if he sleep he shall do well4 ,howbeit1 ,jesus spake of his death2 but they thought that ,he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep4 ,then said ,jesus unto them plainly1 ,lazarus is dead40 ,the affinity of sleep to death is familiarly recognised in the ,old ,testament as in the ,new2 indeed1 in universal literature of whatever age1 sacred and profane4 ,bathsheba anticipates the day1 only too near at hand1 when her lord the king 8shall sleep with his fathers40 ,daniel foretells the awaking of many that sleep in the dust of the earth4 ,the psalmist utters a deprecation lest he sleep the sleep of death4 ,jesus declared the sick maiden to be not dead1 but sleeping2 and was laughed to scorn by those who knew that she was dead4 ,them that sleep in ,jesus1 saith the apostle1 will ,god bring with ,him4 ,we shall not all sleep1 he says elsewhere1 but we shall all be changed4 ,homer personifies a dualism of 8,sleep and ,death1 two twins of wingd race1 of matchless swiftness1 but of silent pace20 and he makes the friends of ,sarpedon 8his sacred corse bequeath to the soft arms of silent ,sleep and ,death40 ,he pictures ,aphrodite speeding to ,lemnos o'er the rolling deep1 to 8seek the cave of ,death's half-brother1 ,sleep40 ,the dying ,gorgias1 we are told1 being in a slumber1 and asked how he did1 answered1 8,pretty well2 only ,sleep is commending me to the charge of his brother40 ,samuel ,daniel apostrophizes 8,care-charmer ,sleep1 son of the sable ,night1 brother to ,death1 in silent darkness born20 and so too1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher apostrophize him in almost the selfsame words4 ,so again their contemporary1 ,john ,webster1 8,o thou soft natural ,death1 that art joint twin to sweetest slumber60 ,cowley's ode in memoriam of ,william ,harvey1 begins with sombre commemoration of a dismal and a fearful night1 8when sleep1 death's image1 left his troubled breast1 by something liker death possest40 ,and the last verse of ,denham's 8,song to ,morpheus0 identifies the twins1--practically makes a hendiadys of them1 as grammarians might call it3 8,sleep1 that is thy best repast1 ,yet of death it bears a taste1 ,and both are the same thing at last40 ,warton's ,latin epigram on sleep1 as certissima mortis imago1 has been ,englished by ,wolcot with a beauty and felicity pronounced by critics to be worthy of the original3 8,come1 gentle sleep6 attend thy votary's prayer2 ,and1 though death's image to my couch repair1 ,how sweet1 though lifeless1 yet with life to lie1 ,and1 without dying1 ,o how sweet to die60 ,shelley's opening of 8,queen ,mab0 is a stock quotation3 8,how wonderful is ,death1 ,death and his brother ,sleep6 one pale as yonder waning moon1 with lips of lurid blue2 the other rosy as the morn when1 throned on ocean's wave1 it blushes o'er the world3 yet both so passing wonderful60 ,but where1 asks a prose writer of genius1 where1 in the sharp lineaments of rigid and unsightly death1 is the calm beauty of slumber1 telling of rest for the waking hours that are past1 and gentle hopes and loves for those which are to come8 8,lay death and sleep down1 side by side1 and say who shall find the two akin40 ,but this is selecting such an aspect of mortality as comes not within the poet's purview4 ,prosaical in every fibre is ,sancho ,panza meant to be2 yet in his famous invocation of blessings on the invention1 or rather on the inventor1 of sleep1 which1 quoth he1 8covers a man all over1 body and mind1 like a cloak0--for ,sancho has his poetical moods and tenses after all--he goes on to recognise the affinity which poetry so freely asserts3 8,it sleep has only one fault1 as ,i have heard say1 which is1 that it looks like death3 for between the sleeper and the corpse there is but little to choose40 ,shakspeare's ,iachimo calls sleep the 8ape of death40 ,to die1 to sleep1--muses ,hamlet1--no more2 and1 by a sleep1 to say we end the heart-ache1 and the thousand natural ills that flesh is heir to1 were a consummation devoutly to be wished4 8,thy best of rest is sleep10 soliloquizes the duke in 8,measure for ,measure10 8,and that thou oft provokest2 yet grossly fear'st ,thy death1 which is no more40 ,a couplet of ,butler's1 in a description of nightfall1 tells how 444 8sleep the wearied world relieved1 ,by counterfeiting death revived40 ,a ,greek proverb designates sleep 8the minor mysteries of death0--in allusion to the lesser ,eleusinian mysteries as compared with the greater3 8 40 ,sir ,thomas ,overbury calls sleep1 death's picture drawn to the life1 or the twilight of life and death4 8,in sleep we kindly shake death by the hand2 but when we are awaked1 we will not know him40 ,with the closing clause of this sentence compare the closing lines in the following picture by ,byron1 of man o'erlaboured with his being's strife1 shrinking to 8that sweet forgetfulness of life0 which sleep induces3 8,there lie love's feverish hope and cunning's guile1 ,hate's working brain1 and lull'd ambition's wile2 ,o'er each vain eye oblivion's pinions wave1 ,and quench'd existence crouches in a grave4 ,what better name may slumber's bed become8 ,night's sepulchre1 the universal home1 ,where weakness1 strength1 vice1 virtue1 sunk supine1 ,alike in naked helplessness recline2 ,glad for awhile to heave unconscious breath1 ,yet wake to wrestle with the dread of death1 ,and shun1 though day but dawn on ills increast1 ,that sleep1 the loveliest1 since it dreams the least40 ,we term sleep a death1 writes ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 and yet it is waking that kills us1 and destroys those spirits that are the house of life4 8,it is that death by which we may be literally said to die daily2 a death which ,adam died before his mortality2 a death whereby we live a middle and moderating point between life and death40 ,and then the golden-tongued physician--in his ,religio ,medici--goes on to say that1 in fine1 so like death seemed to him sleep1 that he dare not trust it without his prayers1 and a half adieu to the world2 and taking his farewell 8in a colloquy with ,god10 that is set in the key of the ,evening ,hymn1 where we pray to be taught to dread the grave as little as our bed4 ,so1 in verses of his own weaving1 this consummate master of stately rhetorical prose1 beseeches ,god to make his sleep a holy trance3 8,sleep is a death2--,o make me try ,by sleeping1 what it is to die6 ,and as gently lay my head ,on my grave1 as now my bed4 ,howe'er ,i rest1 great ,god1 let me ,awake again at last with ,thee4 ,and thus assured1 behold ,i lie ,securely1 or to wake or die4 ,these are my drowsy days2 in vain ,i do now wake to sleep again3 ,o come that hour when ,i shall never ,sleep again1 but wake for ever6 8,this is the dormitive ,i take to bedward2 ,i need no other laudanum than this to make me sleep2 after which ,i close my eyes in security1 content to take leave of the sun1 and sleep unto the resurrection40 ,george ,herbert says1 that-- 8,when boys go first to bed1 ,they step into their voluntary graves2 ,sleep binds them fast2 only their breath ,makes them not dead4 ,successive nights1 like rolling waves1 ,convey them quickly1 who are bound for death40 ,ye children1 does death ever alarm you8 asks the venerable pastor in ,tegner's ,children of the ,lord's ,supper3 8,death is the brother of ,love1 twin-brother is he1 and is only more austere to behold40 ,shakspeare's nobleman is gazing with disgust on a sottish sleeper1 when he exclaims1 8,grim death1 how foul and loathsome is thine image60 ,that image1 as embodied in the form of a little child1 has often inspired poets to strains of tender admiration4 ,malaspina1 in one of ,landor's unacted 7not to say1 with almost equal truth1 unread7 plays thus contemplates1 and apostrophizes1 such an image3-- 8,and still thou sleepest1 my sweet babe6 ,is death ,like sleep8 ,ah1 who then1 who would fear to die8 ,how beautiful is all serenity6 ,sleep1 a child's sleep1 oh how far more serene1 ,and oh1 how far more beautiful than any6 ,whether we breathe so gently1 or breathe not1 ,slight is the difference40 ,more familiar to every one in the least conversant with current literature--not ephemeral in its currency1 or running so fast as to be1 like that which decayeth and waxeth old1 ready to vanish away--is ,mrs4 ,browning's poem on a sleeping child--tired out with playing1 and slumbering on the floor2 the latter portion alone of which may here find room3-- 8,and ,god knows1 who sees us twain1 child at childish leisure1 ,i am near as tired of pain1 as you seem of pleasure2-- ,very soon1 too1 by ,his grace gently wrapt around me1 ,shall ,i show as calm a face1 shall ,i sleep as soundly6 ,differing in this1 that you clasp your playthings sleeping1 ,while my hand shall drop the few given to my keeping4 ,differing in this1 that ,i sleeping shall be colder1 ,and in waking presently1 brighter to beholder4 ,differing in this beside 7sleeper1 have you heard me8 ,do you move1 and open wide eyes of wonder toward me87-- ,that while you ,i thus recall from your sleep1--,i solely1-- ,me from mine an angel shall1 with reveille holy60 ,,eliab ,,and ,,david ,,in ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,elah4 #a ,,samuel xvii4 #bh4 ,when the ,spirit of ,god came upon ,saul1 so that he prophesied among the company of prophets that met him1 all that knew him beforetime asked one another what was this that was come to the son of ,kish8 was ,saul also among the prophets8 ,insomuch that it became a proverb1 8,is ,saul also among the prophets80 ,no prophet is accepted in his own country2 that is become a proverb too4 ,and as with ,saul1 a young man among the prophets1 so with youthful ,david among the men of war from their youth4 ,eliab1 his eldest brother1 knew1 as he thought1 the pride and the naughtiness of his heart in coming down to the camp to see the battle2 but he knew not what sterling stuff there was in the stripling4 ,why had ,jesse's youngest son come down hither8 and with whom had he left those few sheep in the wilderness8 ,eliab's anger was kindled against ,david for his presumptuous and idle curiosity4 ,his scorn was well-nigh as supreme as that of ,goliath himself for the youth1--for he was but a youth1 and ruddy1 and of a fair countenance4 ,quit his proper rusticities and retirement for the valley of ,elah1 that bristled with spear-heads and resounded with the din of battle6 a boy like him1 that should be feeding his father's sheep at ,bethlehem6 ,was there not a cause8 ,none that ,eliab knew of1 for one4 ,he had never seen anything in the lad to warrant this forwardness4 ,not to ,eliab or his brethren was it given to foresee in that fresh-coloured shepherd boy the present slayer of ,goliath of ,gath1 and the bosom friend of princely ,jonathan1 and the paulo-post-future king of ,israel1 ,israel's sweetest singer1 and the man after ,god's own heart4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the adage about unrecognised worth1 on the part of kinsfolk and neighbours1 the proverb of the prophet without honour in his own country and in his father's house--has its parallel passage in the ,hercules ,furens of ,euripides-- 444 8 ' ' 40 ,plutarch adopts it in his treatise on ,exile1 where he says that you very rarely find a wise man taken for such in his own country3 8 40 ,the tradition that ,pythagoras borrowed all his learning and philosophy from the ,east is rejected by modern scholars3 could not so great a man1 they ask1 dispense with foreign teachers8 ,and the answer is1 that assuredly he could and did2 but his countrymen1 it is to be observed1 by a very natural process of thought1 looked upon his greatness as the result of his ,eastern education4 8,no man is a prophet in his own country1 and the imaginative ,greeks were peculiarly prone to invest the distant and the foreign with striking attributes20 unable to believe in wisdom springing up from among themselves1 they turned to the ,east as to a vast and unknown region1 whence all novelty1 even of thought1 must come4 8 10 says a ,greek philosopher1 8 40 ,as the first1 so the most arduous conquests of ,mohammed were1 says ,gibbon1 those of his wife1 his servant1 his pupil1 and his friend2 since he presented himself as a prophet to those who were most conversant with his infirmities as a man4 8,thus was ,mohammed10 writes ,dean ,milman1 after recording the conversion of the child ,ali1 8the prophet of his household4 ,slowly however did he win proselytes1 even among his own kindred4 ,three years elapsed before the faith received the accession of ,abubeker and of ,othman1 the future caliphs4 ,mohammed at length is accepted as the prophet of his family1 of the noble and priestly house of ,hashem4 ,abu ,talib1 his uncle1 remains almost alone an unbeliever4 ,and now ,mohammed aspires to be the prophet of his tribe40 ,but in effect the 8false0 prophet is an exception to the rule of no prophet accepted in his own house and country4 ,an ,american commentator on ,shakspeare incidentally expounds that rule1 in remarking on the degree to which our sense of truth is impeded or impaired by the pressure on our minds of what is actual and visible and present4 ,a faithful painter may1 he observes1 portray a human face with all its characteristic expression1 and in all its true individuality2 and yet the nearest relatives are not only the hardest to satisfy1 but1 by the very nature of their familiarity with the subject1 will often be the worst judges of the likeness4 ,we are all of us1 he adds1 8very apt to fail in appreciating the best and noblest parts in the characters of those whom we know familiarly1 for the thousand familiarities of common life interpose2 and it is sad to think that often it is not until death has hallowed and idealized the character1 that we can do it justice40 ,envy and jealousy1 remarks ,david ,hume in treating of the recognition of real genius1 have too much place in a narrow circle1 and even familiar acquaintance with the person of one thus gifted may diminish the applause due to his performance--that is1 among those of his own age and country4 ,pindar and schylus1 we are told1 left their country because those who were born their equals could not endure to see them rise their superiors4 8,what a war against the gods is this60 a heathen admirer is made to exclaim3 8it seems as if it were decreed by a public edict that no one shall receive from them any gift beyond a certain value2 and that if they do receive it they shall be permitted to return the gods no thanks for it in their native city40 ,there are towns so barbarous1 remarks ,boccaccio1 in ,landor's 8,pentameron10 that they must be informed by strangers of their own great man when they happen to have produced one2 and would then detract from his merits1 that they might not exhibit their awkwardness in doing him honour1 or their shame in withholding it4 ,charles ,,ix41 on a progress through ,provence1 sent for ,nostradamus1 and finding in what slight respect he was held by his countrymen1 made a point of publicly declaring1 with right royal emphasis1 that he should take as a slight to himself the slighting of that philosopher4 ,in the ,journal to ,stella1 ,swift hails with cordiality--for the ,dean could be cordial on occasion--the appreciation in polite ,english circles1 by ministers and scholars1 of ,parnell the poet3 8,lord ,bolingbroke likes ,parnell mightily2 and it is pleasant to see that one who hardly passed for anything in ,ireland makes his way here with a little friendly forwarding40 ,in no unlike spirit and style writes ,horace ,walpole to ,marshal ,conway1 then travelling abroad3 8,the honours you have received1 though ,i have so little taste for such things myself1 gave me great satisfaction2 and ,i do not know whether there is not more pleasure in not being a prophet in one's own country1 when one is almost received like ,mohammed in every other4 ,to be an idol at home is no assured touchstone of merit4 ,stocks and stones have been adored in fifty regions1 but do not bear transplanting4 ,the ,apollo ,belvedere and the ,hercules ,farnese may lose their temples1 but never lose their estimation1 by travelling40 ,in another letter we have ,walpole exclaiming1 8,but adieu1 retrospect6 it is as idle as prophecy1 the characteristic of which is never to be believed where alone it could be useful1 i4e41 in its own country40 ,and once more1 in a later epistle1 commenting on the darksome aspect of the times3 8,that the scene grows very serious there is no doubt2 nor do ,i assume vanity from having possessed the spirit of prophecy--a most useless talent1 as predictions never serve as warnings4 ,we know prophets are not honoured in their own country3 where then should they be honoured8 where they are not known8 where probably they never are heard of80 ,but such notes of interrogation might be multiplied ad libitum4 ,it is to a professedly common-place philosopher we owe the remark1 that while there are families in which there exists a preposterous over-estimate of the talents and acquirements of their several members1 there are other families in which there exists a depressing and unreasonable under-estimate of the same4 ,he speaks to his knowledge of such a thing as a family in which certain boys during their early education had it ceaselessly drilled into them that they were the idlest1 stupidest1 and most ignorant boys in the world2 which boys had no sooner gone to a great public school than like rockets they went up forthwith to the top of their classes1 and never lost their places there1 and afterwards at the university distinguished themselves pre-eminently in honours3 8,it will not surprise people who know much of human nature1 to be told that through this brilliant career of school and college work the home belief in their idleness and ignorance continued unchanged1 and that hardly at its end was the toil-worn senior wrangler regarded as other than an idle and useless blockhead40 ,the writer adds an example of his knowledge of a successful author--to be identified of course by some readers1 whose relatives never believed1 till the reviews assured them of it1 that his writings were anything but 8contemptible and discreditable trash40 ,the subject is renewed in the ensuing section1 on the text of a prophet's non-acceptance in his own country4 ,,the ,,prophet ,,in ,,his ,,own ,,country4 ,,st4 ,,luke iv4 #bd4 ,it was with the emphasis of a 8,verily ,i say unto you10 that our ,lord prefaced the assurance that no prophet is accepted in his own country4 ,the speaker spoke from bitter experience4 ,for neither did ,his brethren believe in ,him4 ,it was when ,he was come into ,his own country1 and taught in their synagogues with a wisdom that astonished them1 and wrought mighty works of a kind that bewildered them1 that ,his own countrymen set about asking if this was not the carpenter's son8 was not ,his mother the well-known ,mary8 were not ,james1 and ,joses1 and ,simon1 and ,judas1 ,his brethren8 and ,his sisters1 were they not all near at hand1 and known as such8 ,whence then had this-- 7indefinitely contemptuous7--all these attributes8 ,and they were offended1 scandalized1 they found a stumbling-block in the condition of ,him and ,his4 ,a double answer was vouchsafed them3 the significant restriction of wonder working1 for ,he did not many mighty works there1 because of their unbelief2 and the more direct reply1 in so many words1 that a prophet is not without honour1 save in his own country1 and in his own house4 ,montaigne adverts to this man1 or that1 having been a miracle to the world1 in whom neither his wife nor his servant has ever seen anything remarkable3 8,few men have been admired by their own domestics0--a sentence to which point and popularity have been given by the epigrammatic form of it1 due to ,marshal ,catinat4 8,no one10 ,montaigne continues1 8has been a prophet1 not merely in his own house1 but in his own country1 as the experience of history shows4 ,it is the same in matters of no consequence4444 ,in my country of ,gascony they look upon it as very droll to see me in print4 ,the farther off ,i am read from my own home1 the better ,i am esteemed2 ,i am fain to purchase printers in ,guienne1--elsewhere they purchase me40 ,ben ,jonson takes note of the greater reverence paid to things remote or strange to us1 than to much better1 if these be nearer1 and fall under our sense4 8,men1 and almost all sorts of creatures1 have their reputation by distance4 ,rivers1 the farther they run1 and more from their spring1 the broader they are1 and greater4 ,and where our original is known1 we are the less confident2 among strangers we trust fortune40 ,lord ,evandale1 in ,scott's 8,old ,mortality10 discerns at once the 8extraordinary qualities0 of ,henry ,morton1 which had escaped the notice of his kinsfolk and friends3 8,you have not been long in learning all his extraordinary qualities1 my lord10 says old ,major ,bellenden4 8,i1 who have known him from boyhood1 could1 before this affair1 have said much of his good principles and good nature2 but as to his high talents0--further on that head deponent saith not4 ,the opinions of relatives as to a man's power1 ,dr4 ,wendell ,holmes declares to be very commonly of little value2 not so much because they sometimes over-rate their own flesh and blood1 as some may suppose2 as because1 on the contrary1 they are quite as likely to underrate those whom they have grown into the habit of considering like themselves4 ,vile habetur quod domi est1 ,seneca tersely says4 ,edmund ,burke1 in early life1 was not happy at home--there being none among the household on ,arran ,quay to sympathise with his dreams and his aspirations4 8,he might think himself a genius10 says one of his many biographers1 8but it was not to be expected that his own relations should yet think him one40 ,describing his position and influence in ,lord ,rockingham's administration1 ,mr4 ,macknight observes that it is1 after all1 a man's own relations who generally look with the least confidence on his long wrestle with adversity1 and are most astonished when the tide turns1 and a great victory succeeds to what had seemed to them a mere hopeless toil4 8,to some of the ,irish ,nagles on the ,blackwater1 the news that ,edmund had been taken into the confidence of the great ,whig ,lord ,rockingham1 444 must have seemed as extraordinary as it did to ,joseph's brethren that he should have become so great a man in hostile ,egypt40 ,son pays le crut fou1 says ,la ,fontaine1 of a ,greek sage2 mais quoi6 aucun n'est prophte chez soi4 ,of ,joan of ,arc1 and her early mental struggles1 a ,french historian writes3 8,it behoves her to find in the bosom of her family someone who would believe in her3 this was the most difficult part of all40 ,non-recognition1 disparagement1 cold obstruction4 ,societies and families1 as ,goethe says1 behave in the same way to their dearest members1 towns to their worthiest citizens4 ,consuelo advising ,anzoleto to quit ,venice1 reminds him that 8no person is a prophet in his own country4 ,this is a bad place for one who has been seen running about in rags1 and where any one may come to say of you1 #8,i was his protector1 ,i saw his hidden talent1 it was ,i who recommended him and procured his advance4'0 ,descartes had to support with philosophic patience the scorn of his family1 impatient of a philosopher in it4 ,jean ,bodin1 neglected and slighted in his own land1 exulted in the welcome accorded to his books in the ,english ,universities1 which printed as well as prized them3 8il n'est pas rare que nous ayons besoin d'apprendre des trangers ce que valent nos compatriotes10 observes ,m4 ,lon ,feugre4 ,every rule has its exceptions1 and most proverbs too4 ,the case of ,st4 ,catharine1 of ,sienna1 is cited by a ,protestant biographer as 8an exception to the rule that excludes a prophet from honour in his own country40 ,the biographer of ,edward ,irving1 recounting with enthusiasm the details of his reception in ,annandale in #ahbh1 adds that 8for once the proverb seems to have failed4 ,he had honour in his own country1 where gentle and simple flocked to hear him10--neighbouring ministers shutting up their kirks on the ,sunday when he preached1 and going the 8long ,sabbath-day's journey0 across the ,annandale moors to hear him1 along with their people4 ,la ,bruyre points out on the one side a man recognised by the world at large as a master-mind1 honoured and sought after by eager admirers1 but at home1 of no account at all2 petit dans son domestique et aux yeux de ses proches3 on the other hand1 a man who is a prophet in his own house and country1 who enjoys a vogue that is confined to his immediate surroundings1 and who s'applaudit d'un mrite rare et singulier qui lui est accord par la famille dont il est l'idole4 ,but exceptions to a rule are commonly taken in confirmation of it2 and the rule as to a prophet's home acceptance is held to be only confirmed1 not disproved1 by here and there a stray example in history to the contrary2 such as ,arnold1 of ,brescia1 being rescued from captivity by some of those partisan nobles of ,campania by whom he was honoured as a prophet3 8,tanquam prophetam in terr su cum omni honore habebant40 ,or1 as the experience1 highly exceptional1 of young ,bernard of ,clairvaux1 the 8strange and irresistible force0 of whose character1 as the historian of ,latin ,christianity describes it1 enthralled his brothers one after another1 and at length his sister4 ,off to the monastery of ,clairvaux they trooped1 a complete monastic brotherhood4 ,the youngest boy lingered a short time with his aged father1 and then joined the rest4 8,even the father died a monk of ,clairvaux in the arms of ,bernard40 ,but it was not1 we are duly reminded1 on his own kindred alone that ,bernard wrought with this commanding power4 8,when he was to preach1 wives hurried away their husbands1 mothers withdrew their sons1 friends their friends1 from the resistless magic of his eloquence40 ,and those that went--what went they out into the wilderness to hear8 ,a prophet8 ,yea1 and almost more than a prophet1 by the verdict of his own country and of his father's house4 ,,desired ,,boon3 ,,realized ,,bane4 ,,psalm cvi4 #ae2 lxxviii4 #bb sq4 ,we read of those who tempted ,god in the desert1 that ,he gave them their request1 and sent leanness withal into their soul4 ,so they did eat meat and were well filled1 for ,he gave them their own desire2 but while their meat was yet in their mouths1 ,his wrath came upon them and slew the fattest of them1 and smote down the chosen men of ,israel4 ,a latter-day poetess1 almost masculine in genius1 as in out-spoken vigour of diction1 tells us that-- 8,god answers sharp and sudden on some prayers1 ,and thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face1-- ,a gauntlet with a gift in't10 and sometimes poison in the gift4 ,well therefore may the authoress of these lines1 which in their original import are scarcely applicable to our theme1 make a distressed soul utter a petition that certainly is so3-- 444 8'tis written in the ,book1 ,he heareth the young ravens when they cry2 ,and yet they cry for carrion4 ,o my ,god1-- ,and we1 who make excuses for the rest1 ,we do it in our measure4 ,then ,i knelt1 ,and dropped my head upon the pavement too1 ,and prayed1 since ,i was foolish in desire ,like other creatures1 craving offal-food1 ,that ,he would stop ,his ears to what ,i said1 ,and listen only to the run and beat ,of this poor1 passionate1 helpless blood44440 ,ne mihi contingant qu volo1 sed qu sunt utilia3 the aspiration has been accepted as an adage1 worthy of all acceptation1 and of acceptation by all4 8,mais1 sans cesse ignorants de nos propres besoins1 ,nous demandons au ciel ce qu'il nous faut le moins40 ,to ,shakspeare for an illustration4 ,pompey1 not the ,great1 is anxious for ,divine sanction to speed his ambitious resolves to a prosperous issue4 ,if the great gods be just1 he assumes1 they will assist the deeds of justest men1--and therefore himself1 as pre-eminently entitled to that designation4 ,he is impatient1 too1 for this manifest favour from above2 and sage ,menecrates takes occasion not only to check his impatience in particular1 but to give him a salutary warning on the subject in general3 444 8,we1 ignorant of ourselves1 ,beg often our own harms1 which the wise powers ,deny us for our good2 so find we profit ,by losing of our prayers40 ,xenophon tells us of ,socrates1 that when he prayed1 his petition was only this--that the gods would give to him those things that were good2 which he did1 forasmuch as they alone knew what was good for man4 8,but he who should ask for gold or silver1 or increase of dominion1 acted not1 in his opinion1 more wisely than one who should pray for the opportunity to fight1 or game1 or anything of the like nature2 the consequence of which1 being altogether doubtful1 might turn1 for aught he knew1 not a little to his disadvantage40 ,for1 444 8why1 alas6 do mortal men in vain ,of fortune1 fate1 or ,providence complain8 ,god gives us what ,he knows our wants require1 ,and better things than those that we desire3 ,some pray for riches2 riches they obtain2 ,but1 watched by robbers1 for their wealth are slain2 ,some pray from prison to be freed2 and come1 ,when guilty of their vows1 to fall at home2 ,murdered by those they trusted with their life1 ,a favoured servant1 or a bosom wife4 ,such dear-bought blessings happen every day1 ,because we know not for what things we pray40 ,there is a ,greek prayer by an unknown poet1 but highly commended by the most illustrious of ,socrates' disciples3 that sovran ,jove would grant his subjects good1 whether they pray for it or not2 and avert from them evil1 even though they pray for it4 1 1 4 ,and it is to ,plato's dialogue upon prayer that we owe the instructions imparted by ,socrates to ,alcibiades1 upon which ,addison has founded a paper in the ,spectator4 ,in that dialogue we read how ,socrates met ,alcibiades going to his devotions1 and observing his eyes to be fixed upon the ground with great seriousness and attention--for even that fastest of fast young men could1 it seems1 be slow enough to say his prayers--told him that he had reason to be thoughtful upon that occasion1 since it was possible for a man to bring down evil upon himself by his own supplications1 and that those things which the gods sent him in answer to his petitions might turn to his destruction4 ,this1 says he1 may not only happen when a man prays for what is mischievous in its own nature1 as dipus implored the gods to sow dissension between his sons2 but when he prays for what he believes would be for his good1 and against what he believes would be to his detriment4 ,this the philosopher shows must necessarily happen among us1 since most men are blinded with ignorance1 prejudice1 or passion1 which hinder them from seeing what things are really eligible for them4 ,and all this1 as his manner is1 the philosopher teaches by examples4 ,it seems allowed that ,juvenal took the cue of his tenth ,satire1 as well as ,persius of his second1 from the ,dialogue of ,plato aforesaid4 8,evertre domos totas1 optantibus ipsis1 ,dii faciles4 ,nocitura tog1 nocitura petuntur ,militi40 ,or1 as ,englished by ,mr4 ,owen of ,warrington3 8,th' indulgent gods whole houses have o'erthrown ,at men's own prayer2--the fatal choice their own4 ,in war we ask but woes2 in peace but woes10 etc4 ,the ,crassi1 ,pompeii1 and the like1 are represented as ruined by the assent of ,heaven to their ambitious prayers-- 8,magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis40 ,naples to ,pompey a kind fever gave1 to hide his honours in a welcome grave 7the poetry of ,parson ,owen may pardonably be printed as prose74 ,but public prayers arise3 the gods allow the health requested by the erring vow3 by ,rome's and his cross fate that grave he fled1 and lived--to lose his honours and his head4 444 8,sed mult urbes1 et publica vota ,vicerunt4 ,igitur fortuna ipsius1 et urbis1 ,servatum victo caput abstulit40 ,juvenal crowds his satire with cases in point1 historical and mythological1 political and domestic4 ,the sum of the discourse is this3 that man should allow the higher powers themselves to determine what may be of advantage to him1 and suitable to his real wants1--he being dearer to them than to himself3 8,permittes ipsis expendere ,numinibus quid ,conveniat nobis1 rebusque sit utile nostris3 ,nam pro jocundis aptissima quque dabunt ,dii4 ,carior est illis homo qum sibi40 ,montaigne bethinks him that a foremost proof of our imbecility is1 that we cannot1 by our own wish and desire1 find out what we want4 8,what plan1 how happily soe'er begun1 ,that1 when achieved1 we do not wish undone80 ,and he repeats the old-world story of ,king ,midas1 who prayed to the gods that all he touched might be turned into gold2 and so it was3 his bread became gold1 his wine gold1 the feathers of his bed1 his under-clothing and his over-coats1 gold all3 8so that he found himself overwhelmed with the fruition of his desire1 and endowed with a boon so intolerable1 that he was fain to unpray his prayers40 ,in another essay ,le ,sieur ,michel tells how severely the gods punished the wicked prayers of dipus1 in granting them4 8,he had prayed that his children might amongst themselves determine the succession to his throne by arms3 and was so miserable as to see himself taken at his word4 ,we should not pray that all things fall out as our will would have them1 but that our will should subserve what is just and right40 ,owen ,feltham records his having observed that what we either desire or fear doth seldom happen--something we think not of1 for the most part intervening4 ,how infinitely we should perplex ourselves1 he exclaims1 if we could obtain whatever we might wish for6 8,do we not often desire that1 which we afterwards see would be our confusion8444 ,man could not be more miserable1 than if left to choose for himself4444 ,nothing brings destruction on him sooner1 than when he presumes to part the empire with ,god40 ,as ,aricie warns ,theseus in the ,french tragedy3 8,craignez1 seigneur1 craignez que le ciel rigoureux ,ne vous hasse assez pour exaucer vos vux40 ,and two scenes later ,theseus is himself sufficiently of the same mind to exclaim3 8,ne prcipite point tes funestes bienfaits1 ,neptune6 j'aime mieux n'tre exauc jamais40 ,and afterwards again he utters the tristful line3 8,inexorables dieux6 qui m'avez trop servi40 ,so in a subsequent passage3 8,je hais jusqu'aux soins dont m'honorent les dieux3 ,et je m'en vais pleurer leurs faveurs meurtrires1 ,sans plus les fatiguer d'inutiles prires4 ,quoi qu'ils fissent pour moi1 leur funeste bont ,ne me saurait payer de ce qu'ils m'ont t40 ,madame de ,svign1 in one of her letters to ,bussy1 moralizes on the superior wisdom of ,heaven's disposal to man's proposal2 and adds3 8,c'est ainsi que nous marchons en aveugles1 ne sachant o nous allons1 prenant pour mauvais ce qui est bon1 prenant pour bon ce qui est mauvais1 et toujours dans une entire ignorance40 ,the optative mood of yesterday1 a past tense1 is changed in the present tense of to-day for deprecation and regret4 ,in one of his many onslaughts against conventionalism1 ,mr4 ,emerson says that what we ask daily is to be conventional4 8,supply1 most kind gods6 this defect in my dress1 in my form1 in my fortunes1 which puts me a little out of the ring2 supply it1 and let me be like the rest whom ,i admire1 and on good terms with them40 ,but the wise gods1 according to this essayist1 reply1 8,no1 we have better things for thee4 ,by humiliations1 by defeats1 by loss of sympathy1 by gulfs of disparity1 learn a wider truth and humanity than that of a fine gentleman10--a ,fifth-,avenue landlord1 or a ,west-,end householder1 not being ,mr4 ,emerson's ideal of the highest style of man4 sop1 ,saadi1 ,cervantes1 ,regnard1 he adds1 have been taken by corsairs1 left for dead1 sold for slaves1 and know the realities of human life4--,with ,mr4 ,carlyle1 we will not complain1 therefore1 of ,dante's miseries2 who1 had all gone right with him1 as he wished it1 might have been ,prior1 ,podest1 or whatsoever they call it1 of ,florence1 well accepted among neighbours1--in which case1 the world had wanted one of the most notable works ever spoken or sung4 8,florence would have had another prosperous ,lord ,mayor2 and the ten dumb centuries continued voiceless1 and the ten other listening centuries 7for there will be ten of them and more7 had no ,divina ,comedia to hear6 ,we will complain of nothing4 ,a nobler destiny was appointed for this ,dante2 and he1 struggling like a man towards death and crucifixion1 could not help fulfilling it4 ,give him the choice of his happiness6 ,he knew not1 more than we do1 what was really happy1 what was really miserable40 ,visions1 and hopes1 and prospects1 writes ,horace ,walpole1 are pretty playthings for boys4 8,it is folly to vex one's self for what cannot last very long4 ,indeed1 what can1 even when one is young8 ,corydon firmly believes he shall be wretched for ever if he does not marry ,phyllis4 ,that misery can but last till she has lost her bloom4 ,his eternal woe would vanish if her nose grew red4 ,how often do our griefs become our comforts6 ,i know what ,i wish to-day2 not at all what ,i shall wish to-morrow4 ,sixty says1 ,you did not wish for me1 yet you would like to keep me4 ,sixty is in the right2 and ,i have not a word more to say40 ,the ,strawberry ,hill esquire was himself turning the shady side of sixty when he thus wrote4 ,of quite another school was that gentle and good ,q4 ,q41 as she styled herself1 once popular1 now almost forgotten1 who thus moralized her song3 8,how false is found1 as on in life we go1 ,our early estimate of bliss or woe6 --,some sparkling joy attracts us1 that we fain ,would sell a precious birthright to obtain3 ,there all our hopes of happiness are placed1 ,life looks without it like a joyless waste2 ,no good is prized1 no comfort sought beside1 ,prayers1 tears implore1 and will not be denied3 ,heaven pitying hears th' intemperate1 rude appeal1 ,and suits its answer to our truest weal4 ,the self-sought idol1 if at last bestow'd1 ,proves1 what our wilfulness required--a goad4 ,ne'er1 but as needful chastisement1 is given ,the wish thus forced and torn and storm'd from ,heaven2 ,but if withheld1 in pity1 from our prayer1 ,we rave1 awhile1 of torment and despair4444 ,meantime1 ,heaven bears the grievous wrong1 and waits ,in patient pity till the storm abates 444 ,deigning1 perhaps1 to show the mourner soon1 ',twas special mercy that denied the boon40 ,chateaubriand's most sentimental of melancholy-mad heroes1 overwhelmed1 as he flatters himself1 with imaginary sufferings1 offers up a prayer for some real calamity to overtake him2 and1 to his cost1 is taken at his word4 8,dans mon dlire1 j'avais t jusqu' dsirer d'prouver un malheur1 pour avoir du moins un objet rel de souffrance3 pouvantable souhait1 que ,dieu dans sa colre1 a trop exauc60 ,it is but the ,christian 7yet not too ,christian7 expression of the old pagan poet's gloomy verse3 magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis4 ,there is a sonnet of ,filicaja's1 of which a good deal is made by ,richardson in his ,history of ,sir ,charles ,grandison1--the concluding lines being an impressive vindication of the ways of ,providence to man3 ,provvidenza alta infinita1 if it sometimes denies the favours we implore1 denies in kindness2 and seeming to deny a blessing1 grants one in that very refusal3 o negar finge1 e nel negar concede4 ,william ,collins the painter--a loving and lovable man as well as refined artist--in one of his letters home expresses his 8decided opinion1 that if the ,almighty were to give us everything for which we feel desirous1 we should as often find it necessary to pray to ,him to take away as to grant new favours40 ,and he refers to thousands of cases that he could bring forward in proof of his assertion4 ,it amounts to a sort of refrain in the melodious rhythm of that fragmentary prose-poem of ,de ,quincey's1 8,the ,daughter of ,lebanon10--the admonition of the prophet to the lovely woman in the ,damascus market-place3 8,ask what thou wilt--great or small--and through me thou shalt receive it from ,god4 ,but1 my child1 ask not amiss4 ,for ,god is able out of thy own evil asking to weave snares for thy footing4 ,and oftentimes to the lambs whom ,he loves1 ,he gives by seeming to refuse2 gives in some better sense1 or0 7and here the prophet's voice swelled into the power of anthems7 8in some far happier world40 ,and when the sun is declining to the west on the thirtieth day1 the prophet iterates the strain of old3 8,lady of ,lebanon1 the day is already come1 and the hour is coming1 in which my covenant must be fulfilled with thee4 ,wilt thou1 therefore1 being now wiser in thy thoughts1 suffer ,god1 thy new ,father1 to give by seeming to refuse2 to give in some better sense1 or in some far happier world80 ,but the daughter of ,lebanon sorrowed at these words2 she yearned after her native hills1 and the sweet twin-born sister with whom from infant days hand-in-hand she had wandered amongst the everlasting cedars4 ,the delirium of fever1 and approaching death1 are next described2 and again the evangelist sits down by her bedside1 and rebukes the clouds that trouble her vision1 and bids them stand no more between that dying ,magdalen and the forests of ,lebanon4 ,anon1 we read how the blue sky parted to the right and to the left1 laying bare the infinite revelations that can be made visible only to dying eyes2 and how1 as the child of ,lebanon gazed upon the mighty visions1 she saw bending forward from the heavenly host1 as if in gratulation to herself1 the one countenance for which she hungered and thirsted4 8,the twin-sister1 that should have waited for her in ,lebanon1 had died of grief1 and was waiting for her in ,paradise4 ,immediately in rapture she soared upwards from her couch2 immediately in weakness she fell back2 and being caught by the evangelist1 she flung her arms around his neck2 whilst he breathed into her ear his final whisper1 #8,wilt thou now suffer that ,god should give by seeming to refuse8'--#8,oh yes--yes--yes1' was the fervent answer from the daughter of ,lebanon40 ,hitherto she had known not what to ask for as she ought4 ,hitherto her asking had been amiss3 she had asked for she knew not what4 ,but now her vision was purged4 ,now she had the second-sight that could pierce through and beyond the night-side of nature1 and gaze on the land that is very far off4 ,hitherto she had1 at the best1 seen through a glass darkly2 but now1 it might be said1 face to face4 ,so that she knew what to ask for1 now4 ,chactas1 the blind old sachem in ,chateaubriand's ,wertherian romance1 is made to bring that once enthusiastically admired story to an end by relating a parable to his woe-fraught young listener4 ,it tells how the ,meschaceb1 soon after leaving its source among the hills1 began to feel weary of being a simple brook2 and so asked for snows from the mountains1 water from the torrents1 rain from the tempests2 until1 its petitions granted1 it burst its bounds1 and ravaged its hitherto delightsome banks4 ,at first the proud stream exulted in its force2 but seeing ere long that it carried desolation in its flow1 that its progress was now doomed to solitude1 and that its waters were for ever turbid1 it came to regret the humble bed hollowed out for it by nature1--the birds1 the flowers1 the trees1 and the brooks1 hitherto the modest companions of its tranquil course4 ,the moral of the myth of ,tithonus is one for all time4 ,mr4 ,tennyson has pointed it for ours4 ,he shows us in ,tithonus a white-haired shadow roaming like a dream the ever silent spaces of the ,east2 and from this grey shadow1 once a man1 the wailing utterance of a sad story comes3-- 8,i ask'd thee1 #8,give me immortality4' ,then didst thou grant my asking with a smile1 ,like wealthy men who care not how they give4 ,but thy strong ,hours indignant work'd their wills1 ,and beat me down and marr'd and wasted me1 ,and tho' they could not end me1 left me maim'd ,to dwell in presence of immortal youth1 ,and all ,i was1 in ashes4444 444 ,let me go3 take back thy gift3 ,why should a man desire in any way ,to vary from the kindly race of men1 ,or pass beyond the goal of ordinance ,where all should pass1 as is most meet for all8 444 ,why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears1 ,and make me tremble lest a saying learnt1 ,in days far off1 on that dark earth1 be true8 #8,the gods themselves cannot recal their gifts4'0 8,,and ,,he ,,died40 ,,genesis v4 passim4 ,well known is ,addison's reference to an eminent man in the ,romish ,church1 who upon reading in the ,book of ,genesis how that all the days that ,adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years1 and he died2 and all the days of ,seth were nine hundred and twelve years1 and he died2 and all the days of ,methuselah were nine hundred and sixty nine years1 and he died2--immediately shut himself up in a convent1 an absolute recluse from the world1 as not thinking anything in this life worth pursuing1 which had not regard to another4 ,what man is he that liveth1 and shall not see death8 8,dead6--,man's #8,i was1' by ,god's #8,i am'-- ,all hero-worship comes to that4 ,high heart1 high thought1 high fame1 as flat ,as a gravestone4 ,bring your ,jacet jam-- ,the epitaph's an epigram40 ,so writes ,mrs4 ,browning4 ,and thus writes ,barry ,cornwall1 on the same trite text2 it is the last stanza of the ,history of a ,life1 and of a successful one3-- 8,and then--he died4 ,behold before ye ,humanity's poor sum and story2 ,life--death--and all that is of glory40 ,and again1 in the same poet's chanson of the time of ,charlemagne1 the stanza that magnifies that hero-king1 and tells how he fought and vanquished ,lombard1 ,saxon1 ,saracen1 and ruled every race he conquered with a deep consummate skill--is followed by one beginning1 8,but--he died6 and he was buried ,in his tomb of sculptured stone10 etc4 ,and once again1 in one of this author's dramatic fragments is sketched the career of what ,mr4 ,carlyle would call a 8foiled potentiality0--of one who1 in favourable circumstances1 might have been1 but who in prosaic reality and the matter-of-fact pressure of this work-a-day world1 never actually became1 great4 ,had he but lived under better auspices1 he would have been-- ,b4 8,a king8 ,a4 ,a man6 what else1 ,king1 emperor1 tyrant1 shah1 would matter not4 ,he would have been--a name2 such as of old ,grew into gods6 ,b4 ,and so he died8 ,a4 ,he died40 ,death stands everywhere in the background1 as the elder ,schlegel says in his analysis of the elements of tragic poetry1 and to it every well or ill-spent moment brings us nearer and closer2 and even when a man has been so singularly fortunate as to reach the utmost term of life without any grievous calamity1 the inevitable doom still awaits him to leave or to be left by all that is most dear to him on earth4 ,in the words1 most musical1 most melancholy1 of the laureate1 8,the woods decay1 the woods decay and fall1 ,the vapours weep their burthen to the ground2 ,man comes and tills the field1 and lies beneath2 ,and after many a summer dies the swan40 ,addison1 in another essay than that already referred to1 describes an afternoon he passed in ,westminster ,abbey1 straying through and lingering in the churchyard1 the cloisters1 and the church1 8amusing himself10 as the phrase then ran--not quite in our frivolous sense--with the tombstones and the inscriptions that he met with in those several regions of the dead1 most of which recorded nothing else of the buried person1 but that he was born upon one day1 and died upon another2 the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two circumstances that are common to all mankind4 ,the 8,spectator0 could not but look upon these registers of existence1 whether of brass or marble1 as a kind of satire upon the departed persons1 who had left no other memorial of them but that they were born1 and that they died4 ,mr4 de ,quincey characteristically opened his autobiographic sketches in their original form1 with the avowal that nothing makes such dreary and monotonous reading as the old hackneyed roll-call1 chronologically arranged1 of inevitable facts in a man's life4 8,one is so certain of the man's having been born1 and also of his having died1 that it is dismal to be under the necessity of reading it40 ,the man--a man--any man--every man4 ,it is the common lot4 ,and we know what ,james ,montgomery has made of the ,common ,lot4 ,here are two or three of the stanzas that are most to the purpose3-- 8,once in the flight of ages past1 ,there lived a man3 and who was he8 ,mortal6 howe'er thy lot be cast1 ,that man resembled thee4 444 8,he suffered1--but his pangs are o'er2 ,enjoy'd1--but his delights are fled2 ,had friends1--his friends are now no more2 ,and foes1--his foes are dead4 444 8,he saw whatever thou hast seen2 ,encounter'd all that troubles thee3 ,he was--whatever thou hast been2 ,he is--what thou shalt be4 444 8,the annals of the human race1 ,their ruins1 since the world began1 ,of him1 afford no other trace ,than this1--,,there ,,lived ,a ,,man60 ,there lived a man--lived1 and loved1 and learned1 and laboured--enjoyed the common joys of his kind1 endured the common sufferings4 ,,and ,,he ,,died4 ,old ,egeus mooted a veritable truism when moralizing thus1 in ,chaucer3-- 8,yit ither ne lyvede never man1 he seyde1 ,in al this world1 that some tyme he ne deyde40 ,a ,french historian comments on this characteristic of old cloister chronicles1 that the obscurest event of the cloister holds in them as conspicuous a place as the greatest revolutions in history4 ,for instance1 in a chronicle cited by him of the year of grace #gcb1 which produced the battle of ,poictiers1 whereby ,charles ,martel arrested the vast invasion of ,islamism1 not a line is vouchsafed to that event4 ,in fact1 the year is passed over without notice1 as containing nothing really deserving of notice4 ,but beside a date expressly given1 we read1 8,martin est mort10--,martin being an unknown monk of the ,abbey of ,corvey2 and1 farther on again1 8,charles1 maire du palais1 est mort40 ,martin was an unknown monk1 and he died4 ,charles ,martel was mayor of the palace1 and the conqueror at ,poictiers1 and he died4 ,well remarks ,m4 ,demogeot1 that 8tous les hommes deviennent egaux devant la secheresse laconique de ces premiers chroniqueurs40 8,we must all go1 that is certain10 writes ,mrs4 ,piozzi to ,sir ,james ,fellows1 8and 'tis the only thing that is certain4 ends all the cases ,dr4 ,james quotes from your old friend ,hippocrates40 ,all the physician's cases have the same terminal affix1 ,,and ,,he ,,died4 ,very long-lived some of them may be2 but1 as ,mr4 ,browning puts it in his fine poem of 8,saul10 8,but the licence of age has its limit2 thou diest at last40 ,we are told of ,st4 ,anschar1 whose missionary career in ,sweden is commemorated in ,milman's 8,latin ,christianity10 that the ardour of youth had begun to relax his strict austerity of monastic discipline1 when all at once the world was startled by the tidings of ,charlemagne's death4 ,that the mighty sovran of so many kingdoms must suffer the common lot1 struck young ,anschar as something beyond the common2 and from that hour he lived in the world as not of it1 and bore on his way through it as verily a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth1 with serious work to do1 but working in and walking by faith1 not sight4 ,marcus ,antoninus1 in his self-communings1 bids himself consider how many physicians are dead that used to value themselves upon the cure of their patients1 and how many astrologers who thought themselves great men by foretelling the deaths of others2 how many warriors1 who had knocked out the brains of thousands upon thousands2 and how many tyrants who managed the power of life and death with as much rigour as if they had been themselves immortal4 ,among the pointed sayings that have been thought worthy of preservation--by ,gibbon1 for example--of ,hormisdas1 a fugitive prince of ,persia1 who was at ,rome in the fourth century1 is this1--8that one thing only had displeased him1 to find that men died at ,rome as well as elsewhere40 ,courtiers have avowed themselves shocked at the non-exception of royalty from the universal doom4 ,a courtly preacher1 who had announced the unconditional fact that we are all mortal1 is said to have checked himself1 on remembering that royalty was present1 and to have qualified the assertion by the circumspect salvo1 8,at least1 nearly all40#af ,lewis the ,eleventh was too shrewd a man to give heed to such courtly suggestions2 otherwise1 if ever there were prince that would fain have believed the fiction1 it was he1 so abhorrent to his shuddering nature was the imagination of his own decease4 ,and ,commines relates how physicians combined their remedies with the sacred objects produced from the sanctuary to avert the dread decree1 8pour lui allonger la vie4 ,toutefois le tout n'y fasoit rien2 et falloit qu'il passt par l o les autres ont passs40 ,and he died4 ,all stories have the same ending4 8,the ,frenchman first in literary fame2 ,mention him1 if you please4 ,voltaire8 ,the same1 ,with spirit1 genius1 eloquence supplied1 ,lived long1 wrote much1 laughed heartily--and died40 ,that very old poet1 ,stephen ,hawes1 for discovering in whom 8one fine line10 ,warton was called 8the indulgent historian of our poetry10 tells his own life-story quite to an end1 including the particulars of his funeral and epitaph4 ,a finer critic than ,warton1 or than ,warton's critic1 bids those who smile at the design dismiss their levity before the poet's utterance3-- 8,o6 mortal folke1 you may beholde and see ,howe ,i lye here1 sometime a mighty knight4 ,the end of joye and prosperitie ,is death at last thorough his course and might4 ,after the day there cometh the dark night1 ,for though the day appear ever so long1 ,at last the bell ringeth to evensong--0 8,ringeth10 says ,mrs4 ,browning1 8in our ear with a soft and solemn music1 to which the soul is prodigal of echoes40 ,what--asks the most meditative of ,roman emperors1 in his ,meditations1 discussing with himself the ultimate fate1 often reluctantly undergone1 of certain long-lived persons--what are they more than those who went off in their infancy8 ,what is become of ,ccilianus1 ,fabius1 ,julianus1 and ,lepidus8 ,their heads are all laid somewhere4 ,they buried a great many2 but at last they came to be buried themselves4 ,mr4 ,dickens1 as well as ,hervey1 has his meditations among the tombs1--and these are of them in the little hemmed-in churchyards of the city--these1 over an old tree at the church window1 with no room for its branches1 that has seen out generation after generation of civic worthies3 8,so with the tomb of the old ,master of the ,company1 on which it drips4 ,his son restored it1 and died2 his daughter restored it1 and died2 and then he had been remembered long enough1 and the tree took possession of him1 and his name cracked out40 ,to quote ,chaucer again3 8,that is to seyn1 in youthe or elles in age1 ,he moot ben deed1 the kyng as schal a page40 ,cranmer's transported prevision1 in ,shakspeare1 of the grand future that awaited the infant princess ,elizabeth1 is dashed with sadness towards the end--the strain subsiding into a minor key--by the unwelcome but inevitable reflection1 8,but she must die40 ,so muses and moralises ,talbot again1 in another of the historical plays3 8,but kings and mightiest potentates must die2 ,for that's the end of human misery40 ,and ,warwick1 in another of them1 finding that1 of all his lands1 is nothing left him but his body's length1 exclaims1 as one that at last feels it feelingly1 8,why1 what is pomp1 rule1 reign1 but earth and dust8 ,and1 live we how we can1 yet die we must40 ,and once more in yet another of them1 when ,king ,john dies1 and ,salisbury witnessing the death1 exclaims1 8,but now a king--now thus60 the prince who is to succeed takes home the lesson to himself1 and confesses1 in diction borrowed from the mere machinery of clockwork1 8,even so must ,i run on1 and even so stop40 ,in exhibiting to ,odysseus in the shades below a group of the fairest and most famous of women1 ,homer has been supposed by some of his commentators to have designed a lecture on mortality to the whole sex4 ,tertullian's trumpet is blown with no uncertain sound when he thus addresses the frivolous fair of his day3 8,i have said1 ye are gods1 and ye are all the children of the ,most ,high4444 ,but1 ,o gods of flesh and blood1 ,o gods of earth and dust1 ye shall die like men1 and all your glory shall fall to the ground1 veruntamen sicut homines moriemini40 ,this is in ,tertullian's description of the vain and prodigal and exacting beauty4 ,suggestive in its way is an anecdote related by ,mrs4 ,thrale about ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds's picture of two fashionable belles1 ,mrs4 ,crewe and ,mrs4 ,bouverie1 attired as two shepherdesses1 and with this motto attached1 ,et in ,arcadi ego4 ,what could that mean8 is ,dr4 ,johnson said to have asked4 ,reynolds replied that the king could have told him3 8,he saw it yesterday1 and said at once1 #8,oh1 there is a tombstone in the background4 ,ay1 ay1 death is even in ,arcadia4'0 ,the thought is said to have been borrowed from ,poussin--where some gay revellers stumble over a death's head1 with a scroll proceeding from its mouth1 saying1 ,et in ,arcadi ego4 ,memorable at ,saladin's banquet to ,richard and his peers--ever memorable among the banners and pennons1 the trophies of battles won and kingdoms overthrown1 is the long lance displaying a shroud1 8the banner of ,death1 with this impressive inscription--#8,saladin1 ,king of ,kings--,saladin1 ,victor of ,victors--,saladin must ,die4'0 ,poet ,prior laments with courtly distress the inflexible fact that the ,british monarch1 to whom he is addressing his carmen seculare for the year of grace ,,mdcc41 must go the way of all flesh3 8,but a relentless destiny ,urges all that e'er was born3 ,snatch'd from her arms1 ,britannia once must mourn ,the demi-god2 the earthly half must die40 ,for as ,master ,matthew puts it in another ode3-- 8,alike must every state and every age ,sustain the universal tyrant's rage2 ,for neither ,william's power nor ,mary's charms ,could1 or repel1 or pacify his arms4 444 ,wisdom and eloquence in vain would plead ,one moment's respite for the learned head3 ,judges of writings and of men have died 7,mcenas1 ,sackville1 ,socrates1 and ,hyde72 ,and in their various turns their sons must tread ,those gloomy journeys which their sires have led4 8,the ancient sage1 who did so long maintain ,that bodies die1 but souls return again1 ,with all the births and deaths he had in store ,went out ,pythagoras1 and came no more4 ,and modern ,asgill1#ag whose capricious thought ,is yet with stores of wilder notions fraught1 ,too soon convinced1 shall yield that fleeting breath ,which played so idly with the darts of death40 ,the truism appears to have been a favourite theme with ,prior1 who expatiates upon it in a variety of keys4 ,here is one other specimen from his stores1 in octosyllabic metre3-- 8,all must obey the general doom1 ,down from ,alcides to ,tom ,thumb4 ,grim ,pluto will not be withstood ,by force or craft4 ,tall ,robin ,hood1 ,as well as ,little ,john1 is dead-- 7,you see how deeply ,i am read740 ,does not ,cervantes begin the last chapter of his great work with the reflection that1 as all human things1 especially the lives of men1 are transitory1 ever advancing to their decline and final termination1 so 8,don ,quixote was favoured by no privilege of exemption from the common fate10 for the period of his dissolution came when he least thought of it--and he died4 ,death's final conquest is the subject of a fine poem of ,james ,shirley's2 the piece by which he is1 in every sense1 best remembered4 ,how death lays his icy hands on kings1 is there told with pitiless candour2 and the merry monarch1 par excellence1 ,charles the ,second1 is said to have greatly admired the poetry1 if not the candour1 of ,shirley's strain4 ,early or late1 all stoop to fate2 that is the trite topic4 ,but the moral is noble1 and nobly expressed4 ,the poet reminds laurelled victors that the garlands are withering on their brow1 and that soon upon death's purple altar shall the 8victor victim0 bleed3-- 8,all heads must come ,to the cold tomb2 ,only the actions of the just ,smell sweet and blossom in the dust40 ,the first verse only of ,george ,herbert's 8,virtue0 is familiar to men2 all four have a music and a meaning of their own3-- 8,sweet day1 so cool1 so calm1 so bright1 ,the bridal of the earth and sky1 ,the dew shall weep thy fall to-night2 ,for thou must die4 8,sweet rose1 whose hue angry and brave ,bids the rash gazer wipe his eye1 ,thy root is ever in its grave1 ,and thou must die4 8,sweet spring1 full of sweet days and roses1 ,a box where sweets compacted lie1 ,my music shows ye have your closes1 ,and all must die4 8,only a sweet and virtuous soul1 ,like seasoned timber1 never gives2 ,but though the whole world turn to coal1 ,then chiefly lives40 ,,an ,,ultra-,,protester4 ,,st4 ,,matthew xxvi4 #cc-ce1 #fi-ge4 ,to have written it ultra-,protestant1 would mislead into an expectation of polemical matter1 offensive to ,orangeism1 and entirely alien from the purpose4 ,for who is the hyper-protester1 not to write it ultra-,protestant1 of whom we speak8 ,none other than ,st4 ,peter4 ,nominally the first ,pope4 ,but let that pass4 ,whether technically an ultra-,protestant or not1--let that pass too4 ,it is with his surplusage of protestations1 vehemently asserted1 and anon ignominiously ignored1 that we are at present concerned4 ,though all men1 all1 should be offended because of ,christ1 should stumble and fall because of ,him1 yet would he never be offended1 never stumble1 never lose his footing1 firm as a rock1 firm as his own name1 ,peter1 ,cephas2 a rock on which the ,church was to be built4 ,the protest of the apostle won no meed of thanks and assurance of conviction from his ,lord4 ,he who needed not that any should testify of man1 for ,he knew what was in man--and knew what was wanting in this man1--waved aside1 as absolutely worthless1 the perfervid protestations of the impulsive son of ,jonas4 ,thrice should ,peter deny ,him before dawn of another day4 ,deny ,him8 ,had it come to that8 ,the protester must become ultra in his protests4 8,though ,i should die with ,thee1 yet will ,i not deny ,thee60 ,it would be beside the mark here to take into account the other voces et prterea nihil1 echoing the same thing--protested notes at the best--for likewise also said all the disciples4 ,peter is their representative man1 and ours4 ,gertrude's comment in 8,hamlet10 on the accumulated asseverations of the stage-queen1 8,the lady doth protest too much1 methinks10 has passed into a proverb4 8,the more vehemently they assert1 the less credit they obtain for sincerity10 observes ,hartley ,coleridge1 of some examples of impulsive womankind4 ,racine's ,brnice turns the tables on ,titus in this regard1 when she tells him1 8,h quoi6 vous me jurez une ternelle ardeur1 ,et vous me la jurez avec cette froideur6 ,pourquoi mme du ciel attester la puissance8 ,faut-il par des serments vaincre ma dfiance8 ,mon cur ne prtend point1 seigneur1 vous dmentir2 ,et je vous en croirai sur un simple soupir40 ,how fulsome and hollow1 exclaims ,marcus ,antoninus1 does that man look who cries1 8,i'm resolved to deal clearly with you40 ,hark you1 friend1 the philosophic emperor addresses him1 8what need of all this flourish8 let your actions speak40 ,mr4 ,disraeli1 in his earliest book1 has an eloquent paragraph on 8that eagerness of protestation which10 in the man charged with criminality1 8is a sure sign of crime40 ,there is as much of overacting one's part on the great stage of life1 as on the mimic boards2 and that with graver issues and a drearier fate4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when the subtle and ambitious ,john of ,gischala1 pursuing his own dark course1 as it is traced in the 8,history of the ,jews10 joined outwardly the party of ,ananus1 and was active beyond others in council and camp1 he yet kept up a secret correspondence with the ,zealots1 to whom he betrayed all the movements of the assailants4 8,to conceal this secret he redoubled his assiduities1 and became so extravagant in his protestations of fidelity to ,ananus and his party1 that he completely over-acted his part1 and incurred suspicion40 ,his intended dupes began gradually1 and none too soon1 to look with a jealous eye on their too obsequious1 most obedient1 and most devoted servant4 ,describing the ten dreary years during which 7,a4,d4 #aaih-abjh71 with but short intervals of truce1 ,germany was abandoned to all the horrors of civil war1 ,dean ,milman observes that 8the repeated protestations0 of ,pope ,innocent ,,iii41 that he was not the cause of these fatal discords1 betray the fact that he was accused of the guilt1 and that he had to wrestle with his own conscience to acquit himself of the charge4 ,sir ,thomas ,overbury suggestively avers that 8,he that says oft that he is not in love1 ,by repetition doth himself disprove40 ,hawthorne remarks that ,italian asseverations of any questionable fact1 though uttered with rare earnestness of manner1 never vouch for themselves as coming from any depth1 like roots drawn out of the substance of the soul1 with some of the soil clinging to them4 ,their energy expends itself in exclamation4 ,the vaulting ambition of their hyperboles overleaps itself1 and falls on the other side4 ,swift refers to oaths in the mouth of a gamester1 as ever most used as their truth is most questioned4 8',tis not the many oaths that make the truth1 ,but the plain single vow1 that is vowed true10 says ,shakspeare's ,diana of ,florence4 ,and though from ,shakspeare to ,wolcot is a descent indeed1 ,peter ,pindar is for once quotable when he writes1 8,truth needs not1 ,john1 the eloquence of oaths1 ,not more so than a decent suit of clothes ,requires of broad gold lace the expensive glare1 ,that makes the linsey-woolsey million stare2 ,besides1 a proverb1 suited to my wish1 ,declares that swearing never catches fish40 ,that scapegrace guardian of ,george ,canning's boyhood1 ,mr4 ,reddish1 is said to have been significantly fond1 on quite trivial occasions1 of making affidavits1--8the refuge of base and vulgar minds10 ,robert ,bell calls them1--as if he1 ,reddish1 felt that his word was not to be believed4 ,cowper is caustic in his application of ,st4 ,paul's statement1 that oaths terminate all strife1 for 8some men have surely then a peaceful life60 he infers1 in lines that go on to tell how 8,asseveration blustering in your face ,makes contradiction such a hopeless case2 ,in every tale they tell1 or false or true1 ,well-known1 or such as no man ever knew1 ,they fix attention1 heedless of your pain1 ,with oaths like rivets forced into the brain2 ,and e'en when sober truth prevails throughout1 ,they swear it1 till affirmance breeds a doubt40 ,the imprecation of ,corneille's ,dorante1 ,que le foudre vos yeux m'crase si je mens6 only evokes from ,clarice the contemptuous rebuff1 ,un menteur which1 and more than which1 emphatically1 ,dorante is1 for he is ,le ,menteur1 est toujours prodigue de serments4 ,so again ,racine's ,theseus3 ,toujours les sclrats ont recours au parjure1--when ,hippolytus begins to call heaven1 and earth1 and universal nature to witness1 etc4 ,so1 too1 ,chamont1 in ,otway's tragedy3 8,when a man talks of love1 with caution trust him2 but if he swears1 he'll certainly deceive thee40 ,indeed1 as ,owen ,feltham has it1 wherever there is too much profession1 there is cause for suspicion4 8,reality cares not to be tricked out with too taking an outside2 and deceit1 when she intends to cozen1 studies disguise4 ,least of all should we be taken with swearing asseverations4 ,truth needs not the varnish of an oath to make her plainness credited40 ,fielding's ,pettifogger1 on a certain occasion1 calling to mind that he had not been sworn1 as he usually was1 before he gave his evidence1 8now bound what he had declared with so many oaths and imprecations1 that the landlady's ears were shocked1 and she put a stop to his swearing1 by assuring him of her belief10 inconsiderately enough1 as the manner of the man might have proved4 ,scott's ,jorworth1 when heaping asseveration on asseveration1 is cut short by the honest ,fleming he is striving to mislead3 8,stop1 good ,jorworth2 thou heapest thine oaths too thickly on each other1 for me to value them to the right estimate2 that which is so lightly pledged1 is sometimes thought not worth redeeming40 ,so again ,monkbarns tells the gaberlunzie1 after hearing his story of the adept1 8,i am strongly disposed to believe that you have spoken the truth1 the rather1 that you have not made any of those obtestations of the superior powers1 which ,i observe you and your comrades always make use of when you mean to deceive folks40 ,the author of 8,london ,labour and the ,london ,poor10 recounts the redundance of 8,glory be to ,god6 it's the thruth ,i'm telling of you1 sir10 etc41 etc42 which he had to hear from ,irish mendicity1 or mendacity1 or both4 8,the dignity of truth is lost with much protesting10 the ,cicero of ,jonson's 8,catiline0 says4 ,take up any ordinary history1 and you are but too sure to come across examples enough and to spare1 of people who did protest too much1 and did not keep their word4 ,glance at ,alison's big book1 and on one page you read1 of ,napper ,tandy1 for instance1 8,but the conduct of this leader was far from keeping pace with these vehement protestations2 for no sooner did he hear of the reverse sustained by the ,french corps which had landed in ,killala ,bay1 than he re-embarked on board the ,french brig ,anacreon1 and got safe across the channel40 ,on another we have ,tippoo ,saib striving to disarm the suspicions of the ,british ,government by 8professions of eternal gratitude and attachment10 and considerably overacting his part4 ,on another we have ,napoleon bidding ,marmont 8spare no protestations of assistance to ,turkey20 and himself assuring the ,turkish ambassador that1 8his right hand was not more inseparable from his left1 than the ,sultan ,selim should ever be to him20 in consequence of which protestations1 ,turkey threw herself into the breach against both ,russia and ,england1 only to find the imperial ultra-protester1 within one little month from the protestations1 arranging for the immediate partition1 with the ,czar1 of the ,turkish dominions4 ,look1 again1 at ,benjamin ,constant1 launching his vehement philippic against ,napoleon1 in the ,journal des ,dbats on the eve of the ,emperor's return from ,elba1 and declaring1 8,never will ,i crawl1 like a base deserter from power to power4 ,under ,louis ,,xviii4 we enjoy a representative government4 ,under ,bonaparte we endured a government of ,mamelukes4 ,he is an ,attila1 a ,gengis ,khan60 ,and then we read how1 a few days after this fulmination1 ,constant1 the inconstant1 became a councillor of state under this ,attila1 an active supporter of this ,gengis ,khan4 ,another ground of indictment against ,napoleon is found by ,alison in the eagerness of his protestations to ,russia1 that he had no way connived at the election of ,bernadotte to the throne of ,sweden1 when next vacant4 8,the extreme anxiety which ,napoleon evinced for some time afterwards to convince the court of ,st4 ,petersburg that he had taken no concern in this election1 only renders it the more probable that he was in reality at the bottom of the transaction40 ,the asseverations commenced by the younger ,pennyboy1 in ,jonson's 8,staple of ,news10 are declined and dismissed1 by the elder1 who knows their worth1 with this summary and suggestive caution3 8,no vows1 no promises2 too much protestation ,makes that suspected oft1 we would persuade40 ,,fleeting ,,shadows4 ,,job xiv4 #b4 ,as man that is born of a woman is of few days1 and full of trouble2 as he is said to come forth like a flower1 only to be cut down1 so is it further said of him1 that 8he fleeth also as a shadow1 and continueth not40 ,his days are like a shadow that declineth4 ,he himself is gone as a shadow that fleeteth away4 ,for man is vanity1 his days are as a shadow1 saith the psalmist4 ,and the preacher1 whose text is vanity of vanities1 all is vanity1 finds vexation of spirit in meditations on man1 all the days of whose vain life he spendeth as a shadow4 ,what shadows we are1 and what shadows we pursue6 ,the exclamation was that of a great statesman1 amid the excitement and the contests of public life1 when there reached him news of the sudden death of a fellow-candidate and colleague4 ,shadow-hunted shadows4 ,the pursued and the pursuers--the game and the sportsmen--shadows all4 ,burke's exclamation was often in the mind of the late ,sir ,james ,graham1 and1 towards the close of his life1 not unfrequently on his lips4 8 1 '1 1 40 ,o curas hominum6 ,o quantum est in rebus inane6 ,men were ever of old1 and they are found to be now1 the willing victims of illusion in all stages of life3 children1 youths1 adults1 and old men1 all1 as ,emerson puts it1 are led by one bauble or another4 8,there are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm4 ,we wake from one dream into another dream4 ,the toys1 to be sure1 are various1 and are graduated in refinement to the quality of the dupe40 ,for instance1 the intellectual man requires a fine bait1 while the sots are easily amused4 8,but everybody is drugged with his own frenzy1 and the pageant marches at all hours1 with music and banner and badge40 ,shadows before1 and shadows behind1 and all fleeting4 ,false glozing pleasures1 to adopt ,george ,herbert's diction1 are the shadowy lure1 444 8casks of happiness1 ,foolish night-fires1 women's and children's wishes1 ,chases in arras1 gilded emptiness1 ,shadows well mounted1 dreams in a career1 ,embroider'd lies1 nothing between two dishes1-- ,these are the pleasures here40 ,marcus ,antoninus1 in his 8,meditations10 harps on the note of shadow-hunting or shadow-hunted shadows4 ,you will soon be reduced to ashes and a skeleton1 he keeps telling himself2 and even if you leave a name1--what is a name8 what is in a name8 ,vox et prterea nihil4 ,the shadows you1 a shade1 pursue1 are miserably shadowy4 ,the prizes of life are1 he says1 so paltry1 that to scuffle for them is ridiculous1 and puts him in mind of a set of puppies snarling for a bone1 or of the contests of children for a toy4 ,wherever he looks1 the wide world over1 and in whatever age of its history1 he sees abundance of people very busy1 and big with their projects1 who presently drop off1 and moulder to dust and ashes4 ,the freshest laurels wither apace1 and the echoes of ,fame are soon silenced4 ,the 8insect youth0 that people the air and make it murmurous with busy life1--is not their close resemblance to the children of men one of poetry's common-places8 8,to ,contemplation's sober eye1 ,such is the race of man2 ,and they that creep1 and they that fly1 ,shall end where they began4 8,alike the busy and the gay1 ,but flutter through life's little day1 ,in fortune's varying colours drest2 ,brushed by the hand of rough ,mischance1 ,or chilled by ,age1 their airy dance ,they leave1 in dust to rest40 ,having asked to be told her fortune by the ,wise ,wight of ,mucklestane ,moor1 ,miss ,ildeston1 in ,scott's story1 is told by the cynical recluse1 that it is a simple one2 an endless chase through life after follies not worth catching1 and when caught1 successively thrown away--a chase1 pursued from the days of tottering infancy to those of old age upon his crutches4 8,toys and merry-making in childhood--love and its absurdities in youth--spadille and basto in age1 shall succeed each other as objects of pursuit3 flowers and butterflies in spring1--butterflies and thistledown in summer1--withered leaves in autumn and winter--all pursued1 all caught1 all flung aside40 ,que vont elles faire de si grand matin1 ,cleopas asks his demon-guide1 concerning ces personnes whose early rising and eager bustle have caught and fixed his attention4 8,ce que vous souhaitez de savoir1 reprit le ,dmon1 est une chose digne d'tre observe4 ,vous allez voir un tableau des soins1 des mouvements1 des peines que les pauvres mortels se donnent pendant cette vie1 pour remplir1 le plus agrablement qu'il leur est possible1 ce petit space qui est entre leur naissance et leur mort40 ,telle est la vie1 as most of us live it4 8,dream after dream ensues1 ,and still they dream that they shall still succeed1 ,and still are disappointed10 writes ,william ,cowper4 ,not at all in the same measure or manner1 but pretty much to the same effect1 writes the picturesque poet of ,bells and ,pomegranates3 8,it is but to keep the nerves at strain1 ,to dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall1 ,and baffled1 get up to begin again1-- ,so the chase take up one's life1 that's all4 ,while1 look but once from your farthest bound1 ,at me so deep in the dust and dark1 ,no sooner the old hope drops to ground ,than a new one1 straight to the self-same mark ,i shape me--ever removed40 ,there is much that is suggestive in the ,abb ,gerbet's discoursings in the ,catacombs at ,rome4 8,ce dernier calque de l'homme10 he says1 in what has been called a commentary on ,bossuet's mot1 that the corpse of a man becomes a je ne sais quoi1 for which there is no name in any language--8cette forme si vague1 si efface1 peine empreinte sur une poussire peu prs impalpable1 volatile1 presque transparente1 d'un blanc mat et incertain1 est ce qui donne le mieux quelque ide de ce que les anciens appelaient une ombre4 ,cette forme est plus frle que l'aile d'un papillon1 plus prompte s'evanouir que la goutte de rose suspendue un brin d'herbe au soleil2 un peu d'air agit par votre main1 un souffle1 un son deviennent ici des agents puissants qui peuvent anantir en une seconde ce que dix-sept sicles1 peut-tre1 de destruction ont pargn4 ,voyez1--vous venez de respirer1 et la forme a disparu4 ,voil la fin de l'histoire de l'homme en ce monde40 ,what shadows we are6 ,ashes to ashes ends1 even in ,westminster ,abbey1 man's noblest story1 and dust to dust concludes his noblest song4 8,o death all-eloquent6 you only prove ,what dust we doat on1 when 'tis man we love40 ,hawthorne's ,gervayse ,hastings is a type and symbol1 when he describes himself as depressed by a haunting perception of unreality2 as one to whom all things1 all persons1 are like shadows flickering on the wall4 8,neither have ,i myself any real existence10 he says1 8but am a shadow like the rest40 ,and the end--not to say the moral--of his story may serve to remind us of the ,abb ,gerbet's words4 ,gervayse ,hastings is seated with other guests at a feast--of very odd fellows--over whom is suspended the skeleton of the oddest of all1 the founder of the feast4 ,as the speaker ceased his confession of shadowy experiences1 8it so chanced that at this juncture the decayed ligaments of the skeleton gave way1 and the dry bones fell together in a heap4444 ,the attention of the company being thus diverted for a single instant from ,gervayse ,hastings1 they perceived on turning again towards him1 that the old man had undergone a change4 ,his shadow had ceased to flicker on the wall40 ,the woe of this old man was1 that to him the world to come was all shadow too4 ,mrs4 ,schimmelpenninck expresses her belief that in youth and middle age there is often a real conviction of the transitory nature of the most established temporal things1 but that in old age it is not merely a conviction1 but a vivid palpable reality1 and that the eternal mountains do then indeed appear near at hand2 while all the campaign around seems faded into shadowy distance2 and she inclines to say1 like the monk1 who for forty years had exhibited the picture of the ,last ,supper1 that he had seen so many pass away1 that himself and those he spoke to seemed a shadow1 while the blessed institution of the ,holy ,supper stood before him alone a reality4 ,but many are the young hearts that feel as ,margaret ,hale felt1 in ,mrs4 ,gaskell's story1 when to her life seemed a vain show1 so unsubstantial1 and flickering1 and fleeting1 and when 8it was as if from some arial belfry1 high up above the stir and jar of the earth1 there was a bell continually tolling1 #8,all are shadows6--all are passing6--all is past6'0 ,le tems mme sera detruit1 as ,la ,bruyre says3 8ce n'est qu'un point dans les espaces immenses de l'ternit1 et il sera effac4 ,il y a de lgres et frivoles circonstances du tems1 qui ne sont pas stables1 qui passent1 et que j'appelle des modes1 la grandeur1 la faveur1 les richesses1 la puissance1 l'autorit1 l'indpendance1 le plaisir1 les joies1 la superfluit4 ,que deviendront ces modes1 quand le tems mme aura disparu8 ,la vertu seule1 si peu la mode1 va au-del des tems40 8,between two worlds life hovers like a star ',twixt night and morn1 upon the horizon's verge3 ,how little do we know that which we are6 ,how less what we may be6 ,the eternal surge ,of time and tide rolls on1 and bears afar ,our bubbles2 as the old burst1 new emerge1 ,lash'd from the foam of ages2 while the graves ,of empire heave but like some passing waves40 ,so writes ,byron in the poem that contains perhaps his grandest and most powerful strains1 interspersed among his wittiest and most wicked ones4 ,if ever man was haunted by the conviction that we are shadows all1 and that shadows are our pursuit1 it was he4 ,but with him there was nothing of a 8saving faith0 in this4 ,as ,shakspeare's ,prince of ,arragon reads on the scroll at ,belmont1 8,some there be that shadows kiss2 ,such have but a shadow's bliss20 and of such was ,byron4 ,and he knew it4 ,not more alive to this philosophy was ,cowper himself1 when he pictured men 8,for threescore years employed with ceaseless care ,in catching smoke and feeding upon air20 or when he pointed with this moral his lines on the felled poplars that once lent him a shade1 beneath which he had so often been charmed by the blackbird's sweet flowing ditty3 8',tis a sight to engage me1 if anything can1 ,to muse on the perishing pleasures of man2 ,though his life be a dream1 his enjoyments1 ,i see1 ,have a being less durable even than he40 ,one great amusement of the household in the ,castle of ,indolence1 on the testimony of its poet-laureate1 was1 8,in a huge crystal magic globe to spy1 ,still as you turned it1 all things that do pass ,upon this ant-hill earth2 where constantly ,of idly busy men the restless fry ,run bustling to and fro with foolish haste1 ,in search of pleasures vain that from them fly1 ,or which1 obtained1 the caitiffs do not taste40 ,if1 with ,churchill1 we stand as 8,spectators only on this bustling stage1 ,we see what vain designs mankind engage3 ,vice after vice with ardour they pursue1 ,and one old folly brings forth twenty new4444 ,squirrels for nuts contend1 and1 wrong or right1 ,for the world's empire1 kings1 ambitious1 fight4 ,what odds8--to us 'tis all the selfsame thing1 ,a nut1 a world1 a squirrel1 and a king40 ,in other verses1 and another measure1 the same poet justifies his use of the expression 8whatever shadows we pursue10 by the interpolated comment1 8,for our pursuits1 be what they will1 ,are little more than shadows still2 ,too swift they fly1 too swift and strong1 ,for man to catch or hold them long40 ,of world-wide application is what ,bernardin de ,saint-,pierre said of himself1 by way of private interpretation3 8,toutes mes ides ne sont que des ombres de la nature1 recueillies par une autre ombre40 ,goldsmith was not altogether in sport when he made ,croaker in the comedy pronounce life to be1 at the greatest and best1 but a froward child1 that must be humoured and coaxed a little till it falls asleep1 and then all the care is over2 while ,honeywood assents--,good-natured ,man that he is--with a ready 8,very true1 sir2 nothing can exceed the vanity of our existence1 but the folly of our pursuits40 ,for ,goldsmith was in sad earnest when he wrote of himself as one 8,impelled with steps unceasing to pursue ,some fleeting good that mocks me with the view ,that like the circle bounding earth and skies1 ,allures from far1 yet1 as ,i follow1 flies40 ,shadow-hunted shadows is the very text for ,mr4 ,carlyle4 ,world's memory is very whimsical now and then1 he says1 in recording the forgotten exploits of ,johann1 ,king of ,bohemia1 8all which have proved voiceless in the ,world's memory2 while the casual ,shadow of a ,feather he once more has proved vocal there40 ,and a whole chapter is devoted to1 and entitled1 a ,kaiser hunting ,shadows1--,kaiser ,karl with his ,pragmatic ,sanction to wit1 and similar projects1 aims1 or hobbies1 more or less shadowy and unsubstantial1 all4 8,there was another vast ,shadow1 or confused high-piled continent of shadows1 to which our poor ,kaiser held with his customary tenacity4 ,to procure adherences and assurances to this dear ,pragmatic ,sanction1 was even more than the shadow of the ,spanish crown10 the one grand business of his life henceforth4 8,shadow of ,pragmatic ,sanction1 shadow of the ,spanish crown1--it was such shadow-huntings of the ,kaiser in ,vienna0 that thwarted the ,prussian ,double-marriage4 ,another object which ,kaiser ,karl pursued with some diligence1 and which 8likewise proved a shadow10 was his ,ostend ,east ,india ,company1 which gave much disturbance to mankind4 8,this was the third grand shadow which the ,kaiser chased1 shaking all the world1 poor crank world1 as he strode after it40 ,foiled in this1 as in another and another chase1 no wonder he grew more and more saturnine1 and 8addicted to solid taciturn field-sports4 ,his ,political #8,perforce ,hunt 7,parforce ,jagd71' with so many two-footed terriers1 and legationary beagles1 distressing all the world by their baying and their burrowing1 had proved to be of ,shadows2 and melted into thin air1 to a very singular degree60 ,many chapters later ,mr4 ,carlyle recurs to his picture of the 8,kaiser in his ,shadow-hunt1 coursing the ,pragmatic ,sanction chiefly1 as he has done these twenty years past0--and so begins a chapter entitled1 by a mixed metaphor1 8,kaiser's ,shadow-hunt has caught ,fire0--by contact1 namely1 with inflammable ,poland4 ,and a subsequent chapter details the damages the poor ,kaiser had to pay for meddling in ,polish elections1--8for galloping thither in chase of ,shadows4444 ,this may be considered as the consummation of the ,kaiser's ,shadow-hunt2 or at least its igniting and exploding point4444 ,shadow-hunt is now all gone to ,pragmatic ,sanction1 as it were3 that is now the one thing left in ,nature for a ,kaiser2 and that he will love1 and chase1 as the summary of all things40 ,from this point we see him go steadily down1 and at a rapid rate1--getting into disastrous ,turkish wars1 8with as little preparation for ,war or ,fact as a life-long ,hunt of ,shadows presupposes40 ,or let us take our stand1 with the same philosopher1 in that il-de-,buf1 in the ,versailles ,palace ,gallery--through which what figures have passed1 and vanished6 8,figures8 ,men8 ,they are fast-fleeting ,shadows2 fast chasing each other3 it is not a ,palace1 but a ,caravansera40 ,macaulay has his ,sermon in a ,churchyard4 ,to that spot the homilist invites all and sundry1 and he takes his standpoint for his text4 ,come to this school of his1 he bids us1 with the promise that there we shall learn1 8in one short hour of placid thought1 a stoicism more deep1 more stern1 than ever ,zeno's porch hath taught30 8,the plots and feats of those that press ,to seize on titles1 wealth1 or power1 ,shall seem to thee a game of chess1 ,devised to pass a tedious hour4 ,what matters it to him who fights ,for shows of unsubstantial good1 ,whether his kings1 and queens1 and knights1 ,be things of flesh1 or things of wood8 8,we check and take1 exult1 and fret2 ,our plans extend1 our passions rise1 ,till in our ardour we forget ,how worthless is the victor's prize4 ,soon fades the spell1 soon comes the night3 ,say will it not be then the same1 ,whether we play the black or white1 ,whether we lost or won the game80 ,this may remind us of ,mrs4 ,battle's apology for whist1 or of the concluding sentence in a characteristic confession by ,benjamin ,constant--who1 by the way1 had said of himself in a previous letter1 ,je passerai comme une ,,ombre sur la terre entre le malheur et l'ennui--he records his sentiment profond et 7like his name7 constant of the shortness of life--a sentiment1 he says1 so deep and so constant that it makes the pen or the book drop from his hand whenever he takes to study3 8,nous n'avons pas plus de motifs pour acqurir de la gloire1 pour conqurir un empire ou pour faire un bon livre1 que n'en avons pour faire une promenade ou une partie de whist40 ,even so utterly different a man in creed and character as ,joseph de ,maistre could exclaim1 8,ah6 le vilain monde6 j'ai toujours dit qu'il ne pourrait aller si nous avions le sens commun4444 ,c'est ntre folie qui fait tout aller40 ,else when we see--especially when death brings home to us1 strikes home to us--what shadows we are1 and what shadows we pursue1 8en vrit chacun se coucherait et daignerait peine s'habiller40 ,n'importe6 tout marche et c'est assez4 ,and readers of ,m4 de ,tocqueville's letters will remember how often that philosophic writer confides to his correspondents his conviction that there is no one thing in the world capable of fixing and satisfying him4 ,he had attained a success unhoped for at the beginning of his career1 but was far from happy4 ,often1 in imagination1 he would fancy himself at the summit of human greatness2 and when there1 the conviction would force itself irrepressibly upon him1 that the same painful sensations would follow him to that sublime altitude4 ,succeeding8 ,what is the great use of succeeding8 muses the master showman of ,vanity ,fair4 ,failing8 ,where is the great harm8 8,psha6 ,these things appear as nought1 when ,time passes--,time the consoler--,time the anodyne--,time the grey calm satirist1 whose sad smile seems to say1 ,look1 ,o man1 at the vanity of the objects you pursue1 and of yourself who pursue them60 8,dust are our frames2 and1 gilded dust1 our pride ,looks only for a moment whole and sound2 ,like that long-buried body of the king1 ,found lying with his urns and ornaments1 ,which at a touch of light1 an air of heaven1 ,slipt into ashes and was found no more40 ,the professed cynic1 remarks an essayist on the theme of ,occasional ,cynicism1 has reached the delightful conclusion that 8the whole thing10 by which he means life and all its interests1 is a sheer mistake and piece of confusion4 ,and as it presents itself to the grander and loftier type of mind1 this difficulty is held by the same writer to be the 8starting-point of all systems of religion and philosophy1 of which it is the object to show either that aims exist before men's eyes that are solid realities worth pursuing1 and not mere shadows1 or else that even shadows are better worth pursuing in some one way than in all others40 ,jeffrey's earlier letters abound in almost cynical reflections on the folly of ambition and the 8ridiculous self-importance0 implied in 8heroic toils40 ,the whole game of life seemed to him a little childish1 8and the puppets that strut and look lofty very nearly as ridiculous as those that value themselves on their airs and graces--poor little bits of rattling timber--to be jostled in a bag as soon as the curtain drops40 8,god help us6 it is a foolish little thing this human life at the best2 and it is half ridiculous and half pitiful to see what importance we ascribe to it1 and to its little ornaments and distinctions10 etc4 ,we are1 as a modern poet of name and promise puts it1 for ever at hide-and-seek with our souls3 444 8,not in ,hades alone ,doth ,sisyphus roll1 ever frustrate1 the stone1 ,do the ,danads ply1 ever vainly1 the sieve4 ,tasks as futile does earth to its denizens give40 ,when we reflect on the shortness and uncertainty of life1 how despicable1 exclaims ,david ,hume1 seem all our pursuits of happiness6 ,and even if we would extend our concern beyond our own life1 he goes on to say1 how frivolous appear our most enlarged and most generous projects1 when we consider the incessant changes and revolutions of human affairs1 by which laws and learning1 books and governments1 are hurried away by time1 as by a rapid stream1 and are lost in the immense ocean of matter4 ,if such a reflection certainly tends to mortify all our passions1 does it not1 asks the essayist1 thereby counterwork the artifice of nature1 by which we are 8happily deceived into an opinion that human life is of some importance8 ,and may not such a reflection be employed with success by voluptuous reasoners1 in order to lead us from the paths of action and virtue into the flowery fields of indolence and pleasure80 ,the ,chinese have been pointed to1 by a moral philosopher1 to point his moral1 which is1 the desolating tendency of secularism--they having learnt practically1 as well as theoretically1 to think of themselves as mere transitory beings1 who have no future life to expect1 and no present ,providence to reverence or fear2 and the result he takes to be1 that they are the meanest1 the most deceitful1 and one of the most vicious nations in the world--a people who literally sit in darkness1 and whose lives are passed in the shadow of death4 8,in all the world there is no more terrible or instructive example of the practical results of looking upon men as mere passing shadows1 who have no superior and no hereafter40 ,once succeed1 this writer argues1 in persuading men that they are mere passing phenomena1 possessing no more distinctive qualities than the successive waves of the sea1 and the consequence is inevitable4 8,they will cease--gradually1 imperceptibly1 and with all sorts of moral1 and perhaps religious1 reflections on their lips--to care for what is great1 permanent1 and noble1 and they will become1 in the fullest sense of the words1 beasts that perish40 ,many men1 says ,archdeacon ,hare1 spend their lives in gazing at their own shadows1 and so dwindle away into shadows thereof4 ,and one of his companion guessers at truth remarks1 that instead of watching the bird as it flies above our heads1 we chase his shadow along the ground2 and1 finding we cannot grasp it1 we conclude it to be nothing4 ,if a man be a reality1 says ,john ,sterling1 no empty vision in the dreaming soul of nature1 but inwardly substantial and personal1 that which he most earnestly desires1 which best satisfies his whole being1 must be real too4 ,and here is a parallel passage from a later writer3 8,yes1 this life is the war of the ,false and the ,true1 ,yet this life is a truth1 though so complex to view ,that its latent veracity few of us find4444 ,ay1 the world but a frivolous phantasm seems1 ,and mankind in the mass but as motes in sunbeams2 ,but when ,fate1 from the midst of this frivolous nature1 ,selects for her purpose some frail human creature1 ,and the ,angel of ,sorrow1 outstretching a wan ,forefinger to mark him1 strikes down from the man ,the false life that hid him1 the man's self appears ,a solemn reality3 ,him the dread spheres ,of heaven and hell with their forces dispute1 ,and dare we be indifferent8 ,hence1 and be mute1 ,light scoffer1 vain trifler6 ,through all thou discernest ,a ,greater than thou is at work1 and in earnest2 ,and he who dares trifle with man1 trifles too ,with man's awful ,maker40444 ,,haran ,,taken3 ,,terah ,,left4 ,,genesis xi4 #bh4 ,there is a pathetic significance in what to the unobserving reader might seem a dry record of decease1 commonplace among other commonplaces1 in the fact mentioned concerning the house of ,terah1 the father of ,abraham1--that 8,haran died before his father ,terah in the land of his nativity1 in ,ur of the ,chaldees40 ,it is1 as ,canon ,melvill says1 like an inversion of the natural order1 when we see parents performing the last office to their children3 we feel it natural that children should close the eyes1 and shroud the limbs of fathers and mothers1 but unnatural that fathers and mothers should perform these sad duties for children4 8,haran should have followed ,terah1 and not ,terah ,haran40 ,a great ,french moralist1 in his exposition of the sublime intensity of a father's love1 goes on to say of the tie1 the lien1 which unites devoted parent to endeared child1 8,et la nature brise ce lien4 ,elle jette au tombeau cette vie qui commence1 et condamne le pre rester vivant40 ,a tender poet of our day was writing from such an experience--not in his case an isolated one--when bewailing the gem of his hearth1 his household pride1 who1 could love have saved from death1 would have found a father's love1 and a mother's1 stronger than death3 8,humbly we bow to ,fate's decree2 ,yet had we hoped that ,time should see ,thee mourn for us1 not us for thee40 ,les funrailles des fils1 says another ,french author1 sont toujours contre la nature quand les parents y assistant4 ,how often ,edmund ,burke harps on that tremulously vibrating string1 in reference to the master-grief which overshadowed his closing period of life6 ,in a letter to ,dr4 ,lawrence1 he expresses his thankfulness to ,god for dismissing him 8so gently from life10 and being sent1 he adds1 8to follow those who in course ought to have followed me40 ,in his famous letter to the ,duke of ,bedford1 the bereaved old man utters the lament3 8,i live in an inverted order4 ,they who ought to have succeeded me have gone before me4 ,they who should have been to me as posterity1 are in the place of ancestors40 ,shakspeare had anticipated the thought1 and the expression of the thought1 when he made old ,lucretius exclaim3 8,if in the child the father's image lies1 ,where shall ,i live1 now ,lucrece is unlived8 ,thou wast not to this end from me derived4 ,if children predecease progenitors1 ,we are their offspring1 and they none of ours40 ,so again he makes ,capulet cry out1 at the loss of his daughter ,juliet1 8,o thou untaught6 what manners is in this1 to press before thy father to a grave60 ,writing to a kinsman on the birth of a son1 ,burke gives utterance to the wish1 8,may he live to be the staff of your age1 and to close your eyes in peace2 instead of1 like me1 reversing the order of nature1 and having the melancholy office to close his40 ,and to his 8dear little niece10 ,mary1 he thus writes after the birth of her son 7,thomas ,haviland ,burke73 8,may you see your son a support to your old age2 444 and at a very long day may he close your eyes1 not as ,i have done those of your admirable cousin40 ,his progeny may never be his posterity1 muses ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 in his meditations on man3 8he may go out of the world less related than he came into it2 and considering the frequent mortality in friends and relations1 in such a term of time1 he may pass away divers years in sorrow and black habits1 and leave none to mourn for himself2 orbity may be his inheritance40 ,bitterly ,mohammed bewailed the death of his four sons by ,kadijah1 who died in their infancy2 and especially that of one by ,maria the ,egyptian2 for not only was this fatal to his hopes of founding an hereditary religious dynasty1 but it affected his claims to pre-eminent favour with ,god4 8,al-as ,ebn ,wayel1 who was so cruel and so daring as to insult him on the loss of his favourite boy1 444 was accursed of heaven1 and a special ,sura 7the #ajhth7 was revealed to console the ,prophet40 ,bitterly ,saint ,stephen1 the first king of ,hungary1 bewailed the loss of his promising son ,emeric--the first of a series of shocks that hastened his own end4 ,like the desolate sire in ,scott's poem who 444 8beheld aghast1 ,with ,wilfrid all his projects pass1 ,all turn'd and centred on his son1 ,on ,wilfrid all--and he was gone4 #8,and ,i am childless now1' he said40 ,rn of ,anjou1 in surviving his male offspring1 was the last representative of his race4 ,southey observes that ,pauli in domo prter se nemo superest1 is a reflection passing melancholy in the speech of ,paulus milius2 and applying it to his own emphatically good physician1 he says1 that the speedy extinction of his family in his own person was often in the ,doctor's mind1 and that he would sometimes touch upon it1 to dear friends1 in moods of autumnal feeling4 ,michelet's record of the death of ,charles le ,bel1 who leaving only a daughter1 was succeeded by a cousin1 closes with the reminder1 8,all that fine family of princes who had sat near their father at the council of ,vienne1 was extinct4 ,in the popular belief1 the curse of ,boniface had taken effect40 ,so with ,alexander ,,iii4 of ,scotland1 whose eldest son died soon after his marriage1 leaving no issue1 and whose second son died while a boy2 other bereavements followed1 and the king came to feel in fact as the patriarch felt by anticipation1 that to be bereaved of one's children1 was bereavement indeed4 ,king ,james ,v41 in like manner the survivor of both his sons1 died a broken-hearted man4 ,laelio ,torelli1 the ,florentine statesman and man of letters1 survived all his children4 ,shakspeare lost his only son some twenty years before his own decease4 ,vincentio ,scamozzi1 the architect1 who died the same year as ,shakspeare1 caused no little talk at the time1 by the very singular will he left1 betokening a most extraordinary solicitude for the perpetuation of his name1 as he had the grief of outliving his offspring4 ,sir ,francis ,vere's three sons and two daughters all died before him4 ,it was accounted a signal calamity in the career of that true nobleman1 the ,duke of ,ormond1 that he outlived 8the noble-minded ,ossory10 worthy son of such a sire4 8,the feeble wrap the athletic in his shroud2 and weeping fathers build their children's tomb40 ,young's is that truism2 and ,pope's is the cognate query1 8,say1 was it virtue1 more though ,heaven ne'er gave1 lamented ,digby1 sunk thee to the grave8 8,tell me1 if virtue made the son expire1 ,why1 full of days and honours1 lives the sire80 ,passing in his ,meditations from single persons to families1 ,marcus ,antoninus refers to that of the ,pompeys1 for one instance1 as wholly extinct4 8,this man was the last of his house10 he says1 is not an uncommon inscription upon a monument4 ,as with ,homer's ,phnops1 in feeble age1 who lost his joy and hope in young ,xanthus and ,thon3 8,vast was his wealth1 and these the only heirs ,of all his labours1 and a life of cares4 ,cold death o'ertakes them in their blooming years1 ,and leaves the father unavailing tears4 ,to strangers now descends his heapy store1 ,the race forgotten1 and the name no more40 ,who on his staff is this8 we ask with ,ossian2 who is this whose head is white with age1 whose eyes are red with tears1 who quakes at every step8 8,it is thy father1 ,o ,morar60 dead and gone ,morar3 8the father of no son but thee4444 ,weep1 thou father of ,morar2 weep1 but thy son heareth thee not4 ,deep is the sleep of the dead--low their pillow of dust40 ,this flies sure to the old man's heart1 says ,schiller's ,illo of the elder ,piccolomini1 444 8,he has his whole life long ,fretted and toil'd to raise his ancient house ,from a count's title to the name of prince2 ,and now must seek a grave for his only son40 ,peter the ,great1 whether guilty or not of putting to death his elder son1 ,alexis1 was inconsolable for the loss of the only remaining one4 ,it was the fate of ,queen ,anne to lose1 at twelve years of age1 the hopeful young prince who alone survived of all her very many children4 ,samuel ,richardson was the saddened survivor of all his five sons and a daughter4 ,the celebrated ,dutch philosopher and mathematician1 ',sgravesande1 who1 by the way1 was born within the same year with ,richardson1 lost his two sons within eight days of each other1 and is honoured for the ,christian resignation with which he bore the sharp trial4 ,sir ,john ,vanbrugh lost his only son at the battle of ,tournay4 ,bishop ,warburton died not long after his only son1 who was carried off by a decline in the springtide of life4 ,it is of a distinguished ,swiss littrateur1 who died in his prime1 that ,sainte-,beuve somewhere says que sa destine tranche avant l'heure a pourtant t complte1 si un pre octognaire ne lui survivait4 8,i ought to have gone before him3 ,i wonder he went so young10 wails the aged mother in ,mr4 ,tennyson's poem1 all whose children have gone before her1 she is so old4 ,the gathering sorrows which clouded the latter years of ,bishop ,percy1 8after a life in the main prosperous and happy10 commenced with the loss of an only son4 ,lord ,kenyon died in #ahjb1 8sorrow-stricken by the loss of his eldest son1 after having accumulated a fortune of #cjj1jjj40 ,lord ,stowell lost his son1 aged forty-two1 about two months only before he too fell on death4 ,sprengel1 the very learned ,german physician1 never recovered the stroke of his son's loss4 ,cuvier's four children all died before him4 8,write ye this man childless30 many a man of genius has felt his heart sink and his strength fail under that blighting sentence4 ,in his sixty-seventh year we find ,moore writing1 8,the last of our five children is now gone1 and we are left desolate and alone4 ,not a single relative have ,i now left in the world40 ,how ,mr4 ,hallam was successively bereaved of sons so rich in promise1 if not in performance1 is too well known4 ,there is a seeming affectation of literary paternity in what ,chateaubriand writes of the death of ,byron1--as though it were ,terah and ,haran1 with a difference4 8,i preceded him in life2 he preceded me in death4 ,he was summoned before his time4 ,my number came before his1 and yet his was drawn first from the urn4 ,it was ,childe ,harold who ought to have remained40 ,,the ,,mote ,,and ,,the ,,beam4 ,,st4 ,,matthew vii4 #e4 ,as easy is it to discern the mote in a brother's eye as to discern the face of the sky4 ,hypocrite is the term by which the facile discerner in either case is divinely stigmatised2 in the one instance1 because with all his discernment he cannot read the signs of the times2 in the other1 because with all his insight and microscopic nicety of perception1 and exceptionally developed faculty of vision1 he yet considers not the beam that is in his own eye4 ,with our ,lord's words concerning the mote and the beam1 ,archbishop ,trench bids us compare the ,chinese proverb1 8,sweep away the snow from thine own door1 and heed not the frost upon thy neighbour's tiles40 ,the ,greek and ,latin classics are not wanting in various readings of the same theme4 ,demosthenes meant much the same thing when he said that we must beware of austerely scrutinizing the actions of others1 unless first we are conscious of having acquitted ourselves aright3 8 1 40 8,man is blind to his own faults1 but keen-sighted to perceive those of others10 is a ,latin adage3 8,vitiis suis pervidendis ccus est homo1 in alienis perspicax40 8,is it never your way to look at yourself when you are abusing another80 is a question in ,plautus3 8,non soles respicere te1 cum dicas injuste alteri80 ,cicero pronounces it to be of the nature of folly to see the faults of others1 and to forget one's own3 8,proprium est stultiti aliorum vitia cernere1 oblivisci suorum40 ,horace shrewdly submits that the man who is desirous that his friends should not take offence at his own protuberances1 will 8ignore0 that friend's warts3 8,qui1 ne tuberibus propriis offendat amicum1 ,postulat1 ignoscat verrucis illius40 ,and at least as pointed and piquant is the passage beginning1 8,quum tua pervideas oculis male lippus inunctis1 ,cur in amicorum vitiis tam cernis acutum10 etc4 ,the query ,plautus puts1 8,how is it that no man tries to search into himself1 but each fixes his eyes on the wallet of the one who goes before him80 is in allusion to the fable of ,jupiter having loaded men with a couple of wallets2 the one1 filled with our own vices1 being slung at our backs1 8,propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit20 the other1 heavy with our neighbour's faults1 hung in front1 8,alienis ante pectus suspendit gravem40 ,to pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we cannot suffer in others1 is neither better nor worse1 says ,dean ,swift1 than to be more willing to be fools ourselves than to have others so4 ,the proverbs of all nations show all nations to be alive to the ridiculous in this respect4 ,the kiln calls the oven1 burnt house1 says one4 ,in ,italy1 the pan says to the pot1 ,keep off1 or you'll smutch me4 ,in ,spain1 the raven bawls hoarsely to the crow1 ,get out1 blackamoor6 7,qutate all1 negro67 ,in ,germany1 one ass nicknames another1 ,long-ears4 ,and ,dr4 ,trench is rather taken with a certain originality in the ,catalan version of the proverb3 8,death said to the man with his throat cut1 #8,how ugly you look6'0 ,they should be fair1 hints ,juvenal1 who venture to deride the disproportioned leg or sooty hide1 ,loripedem rectus derideat1 thiopem albus4 ,yet1 as the ,ettrick shepherd once sang in his native ,doric3-- 8,there's some wi' big scars on their face1 ,point out a prin scart on a frien'2 ,and some1 black as sweeps wi' disgrace1 ,cry out1 the whole warld's unclean40 ,molire's ,chrysale twits her sister ,blise1 who is a femme savante1 with snapping up everybody short who makes a slip with the tongue1 while herself liable to graver censure for slips of conduct3-- 8,le moindre solcisme en parlant vous irrite2 ,mais vous en faites1 vous1 d'tranges en conduite40 ,sappho1 again1 in ,mademoiselle de ,scudry's portentous romance--once the rage of readers in ,france1 despite its plurality of volumes1 as 8,clarissa0 was in ,england1 a century later--ridicules the bizarre orthography of the fine-ladyism of the day1 while amused at the fact that the fine ladies in question1 who perpetrated such gross errors in writing1 and who lost every particle of wit the moment they took up a pen1 would yet make game for days together of some poor foreigner who happened to use one term for another4 ,as if it were less a matter of mirth or marvel for a grande dame1 claiming to be a woman of wit1 too1 and a power in society1 to commit a thousand blunders in writing her native language1 than for a raw foreigner to make a few slips in speaking it4 ,we every day and every hour1 observes ,montaigne1 say things of another that we might more properly say of ourselves1 could we but revert our observation to our own concerns as well as extend it to others4 ,and the old essayist has his fling at not a few authors of the day who1 in this manner1 prejudiced their own cause by running headlong upon those they attacked1 and darting those shafts against their enemies that might1 with much greater propriety and effect1 be hurled back at themselves4 ,a stanza in the most elaborate of ,shakspeare's poems that are not plays--for are not all his plays poems8--runs into this eloquence of remonstrant appeal3-- 8,think but how vile a spectacle it were ,to view thy present trespass in another4 ,men's faults do seldom to themselves appear2 ,their own transgressions partially they smother3 ,this guilt would seem death-worthy in thy brother4 ,o1 how are they wrapped in with infamies1 ,that from their own misdeeds askance their eyes60 ,it is of their common friend ,breuning that ,beethoven writes to ,ferdinand ,ries1--8,he certainly possesses many admirable qualities1 but he thinks himself quite faultless1 whereas the very defects that he discovers in others are those which he possesses himself to the highest degree40 ,one of the most natural and truthfully1 as well as forcibly1 drawn characters in ,mrs4 ,inchbald's 8,simple ,story10--,sandford1--a man of understanding1 of learning1 and a complete casuist1 yet all whose faults were committed for the want of knowing better1 is described as constantly reproving faults in others1 and most assuredly too good a man not to have corrected and amended his own1 had they been known to him2 but known to him they were not4 ,he had been1 we are told1 for so long a time the spiritual superior or preceptor of all with whom he lived1 and so busied with instructing others1 that he had not once recollected that he needed instruction himself2 and in such awe did his habitual severity keep all about him1 that although he had numerous friends1 not one of them told him of his failing4 8,was there not then some reason for him to suppose he had no faults8 ,his enemies1 indeed1 hinted that he had2 but enemies he never hearkened to2 and thus1 with all his good sense1 he wanted the sense to follow the rule1 #8,believe what your enemies say of you rather than what is said by your friends4'0 ,he had yet to learn1 and to learn by heart1 the wide and practical import of the prayer-- 8,teach me to love and to forgive1 ,exact my own defects to scan1 ,what others are to feel1 and know myself a ,man40 ,well may the demoniac guide of ,don ,cleofas1 in ,le ,sage's symbolical fiction1 say1 and well does he say1 8,j'admire messieurs les hommes2 leurs propres dfauts leur paraissent des minuties1 au lieu qu'ils regardent ceux d'autrui avec un microscope40 ,to their own faults more than a little blind1 to those of others they are not a little unkind4 ,gay begins his fable of the ,turkey and the ,ant with the smoothly-turned truism1 that 8,in other men we faults can spy1 ,and blame the mote that dims their eye2 ,each little speck and error find2 ,to our own stronger errors blind40 ,one of the most classical masters of modern ,english1 whether in verse or prose1 was employing the same metre--of fatal facility1 as it is called--when he closed his address to a brother bard in a strain that must also close this chapter of instances3 8,we1 who surround a common table1 ,and imitate the fashionable1 ,wear each two eye-glasses3 this lens ,shows us our faults1 that other men's4 ,we do not care how dim may be ,this by whose aid our own we see2 ,but1 ever anxiously alert ,that all may have their whole desert1 ,we would melt down the stars and sun ,in our heart's furnace1 to make one ,through which th' enlightened world might spy ,a mote upon a brother's eye40 ,,strangers ,,and ,,pilgrims4 #a ,,peter ii4 #aa4 ,peter1 an apostle of ,jesus ,christ1 to the strangers scattered throughout ,asia ,minor1 addressed the urgent appeal that as strangers--strangers and pilgrims--they should abstain from fleshly lusts1 which war against the soul4 ,consider what you are1 he seems to say1 as his words are paraphrased by the greatest of all commentators on his first epistle3 8,if you were citizens of this world1 then you might drive the same trade0 with the men of this world1 8and follow the same lusts2 but seeing you are chosen and called out of this world1 and invested into a new society1 made free of another city1 and are therefore here but travellers passing through to your own country1 it is very reasonable that there be this difference betwixt you and the world1 that while they live at home your carriage be such as fits strangers1 not glutting yourselves with their pleasures1 nor surfeiting upon their delicious fruits1 as some unwary travellers do abroad2 but as wise strangers living warily and soberly1 and still minding most of all your journey homewards1 suspecting dangers and snares in your way1 and so walking with a holy fear1 as the ,hebrew word for a stranger imports40 ,the topic is one upon which ,archbishop ,leighton ever writes feelingly4 ,as again in his comment on the psalmist's profession of being a stranger with ,god1 and a sojourner as all his fathers were1 the same devout expositor observes that he who looks on himself as a stranger1 and is sensible of the darkness round about him in this wilderness1 will often put up that request with ,david1 8,i am a stranger in the earth3 hide not ,thy commandments from me40 ,what1 ,leighton asks1 is the joy of our life1 but the thoughts of that other life1 our home before us8 8,and certainly he that lives much in these thoughts1 set him where you will here1 he is not much pleased nor displeased2 but if ,his ,father call him home1 that word gives him his heart's desire40 ,once again1 in the sixth of his lectures on the immortality of the soul1 ,leighton expatiates on the fact that this is not our rest1 that we have no place of residence here below3 8it is the region of fleas and gnats2 and while we search for happiness among these mean and perishing things1 we are not only sure to be disappointed1 but also not to escape those miseries which1 in great numbers1 continually beset us2 so that we may apply to ourselves the saying of the famous artist confined in the island of ,crete1 and truly say1-- 8#8,nec tellus nostr1 nec patet unda fug1 ,restat iter cli1 clo tentabimus ire4'0 78,the earth and the sea are shut up against us1 and neither of them can favour our escape2 the way to heaven is alone open1 and this way we will strive to go407 ,incidentally1 it adds to the interest of every such passage in ,leighton's writings to remember a noteworthy circumstance respecting his death4 ,he had been used to say that if he were to choose a place to die in it should be an inn--for that would look so like a pilgrim's going home1 to whom this world was all as an inn4 ,it was his opinion1 also1 as we read in the memoir of him by ,aikman1 that 8the officious tenderness and care of friends was an entanglement to a dying man1 and that the unconcerned attendance of those who could be procured in such a place would give less disturbance40 ,he had his wish4 ,at the ,bell ,inn1 ,warwick ,lane1 ,robert ,leighton1 in his seventy-fourth year1 stranger and pilgrim1 drew his last breath4 8,an inn receives me1 where1 unknown1 ,i solitary sit me down2 ,many ,i hear1 and some ,i see-- ,i nought to them1 they nought to me4 ,thus1 in those regions of the dead1 ,a pilgrim's wandering life ,i lead2 ,and still at every step declare ,i've no abiding city here4 444 ,the world is like an inn2 for there ,men call and storm and drink and swear2 ,while undisturbed the ,christian waits1 ,and reads and writes and meditates4 ,though in the dark ofttimes ,i stray1 ,the ,lord shall light me on my way2 ,and to the city of the sun ,conduct me1 when my journey's done4 ,there by these eyes shall ,he be seen1 ,who sojourned for me at an inn2 ,on ,sion's hill ,i those shall hail ,from whom ,i parted in the vale40 ,of him who walks by faith and not by sight1 who places eternity by the side of time1 and so regards the one as a mere path or stepping-stone to the other1 it is well said by ,dr4 ,chalmers that he actually moves through life in the spirit of a traveller1 feels his home to be heaven1 and all his dearest hopes and interests to be laid up there2 8walking therefore over the world with a more light and unencumbered step than other men1 just because all its adversities to him are but the crosses of a rapid journey1 and all its joys but the shifting scenery of the land through which he is travelling1 and visions of passing loveliness40 ,as in the pilgrim's song of a contemporary clerical poet3 8,my rest is in heaven2 my rest is not here3 ,then why should ,i murmur when trials are near8 ,be hushed1 my dark spirit6 the worst that can come ,but shortens thy journey1 and hastens thee home4 444 ,a scrip on my back1 and a staff in my hand1 ,i march on in haste through an enemy's land3 ,the road may be rough1 but it cannot be long2 ,and ,i'll smooth it with hope1 and ,i'll cheer it with song40 ,the second of ,bishop ,beveridge's ,resolutions comprises this utterance1--after the expression of a longing that he could be ever on the mount1 taking a view of the land of ,canaan1 for then what dreams and shadows would all things here below appear to be1--8,well6 by the grace of ,god1 ,i am resolved no longer to tie myself to sense and sight1 the sordid and trifling affairs of this life1 but always to walk as one of the other world2 to behave myself in all places1 and at all times1 as one already possessed of my inheritance and an inhabitant of the ,new ,jerusalem2--by faith assuring myself ,i have but a few more days to live below1 a little more work to do1 and be admitted to a nearer vision and fruition of ,god1 and see ,him face to face40 ,and thus1 although at present here in the flesh1 the believer's resolve is to look upon himself as more really an inhabitant of heaven than abiding 7for here we have no continuing city7 upon earth4 ,in the words of l'exil of ,lamennais1 8,la patrie n'est point ici-bas2 l'homme vainement l'y cherche2 ce qu'il prend pour elle n'est qu'un gite d'une nuit40 ,happy they1 exclaims ,pascal in his ,penses1 whose tears are shed1 not at the evanescence of all things earthly and perishable1 but when they remember ,sion--dans le souvenir de leur chre patrie--the heavenly ,jerusalem1 after which they sigh continually in the weariness of their exile4 ,but as ,schiller's ,thekla replies to ,neubrunn's comment on 8the journey's weary length10-- 8,the pilgrim1 travelling to a distant shrine ,of hope and healing1 does not count the leagues40 ,john ,foster describes the ,israelite indeed1 who is a pilgrim indeed1 as resembling a person whose eye1 while he is conversing with you about an object or a succession of objects1 should glance every moment towards some great obstacle appearing on the distant horizon4 8,he seems to talk to his friends in somewhat of the manner of expression with which you can imagine that ,elijah spoke1 if he remarked to his companion any circumstance in the journey from ,bethel to ,jericho1 and from ,jericho to the ,jordan2 a manner betraying the sublime anticipation which was pressing on his thoughts40 ,to other pilgrims the vision of the land that is very far off may be1 as ,professor ,maurice puts it1 not so clear as they wish2 but it is more clear than their vision of anything which lies about them2 and without it all would be shadow and darkness4 8,there1 in that state1 must lie all that they dream of and hope for40 8,there only they must live1 or have no life40 8,when they pray #8,thy kingdom come1' they ask that the ,great ,shepherd will lead them and their brethren out of a land of pits1 a thirsty wilderness1 a valley of the shadow of death1 to a peaceable habitation and a sure dwelling-place40 ,there is a bleak desert1 in the words of one who wrote sacred songs1 though himself no sacred poet1-- 444 8where daylight grows weary ,of wasting its smiles on a desert so dreary-- ,what may that desert be8 ',tis life1 cheerless life1 where the few joys that come ,are lost like that daylight1 for 'tis not their home4 ,there is a lone pilgrim1 before whose faint eyes ,the water he pants for but sparkles and flies-- ,who may that pilgrim be8 ',tis man1 hapless man1 through this life tempted on ,by fair shining hopes1 that in shining are gone40 ,in that essay of ,john ,foster's1 from which a citation has already been made1 the essayist protests against the care so many popular writers seem to take to guard against the inroad of ideas pertaining to another life--as much care as the inhabitants of ,holland take against the irruption of the sea2 and their writings1 he adds1 do really form a kind of moral dyke against the invasion from the other world4 8,they do not instruct a man to act1 to enjoy1 and to suffer1 as a being that may by to-morrow have finally abandoned this orb2 everything is done to beguile the feeling of his being #8a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth4'0 ,they fail to recognise the c'est vrai of the ,christian lyrist's avowal1 the-- 8',tis true1 we are but strangers ,and sojourners below2 ,and countless snares and dangers ,surround the path we go3 ,though painful and distressing1 ,yet there's a rest above2 ,and onward still we're pressing1 ,to reach that land of love40 ,the object of such a pilgrim is progress--or1 rather1 progress is the means to an end2 and the end is not yet1 is not here1 but will surely come1 and come quickly1 and will not tarry4 ,there is a wicket gate towards which they are making progress1 and it is the portal of a city that hath foundations1 whose builder and maker is ,god4 ,they who professedly sojourn here as in a strange country1 who obey the call to go out into a place which they shall after receive for an inheritance2 who confess1 and act on the confession1 that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth2 they that say and do such things declare plainly that they seek a country1 a better country--that is1 a heavenly4 ,chaucer's 8old style0 conveys a meaning the world can never be too old to learn3 8,here is no home1 here is but wyldyrnesse4 ,forth1 pilgrime6 forth1 best out of thy stalle6 ,look up on hye1 and thonke ,god of alle2 ,weyve thy lust1 and let thy goste thee lede1#ah ,and trouthe shall thee delyver1 it is no drede40 ,we are strangers and sojourners before ,god1 as were all our fathers4 ,by faith it was that ,abraham sojourned in the land of promise1 as in a strange country1 dwelling in tabernacles with ,isaac and ,jacob1 the heirs with him of the same promise2 in tabernacles1 that bespeak the stranger and pilgrim upon earth2 not in houses built to endure4 ,for he confessed1 and denied not1 but confessed that here he had no continuing city4 ,true1 a citizen he was of no mean city4 ,but it was not of the earth1 earthy4 ,for he looked for a city which hath foundations1 more everlasting than the hills4 ,meanwhile1 ,god's statutes were his songs in the house of his pilgrimage4 ,the ,bird of ,god is ,wordsworth's epithet for that 8resplendent wanderer0 called by ,eastern islanders the ,bird of ,heaven1 and by us of the ,west1 ,bird of ,paradise2 and1 as usual with the serenely meditative bard of ,rydal1 there is moral1 nay1 religious teaching in the symbolism of his strain3-- 8,the ,bird of ,god6 whose blessed will ,she seems performing as she flies ,over the earth and through the skies1 ,in never-wearied search of ,paradise-- ,region that crowns her beauty with the name ,she bears for us--for us how blest1 ,how happy at all seasons1 could like aim ,uphold our spirits urged to kindred flight ,on wings that fear no glance of ,god's pure sight1 ,no tempest from ,his breath1 their promised rest ,seeking with indefatigable quest ,above a world that deems itself most wise ,when most enslaved by gross realities60 ,an appalling pestilence raged in ,carthage1 and so gave deadly emphasis to the exhortations of ,st4 ,cyprian1 when he1 a good shepherd1 sought to lead the sheep of his flock to green pastures and still waters of comfort2 reminding them1 as he stood between the living and the dead1 while as yet the plague was stayed not1 that they had renounced the world1 and were abiding here as strangers and pilgrims only4 8,let us10 he besought them1 8embrace that time which gives to each one his home1 which1 delivering us from this world1 and loosing us from worldly snares1 restores us to paradise and the kingdom40 ,who1 he asks1 that is placed in a foreign land1 would not hasten to return to his own country8 ,who that saileth towards his own1 would not eagerly desire a prosperous wind to bring him swiftly to the embrace of those he loves8 8,our country we believe to be paradise3 the patriarchs we esteem our parents4 ,why1 then1 do we not speed and run1 that we may behold our country and salute our parents80 ,salutary though the sentiment be1 however1 it admits of one-sided exaggeration4 ,there are good people who1 for instance1 exalt and expatiate upon the death of godly infants1 as though to quit this earth of ours at the very earliest date were the most blessed of privileges4 ,the idea of man being sent into the world for any definite purpose never seems1 it has been justly said1 to enter the minds of these good people4 8,with them life is but an irksome omnibus-journey--the shorter the better--and to be got over by each without any regard to the comfort or requirements of his fellow-travellers40 ,only in part are these strictures on 8the shorter the better0 applicable1 if at all1 to the theme and expression of ,mrs4 ,browning's sonnet3-- 8,i think we are too ready with complaint ,in this fair world of ,god's4 ,had we no hope ,indeed beyond the zenith and the slope ,of yon grey blank of sky1 we might grow faint ,to muse upon eternity's constraint ,round our aspirant souls4 ,but since the scope ,must widen early1 is it well to droop ,for a few days consumed in loss and taint8 ,o pusillanimous heart6 be comforted1 ,and1 like a cheerful traveller1 take the road1 ,singing beside the hedge4 ,what if the bread ,be bitter in thine inn1 and thou unshod ,to meet the flints8--,at least it may be said1 #8,because the way is short1 ,i thank thee1 ,god6'0 ,addison devotes a paragraph in one of his ,spectators to the fact of men being in ,scripture called strangers and sojourners upon earth1 and life a pilgrimage4 ,and he refers to several heathen as well as ,christian authors1 who under the same kind of metaphor have represented the world as an inn1 which was only designed to furnish us with accommodation in this our passage4 ,it is therefore very absurd1 urges our moral essayist1 to think of setting up our rest before we come to our journey's end2 and not rather to take care of the reception we shall there meet with1 than to fix our thoughts on the little conveniences and advantages which we enjoy one above another in the way to it4 8,the ,illusiveness of ,life0 is the title of a sermon on the patriarchs as sojourners in a strange country1 by the late ,f4 ,w4 ,robertson1 of ,brighton2 who with characteristic force and insight explains the deception of life's promise1 and the meaning of that deception4 ,he shows how our natural anticipations deceive us--every human life being a fresh one1 bright with hopes that will never be realized4 ,with our affections1 he goes on to say1 it is still worse1 because they promise more4 8,men's affections are but the tabernacles of ,canaan--the tents of a night--not permanent habitations1 even for this life40 ,where1 he asks1 are the charms of character1 the perfection and the purity and the truthfulness which seemed so resplendent in our friend8 ,they were only the shape of our own conceptions--our creative shaping intellect projected its own fantasies on him2 and hence we outgrow our early friendships--outgrow the intensity of all3 we dwell in tents2 we never find a home1 even in the land of promise1 any more than ,abraham did4 8,life is an unenjoyable ,canaan1 with nothing real or substantial in it40 ,but there is another beside the sentimental way1 trite enough1 of considering this aspect of life--as a bubble1 a dream1 a delusion1 a phantasm1 and that other is the way of faith4 8,the ancient saints felt as keenly as any moralist could feel the brokenness of life's promises3 they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here2 they said that they had here no continuing city2 but they did not mournfully moralize on this2 they said it cheerfully1 and rejoiced that it was so40 ,strangers--the very term implies a distant home4 ,pilgrims--the law of whose pilgrimage is to make progress4 ,forgetting the things behind2 rating at their true worth the things around2 earnestly pressing forward to the things before4 ,keble's devout lyric on the escape to ,zoar is pitched in this key3-- 8,sweet is the smile of home2 the mutual look ,when hearts are of each other sure2 ,sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook1 ,the haunt of all affections pure2 ,yet in the world even these abide1 and we ,above the world our calling boast3 ,once gain the mountain-top1 and thou art free3 ,till then1 who rest1 presume2 who turn to look1 are lost40 ,,the ,,falsity ,,of ,,the ,,familiar ,,friend4 ,,psalm xli4 #i4 ,the psalmist's enemies were speaking evil of him3 when should he die1 and his name perish8 ,all that hated him were whispering together against him1 and devising hurt4 ,but this he could bear1 on the part of declared foes4 ,what he could not bear was that his own familiar friend1 in whom he trusted1 and who ate of his bread1 should have lifted up his heel against him4 ,hengstenberg remarks that in ,judas the expression1 8,which did eat of my bread10 receives its full1 its frightful verification1 in the fact of his participating in the ,last ,supper--to say nothing of habitually sharing in previous and everyday meals4 ,even a comparatively slight wound may be severe when dealt by a friend4 ,dr4 ,colani thinks that never could the ,son of man have felt so acutely the pain caused by opposition and non-recognition as when ,he received the message from ,john the ,baptist1 inquiring into the credentials of ,his ,divine mission4 ,that the rulers of the people1 that one of the twelve1 that those of ,his own kin1 should doubt or dispute ,his mission1 was hard enough to bear1 but perhaps easy to foresee4 ,but when he who had baptized ,him1 who had1 so to speak1 revealed ,him to ,himself1--when ,his 8spiritual father0 took his stand among the doubters1 8,jesus must have felt a heartrending surprise1 a veritable consternation30 for the ,baptist was not a reed shaken with the wind1 and yet1 if the ,divine hand rested on that support1 what but a reed was it1 to pierce1 even while it gave way8 ,the ,et tu1 ,brute6 of dying ,csar is a large utterance1 hardly more deep in reproachful pathos than wide of application4 ,the bitterness of its import1 varying in intensity1 has sufficed to choke bad men and good and indifferent1--as a pang more sharp than all4 ,what stung ,jugurtha to the heart was the treachery of his confidential agent1 ,bomilcar1 who intrigued to betray him to the ,romans4 ,what ,cicero professes to have felt most keenly1 during the ,clodian troubles1 was the perfidious conduct to him of that ,serranus to whom1 when consul1 he had been so kind2 nor was it the least bitter drop in the cup he had to drain at the last1 that the leader of the band who took his life was one whose life ,cicero had once saved1 as counsel for the defence4 ,antony in the tragedy is naturally made to brood most resentfully on the being betrayed by one on whose bosom he had 8slept secure of injured faith40 ,he can forgive a foe1 but not a friend3 8,treason is there in its most horrid shape1 ,where trust is greatest40 ,herod the ,great felt the pang when that dark and horrible secret1 as ,milman calls it1 came to light1 that ,antipater1 the beloved son1 for whom he had imbrued his hands in the blood of his own children--,antipater1 the heir of his kingdom--was 8clearly proved to have conspired with ,pheroras 7,b4,c4 #e7 to poison his old and doting father1 and thus to secure and accelerate his own succession40 ,michelet's narrative of the decline and death of the ,emperor ,frederick ,,ii4 comprises this record3 8,finally his chancellor1 his dearest friend1 ,peter de ,vine1 attempted to poison him4 ,after this last blow it only remained for him to veil his face1 like ,csar on the ides of ,march40 ,and familiar to us all is the story of our ,henry ,,ii41 sick and bedridden1 inquiring the names of the supporters of his rebellious son ,richard4 ,he was for declaring ,john1 the youngest of his sons1 and as he thought the most attached to him1 heir to all his continental dominions4 ,but on hearing the name of his beloved ,john1 highest on the list of ,richard's adherents1 ,henry was seized with a sort of convulsive agitation1 sat up in bed1 and gazing around with searching and haggard look1 exclaimed1 8,can it be true that ,john1 my heart1 the son of my choice1 on whom ,i doted more than on all the rest1 and my love for whom has brought on me all my woes1 has fallen from me80 ,assured that so it was1 8,well then10 sighed ,henry1 falling back on his bed1 and turning his face to the wall1 8henceforward let all go on as it may2 ,i no longer care for myself nor for the world40 ,and in this connection may be mentioned the dying exclamation of ,henry's murdered chancellor4 8,what is this1 ,reginald80 cried ,becket to ,fitzurse1 when the latter made up to him1 bared sword in hand3 8,i have loaded you with favours1 and you come to me armed1 and in the church80 ,the last stroke that broke down the aged ,pope ,boniface ,,viii41 bowed with the weight of eighty-six years1 was the defection of his favourite and favoured nephew4 ,one may apply to such defections the upbraidal in a latter-day poem on ,old ,pictures in ,florence3 8,giotto1 how1 with that soul of yours1 ,could you play me false who loved you so8 ,some slight if a certain heart endures1 ,it feels1 ,i would have your fellows know4 ,well--,i perceive not why ,i should care ,to break a silence that suits them best2 ,but the thing grows somewhat hard to bear ,when ,i find a ,giotto join the rest40 ,most painful to ,luther1 in his last moments1 was the controversy forced upon him by the defection of so dear a friend as ,agricola1 the leader of the ,antinomians4 ,he had long before that expressed his 8astoundment0 at the secession of colampadius and ,regius1 and other intimate associates4 8,why should ,i fret and fume against the papists80 he wrote in #aeca3 8all they have done against me has been in fair1 open war2 we are declared enemies1 and act as such4 ,they who hurt me are my own dear children4 ,my brothers1 fraterculi mei1 aurei amiculi mei4444 ,i thought ,i had gone through1 had exhausted all the adversities the evil one could inflict2 but it was not so4 ,my ,absalom1 the child of my heart1 had not deserted his father1 had not poured out ignominy upon ,david2 my ,judas1 the traitor who delivered up his master1 had not sold me3 he has done so now40 ,if ,mary ,stuart had any quarter to which1 in her disastrous condition1 she might look for love and favour1 it was1 says the most popular of historians of ,scotland1 her brother ,murray4 ,his kindness and compassion she deserved1 after loading him with favours1 as well as pardoning him considerable offences4 ,but his acceptance of the regency broke all remaining ties of tenderness betwixt him and his sister4 ,scott is not romancing when1 in an historical romance1 he describes her reception of the news4 8,the queen gave a sort of shriek1 and clapping her hands together1 exclaimed1 #8,comes the arrow out of his quiver8--out of my brother's bow8'0 ,when ,elizabeth appointed commissioners to inquire into ,mary's case1 the ,regent ,murray appeared before them1 8in the odious character of the accuser of his sister1 benefactress1 and sovereign40 ,to adopt the sentiment of the most sententious of stage moralists1 ,when ingratitude barbs the dart of injury1 the wound has double danger in it4 ,what touched ,cortez most nearly1 at the time of the expulsion from ,mexico1 was to find the name of his trusted friend1 his intimado1 his privado1 the secretary ,duero1 at the head of the paper of remonstrance presented by his disaffected soldiers4 ,we find ,louis ,,xvi41 on the eve of his execution1 inquiring with calm curiosity1 and as though not personally affected1 how certain members of the convention whom he knew had voted at his trial4 ,told that his cousin of ,orleans had voted for his death1 8,ah60 he exclaimed to ,malesherbes1 8that affects me more than all the rest40 ,it was1 remarks ,lamartine1 the comment of ,csar when he recognised the face of ,brutus amongst his murderers2 he alone roused him to speak4 ,so spake the captain of ,plymouth1 but with more of anger in his sorrow1 in the ,new ,england hexameters devoted by ,longfellow to ,miles ,standish1 when he charged ,john ,alder with having supplanted1 defrauded1 betrayed him3-- 8,yours is the greater treason1 for yours is a treason to friendship6 ,you1 who lived under my roof1 whom ,i cherished and loved as a brother2 ,you1 who have fed at my board and drunk of my cup1 to whose keeping ,i have entrusted my honour1 my thoughts the most sacred and secret1-- ,you too1 ,brutus6 ah1 woe to the name of friendship hereafter60 ,it was the revolt of his beloved son ,conrad which crushed to the earth the emperor ,henry ,,iv4 ,what ,dean ,milman calls 8the almost fatal effect0 of his conduct on his father1 can only be ascribed to profound affection1 deeply1 cruelly1 wantonly wounded4 8,the revolt of ,conrad seemed to crush the aged ,emperor to the earth4 ,he had borne all the vicissitudes of his earlier life with unbroken courage1 he had risen from his humiliation at ,canosa with refreshed energy2 he now abandoned himself to despair1 threw off the robes and insignia of royalty1 and was hardly prevented by his friends from falling on his own sword40--,there is a spice of the et tu ,brute bitterness in ,becket's exclamation to ,john of ,poitiers1 when even that most ardent of his admirers followed him to ,etampes1 and implored him to yield4 8,and you too10 cried the primate1 in a pang of wrath1 8will you strangle us0--ut quid nos et vos strangulatis8--,the great ,emperor ,frederick ,,ii4 reproached ,pope ,gregory ,,ix41 in the height of their contest1 as having been1 while in the lower orders of the ,church1 his familiar friend2 but that no sooner had he reached the height of his ambition than he threw off all gratitude1 and became his determined foe4--,when ,queen ,elizabeth broke out on a party of the peers for urging her whither she would not1 ,norfolk she as good as called traitor and conspirator1 and ,pembroke she said talked like a foolish soldier2 but to ,leicester it was that she exclaimed1 8,you1 my lord1 you6 ,if all the world forsook me ,i thought that you would be true60--,charles ,i4's celebrated letter to ,prince ,rupert after the loss of ,bristol1 depriving him of his command1 begins with assuring him that the surrender1 in such a manner1 and by his trusted1 no longer trusty nephew1 of that most important city1 was the greatest trial of his constancy that had yet befallen him3 8,for what is to be done1 after one that is so near me as you are1 both in blood and friendship1 submits himself to so mean an action 7,i give it the easiest term78 such--,i have so much to say1 that ,i will say no more of it40 ,the tone is that of the duke in ,mr4 ,browning's ,colombe's ,birthday3 8,ah1 the first bitterness is over now6 ,bitter ,i may have felt it to confront ,the truth1 and ascertain those natures' value ,i had so counted on--that was a pang40 ,corneille1 in his historical tragedy of ,cinna1 treats in a like strain the effect upon ,augustus of the discovered conspiracy3 8,quoi6 mes plus chers amis6 quoi6 ,cinna6 quoi6 ,maxime6 ,les deux que j'honorais d'une si haute estime1 ,a qui j'ouvrais mon cur1 et dont j'avais fait choix ,pours les plus importants et plus nobles emplois6 ,aprs qu'entre leurs mains j'ai remis mon empire1 ,pour m'arracher le jour l'un et l'autre conspire60 ,but a later scene proves that ,augustus is not even yet aware of all the accomplices2 and the conviction of milie as one of them1 wrings from him1 as ,brutus from the elder ,csar1 the upbraiding cry1 ,et toi1 ma fille1 aussi6 ,one touching incident marks the horror of the murder of the ,czar ,paul in #ahja4 ,the dress of ,ouvaroff1 one of the conspirators1 is said to have caused him to be mistaken by the ,emperor for his son ,constantine2 and1 according to ,bignon1 the last words which the unhappy monarch uttered were1 8,and you too1 my ,constantine60 ,very worthless objects have sometimes been very undeservedly ,et-tu-,brutefied4 ,the first ,lord ,holland1 when forsaken by the selfish friends1 as they have justly been described1 with whom he had jobbed and made merry and laughed at principle1 had yet retained enough belief in the social virtues to be made seriously unhappy by the conduct of his worthless companions1 particularly by that of ,rigby1 the most worthless of them all2 8,white-liver'd ,grenville and self-loving ,gower ,shall never cause one peevish moment more2 444 ,slight was the pain they gave1 and short its date2 ,i found ,i could not both despise and hate2 ,but1 ,rigby1 what did ,i for thee endure80 ,a man as pious as ,henry ,fox was otherwise1 has declared that he knew few things which so darken one's views of the moral government of ,god1 as the experience of baseness and treachery in persons who have won our confidence2 that it tempts one to question the reality of human virtue1 to suspect the hollowness of all appearance of truth and piety1 whence there is but a step to calling in question the moral purpose for which we are placed on earth4 ,hawthorne somewhere intimates that the young and pure are not apt to find out how actually sin is in the world1 until that miserable truth is brought home to them by the guiltiness of some trusted friend4 8,trust ye not in a friend10--but ah1 the pity of it1 for him who has to take up with these words of the ,morasthite1--8,a man's enemies are the men of his own house40--,how many variations on this general theme might be played from ,shakespeare's plays6 ,sir ,valentine1 for instance1 denouncing the falsity of that other1 so-called1 but so far mis-called1 ,gentleman of ,verona3 444 8,now ,i dare not say ,i have one friend alive2 thou wouldst disprove me4 ,who should be trusted now1 when one's right hand ,is perjured to the bosom8 ,proteus1 ,i am sorry ,i must never trust thee more1 ,but count the world a stranger for thy sake4 ,the private wound is deepest3 ,o time most curst6 ',mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst60 ,polixenes1 again1 argues touching the breach of amity between him and ,leontes1 that revenge is like to be all the more bitter for the cordiality of past confidence4 ,then1 too1 the implication of ,lord ,scroop1 of ,masham1 in the conspiracy with ,grey and ,cambridge against ,henry ,v41-- 8,nay1 but the man that was his bedfellow1 ,whom he hath cloy'd and graced with princely favours1-- ,that he should1 for a foreign purse1 so sell ,his sovereign's life to death and treachery60 ,henry reminds ,scroop that he bore the key of all his counsels1 and knew the very bottom of his soul2 and he wept for him1--8for this revolt of thine1 methinks1 is like another fall of man40--,a later king of ,england1 ,edward ,,iv41 is made to despair when he sees his brother ,clarence among the supporters of the foe3 8,yea1 brother of ,clarence1 art thou here too8 ,nay1 then1 ,i see that ,edward needs must down40--,and once again1 there is the ,et tu ,brute cue from which we started1 thus set forth in all its suggestive force by ,shakespeare's ,antony3 8,for ,brutus1 as you know1 was ,csar's angel3 ,judge1 ,o you gods1 how dearly ,csar loved him6 ,this was the most unkindest cut of all3 ,for when the noble ,csar saw him stab1 ,ingratitude1 more strong than traitor's arms1 ,quite vanquish'd him3 then burst his mighty heart40 ,but as we recur to this1 as the first among these secular annotations on a ,scripture text1 so we recur to ,scripture1 in conclusion1 for a pathetic parallel1 also from the ,book of ,psalms3 8,for it was not an enemy that reproached me2 then ,i could have borne it2 neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me3 then ,i would have hid myself from him4 ,but it was thou1 a man mine equal1 my guide1 and mine acquaintance4 ,we took sweet counsel together1 and walked unto the house of ,god in company40 ,the companionship past intensifies the cruelty present4 ,without so recent and vivid a remembrance of sweet counsel together1 and companionship hallowed by the sanctuary itself1 the present cruelty could have been borne2 but with them it hardly can4 8,,judge ,,not40 ,,st4 ,,matthew vii4 #a4 ,a stringent motive is adduced to enforce the strenuous monition1 8,judge not10--and it is1 8that ye be not judged4 ,for with what judgment ye judge1 ye shall be judged2 and with what measure ye mete1 it shall be measured to you again40 ,there is one ,lawgiver1 who is able to save and to destroy2 even ,he who hath committed all judgment unto the ,son3 who art thou that judgest another8 99 99 99 99 99 ,appalled were all who gazed on the last struggles of ,cardinal ,beaufort1 rendered hideous by the tortures of agonizing remorse4 ,hope had he none4 ,despair was impersonated in the frenzied contortions of that dying man4 ,king and peers stood beside the death-bed1 awe-stricken and shocked4 ,the king prayed for the cardinal1 that the ,eternal mover of the heavens might 8look with a gentle eye upon this wretch3 ,o beat away the busy meddling fiend ,that lays strong siege upon this wretch's soul1 ,and from his bosom purge this black despair40 ,see1 says a less gentle observer1 ,warwick1 how the pangs of death do make him grin4 ,royal ,henry1 on devouter thoughts intent1 bids 8peace to his soul10 in parting1 8if ,god's pleasure be40 ,and then the monarch solemnly1 urgently1 importunes the moribund cardinal to give some token1 ere he quite depart1 that ,despair has not made him all her own3 8,lord cardinal1 if thou think'st on heaven's bliss1 hold up thy hand1 make signal of thy hope40 ,but the cardinal--dies1 and makes no sign4 ,the appeal is fruitless3 no hand is held up2 no signal of hope displayed4 ,the baffled prince1 cut to the heart1 can but exclaim1 8,he dies1 and makes no sign3 ,o ,god1 forgive him60 ,warwick again interposes a harsher voice1 8,so bad a death argues a monstrous life10 he is sure4 ,but his sovereign hushes his damning criticism with a right royal veto3-- 8,,forbear ,,to ,,judge1 for we are sinners all4 444 ,close up his eyes1 and draw the curtain close2 ,and let us all to meditation40 ,forbear to judge4 ,and the ,shakspearean ,henry practises in person the monition thus enforced4 ,it is his rule to check in himself every tendency to uncharitable judgment4 ,as when proof all but positive distresses him of his uncle ,gloster's death being due to violence1 he yet restrains the bent of his convictions by the prayer1-- 8,o ,thou that judgest all things1 stay my thoughts3 ,my thoughts1 that labour to persuade my soul ,some violent hands were laid on ,humphrey's life6 ,if my suspct be false1 forgive me1 ,god2 ,for judgment only doth belong to ,thee60 ,it is by the deathbed of the man self-convicted of ,duke ,humphrey's death1 that ,henry can yet say1 even of him1 when from so bad a death is argued a monstrous life1 ,forbear to judge1 for we are sinners all4 ,are we to infer that ,shakspeare was himself for backing to the full this royal veto8 ,that1 perhaps1 were going too far4 ,the veto is dramatically true to character1 and designedly characteristic of the royal speaker4 ,but if ,shakspeare himself 7we are assuming him to be the author of this disputed play7 would or could scarcely in this particular instance have enforced such a lesson of charity1 we may at least be assured1 from the large tolerance and subtle apprehension so patent in his own kingly nature1 that he would in spirit have echoed the king's forbear4 ,perhaps his own feeling might be as nearly as possible expressed in other words of his1 put into the mouth of quite another character1 and referring to quite another occasion3-- 8,and how his audit stands1 who knows1 save heaven8 ,but1 in our circumstance and course of thought1 ',tis heavy with him40 ,forbear to judge1 is1 nevertheless1 the moral of this strain1 as of the other4 ,human ignorance in the one case1 human frailty in the other1 ousts human nature from the judgment-seat4 ,no man1 avers ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 can justly censure or condemn another2 because1 in fact1 no man truly knows another4 8,this ,i perceive in myself2 for ,i am in the dark to all the world1 and my nearest friends behold me but in a cloud4444 ,further1 no man can judge another1 because no man knows himself40 ,in a former section of this his profession of faith1 this good physician warns those who1 upon a rigid application of the law1 sentence ,solomon unto damnation1#ai that they condemn not only him1 but themselves1 and the whole world2 8for1 by the letter and written word of ,god1 we are without exception in the state of death3 but there is a prerogative of ,god1 and an arbitrary pleasure above the letter of ,his own law1 by which alone we can pretend unto salvation1 and through which ,solomon might be as easily saved as those who condemn him40 ,the ,vicar of ,gravenhurst1 in his position of parish priest1 owns himself compelled to confess that the best people are not the best in every relation of life1 and the worst not bad in every relation of life2 so that1 with experience1 he finds himself growing lenient in his blame1 if also reticent in his praise4 8,again and again ,i say to myself that only the ,omniscient can be the equitable judge of human beings--so complicated are our virtues with our failings1 and so many are the hidden virtues1 as well as hidden vices1 of our fellow-men40 ,if judge at all we dare1 and do1 be it in the spirit and to the letter of ,wordsworth's counsel3-- 8,from all rash censure be the mind kept free2 ,he only judges right who weighs1 compares1 ,and1 in the sternest sentence which his voice ,pronounces1 ne'er abandons ,charity40 ,well and wisely said ,la ,bruyre1 that 8,la rgle de ,descartes1 qui ne veut pas que l'on dcide sur les moindres vrits avant qu'elles soient connues clairement et distinctement1 est assez belle et assez juste pour devoir s'tendu au jugement que l'on fait des personnes40 ,real character1 as ,william ,hazlitt says1 is not one thing1 but a thousand things3 actual qualities do not conform to any factitious standard in the mind1 but rest upon their own truth and nature4 8,the dull stupor under which we labour in respect of those whom we have the greatest opportunities of inspecting nearly1 we should do well to imitate1 before we give extreme and uncharitable verdicts against those whom we only see in passing1 or at a distance40 8,well--after all-- ,what know we of the secret of a man8 ,his nerves were wrong4 ,what ails us2 who are sound1 ,that we should mimic this raw fool1 the world1 ,which charts us all in its coarse blacks or whites1 ,as ruthless as a baby with a worm1 ,as cruel as a schoolboy ere he grows ,to pity--more from ignorance than will40 ,who can say1 asks ,samuel ,rogers1 8,in such circumstances ,i should have done otherwise80 ,who1 did he but reflect by what slow gradations1 often by how many strange occurrences1 we are led astray2 with how much reluctance1 how much agony1 how many efforts to escape1 how many sighs1 how many tears--who1 did he but reflect for a moment1 would have the heart to cast a stone8#bj ,the autobiographer of one of ,mr4 ,wilkie ,collins's earlier fictions proposes in an opening chapter to give a sketch of his character4 ,but he sensibly refrains from the execution of a too ambitious plan4 ,for1 8what man can say3 ,i will sound the depth of my own vices and measure the height of my own virtues2 and be as good as his word8 ,we can neither know nor judge ourselves--others may judge1 but cannot know us--,god alone judges and knows too40 8,who made the heart1 'tis ,he alone ,decidedly can try us2 ,he knows each chord--its various tone1 ,each spring1 its various bias3 ,then at the balance let's be mute1 ,we never can adjust it40 ,dunsford the essayist's objection to all hasty judgment of our fellow-creatures is based on the ground of its being 8such an unscientific proceeding40 ,you comment1 he says1 upon another man's conduct1 and attribute motives to him4 ,now an ingenious and imaginative person--a lawyer making a speech for him--might show many different motives of equal probability4 ,you fix upon one1 perhaps because it is consonant to your own mind and nature1 or because it is the uppermost or easiest one to conjecture2 but really you often ignore the doctrine of chances1 and perhaps you will find upon strict calculation that the chances are fairly four to one against your having named the right motive4 ,as the winning horse is often 8a dark one10 at any rate not the favourite1 so after all some obscure and improbable motive is often the true cause of a man's actions4 ,in short1 ,dunsford maintains that our condemnation of others is often as unscientific as it is unchristian4 ,when the ,doge of ,venice1 ,foscari1 in ,byron's tragedy1 agitated by the summons to judge his son1 speculates somewhat wildly on the burden of the mystery of all this unintelligible world1 ,marina submissively suggests that 8,these are things we cannot judge ,on earth40 ,and how then1 demands the old man1-- 8,and how then shall we judge each other1 ,who are all earth80 ,mr4 ,lockhart1 in the closing chapter of his admirable ,life of ,scott1 quoting ,keble's lines1-- 8,not even the tenderest heart1 and next our own1 ,knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh10 declares considerations of this kind to have always induced him to regard with small respect any attempt to delineate fully and exactly any human being's character4 ,he avows his distrust of our capacity for1 even in very humble cases1 judging our neighbour fairly2 and cannot but pity the presumption that must swell in the heart and brain of any ordinary brother of the race1 when daring to pronounce1 ex cathedr1 on the whole structure and complexion of a great mind1 from the comparatively narrow and scanty materials which can by possibility have been placed before him4 ,men who see into their neighbours1 observes ,dr4 ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes1 are very apt to be contemptuous2 but men who see through them find something lying behind every human soul which it is not for them to sit in judgment on1 or to attempt to sneer out of the order of ,god's manifold universe4 ,the same wise-hearted writer--wise of heart as well as head--has a dialogue between doctor and minister concerning a quasi-reprobate1 to whom the former has been kind1 and about whose destiny the other is hardly more severe than certain4 8,bad enough1 no doubt10 ,doctor ,kittredge owns this scampish half-breed to be2 8but might be worse4 ,has some humanity left in him yet4 ,let him go4 ,god can judge him--,i can't40 8,you are too charitable1 doctor10 objects the minister4 8,he has saved his neck--but his soul is a lost one1 ,i am afraid1 beyond question40 8,i can't judge men's souls10 the doctor replies4 8,i can judge their acts1 and hold them responsible for those2 but ,i don't know much about their souls4 ,if you or ,i had found our soul in a half-breed body1 and then been turned loose to run among the ,indians1 we might have been playing just such tricks as this fellow has been trying40 ,what said a greater doctor when ,boswell asked him whether1 in the case of an aggressor forcing on a duel by ill usage1 and getting killed in it1 there is not almost no 8ground to hope that he is gone to a state of happiness08 8,sir10 said ,johnson1 8we are not to judge determinately of the state in which a man leaves this life4 ,he may in a moment have repented effectually40 ,and then ,johnson quoted1 apparently with approval1 at any rate with hopeful interest1 an epitaph1 from ,camden's ,remains1 upon a very wicked man1 who was killed by a fall from his horse1 in which epitaph he is supposed to say1 8,between the stirrup and the ground1 ,i mercy asked1 ,i mercy found40 ,on another occasion ,johnson appealed to ,richard ,baxter's avowed belief that a suicide--if hurried by sudden passion to self-slaughter--may be saved4 ,and 8if10 says ,baxter1 8it should be objected that what ,i maintain may encourage suicide1 ,i answer1 ,i am not to tell a lie to prevent it40 ,who1 as ,campbell asks1 after surmising that the hand which smote its kindred heart1 might yet be prone to deeds of mercy1-- 444 8,who may understand ,thy many woes1 poor suicide1 unknown8 ,he who thy being gave shall judge of thee alone40 ,qualis vita1 finis ita1 is a rhyming proverb not quite worthy of all acceptation4 ,that ,country ,parson whose ,recreations made him a name 7such name1 at least1 as four initials may comprise7 declares himself to have no look but one of sorrow and pity to cast on the poor suicide's grave1 and thinks the common ,english verdict is right as well as charitable1 which supposes that in every such case reason has become unhinged1 and responsibility is gone4 8,no doubt it is the saddest of all sad ends2 but ,i do not forget that a certain ,authority1 the highest of all authorities1 said to all human beings1 #8,judge not1 that ye be not judged4' ,the writer has1 in the course of his duty1 looked upon more than one suicide's dead face2 and the lines of ,hood appeared to sketch the fit feeling with which to do so3-- 8#8,owning her weakness1 ,her evil behaviour2 ,and leaving1 with meekness1 ,her soul to her ,saviour4'0 ,a different spirit informs the ,kirk from the day when ,wishart complained that1 in their arrogance1 her ministers1 8as if they had been privy to the councils of ,god1 or the dispensers of ,his vengeance to the world10 presumed to pronounce upon the future state of their adversaries1 and 8doomed them1 both body and soul1 to eternal torments40 ,pity but the poet had been better man and ,christian who wrote these strong lines on damnatory sentences de mortuis1 even when there remains nought to show-- 444 8save a life misspent1-- ,and soul--but who shall answer where it went8 ',tis ours to bear1 not judge the dead2 and they ,who doom to hell1 themselves are on the way1 ,unless those bullies of eternal pains ,are pardoned their bad hearts for their worse brains40 ,more in a reverent spirit1 and in a farther-seeing one1 is the mystic finale of the ,laureate's memorable ,vision of ,sin1 and its open verdict on the obscure crime of a great criminal3-- 8,at last ,i heard a voice upon the slope ,cry to the summit1 #8,is there any hope8' ,to which an answer pealed from that high land1 ,but in a tongue no man could understand2 ,and on the glimmering limit far withdrawn1 ,god made ,himself an awful rose of dawn40 ,never let it be forgotten1 insists a ,quarterly ,reviewer1 that there is scarcely a single moral action of a single human being of which other men have such a knowledge--its ultimate grounds1 its surrounding incidents1 and the real determining causes of its merits1--as to warrant their pronouncing a conclusive judgment4 ,the writings of ,mr4 ,arthur ,helps are honourably distinguished by an oft-recurring plea for mutual tolerance1 on the ground of the little we really know one of another4 ,in 8,companions of my ,solitude10 for instance1 the author remarks that were it only considered how utterly incompetent men are to talk of the conduct of others as they do1 the talkers would often be silenced at once1 and the sufferers as readily consoled4 ,take the one question merely of difference of temperament--which1 amongst men1 is probably as great as that amongst the different species of animals--as between that1 for example1 of the lively squirrel and the solemn crane4 8,now1 if only from this difference between them1 the squirrel would be a bad judge of the felicity1 or generosity1 or the domestic conduct1 of the crane4 8,probably when we are thinking or talking of a person1 we recall some visual image of that person4 ,i have thought what an instructive thing it would be1 if under some magic influence--like that1 for example1 which would construct a #8palace of truth'--it were arranged that as we gave out our comments on the character or conduct of any person1 this image on the retina of memory should change according to the truth1 or rather the want of it1 in our remarks4 ,gradually1 feature after feature would steal away till we gazed at nonentity1 or we should find another image glide into the field of view1--somebody we had never seen1 perhaps1 but to whom the comments we were uttering really did apply40 ,accordingly1 our author would have the sufferers from injurious and unjust comment treat the whole thing as one which lacked reality4 ,no thoughtful man1 he urges1 ought to be long vexed at such stuff1 immaterial in every sense3 such stuff as dreams are made of4 ,in one of his ,dialogues1 again1 he makes ,dunsford declare the most curious thing1 as regards people living together1 to be the intense ignorance they sometimes are in of each other4 ,and ,milverton follows up the remark by adding1 that people fulfil a relation towards each other1 and only know each other in that relation3 they perform orbits round each other1 each gyrating1 too1 upon his own axis1 so that there are parts of the character of each which are never brought into view of the other4 ,in another ,dialogue1 ,milverton refers to the habit divines have of reminding us1 that1 in forming our ideas of the government of ,providence1 we should recollect that we see only a fragment4 ,the same observation1 in its degree1 he holds to be true as regards human conduct4 8,we see a little bit here and there1 and assume the nature of the whole4 ,even a very silly man's actions are often more to the purpose than his friends' comments on them40 ,in yet another of his works1 this popular essay-writer devotes an entire essay to the subject of our judgments of other men4 ,who does not feel1 he asks1 that to describe with fidelity the least portion of the entangled nature that is within him would be no easy matter8 ,and yet the same man who feels this1 and who1 perhaps1 would be ashamed of talking at hazard about the properties of a flower1 of a weed1 of some figure in geometry1 will put forth his guesses about the character of his brother-man1 as if he had the fullest authority for all that he was saying4 ,it is shown in detail how an opinion of some man's character and conduct gets abroad which is formed after a wrong method1 by prejudiced persons1 upon a false statement of facts1 respecting a matter which they cannot possibly understand2 and how this is then left to be inflated by ,folly1 and blown about by ,idleness4 ,there is among ,wordsworth's ,poems on the ,naming of ,places1 one which is memorable if only as containing one of the most admired lines he ever wrote1 descriptive of ,lady of the ,mere-- 8,sole-sitting by the shores of old romance10 --but which is also pertinent to the present occasion1 as pointing a moral1 after the poet's wont to moralise his song4 ,a man had been seen in the distance by the poet and his friends1 angling4 ,no great harm in that1 my masters8 ,nay2 but the angler was in peasant's garb1 and the season was mid-harvest1 and therefore1 and on the spot1 they voted him improvident and reckless4 ,but when they came up to him1 these over-hasty judges found in the man they had summarily condemned1 a poor mortal wasted by sickness1 and all too weak to labour in the harvest-field1 but using his best skill to gain a pittance from the dead unfeeling lake that knew not of his wants3-- 8,i will not say ,what thoughts immediately were ours1 nor how ,the happy idleness of that sweet morn ,with all its lovely images1 was changed ,to serious musing and to self-reproach4 ,nor did we fail to see within ourselves ,what need there is to be reserved in speech1 ,and temper all our thoughts with charity4 --,therefore1 unwilling to forget that day1 ,my friend1 myself1 and she who then received ,the same admonishment1 have called the place ,by a memorial name1 uncouth indeed ,as e'er by mariner was given to bay ,or foreland on a new-discovered coast2 ,and ,,point ,,rash-,,judgment is the name it bears40#ba ,forbear to judge3 for how pitifully little is the all we really know one of another6 ,mr4 ,froude has forcibly remarked--even admitting the remark to be a truism--that whoever has attended but slightly to the phenomena of human nature has discovered how inadequate is the clearest insight which he can hope to attain into character and disposition4 8,every one is a perplexity to himself and a perplexity to his neighbours2 and men who are born in the same generation1 who are exposed to the same influences1 trained by the same teachers1 and live from childhood to age in constant and familiar intercourse1 are often little more than shadows to each other1 intelligible in superficial form and outline1 but divided inwardly by impalpable and mysterious barriers40 ,and yet how ready each 8weak unknowing hand0 to hurl the bolts of ,heaven against whomsoever it deems to be ,heaven's foe4 ,sir ,james ,stephen bids all hail to ,rhadamanthus on his posthumous judgment-seat in the nether regions4 ,but when ,rhadamanthus comes above ground1 holds in his hand the historical pen1 and resolves all the enigmas of hearts which ceased to beat long centuries ago1 more confidently than most of us would dare to interpret the mysteries of own1 ,sir ,james for one wishes him back again at the confluence of ,styx1 ,phlegethon1 and ,cocytus4 ,for1 8it is1 after all1 nothing more than the surface of human character which the retrospective scrutiny of the keenest human eye is able to detect40 ,it is in a subsequent portion of the same instructive treatise1 that the writer pronounces human justice to be severe1 not merely because man is censorious1 but because he reasonably distrusts himself1 and fears lest his weakness should confound the distinctions of good and evil2 and ,divine justice to be lenient1 because there alone love can flow in all its unfathomable depths and boundless expansion1 impeded by no dread of error1 and diverted by no misplaced sympathies4#bb ,in the course of some remarks on the harshness with which man is disposed to regard the fellow-man whose doctrine1 in matters of religious faith1 differs from his own1 the author of the 8,caxton ,essays0 is impressive on the fact that ,he who hath reserved to ,himself the right of judging1 has imperatively said to man1 whose faculty of judging must be1 like man himself1 erring and human1 8,judge not1 that ye be not judged40 ,now1 argues the essayist1 of all our offences1 it is clear that that offence of which man can be the least competent judge is an offence of defective faith4 8,for faith belongs to our innermost hearts1 and not to our overt actions4 ,and religious faith is therefore that express tribute to the only ,reader of all hearts1 on the value of which man can never1 without arrogant presumption1 set himself up as judge40 ,if even-handed justice1 says ,mr4 ,anthony ,trollope1 were done throughout the world1 some apology would be found for most offences4 ,not that the offences would thus be wiped away1 and black become white2 but much that is now very black would1 he submits1 be reduced to that sombre1 uninviting shade of ordinary brown which is so customary to humanity48#bc ,it is much the same humane thought which underlies ,pelayo's apology for ,roderick1 when we read how closely that generous prince would and did 444 8cherish in his heart the constant thought ,something was yet untold1 which1 being known1 ,would palliate his offence1 and make the fall ,of one till then so excellently good1 ,less monstrous1 less revolting to belief1 ,more to be pitied1 more to be forgiven40 ,as one of ,george ,eliot's good parsons has it1 ,god sees us as we are altogether1 not in separate feelings or actions1 as our fellow-men see us4 ,we are always doing each other injustice1 and thinking better or worse of each other than we deserve1 he says1 because we only hear and see separate words and actions--not each other's whole nature4 ,do not philosophic doctors tell us1 again1 the reflective author in person elsewhere muses1 that we are unable to discern so much as a tree1 except by an unconscious cunning which combines many past and separate sensations2 that no one sense is independent of another1 so that in the dark we can hardly taste a fricassee1 or tell whether our pipe is alight or not1 and the most intelligent boy1 if accommodated with claws or hoofs instead of fingers1 would be likely to remain on the lowest form8 ,if so1 it is easy to understand that our discernment of men's motives must depend on the completeness of the elements we can bring from our own susceptibility and our own experience4 8,see to it1 friend1 before you pronounce a too hasty judgment1 that your own moral sensibilities are not of a hoofed or clawed character40 ,for1 as this penetrating writer insists1 in continuation of the metaphor1 the keenest eye will not serve1 unless you have the delicate fingers1 with their subtile nerve filaments1 which elude scientific lenses1 and lose themselves in the invisible world of human sensations4 ,deeds which1 to quote another popular though less powerful penwoman1 our acquaintance designate our follies1 may at another tribunal be our virtues--our single redeeming points2 who judges rightly1 who can rightly judge1 where so many of our efforts are bent to seem other than we are1 and the universal conjuring trick of this world is to throw dust expertly in our neighbours' eyes8 ,centuries ago1 well-nigh two score1 it was written by the most philosophic1 and perhaps the best1 of ,roman emperors1 that men's actions look worse than they are2 and1 says he1 8one must be thoroughly informed of a great many things before one can be rightly qualified to give judgment in the case40 ,the sceptic ,bayle was a better ,christian than ,scaliger1 when he protested against the assertion of that peremptory scholar that ,bellarmin did not believe a word of what he wrote1 and was at heart an atheist3 besides the testimony of ,bellarmin's life and deathbed to the contrary1 such judgments are1 said ,bayle 7and no friend to the ,jesuits he71 a usurpation of the rights of ,one who alone is the ,judge of hearts1 and before whom there is no dissembling4 ,an apostle's reason given for the counsel1 ,speak not evil one of another1 brethren1--is this3 that whoso speaketh evil of his brother1 and judgeth his brother1 speaketh evil of the law1 and judgeth the law4 ,now1 there is one ,lawgiver1 who is able to save and to destroy2 who art thou that judgest another8 8,oh what are we1 ,frail creatures as we are1 that we should sit ,in judgment man on man6 and what were we1 ,if the ,all-merciful should mete to us ,with the same rigorous measure wherewithal ,sinner to sinner metes60 ,no observant reader of ,mr4 ,carlyle but will have noticed1 if not 7which were better7 laid to heart1 his habitual abstention from that dogmatism of the judgment-seat in which smaller spirits delight4 ,for instance1 in his moral estimate of so erring a genius as ,hoffmann1 if1 in judging him1 ,mr4 ,carlyle is forced to condemn him1 it is with mildness1 with a desire to do justice4 ,let us not forget1 urges the critic1 that for a mind like ,hoffmann's1 the path of propriety was difficult to find--still more difficult to keep4 8,moody1 sensitive1 and fantastic1 he wandered through the world like a foreign presence1 subject to influences of which common natures have happily no glimpse40 ,a good or a wise man we must not call him2 but among the ordinary population of this world1 8to note him with the mark of reprobation were ungrateful and unjust40 ,so1 again1 in the same author's review of the life and writings of ,werner--who1 always in some degree an enigma to himself1 may well be obscure to us4 ,for 8there are mysteries and unsounded abysses in every human heart2 and that is but a questionable philosophy which undertakes so readily to explain them40 ,religious belief especially1 ,mr4 ,carlyle urges1 at least when it seems heartfelt and well-intentioned1 is no subject for harsh or even irreverent investigation4 8,he is a wise man that1 having such a belief1 knows and sees clearly the grounds of it in himself2 and those1 we imagine1 who have explored with strictest scrutiny the secret of their own bosoms1 will be least apt to rush with intolerant violence into that of other men's40 ,still more elaborate and emphatic is the exposition of this doctrine as applied to the case of ,robert ,burns4 ,the world1 it is alleged1 is habitually unjust in its judgments of such men1 since it decides1 like a court of law1 by dead statutes1 and not positively but negatively1--less on what is done right1 than on what is or is not done wrong4 ,whereas1 by ,mr4 ,carlyle's doctrine1 not the few inches of deflection from the mathematical orbit1 which are so easily measured1 but the ratio of these to the whole diameter1 constitutes the real aberration4 8,this orbit may be a planet's1 its diameter the breadth of the solar system2 or it may be a city hippodrome2 nay1 the circle of a ginhorse1 its diameter a score of feet or paces4 ,but the inches of deflection only are measured2 and it is assumed that the diameter of the ginhorse1 and that of the planet1 will yield the same ratio when compared to them60 ,here1 according to our author1 lies the root of many a blind1 cruel condemnation of ,burnses1 ,swifts1 ,rousseaus1 which one never listens to with approval4 8,granted1 the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle damaged2 the pilot is blameworthy2 he has not been all-wise and all-powerful3 but to know how blameworthy1 tell us first whether his voyage has been round the globe1 or only to ,ramsgate and the ,isle of ,dogs40 ,to a very different style of sinners the same judgment--rather the same refusal to judge--is accorded1 when the doom of ,chaumette1 ,gobel1 and other reddest of red-republican reprobates1 is rehearsed1 in the history of ,france's reign of terror1 while the revolution was devouring so greedily her own children4 8,for ,anaxagoras ,chaumette1 the sleek head now ,april #agid stript of its bonnet rouge and a traveller by tumbril to ,sainte ,guillotine1 what hope is there8 ,unless ,death were #8an eternal sleep'8 ,wretched ,anaxagoras6 ,god shall judge thee1 not ,i40 ,once more3 8,unhappy soul6 who shall judge him80 is the historian's deprecating query in the instance of ,august of ,poland1 the physically strong1--who dies1 confessedly a very great sinner1 early in #agcc4 ,who shall judge him8 8,hereafter8--,and do you think to look ,on the terrible pages of that ,book ,to find his failings1 faults1 and errors8 ,ah1 you will then have other cares1 ,in your own shortcomings and despairs1 ,in your own secret sins and terrors60 ,corporal ,trim was once moved to avow his belief--rather hotly1 for his esprit de corps was piqued--that when a soldier 8gets time to pray1 he prays as heartily as a parson--though not with all his fuss and hypocrisy4 ,thou shouldst not have said that1 ,trim1 said my uncle ,toby--for ,god only knows who is a hypocrite1 and who is not4 ,at the great and general review of us all1 ,corporal1 at the day of judgment 7and not till then7--it will be seen who have done their duties in this world1 and who have not40 ,in a like spirit1 another clerical novelist1 of a more recent type1 and whose distinctive evangel is ,muscular ,christianity1 introduces a 8double-first0 candidate for orders who reminds him of ,mr4 ,bye-,ends in ,bunyan3 8,and yet10 comes the charitable clause conditional1 8,i believe the man was really in earnest4 ,he was really desirous to do what was right1 as far as he knew it2 and all the more desirous1 because he saw1 in the present state of society1 what was right would pay him4 ,god shall judge him1 not ,i4 ,who can unravel the confusion of mingled selfishness and devotion that exist even in his own heart1 much less in that of another80 ,in ,mr4 ,thackeray's instance1 exception has been taken1 on ethical grounds1 by no vulgar critic1 to his habit of shrinking from moral estimate as well as moral judgment1 in dealing with his characters4 ,into that distinction not without a difference1 this is not the place 7nor this the pen7 to enter4 ,but the critic in question--for some years a main support of the ,national ,review--recognises this avoidance of moral judgment as springing from kindly feeling1 from the just and humble sense we all should have that our own demerits make it unseemly for us to ascend the judgment-chair1 and from a wide appreciation of the variety and obscurity of men's real motives of action4#bd ,,part-,,knowledge4 #a ,,corinthians xiii4 #i4 8,we know in part10 said the apostle2 who1 therefore1 prophesied in part2 always with the assurance that when that which is perfect is come1 then shall that which is in part be done away4 ,meanwhile1 we see through a glass darkly1 through a medium obscurely--8now ,i know in part40 ,if so it was with him that once was caught up into the third heavens1 much more with his readers4 ,for we are but of yesterday1 and know nothing4 8,behold1 ,god is great1 and we know ,him not40 ,at the height of our knowledge we can but fall back upon the old saying1 8,lo1 these are parts of ,his ways2 but how little a portion is heard of ,him60 ,and when we consider the heavens1 the work of ,his hands2 the moon and the stars1 which ,he hath ordained2 the earth beneath1 the ocean round about1 the waters under the earth1 the pent-up fires within it1--verily ,he is a ,god that hideth ,himself still1 and that revealeth but a portion of ,his work1 clouds and darkness covering the rest4 ,his thoughts are very deep2 and what is man that he should know them1 or the son of man that he should find them out unto perfection8 ,from the topmost pinnacles attained by science he can see but the utmost part of them1 and cannot see them all4 ,locke argues the intellectual and sensible world to be in this perfectly alike3 that the part which we see of them holds no proportion with what we see not2 and that whatsoever we can reach with our eyes1 or our thoughts1 of either of them1 is but a point1 almost nothing1 in comparison with the rest4 ,shall he whose birth1 maturity1 and age1 as ,beattie has it1 scarce fill the circle of one summer day--shall the poor gnat conclude nature in collapse because of a passing cloud1 not transparent to the insect's vision8 8,one part1 one little part1 we dimly scan ,through the dark medium of life's feverish dream2 ,yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan1 ,if but that little part incongruous seem4 ,nor is that part perhaps what mortals deem2 ,oft from apparent ill our blessings rise4 ,oh then renounce that impious self-esteem1 ,that aims to trace the secrets of the skies2 ,for thou art but of dust3 be humble and be wise40 ,freethinking ,lord ,shaftesbury begins a section of his 8,characteristics0 with the remark1 that when we reflect on any ordinary frame or constitution1 either of art or nature1 and consider how hard it is to give the least account of a particular part without a competent knowledge of the whole1 we need not wonder to find ourselves at a loss in many things relating to the constitution and frame of the universe4 ,elsewhere he suggestively observes1 that in an infinity of things mutually relative1 a mind which sees not infinitely1 can see nothing fully2 8and since each particular has relation to all in general1 it can know no perfect or true relation of anything in a world not perfectly and fully known40 ,and supposing the case of an ignorant landsman presuming to question the details of a ship's rigging1 his lordship breaks out into the apostrophe1 8,o my friend1 let us not thus betray our ignorance1 but consider where we are1 and in what a universe4 ,think of the many parts of the vast machine in which we have so little insight1 and of which it is impossible we should know the ends and uses2 when instead of seeing to the highest pennons1 we see only some lower deck1 and are in this dark case of flesh1 confined even to the hold and meanest station of the vessel40 ,there is ,mrs4 ,browning's usual energy of diction in the exclamation1 8,ay1 we are forced1 so pent1 ,to judge the whole too partially1 confound ,conclusions4 ,is there any common phrase ,significant1 when the adverb's heard alone1 ,the verb being absent1 and the pronoun out8 ,but we1 distracted in the roar of life1 ,still insolently at ,god's adverb snatch1 ,and bruit against ,him that ,his thought is void1 ,his meaning hopeless40 ,the same good ,providence1 as ,madame de ,svign writes1 that governs all1 shall one day unravel all2 we poor mortals being1 in the meanwhile1 so many all but stone-blind and utterly ignorant lookers-on4 ,we suffer1 as the author of 8,thorndale0 says--there is no doubt about that--and we naturally speak and think under the sharp pang of our present agony2 but the ultimate and overruling judgment which we form of human life1 should be taken from some calm1 impersonal point of view4 8,we should command the widest horizon possible4 ,of the great whole of humanity we see but a little at a time4 ,we pause sometimes on the lights only of the picture1 sometimes only on the shadows4 ,how very dark those shadows seem6 ,yet if we could embrace in our view the whole of the picture1 perhaps the very darkest shadows might be recognised as effective or inevitable portions of a grand harmonious whole40 ,how closes ,thomson his poem of 8,the ,seasons10 drear ,winter then his cue8--with the memorable lines3-- 8,ye good distress'd6 ,ye noble few6 who here unbending stand ,beneath life's pressure1 yet bear up awhile2 ,and what your bounded view1 which only saw ,a little part1 deemed evil1 is no more3 ,the storms of wintry time will quickly pass1 ,and one unbounded spring encircle all40 ,the theme of our part knowledge1 so strictly cabin'd1 cribb'd1 confined1 is one to which ,thomson repeatedly recurs4 ,for instance1 in an earlier book3-- 8,but here the cloud1 ,so wills ,eternal ,providence1 sits deep4 ,enough for us to know that this dark state1 ,in wayward passions lost1 and vain pursuits1 ,this infancy of being1 cannot prove ,the final issue of the works of ,god1 ,by boundless love and perfect wisdom form'd ,and ever rising with the rising mind40 ,again1 with emphasis and discretion 7as ,polonius says71 he puts the query-- 8,shall little haughty ignorance pronounce ,his works unwise1 of which the smallest part ,exceeds the narrow vision of her mind8 ,as if upon a full proportioned dome1 ,on swelling columns heaved1 the pride of art1 ,a critic-fly1 whose feeble ray scarce spreads ,an inch around1 with blind presumption bold1 ,should dare to tax the structure of the whole40 ,horace ,walpole makes use of a similar figure in one of his three or four thousand published letters3 8,we are poor silly animals3 we live for an instant upon a particle of a boundless universe1 and are much like a butterfly that should argue about the nature of the seasons1 and what creates their vicissitudes1 and does not exist itself to see one annual revolution of them40 8,earth's number-scale is near us set2 ,the total ,god alone can see2 ,but each some fraction40#be ,addison1 in one of his essays1 comments on the body of an animal as an object comparatively adequate to our senses1 it being a particular part of ,providence that lies within a narrow compass1 so that the eye is able to command it1 and by successive inquiries to search into all its parts4 ,could the body of the whole earth1 he goes on to say1 or indeed the whole universe1 be thus subjected to the examination of our senses1 were it not too big and disproportioned for our inquiries1 too unwieldy for the management of the eye and hand1 8there is no question but it would appear to us as curious and well-contrived a frame as that of a human body4 ,we should see the same concatenation and subserviency1 the same necessity and usefulness1 the same beauty and harmony1 in all and every of its parts1 as what we discover in the body of every single animal40 ,to adopt an illustration of ,fnlon's to the same purpose3 imagine the letters of a sentence to be so enormous in size1 that a man could only make out one of them at a time2 in that case he could not read1 that is1 collect the letters together and discover the sense of them in combination4 ,so it is1 argues the benign prelate1 with the grands traits of ,providence in the conduct of the world at large during the lapse of centuries4 ,it is only the whole that is intelligible1 and the whole is too vast to be scrutinised near at hand4 ,each event in the process of ages is like a separate letter or sign1 which is too large for our petty organs1 and which is without a meaning when taken apart from the rest4 ,a more vigorous philosopher than the gentle ,fnlon compares the universe to a picture1 the beauty of which is then alone perceptible when the true stand-point of perspective is taken4 ,there are certain inventions in perspective1 or certain beautiful designs1 he says1 which look all confusion until you either inspect them from the right point of view1 or make use of some kind of glass or mirror as the medium of observation4 ,in the same manner the apparent deformities of our fractional side-views1 resolve themselves into harmonious unity when the eye is directed aright4 ,dr4 ,johnson was in an unwontedly placid and benignant frame of mind1 by ,boswell's account1 when the two stood together1 one serene autumn night1 in ,dr4 ,taylor's garden1 and the sage delivered himself1 in meditative mood1 of this noteworthy surmise3 8,sir10 said he1 8,i do not imagine that all things will be made clear to us immediately after death1 but that the ways of ,providence will be explained to us very gradually40 ,be that as it may1 few could have been found more ready than the melancholic ,johnson to agree that meanwhile1 until the day star arise and the shadows flee away1 8,the ways of ,heaven are dark and intricate1 ,puzzled in mazes1 and perplexed with errors3 ,our understanding traces them in vain1 ,lost and bewildered in the fruitless search2 ,nor sees with how much art the windings run1 ,nor where the regular confusion ends40 ,it was at a time of national and household tribulation1 when darkness that might be felt seemed to encompass altar and hearth1 that ,joseph de ,maistre wrote to a friend in trouble3 8,be it enough for us to know1 that for everything there is a reason with which we shall one day become acquainted2 let us not weary ourselves with seeking out the why and the wherefore1 even when possibly they might be discerned40 ,he would have his correspondent bear in mind that the epithet 8very good0 is a necessary adjunct to 8very great20 and that is sufficient4 ,the inference is self-evident1 that under the sway of the ,being who combines in himself those two qualities--the trs-bon and the trs-grand--all the evils we either suffer or witness must needs be acts of justice or means of reformation equally indispensable4 ,in the declared love of ,god to man1 ,m4 de ,maistre found a general solution of all the enigmas that can offend 7scandaliser1 in the ,new ,testament sense of putting a stumbling-block in the way of7 our ignorance4 8,fixed to one little point of time and space1 we are insane enough to refer all to this point2 and in so doing we are at once blameworthy and absurd40 ,if ,de ,maistre's collation of the trs-bon with the trs-grand resembles the lines of ,drummond's hymn beginning1 8,o ,king1 whose greatness none can comprehend1 ,whose boundless goodness doth to all extend10 so is the scope of his argument at one with what follows3 8,here1 where1 as in a mirror1 we but see ,shadows of shadows1 atoms of ,thy might1 ,still owly-eyed when staring on ,thy light40 ,what we call this life of men on earth1 as ,mr4 ,browning's island-poet has it1 is1 as he finds much reason to conceive1 8,intended to be viewed eventually ,as a great whole1 not analysed to parts1 ,but each part having reference to all40#bf ,pope's well-worked line is of perpetual application1 8',tis but a part we see1 and not the whole40 ,so is the avowal of the present laureate3 8,i see in part ,that all1 as in some work of art1 ,is toil co-operant to an end40 ,to us1 as ,sir ,benjamin ,brodie remarks1 in one of his psychological discussions1 the universe presents itself as an assemblage of heterogeneous phenomena1 some of which we can reduce to laws of limited operation1 while others stand by themselves1 bearing no evident relation to anything besides4 ,we may well1 he thinks1 suppose that there are in the universe beings of a superior intelligence1 and possessed of a greater range of observation1 who are sufficiently 8behind the scenes0 to be able to contemplate all the immense variety of material phenomena as the result of one great general law4 ,their standpoint may enable them to see a ,cosmos1 a world of order1 where to lower intelligences ,chaos alone is discernible1 a world comparatively without form and void1 with darkness upon the face of its deep4 ,and as with the physical1 so with the metaphysical4 ,as with the material1 so with the moral4 8,experience1 like a pale musician1 holds ,a dulcimer of patience in his hand2 ,whence harmonies we cannot understand ,of ,god's will in the worlds1 the strain unfolds ,in sad perplexd minors4444 8,we murmur--#8,where is any certain tune ,of measured music1 in such notes as these8'-- ,but angels leaning from their golden seat1 ,are not so minded6 their fine ear hath won ,the issue of completed#bg cadences1-- ,and1 smiling down the stars1 they whisper--,sweet40#bh ,,ruling ,,the ,,waves4 ,,psalm cxiv4 #a-e2 ,,st4 ,,mark iv4 #ci4 ,when ,israel went out of ,egypt1 it was under the guidance of ,one whose hand being mighty to save1 the sea saw it1 and fled2 ,jordan was driven back4 8,what ailed thee1 ,o thou sea1 that thou fleddest8 thou ,jordan1 that thou wast driven back80 ,the trembling was at the presence of ,him who hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea1 by a perpetual decree1 that it cannot pass it2 and though the waves thereof toss themselves1 yet can they not prevail2 though they roar1 yet can they not pass over it4 ,the commotion1 the fleeing1 the driving back1 was at the bidding of ,him who1 and who alone1 can say to the sea1 ,thus far shalt thou come1 and no farther2 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed4 ,the men of ,galilee marvelled when1 at the storm that once arose on their sea1 and the ship was in jeopardy1 there arose ,one who rebuked the winds and the sea2 and there was a great calm4 ,what manner of man was this1 that even the winds and the sea obeyed ,him8 ,what manner of man8 ,be it legend or history1 the story of royal ,cnut on the seashore1 forbidding1 at his flatterers' instigation1 or by his own desire to rebuke their folly--forbidding the farther approach of the incoming tide1 is pregnant with instruction on this head4 ,the royal ,dane might be a man of men1 but the surging waves were not obedient unto his voice4 ,king though he was1 the tide was responseless as deaf adder to any charming of his1 charmed he never so wisely1 enjoined he never so straitly4 ,what manner of man1 then1 but the ,son of man8 ,what manner of king but the ,king of kings8 ,the ,dane might have enforced the lesson on his parasites by such a strain as that of a defeated monarch in ,shakspeare3-- 8,farewell king6 ,cover your heads1 and mock not flesh and blood ,with solemn reverence2 throw away respect1 ,tradition1 form1 and ceremonious duty1 ,for you have but mistook me all this while3 ,i live with bread1 like you1 feel want1 taste grief1 ,need friends3--subjected thus1 ,how can you say to me ,i am a king80 ,a king1 that is1 in their sense of right ,divine1 and ,divine extent4 ,so with poor1 mad1 discrowned ,lear1 drenched in that terrible storm on the heath1 and remembering soft speeches of cozening courtiership1 only of yesterday too4 8,when the rain came to wet me1 and the wind to make me chatter2 when the thunder would not peace at my bidding2 there ,i found them1 there ,i smelt them out4 ,go to1 they are not men of their words3 they told me ,i was everything2 'tis a lie1 ,i am not ague-proof40 ,mark1 again1 from the opening scene of the 8,tempest10 the rough1 blunt1 uncivil words with which the boatswain cuts short the addresses of his royal passengers3-- 8,hence6 ,what care these roarers the waves for the name of king8 ,to cabin3 silence3 trouble us not4 8,gonzalo4 ,good2 yet remember whom thou hast aboard4 8,boatswain4 ,none that ,i love more than myself4 ,you are a counsellor2 if you can command these elements to a silence1 and work the peace of the present instant1 we will not hand a rope more3 use your authority4 ,if you cannot1 give thanks you have lived so long1 and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour1 if so it hap4 ,cheerily1 good hearts4--,out of our way1 ,i say60 ,of ,antiochus ,epiphanes1 and his pride that had a fall1 it is written in the book of ,maccabees3 8,and thus he that a little afore thought he might command the waves of the sea 7so proud was he beyond the condition of man71 and weigh the high mountains in a balance1 was now cast on the ground40 ,an elder king than ,cnut1 and not a wiser1 not only lashed the winds that blew contrary to his will1 but bound the sea with fetters1 after a sort3 8,ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat ,ennosigum40 ,much good it did him3 witness his return from his great expedition1 in a poor skiff1 wind-tossed across waves red with the blood of his slaughtered host1 cruentis fluctibus4 ,the stars in their courses once fought against ,sisera1 and the fettered waves were little more propitious to speed the fortunes of ,xerxes4 ,he might have spared his chains4 ,at any rate he lost his army4 ,archdeacon ,hare practically applied the extravagance of the ,great ,king1 as they of ,persia were styled1 in designating the present 7or1 rather1 what was to him the present7 as an age when men will scoff at the madness of ,xerxes1 yet themselves try to fling their chains over the ever-rolling1 irrepressible ocean of thought2 nay1 they will scoop out a mimic sea in their pleasure-ground1 he goes on to say1 and make it ripple and bubble1 and spout up prettily into the air1 and then fancy that they are taming the ,atlantic2 which1 however1 keeps advancing upon them1 until it sweeps them away with their toys4 ,it is edifying to read in the ,diary of ,mr4 ,pepys how1 one ,july afternoon1 soon after the king had come back to enjoy his own again1 that gentleman went upon the river1 but had to put ashore and shelter himself from the rain that rained so hard2 during which time came by the king in his barge1 going down towards the ,downs to meet the queen3 8,but methought it lessened my esteem of a king1 that he should not be able to command the rain40 ,instructive1 too1 is the tenor of the legend of ,king ,robert of ,sicily1 which has been so attractively treated in prose by ,leigh ,hunt1 in his ,jar of ,honey from ,mount ,hybla1 and in verse by ,professor ,longfellow1 in his ,tales of a ,wayside ,inn4 ,there we read how the king with his nobles proudly sat at vespers1 on ,st4 ,john's ,eve1 and heard the priests chant the ,magnificat3-- 8,and1 as he listened1 o'er and o'er again ,repeated1 like a burden or refrain1 ,he caught the words1 #8,deposuit potentes ,de sede1 et exaltavit humiles2' ,and slowly lifting up his kingly head1 ,he to a learned clerk beside him said1 #8,what mean these words8' ,the clerk made answer meet1 #8,he hath put down the mighty from their seat1 ,and hath exalted them of low degree4' ,thereat ,king ,robert muttered scornfully1 ',tis well that such seditious words are sung ,only by priests1 and in the ,latin tongue2 ,for unto priests and people be it known ,there is no power can push me from my throne6'0 ,the sequel teaches him a different lesson1 which he learns by 7and lays to7 heart4 ,in those days1 however1 if any order of men might1 or did1 claim authority over such turbulent subject-matter as the sea1 it was not kings1 but priests4 ,ecclesiastical history relates the calamitous visitation of earthquake and inundations by which ,epidaurus must once1 and for ever1 have been overwhelmed1 had not the prudent citizens placed ,st4 ,hilarion1 an ,egyptian monk1 on the beach4 8,he made the sign of the cross2 the mountain-wave stopped1 bowed1 and returned40 ,one's respect for the great qualities of the fearless ,akbah1 traversing the wilds of ,africa1 and at length penetrating to the verge of the ,atlantic1 is not lessened by what ,gibbon relates of him3--that his career1 though not his zeal1 being checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean1 ,akbah spurred his horse into the waves1 and raising his eyes to heaven1 exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic1 8,great ,god1 if my course were not stopped by this sea1 ,i would still go on1 to the unknown kingdoms of the ,west1 preaching the unity of ,thy holy name40 ,and the picture reminds us of another1 some eight centuries later1 when ,constantinople was besieged and taken by ,mahomet ,,ii41 who1 while his ships were engaged against those of the ,genoese1 sat on horseback on the beach1 to encourage by voice and presence the valour of the faithful3 8,the passions of his soul1 and even the gestures of his body1 seemed to imitate the action of the combatants2 and1 as if he had been the lord of nature1 he spurred his horse with a fearless and impotent effort into the sea40 ,sir ,archibald ,alison moralises on the spectacle of ,napoleon1 in #ahjd1 reviewing1 or intending to review1 the naval force by which he designed to crush the ,british power3 the flotilla being tempest-tost when it hove in sight1 and several vessels stranded--an event 8destined to teach the ,french ,emperor1 like ,canute the ,dane1 that there were bounds to his power1 and that his might was limited to the element on which his army stood40 ,the sea--c'est autre chose4 ,it is of ,tiberius1 absolute master of the vastest1 richest empire ever seen under the sun1 that an eminent ,french preacher is treating when he says that an adulatory senator kept repeating to him in every tone and accent that his authority was without bounds4 ,tiberius would fain have believed the assurance1 if the illusion had been possible1--if he had not felt himself at every instant heurt contre une barrire infranchissable4 ,the emperor's flatterers had forgotten1 for one thing1 to secure a peremptory decree against the inconvenient limitation called time4 ,his days were numbered4 ,and in vain ,tiberius essayed to trick and elude death1 and dissembled with himself as to the stubborn fact of its resistless advance4 ,kings1 great nobles1 and the like1 as a popular essayist observes1 have been known1 even to the close of life1 to violently curse and swear1 if things went against them2 going the length of stamping and blaspheming even at wind and rain1 and branches of trees and plashes of mud1 for insubordination and disrespect of persons4 ,a popular novelist1 again1 having to describe a fashionable wedding in the country on a portentously wet and stormy day1 makes the ,lisford beadle1 8who was a sound ,tory of the old school10 almost wonder that the heavens themselves should be audacious enough to wet the uncovered head of the lord of ,jocelyn's ,rock4 8,but it went on raining nevertheless40 ,it was in no such spirit that ,john ,bunyan once was all but resolved on putting to the test the reality of his faith1 by commanding some water puddles to be dry4 ,mr4 ,carlyle made a picturesque application of the royal ,dane's injunction to the waves1 in his survey of the advancing tide of the ,french ,revolution--grim host marching on1 the black-browed ,marseillese in the van1 with hum and murmur1 far-heard2 like the ocean-tide1 8drawn up1 as if by ,luna and ,influences1 from the great deep of waters1 they roll gleaming on2 no king1 ,canute or ,louis1 can bid them roll back40 ,to quite another effect is ,judge ,haliburton's application of the incident1 in his panegyric on the capabilities of the ,southampton docks4 ,it was here1 he says1 that ,cnut sat in his arm-chair1 to show his courtiers 7after he gave up drinking and murder7 that though he was a mighty prince1 he could not control the sea4 8,well1 what ,canute could not do1 your dock company has accomplished4 ,it has actually said to the sea1 #8,thus far shalt thou go1 and no farther3' and the waves have obeyed the mandate40 ,by poetical licence a ,cornish poet of the present day ascribes to his rock-bound coast a ne plus ultra control over an ever-aggressive sea3 he pictures the embattled advance of the waves1 and their discomfiture and retreat3 8,they come--they mount--they charge in vain4 ,thus far1 incalculable main2 ,no more6 ,thine hosts have not o'erthrown ,the lichen on the barrier stone4 ,have the rocks faith that thus they stand1 ,unmoved1 a grim and stately band1 ,and look1 like warriors tried and brave1 ,stern1 silent1 reckless1 o'er the wave80 ,one1 and one alone1 is veritably the ruler of the waves4 ,when the floods are risen1 when the floods have lift up their voice1 and lift up their waves1 to ,him only it pertaineth to still their tumultuous clamour1 and to level their aspiring crests4 ,the waves of the sea are mighty1 and rage horribly2 yet the ,lord1 who dwelleth on high1 is mightier4 8,o ,lord ,god of hosts1 who is like unto ,thee8444 ,thou rulest the raging of the sea3 ,thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise40 ,with a moral application we conclude1 borrowed from one whose was ever the pen of a ready writer to point a moral4 ,some dream1 says ,cowper1 that 444 8they can silence when they will ,the storm of passion1 and say1 #8,peace1 be still3' ,but #8,thus far and no farther1' when addressed ,to the wild wave1 or wilder human breast1 ,implies authority that never can1 ,that never ought to be the lot of man40 ,,in ,,deadly ,,peril ,,unawares4 #a ,,samuel xxvi4 #h-be4 ,soundly the stalwart king of ,israel slept within the trench1 while ,david and ,abishai gazed on him by stealth in the night-watches--his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster1 and ,abner and the people lying round about him4 ,abishai was for smiting him with the spear at once1 promising that once should be quite enough4 ,could ,david hesitate8 ,was it not a special ,providence8 ,had not ,god delivered his enemy into his hand8 ,let but ,david give the word1 the look1 the nod1 and ,abishai would at one fell swoop send ,saul to his account1 with all his imperfections on his head4 8,now1 therefore1 let me smite him1 ,i pray thee1 with the spear1 even to the earth at once1 and ,i will not smite him the second time40 ,but ,david was inflexible in repudiating the regicide4 ,not for him was it to stretch forth a hand against the ,lord's anointed4 ,so ,saul slept on1 and the shadow of death passed away4 ,unaware of the peril that had approached him1 his awaking was an ordinary awaking4 ,but1 to convict the watchers of unwatchfulness1 if not to convince the king of a narrow escape and a generous foe1 ,david took the spear and the cruse of water from ,saul's bolster2 and he and his companion gat them away unperceived--for no man saw it1 nor knew it1 neither awaked2 for they were all asleep2 because a deep sleep from the ,lord was fallen upon them4 ,anon ,david roused the host with the story of that narrow escape1 charging ,abner with criminal neglect worthy of death4 ,and as he recited the story1 ,saul was touched2 and there was emotion in his voice and in his words when he felt what the peril had been1 and knew whom he had to thank for its harmless issue4 ,had we eyes sharp enough1 observes ,cowper in a letter to ,hayley1 we should see the arrows of death flying in all directions1 and account it a wonder that we and our friends escape them but a single day4 ,many years previously the poet had written to the same effect to ,unwin1--that could we see at a glance of the eye what is passing every day upon all the roads in the kingdom1 we should indeed find reason to be thankful for journeys performed in safety1 and for deliverance from dangers we are not perhaps even permitted to see4 8,when in some of the high southern latitudes1 and in a dark tempestuous night1 a flash of lightning discovered to ,captain ,cook a vessel which glanced along close by his side1 and which but for the lightning he must have run foul of1 both the danger and the transient light that showed it were undoubtedly designed10 as ,cowper is devoutly convinced1 8to convey to him this wholesome instruction1 that a particular ,providence attended him1 and that he was not only preserved from evils of which he had notice1 but from many more of which he had no information or even the least suspicion40 ,it is noticeable1 as ,mr4 de ,quincey points out1 that a danger which approaches1 but wheels away--which threatens1 but finally forbears to strike--is more interesting by much on a distant retrospect than the danger which accomplishes its mission4 8,the ,alpine precipice1 down which many pilgrims have fallen1 is passed without much attention2 but that precipice1 within one inch of which a traveller has passed unconsciously in the dark1 first tracing his peril along the snowy margin on the next morning1 becomes invested with an attraction of horror for all who hear the story40 ,in another of his books1 and the most celebrated of them all1 the same impassioned master of ,english prose1 recites the thoughts that arose within him1 at a crisis in his youthful life1 on the suggestive opening of that beautiful collect1 8,lighten our darkness1 we beseech thee1 ,o ,lord60 in which the great shadows of night are made symbolically significant--those great powers1 night and darkness1 that belong to aboriginal chaos1 being made representative of the perils that1 unseen1 continually menace poor afflicted human nature4 8,with deepest sympathy ,i accompanied the prayer against the perils of darkness1--perils that ,i seemed to see1 in the ambush of midnight solitude1 brooding around the beds of sleeping nations2 perils from even worse forms of darkness shrouded within the recesses of blind human hearts2 perils from temptations weaving unseen snares for our footing40 ,as ,marcello has it1 in ,beddoes' tragedy1 8,each minute of man's safety he does walk ,a bridge1 no thicker than his frozen breath1 ,o'er a precipitous and craggy danger ,yawning to death60 ,with admirable subtlety and suggestiveness1 ,mr4 ,hawthorne illustrates this subject in that fantasiestck of his1 called 8,david ,swan40 ,a young man of that name falls asleep on the roadside1 of a summer's day1 and we see1 what he sees not1 nor dreams of happening to him1 a series of incidents that go near to alter the current of his being1 and very near1 in one instance1 to stop altogether its earthly course4 ,when he awakes from that sound sleep1 and hies him cheerily homeward1 he knows not1 nor ever will know1 in this world at least1 that while he slumbered1 all in one brief hour1 wealth was all but made over to him by one heirless passer-by1 and death all but dealt him by two reckless ruffians4 ,they were interrupted1 and left him1 and he never was to know of the narrow escape4 ,the moral of the fantasy is1 that sleeping or waking1 we hear not the airy footsteps of the strange things that almost happen4 ,and the moralist's query ensues1 ,does it not argue a superintending ,providence1 that while viewless and unexpected events thrust themselves continually athwart our path1 there should still be regularity enough in mortal life to render foresight even partially available8 ,the moral of 8,david ,swan0 is implicitly conveyed in that passage in 8,waverley0 which relates ,colonel ,gardiner's unconscious escape from the raised and pointed weapon of the ,highlander1 ,callum ,beg4 ,an incident that appeals to his superstition makes the intending slayer drop his piece2 and 8,colonel ,gardiner10 we read1 8unconscious of the danger he had escaped1 turned his horse round1 and rode slowly back to the front of his regiment40 ,so with ,mrs4 ,hilyard1 in 8,salem ,chapel10 on the evening of the secret interview upon the chapel steps4 ,a hidden witness there is of that interview1 who1 however1 sees not the gesture of her companion which bodes1 and almost involves1 a fatal1 a murderous issue4 8,but even ,mrs4 ,hilyard herself never knew how near1 how very near1 she was at that moment to the unseen world40 ,or glance1 again1 at the ,azteca1 in ,southey's 8,madoc10 gliding like a snake to where ,caradoc lay sleeping--all unconscious of peril1 as happy1 and happily unconscious1 ,david ,swan3-- 8,sweetly slept he1 and pleasant were his dreams ,of ,britain1 and the blue-eyed maid he loved4 ,the ,azteca stood over him2 he knew ,his victim1 and the power of vengeance gave ,malignant joy4 ,once hast thou 'scaped my arm2 ,but what shall save thee now8 the ,tiger thought1 ,exulting1 and he raised his spear to strike4 ,that instant1 o'er the ,briton's unseen harp ,the gale of morning passed1 and swept its strings ,into so sweet a harmony1 that sure ,it seemed no earthly tune4 ,the savage man ,suspends his stroke2 he looks astonished round2 ,no human hand is near3--and hark6 again ,the arial music swells and dies away4 ,then first the heart of ,tialala felt fear3 ,he thought that some protecting spirit watched ,beside the stranger1 and1 abashed1 withdrew40 ,to ,cremona went together1 in seeming amity1 the ,emperor ,sigismund and ,pope ,john ,,xxiii41 and there an incident had nearly taken place1 which1 as the historian of ,latin ,christianity says1 might1 by preventing the ,council of ,constance1 have changed the fortunes of the world4 ,gabrino ,fondoli1 who from podest had become tyrant of ,cremona1 8entertained his distinguished guests with sumptuous hospitality4 ,he led them up the lofty tower to survey the rich and spacious plains of ,lombardy4 ,on his deathbed ,fondoli confessed the sin1 of which he deeply repented1 that he resisted the temptation1 and had not hurled pope and emperor down1 and so secured himself an immortal name40 ,pope and emperor on the tower-top were as little inclined to suspect how closely the shadow of death was then and there overshadowing them1 as they would have been able to comprehend the ultimate repentance of the intending murderer1 not for having intended murder1 but for having not carried his intention out4 ,it is one of ,young's night thoughts that 8the farthest from the fear1 are often nearest to the stroke of fate40 ,often the stroke menaces them unawares1 but after all is not dealt2 and to the last they are unaware that on such a day1 and at such a minute1 there was but a step between them and death4 ,quid quisque vitet1 says ,horace1 nunquam homini satis cautum est1 in horas4 ,the ignorance of what is impending is bliss1 in a certain sense4 ,just as 8,the kid from the pen1 and the lamb from the fold1 ,unmoved may the blade of the butcher behold2 ,they dream not--ah1 happier they6--that the knife1 ,though uplifted1 can menace their innocent life4 ,it falls2--the frail thread of their being is riven2 ,they dread not1 suspect not1 the blow till 'tis given40 ,mais qu'il me soit permis de ne le savoir pas1 is the wish of some in regard even of escaped peril4 ,scott vividly illustrates in 8,rokeby0 the position of unconscious and therefore unconcerned borderers on the grave2 it is where ,bertram creeps on hands and knees through the spreading birch and hazels1 and takes aim at ,redmond1 and twice ,matilda comes between the carabine and ,redmond's breast1 8just ere the spring his finger pressed20 and the interruption of ,guy ,denzil's approach makes the ruffian retire1 r infect3 8,they whom dark ,bertram1 in his wrath1 ,doomed to captivity or death1 ,their thoughts to one sad subject lent1 ,saw not nor heard the ambushment4 ,heedless and unconcerned they sate1 ,while on the very verge of fate2 ,heedless and unconcerned remained1 ,when ,heaven the murderer's arm restrained2 ,as ships drift darkling down the tide1 ,nor see the shelves o'er which they glide40 ,,no ,,leisure4 ,,st4 ,,mark vi4 #ca4 ,that must have been a busy time with the apostles1 careful and troubled about many things1 cumbered with much serving1 worn with many anxieties1 and kept in unrest by continual demands on their services1 when the ,divine ,master--knowing their frame and remembering that they were dust--bade them come by themselves 8apart into a desert place1 and rest a while2 for there were many coming and going1 and they had no leisure so much as to eat40 ,our own age has been rightly described as one of stimulus and high pressure3 we live as it were our lives out fast2 effect is everything2 results produced at once2 something to show1 and something that may tell4 8,the folio of patient years is replaced by the pamphlet that stirs men's curiosity to-day1 and to-morrow is forgotten40 ,or as an eminent reviewer puts it--writing to the same effect as the eminent divine just quoted--without grudging to contemporary productions the applause which they receive1 or the interest which they excite1 thoughtful minds cannot see them with complacency obscuring by their brilliance1 or perhaps their 8glare10 the more temperate and wholesome light of the elder classics of our land4 8,at no moment in the intellectual progress of ,england has repose ever been more needful1 if the literature of the present century be to take its place among its great antecessors40 ,for want of repose our prose is declared on the same authority to be growing turgid1 our verse empty or inflated2 and as a good cooling regimen is required to correct these exorbitances1 nothing would rejoice our censor more than to be assured1 on the credit of sound publishers' statistics1 that the number of new books was diminishing1 while that of re-editions of old books was on the increase4 ,dr4 ,arnold1 we are told1 once preached a sermon to the boys at ,rugby against taking in the monthly numbers of 8,nicholas ,nickleby10 by way of protest against systematic and uninterrupted excitement4 8,society keeps up as much excitement as it can4 ,it wants its new number of something to appear incessantly4 ,there is no rest or repose1 and one subject of thought succeeds another faster than wave succeeds wave40 ,a rather ironical apology for dull sermons sets up at least this plea in their behalf3 that so easy is it for a man who lives in such a society never to be alone with himself1 that a compulsory half-hour of quietude at a wakeful time of the day1 in a place which recalls to him the most solemn thoughts1 is no slight advantage4 ,la ,bruyre1 two centuries ago1 complained of ,french society in his day1 that there was no getting any one to abide quietly at home1 and there in patience possess his soul1 and make sure to himself that he had one4 ,all was hurry and flurry4 ,not to be excitedly busy was to be idle4 ,but that the philosopher denied4 ,a wise man turns his leisure to account4 ,he is not idle who devotes his leisure to tranquil meditation1 and converse and reading4 ,rather is this a species of work--at any rate a means for working with fresh energy and better effect when the working hour comes round again4 ,there is such a thing as what ,wordsworth wisely calls a wise passiveness4 ,chateaubriand1 again1 more than a century afterwards1 complained--not indeed of ,frenchmen alone1 but of all men--that all was done helter-skelter and in haste1 post-haste2 that amid this din and distraction of coming and going there was no leisure so much as to eat2 or that if men did set about a meal1 there was no such thing as sitting down to it1 but it was eaten by them with their loins girded1 their shoes on their feet1 and their staff in their hand--eaten in haste1 as was the ,jewish passover4 ,the most eminent political economist of our day owns himself to be 8not charmed0 with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on2 that the trampling1 crushing1 elbowing1 and treading on one another's heels1 which form the existing type of social life1 are the most desirable lot of human kind1 or anything but the disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress4 ,the town1 complains one of the most thoughtful and influential of latter-day divines1--the town1 with its fever and its excitements1 and its collision of mind with mind1 has spread over the country1 and there is no country1 scarcely home4 8,to men who traverse ,england in a few hours1 and spend only a portion of the year in one place1 home is becoming a vocable of past ages40 ,he echoes ,wordsworth's lament that 8,plain living and high thinking are no more20 and in another place he declares our want to be the vision of a calmer and simpler beauty1 to tranquillise us in the midst of artificial tastes1 and the draught of a purer spring to cool the flame of our excited life4 ,it is many years ago since the most genial of essayists avowed his preference for 8coaching it10 and could have been well content to live upon the road1 in those roomy antiques1 instead of getting on at the present rate1 and being impatient to arrive at some town1 only perhaps to be equally restless when arrived there4 ,not that he was insensible to the pleasure of driving fast--stirring the blood as it does1 and giving a sense of power2 but he complained that everything was getting a little too hasty and business-like1 8as though we were to be eternally getting on1 and never realizing anything but fidget and money--the means instead of the end40 ,a distinction is duly recognised between haste and hurry--hurry adding to rapidity the element of painful confusion2 but in the case of ordinary people1 as ,dr4 ,boyd observes1 haste generally implies hurry1 and very strenuously he dilates on 8what a horrible thing0 it must be to go through life in a hurry4 ,the self-styled country parson made a name 78letters four do make that name07 by his 8,recreations40 ,and he has since then maintained its popularity by a series of 8,leisure ,hours40 ,in his essay concerning ,hurry and ,leisure he avows his utter contempt for the idler--the loafer1 as ,yankees term him--who never does anything1 whose idle hands are always in his idle pockets1 and who is always sauntering to and fro4 ,leisure1 we are reminded1 is the intermission of labour--the blink of idleness in the life of a hard-working man2 and it is only in the case of such a man that leisure is allowed to be dignified1 commendable1 or enjoyable4 8,but to him it is all these1 and more4 ,let us not be ever driving on4 ,the machinery1 physical and mental1 will not stand it40 ,only in leisure1 it is further contended1 will the human mind yield many of its best products4 ,calm views1 sound thoughts1 healthful feelings1 do not originate in a hurry or a fever4 ,it was in wistful remembrance of the silence in heaven for the space of half an hour1 as recorded by the ,seer of ,patmos1 that ,mrs4 ,browning penned a sonnet which expressed a prayer1 suggestive in its earnestness and of wide application1 8,vouchsafe us such a half-hour's hush alone1 ,in compensation for our stormy years60 ,never to be forgotten amid the tranquillising sweets of leisure hours1 with healing on their wings1 is the serene solemnity of that silent half-hour4 ,professor ,longfellow1 in one of his earliest works1 proclaimed to his countrymen as the great want of the national character1 that of the 8dignity of repose40 8,we seem10 he said1 8to live in the midst of a battle--there is such a din1 such a hurrying to and fro4 ,in the streets of a crowded city it is difficult to walk slowly4 ,you feel the rushing of the crowd1 and rush with it onward4 ,in the press of our life1 it is difficult to be calm4 ,in this stress of wind and tide1 all professions seem to drag their anchors1 and are swept out into the main40 ,the following stanza is so thoroughly conceived in the spirit and expressed in the style of the same author--the author of the 8,psalm of ,life0--that few readers might have hesitated to attribute it to him1 were it not known to be from one of the 8,palm ,leaves0 of ,lord ,houghton1 who1 a quarter of a century ago1 as ,richard ,monckton ,milnes1 after contrasting the din1 and stir1 and turmoil of the ,west with the reposeful air of the ,east1 counselled the poet of the ,west to wander eastward now and then3 8,there the calm of life comparing ,with his ,europe's busy fate1 ,let him gladly homeward faring1 ,learn to labour and to wait40 ,it is perhaps the most gifted of ,american writers of fiction to whom we owe the avowal1 that were he to adopt a pet idea1 as so many people do1 and fondle it in his embraces to the exclusion of all others1 it would be that the great want which mankind labours under at this present period is--sleep4 ,the world1 he urges1 should recline its vast head on the first convenient pillow1 and take a prolonged nap4 ,it has gone distracted1 on his showing1 through a morbid activity1 and while preternaturally wide awake1 is nevertheless tormented by visions that seem real to it now1 but would assume their true aspect and character were all things once set right by an interval of sound repose4 ,this he declares to be the only method of getting rid of old delusions and of avoiding new ones--of restoring to us the simple perception of what is right1 and the single-hearted desire to achieve it1 both of which have long been lost in consequence of this weary activity of brain and torpor or passion of the heart that now afflict the universe4 8,stimulants1 the only mode of treatment hitherto attempted1 cannot quell the disease2 they do but heighten the delirium40 ,sleep1 therefore1 is the panacea he prescribes for the physical and metaphysical regeneration of our race1 so that it may in due time awake1 as an infant out of dewy slumber4 ,to the like effect protests an able essayist of our day against tendencies to overrate the endless facilities of speedy locomotion now enjoyed1 as if they were a boon without a drawback2 and he professes not to regard as particularly attractive or elevating the sight of mankind scouring and bustling endlessly hither and thither over the face of the earth1 like eager1 energetic ants1 with little bits of straw or other rubbish packed on their heads4 ,ought we not rather1 it is asked1 to look on tranquillity1 and equilibrium1 and regularity1 as the normal condition of things8 and in the thousand encomiums which are poured forth upon steam and speed1 do we often take into account the waste and havoc which they make in 8plain living0--how they practically shorten the days of a man8 ,the haste and hurry of modern ,english civilization1 it has been elsewhere observed1 ever increasing and carrying us more impetuously forward1 tend to deaden all capacity for simpler enjoyments1 and all sense of the worth of a tranquil life on which the eyes of all the world are not fixed4 ,and whenever1 as a reflective discourser remarks1 people set their heads to constant work1 we may be perfectly certain that they are losing more than they gain1 and are sinking in the scale at once of meditative and social beings4 ,the accomplished author of an essay on ,leisure--the cultivation of which as an art is thought to be in danger of dying out amongst us--says of that activity which never relaxes sufficiently to allow time for a calm and more or less passive contemplation of life as a whole1 that it is 8apt to degenerate into mere hand-to-mouth fussiness or drudgery1 and can be justified only by necessity40 ,the very repose of leisure is accordingly pronounced a by no means purely selfish enjoyment--it being one of the most communicable1 nay1 contagious1 of pleasures2 for there are people1 we are reminded1 whose company is as restful as sleep1 in whose presence hurry seems like a bad dream when it is past1 and whom one leaves with a sense of refreshment and renewed energy such as is produced by a good night's rest4 ,and this writer contends that to afford such refreshment to others may often be turning time to better account than to crowd it with self-chosen business4 ,not that the fact is not duly insisted upon that too little work is as fatal as too much to that lightness and alacrity of spirit which are needed for the conversion of spare time into hours of leisure worthy to be so called4 ,some natures1 indeed1 and they are of a high order1 sometimes of the highest1 find one leisure hour at a time as much as they can away with1 and anon 8,the hour of rest is gone1 ,and urgent voices round them cry1 #8,ho1 lingerer1 hasten on6' 8,and has the soul1 then1 only gained1 ,from this brief time of ease1 ,a moment's rest1 when overstrained1 ,one hurried glimpse of peace80 ,nay something better and more abiding than that4 ,but to conclude4 ,the notion1 as expounded by an essayist on 8,short ,cuts10 that if a thing is to be done at all1 8then 'twere well it were done quickly10 admirable as it may be on the ,exchange1 is justly said to rub the delicacy and bloom off life when it is made the ruling maxim in all other relations and positions3 a life with leisure hours in it for watching and examining all that we pass being a much more enviable and rational lot than a swift rushing from one goal to another1 from one sort of fame or power or opulence to another and more remote4 ,when the ambitious hero in ,sir ,henry ,taylor's dramatic poem declares in the storm and stress of his career1 8,we have not time to mourn10 8,the worse for us60 is his good counsellor's rejoinder3 8,he that lacks time to mourn lacks time to mend4 ,eternity mourns that4 ',tis an ill cure ,for life's worst ills1 to have no time to feel them4 ,where sorrow's held intrusive and turn'd out1 ,there wisdom will not enter1 nor true power1 ,nor aught that dignifies humanity4 ,yet such the barrenness of busy life6 ,from shelf to shelf ,ambition clambers up ,to reach the naked'st pinnacle of all1 ,while ,magnanimity1 absolved from toil1 ,reposes self-included at the base40 ,a ,,prophylactic ,,knife ,,to ,,the ,,throat4 ,,proverbs xxiii4 #b4 ,king ,solomon's discreet counsel to him that feasts with royalty1 to put a knife to his throat1 if he be a man given to appetite1 may be advantageously enlarged in its application to diners-out1 or for the matter of that1 to diners at home1 all and sundry4 ,sitting to eat with a ruler1 the guest is admonished to consider diligently what is before him2 and at the same time to be not desirous of the great man's dainties1 for they are deceitful meat4 ,any and every man given to appetite will do well to chew the cud of this bitter fancy2 and the prophylactic application of a knife to the throat1 forbidding rash ingress and intemperate speed of swallow1 is wholesome for all estates and degrees of men among us1 and might beneficially be a standing order for all times4 ,adam ,smith1 in his 8,theory of the ,moral ,sentiments10 calls it 8indecent0 to express any strong degree of those passions which arise from a certain situation or disposition of the body2 because the company1 not being in the same disposition1 cannot be expected to sympathize with them2 and he mentions violent hunger as being1 though upon many occasions not only natural1 but unavoidable1 yet 8always indecent2 and to eat voraciously is universally regarded as a piece of ill manners40 ,there is1 however1 he allows1 some degree of sympathy1 even with hunger1 and we may add1 even on the part of a ruler at whose table sits the man given to appetite4 ,lewis the ,fourteenth1 himself a gourmand1 and1 which is different1 an enormous eater1 liked to see a dinner guest disposing wholesale of the royal cates1 if only by way of keeping himself in countenance1 while achieving the like result4 ,royalty has1 indeed1 again and again been addicted to surfeiting1 and sometimes of a memorably fatal sort4 ,alexander ,jannus died of gluttony1 during the siege of ,ragaba4 ,soliman1 the seventh khalif of the race of the ,ommiyades1 died of a surfeit at ,chalcis1 in ,syria1 while preparing to lead an army to ,constantinople4#bi ,of the emperor ,jovian1 we read in ,gibbon1 that one night1 at the obscure town ,dadastana1 after indulging himself with a redundant supper1 he retired to rest1 and was next morning found dead in his bed--an event ascribed by some1 though not by all1 to the quality of the mushrooms1 plus the quantity of wine1 which he had swallowed in the evening4 ,the same historian rather more than suspects that the mortal disease of ,athanaric the ,goth 8was contracted amidst the pleasures of the imperial banquets10 by ,theodosius provided4 ,pope ,benedict ,,xi4 is said to have died of a surfeit of fruit--some beautiful fresh figs1 of which he was very fond1 being offered to him in a silver basin by a veiled novice1 as if from the abbess of the convent of ,st4 ,petronilla1 in ,perugia3 8,the pope1 not suspecting a gift from such a hand1 ate them eagerly1 and without having them previously tasted40 ,that he died of poison1 few in that age1 as ,milman says1 would venture to doubt1 but the poisoning power of arrears of undigested food has never been quite rated at its full value4 ,the same hesitation between fruit surfeit and poison1 obtains in the case of ,king ,john1 whose death1 by one account due to the fatal drug administered by a ,cistercian monk1 by another is attributed to an intemperate indulgence at supper in fruit and new cider4 ,the ,emperor ,frederick ,,iii4 contracted his last illness1 some say1 by a surfeit of melons4 ,and is there not1 in the case of our ,henry ,i41 what has been called that tale of royal excess so concisely and pathetically told in nursery history8 8,he never smiled again1 and died of a surfeit of lampreys40 ,the regicide lampreys1 ,moore calls them in one place2 and in another1 after citing ,hume's remark on them1 as 8a food which always agreed better with his ,henry's palate than his constitution10 a dish so indigestible1 that a late novelist1 at the end of his book1 could imagine no more summary mode of getting rid of all his heroes and heroines than by a hearty supper of stewed lampreys4 ,in yet another the same squib-writer has a cruel simile1 8just as honest ,king ,stephen his beaver might doff to the fishes that carried his kind uncle off40 ,to a surfeit of red herrings is ascribed the death of ,robert ,greene1 the dramatist4 ,the trap for the life of the ,emperor ,antoninus ,pius was baited1 as ,de ,quincey expresses it1 with toasted cheese4 ,kaiser ,karl ,,vi4 was the victim of a voracious repast on mushrooms stewed in oil4 ,when ,hadrian found his illness on the increase1 and his end approaching1 he removed to ,bai1 where1 8in spite of the prescriptions or proscriptions8 of his physicians1 he began to eat and drink according to his pleasure40 ,the excesses of ,charles ,v4 in the same way are exceptionally notorious4 ,of that 8little1 spare1 aguish1 peevish1 supper-eating0 sovereign1 ,frederick the ,great1 who loved his dishes the more they tormented him1 it is on record1 that on the approach of death1 8this warrior full of courage and sage speculation10 could not resist the customary pepper and sauce piquante1 though he knew it would inevitably result in a nightmare1 8turning his bed into a nest of monsters40 ,so with the ,duke ,augustus commemorated by ,perthes3 8,all medical skill was in vain1 for this half crazy prince could not deny himself the stimulus of the hottest spices40 ,mr4 ,tennyson's dying ,northern ,farmer is only too true a type of his kind3-- 8,what atta stannin' theer for1 an' doesn bring ma the yale8 ,doctor's a'tottler1 lass1 an a's hallus i' the owd tale2 ,i went brek rules for doctor1 a knaws naw more nor a floy2 ,git ma my yale ,i tell tha1 an' gin ,i mun doy ,i mun doy40 ,swift is giving ,pope a significant and not uncalled-for hint1 when he writes to express his uneasiness at ever hearing of the poet's being out to dinner3 8,for the least transgression of yours1 if it be only two bits and one sup more than your stint1 is a great debauch2 for which you certainly pay more than those sots who are carried dead drunk to bed40 ,an entry in ,mrs4 ,trench's diary begins1 8,dined at the ,duke of ,queensberry's4 ,he is very ill--has a violent cough1 but will eat an immense dinner1 and then complains of a digestion pnible40 ,another of his quality has been described as taking all sorts of pains to get a little enjoyment which must produce for him a world of misery4 8,one of his passions which he will not resist1 is for a particular dish1 pungent1 savoury1 and multifarious1 which sends him almost every night into ,tartarus40 ,mr4 ,thackeray's moribund old ,madame ,bernstein will have her supper luxurious1 8nor could any injunction of ours or the doctor's teach her abstinence40 ,the ,sir ,miles ,st4 ,john of another popular fiction does himself to death after the same manner3 8,he would have his own way2 and he contrived to coax or to force his doctor into an authority on his side40 ,for doctors are not all of the kind that ,sancho ,panza had to deal with when governor of ,barataria4 ,the ,doctor cites the case of an eminent member of 8the faculty10 who could never refrain from eating toasted cheese1 though he was subject to an alarming pulmonary complaint which was uniformly aggravated by it1 and which terminated fatally at an age by no means advanced4 ,another he relates1 of a physician who1 at an autumnal dessert never ceased eating all the filberts he could lay his hands upon1 while candidly acknowledging what indigestible and hurtful things they were4 ,not a doctor apparently of medicine1 but 7proh pudor67 of divinity1 was that ,cambridge don of whose end ,gray makes memorable mention1 as having gone to his grave with five fine mackarel 7large and full of roe7 in his inside4 8,he ate them all off at one dinner2 but his fate was a turbot on ,trinity ,sunday1 of which he left little for the company besides bones4 ,he had not been hearty all the week2 but after this sixth fish he never held up his head more40 ,like ,milton's ,eve1 in one sense at least3-- 8,greedily he ingorged without restraint1 ,and knew not eating death40 ,dr4 ,johnson's friend1 ,thrale1 is a noteworthy example1 or warning1 of the man of appetite1 who will not restrain it2 will not put a knife to his throat1 but prefers sending a full laden fork in that direction4 ,his wife describes his natural disposition to conviviality as degenerating into a preternatural desire for food4 8,no one could control his appetite40 8,burney and ,i and ,queeney tease him every meal he eats1 and ,mrs4 ,montagu is quite serious with him2 but what can one do8 ,he will eat1 ,i think2 and if he does eat1 ,i know he will not live40 ,the lampreys that were one too many for ,henry the king1 were one too many for ,thrale the brewer4 ,he begged some of an old friend1 and the old friend complied1 despite the frowns and negative signals of the ladies of the house--whom following out of the room1 the too compliant visitor thus made his apology to ,mrs4 ,thrale1 8,i understand you1 ,madam1 but must disobey4 ,a friend ,i have known thirty-six years shall not ask a favour of me in his last stage of life and be refused4 ,what difference can it make80 ,tears stood in his eyes1 and ,mrs4 ,thrale's own--les larmes dans la voix--prevented all reply4 ,what difference did it make8 ,that day was ,mr4 ,thrale's last4 ,the tone of the apology reminds us of ,general ,paoli's answer to ,boswell1 when whispering his fear lest ,johnson1 very aged and very ailing1 might be hurt by the amount and variety of what he was despatching at the general's table1 8where he loved to dine40 ,boswell begged ,paoli not to press him4 ,why urge a too willing horse8 8,alas60 said the host1 8see how very ill he looks3 he can live but a very short time4 ,would you refuse a slight gratification to a man under sentence of death80 ,and the general cited approvingly the 8humane custom0 in ,italy1 by which those in ,johnson's position were indulged with having whatever they liked best to eat and drink1 even with expensive delicacies4 ,a parallel case we have in ,sir ,walter ,scott1 during his melancholy sojourn in ,italy1 as ,sir ,w4 ,gell describes his dining at a ,roman palace1 and his own fears lest1 from the hospitality of the ,torlonia family1 and 8with servants on all sides pressing him to eat and drink1 as is their custom at ,rome10 ,sir ,walter might be induced to eat more than was safe for his malady4 8,colonel ,blair1 who sat next him1 was requested to take care that this should not happen4 ,whenever ,i observed him1 however1 ,sir ,walter appeared always to be eating2 while the duchess1 who had discovered the nature of the office imposed on the colonel1 was by no means satisfied1 and after dinner observed that it was an odd sort of friendship which consisted in starving one's neighbour to death1 when he had a good appetite1 and there was dinner enough40 ,the selfish club-man par excellence has been depicted as earthing himself from pursuit in the sanctuary of his club1 there to eat his fill unmolested1 with no remonstrant at hand to remind him of the gout when enjoying his turtle1 or to talk of cupping when the glass of champagne is at his lips4 8,there he may eat his asparagus tout l'huile--there he may pepper his cream-tart10 and none to say him nay4 ,drawn with pitiless realism from the life is ,acton ,bell 7,anne ,bront7's picture of the dying master of ,wildfell ,hall1 whose extreme dread of death1 when and while it seems imminent1 renders easy his wife's task of curbing his unruly greed1 but who becomes intractable as the danger to dear life seems receding4 8,i watch and restrain him10 she writes1 8as well as ,i can1 and often get bitterly abused for my rigid severity2 and sometimes he contrives to elude my vigilance1 and sometimes acts in opposition to my will40 ,william ,collins1 the painter1 notes in his diary a certain 8dinner at ,c's10 where he 8sat next to ,h1 who took some highly seasoned omelet4 ,i asked him how he could venture on such stuff2 he said he could not resist it1 though he knew how much he should suffer from it4 ,he took a great deal of wine1 to overcome the effects of the omelet1 and assured me he should be ill for four days after such a dinner1 and that he always suffered in the same way after dining with ,c6 ,how absurd such weakness appears1 and yet how common it is60 ,george ,herbert's counsel is never out of date1 any more than ,king ,solomon's1 in the matter of putting a knife to one's throat1 if edacious and a diner-out3-- 8,look to thy mouth3 diseases enter there4444 444 ,carve1 or discourse2 do not a famine fear4 ,who carves is kind to two1 who talks to all4 ,look on meat1 think it dirt1 then eat a bit2 ,then say withal1 ,earth to earth ,i commit40 ,,hazael',s ,,abhorrent ,,repudiation ,,of ,,his ,,future ,,self4 #b ,,kings viii4 #ac4 ,why wept ,elisha in the presence of ,hazael1 when that envoy from the sick king of ,syria courted the man of ,god1 in his sovereign's behalf1 with a consignment of every good thing of ,damascus1 forty camels' burden8 ,courteous and gentle was ,benhadad's messenger who came to inquire of the ,lord of ,elisha1 if the royal ,syrian should recover of the disease which had brought him so low4 ,why wept the prophet1 when his prophecy had been uttered1 ominously vague8 8,go1 say unto him ,benhadad1 ,thou mayest certainly recover4 ,howbeit the ,lord hath showed me that he shall certainly die40 ,and he settled his countenance stedfastly1 until he was ashamed4 8,and ,hazael said1 ,why weepeth my lord8 ,and he answered1 ,because ,i know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of ,israel2 their strongholds wilt thou set on fire1 and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword1 and wilt dash their children10 etc4 ,and ,hazael said1 8,but what6 is thy servant a dog1 that he should do this great thing80 ,yet ,hazael went home1 and on the very morrow commenced his justification of the seer's previsionary tears1 by spreading a thick wet cloth on the face of his master1 so that ,benhadad1 who else would have recovered1 died1 and ,hazael reigned in his stead4 ,well might the man of ,god weep1 nor could anything be more natural1 or at least naturally assumed1 than the shuddering repudiation1 the deprecating protest1 of the envoy that now was1 the king--and dog--that to-morrow should be4 8,lui-mme1 son portrait forc de rendre hommage1 ,il frmira d'horreur devant sa propre image40 ,the man who is weak1 observes ,miss ,lee in the 8,canterbury ,tales10 is always in danger of becoming a villain2 and she exemplifies this liability in the instance of ,villars1 who1 by indulging a passion calculated to enfeeble his understanding and corrupt his heart1 is soon to be found touching that point which his high tone of romantic refinement had once induced him to believe it impossible he should even approach4 ,but he protests too much who strenuously protests1 with protestation heaped on protestation1 against any such possible lapse and collapse on his part2 and there are cases of this kind1 of which one may say with ,molire-- 8,que c'est tre demi ce que l'on vient de dire1 ,que de vouloir jurer qu'on ne le sera pas40 ,martial is in the right in answering the inquiry of ,priscus1 how would he live if he became rich and great all at once1 with another query1 ,who can say beforehand what his future conduct will be8 ,quemquam posse putas mores narrare futuros8 ,if ,priscus were to become a lion1 what sort of one would he turn out to be8 ,perhaps like ,hazael1 a dog4 ,in sight of a corpse suspended to a tree1 the 8miserable remnant of a wretch that was hanged there for murder10 ,robert1 in one of ,tobin's dramas1 protests to his mother that1 robber though he be1 he is no murderer2 she replies3-- 8,you are a robber2 ,and he who robs1 by sharp resistance pressed1 ,will end the deed in blood3 'twas so with him2 ,he once possessed a soul quick as your own ,to mercy1 and would quake1 as you do now1 ,at the bare apprehension of the act ,that has consigned him to yon blasted tree40 ,dr4 ,hamilton somewhere adverts to a sort of gambling in our large cities which does not look particularly repulsive--not being carried on in 8hells10 and pleading the sanction of some titled names2 the results1 however1 of which are hanging like a millstone round the neck of many a once promising young man2 while1 to say nothing of those whom it has reduced to beggary or blackguardism1 numbers of its victims must be sought in the ,portland hulks or ,dartmoor prison4 8,they went to the race-course1 or1 without going there1 they laid wagers on horses1 and sooner or later they lost more than they could pay1 and in dread of dishonour they took means to get the money at the very suggestion of which1 once upon a time1 they would indignantly have exclaimed1 #8,is thy servant a dog8' and after a few miserable makeshifts1 only adding sin to sin1 there came detection and ruin and disgrace40 ,it is of the riotous living of prodigal sons that the same preacher is treating1 when he shows1 in his graphic way1 how speedily riot1 whether coarse or refined1 wastes the reveller's substance--not only sapping the constitution1 and softening the brain1 and shattering the nerves1 and enfeebling the mind1 but exhausting the estate1 and soon bringing the spendthrift to poverty4 ,and1 as the discourser goes on to say1 if the passion still urges1 and the fear of ,god has departed1 wild methods will be used to meet the demand and assuage the frantic craving4 8,keepsakes will be sold or pledged1 to part with which would1 once upon a time1 have looked like sacrilege40 ,perhaps money will be taken from the till1 and so on and on1 or rather downwards and downwards1 deeper and deeper1 till the lowest deep is sounded1 and darkness is the burier of the dead4 ,it has been remarked by one of the most reflective of our popular authors1 that there is a terrible coercion in our deeds which may first turn the honest man into a deceiver1 and then reconcile him to the change1 for this reason--that the second wrong presents itself to him in the guise of the only practicable right4 8,the action which before commission has been seen with that blended common-sense and fresh untarnished feeling which is the healthy eye of the soul1 is looked at afterwards with the lens of apologetic ingenuity1 through which all things that men call beautiful and ugly are seen to be made up of textures very much alike40 ,europe1 it is suggestively added1 adjusts itself to a fait accompli2 and so does an individual character--until the placid adjustment is disturbed by a convulsive retribution4 ,recording the appointment of ,bonaparte to succeed ,scherer in command of the ,french forces on ,genoese territory1 ,southey observes that although the former had given indications of his military talents at ,toulon1 and of his remorseless nature at ,paris1 8the extent either of his ability or his wickedness was at this time known to none1 and perhaps not even suspected by himself40 ,of all the lessons derived from the history of human passion1 says ,lavalette1 the most important is the utter impossibility which even the best men will always experience of stopping1 if they are once led into the path of error4 ,if1 a few years before they were perpetrated1 the crimes of the first ,french ,revolution1 he goes on to surmise1 could have been portrayed to those who committed them1 8even ,robespierre himself would have recoiled with horror40 ,men1 in the case suggested1 are seduced at first by plausible theories1 which their heated imaginations represent as beneficial and easy of execution3 8they advance unconsciously from errors to faults1 and from faults to crimes1 till sensibility is destroyed by the habitual spectacle of guilt1 and the most savage atrocities come to be dignified by the name of state policy40 ,the world1 and the spirit of the world1 observes ,sir ,fowell ,buxton in one of his letters1 are very insidious2 8and more than once ,i have seen a person who1 as a youth1 was single-eyed and single-hearted1 and who1 to any one who supposed he might glide into laxity of zeal1 would have said1 #8,am ,i a dog8' in maturer age become1 if not a lover of the vices of the world1 at least a tolerator of its vanities40 ,but as ,m4 de ,sainte-,beuve sententiously puts it1 in one of his maxims after the manner of ,la ,rochefoucauld1 8,la plupart des dfauts qui clatent dans la seconde moiti de la vie existaient en nous tout forms bien auparavant2 mais ils taient masqus1 en quelque sorte1 par la pudeur de la jeunesse40 ,the faults of after-life were there1 and only the modest reserve and self-restraint of youth kept them under cover4 ,with riper years comes less regard for others1 and the cover is taken off4 ,a clerical essayist on 8,future ,years10 8can well believe10 he tells us1 8that many a man1 could he have a glimpse in innocent youth of what he will be twenty or thirty years after1 would pray in anguish to be taken before coming to that60 8,mansie ,wauch's glimpse of destitution was bad enough2 but a million times worse is a glimpse of hardened and unabashed sin and shame40 ,and it would be no comfort1 we are reminded--it would be an aggravation in that view--to think that by the time you have reached that miserable point1 you will have grown pretty well reconciled to it--that being the worst of all4 ,hazael stands out in large type1 black letter type1 or red letter1 if you will--the hue of blood--a degraded instance of the degrading power of guilt--a warning of the stealthy yet swift aggression of criminal impulse1 or criminal policy1 seducing1 subduing1 and transforming its subjects1-- 8,till creatures born1 ,for good 7whose hearts kind ,pity nursed7 ,will act the direst crimes they cursed ,but yester-morn40 ,,the ,,open ,,right ,,hand',s ,,secret ,,from ,,the ,,left4 ,,st4 ,,matthew vi4 #c4 ,to some of us1 to very many1 it may seem that the ,sermon might well be on a ,mount1 that set forth such a text as this3 8,but when thou doest alms1 let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth40 ,the atmosphere is of other altitudes than here below4 ,we may not sound a trumpet before us1 as the hypocrites did in the synagogue and in the streets1 to have glory of men2 and verily1 every man his own trumpeter1 they had their reward4 ,but as to keeping our open-handed doles and donations a secret1 as it were1 from our other self2 as to concealing from the left hand the furtive bounties and stealthy almsgiving of the right1 that is a practical transcendentalism mostly undreamt of in our philosophy4 ,yet are there1 and ever will be1 those--else had this earth of ours lost the salt of the earth1 and wherewith then should it be salted8--who-- 8,do good by stealth1 and blush to find it fame40 ,the larger number of benefactors1 who1 as the caustic ,french wit1 ,chamfort1 puts it1 pretend to conceal themselves after effecting a deed of kindness1 betake themselves to flight and a hiding-place only as ,virgil's ,galatea did1 with a decided wish to be seen first3 ,et se cupit ante videri4 ,another of ,chamfort's cynical maximes et penses runs thus3 8,il y a peu de bienfaiteurs qui ne disent comme ,satan1 ,si cadens adoraveris me40 ,whom the vulgar succour1 they oppress1 says ,crabbe4 ,they have as little sympathy with1 or interest in1 the rule of keeping the right hand's largesse a secret from the left1 as with ,peter of ,aragon's famous refusal to let ,pope ,martin ,,iv know what were his designs against the infidel4 ,peter implored the blessing of the ,holy ,father on his scheme of action2 8but if he thought his right hand knew his secret1 he would cut it off1 lest it should betray it to his left40 ,and the vulgar mean the commonalty1 the many1 the polloi4 ,the doer of good1 therefore1 who does it by stealth1 is the exception to a rule2 and as an exception he is treated in literature and life as what is called a 8character40 ,goldsmith makes a highly pronounced character of his man in black1 whose hand is open as day to melting charity1 while he professes to keep it closed tight as wax and hard as steel4 ,he bullies in words a petitioner for aid1 while he is but studying what method he shall take to relieve him unobserved4 8,he had1 however10 writes the ,chinese citizen of the world1 8no easy part to act1 as he was obliged to preserve the appearance of ill-nature before me1 and yet relieve himself by relieving the sailor40 ,and by contrivance he gains his end4 ,the mandarin's curiosity to know 8what could be his motives for thus concealing virtues which others take such pains to display10 is natural1 and finds natural expression2 and thereby hangs the tale of the 8reluctantly good0 ,man in ,black4 ,smollett1 again1 makes one of his heroes1 though young and pleasure-loving1 retrench his expenses in order to help the needy3 8,numberless were the objects to which he extended his charity in private4 ,indeed1 he exerted this virtue in secret1 not only on account of avoiding the charge of ostentation1 but also because he was ashamed of being detected in such an awkward1 unfashionable practice by the censorious observers of this humane generation4 ,in this particular he seemed to confound the ideas of virtue and vice2 for he did good as other people do evil1 by stealth2 and was like the man in black so capricious in point of behaviour1 that frequently1 in public1 he wagged his tongue in satirical animadversions upon that poverty which his hand had1 in private1 relieved40 ,it cannot be affirmed of him that he exemplified1 in detail1 all the attributes of a portrait from life1 but after death1 by ,cowper2 but some of them he did3 8,yet was thy liberality discreet1 ,nice in its choice1 and of a tempered heat2 ,and though in act unwearied1 secret still1 ,as in some solitude the summer rill ,refreshes1 where it winds1 the faded green1 ,and cheers the drooping flowers1 unheard1 unseen40 ,when a biographer can accredit the subject of his narrative with a disposition to hide his bounty1 he is usually apt enough to catch at so catching a quality4 ,wellington1 we are told1 though his name so rarely figured on subscription lists1 was very liberal in his charities1 and was not unfrequently victimized by impostors4 ,during the ,irish famine he is said to have distributed at least #aj1jjj among the relief committees2 but 8he never said a word about it at ,exeter ,hall40 ,free gifts by stealth are often characteristic of such natures as ,byron's2 of whom1 for instance1 we read that1 soon after ,lord ,falkland's death1 the poet reminded the unfortunate widow that he was to be godfather to her infant ,byron a sponsor6--but let that pass2 and that after the 8christening0 he inserted a five-hundred pound note in a breakfast cup2 but in so cautious a manner that it was not discovered until he had left the house4 ,montesquieu was even hard and harsh in his repudiation of thanks from those he helped2 his kindness was accordingly 7to speak by quibble7 less than kind2 insomuch that one critic recognises in him 8un de ces dieux bienfaiteurs de l'humanit1 mais qui n'en partagent point la tendresse40 ,grimm is another example of a satirical tongue with an open hand1 only the hand was opened behind his own back3 il sut tre bienveillant en secret4 ,amid ,james ,watt's donations in aid of sound and useful learning1 testifies one biographer1 were not wanting others prescribed by true religion1 for the consolation of the poor1 and relief of the afflicted2 but these works were done in secret1 and with injunctions that his name should not be made known4 ,goethe seems to have preserved profound secrecy with respect to some signal exercises of his beneficence4 ,cowper tells ,unwin1 in one of his letters1 that a recent endeavour of that good pastor to relieve the indigent of his flock would probably have succeeded better 8had it been an affair of more notoriety than merely to furnish a few poor fellows with a little fuel to preserve their extremities from the frost40 8,men really pious delight in doing good by stealth2#cj but nothing less than an ostentatious display of bounty will satisfy mankind in general40 ,the ,olney bard1 in after years1 had pleasant dealings with a signal exemplar of the benefactor by stealth4 ,he was made the almoner of a charitable stranger1 to whom he thus refers in a letter to ,john ,newton3 8,like the subterraneous flue that warms my myrtles1 he does good and is unseen4 ,his injunctions of secrecy are still as rigorous as ever1 and must therefore be observed with the same attention40 ,a year later3 8,i shall probably never see him10 writes ,cowper1 in relating a fresh tide of benefactions2 but 8he will always have a niche in the museum of my reverential remembrance40 ,even without that1 the ,unknown had his reward4 8,charity ever ,finds in the act reward1 and needs no trumpet ,in the receiver40 ,,to-,,morrow4 ,,st4 ,,james iv4 #ac1 #ad4 ,the rich man in the parable was self-complacently far-sighted in his foresight1 when he took stock of his much goods laid up for many years2 but that very night his soul was to be required of him4 ,take thine ease2 eat1 drink1 and be merry1 was his easy-going style of self-communing3 many are the years in store for thee1 and all of these well stored with whatever makes this life worth the living4 ,and just in the same easy-going style is pitched the prospective self-assurance of the worldlings censured by ,st4 ,james4 8,go to now1 ye that say1 to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city1 and continue there a year1 and buy1 and sell1 and get gain3 whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow4 ,for what is your life8 it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time1 and then vanisheth away40 ,boast not thyself of to-morrow1 for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth4 ,to-day1 while it is called to-day1--hardly this can be called thine4 ,but to-morrow1 whose is that8 ,even the uttermost sensualist owns it to be none of his1 when he sets up for his motto1 at once a reminder to live fast and a memento mori1--,let us eat and drink to-day1 for to-morrow we die4 ,so far he is at least verbally wiser than his brethren of the cup and the platter1 whose style is1 8,come ye1 ,i will fetch wine1 and we will fill ourselves with strong drink2 and to-morrow shall be as this day1 and much more abundant40 ,little reck they of the platitude that all flesh is grass1 which to-day is1 and to-morrow is cast into the oven4 ,macbeth's threefold ,to-morrow is a triplet that by no means goes trippingly off the tongue3-- 8,,to-,,morrow1 ,,and ,,to-,,morrow1 ,,and ,,to-,,morrow1 ,creeps in this petty pace from day to day1 ,to the last syllable of recorded time2 ,and all our yesterdays have lighted fools ,the way to dusty death40 ,so muses the usurper1 besieged in his last fastness1 while the cry is still1 ,they come--even the enemy and the avenger2 a cry varied by one of women bewailing their mistress dead4 ,he has supped full of horrors2 and the cry of 8,the queen1 my lord1 is dead10 but elicits for response1 8,she should have died hereafter2 there would have been a time for such a word4--,to-morrow1 and to-morrow1 and to-morrow40444 ,in some such mood was usurping ,gloster1 on the eve of destruction1 pitching his tent on ,bosworth ,field1 and meditating1-- 444 8,here will ,i lie to-night2 ,soldiers begin to set up the ,king's tent4 ,but where to-morrow8--,well1 all's one for that40 ,to the meanest private in rank and file the to-morrow that shall bring on a battle cannot but be a momentous thought4 ,as his grace of ,york says1 on the eve of ,hotspur's encounter with the king's forces at ,shrewsbury1-- 8,to-morrow1 good ,sir ,michael1 is a day ,wherein the fortune of ten thousand men ,must 'bide the touch40 ,while there's life there's hope1 and hope is1 by the nature of it1 intent on to-morrow4 ,as with hopes1 so with fears4 ,and hopes and fears together make up the sum of what has interest in life4 ,no wonder1 then1 if to-morrow is a frequent word with the poet-philosopher of human life2 and that in comedy and in tragedy alike1 it serves his turn4 ,be it a wedding for to-morrow or an execution for to-morrow1 ,shakspeare iterates and reiterates the phrase1 with all the dramatic realism that informs and vivifies his creations4 ,is it the wedding of ,hero with ,claudio1 for instance8 8,when are you married1 madam80 asks ,ursula of the bride2 who1 with affected levity1 replies1-- 8,why1 every day2 to-morrow4 ,come1 go in2 ,i'll show thee some attires2 and have thy counsel1 ,which is the best to furnish me to-morrow40 ,little she recks of what is to betide her ere to-morrow dawn4 ,or is it an execution8 ,hear ,angelo's decree against another 7quite another7 ,claudio3 8,were he my kinsman1 brother1 or my son1 ,it would be thus with him2--he must die to-morrow4 ,isab4 ,to-morrow6 ,o1 that's sudden6 ,spare1 him1 spare him2 ,he's not prepared for death40 ,many scenes later we have the ,provost imparting his fate to the doomed man3-- 8,look1 here's the warrant1 ,claudio1 for thy death3 ',tis now dead-midnight1 and by eight to-morrow ,thou must be made immortal40 ,presently the disguised duke comes in1 and asks of the ,provost1-- 8,have you no countermand for ,claudio yet1 ,but he must die to-morrow8 ,prov4 ,none1 sir2 none40 ,one may wonder whether ,macbeth1 brooding on the vague and vasty gloom of that word1 bethought him of the fatal first use of it in his incipient designs against his sovran4 ,the gracious ,duncan1 he tells his wife1 on reaching home1 is to become his guest to-night3 8,lady ,m4 ,and when goes hence8 ,macb4 ,to-morrow1--as he purposes4 ,lady ,m4 ,o1 never ,shall sun that morrow see60 ,reason good1 or rather1 in a bad sense1 reason of the worst1 had ,macbeth to brood in after-days1 when the morrow that never came to ,duncan1 had come blood-stained to him1--on the far-reaching capacities of so memorable a phrase4 ,but from ,shakspeare turn to other sources of illustration4 ,truth as well as pathos has been justly ascribed to the following expansion of a very natural sentiment--8the fear of personal oblivion in one's own home0--artistically rendered by one of a gifted family of artists3 8,i listened to their honest chat2 ,said one3 #8,to-morrow we shall be ,plod1 plod along the featureless sands ,and coasting miles and miles of sea4' ,said one3 #8,before the turn of tide ,we will achieve the eyrie-seat4' ,said one3 #8,to-morrow shall be like ,to-day1 but much more sweet4' #8,to-morrow1' said they1 strong with hope1 ,and dwelt upon the pleasant way2 #8,to-morrow1' cried they1 one and all1 ,while no one spoke of yesterday4 ,then life stood still at blessed noon1 ,i1 only ,i1 had passed away3 #8,to-morrow and to-day1' they cried3 ,i was of yesterday40 ,it is a critical point in ,mr4 ,charles ,reade's story of what he calls very hard cash1 when ,noah ,skinner1 the fraudulent banker's clerk1 old and dying1 proposes to himself1 and resolves to deliver up1 to-morrow1 the receipt for fourteen thousand pounds1 his criminal possession and crafty retention of which has caused such profound and wide-spread misery4 8,a sleepy languor now came over him2 444 but his resolution remained unshaken2 by-and-by waking up from a sort of heavy dose1 he took1 as it were a last look at the receipt1 and murmured1 #8,my head1 how heavy it feels4' ,but presently he roused himself1 full of his penitent resolution1 and murmured again brokenly1 #8,i'll--take it to--,pembroke-street to--morrow3 to--mor--row40 ,fool--like other us fools of nature--that night his soul was required of him4 ,the to-morrow found him1 and so did the detectives1 dead4 ,among other visitors and applicants at the mystical ,intelligence ,office thrown open to our gaze by ,nathaniel ,hawthorne1 there totters hastily in a grandfatherly personage1 so earnest in his uniform alacrity that his white hair floats backwards as he hurries up to the desk1 while his dim eyes catch a momentary lustre from his vehemence of purpose4 ,this venerable figure explains that he is in search of ,to-morrow4 8,i have spent all my life in pursuit of it10 adds the sage old gentleman1 8being assured that ,to-morrow has some vast benefit or other in store for me4 ,but ,i am now getting a little in years1 and must make haste1 for unless ,i overtake ,to-morrow soon1 ,i begin to be afraid it will finally escape me40 8,this fugitive ,to-morrow1 my venerable friend10 said the ,man of ,intelligence1 8is a stray child of ,time1 and is flying from his father into the region of the infinite4 ,continue your pursuit1 and you will doubtless come up with him2 but as to the earthly gifts which you expect1 he has scattered them all among a throng of ,yesterdays40 ,the grandsire is obliged to content himself with this enigmatical response1 and hastens forth with a quick clatter of his staff upon the floor2 and as he disappears1 a little boy scampers through the door in chase of a butterfly1 which has got astray amid the barren sunshine of the city4 ,had the old gentleman1 suggests our ever-suggestive moralist1 been shrewder1 he might have detected ,to-morrow under the semblance of that gaudy insect4 ,j'ai vcu--,i managed to keep alive--was the ,abb ,siys' answer to those who1 in after days1 asked him how he spent his time in the ,reign of ,terror4 ,and it is in allusion to his position at that season of peril1 when no one could reckon on a morrow--nul ne pouvait se promettre un lendemain--that he quotes the vers charmants made in #agjh by ,maucroix1 then fourscore and upwards3-- 8,chaque jour est un bien que du ,ciel je reoi6 ,jouissons aujourd'hui de celui qu'il nous donne3 ,il n'appartient pas plus aux jeunes gens qu' moi1 ,et celui de demain n'appartient personne40 8,what shall we be doing to-morrow at this time80 said ,ducos1 as the ,girondins were whiling away their last evening here on earth4 ,and each of them replied as the humour took him1 or the subject impressed him4 ,the favourite answer seems to have been1 ,we shall sleep after the fatigues of the day4 ,to some the feeling may have been1 too literally and very bitterly1 what ,wordsworth versified as he gazed from ,rydal ,mount on a slowly-sinking star3 8,we struggle with our fate1 ,while health1 power1 glory1 from their height decline1 ,depressed2 and then extinguished2 and our state1 ,in this1 how different1 lost ,star1 from thine1 ,that no to-morrow shall our beams restore60 ,to-morrow1 and to-morrow1 and to-morrow4 ,for some time had the ,emperor ,francis--,maria ,theresa's consort--been threatened with an apoplexy1 when1 on the morning of the #ahth of ,august1 #agfd1 being pressed by his sister to be blooded1 he answered1 8,i am engaged this evening to sup with ,joseph1 and will not disappoint him2 but ,i promise you ,i will be blooded to-morrow40 ,at the opera in the evening he was taken ill4 ,retiring1 he was struck with apoplexy1 and died at ,joseph's feet1 for he had fallen from ,joseph's arms4 ,at his feet--like one of old time--he bowed1 he fell1 he lay down3 at his feet he bowed1 he fell3 where he bowed1 there he fell down dead4 ,boast not thyself of to-morrow4 ,hardly less hackneyed in the ear of scholar and schoolboy1 yet hardly less impressive as truisms with ever-living truth in them1 are ,horace's ,quis scit an adjiciant hodiern crastina summ ,tempora ,di superi8 7who knows whether the powers above will add a morrow to the day that now is871 and ,seneca's ,never was man so in favour with the gods as to be able to promise himself a morrow3 ,nemo tam divos habuit faventes1 ,crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri4 ,when ,archias1 the polemarch at ,thebes1 dissolved in wine and pleasure1 received from his pontifical namesake at ,athens a full and particular account by letter of the conspiracy of ,pelopidas and the exiles1 who were even then counting the minutes ere they struck the blow1--although the messenger expressly urged his excellency to read the missive forthwith1 as the contents were of instant import1 ,archias only smiled a tipsy smile1 and said1 8,business to-morrow40 ,then he put the unopened letter under the bolster of his couch1 and resumed his colloquy with his host1 ,philidias1 who was in the plot1 and who was taking good care to ply the polemarch with wine4 ,business to-morrow4 ,to-morrow as he purposed6 ,oh1 never should sun that morrow see4 ,si hodie non es paratus1 quo modo cras eris8 ,,cras est dies incertus3 et qui scis si crastinum habebis8 ,to-morrow1 in this its prospective1 procrastinating sense1 is denounced by ,mr4 ,sala1 with all due asperity1 as a wretched1 cowardly1 idiotic subterfuge and apology--a 8suicidal delusion and pitfall40 ,yes1 to-morrow ,i will begin to learn ,syro-,chaldaic 7we overhear him saying73 ,i will read the novel of the day to-day4 ,to-morrow ,i will dine on a mutton-chop and a glass of water4 ,to-day ,i will ask the chef at the club to send me up a pretty little dinner1 not forgetting that irresistible choufleur au gratin1 and bid the butler bring me that curious pommard with the iron-grey seal4 ,to-morrow ,i will finish my magnum opus1 my 8,treatise on the ,books of ,job and ,ecclesiastes in their relation to ,human ,wisdom and ,knowledge40 ,to-day flippant rubbish or frothy egotism shall flow from my pen4 ,to-morrow ,i will pay my tailor4 ,to-day ,i will order a new coat4 ,in fine3 8,to-morrow ,i will atone for the wrong1 and pray for strength to continue in the right4 ,to-day ,i will follow my devices1 and listen to the promptings of the world1 the flesh1 and the devil4 ,to-morrow1 and to-morrow1 and to-morrow40 ,for many years1 the late ,alfred de ,vigny continued slowly amassing poetical materials1 though publishing nothing1 and murmuring always1 like ,andr ,chenier1-- 8,rien n'est fait aujourd'hui1 tout sera fait demain40 ,the morrow has come1 wrote the ,journal des ,dbats1 in recording his death1 and his artist hands are cold in the grave4 ,says the ,cordelier to the condemned ,thief in ,mat ,prior's derry-down ballad1-- 8,courage1 friend2 to-day is your period of sorrow2 ,and things will go better1 believe me1 to-morrow40 ,but what says the ,thief in reply8 8,to-morrow8 our hero replied in a fright3 ,he that's hanged before noon1 ought to think of to-night40 ,but ,prior will supply us with more than one study of the subject4 ,here is a variation1 for instance1 in matter1 manner1 and metre3-- 8,the hoary fool1 who many days ,has struggled with continued sorrow1 ,renews his hope1 and blindly lays ,the desperate bet upon to-morrow4 8,to-morrow comes2 'tis noon1 'tis night2 ,this day like all the former flies3 ,yet on he runs1 to seek delight ,to-morrow1 till to-night he dies40 ,the gaming allusion of the first stanza reminds us of the picture of a certain devotee at the roulette table at ,hombourg1 who kept his seat--tranquil1 immovable1 vigilant1--the ,napoleon of roulette2 in whose victorious progress ,marengos and ,austerlitzes succeeded each other1 as if ,moscow and the ,beresina were phantoms--as if to-morrow would never come4 ,to-morrow2 ay1 that dread to-morrow that comes to all3 the fateful ,demain of ,victor3 8,demain est la sapin du trne1 ,aujourd'hui c'en est le velours40 ,yes1 to-morrow is the coarse deal1 with its ten sacks1 that forms the framework of the throne1 as to-day is its velvet and gilding4 8,demain c'est le coursier qui s'abat plein d'cume2 ,demain1 ,o conqurant1 c'est ,moscou qui s'allume ,la nuit comme un flambeau3 ,c'est not' vieille garde qui jonche au lointain la plaine1 ,demain c'est ,waterloo6 ,demain c'est ,ste4 ,helne6 ,demain c'est le tombeau60 ,and yet to-morrow was1 for good or bad1 for better for worse1 a favourite phrase with ,napoleon4 ,his last words to ,murat at nightfall1 in the hope of battle with the ,russians on the ,dwina next day1 were1 8,to-morrow1 at five1 the sun of ,austerlitz60 ,after the combat of ,reichenbach1 which lost him ,duroc1 he sat alone1 in moody meditation1 neither speaking nor to be spoken with2 appealed to in vain for orders by ,caulaincourt and ,maret3 8,to-morrow--everything10 was the only answer their most urgent demands could wring from him1 in his hour of dejection and theirs of need4 ,in another mood was the emperor when1 after ,leipsic1 he pressed the ,austrian cabinet to side with him1 and at once4 ,if they were wise1 he said1 they would do so forthwith4 ,they could do so1 he told their representative1 that evening4 ,to-morrow it might perhaps be too late2 for who could foretell the events of to-morrow8 ,so thought ,sunderland1 in that 8agony of terror10 almost over-wrought or over-coloured1 perhaps1 by ,macaulay1 which impelled him to resign office1 in a sort of frenzied haste4 ,he had asked some of his friends to come to his house that he might consult them2 they came at the appointed time1 but found that he had gone to ,kensington1 and had left word that he should soon be back4 ,when he joined them1 they observed that he had not the gold key which is the badge of the ,lord ,chamberlain1 and asked where it was4 8,at ,kensington10 answered ,sunderland4 ,they found that he had tendered his resignation1 and that it had been1 after a long struggle1 accepted4 ,they blamed his haste1 and told him that since he had summoned them to advise him on that day1 he might at least have waited till the morrow4 8,to-morrow10 he exclaimed 8would have ruined me4 ,to-night has saved me40 ,a signal contrast the despairing minister presents to the poet's picture of credulous hope which ever promises a morrow better than to-day 7like the voluptuaries branded by the ,hebrew prophet1 who hug themselves in the assurance that ,to-morrow shall be as this day1 and much more abundant73 444 8,credula vitam ,spes fovet1 ac melius cras fore semper ait40 ,they say that ,to-morrow never comes4 ,the great ,greek father with the golden mouth seems to have based an ethical warning on this thought1 when he bids us defer not till to-morrow1 for to-morrow is a vanishing quantity4 4 ,the moral is one with that of the ,latin satirist--though he makes to-morrow come fast enough1 one per diem1--and go quite as fast as it came3 444 8,cum lux altera venit1 ,jam cras hesternum consumpsimus2 ecce aliud cras ,egerit hys annos40 ,matter-of-fact people will tell you that ,to-morrow does come1 and fix by their stop-watch the instant of its arrival4 ,nay1 they can appeal to the primus inter poetas for poetical verification of their view4 ,says the ,messenger to the ,provost1 while it is yet dark1 on the morning which is appointed to be ,claudio's last1 8,good morrow2 for1 as ,i take it1 it is almost day40 ,and so with the peers who enter sleepless ,king ,henry's chamber1 at the hour they name3 8,warwick4 ,many good morrows to your majesty4 ,k4 ,hen4 ,is it good morrow1 lords8 ,war4 ',tis one o'clock1 and past4 ,k4 ,hen4 ,why then1 good morrow to you all1 my lords40 ,but1 in its own sense1 the saying holds good1 and is good sense too1 that ,to-morrow never comes4 ,one might take for emblem of its import the touching story told by ,southey1 of a lady on the point of marriage1 whose affianced husband usually travelled by the stage-coach to visit her1 and who1 going one day to meet him1 found instead of her betrothed an old friend1 despatched to announce to her his sudden death4 ,she uttered a scream1 and piteously exclaimed1 8,he is dead60 ,but then all consciousness of the affliction that had befallen her ceased4 ,from that fatal moment she had daily1 for fifty years1 at the time ,dr4 ,uwins wrote1 and 8in all seasons1 traversed the distance of a few miles1 where she expected her future husband to alight from the coach2 and every day adds the doctor1 writing in the then present tense she utters in a plaintive tone1 8,he is not come yet6 ,i will return to-morrow40 ,to-morrow1 and to-morrow1 and to-morrow--that to her never was1 but always was to be4 ,why1 and how1 ,to-morrow never comes1 might be discussed in a strain of transcendental metaphysics4 ,mr4 ,carlyle1 in a memorable chapter headed ,natural ,supernaturalism1 expounds in his mystic suggestive way the philosophic thesis1 that ,time and ,space are but creations of ,god1--with whom as it is a universal ,,here1 so it is an everlasting ,now4 ,and as regards ,man3 is the ,past annihilated1 or only past8 is the ,future non-extant1 or only future8 8,the curtains of ,yesterday drop down1 and the curtains of ,to-morrow roll up2 but ,yesterday and ,to-morrow both are4 ,pierce through the ,time-element1 glance into the ,eternal40 ,it is but a glance the strongest eye can take1 in that direction4 ,but even a glance may secure a glimpse of things which filmy1 unpurged1 downlooking eye hath not seen1 nor ear heard--for they seem to involve unspeakable words1 which it is not lawful for a man to utter4 ,to-morrow thou hast never seen2 to thee it has never come4 ,but it shall come4 ,and it that shall come1 will come2 and will not tarry4 ,wait the great teacher1 ,death4 ,,cras iterabimus quor3 to-morrow we shall be sounding our dim and perilous way across the dark waters of that fathomless sea4 ,if the prospect appals1 happy he that can adapt to his own hopes1 in serenest confidence1 yet eager anticipation1--as he speculates on what a day1 and the ,better ,land1 may bring forth3 ,to-morrow1 to fresh woods and pastures new4 ,,the ,,divine ,,authorship ,,of ,,order4 #a ,,corinthians xiv4 #cc1 #dj4 ,practically1 the amount of confusion prevalent in the church of ,corinth1 arising from irregularities incident to the exercise of 8tongues10 and to the undisciplined energies of a mixed congregation1 appears to have almost rivalled the disorder in the theatre of ,ephesus1 when the whole city was filled with confusion1 and some cried one thing1 and some another2 for the assembly was confused1 and the most part knew not wherefore they were come together4 ,so1 when the whole church of ,corinth were come together into one place1 and all spoke with tongues1 to outsiders that for the nonce stepped inside they must appear mad4 ,all things were done indecorously and in most admired disorder4 ,now1 ,st4 ,paul was for having all things done decently and in order4 8,for ,god is not the author of confusion1 but of peace40 ,order is ,heaven's first law4 ,the same apostle is prompt to remind the ,thessalonians that he behaved himself not disorderly among them2 and this he did because he heard that there were some among them which walked disorderly--4 ,the apostolic canon for both ,corinth and ,thessalonica1 and all other churches1 is1 4 ,let them all walk by this same rule1 and all mind this same thing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,as with the sect of ,pythagoreans1 virtue was defined to be a harmony1 unity1 and an endeavour to resemble the ,deity1--so the whole life of man1 they taught1 should be an attempt to represent on earth the beauty and harmony displayed in the order of the universe4 ,it was the doctrine of ,pythagoras himself1 that by action as well as by thought the individual as well as the state should represent in themselves 8an image of the order and harmony by which the world was sustained and regulated40 ,but as ,prior puts it1 when he considers the heavens1 the starry worlds of ,god's ordaining1 or ordering1-- 8,how mean the order and perfection sought ,in the best product of the human thought1 ,compared to the great harmony that reigns ,in what the ,spirit of the world ordains60 ,lord ,lytton suggestively pictures to us one of his characters alone in the streets by night1 striding noiselessly on1 under the gaslights1 under the stars2 gaslights primly marshalled at equidistance2 stars that seem to the naked eye dotted over space without symmetry or method--8,man's order1 near and finite1 is so distinct2 the ,maker's order1 remote1 infinite1 is so beyond man's comprehension of what is order40 ,chauncy ,hare ,townshend expresses the same idea in an address to the stars3-- 8,distance deceives the sight4 ,ye move and sway ,with life2 yet are your hoverings on the brink ,of ruin but the freedom and the play ,that binds your dance of beauty1 link to link1 ,in woven joy that shall not fail nor shrink4 444 ,thrones arise and sink1 ,earth is transformed beneath you3 ye remain1 ,clasping distracted man with ,order's sacred chain40 ,so ,wordsworth1 addressing as it were a deified idea of ,duty1 pays this homage3-- 444 8,thou dost preserve the stars from wrong1 ,and the most ancient heavens through ,thee are fresh and strong40 ,well may ,hooker speculate on what would become of man1 were ,nature to intermit her course1 and leave altogether1 though but for a while1 the observation of her own laws2 if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself2 if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions1 and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen2 if the prince of the lights of heaven1 which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course1 should1 as it were through a languishing faintness1 begin to stand and rest himself2 if the moon should wander from her beaten way1 the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture--8,see we not plainly that obedience of creatures unto the law of ,nature is the stay of the whole world80 ,again to quote from 8,the ,mystery of ,evil10 the same star-gazer speaking3-- 8,do ,i not climb in you1 ,o blessd host1 ,the way of symbols1 shining steps to ,god8 ,when most man knows you1 he is certain most ,one law unswerving reigns from star to clod40 8,of law10 says ,hooker1 at the close of his first book of ,ecclesiastical ,polity1 with an eloquence which has ever been most admired by the most admirable masters of ,english prose1--8,of law there can be no less acknowledged1 than that her seat is the bosom of ,god1 her voice the harmony of the world2 all things in heaven and earth do her homage1 the very least as feeling her care1 and the greatest as not exempted from her power3 both angels and men1 and creatures of what condition soever1 though each in different sort and manner1 yet all with uniform consent1 admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy40 ,considering when he wrote1 what he wrote1 and to what purpose and in what spirit he wrote1 there seems to us a beautiful consistency in ,richard ,hooker's deathbed meditations1 as related in the familiar memoir by ,izaak ,walton4 ,found by his trustiest visitor1 8deep in contemplation1 and not inclinable to discourse10 and asked what was the subject of his present thoughts1 he replied1 8,that he was meditating the number and nature of angels1 and their blessed obedience and order1 without which1 peace could not be in heaven2 and oh1 that it might be so on earth60 ,there is not1 affirms a modern divine1 a corner of the world1 nor a process of nature1 nor a piece of ,god's handiwork of any kind whatever1 on which ,his love of order is not written with a plainness not to be mistaken4 8,system and method1 law and order1 symmetry and punctuality1 are conspicuous everywhere2 indicating at once the value attached to these things in the mind of ,god1 and his dislike for their opposites--confusion1 fitfulness1 irregularity40 ,nor is the ,divine love of order a quality that ever leads to stiffness1 formality1 or monotony2 for it is shown to be constantly associated with beauty1 variety1 and freedom4 ,m4 ,jules ,simon interpolates into his argument for the vast preponderance of good over evil in the world1 a casually expressed identification of good with order3 8le bien1 c'est--dire1 l'ordre1 car dans le monde le bien et l'ordre ne font qu'un40 8,some think ,disorder means ,god's moral plan2 ,but ,evil oscillates in certain bounds4 ,ten thousand causes check the rage of man3 ,his utmost crimes a wall of brass surrounds2 ,mere weariness exhausts ,war's yelling hounds2 ,and1 if all fail1 ,death comes with his great wave1 ,that levels all the hollows and the mounds ,of human life4 ,who then shall be so brave ,as of ,confusion found in ,god's large thoughts to rave80 ,readers familiar with the writings first and last of ,mr4 ,carlyle1 will readily call to mind many a terse utterance in vindication of the ,divine authorship and ,divine authority of order4 ,disorder he pronounces to be a thing which 8veracious created ,nature1 even because it is not ,chaos and a waste-whirling baseless ,phantasm10 rejects and disowns4 8,disorder1 insane by the nature of it1 is the hatefullest of things to man1 who lives by sanity and by order40 8,all ,anarchy1 all evil1 all injustice1 is1 by the nature of it1 444 suicidal1 and cannot endure40 8,arrangement is indispensable to man2 ,arrangement1 were it grounded only on that old primary evangel of ,force1 with ,sceptre in the shape of ,hammer60 ,such sentences admit of almost infinite multiplication4 8,anarchy1 hateful as ,death1 is abhorrent to the whole nature of man2 and so must itself soon die40 ,hence this philosopher's partiality for 8heroes10 even of the least estimable type1 provided they have will and force to replace confusion by order4 ,corts is not among the specified ,heroes of his special ,hero-worship2 but he deserves a place by reason of the preamble to that code of ordinances1 as the conqueror of ,mexico himself terms them1 which he set forth in restraint of his army3 the essential purport of this preamble being1 that in all institutions1 whether ,divine or human 7if the latter have any worth71 order is the great law4 ,it was in support of the cause of social order that ,luther took to exposing the dangers due to ignorant innovators1 and strenuously declared that 8,god ,himself constituted certain authorities to direct the world2 for it is a great feature in ,his magnificent system1 that there shall be order here below40 ,doctor ,martin may1 in this respect1 be called a man after our ,hero-worshipper's own heart2 such another as the one of whom he wrote1--8,wheresoever ,disorder may stand or lie1 let it have a care2 here is the man that has declared war with it1 that will never make peace with it4 ,man is the ,missionary of ,order2 he is the servant1 not of the ,devil and of ,chaos1 but of ,god and the universe40 ,and ,christian doctrine teaches that the order and beauty of the outward world are symbols of that inward order and symmetry1 that peace and purity of heart1 that universal harmony between ,god's will and man's will1 which it is one great object of ,christianity to establish4 8,then quick ,i ran my glance about the globe1 ,to find ,religion link'd with ,order's aim1 ,ruling by love and light10 says the ,christian poet1 who has1 however1 to deplore the disappointments of his quest4 ,of all orderly things that are beautiful in ,god's eyes1 it has been said1 there can be none so beautiful as an orderly or holy soul4 8,once in this world the sight presented itself in spotless beauty and brilliancy40 ,everything there seen was in its place3 reason1 conscience1 will1 feeling1 instinct1 appetite1 8all most beautifully arranged2 each was in perfect health1 and all were in thorough harmony with the will of ,god40 ,but that was ,god manifest in the flesh4 ,order incarnate4 ,without ,him1 in the material world1 was not anything made that was made4 ,apart from ,him1 the moral world is without form and void1 and darkness covers the face of its deep4 ,order1 in fine1 is the indispensable postulate of every given cosmos4 ,in the words of ,schiller-- 8,it is the keystone of the world's wide arch2 ,the one sustaining and sustained by all1 ,which1 if it fall1 brings all in ruin down40 ,of the ,church as a family1 ,george ,herbert1 ever quaint in his devotion1 sings or says--after a depreciation of his own unruly thoughts3 8,but1 ,lord1 the house and family are ,thine1 ,though some of them repine4 ,turn out these wranglers1 which defile ,thy seat3 ,for where ,thou dwellest all is neat4 8,first ,peace and ,silence all disputes control1 ,then ,order plays the soul2 ,and giving all things their set forms and hours1 ,makes of wild woods sweet walks and bowers40 ,so ,dryden traces to harmony this universal frame--a cosmos evolved from chaos1 from a heap of jarring atoms that1 at the ,divine summons1-- 8,in order to their stations leap40 ,shaftesbury contends that the admiration and love of order1 in whatever kind1 is 8naturally improving to the temper1 advantageous to social affection1 and highly assistant to virtue--which is itself no other than the love of order and beauty in society40 ,in the meanest subjects of the world1 he goes on to say1 the appearance of order gains upon the mind1 and draws the affections towards it4 8,for 'tis impossible that such a ,divine order should be contemplated without ecstasy and rapture2 since in the common subjects of science1 and the liberal arts1 whatever is according to just harmony and proportion is so transporting to those who have any knowledge or practice in the kind40 ,in another place he elaborates the thesis1 that whatever things have order1 have unity of design1 and concur in one1 and are parts constituent of one whole--just as a symphony is a certain system of proportioned sounds4 ,it is noteworthy that ,pythagoras deduced his celebrated theory of the music of the spheres from his assumption that everything in the great arrangement 77 which he called the world must be harmoniously arranged 7and that1 accordingly1 the planets were at the same relative distance as the divisions of the monochord1 etc47 ,divine as the philosophy of ,plato is commonly esteemed1 there are1 on the other hand1 occasional glimpses in it of what one of his commentators calls the 8appalling doctrine0 that ,god alternately governs and forsakes the world--the world when he forsakes it1 suddenly changing its orbit1 so that all things are in disorder1 and mundane existence is totally disarranged3 8only after some time do things settle down to a sort of order1 though of a very imperfect kind40 ,spinoza takes order to be a thing of the imagination1 as also he does right and wrong1 useful and hurtful--these being merely such1 he argues1 in relation to us4 ,but this would not prevent him1 from his stand-point1 assenting to the ethical import of order--as expounded for instance by the ,shakspearian ,ulysses3 8,the heavens themselves1 the planets1 and this centre1 ,observe degree1 priority1 and place1 444 ,office1 and custom1 in all line of order4444 ,take but degree away1 untune that string1 ,and hark1 what discord follows6 each thing meets ,in mere oppugnancy40 ,order1 writes ,southey1 is the sanity of the mind1 the health of the body1 the peace of the city1 the security of the ,state4 ,diogenes held with the ,dorian lawgivers1 that order 77 is the basis of civil government4 ,as the beams to a house1 it has been said1 as the bones to the microcosm of man1 so is order to all things4 ,balzac is treating of harmonie politique when he says that harmony is the poetry of order1 and that 8the peoples0 have a keen need of order4 ,the racy author of the 8,biglow ,papers0 discourses in his shrewd1 homely style1 on the indispensableness 7not that he uses such a word7 of orderly established law3-- 8,onsettle that1 an' all the world goes whiz1 ,a screw is loose in everything there is40 ,mr4 ,carlyle1 in his apology for ,knox in the act of pulling down cathedrals--as if he were a seditious rioting demagogue--urges that he was precisely the reverse of that4 ,knox1 he maintains1 wanted no pulling down of stone edifices1 but wanted leprosy and darkness to be thrown out of the lives of men4 8,tumult was not his element2 it was the tragic feature of his life that he was forced to dwell so much on that40 ,every such man1 on ,mr4 ,carlyle's showing1 is the born enemy of disorder--hates to be in it2 but what then8 8,smooth falsehood is not order2 it is the general sum total of disorder4 ,order is truth--each thing standing on the basis that belongs to it4 ,order and falsehood cannot subsist together40 ,and it is in treating of another of his heroes elect1 that the same philosopher contends on behalf of such others of them as seem to have worked as revolutionary men1 that nevertheless every great man1 every genuine man1 is by the nature of him a son of order1 not of disorder--a seeming anarchist1 yet to his whole soul anarchy is hostile1 hateful4 8,his mission is ,order2 every man's is4 ,he is here to make what was disorderly1 chaotic1 into a thing ruled1 regular4 ,he is the missionary of ,order40 ,is not all work of man in this world1 we are emphatically asked1 a making of ,order8 ,the ,abb ,duval1 writing to ,mme4 ,rcamier1 as her spiritual counsellor1 bids her engrave this elementary truth on her heart of hearts3 8,gravez au-dedans de vous-mme cette premire vrit que la religion veut l'ordre avant tout40 ,whatsoever doth make manifest is light1 and it is light that reveals a cosmos where before1 in the words of ,thomson1 a formless grey confusion covered all3-- 8,as when of old 7so sung the ,hebrew bard7 ,light1 uncollected1 through the chaos urged ,its infant way2 nor ,order yet had drawn ,his lovely train from out the dubious gloom40 ,that a scrupulous regard for order1 in some sort1 is nevertheless compatible with a very low standard of moral worth1 is recognised and illustrated by poet ,crabbe--prose-poet the good parson was1 not quite in the accepted sense--in a series of pithy1 if not pungent rhymes3-- 8,the love of order--,i the thing receive ,from reverend men1 and ,i in part believe-- ,shows a clear mind and clean1 and whoso needs ,this love1 but seldom in the world succeeds2 ,and yet with this some other love must be1 ,ere ,i can fully to the fact agree2 ,valour and study may by order gain1 ,by order sovereigns hold more steady reign2 ,through all the tribes of nature order runs1 ,and rules around in systems and in suns3 ,still has the love of order found a place ,with all that's low1 degrading1 mean1 and base1 ,with all that merits scorn1 and all that meets disgrace3 ,in the cold miser1 of all change afraid1 ,in pompous men in public seats obeyed2 ,in humble placemen1 heralds1 solemn drones2 444 ,order to these is armour and defence1 ,and love of method serves in lack of sense40 ,exceptions allowed for1 as in every rule1 yet is the rule sufficiently approved1 that order is heaven's first law4 ,the poet of 8,the ,angel in the ,house0 in style1 and spirit1 and sentiment1 how salient a contrast to ,crabbe1 utters the conceit 7poetic7 in one of his tender preludes1 that-- 8,sweet ,order has its draught of bliss ,graced with the pearl of ,god's consent10-- a conceit that allows of wide application1 as do many of those of so suggestive a writer4 ,but to conclude4 ,when the judicious ,hooker--to call him by his conventional epithet--lay a-dying1 he expressed his joy at the near prospect of entering a ,world of ,order4 ,the author of 8,the ,book of the ,church0 emphasises the import of holy ,richard's 8placid and profound contentment10 by reminding us that because he had been employed in ecclesiastical polemics1 and because his life had been passed under the perpetual discomfort of domestic discord1 the happiness of heaven must have seemed in ,hooker's estimation1 to consist primarily in ,order1 as1 indeed1 in all human societies this is the first thing needful4 ,,sweet ,,sleep1 ,,and ,,its ,,forfeiture4 ,,proverbs iii4 #bd4 ,to him that keepeth sound wisdom and instruction is the promise given1 not only that he shall walk in his way safely1 and his foot shall not stumble1--this for daytime and its activities1--but further1 as regards night-time and its contingencies1 that when he lies down he shall not be afraid2 yea1 he shall lie down1 and his sleep shall be sweet4 ,so ,he giveth ,his beloved sleep1 of whom the ,psalmist said1 8,i laid me down and slept2 ,i awaked2 for the ,lord sustained me40 ,surely1 in order that one may pray with full purpose of heart the prayer1 ,let me die the death of the righteous1 and let my last end be like his6 one should live the life that may warrant the nightly petition1 ,let me sleep the sleep of the just1 and let mine eyes close quietly in slumber even as his4 ,macbeth1 within this minute a murderer1 ipso facto realizes the appalling truth1 that between him and placid sleep there is1 from henceforth and for evermore1 a great gulf fixed1 as impassable as abysmal4 8,methought ,i heard a voice cry1 #8,sleep no more6 ,macbeth does murder sleep1 the innocent sleep2 ,sleep1 that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care1 ,the death of each day's life1 sore labour's bath1 ,balm of hurt minds1 great nature's second course1 ,chief nourisher in life's feast1' ,lady ,m4 ,what do you mean8 ,macb4 ,still it cried1 #8,sleep no more6' to all the house3 #8,glamis hath murder'd sleep2 and therefore ,cawdor ,shall sleep no more4 ,macbeth shall sleep no more6'0 ,how sleeps ,lady ,macbeth after that night8 ,ask her physician and waiting-woman1 and watch with them the sleep-walking scene4 8,to bed1 to bed1 to bed40 ,but what avails that to the somnambulist1 ever in semblance washing her hands1 and complaining of the smell of blood upon them still1 and that all the perfumes of ,arabia will not sweeten them8 ,now and then one meets with a sceptic as to lost sleep being the inevitable sequent upon crime2 and no doubt there are exceptions4 ,mr4 ,g4 ,wingrove ,cooke1 in his letters from ,chinese waters1 thus describes the captive ,mandarin1 ,yeh1 whose fellow-passenger to ,calcutta he was3 8,he goes to bed at eight o'clock1 and while we are reading or writing or playing chess1 he sleeps the sleep of infancy--an unbroken slumber1 apparently undisturbed by visions of widowed women and wailing orphans4 ,this man-killer1 after slaying his hundred thousand human beings1 enjoys sweeter sleep than an innocent ,london alderman after a turtle dinner40 ,perhaps that is not saying much1--considering what a turtle dinner comprehends and superinduces4 ,but the next sentence says a good deal2 it is to be hoped1 a great deal too much3 8,so false are traditions2 so false are the remorseful scenes of ,greek and ,english tragedies40 ,one would be sorry1 for the dignity of human nature1 to believe that all is fiction the poets tell us of cases in which non avium citharque cantus1 or any other aids and appliances1 somnum reducent4 8,wherefore to me10 asks ,clytemnestra1-- 444 8is solacing sleep denied8 ,and honourable rest1 the right of all8 ,so that no medicine of the slumbrous shell1 ,brimmed with divinest draughts of melody1 ,nor silence under dreamful canopies1 ,nor purple cushions of the lofty couch1 ,may lull this fever for a little while40 ,impressive in history1 not romance1 as ,plutarch tells it1 is the story of ,pausanius as a haunted man1 from the hour that ,cleonice fell dead at his feet1 pierced by his sword4 8,from that hour he could rest no more40 ,her spectre perturbed him every night4 ,henceforth1 nor poppy1 nor mandragora1 nor all the drowsy syrups of the world1 could ever medicine him to that sweet sleep which he owed yesterday4 ,as a guilty spirit says of guilt1 in one of ,landor's fragments1-- 8,it wakes me many mornings1 many nights1 ,and fields of poppies could not quiet it40 ,modern fiction abounds with examples to the purpose4 ,there is ,colonel ,whyte ,melville's remorseful woman of the world bidding her young friend good night1 and meaning it all the more because her own good nights are dead and gone3 8,what would ,i give to yawn as honestly as you do1 and to sleep sound once again1 as ,i used to sleep when ,i was a girl60 ,there is ,mr4 ,trollope's ,lady ,mason1 so wistfully1 so vainly longing for rest--to be able to lay aside the terrible fatigue of being ever on the watch4 ,from the burden of that necessity she has never been free since her crime was first committed4 8,she had never known true rest4 ,she had not once trusted herself to sleep without the feeling that her first waking thought would be one of horror1 as the remembrance of her position came upon her40 ,as with the royal lady pictured by the laureate1-- 8,many a time for hours ,in the dead night1 grim faces came and went ,before her1 or a vague spiritual fear-- ,like to some doubtful noise of creaking doors1 ,heard by the watcher in a haunted house1 ,that keeps the rust of murder on the walls-- ,held her awake4 ,or if she slept1 she dream'd ,an awful dream 444 444 and with a cry she woke4 ,and all this trouble did not pass1 but grew40 ,there is ,donatello1 in ,hawthorne's 8,transformation10 succumbing to a stupor1 which he mistakes for such drowsiness as he has known in his innocent past life4 ,there is ,albert ,maurice1 in 8,mary of ,burgundy10 gazing on the ,vert ,gallant of ,hannut as he lay in a deep1 sweet sleep--so calm and tranquil1 though within the walls of a prison1 suffering from injuries1 and exposed to constant danger2 gazing with a sense of envy and regret1 8which few1 perhaps1 can appreciate fully1 who have not felt the sharp tooth of remorse begin its sleepless gnawings on the heart4 ,he would not have disturbed such slumbers for the world2 and1 withdrawing again with a noiseless step1 he retired to his own chamber1 and cast himself down upon his bed1 to snatch1 at least1 that heated and disturbed sleep1 which was all the repose that he was ever more to know on earth40 ,to such as him can nothing bring back1 in the hour and power of darkness1 more than an embittered memory of times 8,when that placid sleep came o'er him ,which he ne'er can know again40 ,an innocent comforter in a modern tragedy offers a disquieted spirit the assurance1 as regards the object of his disquiet1 that 8'twill away in sleep40 ,but his answer is1-- 8,no1 no6 ,i dare not sleep--for well ,i know ,that then the knife will gleam1 the blood will gush1 ,the form will stiffen60 ,from the night of the massacre of ,glencoe1 ,glenlyon1 as ,macaulay tells us1 was never again the man that he had been before that night4 ,the form of his countenance was changed2 and 8in all places1 at all hours1 whether he waked or slept1 ,glencoe was for ever before him40 ,as with a distinguished foreigner of a later generation1 ,depuis ce moment1 point de sommeil1 point de repos2 il croyait toujours voir un glaive arrt sur sa tte4 ,in such cases1 the sleepers start from broken slumbers1 as if starting back from the edge of a precipice2 for1-- 8,their whole tranquillity of heart is gone2 ,the peace wherewith till now they have been blest ,hath taken its departure4 ,in the breast ,fast following thoughts and busy fancies throng2 ,their sleep itself is feverish1 and possest ,with dreams that to the wakeful mind belong40 8,something like a stupid sleep oppresses me10 writes one of ,henry ,mackenzie's characters2 8last night ,i could not sleep4 ,where are now those luxurious slumbers1 those wandering dreams of future happiness8 ,never shall ,i know them again40 ,falkland avows to ,caleb ,williams1 the involuntary master of his master's fatal secret1 that 8from the hour the crime was committed0 he has not had an hour's peace3 8,i became changed from the happiest into the most miserable being that lives2 sleep has fled from my eyes40 ,and ,caleb ,williams himself testifies in an after chapter1 8,the ease and light-heartedness of my youth were for ever gone4 ,the voice of an irresistible necessity had commanded me to #8sleep no more4'0 ,they that do murder1 says ,roscoe's ,violenzia1-- 8,never sleep more1 never more taste of peace1 ,quaff poison in their drink1 see knives in the dark1 ,and ever at their elbow horror walks1 ,shaking them like a palsy40 ,the bitter contrast--ah1 for the change 'twixt now and then6--is forcibly worded by ,bosola in the 8,duchess of ,malfi03-- 8,o sacred innocence1 that sweetly sleeps ,on turtle's feathers6 whilst a guilty conscience ,is a perspective that foreshows us hell40 ,,once ,,denied1 ,,thrice ,,denied4 ,,st4 ,,matthew xxvi1 #fi1 sq4 ,lie engenders lie4 ,once committed1 the liar has to go on in his course of lying4 ,it is the penalty of his transgression1 or one of the penalties4 ,to the habitual liar1 bronzed and hardened in the custom1 till custom becomes second nature1 the penalty may seem no very terrible price to pay4 ,to him1 on the other hand1 who1 without deliberate intent1 and against his innermost will1 is overtaken with such a fault1 the generative power of a first lie to beget others1 the necessity of supporting the first by a second and a third1 is a retribution keenly to be felt1 while penitently owned to be most just4 ,though it was afar off that ,peter followed his ,master to the high-priest's house1 yet he did follow2 and1 we may be sure1 with little thought1 and still less intention1 of denying ,him even once4 ,but as he sat by the fire and warmed himself1 the identification of him by a certain maid as certainly a disciple of ,christ was boldly met by the affirmation1 or negation1 8,woman1 ,i know ,him not40 ,the lie was uttered2 the winged word of falsehood was on its way4 ,and there an end1 he perhaps hoped4 ,but after a little while1 another bystander recognised him1 and asserted the damaging recognition1 8,thou art also of them40 ,another denial was the consequence3 8,man1 ,i am not40 ,an hour passed away1 and ,peter1 in sullen misery and bewilderment1 self-consciously an abject coward and confirmed liar1 had to deny for the third time ,him he had denied once and again4 8,of a truth10 affirmed another of the mixed company1 8this fellow also was with ,him2 for he is a ,galilean40 ,and ,peter said1 8,man1 ,i know not what thou sayest40 ,and then the cock crew4 ,and then the ,lord turned and looked upon ,peter4 ,and at that look--so upbraidingly expressive1 so pathetically recalling recent protestations of unfaltering allegiance1 and the concurrent prediction of lapse and abandonment--what could ,peter do1 but with shame and confusion of face1 and with a heart full to bursting1 go out1 and weep bitterly4 ,when he thought thereon1 he wept3 thought of the ,master's look1 that recalled to him the vehement assurance of loyalty met by the foretelling of his fall4 ,thought1 too1 of the graduation of his denials2 a first involving a second1 and the second exacting yet a third4 ,the third was the cost of the first4 ,he had not counted the cost then4 ,he had to pay it now4 ,it was part of the prophet's burden of woes against the doomed city1 that she had 8wearied herself with lies40 ,easily uttered1 they may multiply at a rate to trouble the teller of them1 and weary him1 if only with the necessity of inventing new ones to back the old4 ,he must ever be devising fresh vouchers for his impaired and imperilled credit4 ,he must continually be endorsing his forged notes1 and forging fresh ones that will stand inspection4 ,fallacia alia aliam trudit4 ,and this is weary work4 8,en quel gouffre de soins et de perplexit ,nous jette une action faite sans equit40 ,and as with actions1 so with words4 ,the same speaker of the foregoing couplet utters elsewhere the lament1-- 8,ma fourbe est dcouverte4 ,oh6 que la vrit ,se peut cacher longtemps avec difficult60 ,so we read in ,molire4 ,and ,corneille has a play 7not original7 entirely devoted to the illustration of this subject1 showing qu'il faut bonne mmoire acrs qu'on a menti2 the ,menteur ' 1 being one who entasse fourbe sur fourbe1 and is constrained by the law of his nature1 at least of habit1 which is second nature1 to be ever adding to the heap of lies to which he has committed himself4 ,a ,spanish proverb--and ,le ,menteur is from the ,spanish--declares that 8for an honest man half his wits is enough1 while the whole are too little for a knave20 the ways1 that is1 as ,archbishop ,trench expounds the adage1 of truth and uprightness are so simple and plain1 that a little wit is abundantly sufficient for those who walk in them2 whereas the ways of falsehood and fraud are so perplexed and tangled1 that sooner or later all the wit of the cleverest rogue will not preserve him from being entangled therein--a truth often and wonderfully confirmed in the lives of evil men4 ,among the aphorisms of ,dean ,swift we read3 8,he who tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he undertakes2 for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one40 ,it has been called the severe1 but appropriate1 punishment of historians who desert the paths of truth for those of paradox1 to be compelled to defend the falsehood to which they have committed themselves against the ever-accumulating evidences of the truth4 ,mr4 ,robertson1 of ,brighton1 feelingly sketches the case of one who1 being unprepared and accosted suddenly1 says hastily that which is irreconcileable with strict truth2 then to substantiate and make it look probable1 misrepresents or invents something else2 and so has woven round himself a mesh which will entangle his conscience through many a weary day and many a sleepless night4#ca ,one burden laid on fault1 he goes on to show1 is that chain of entanglement which seems to drag down to fresh sins4 8,one step necessitates many others4 ,one fault leads to another1 and crime to crime4 ,the soul gravitates downward beneath its burden4 ,it was profound knowledge which prophetically refused to limit ,peter's sin to once4 #8,verily ,i say unto thee 444 thou shalt deny me thrice4'0 ,mr4 ,froude shows us ,queen ,elizabeth stooping to 8a deliberate lie40 ,at times1 he says1 writing of her embarrassed policy in #aefe1 she 8seemed to struggle with her ignominy1 but it was only to flounder deeper into distraction and dishonour40 ,in ,october of that year she publicly denied that she had encouraged the rebellion in ,scotland4 ,in ,november1 we read1 8,never had ,elizabeth been in greater danger2 and the worst features of the peril were the creations of her own untruths40 ,again1 in ,may1 #aeff3 8,meanwhile ,elizabeth was reaping a harvest of inconveniences for her exaggerated demonstrations of friendliness0 to the ,queen of ,scots4 ,mary taking her at her word1 8,vainly ,elizabeth struggled to extricate herself from her dilemma2 resentment was still pursuing her for her treachery in the past autumn4444 ,she could but shuffle and equivocate in a manner which had become too characteristic40#cb ,she was but paying the price of lies--the being constrained to go on lying still4 ,it is certain1 affirms a popular essayist1 that nobody yet ever did anything wrong in this world without having to tell one or more falsehoods to begin with3 the embryo murderer has to tell a lie about the pistol or dagger1 the would-be suicide about the poison he purchases2 and in fine1 8the ways down which the bad ship ,wickedness slides to a shoreless ocean must be greased with lies40#cc ,english reviewers not long since were prompt to recognise in ,balzac's 8,la ,martre10 as revived to ,parisian popularity1 what they rightly accounted wonderful1 a moral immaculate and beyond reproach4 ,and what is that moral8 8,the necessity of a life of lying as a punishment for the one great lie of a mercenary marriage40 ,one great lie is put out to interest1 and the interest is compound4 ,one great lie involves a ramification of others1 great or small1 if there be comparatives of magnitude in such matters2 and memory1 if not conscience1 is for ever on the stretch4 ,the sad expedient of renewed issues is a necessity4 ,as with the involved victim in one of ,crabbe's ,tales3-- 8,such is his pain1 who1 by his debt oppress'd1 ,seeks by new bonds a temporary rest40 ,to another section1 and with another starting-point from ,holy ,writ1 may be referred some remaining illustrations of the subject4 ,,linked ,,lies4 ,,genesis xxvii4 #ai-bd4 ,jacob in ,esau's goodly raiment1 and his smooth skin overlaid with goatskins1 was duly prepared for a consistent course of deception4 ,but the lie upon lie he had to tell before his end was gained1 must have sorely tried what of conscience he then had4 ,the primary falsehood1--distinctly enounced in answer to his blind sire's 8,who art thou80 8,i am ,esau1 thy firstborn10 come back from the chase with the venison ,isaac had desired of his firstborn1--this initial lie had immediately to be backed by another4 ,how had he found it so quickly8 ,there is something revolting in the style of the unfaltering fabrication at once ready to hand1 8,because the ,lord thy ,god brought it to me40 ,then ensued that solution of the old man's misgivings by a manual examination of the disguised pretender2 it was ,esau's hirsute skin1 sure enough1 though the voice was ,jacob's4 ,but the blessing was given4 ,and even after that eventful benediction1 the patriarch1 with a yet lingering apprehension1 renewed the pointed question1 in its directest form1 8,art thou my very son ,esau80 ,and ,jacob said1 8,i am40 ,lie linked to lie1 in a concatenation accordingly4 ,solent mendaces luere pnas malefici1 says ,phdrus3 liars usually pay the penalty of their guilt4 ,and ,mrs4 ,browning vigorously states one distinctive penalty1 where she speaks of those who-- 444 8,pay the price ,of lies1 by being constrained to lie on still40 ,the author of 8,romola0 powerfully illustrates in that remarkable book the embarrassments involved in one cowardly departure from truth4 ,in the chapter headed 8,tito's ,dilemma10 the occasion arises for ,tito to fabricate an ingenious lie2 an occasion 8which circumstance never fails to beget on tacit falsity40 ,many chapters farther on we find him experiencing the inexorable law of human souls1 that we prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil that gradually determines character2 and it becomes a question whether all the resources of lying will save him from being crushed by the consequences of his habitual choice4 ,at another juncture we read3 8,tito felt more and more confidence as he went on2 the lie was not so difficult when it was once begun2 and as the words fell easily from his lips1 they gave him a sense of power such as men feel when they have begun a muscular feat successfully40 ,the penalty is enforced a few pages later4 8,but he had borrowed from the terrible usurer ,falsehood1 and the loan had mounted and mounted with the years1 till he belonged to the usurer1 body and soul40 ,again3 8,to-night he had paid a heavier price than ever to make himself safe40#cd ,in the ,american story of 8,the ,gayworthys10 the like moral attaches to the course of one unhappy woman who lets herself slide1 half involuntarily1 into deeper wrong3 she holds her peace2 she makes herself passive4 8,her very soul lied to itself in its false1 bewildered reasonings2 that is the inherent retribution of false souls40 ,there are some acts of folly1 remarks the most popular1 probably1 of contemporary ,english penwomen1 which carry falsehood and dissimulation at their heels as certainly as the shadows which follow us when we walk towards the evening sun2 and we very rarely swerve from the severe boundary-line of right without being dragged ever so much farther than we calculated upon across the border4 ,corneille's celebrated play1 8,le ,menteur10--but for reading which ,molire asserts his belief that he would never have written a comedy himself1--is 8conveyed0 from a ,spanish original1 and has itself been ,englished by ,fielding2 the ingenuity of the piece consisting in the manner in which one lie is made to call for another1 until their wholesale employer is inextricably caught in the toils4 8,this is the curse of every evil deed1-- ,that1 propagating still1 it brings forth evil10 laments the elder ,piccolomini1 in ,schiller's trilogy4 ,the commission of one wrong1 says ,owen ,feltham1 puts a man upon a thousand wrongs1 perhaps1 to maintain that one3 injury1 with injury is defended2 and we commit a greater1 to maintain a less4 8,a lie begets a lie1 till generations succeed40 ,mr4 ,carlyle sternly moralises on the growth of accumulated falsities1--8sad opulence descending by inheritance1 always at compound interest1 and always largely increased by fresh acquirement on such immensity of standing capital40 ,one lie1 says ,owen1 must be thatched with another1 or it will soon rain through4 ,benvenuto ,cellini records in his autobiography1 the bitter experiences he endured in being tempted to lie to the duke1 his patron1 lest he should forfeit the favour of the duchess--he who 8was always a lover of truth and an enemy to falsehood1 being then under a necessity of telling lies40 8,as ,i had begun to tell lies1 ,i plunged deeper and deeper into the mire10--till a very ,slough of ,despond it became to him4 ,fool that he was1 exclaims ,mr4 ,trollope1 of one of his characters in 8,framley ,parsonage30 8,a man can always do right1 even though he has done wrong before4 ,but the previous wrong adds so much difficulty to the path--a difficulty which increases in tremendous ratio1 till a man at last is choked in his struggling1 and is drowned beneath the waters40 ,mr4 ,thackeray sermonises to the same effect3 8,and so1 my dear sir1 seeing that after committing any infraction of the moral laws1 you must tell lies in order to back yourself out of your scrape1 let me ask you whether you had not better forego the crime1 so as to avoid the unavoidable1 and unpleasant1 and daily-recurring necessity of the subsequent perjury80 ,and the cleverest character this master of social satire ever drew1 confesses how it jarred on her to begin telling lies to a confiding1 simple friend3 8,but that is the misfortune of beginning with this kind of forgery4 ,when one fib becomes due as it were1 you must forge another to take up the old acceptance2 and so the stock of your lies in circulation inevitably multiplies1 and the danger of detection increases every day40 ,jeremy ,taylor quaintly says of the devil in the ancient oracles1 8,when he was put to it at his oracles1 and durst not tell a downright lie1 and yet knew not what was truth1 many times he was put to the most pitiful shifts1 and trifling equivocations1 and acts of knavery1 which1 when they were discovered1 444 it made him much more contemptible and ridiculous than if he had said nothing or confessed his ignorance40 ,a lie has been called a two-edged sword without a hilt1 which is sure to slip and cut the hand that holds it4 8,after telling one lie1 we are sure to tell another2 and usually1 after spinning a silly1 very complicated1 and disgusting web1 which entangles and chokes us1 we find out that if we had told the truth1 it would have been much the easier and better plan40 ,lying is likened1 again1 to borrowing of money-lenders2 for the credit which we get by it we have always to pay heavily for2 and at last we find that the interest by far exceeds the principal1 and we get so inextricably involved that we never fully recover4 8,he who tells a lie10 says ,pope1 8is not sensible how great a task he undertakes2 for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one40 ,johnson observes that nobody can live long without knowing that falsehoods of convenience or vanity are very lightly uttered1 and when once uttered are sullenly supported4 ,he reminds us that ,boileau1 who desired to be thought a rigorous and steady moralist1 having told a petty lie to ,lewis the ,fourteenth1 continued it afterwards by false dates1 thinking himself obliged in honour to maintain what1 when he said it1 was so well received4 ,pope himself is taxed with similar mendacity by ,mr4 de ,quincey1 who charges him1 on a certain literary question1 with knowingly 8preparing for himself a dire necessity of falsehood4444 ,once launched upon such a course1 he became pledged and committed to all the difficulties which it might impose4 ,desperate necessities would arise1 from which nothing but desperate lying and hard swearing could extricate him40 ,and at a subsequent stage in the facilis descensus he is described1 rather imaginatively1 as feeling1 and groaning as he felt1 that fresh falsehoods were in peremptory demand4 8,this comes of telling lies10 is supposed to be his bitter reflection3 8one lie makes a necessity for another40 ,the ,leucippus of ,beaumont and ,fletcher thus admonishes an intimate3-- 8,my sin1 ,ismenus1 has wrought all this ill3 ,and ,i beseech thee to be warned by me1 ,and do not lie1 if any man should ask thee ,but how thou dost1 or what o'clock 'tis now2 ,be sure thou do not lie1 make no excuse ,for him that is most near thee2 never let ,the most officious falsehood 'scape thy tongue1 ,for they above 7that are entirely ,truth7 ,will make the seed which thou hast sown of lies1 ,yield miseries a thousand-fold ,upon thine head1 as they have done on mine40 ,a ,,time ,,to ,,weep1 ,,and ,a ,,time ,,to ,,laugh4 ,,ecclesiastes iii4 #d4 ,as to everything there is a season1 and a time to every purpose under the sun1--for as ,shakspeare words it1 8,how many things by season seasoned are to their right praise and true perfection60--be sure that the ,wise ,king includes laughter and weeping in the list4 8,a time to weep1 and a time to laugh40 ,acquainted with grief1 he had also been familiar with merriment4 ,he had said in his heart1 ,go to1 now1 ,i will prove thee with mirth2 but the result was that he said of laughter1 ,it is mad2 and of mirth1 ,what doeth it8--,for all this1 he freely recognises a time to laugh1 so that one keep to the time4 ,so much depends1 here1 on the due observance of times and seasons4 ,it is with the frivolous habit of laughing out of season1 and at all seasons1 that the following notes are concerned4 ,the laureate's is a good keynote to begin with3-- 8,prythee weep1 ,may ,lilian6 ,gaiety without eclipse ,wearieth me1 ,may ,lilian40 ,so with ,barry ,cornwall and his ,hermione3-- 8,something thou dost want1 ,o queen6 7,as the gold doth ask alloy17 ,tears1--amidst thy laughter seen1 ,pity1--mingling with the joy40 ,such a conjunction as the courtier records of ,cordelia in 8,king ,lear0--sunshine and rain at once3 8her smiles and tears were like a better day3 those happy smiles that played on her ripe lip1 seemed not to know what guests were in her eyes30 8in brief1 sorrow would be a rarity most beloved1 if all could so become it40 ,nothing1 we often hear it said1 is so tedious as uniformity2 and under the bright sky of ,italy one sometimes sighs for a cloud4 8,a gay writer1 who10 says ,horace ,walpole1 8should only express satisfaction without variety1 would soon be nauseous40 ,johnson's ,papilius winds up his confession1 in the 8,rambler10 with a whine on the melancholy necessity of supporting that character by study1 which he gained by levity2 having learned too late that gaiety must be recommended by higher qualities1 and that mirth can never please long but as the efflorescence of a mind loved for its luxuriance1 but esteemed for its usefulness4 ,there must be fruitage as well as blossomy 8efflorescence20 as ,cowper is fain to enforce1 when in the closing lines of the 8,task10 he records how he once1 when called to dress a sofa with the flowers of verse1 played awhile with that light task1 obedient to the fair3-- 444 8but soon1 to please her more1 ,whom flowers alone ,i knew would little please1 ,let fall the unfinished wreath1 and roved for fruit40 ,mark ,mrs4 ,browning's picture of the ,lady ,geraldine3-- 8,in her utmost lightness there is truth--and often she speaks lightly-- ,has a grace in being gay1 which even mournful souls approve1 ,for the root of some grave earnest thought is understruck so rightly ,as to justify the foliage and the waving flowers above40 ,so with ,lord ,lytton's ,helen ,mainwaring1 the sunny gladness of whose nature must have vent like a bird's1 though he forbids us to fancy that that gladness speaks the levity which comes from the absence of thought3 8it is rather from the depth of thought that it springs1 as from the depth of a sea comes its music40 ,well and wisely ,molire's ,clonte exclaims1 8,veux-tu de ces enjouements panouis1 de ces joies toujours ouvertes8 et vois tu rien de plus impertinent que des femmes qui rient tout propos80 ,such a femme as the same author's ,zerbinette1 a self-convicted giggler in and out of season1 yet whose confession may be twisted into an example the other way1 when she says1 8,j'ai l'humeur enjoue1 et sans cesse je ris3 mais1 tout en riant1 je suis srieuse sur de certains chapitres40 ,among the writings of ,m4 de ,st4 ,evremond there is an essay on the ,idea of a ,woman that never was1 nor ever will be found4 ,emilia he calls this all too perfect1 impossible she4 ,and amongst the foremost of ,emilia's fine qualities he reckons the co-existence of seriousness au fond with vivacity of mien4 8,for we find that the gayest humour doth1 at length1 become tiresome2 444 the most effervescent liveliness either disgusts or wearies you40 ,in the case of the celebrated ,duchesse de ,longueville1 ,de ,retz notices the exquisite effect of the sudden bursts of gaiety which would at times dispel her habitual but not inexpressive languor4 ,mdlle4 de ,scudry1 in her 8,cllie10 was painting a well-known1 perhaps too well-known1 contemporary in the person of ,clarice1 when1 8parmi toute cette disposition qu'elle a pour la joie10 she ascribes to this charmer1 qui rit si aisment1 a facile faculty of tear-shedding3 elle sait pleurer1 whenever occasion justifies weeping4 ,as ,lady ,eastlake says1 in her little treatise on ,music1 a change of key is the most powerful engine in the hands of a musician3 we cannot bear the monotony of one key long1 even the most joyful3 8,gaiety without eclipse wearieth me1 ,may ,lilian40 ,we long for 8a mournful muse1 soft pity to infuse40 ,the ,hon4 ,miss ,byron takes the liberty of telling the sister of ,sir ,charles ,grandison that 8,your brother has hinted1 ,charlotte1 that he loves you for your vivacity1 and should still more1 if you consulted time and occasion40 ,the affections are justly said to be more readily called into play by a mixture of mirth and melancholy2 ours being a twofold life1 the union of mortal with immortal1 we covet happiness1 yet turn back anon to the more majestic form of sorrow4 ,there is a form of cheerfulness which1 we are assured1 nobody can stand3-- 8,send me hence a thousand miles ,from a face that always smiles20 people ostentatiously and pretentiously cheerful being not unfrequently foolish people3 their spirits of a brisk but thin quality--nothing about them in good working order4 8,for1 in truth1 the most fortunate existence has cares enough to make gravity our normal condition40 ,roland ,graeme1 in the 8,abbot10 earnestly assures his vivacious companion1 8,ay1 but1 fair ,catherine1 there are moments of deep and true feeling1 which are worth ten thousand years of liveliest mirth40 ,melancholy ,minna is a fine relief by contrast to laughter-loving ,brenda2 and it is suggestively told us of the old ,udaller1 their sire1 that he liked his graver damsel better in the walk without doors1 and his merry maiden better by the fireside2 and that if he preferred ,brenda after the glass circulated in the evening1 he gave the preference to ,minna before noon4 ,so with ,molly and ,cynthia in 8,wives and ,daughters30 ,molly always gentle1 but very grave and silent2 ,cynthia merry1 full of pretty mockeries1 and hardly ever silent--only this constant brilliancy became a little tiresome in everyday life1 being not the sunshiny rest of a placid lake1 so much as the 8glitter of the pieces of a broken mirror1 which confuses and bewilders40 ,the union of what can be harmonized of the two distinctive characters1 is sure to be engaging in no ordinary degree4 ,as in the ,beryl of 8,george ,geith40 8,you imagine10 says ,beryl1 on one occasion1 8because it is necessary to my existence to laugh at people's oddities1 that ,i never feel for their woes4 ,you think1 because ,i have a quick sense of the ludicrous1 that ,i have no eyes for grief4 ,and there you do me an injustice40 ,such as ,beryl will be found to take exception to predominant levity in the masculine gender1 after the manner of the fair tenant of ,wildfell ,hall3 8,i do wish he would be sometimes serious10 she writes of her endeared ,arthur3 8,i cannot get him to write or speak in real1 solid earnest4 ,i don't mind it now1 but if it be always so1 what shall ,i do with the serious part of myself80 ,tired out with such companionship1 a complainant in one of ,lovell ,beddoes' tragedies exclaims1-- 8,i'm weary of their laughter's empty din4 ,methinks1 these fellows1 with their ready jests1 ,are like to tedious bells1 that ring alike ,marriage or death40 ,rather than have her uniformly saccharine and smiling1 ,ben ,jonson's ,curius avowedly would have his mistress 8angry sometimes1 to sweeten off the rest of her behaviour40 99 99 99 99 99 ,sir ,walter ,scott1 in one page of his ,diary1 noting the break-up of a hilarious group of guests at ,abbotsford1 adds the avowal1 8,i am not sorry1 being one of those whom too much mirth always inclines to sadness40 ,even the bright extremes of joy1 as ,thomas ,hood the elder words it1 bring on conclusions of disgust3-- 8,there is no music in the life ,that sounds with idiot laughter solely2 ,there's not a string attuned to mirth ,but has its chord in melancholy40 ,leigh ,hunt tenderly tells one of his grandchildren how1 when he was a child1 and in excessive spirits1 his dear mother would sometimes say to him1 8,leigh1 come and sit down here by me1 and let us try to think a little40 ,better that than riant sans cesse1 even for a child4 ,when ,i was a child1 says the apostle1 ,i thought as a child4 ,thinking was not out of the question even then1 though it might1 and by comparison with the man's it must1 be childish thinking4 ,for children as for men1 a time to laugh and a time to weep4 ,true1 there are differences of gifts and temperaments3-- 8,to some men ,god hath given laughter2 but tears to some men ,he hath given3 ,he bade us sow in tears1 hereafter to harvest holier smiles in ,heaven2 ,and tears and smiles1 they are ,his gift3 both good1 to smite or to uplift4 ,he knows ,his sheep3 the wind and showers beat not too sharply the shorn lamb3 ,his wisdom is more wise than ours3 ,he knew my nature--what ,i am3 ,he tempers smiles with tears3 both good1 to bear in time the ,christian mood40 ,,disallowed ,,designs4 ,,proverbs xix4 #ba4 8,there are many devices in a man's heart2 nevertheless1 the counsel of the ,lord1 that shall stand40 ,even the counsels of the prudent ,he bringeth to nought4 8,there is no wisdom1 nor understanding1 nor counsel1 against the ,lord10 nor any that prospers without ,him4 ,without ,him1 where is the wise8 where is the scribe8 ,what1 after all1 is the wisdom of the children of this world1 wiser in their generation than the children of light8 ,hath not ,god made foolish the wisdom of this world8 ,for it is written1 8,i will destroy the wisdom of the wise40 ,nay2 unworldly wisdom1 in its forming of plans1 and elaboration of schemes1 and devising of devices1 enjoys no privileged immunity from failure1 at the veto of ,him who chargeth ,his angels with folly4 8,l'homme propose1 ,dieu dispose40 ,the ,divine disposal of human proposals is ofttimes very summary and entire4 ,the proverb1 8,man proposes1 ,god disposes10 is believed by one learned in such lore to be naturalised in every nation of ,europe3--thus the ,spanish1 8,la gente pone1 y ,dios dispone20 the ,german1 with its corresponding jingle1 8,der ,mensch denkt's1 ,gott lenkt's10 etc41 so deeply upon all men is impressed the sense of ,hamlet's assertion of a ,divinity that shapes our ends1 rough-hew them how we will4 ,molire's shrewd-spoken ,dorine enounces a truism when reminding ,damis that1-- 8,on n'excute pas tout ce qui se propose2 ,et le chemin est long du projet la chose40 ,a wise man endeavours1 it has been said1 by considering all circumstances1 to make conjectures and form conclusions3 but the smallest accident intervening 7and in the course of affairs it is impossible to foresee all7 often produces such turns and changes1 that at last he is just as much in doubt of events as the most ignorant and inexperienced person4 ,what ,shakspeare in his sonnets calls 8millioned accidents0 creep in between design and result1 between plan and performance1 between scheme and issue1 and 8blunt the sharpest intents40 ,as the old moralising poet1 modernised by ,dryden1 puts it-- 8,but see how ,fortune can confound the wise1 ,and when they least expect it1 turn the dice40 ,fortune1 or fate1 is the popularly recognised agent in these reversals and collapses2 and subtile philosophers speculate curiously on the plenipotent character of this agency4 ,one such1 for example1 predisposed to paradox may-be1 yet no heedless or hasty penman1 affirms1 that if you look closely into the matter1 it will be seen that whatever appears most vagrant1 and utterly purposeless1 turns out1 in the end1 to have been impelled the most surely on a preordained and unswerving track4 ,chance and change1 he goes on to remark1 love to deal with men's unsettled plans1 not with their idle vagaries4 ,so that1 as he argues the matter1 if we desire unexpected and unimaginable events1 we should contrive an iron framework1 such as we fancy may compel the future to take one inevitable shape2 for then comes in the unexpected1 and shatters our design in fragments4 ,the biographer of ,columbus1 narrating the story of his shipwreck in #adib1 describes him as passing1 with his usual excitability1 from a state of doubt and anxiety to one of sanguine anticipation1 and thus coming to consider his present misfortune as a providential event mysteriously ordained by ,heaven to work out the success of his enterprise4 ,at once1 therefore1 he began to look forward to glorious fruits to be reaped from this seeming evil1 and laid his plans accordingly4 8,such was the visionary yet generous enthusiasm of ,columbus1 the moment that prospects of vast wealth broke upon his mind4 ,what in some spirits would have awakened a grasping and sordid avidity to accumulate1 immediately filled his imagination with plans of magnificent expenditure4 ,but how vain are our attempts to interpret the inscrutable decrees of ,providence6 ,the shipwreck1 which ,columbus considered the act of ,divine favour1 to reveal to him the secrets of the land1 shackled and limited all his after-discoveries40 ,for it is shown to have linked his fortunes1 for the remainder of his life1 to this island1 which was doomed to be to him a source of cares and troubles1 to involve him in a thousand perplexities1 and to becloud his declining years with humiliation and disappointment4 8,le ciel agit sans nous en ces vnements1 ,et ne les rgle point dessus nos sentiments40 ,it is instructive to note in the memoirs of ,gabriel ,naud1 that great scholar's exultant anticipation of the public opening of the library he had mainly helped to form4 ,he must have reckoned on that day as a beau jour for him1 the happiest day of his life2 and he arranged a fte accordingly1 to be celebrated with his most intimate friends4 ,but that very day broke out the public troubles of the ,fronde2 and barricades in the streets of ,paris ill accorded with ,gabriel ,naud's cherished hopes4 8,ainsi vont les projets humains sous l'il d'en haut qui les djoue40 ,the ,scotch ploughman-poet1 eyeing the mouse and its 8wee bit housie1 too1 in ruin10 as turned up by his plough1 gave racy utterance to but a trite reflection1 when1 apostrophising the 8wee sleekit1 cow'rin1 tim'rous beastie10 he thus moralised his song3-- 8,but1 mousie1 thou art no thy lane1 ,in proving foresight may be vain3 ,the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men ,gang aft a-gley1 ,and leave us nought but grief an' pain1 ,for promised joy40 ,as the good friar in ,shakspeare has it1-- 8,a greater power than we can contradict ,hath thwarted our intents10 well laid and discreetly devised as they seemed to be4 ,and as with the seemingly laudable plans of the prudent1 so with the arrogant designs of the self-confident4 ,the enemy said1 8,i will pursue1 ,i will overtake1 ,i will divide the spoil2 my lust shall be satisfied upon them2 ,i will draw my sword2 my hand shall destroy them40 ,thus said the enemy1 even ,pharaoh's host1 on the shores of the ,red ,sea4 ,but then sang ,moses and the children of ,israel this song unto the ,lord3 8,thou didst blow with ,thy wind1 the sea covered them2 they sank as lead in the mighty waters40 ,it is but an emphasised reading of the standard text1 that the ,lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought1 and maketh the devices of the people of none effect1 and casteth out the counsel of princes4 ,whereas1 turning from man proposing to ,god disposing1 8,the counsel of the ,lord shall endure for ever1 and the thoughts of ,his heart from generation to generation40 ,the same is ,he of whom it is written that ,he turneth wise men backwards1 and maketh their knowledge foolish4 ,wordsworth1 ever a moralist1 moralised his song when1 at a critical juncture in the legend of the 8,white ,doe of ,rylstone10 he interposed this reflection3-- 8,but quick the turns of chance and change1 ,and knowledge has a narrow range2 ,whence idle fears1 and needless pain1 ,and wishes blind1 and efforts vain40 ,for a closing variation on the present theme1 a worse might be found than this from the play within the play of 8,hamlet30-- 8,but1 orderly to end where ,i begun1-- ,our wills1 our fates1 do so contrary run1 ,that our devices still are overthrown2 ,our thoughts are ours1 their ends none of our own40 ,but1 with a slight change of title and text1 the same theme is pursued1 in the section next ensuing1 through another fugue-course of variations4 ,,man ,,devising1 ,,god ,,directing4 ,,proverbs xvi4 #i4 8,a man's heart deviseth his way2 but the ,lord directeth his steps40 ,man devises1 ,god directs2 man proposes1 ,god disposes4 ,there is a way that seemeth right unto a man1 and practicable1 plausible1 easy of accomplishment1 and sure of success4 ,but the counsel of the ,lord puts a veto on the scheme2 and the counsel of the ,lord1 that shall stand4 ,luther charges it against princes and potentates in his day1 that when they take in hand an enterprise1 they do not pray before they begin1 but set to work calculating3 three times three make nine1 twice seven are fourteen--so-and-so will do so-and-so--in this manner will the business come to a prosperous issue3 8but our ,lord ,god says unto them1 ,for whom then do ye hold me8 for a cypher8 ,do ,i sit here above in vain1 and to no purpose8 ,ye shall know1 that ,i will twist your accounts about finely1 and make them all false reckonings40 ,says old ,alice1 in 8,mary ,barton10 8,i sometimes think the ,lord is against planning4 ,whene'er ,i plan over much1 ,he is sure to send and mar all my plans1 as if ,he would ha' me put the future into ,his hands4 ,afore ,christmas-time ,i was as full as full could be of going home for good and all2 yo has heard how ,i've wished it this terrible long time4444 ,many a winter's night did ,i lie awake and think that1 please ,god1 come summer1 ,i'd go home at last4 ,little did ,i think how ,god ,almighty would baulk me for not leaving my days in ,his hands1 who had led me through the wilderness hitherto40 ,it is very like ,rousseau to say1 in reference to a fully determined project of his1 for the fulfilment of which nothing was wanting but 8ce qui ne dpend pas des hommes dans les projets les mieux concerts10--that 8on dirait qu'il n'y a que les noirs complots des mchants qui russissent2 les projets innocents des bons n'ont presque jamais d'accomplissement40 ,but who can hope for anything like contentment1 as ,mr4 ,helps somewhere asks1 so long as he continues to attach that ridiculous degree of importance to the events of this life which so many people are inclined to do8 ,observe1 he bids us1 the effect which it has upon them3 they are most uncomfortable if their little projects do not turn out according to their fancy--nothing is to be angular to them--they regard external things as the only realities2 and as they have fixed their abode here1 they must have it arranged to their mind4 ,lady ,mary ,wortley ,montagu assures one of her correspondents that never had she been so little mistress of her own time and actions as since she lived alone2 and going on to account for this1 she observes1 8,mankind is placed in a state of dependency1 not only on one another 7which all are in some degree71 but so many inevitable accidents thwart our designs and limit our best-laid projects40 ,the poor efforts of our utmost prudence1 and political schemes1 she fancies must appear in the eyes of some superior beings1 like the pecking of a young linnet to break a wire cage1 or the climbing of a squirrel in a hoop4 ,if to this bit of morality from the greatest of lady letter-writers in ,england1 a parallel passage may readily be cited from the greatest of lady letter-writers in ,france1 there is a characteristic difference1 in the tone of religious feeling1 conspicuous generally by its absence in ,lady ,mary's case1 but a pervading1 though underlying1 force in that of ,madame de ,svign4 ,the latter describes on one occasion the 8cruel derangement0 of her family plans1 so nicely arranged1 and so ripe for completion2 then adds1 if with a sigh1 with a sigh of gentle resignation1 8,la ,providence le veut ainsi4 ,elle est tellement maitresse de toutes nos actions1 que nous n'excutons rien que sous son bon plaisir1 et je tache de ne faire de projets que le moins qu'il m'est possible1 afin de n'tre pas si souvent trompe2 car qui compte sans elle compte deux fois40 ,how vain1 exclaims the author of 8,destiny10 are all our schemes for futurity6 ,human wisdom exhausts itself in devising what a higher ,power shows to be vanity4 ,we decide for to-day1 and a passing moment scatters our decisions as chaff before the wind4 ,we resolve for to-morrow1 to-morrow comes but to root up our resolutions4 ,we scheme for our works to remain monuments of our power and wisdom1 and the most minute1 the most trivial event is sufficient to overturn all our purposes1 and cast down to the dust the thoughts and the labours of a life4 ,truly1 8it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps40 ,were the affairs of this world to be guided implicitly by human wisdom1 suggests one of ,scott's sententious doctors of divinity1 or were they uniformly to fall out according to the conjectures of human foresight1 events would no longer be under the domination of that time and chance which happen unto all men2 since we should1 in the one case1 work out our own purposes to a certainty1 by our own skill2 and1 in the other1 regulate our conduct according to the views of unerring prescience4 8,but man is1 while in this vale of tears1 like an uninstructed bowler1 so to speak1 who thinks to attain the jack by delivering the bowl straightforward upon it1 being ignorant that there is a concealed bias within the spheroid1 which will make it1 in all probability1 swerve away1 and lose the cast40 ,the future1 in the words of a later fiction1 is not a blank sheet of paper1 for us to write any story we please upon1 but a wonderful chart1 mapped out by a ,divine and unerring hand4 1 1 ' 4 1 1 1 4 ' 4 ,when ,mr4 ,thackeray propounds the query1 ,who can foresee everything1 and always8 and returns his own answer 7a sufficiently safe one71 ,not the wisest amongst us1--he does so in reference to the counsels of the worldly woman who governed and directed the ,newcome family2 which counsels bore results so different from what that elderly lady desired1 and foresaw4 ,and he proceeds to point his moral by the tale of a ,french king's fall4 8,when his majesty1 ,louis ,,xiv41 jockied his grandson on to the throne of ,spain 7founding thereby the present revered dynasty of that country71 did he expect to peril his own1 and bring all ,europe about his royal ears8 ,could a late ,king of ,france1 eager for the advantageous establishment of one of his darling sons1 and anxious to procure a beautiful ,spanish princess1 with a crown and kingdom in reversion1 for the simple and obedient youth1 ever suppose that the welfare of his whole august race and reign would be upset by that smart speculation80 ,the master of irony professes to take only the most noble examples to illustrate the conduct of such a noble old personage as her ladyship of ,kew1 who brought a prodigious deal of trouble upon some of the innocent members of her family1 whom no doubt she thought to better in life by her experienced guidance1 and undoubted worldly wisdom4 ,we may be as deep as ,jesuits1 he continues1--may know the world ever so well1 lay the best ordered plans1 and the profoundest combinations1--and by a certain not unnatural turn of fate1 we1 and our plans and combinations1 are sent flying before the wind4 8,we may be as wise as ,louis ,philippe1 that many counselled ,ulysses whom the respectable world admired so2 and after years of patient scheming1 and prodigies of skill2 after coaxing1 wheedling1 doubling1 bullying wisdom1 behold1 yet stronger powers interpose3 and schemes and skill and violence are nought40 ,as ,schiller's ,wallenstein puts it1 in his rather heathenish way-- 8,for jealous are the powers of destiny4 ,joy premature1 and shouts ere victory1 ,encroach upon their rights and privileges4 ,we sow the seed1 and they the growth determine40 8,il y a10 in the words of a masterly ,french moralist1 8je ne sais quelle force cache1 a dit ,lucrce 7ce que d'autres avec ,bossuet nommeront ,providence71 qui semble se plaire briser les choses humaines1 faire manquer d'un coup l'appereil tabli de la puissance1 et djouer la pice1 juste au moment ou elle promettait de mieux aller40 ,o fate of fools6 exclaims ,zara1 in the 8,mourning ,bride10--8officious in contriving2 in executing1 puzzled1 lame1 and lost20 a rebuke which ,selim deprecates in his reply3-- 8,prescience is ,heaven's alone1 not given to man4 ,if ,i have failed in what1 as being man1 ,i needs must fail1 impute not as a crime ,my nature's want40 ,so with the resolute undertaking of ,argantes1 in ,tasso1 to slay ,tancred1 the slayer of his betrothed2 all the people applauding his resolve1 and rejoicing in the assurance that this-- 8444 boaster stout ,would kill the prince who late had slain his love4 ,o promise vain6 it otherwise fell out4 ,men purpose1 but high gods dispose above2 ,for underneath his sword this boaster died1 ,whom there he scorned and threatened in his pride40 ,in ,homer1 again1 how grieves ,achilles1 and1 impetuous1 vents to all his myrmidons his loud laments8 8,by what vain promise1 gods6 did ,i engage1 ,when1 to console ,mentius' feeble age1 ,i vowed his much-loved offspring to restore2 ,charged with rich spoils to fair ,opuntia's shore4 ,but mighty ,jove cuts short1 with just disdain1 ,the long1 long views of poor designing man60 ,a ,,pursebearer',s ,,protest ,,against ,,purposeless ,,waste4 ,,st4 ,,john xii4 #e4 ,it was very costly ointment of spikenard that ,mary took and anointed therewith the feet of ,jesus1 so that the house was filled with the odour of the ointment4 ,so costly1 that it set one of ,his apostles to work1 counting the cost4 ,judas ,iscariot was this ready reckoner4 ,he was conversant with figures4 ,he was the pursebearer of the apostolic circle1 and knew1 it seems1 how and when and why to keep a tight finger on the purse-strings4 ,the wasted contents--waste he accounted it--of that alabaster box might have been sold for three hundred denarii1 and the proceeds given to the poor4 ,as pursebearer he protested4 ,and nominally his protest was in behalf of the poor4 ,referring to that text in ,exodus which tells how the people brought much more than enough for the service of the work which the ,lord commanded to make1 the question was put by a divine who1 being dead1 yet speaketh3 ,when will the earth again hear that glad announcement8 ,yet1 until we bring more than enough1 he said1 at least until there is kindled in us a spirit which will make us desire to do so1 we shall never bring enough4 8,and ought we not8 ,your economists will say ,no4 ,they who would think the sun a useful creature1 if he would come down from the sky and light their fires1 will gravely reprehend such wasteful extravagance40 ,this last figure of speech has its parallel in ,mr4 ,carlyle's estimate of 8the uses of this ,dante30 he declines to say much about his 8uses20 he holds that an influence working1 like ,dante's1 into the depths of our existence1 and feeding through long times the life-roots of all excellent things whatsoever1 is not to be very satisfactorily computed by 8utilities40 ,dante shall therefore be invaluable1 or of no value3 8,we will not estimate the sun by the quantity of gas-light it saves us40 ,judas the pursebearer was1 as a ,french divine characterizes him1 exact1 positif1 calculateur2 one who habituated himself to compute everything by a ready-money standard1 and to appraise every action by the rule of immediate utility4 ,he might be accurate to a fraction in his reckoning of what that 8wasted0 ointment would have fetched in the market2 but1 had not his heart been already in some sort ossified1 he would have comprehended that 8au dessus de l'utile il y a le beau1 et au dessus du calcul le dvouement1 et qu' une me qui dborde d'une joie extraordinaire il faut des moyens extraordinaires aussi pour exprimer ce qu'elle prouve4 ,judas a perdu le sens des ralits purement spirituelles1 qui lui paraissent vagues1 parce que1 comme l'infini1 elles rsistent aux chiffres40 ,when ,dr4 ,justus ,jonas told ,dr4 ,martin ,luther of a certain potent landholder1 who said to ,duke ,john ,frederic1 when commending to him the gospel of ,christ1 8,sir1 the gospel pays no interest10--8,have you no grains80 was ,luther's interrogative comment1--citing the words of the swine at the lion's feast1 when invited to feast on recondite dainties4 ,even so1 said ,dr4 ,martin1 there are inveterate worldlings who1 when invited to the spiritual feast of fat things well refined1 8turn up their snouts1 and ask for guilders4 ,offer a cow nutmeg1 and she will reject it for old hay40 ,it is a too true bill of indictment against the mass of men1 that1 knowing that two and two make four1 and that four is of a higher value than three1 they practically conclude1 carrying out into practice the conclusion1 that to amass is to become wealthy1 and that to bestow is to become the poorer4 ,with this arithmetic the children of this world are wise in their generation1 and add field to field1 house to house1 to some purpose4 ,but by what right1 asks a voice from the sanctuary1 do they take upon themselves to pronounce on such qualities and realities as devotion and charity1 as detachment from the 8good things of this life0 and renunciation of indulgence to the senses8 ,if they witness a deed of noble self-sacrifice1 they can but wag their heads1 in shocked surprise and bewilderment at such a blunder in arithmetic1 une telle faute de calcul4 8,ils ne comprennent pas qu'on puisse soupirer aprs d'autres biens que ceux de la matire1 aprs d'autres vrits que celles de l'arithmtique40 ,there are many1 very many more things than are dreamt of in their philosophy2 dreaming1 indeed1 is rather out of their way2 and perhaps philosophy too1 for the matter of that4 ,coleridge1 denouncing the 8moral0 consequences of ,napoleon's tyranny1 as far more to be dreaded than the worst of those outward and calculable evils1 which chiefly shock the imaginations of men1 is out of all patience with such objections as1 8,what good will the ,tyrolese do themselves by their heroic resistance80 8,what are the ,spaniards fighting for80 etc41--as if man were made only to eat above ground1 and be eaten2 as if we had no dignity to preserve1 no conscience to obey1 no immortality to expect4 ,what good can it do him8 demands the vulgar fine lady in 8,cecil10 who hears that a certain well-to-do man of genius has written a book4 ,a man1 she argues1 writes for money or distinction3 what can be this man's object8 he don't want to be made a baronet1 nor does he want to increase his income4 ,where can be the use of writing8 ,and where1 she is 7by cross-questioning7 answered1 can be the use to the aloe of its flower1 to the mine of its gold8 ,oldbuck of ,monkbarns might have done worse than parody1 as he did1 the 8brutal ignorance0 of your cui bono querists of the baser sort1 in the strain of ,gray's ,bard1-- 8,weave the warp and weave the woof1 ,the winding-sheet of wit and sense2 ,dull garment of defensive proof ',gainst all that does not gather pence40 ,that a new machine1 a new experiment1 the discovery of a salt1 or of a bone1 should1 in ,england1 receive a wider homage1 than the most profound speculation from which no obvious results are apprehended1--this way of contemplating affairs ,mr4 ,buckle was prompt to own as certainly productive of great good4 ,but he also took care to declare it to be1 with equal certainty1 a one-sided way1 satisfying a part only of the human mind--many of the noblest intellects craving for something which it cannot supply4 ,there are mortals who1 as a clerical essayist has said1 cannot understand or sympathise with the gratification arising from a study of graceful and beautiful objects2 who think that the supply of animal necessities is all that any man 7but themselves1 perhaps7 can need4 ,what more can he want8 they exclaim1 if the man be well-fed1 and well-dressed1 and well-lodged4 ,why1 if he had been a horse or a pig1 is the answer1 he would have wanted nothing more2 but the possession of a rational soul brings with it pressing wants which are not of a material nature1 not to be supplied by material things1 and not felt by pigs and horses4 ,and the craving for surrounding objects of grace and beauty is held to be one of these4 ,mr4 ,emerson1 in his far-going way1 goes so far as to say1 as regards the 8base rate at which the highest mental and moral gifts are held0 in his country1--that let a man attain the highest and broadest culture that any ,american has possessed1 then let him die by sea-storm1 railroad collision1 or other accident1 8and all ,america will acquiesce that the best thing has happened to him2 that1 after the education has gone far1 such is the expensiveness of ,america1 that the best use to put a fine person to1 is1 to drown him to save his board40 ,m4 de ,tocqueville somewhere observes1 that to cross almost impenetrable forests1 to swim deep rivers1 to encounter pestilential marshes1 to sleep exposed to the damp air of the woods1--these are efforts which an ,american easily conceives1 if a dollar is to be gained by them--that is the point2 but that a man should take such journeys from curiosity1 he cannot understand4 ,the ,german poet is often cited for his remark1 that the ,cow of ,isis is to some the divine symbol of knowledge1 to others but the milch cow1 only regarded for the pounds of butter she will yield4 ,an ,english sympathiser exclaims1 8,o tendency of our age1 to look on ,isis as the milch cow6 ,gaze on the goddess10 he bids a sordid aspirant1 8and get ready the churn and thy scales1 and let us see what butter will fetch in the market40 ,when ,judge ,haliburton's typical ,yankee is asked by the old minister what he thinks of ,niagara1 and forthwith expatiates on the 8grand spec0 it offers for factory purposes--for carding mills1 fulling mills1 cotton mills1 grain mills1 saw mills1 plaster mills1 and never a want of water for any or all of them1 his pastor upbraids him with almost sacrilege in that style of talk2 exclaiming1 8,how that dreadful thirst of gain has absorbed all other feelings in our people1 when such an idea could be entertained for a moment6 ,it ,niagara is a grand spectacle1 it is the voice of nature in the wilderness1 proclaiming to the untutored tribes there of the power and majesty and glory of ,god4444 ,talk not to me of mills1 factories1 and machinery1 sir1 nor of introducing the money-changers into the temple of the ,lord40 ,,light ,,at ,,evening-,,time4 ,,zechariah xiv4 #g4 ,the promise1 or prediction1 to be found in the words of the son of ,berechiah1 that 8at evening-time it shall be light10 is gratefully accepted by devout souls in perhaps a strained and wrested sense2 but a sense so comforting1 so full of tenderness and beauty1 that one is fain to believe the words may favour1 if they cannot be said to warrant1 this 8accommodation of ,scripture40 ,divines are fain to give technical divinity the go-by for the nonce1 while1 as they confess1 the deepening twilight seldom fails to suggest to them this cheering promise1 a promise which 8tells how the ,christian's day shall end1 how the day of life may be somewhat overcast and dreary1 but light shall come on the darkened way at last40 ,in the same spirit are welcome the words of ,amos1 the herdsman of ,tekoa1 concerning ,one who turneth the shadow of death into the morning4 ,to ,him the darkness and the light are both alike2 and at ,his bidding1 when despondent sufferers are in a horror of great darkness1 and say surely the darkness shall cover them1--even the night shall be light about them2 and in some sort to them1 even as to ,him1 the night shineth as the day2 or at least1 in the language of ,zechariah1 there is light1 which if not clear1 is yet not dark2 neither wholly day nor night1 but twilight--soft1 soothing1 tranquillizing--instead of the dreaded darkness which may be felt4 ,even thus ,he brings the blind by a way that they knew not1 making darkness light before them4 ,even thus1 at the last1 ,he delivers them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage4 ,bunyan exemplifies such in ,mr4 ,fearing1 the pilgrim1 who at the entrance of the ,valley of the ,shadow of ,death was 8ready to die for fear40 ,but the valley was quiet from troublers4 8,i suppose those enemies here had now a special check from our ,lord1 and a command not to meddle until ,mr4 ,fearing had passed over it40 8,and here also ,i took notice of what was very remarkable--the water of that river was lower at this time than ever ,i saw it in all my life2 so he went over at last1 not much above wetshod4 8,honesty3 ,then it seems he was well at last80 8,greatheart3 ,yes1 yes2 ,i never had a doubt about it40 ,often1 observes ,schleiermacher in one of his letters1 the last radiant moment is called rapidly into being1 even in souls wherein the eternal ,light has not always shone with bright effulgence4 ,biographers of ,dr4 ,johnson tell us how1 when at length the moment1 dreaded through so many years1 came close1 the dark cloud passed away from his mind2 how his temper became unusually patient and gentle1 and he ceased to think with terror of death1 and of that which lieth beyond death1 and spoke much of the mercy of ,god and of the propitiation of ,christ4 ,one might apply to him in effect the lines of the poet of the ,seasons4 8,joy seized his withered veins1 and one bright gleam ,of setting life shone on her evening hours40 ,meditating on various senses in which the words of the promise of light at evening-time speak truly1 in which its great principle holds good1 the signal blessing shall come when it is needed most and expected least1 ,dr4 ,boyd1 thinks mainly how sometimes1 at the close of the chequered and sober day1 the ,better ,sun has broken through the clouds and made the flaming west all purple and gold4 ,he pictures the chamber of death1 while hushed and mournful gazers see also the summer sun in glory going down4 8,but it is only to us who remain that the evening darkness is growing1 only for us that the sun is going down40 ,as the evening falls on us1 but not on the departing believer2 as the shadows deepen on us1 but not on him2 as the darkness gathers on us1 but not on him2 the 8glorious promise has found its perfect fulfilment1 that #8at the evening-time there shall be light4'0 ,secular literature has its analogous instances4 ,dr4 ,holmes describes ,elsie ,venner's storm-tossed1 vagrant spirit as composed and serene at the last2 the cold glitter died out of the diamond eyes1 and the stormy scowl disappeared from the dark brows4 8,it seemed to her father as if the malign influence--evil spirit it might almost be called--which had pervaded her being had at last been driven forth or exorcised10 and that the tears she now shed were 8at once the sign and the pledge of her redeemed nature4 ,but now she was to be soothed and not excited4 ,after her tears she slept again1 and the look her face wore was peaceful as never before40 ,and the devoted father1 to whom her life-long career had been until now a perturbing trial1 now thanked ,god for the brief interval of peace which had been granted her1 and for the sweet communion they had enjoyed in these last days4 ,there are those of whom it may be said that it comes to pass1 when midday is over1 and they cast wistful glances1 and perhaps even reproachful petitions heavenwards1 until evening-time1 that there is from above neither voice1 nor any to answer1 nor seemingly any that regardeth2 but with evening-time comes an answer and comes light4 ,applicable to the subject1 in this sense1 are the lines in 8,paracelsus10 on one who lived without ,god in the world3-- 8,then died1 grown old2 and just an hour before-- ,having lain long with blank and soulless eyes-- ,he sate up suddenly1 and with natural voice ,said1 that in spite of thick air and closed doors ,god told him it was ,june40 ,of ,margaret ,arundel1 in 8,the ,gordian ,knot10 we read1 in her hour of household desolation and distress1 that could we have seen her fair face1 now pale with pain1 now flushed with emotion1 we should have pitied her2 but 8it may be that some superior intelligence witnessed her suffering1 and pitied her not2 knowing that all she was to undergo was but the fiery trial destined for those for whom in the evening there is light40 ,stephen ,blackpool1 in 8,hard ,times10 who has found life 8aw a muddle10 and meets with his death in the pit1 is tranquillized with light at the last--light which he identifies with the star that shone upon him while he lay mangled in the old shaft4 8,often as ,i coom to myseln1 and found it shinin' on me down there in my trouble1 ,i thowt it were the very star as guided to our ,saviour's home4 ,i awmost think it be the very star40 ,his rescuers lift him up1 and he is overjoyed to find they are about to take him in the direction whither the star seems to him to lead4 ,very gently they carry him along the fields and down the lanes2 but it is soon a funeral procession4 8,the star had shown him where to find the ,god of the poor2 and through humility and sorrow and forgiveness1 he had gone to his ,saviour's rest40 ,it is not every life the early prime of which has been blissful enough to warrant the exclamation1-- 8,ne'er tell me of glories serenely adorning ,the close of our day1 the calm eve of our night3 ,give me back1 give me back1 the wild freshness of morning1 ,its smiles and its tears are worth evening's best light40 ,for sometimes the light comes at evening-time that has never come before4 ,cellini opens his autobiography with a placid record of the enjoyment of his present lot1 in life's decline1 in contrast with the storms and turmoil of his previous course4 ,we read of ,james ,watt1 that not until he had reached what is termed the grand climacteric of man's life did he know real freedom from bodily infirmities2 and that his spirits became more equable as the principal causes of his anxiety and occasional depression were removed2 so that although he was destined to be one of those 8who are so strong that they come to fourscore years10 his strength even then1 while it could scarcely be termed 8labour10 was certainly very far from 8sorrow40 ,the cloud which had so long hung over him was gently lifted up1 and the curtain parted1 to disclose a happier scene4 8,it is curious that even physical ease and enjoyment should come so late2 but so it was4 ,the term which commenced with his release from the evils of active business was a serene and golden time1 in which he found repose0--with the softening retrospect of a struggle past and a victory won4 ,john ,galt1 in 8,the ,entail10 exemplifies a kindred experience in the widow ,walkinshaw1 whose deliverance from an all but lifelong thraldom1 late in the day as it came1 yet came in time enough to 8allow the original brightness of her mind to shine out in the evening with a serene and pleasing lustre40 ,dr4 ,boyd quotes the dying speech of a poor ,english day labourer1 than which1 he affirms1 few sentences ever touched him more with their hopeless pathos3 8,wut wi' faeth1 and wut wi' the earth goin' round the sun1 and wut wi' the railways all a-whuzzing and a-buzzing1 ,i'm clean muddled1 confoozled1 and bet60 ,it is ,stephen ,blackpool again in spirit1 and to the letter4 ,with that sentence the dying man is said to have feebly turned to the wall1 and spoken no more4 8,well1 let us hope that light came at the evening-time upon that blind1 benighted way40 ,among the dying words of ,mrs4 ,schimmelpenninck1 honourably known by her 8,memoirs of ,port ,royal10 and other works1 the remark is preserved that she had often in her life been inclined to occupy herself with the prospect close at hand1 from finding the bleak1 hard outline of the eternal hills cold and barren to her sight2 but that1 as she drew nearer1 ,god's mercy made ,his light to shine full upon them1 so that she could now perceive they were covered with magnificent trees of the forest1 and were rich in fruit and flowers far more pleasant than those close at hand1 and yet a continuation of them4 ,a commentator on the text of 8promised light at evening-time10 explains that by evening is understood the gradual withdrawal of the light2 it is the lessening light that makes the evening-time3 because of that the daisies close1 and the birds fly to their nests1 and a hush comes over nature4 ,and it is just because evening is the time when1 in the ordinary course of things1 the light is going and the darkness is coming1 that there is found to be anything remarkable in the text of um den ,abend wird es licht seyn1 as ,luther's version runs4 ,the promise1 or prophecy1 is that 8light shall come at a time when it is not natural1 when in the common course of things it is not looked for40 ,it would be no surprise1 as this divine proceeds to remark1 that light should come at noonday3 we expect it then1 it is just what we are accustomed to see4 8,but if1 when the twilight shadows were falling deeper and deeper1 444 with a sudden burst the noonday light were to spread around1--that would be a surprise40 ,one of his personal illustrations of its import is the instance of the ,christian poet who passed away almost in despair1--the gloom that overshadowed his spirit enduring almost to the end3 8but even in the last moment there came a wonderful change0--and they tell us how even on his dead face there remained1 till it was hidden for ever1 a look of bright and beautiful and sudden surprise2 the reflection of that light at evening that had been long in coming1 but had come at last4 ,at eventide light may break forth as the morning2 light rising in obscurity1 and darkness becoming as the noonday4 ,light in darkness--light springing up out of darkness--the blessedness of this is emphatically recognised both by signal example and in special promise1 in ,holy ,writ4 ,when the hand of ,moses was stretched out toward heaven1 and darkness fell over the land of ,egypt1 even darkness which might be felt--a thick darkness in all the land of ,egypt for three days--the ,egyptians saw not one another1 neither rose any from his place for three days4 ,but all the children of ,israel had light in their dwellings4 8,when ,i sit in darkness1 the ,lord shall be a light unto me40 8,for thou wilt light my candle2 the ,lord my ,god will enlighten my darkness40 ,in the same ,psalm that tells how clouds and darkness are round about ,him1 the ,father of lights1 is contained the exulting assurance1 that 8light is sown for the righteous40 ,the light of the righteous rejoiceth1 when the lamp of the wicked hath been put out4 ,well may spiritual aspirations be fervent for light to be sent forth1 to lead and to guide to ,his holy hill and tabernacle1 lest the feet of the wayfarer slip in a way that he knows not2 and1 above all1 when they stumble on the dark mountains1 or lose their footing in the swelling of ,jordan4 ,lux tenebris--who will not prize it8 who does not need it8 ,for-- 8,what am ,i8 ,an infant crying in the night1 ,an infant crying for the light1 ,and with no language but a cry40 ,an exceeding bitter cry this crying for the light sometimes is1 in such as those1 for instance1 whom ,robertson of ,brighton describes as 8turning from side to side10 feeling with horror the old1 and all they hold dear1 crumbling away--the ancient light going out--more than half suspecting the falsehood of the rest1 and with an earnestness amounting to agony1 leaving their home1 like the ,magians1 and inquiring for fresh light4 ,turning from side to side1 with the wailing note of interrogation1 8,who will show us any good80 ,and then1 more earnestly than ever1 8,lord1 lift ,thou up the ,,light of ,thy countenance upon us40 ,in vain we turn from side to side4 ,to whom should we go but unto ,thee8 ,turn us again1 ,o ,lord ,god of hosts2 show the ,,light of ,thy countenance1 and we shall be saved4 ,observable for special application is what ,locke makes observable as a general fact1 that new-born children always turn their eyes to that part whence the light comes1 lay them how you please4 ,when the blind are operated on for the restoration of sight1 it is suggestively remarked by an eminent author1 that the same succouring hand which has opened to them the visible world1 immediately shuts out the bright prospect again for a time1 a bandage being passed over the eyes1 lest in the first tenderness of their recovered sense1 they should be fatally affected by the sudden transition from darkness to light4 ,but1 as he goes on to say1 between the awful blank of total privation of vision1 and the temporary blank of vision merely veiled1 there lies the widest difference4 8,in the moment of their restoration the blind have but one glimpse of light1 flashing on them in an overpowering gleam of brightness1 which the thickest1 closest veiling cannot extinguish4 ,the new darkness is not like the void darkness of old3 it is filled with rapid1 changing visions of brilliant colours and ever-varying forms1 rising1 falling1 whirling hither and thither with every second40 ,and thus is it made evident that even when the handkerchief is passed over them1 the once sightless eyes1 though bandaged fast1 are yet not blinded as they were before4 ,all the more1 however1 they now dread the blankness of that total eclipse1 now that1 as it were1 to them that walked in the shadow of death1 light is sprung up4 ,light1 how much the more precious for that background of blackness of darkness1 darkness that still may be felt6 ,light that may be felt1 is the theme of blind old dipus1 in ,sophocles1 at the hour of his mysterious departure--the hour and the power of darkness4 ,farewell he bids to-- 8,light1 sweet ,light6 ,rayless to me--mine once1 and even now ,i feel thee palpable1 round this worn form ,clinging in last embrace40 ,immortal as ,homer is the prayer of his ,ajax to die1 if die he must1 in the light4 ,contrast with this the modus moriendi of ,pompey the ,great1 as pictured in ,corneille3-- 8,d'un des pans de sa robe it couvre son visage1 ,a son mauvais dentin en aveugle obit1 ,et ddaigne de voir le ciel qui le trahit40 ,so with the ,greek wife in ,landor's ,hellenics1 who resists the bidding to fall not on her knees1 but to look up3-- 8,the hand ,that is to slay me1 best may slay me thus4 ,i dare no longer see the light of heaven40#ce ,but to die in the light is the almost universal craving4 8,as a matter of fact1 nothing10 it has been remarked1 8is more common than the craving and demand for light a little before death20 a remark confirmed by the sad experience of many who have tended and watched the last moments of a friend4 8,what more frequent than a prayer to open the shutters1 and let in the sun8 ,what complaint more repeated1 and more touching than that #8it is growing dark'80 ,we are told of a sufferer who did not seem in immediate danger1 suddenly ordering the sick room to be lit up as for a gala4 ,when this was mentioned to the physician1 he said1 gravely1 8,no worse sign40 ,we all remember the tenor of the last words of ,dr4 ,adam1 of the ,high ,school1 ,edinburgh1 as recorded 7however variously7 by ,scott and ,lord ,cockburn and others4 ,it was in his bed-chamber1 and in the forenoon1 that he died2 and finding that he could not see1 the old schoolmaster1 believing himself in the familiar school-room1 exclaimed1 8,it is getting dark1 boys2 we must put off the rest till to-morrow40 ,it was the darkness of death4 ,and to the living1 to-morrow1 above all1 that to-morrow1 never comes4 ,m4 de ,lescure1 dying of the wounds he had received at the battle of ,chollet1 awaited with his usual serenity the advent of his last hour4 8,open the windows10 said he to his wife1 who was watching by his bedside1 8is it clear80 8,yes10 she said1 8the sun is shining40 8,i have1 then10 replied the dying general1 8a veil before my eyes40 ,a veil that no man could raise4 ,chateaubriand1 in describing the last hours of his sister1 ,madame de ,beaumont--the ,lucile of his 8,memoires d'outre-tombe0--incidentally relates that 8she begged of me to open the window4444 ,a ray of sunshine rested upon her bed1 and seemed to rejoice her spirit40 ,the same circumstance is related of the dying ,emperor ,alexander4 ,so it is of ,dr4 ,channing4 ,karl ,ludwig ,sand1 on the scaffold1 begged that the bandage over his eyes might be so placed that he could1 until his last moment1 see the light4 ,and it was so4 ,turner's biographer tells us that almost at the very hour of the old painter's death1 his landlady wheeled his chair to the window1 that he might see the sunshine he had loved so much1 mantling the river1 and glowing on the sails of the passing boats4 8,the old painter died with the winter-morning sun shining upon his face1 as he was lying in his bed4 ,the attendant drew up the window-blind1 and the morning sun shone on the dying artist--the sun he had so often beheld with such love and such veneration10 and painted1 at sundry times and in divers manners1 with such force4 ,rousseau's wish1 when in a dying state1 to be carried into the open air1 that he might have 8a parting look at the glorious orb of day10 is referred to by one of the many biographers of ,robert ,burns1 in recording that poet's remark one beautiful evening1 when the sun was shining brightly through the casement4 ,the hand of death was then upon him1 and a young friend rose to let down the window-blinds1 fearing the light might be too much for him4 ,burns thanked her1 with a look of great benignity1 but prayed her to let the sun shine on3 8he will not shine long for me40 ,tender and true is the pathos in one of ,mrs4 ,richard ,trench's letters1 touching the death of her endeared child1 ,bessy1 where we read3 8,the last phrase she uttered1 except those expressive of her latest wants and pain1 was a desire the window-curtain might be withdrawn1 that she might look at the stars40 ,sunlight or starlight1 it is light we cherish1 and that cherishes us4 ,light from the first1 light to the last4 ,happy1 if the light we cherish is the shining light1 that shineth more and more unto the perfect day4 ,another set of variations on the same theme will form the section next ensuing4 ,,wished-,,for ,,day4 ,,acts xxvii4 #bi4 ,it was in a ship of ,alexandria1 sailing into ,italy1 when sailing was now dangerous1 because of the advanced season2 it was during a voyage which ,paul1 a passenger1 foresaw and foretold would be with hurt and much damage1 not only of the lading and ship1 but also of lives two hundred threescore and sixteen2 it was after there had arisen against the ship a tempestuous wind called ,euroclydon1 before which the vessel became a helpless drift2 then it was that the crew and passengers1 exceedingly tossed with the tempest1 and not comforted--except the apostle1 gave up1 with the same exception1 all hope of escape1 and gloomily awaited the bitter end4 ,on the third day they cast out the tackling of the ship4 ,and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared1 and no small tempest lay on them1 all hope that they should be saved was then taken away4 ,the fourteenth night was come1 and they were driven up and down in ,adria1 and about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country1 and sounded once and again1 and found reason to fear lest they should have fallen upon rocks4 ,so they cast four anchors out of the stern1 and wished for the day-- 4 ,if 'tis double death to die in sight of shore1 as ,shakspeare says1 it is also1 or nearly1 double death to die in the dark4 ,some would almost say1 ,surely the bitterness of death is past1 if light be vouchsafed to the dying1 and so the shadows flee away4 ,well can they understand a pregnant symbolism in that incident of patriarchal days1 when a deep sleep fell upon ,abram as the sun was going down2 and1 lo1 a horror of a great darkness fell upon him4 ,with something of a shuddering sympathy can they connect the fact that1 on the day whence all ,good ,fridays take their name1 there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour1 with that other fact that about the ninth hour there was heard a wailing cry1 whose echo reverberates through all space and time1 ,eli1 ,eli1 lama sabachthani8 ,ever memorable in classical lore is the supplication of the ,greek warrior in ,homer1 not to die in the dark4 ,let him see his foe1 and see his end1 however imminent1 however inevitable4 ,king ,edward ,,ii41 in ,christopher ,marlowe's historical tragedy1 left alone in the ,berkeley ,castle dungeon with ,lightborn1 a murderer1 exclaims3-- 8,i see my tragedy written in thy brows2 ,yet stay awhile1 forbear thy bloody hand1 ,and let me see the stroke before it comes1 ,that even then1 when ,i shall lose my life1 ,my mind may be more steadfast on my ,god40 ,frequent in historical narrative are instances like that of ,labedoyre1 who when brought out to be shot1 refused to have his eyes bandaged1 and looking straight at the levelled muskets1 exclaimed in a loud voice1 8,fire1 my friends60 ,marshal ,ney1 a week or two later1 also refused to have his eyes bandaged4 8,for five-and-twenty years10 he said1 8,i have been accustomed to face the balls of the enemy40 ,then taking off his hat with his left hand1 and placing his right upon his heart1 he too said in a loud voice1 fronting the soldiers1 8,my comrades1 fire on me40 ,murat fell in a like manner1 after a like request1--but gazing to the last on a medallion which contained portraits of his wife and four children4 ,what mainly tends to pile up the agony of ,goisvintha1 in the historical romance of 8,antonina10 when alone in the vaults with the madman ,ulpius1 is the distracting absence of light4 8,bewildered and daunted by the darkness and mystery around her1 she vainly strained her eyes to look through the obscurity1 as ,ulpius drew her on into the recess4444 ,suddenly he heard her pause1 as if panic-stricken in the darkness1 and her voice ascended to him1 groaning1 #8,light1 light6 oh1 where is the light8'0 ,she is held forth at this crisis1 as a terrible evidence of the debasing power of crime1 as she now stands1 enfeebled by the weight of her own avenging guilt1 and 8by the agency of darkness1 whose perils the innocent and the weak have been known to brave40 ,it is only your melodramatic villain that flings forth his flourish in the style of ,velasquez in 8,braganza10--addressing the duke1 his judge3-- 8,yes1 in your gloomiest dungeons plunge me down4 ,welcome1 congenial darkness6 horrors1 hail6 ,no more these loathing eyes shall see that sun ,whose irksome beams light up thy pageant triumph40 ,and thus ,sir ,walter ,scott has full warranty for proving the exceptional courage of his captive ,englishman1 when subjected to a midnight trial in the vaults of the ,vehmgericht1 by showing him unappalled by even the utter darkness of that terrible court4 8,even in these agitating circumstances1 the mind of the undaunted ,englishman remained unshaken1 and his eyelid did not quiver nor his heart beat quicker1 though he seemed1 according to the expression of ,scripture1 to be a pilgrim in the valley of the shadow of death1 beset by numerous snares1 and encompassed by total darkness1 where light was most necessary for safety40 ,it is only in an oblique sense that what ,euripides says is true1 of the coward being very valiant in the dark-- 4 ,dr4 ,croly applies the ,homeric prayer of ,ajax to an incident in the long war with ,france1 when twenty-seven thousand ,british were eager1 under ,abercrombie and the ,duke of ,york1 to attack the ,french lines1 and at the first tap of the drum a general cheer was given from all the columns4 ,but the day1 we read1 had scarcely broke when a dense fog fell suddenly upon the whole horizon1 and rendered movement almost impossible4 8,nothing could exceed the vexation of the army at this impediment1 and if our soldiers had ever heard of ,homer there would have been many a repetition of his warrior's prayer1 that #8live or die1 it might be in the light of day4'0 ,one is reminded of the lines in ,racine3-- 8,enfin toute l'horreur d'un combat tnbreux2 ,que pouvait la valeur dans ce trouble funeste80 ,it has been observed of a certain railway catastrophe1 where the crash and collision occurred in a tunnel--in that very place which nobody1 even on ordinary occasions1 passes through without a slight shudder and an undefined dread of some such disaster as the one in question--that 8,ajax's prayer has been muttered by many who never heard of ,ajax2 and if we are to die1 it is at least a mitigation of the hour of fate when it overtakes us in daylight40 ,in tracing1 psychologically1 the development within us of the sense of awe1 ,professor ,newman attributes to the gloom of night 7deadly night1 as ,homer terms it71 more universally perhaps than to any other phenomenon1 the first awakening of an uneasy sense of vastness4 ,a young child1 as he says1 accustomed to survey the narrow limits of a lighted room1 wakes in the night1 and is frightened at the dim vacancy4 8,no nurse's tales about spectres are needed to make the darkness awful40 ,nor1 he adds1 is it from fear of any human or material enemy3 it is the negation1 the unknown1 the unlimited1 which excites and alarms2 and sometimes the more if mingled with glimpses of light4 ,the last words audible of ,goethe were1 8,more light60 ,the final darkness grew apace1 in the words of his ablest biographer2 and he whose eternal longings had been for more light1 gave a parting cry for it as he was passing under the shadow of death4 8,light6 give me more light10 is the cry of the dying woman in 8,the ,dead ,secret10--whereby hangs that tale4 ,how often ,lord ,lytton remarks1 is 8light60 the last word of those round whom the shades are gathering4 ,and he says it in reference to the last hours of one of the characters he has described with most success as well as elaboration1 ,john ,burley1 who discourses of what is precious in light1 as the darkness closes about him4 ,when he lies down1 and the attendant would withdraw the light1 he moves uneasily4 8,not that10 he murmurs1 8light to the last60 ,and putting forth a wan hand1 he draws aside the curtain1 so that the light may fall full on his face4 ,when his only friend returns1 and steals back to ,burley's room on tiptoe1 it is to see light stream through the cottage lattice--not the miserable ray lit by a human hand--but the still and holy effulgence of a moonlit heaven4 ,burley has died in sleep--calmly1 and the half open eyes have the look of inexpressible softness which death sometimes leaves2 8and still they were turned towards the light2 and the light burned clear40 ,which things are an allegory4 ,mr4 ,dickens intensifies the wretchedness of his prisoner at ,marseilles by the deprivation of light in a prison that1 like a well1 like a vault1 like a tomb1 had no knowledge of the brightness outside1 and would have kept its polluted atmosphere intact1 in one of the spice islands of the ,indian ,ocean4 ,what light he does get comes languishing down a square funnel that blinds a window in the staircase wall1 through which the sky is never seen--nor anything else4 ,what he does see of the 8light of day0 he calls the light of yesterday week1 the light of six months ago1 the light of six years ago3 so slack and dead4 ,bitter indeed is the import of the curse1 8,let it look for light and have none40 ,piteous indeed is the import of the pathetic remonstrance1 8,wherefore is light given to him in misery80 ,graphic indeed is the description of a place 8where the light is as darkness40 ,darkness and light are both alike to ,one only4 ,the record of the last day in the life of ,patrick ,fraser ,tytler opens as follows3--8,on ,sunday1 the #bcrd1 he grew confused in memory1 experienced difficulty in swallowing1 and complained of darkness4 ,the curtain was drawn1 and the light of the winter morning was suffered to stream on his bed2 but in vain4 ,he folded his hands1 and exclaimed1 #8,i see how it is4'0 ,john ,foxe relates this incident in his narrative of the martyrdom of ,william ,hunter1 apprentice to a silk weaver in ,london1 but discharged from his master's employment for refusing to attend mass1 and finally condemned to the stake as an incorrigible heretic4 8,then said ,william1 #8,son of ,god1 shine upon me6' and immediately the sun in the element shone out of a dark cloud so full in his face that he was constrained to look another way1 whereat the people mused1 because it was dark a little time before40 ,,the ,,more ,,than ,,brotherhood ,,of ,a ,,bosom ,,friend4 ,,proverbs xviii4 #bd4 ,in the last book of the ,pentateuch we meet with a verse which1 incidentally1 seems to recognise how much more vitally close and intimate may be the affinity between a man and his bosom friend1 than between the same man and his own brother4 ,the brother is spoken of without descriptive epithet or adjunct of any kind2 while of the friend it is added1 8which is as thine own soul40#cf ,an ever memorable verse in the book of ,proverbs has immortalized the truth1 that 8there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother40 ,none too many are the testimonies on record of brotherly attachment such as ,columbus signalizes in his correspondence4 ,to his elder son1 ,diego1 the affectionate father writes concerning the younger1 ,fernando1 then a stripling midway in his teens1 8,to thy brother conduct thyself as the elder brother should unto the younger4 ,thou hast no other1 and ,i praise ,god that this is such a one as thou dost need4 ,ten brothers would not be too many for thee4 ,never have ,i found a better friend to right or left than my brothers40 ,general testimony points the other way4 ,cicero1 who1 himself a good brother1 in one place moots the question whether it is just to prefer our friends to our relations--quritur sitne quum amicos cognatis anteferre1--in another decides that friendship is better than relationship3 prstat amicitia propinquitati4 ,it has been remarked by ,samuel ,bailey1 of ,sheffield1 that parents and children1 husbands and wives1 brothers and sisters1 reciprocally complain of each other's deficiency of affection1 and think it hard that the tie of relationship should not secure invariable kindness and indestructible love3 expecting some secret influence of blood1 some physical sympathy1 some natural attraction1 to retain the affection of their relatives1 without any solicitude on their part to cherish or confirm it2 and forgetting that man is so constituted as to love only what in some way or other1 directly or indirectly1 immediately or remotely1 gives him pleasure1--that even natural affection is the result of pleasurable associations in his mind1 or at least may be overcome by associations of an opposite character1 and that the sure way to make themselves beloved is to display amiable qualities to those whose regard they wish to obtain4#cg ,crabbe has a terse couplet on-- 444 8those ,who are called friends because they are not foes20 meaning by friends1 kinsfolk2 but such as1 though not more than kin1 are less than kind4 ,dr4 ,croly's hero1 ,marston1 soldier and statesman1 on receiving1 in his isolation1 three letters from three proved friends1 yet comparative strangers1 describes himself as feeling1 8while holding their letters in my hand1 and almost pressing them to my heart1 how much more strongly friendship may bind us than the ties of cold and negligent relationship40 ,so ,mr4 ,thackeray is bitter on what it is to have sham friends and no sympathy2 ties of kindred which bind one1 as it were1 to the corpse of friendship1 and oblige one to bear through life the weight and the embraces of this lifeless1 cold connection4 ,noteworthy among the avowals of ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 in his 8,religio ,medici10 is this3 8,i confess ,i do not observe that order that the schools ordain our affections1--to love our parents1 wives1 children1 and then our friends2 for1 excepting the injunctions of religion1 ,i do not find in myself such a necessary and indissoluble sympathy to all those of my blood4 ,i hope ,i do not break the fifth commandment1 if ,i conceive ,i may love my friend before the nearest of my blood1 even those to whom ,i owe the principles of life40 ,the father and the son may1 as ,montaigne says1 be of quite contrary humours1 and brothers be without any sympathy with brothers4 ,so ,feltham asserts it to be likeness which makes the true love-knot of friendship4 ,when we find another of our own disposition1 what is it1 he asks1 but the same soul in a divided body8 8,we are then intermutually transposed into each other2 and nature1 which makes us love ourselves1 makes us for the same reason love those who are like us2 hence a friend is a more sacred name than a brother40 ,what avails it1 he further asks1 to have bodies of the same original1 when the souls within them differ8 ,the autobiographer in a modern work of fiction1 having occasion to acknowledge1 after being thrust amongst strangers to sicken1 and all but die1 that among strangers he received as much sympathy and kindness as he should have done among his own people1 and in his father's house1--characterizes this sort of confession as one which people are apt to make as a reflection upon their relations1 8whereas it disgraces only themselves40 ,it is a case of rare misfortune1 he contends1 when we are not loved by our nearest of kin1 in proportion as we desire and deserve to excite affection4 ,nevertheless1 there is a too ample consensus of authorities whose testimony affirms1 and confirms1 the often slight and slender tenure of mere family ties1 as such4 8,none of your family parties for me10 quoth one of ,justice ,haliburton's shrewd spokesmen2 8connections at best are poor friends1 and commonly bitter enemies4 ,if you want nothing1 go to them1 and you are sure to get it2 if you are in want of any assistance1 go to a stranger friend you have made for yourself1 and that's the boy that has a heart and a hand for you40 ,the ,earl of ,dudley1 ,bishop ,copleston's correspondent1 in one of his always interesting letters to that prelate1 adverting to the death of an uncle who had never taken the smallest interest in him1 or showed him the smallest kindness1 makes the avowal3 8,and1 though ,i flatter myself that there is no person more capable of returning affection than myself1 yet ,i fairly own that ,i am wholly unable to bestow it quite gratuitously even upon a near relation40 ,richardson harps on this note again and again in his history of ,clarissa4 ,how much more binding and tender1 that young lady writes--and the writing comes of bitter experience--are the ties of pure friendship and the union of like minds1 than the ties of nature6 ,and her chief correspondent1 in commenting on the terms of a kinsman's assurance1 that he will not see ,clarissa 8imposed on either by friend or foe10--interposes the verbal amendment3 8,by relation or foe1 should he not have said8 ,for a friend will not impose upon a friend40 ,elsewhere the same writer has to put the home-question3 8,would you side with a false brother against a true friend8 ,a brother may not be a friend2 but a friend will be always a brother40 ,it was one of the aphorisms--or call them paradoxes--of ,m4 de ,stendhal 7,henri ,beyle7 that our next of kin are our natural enemies when we enter the world2 the simple matter of fact being1 as an ,edinburgh reviewer alleges1 that his own character1 tendencies1 and aspirations had been invariably opposed to the plans1 wishes1 and modes of thinking of his family4 ,mr4 ,froude has depicted in ,edward ,fowler a young man who in his dealings with every one except with his own family1 was frank1 generous1 and unselfish2 and whose affections1 naturally very strong1 finding themselves forced out of their proper channel1 poured themselves out on any one that happened to attract him4 ,a few kind words from his father1 now and then1 implying real sympathy and inviting confidence1 might1 we are given to understand1 have averted in this case1 as in so many others1 a bitter result of estrangement and desolation4 ,perhaps1 as ,mr4 ,disraeli somewhere intimates1 with all their anxiety and opportunities for observation1 the parent and tutor are rarely skilful in discovering the character of their child or charge4 8,custom blunts the fineness of psychological study3 those with whom we have lived long and early1 are apt to blend our essential and our accidental qualities in one bewildering association40 ,strange1 exclaims ,hamilton ,ade1 how little we often know of those who are next us in the battle-ranks through this long march of life6 ,our daily familiar life1 as ,george ,eliot has remarked1 is but a hiding of ourselves from each other behind a screen of trivial words and deeds2 and those who sit with us at the same hearth are often the farthest off from the deep human soul within us1 full of unspoken evil and unacted good4 8,strangers yet10 as ,lord ,houghton has it3-- 8,after childhood's winning ways1 ,after care1 and blame1 and praise1 ,counsel asked1 and wisdom given1 ,after mutual prayers to heaven1 ,child and parent scarce regret ,when they part--are strangers yet40 ,or as ,chauncy ,hare ,townshend expresses the same relative truth1 too absolutely true3-- 8,kindred are oft but kin by name1 ,our thoughts they never knew40 ,,many ,,years ,,to ,,enjoy ,,life3 ,,this ,,night ,,to ,,die4 ,,st4 ,,luke xii4 #ai1 #bj4 ,the rich man was getting richer to his heart's content4 ,so plentiful was the produce of his land1 that he must needs enlarge his premises4 ,there was not room enough in his barns for those golden harvests2 the barns must be pulled down1 and greater ones built1 wherein to bestow all his fruits and his goods4 ,happy man he accounted himself that day2 happy in a prosperous present1 happier still in a promising future4 ,a future of happiness not less prolonged than assured4 ,so he would say to his soul that day1 8,soul1 thou hast much goods laid up for many years2 take thine ease1 eat1 drink1 and be merry40 ,that day he said it4 ,fool6 that night his soul was required of him4 ,woe was denounced by one of old on another of the ,dives family1 who said1 8,i will build me a wide house1 and large chambers10 and who cut him out windows1 and ceiled his house with cedar1 and painted it with vermilion4 8,shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself in cedar80 ,man's sanguine and sure 8,i will0--how little of the future tense there sometimes is about it after all6 8,tu secanda marmora ,locas sub ipsum funus2 et sepulchri ,immemor1 struis domos40 ,in ,homer we see from his tall ship the king of men descend1 there fondly thinking the gods conclude his toil1 where1 in fact1 awaits him murder most foul and most unnatural4 ,in ,homeric figure-- 8,so1 whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall1 ,the sovereign of the herd is doomed to fall40 ,bitterly the shade of ,atrides repeats his tragic story to ,odysseus1 telling how1 8,alas6 he hoped1 the toils of war o'ercome1 to meet soft quiet and repose at home4 ,delusive hope60 for at home the hand was already upraised to smite him4 ,the ,turkish prince1 ,alp ,arslan1 dying of ,joseph's dagger-stroke1 bequeathed an admonition to the pride of kings1 which ,gibbon has preserved4 8,yesterday1 as from an eminence ,i beheld the numbers1 the discipline1 and the spirit of my armies2 the earth seemed to tremble under my feet2 and ,i said in my heart1 #8,surely thou art the king of the world1 the greatest and most invincible of warriors4' ,these armies are no longer mine2 and in the confidence of my personal strength1 ,i now fall by the hand of an assassin40 ,the inscription on his tomb invited those who had seen the glory of ,alp ,arslan exalted to the heavens1 to meditate on its present burial in the dust4 ,michelet moralises with trenchant irony on the fate which overtook our ,henry ,v4 on ,french soil4 ,it is to the 8,dance of ,death0 he refers in the exclamation1 8,what sport for death1 what a malicious pastime to have brought the victorious ,harry within a month's reach of the crown of ,france6 ,after a life of unremitting toil for that end1 he wanted but one little month added to his existence to be the survivor of ,charles ,,vi4444 ,no6 not a month1 not a day more was to be his40 ,splendid was that festival at ,csarea at which ,herod ,agrippa1 in the pomp and pride of power1 entered the theatre in a robe of silver1 which glittered1 says the historian1 with the morning rays of the sun1 so as to dazzle the eyes of the assembly1 and excite general admiration4 ,some of his flatterers set up the shout1 8,a present god60 ,agrippa did not repress the impious adulation which spread through the theatre4 ,at that moment he looked up1 and saw an owl perched over his head on a rope1 and ,agrippa had been forewarned that when next he saw that bird1 8at the height of his fortune10 he would die within five days4 ,the fatal omen1 according to ,josephus1 pierced the heart of the king1 who1 with deep melancholy1 exclaimed1 8,your god will soon suffer the common lot of mortality40 ,he was immediately struck1 in the language of the sacred volume1 by an angel4 ,seized with violent pains1 he was carried to his palace1 lingered five days in extreme agony1 being 8eaten of worms10 and so died4 ,fielding forcibly presents a certain sanguine projector1 lusty and strong1 in the heyday of middle age1 who reckons confidently on becoming heir to the estate of a senior of immense wealth1 and has all his plans elaborately prepared for his disposal of the same4 ,nothing is wanting to enable him to enter upon the immediate execution of these plans1 but the death of the elder man1 in calculating which he has studied every book extant that treats of the value of lives1 reversions1 etc42 from all which he has satisfied himself1 that as he has every day a chance of this happening1 so has he more an even chance of its happening before long4 8,but while the captain was one day busied in deep contemplations of this kind1 one of the most unlucky1 as well as most unseasonable1 accidents happened to him4 ,the utmost malice of fortune could1 indeed1 have contrived nothing so cruel1 so mal--propos1 so absolutely destructive to all his schemes40 ,it was1 that just at the very instant when his heart was exulting in meditations on the happiness which would accrue to him by the other's death1 he himself was cut off by an apoplexy4 ,as ,lontine complains in 8,heraclius10-- 8,et lorsque le hasard me flatte avec excs1 ,tout mon dessein avorte au milieu du succs40 ,it was just when ,kleber was beginning to reap the fruits of his intrepidity and discretion1 that he was cut off by the obscure assassin1 ,souliman4 ,one is reminded of ,thomson on the massacre of the bees1-- 8,at evening snatched1 ,beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night1 ,and fixed o'er sulphur2 while not dreaming ill1 ,the happy people in their waxen cells1 ,sat tending public cares1 and planning schemes ,of temperance1 for winter poor10 etc4 ,a tory historian1 recording the close of the parliamentary session in ,july #ahbg1 takes occasion to observe that ,mr4 ,canning now saw every wish of his heart gratified1 having raised himself to the highest position in the ,state1 and being looked up to in every part of the world as the protector of the oppressed and the advocate of freedom4 ,in the prime of life1 8his sway in ,parliament was unbounded1 and he might hope for a long career of fame1 fortune1 and usefulness40 ,vanitas vanitatum6 ,the hand of fate was already upon him1 and he was to be suddenly snatched from the scene of his glory1 at the very moment when he seemed to have attained the summit of earthly felicity4 ,even1 however1 when death is not concerned1 as in his memorable case1 in the sudden and final collapse of a great career1 and the abrupt extinction of exuberant promise1 how often is ,cowper's picture realized1 where-- 8,runs the mountainous and craggy ridge ,that tempts ambition4 ,on the summit1 see1 ,the seals of office glitter in his eyes2 ,he climbs1 he pants1 he grasps them4 ,at his heels1 ,close at his heels1 a demagogue ascends1 ,and with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down1 ,and wins them1 but to lose them in his turn40 ,the picture is1 in some sort1 and for moral uses1 a pendent to that by another poet1 of those who are pushing hard up hill the cumbrous load of life2 just as they trust to gain the farthest steep1 and put an end to strife1-- 8,down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep1 ,and hurls their labours to the valley deep1 ,for ever vain40 ,but this is diverging farther and farther from the direct import of our theme4 ,more to the purpose is the same poet's description of ,celadon assuring his betrothed of perfect safety1 and triumphantly asserting her absolute immunity from the perils of the storm1 and as exultingly inferring his own1 from his relationship to her2 when1-- 8,from his void embrace1 ,mysterious heaven6 that moment to the ground1 ,a blackened corse1 was struck the beauteous maid40 ,some innocents1 as ,cleopatra has it1 escape not the thunderbolt4 ,innocence1 as well as iniquity1 may know something of that breach ready to fall1 swelling out in a high wall1 whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant4 ,the loving friends of ,charlotte ,bront1 after her marriage1 are described by one among them as catching occasional glimpses of brightness1 and pleasant peaceful murmurs of sound1 telling to them who stood outside1 of the gladness within2 and they said among themselves1 8,after a long and a hard struggle--after many cares and bitter sorrows--she is tasting happiness now40 ,remembering her trials1 they were glad in the idea that ,god had seen fit to wipe away the tears from her eyes4 8,but ,god's ways are not as our ways10 ,mrs4 ,gaskell adds4 ,just as ,currer ,bell's happiness seemed beginning1 and her goodness ripening1 came fever1 delirium1 death4 ,mrs4 ,gaskell's own career was similarly cut short1 just when she was finishing1 but ere yet she had finished1 the completest and ablest of her works2 just when public recognition of her merits was growing earnest as well as general4 ,it is the old1 old story4 ,for what1 as the old ballad says1-- 8is this worldys bliss1 ,that changeth as the moon6 ,my summer's day in lusty ,may ,is darked before the noon40 ,,great ,,babylon ,,built3 ,a ,,builder',s ,,boast4 ,,daniel iv4 #bi-cc4 ,walking in the palace of his kingdom of ,babylon--that ,babylon of which the foundations1 indeed1 had been laid ages ago1 but which he had so enlarged and adorned as to make it one of the world's wonders--,nebuchadnezzar the king1 elate with pride at the pomp of architectural results1 flushed with the triumph of enterprises so costly1 and achievements so manifest to the eye1 gave utterance1 in complacent soliloquy perhaps1 to the exultant sense of being a master builder indeed1 and of seeing his power reflected in so gorgeous a form4 ,the king spake and said1 8,is not this great ,babylon1 that ,i have built for the house of the kingdom1 by the might of my power1 and for the honour of my majesty80 ,while the word was in the king's mouth1 there fell a voice from heaven1 saying1 8,o king ,nebuchadnezzar1 to thee it is spoken3 ,the kingdom is departed from thee40 ,and the sequel we know4 ,how that same hour was the thing fulfilled upon ,nebuchadnezzar1 and he was driven from men1 and did eat grass as oxen1 and his body was wet with the dew of heaven1 till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers1 and his nails like birds' claws1--is it not written in the book of the prophecies of ,daniel1 whose name was ,belteshazzar1 and whom the king made ruler over the whole province of that same ,babylon the ,great8 ,the royal builder's boast was on the instant reproved by a degradation literally brutal in its extremity4 ,while the word of complacent self-glorification was in the king's mouth1 the sentence of bestial doom went forth against him4 ,just when he was resting on his laurels1 a taint overtook them4 ,just when he rejoiced in asserting himself a king of kings1 commenced the working of a curse which levelled him with grazing flocks and herds4 ,the lesson is for all time1 and for all sorts and conditions of men4 ,verifications of it--varying1 of course1 in kind1 and still more in degree--are rife in records historical and biographical1 and in the unrecorded experiences1 the moving accidents1 of everyday life4 ,just when a man is apt to set up his rest1 the fiat goes forth against him which shatters to its base the structure he has reared4 ,the house he has just finished building tumbles to pieces like a house of cards4 ,the castle in whose defences1 at last completed1 he felt so secure1 dislimns like a castle in the air4 8444 ,the engineer ,who lays the last stone of his sea-built tower1 ,it cost him years and years of toil to raise1-- ,and1 smiling at it1 tells the wind and waves ,to roar and whistle now--but1 in a night1 ,beholds the tempest sporting in its place-- ,may look aghast40 ,belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords1 and drank wine before the thousand1 and displayed the golden vessels which his father ,nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple at ,jerusalem1 and was jubilant with the excitement of revelry1 and joyously confident in the stability of his realm2 when1 in the same hour1 there came forth fingers of a man's hand1 and wrote over against the plaster of the wall of the king's palace2 and what they wrote was1 that ,god had numbered his kingdom1 and finished it4 ,and in that night was ,belshazzar the king of the ,chaldeans slain4 ,a noble chamber had ,pope ,john ,,xxi4 built for himself in the palace of ,viterbo2 and by the falling in of the roof he so admired1 he was crushed to death4 8,john ,,xxi410 writes ,dean ,milman1 8was contemplating with too great pride the work of his own hands1 and burst out into laughter2 at that instant the avenging roof came down on his head40 ,the catastrophe was held at the time to be a special judgment on a reprobate pontiff4 ,nebuchadnezzar's boast1 and worse than ,nebuchadnezzar's doom4 ,the mention of ,babylon the ,great will serve1 with some1 to eke out a parallel4 ,the historian of ,mexico tells us of ,montezuma1 while exacting from his people the homage of an adulation worthy of an oriental despot1 and the profuse expenditure of whose court was a standing marvel1 that 8while the empire seemed towering in its most palmy and prosperous state1 the canker had eaten deepest into its heart40 ,ruin was at hand4 ,the hour was come1 and the man2 and that man was ,hernando ,corts4 ,significantly opens a fifth act--for a fifth act is the last--of ,ben ,jonson's 8,sejanus10 with the joyous exultations of that prosperous upstart1 in the confidence of power3 8,swell1 swell1 my joys10 he exclaims1-- 8,i did not live till now2 this my first hour2 ,wherein ,i see my thoughts reached by my power4 444 ,my roof receives me not2 'tis air ,i tread2 ,and1 at each step1 ,i feel my advanced head ,knock out a star in heaven60 and so forth1 with other hyperboles of frantic arrogance4 ,his soliloquy is interrupted by messengers of ill news4 ,destruction dogs his path2 and very soon the magniloquent braggart has to subdue his tone1 and his cue is then to upbraid the higher powers whom alone he recognises3-- 8,if you will1 ,destinies1 that after all1 ,i faint now ere ,i touch my period1 ,you are but cruel40 ,of constant recurrence among the commonplaces of biography are such 8buts10 inopportune and inevitable1 as ,cicero's biographer prefixes to a critical paragraph3 8,but while all things were proceeding very prosperously in his favour1 and nothing seemed wanting to crown his success1 444 all his hopes and fortunes were blasted at once1 by an unhappy rencounter with his old enemy ,clodius40 ,there is a popular historical fiction in which we see the ,cardinal ,alberoni musing on the greatness he has achieved for ,spain and for himself1 only to find himself overtaken by ruin and disgrace4 ,the rope which he has twisted so carefully1 proves to be of sand4 ,in another we see a successful adventurer at the culminating point of his success4 ,there seems nothing wanting to him in 8that supreme moment10 as the phrase goes4 ,he is in 8a tumult of gratified ambition and selfish joy40 8,this glory and grandeur0 repay a thousand-fold his patient endeavours and strenuous schemings4 ,but at this very moment a dark shadow overlays the sunshine on his pathway2 and we look on a changed countenance--8no longer full of triumph and pleasure1 but ghastly pale0 at a sudden but very present and very pressing sense of impending disaster4 ,fortuna vitrea est1 tum cum splendet frangitur4 ,at the opening of the twelfth century all was prosperity with the ,emperor ,henry ,,iv42 his turbulent and agitated life seemed1 in the words of ,dean ,milman1 8as if it would close in an august and peaceful end40 ,but1 as an after page in the history of ,latin ,christianity is prompt to prove1 this most secure and splendid period in the life of ,henry was one calm and brilliant hour of evening before a night of utter gloom4 ,columbus had just welcomed tranquillity in exchange for the troubles and dangers of his island1 when intelligence arrived of the discovery of a large tract of country rich in mines4 ,he now anticipated the prosperous prosecution of his favourite enterprise1 and was exultant at the turn of the tide4 8,how illusive were his hopes60 exclaims his biographer4 8,at this moment events were maturing which were to overwhelm him with distress1 strip him of his honour1 and render him comparatively a wreck for the remainder of his days40 ,who1 the chronicler of the conquest of ,granada may well ask1 who can tell when to rejoice in this fluctuating world8 8,every wave of prosperity has its reacting surge1 and we are often overwhelmed by the very billow on which we thought to be wafted into the haven of our hopes40 ,et subito casu1 qu valuere1 ruunt4 ,olivarez was requested by his royal master to resign1 just at the moment when the death of ,richelieu 7#afdc7 opened to him an almost royal road1 it might seem1 to success4 8,o momentary grace of mortal men1 ,which we more hunt for than the grace of ,god6 ,who builds his hope in air of your fair looks1 ,lives like a drunken sailor on a mast1 ,ready1 with every nod1 to tumble down ,into the fatal bowels of the deep40 ,such is the state of man1 as ,shakspeare's ,hastings feels it4 ,and this is the state of man1 as ,shakspeare's ,wolsey finds it3 to-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hope1 to-morrow blossoms1 and next day comes a frost1 a killing frost1 and1--when he thinks1 good easy man1 full surely his goodness is a ripening1--nips his root1 and then he falls4 ,shakspeare's ,belarius again1 will furnish us with another text1 of practical application3-- 8444 ,then was ,i as a tree1 ,whose boughs did bend with fruit3 but in one night1 ,a storm1 or robbery1 call it what you will1 ,shook down my yellow hangings1 nay1 my leaves1 ,and left me bare to weather40 ,and as with the pride and pomp and circumstance of life1 so with life itself4 ,typical for all time is the fate of ,lycidas3-- 8,fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 7,that last infirmity of noble mind7 ,to scorn delights1 and live laborious days2 ,but the fair guerdon when we hope to find1 ,and think to burst out into sudden blaze1 ,comes the blind fury with the abhorrd shears1 ,and slits the thin-spun life40 ,,invocation ,,and ,,inaction4 ,,exodus xiv4 #ae4 ,with the ,red ,sea close before them1 and with ,pharaoh and his host close behind them1 what were the children of ,israel to do8 ,was it for this that ,moses had brought them out of the house of bondage1 which yet had its fleshpots and creature comforts after all8 ,what were they to do8 ,they lifted up their eyes1 and saw the sea in front1 and the enemy in the rear2 and then they lifted up their voice in querulous fear and expostulation4 ,should they go back8 ,then ,moses lifted up his voice1 and bade them stand still1 and they should see a great deliverance4 ,but the will of ,god was not that they should either go back1 or stand still and merely look on4 ,for 8the ,lord said unto ,moses1 ,wherefore criest thou unto me8 speak unto the children of ,israel that they go forward40 ,invocation may be excellent in itself1 but1 as a concomitant1 inaction mars it4 ,a hallowed thing is prayer2 but to pray and sit still1 when the need is to go forward and push on1 is the sign or stigma of feeble folk4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when ,nelson told the ,king of ,naples1 in plain terms1 that he had his choice--either to advance1 trusting to ,god for ,his blessing on a just cause1 and prepared to die sword in hand2 or to remain quiet1 and be kicked out of his kingdom2 the king made answer that he would go on1 and trust in ,god and ,nelson4 ,of the same stuff as ,nelson1 but his superiors in moral character and in practical recognition of ,him that is ,holy1 ,holy1 ,holy1 as well as ,lord ,god ,almighty1 were those early ,english navigators1 characterized by a modern pen as 8indomitable ,god-fearing men1 whose life was one great liturgy40 8,the ice was strong1 but ,god was stronger10 says one of ,frobisher's men1 after grinding a night and a day among the icebergs2 not waiting for ,god to come down and split them1 but toiling through the long hours1 himself and the rest fending off the vessel with poles and planks1 with death glaring at them out of the rocks1 and so saving themselves and it4 ,we read in ,turell's ,life of ,dr4 ,benjamin ,colman1 8that reverend father in our ,new ,england ,israel10 as ,mr4 ,lowell calls him1 that when the vessel in which he had taken passage for ,england was attacked by a ,french privateer1 he 8fought like a philosopher and a ,christian1 444 and prayed all the while he charged and fired40 ,his the practice was1 if not on his lips the maxim1 to pray to ,god and keep his powder dry4 ,it is expressly noted of the ,maid of ,orleans1 in the ,procs on record1 that while she rather evaded the question of resorting to miraculous aids and appliances1 and of affecting supernatural power1 she 8used the ,gallic proverb1 ,ayde-toi1 ,dieu te aydera40 8,in daily toil1 in deadly fight1 ,god's chosen found their time to pray2 ,and still ,he loves the brave and strong1 ,who scorn to starve1 and strive with wrong1 ,to mend it1 if they may40 ,forcible is the portrait drawn in a recent work of fiction1 of a man now steeped in moral degradation1 who had once tried to be honest1 and prayed to ,god to prosper his honesty2 but then he only tried to do right in a spasmodic1 fitful kind of way1 and expected his prayers to be granted as soon as uttered1 and was indignant with a ,providence that seemed regardless of his entreaties4 ,bentley is held to have happily ridiculed the helpless ,chorus of ,greek tragedy1 who1 when a deed of violence was to be acted1 instead of interfering to prevent the atrocity to which the perpetrator had made them privy1 could only1 by the rules of the theatre1 exhaust their sorrow and surprise in dithyrambics4 ,he burlesqued this characteristic by introducing into 8,the ,wishes0 a ,chorus after the manner of the ancient ,greeks1 who are informed by one of the dramatis person1 that a madman with a firebrand has just entered the vaults beneath the place which they occupy1 and which contain a magazine of gunpowder4 ,the ,chorus1 instead of stirring from the dangerous vicinity1 immediately commence a long complaint of the hardship of their fate1 exclaiming pathetically1 8,o unhappy madman--or rather unhappy we1 the victims of this madman's fury--or thrice1 thrice unhappy the friends of the madman1 who did not secure him1 and restrain him from the perpetration of such deeds of frenzy--or three and four times hapless the keeper of the magazine1 who forgot the keys in the door10 etc41 etc4 ,the cry of ,charles and his ,paladins at ,arles1 8,help us1 oh blessed martyr ,st4 ,trophimus60 is thus disposed of by ,torfrid1 ,hereward's forefather1 in the story of the ,wake1 8,what use in crying to ,st4 ,trophimus8 ,a tough arm is worth a score of martyrs here10 in the thick of the fight for dear life4 ,when ,lord ,rea1 in #afcj1 as recorded in a well-known passage from ,rushworth1 uttered the pious conventionalism or devout platitude1 8,well1 ,god mend all60 his companion1 ,sir ,david ,ramsay1 impatiently exclaimed1 8,nay10 with an undevout expletive1 8,nay1 ,donald1 we must help him to mend it60 ,one is reminded of what ,mr4 ,froude says of the ,protestant leaders in ,scotland1 during the autumn of #aeei1 when the ,queen ,regent returned to ,holyrood1 once more absolutely victorious3 8,notwithstanding all their talk about ,god1 it had come to this4 ,god had as much interest in them as they had themselves courage1 energy1 capacity1 understanding1 and perseverance--so much precisely1 and not more40 ,or again of that homely thrust in the 8,biglow ,papers10 where one of the interlocutors1 on a critical occasion1 avowing a wish to know where and when to strike1 is thus answered by his plain-spoken mate3-- 8#8,strike soon1' sez he1 #8or you'll be deadly ailin'1-- ,folks thet's afear'd to fail are sure o' failin'2 ,god hates your sneakin' creturs thet believe ,he'll settle things they run away an' leave4'0 ,there is something to be said--indeed in our present sense there is more to be said1 for the farmer than for the clergyman in the story of the latter congratulating the former on the state of his crops1 and finding him not free from apprehensions1 in regard of former bad years--8,my friend10 urged the rector1 8trust in ,providence40 8,providence6 ,yes1 yes10 replied the other2 8that's all very well3 but give me the doong cart40 ,dr4 ,john ,brown relates with zest how one of his faculty was attending a poor woman in labour--a desperate case1 that required a cool head and a firm will1 while the good man1 8for he was good10 had neither of these1--and losing his presence of mind1 gave up the poor woman as lost1 and retired into the next room to pray for her4 8,another doctor1 who perhaps wanted what the first one had1 and certainly had what he wanted1 brains and courage1 meanwhile arrived1 and called out1 #8,where is ,dr4 8' #8,oh1 he has gone into the next room to pray4' #8,pray6 ,tell him to come here this instant1 and help me2 he can work and pray too2'0 and by the new-comer's1 the snell working doctor's1 assistance the woman's life was saved4 ,sir ,robert ,peel1 in his reply to certain suggestions offered by ,lord ,kenyon in reference to the potato-disease1 coupled with the recommendation of a 8special public acknowledgment of our dependence on ,god's mercy in our present distressed state10 was mildly sarcastic on the seeming inconsistency of making such an acknowledgment1 while at the same time leaving 8in full operation the restraints which man has imposed on the import of provisions40 ,not likely to be soon forgotten1 on either side the ,tweed1 is ,lord ,palmerston's reply as ,home ,secretary1 to the ,presbytery of ,edinburgh1 touching the national attitude pending a visitation of ,asiatic cholera4 ,he advised them that it was better to cleanse than to fast4 ,let them see to purifying the foul wynds and overcrowded flats tenanted by the poor1 and so get rid of 8those causes and sources of contagion which1 if allowed to remain1 will infallibly breed pestilence1 and be fruitful in death1 in spite of all the prayers and fastings of a united1 but inactive nation40 ,to apply what a north country bishop says in ,shakspeare3-- 8,the means that ,heaven yields must be embraced1 ,and not neglected2 else1 if ,heaven would1 ,and we will not1 ,heaven's offer we refuse2 ,the proffered means of succour and redress40 ,a recent apologist for the captain of a lost steamship submitted that the destruction of that fine vessel was what is called in the old-fashioned language of a charter-party1 8the act of ,god40 ,less partial critics1 on the other hand1 affirmed it to be the act of the folly and madness of man1--the term quoted belonging to an age when they who go down to the sea in ships had not learned the irreverent practice of imputing to the ,deity the direct consequences of human rashness4 8,let us1 if we can1 amend this folly2 or1 if we will persist in it1 let us at least take the blame upon ourselves40 ,they that go down to the sea in ships have1 however1 in all ages1 though not so much one people as another 7,english for instance as ,italians71 been prone to waste in wailing outcries to patron saints the energy that1 in peril of wreck1 they might have expended to better purpose4 ,the 8,colloquies0 of ,erasmus give a lively sample of this run-to-waste invocation4 ,the last of the heroes of ,la ,vende1 ,charette1 while still a youth1 sailed from ,brest in a cutter which lost its mast1 and was in imminent jeopardy of going down2 the sailors1 on their knees1 were praying to the ,virgin1 and had entirely given up all notion of exertion1 8till ,charette1 by killing one1 succeeded in bringing the others to a sense of their duty1 and thereby saved the vessel40 ,lord ,broughton describes a scene of the kind1 in a ,turkish ship of war3 the ,greeks on board called on all the saints1 the ,mussulmans on ,allah2 the captain burst into tears and ran below deck1 telling his passengers to call on ,god3 he rung his hands1 and wept aloud1 and being asked what he could do1 said he could do nothing4 8,could he get back to the main land80 8,if ,god chooses10 was his answer4 8,could he make ,corfu80 8,if ,god chooses40 ,one thinks of the testy old patrician's rejoinder in 8,coriolanus0 to the tribune's exclaimer1 8,the gods be good unto us60 8,no2 in such a case the gods will not be good unto us40 ,in ,scott's tale of the ,crusaders1 8,i will vow a golden candlestick to the ,holy ,sepulchre--a shrine of silver to our ,lady of ,engaddi--a pall1 worth one hundred bezants to ,saint ,thomas of ,orthez10 cries the ,queen in extremity4--8,up1 up1 madam10 says ,edith2 8call on the saints an you list1 but be your own best saint40 ,in 8,ivanhoe10 again1 when the ,grand ,master forbodes the contingent extinction of his order 7the ,templars71 8,now may ,god avert such a calamity60 says the ,preceptor4 8,amen60 rejoins the ,grand ,master1 with solemnity1 8but we must deserve ,his aid40 ,it is all in keeping with the practical character of the man1 the prayer which on one critical occasion ,benvenuto ,cellini records his offering3 8,almighty ,god1 favour my cause1 for ,thou knowest it is a just one1 and that ,i am not on my part wanting in my utmost efforts to make it succeed40 ,on another he tells us how he 8told ,lionardo1 who was incessantly crying out1 #8,jesus1 ,jesus6' that ,jesus would assist him1 if he strove to help himself40 ,elsewhere again ,cellini emphatically asserts his systematic habit of 8always exerting his utmost efforts to extricate0 himself from difficulty1 as well as of devoutly recommending himself to ,god1 by whom alone those efforts could achieve success1 and who so often had delivered him when the best of these had clearly and entirely failed4 ,saintly as well as ,saint ,francis of ,sales bids his brethren1 8,en toutes vos affaires1 appuyez-vous totalement sur la providence de ,dieu1 par laquelle seule tous vos desseins doivent russir2 travaillez nanmoins de votre ct tout doucement pour co-oprer avec icelle40 ,the counsel is at one1 au fond1 with that of the heathen stoic in the old play3-- 8,i am plain1 fathers4 ,here you look about ,one at another1 doubting what to do1 ,with faces1 as you trusted to the gods1 ,that still have saved you2 and they can do it3 but ,they are not wishings1 or base womanish prayers1 ,can draw their aids2 but vigilance1 counsel1 action2 ,which they will be ashamed to forsake4 ',tis sloth they hate1 and cowardice40 ,,co-,,operant ,,units4 ,,ephesians iv4 #af4 ,the universal ,church is designated by the apostle a body1 which whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth1 according to the effectual working in the measure of every part4 ,and every part in its measure1 and according to its imparted power4 ,very little are some of the joints and fibres2 but every little helps4 ,who shall despise the whole of small things8 ,but for the accumulated atoms1 the aggregated littles1 where were the body8 8,let me not deem that ,i was made in vain1 ,or that my ,being was an accident1 ,which ,fate1 in working its sublime intent1 ,not wished to be1 to hinder would not deign4 ,each drop uncounted in a storm of rain ,hath its own mission1 and is duly sent ,to its own leaf or blade1 not idly spent ',mid myriad dimples on the shipless main4 ,the very shadow of an insect's wing1 ,for which the violet cared not while it stayed1 ,yet felt the lighter for its vanishing1 ,proved that the sun was shining by its shade3 ,then can a drop of the eternal spring1 ,shadow of living lights1 in vain be made80#ch ,as the author of 8,felix ,holt0 says1 we see human heroism broken into units1 and are apt to imagine1 this unit did little--might as well not have been4 ,but in this way we might break up a great army into units2 in this way we might break the sunlight into fragments1 and think that this and the other might be cheaply parted with4 8,let us rather raise a monument to the soldiers whose brave hearts only kept the ranks unbroken1 and met death--a monument to the faithful who were not famous1 and who are precious as the continuity of the sunbeams is precious1 though some of them fall unseen and on barrenness40 ,suppose but a solution of that continuity2 the sequel is1 darkness that may be felt4 ,there is a latter-day apologue of a gimlet that grew exceedingly discontented with its vocation1 envying all the other tools in the carpenter's basket1 and thinking scorn of its own mean duty of perpetually boring and picking holes everywhere4 8,the saw and the axe had grand work to do2 and the plane got praise always2 so did the chisel for its carving2 and the happy hammer was always ringing merrily upon the clenching nail40 ,but for it1 a wretched1 poking1 paltry1 gimlet1 its work was hidden away1 and very little seemed its recognised use4 ,but the gimlet is assured1 on the best authority1 that nothing could compensate for its absence1 and is therefore bidden be content1 nay happy2 for though its work seems mean and secret1 it is indispensable4 ,to its good offices1 the workman is said to look chiefly for coherence without splitting2 and to its quiet influences1 the neatness1 the solidity1 the comfort of his structure may greatly be ascribed4 ,the apologue has1 of course1 its practical application4 8,are there not many pining gimlets in society1 ambitious of the honour given to the greater-seeming tools of our ,architect1 but unconscious that in ,his hands they are quite as useful8 ,the loving little child1 the gentle woman1 the patience of many a moral martyr1 the diligence of many a duteous drudge1 though their works may be unseen and their virtues operate in obscurity1 yet are these main helpers to the very joints and bands of our body corporate1 the quiet home influences whereby the great edifice1 ,society1 is so nicely wainscoted and floored without split-boards40 ,to recognise one's being entrusted with but one talent1 after all1 and not with five or with ten1 as one's vanity had previously taken for granted1 has even been hailed as1 in some sort1 a soothing sensation4 ,when one of us who has been led by native vanity or senseless flattery1 says ,dr4 ,holmes1 to think himself or herself possessed of talent1 arrives at the full and final conclusion that he or she is really dull1 it is one of the most tranquillizing and blessed convictions that can enter a mortal's mind3 8,all our failures1 our short-comings1 our strange disappointments in the effect of our efforts1 are lifted from our bruised shoulders1 and fall1 like ,christian's pack1 at the feet of that ,omnipotence which has seen fit to deny us the pleasant gifts of high intelligence1--with which one look may overflow us in some wider sphere of being40 ,that the one talent be employed1 is the one thing needful4 ,so feels the girl in one of ,charlotte ,bront's tales1 whose exclamation is1 8,mother1 the ,lord who gave each of us our talents will come home some day1 and will demand from all an account4 ,the tea-pot1 the old stocking-foot1 the linen rag1 the willow-pattern tureen1 will yield up their barren deposit in many a house3 suffer your daughters1 at least1 to put their money to the exchangers1 that they may be enabled at the ,master's coming to pay ,his own with usury40 ,a man is accepted according to that he hath1 not condemned in respect of what he never had4 ,whatsoever his hand findeth to do1 that is what a man is to do with his might1 to do with a will1--be it to govern a nation1 or to dust a warehouse4 ,to apply a passage in ,ben ,jonson's 8,catiline10 8,they are no less part of the commonwealth ,that do obey1 than those that do command40 ,john ,newton said that if two angels came down from heaven to execute a ,divine command1 and one was appointed to conduct an empire1 and the other to sweep a street in it1 they would feel no inclination to change employments4 ,so again1 the same robust divine affirmed that a ,christian should never plead spirituality for being a sloven2 8if he be but a shoe-cleaner1 he should be the best in the parish40 ,as the old servant tells ,ruth1 in ,mrs4 ,gaskell's story1 8,there's a right and a wrong way of setting about everything--and to my thinking1 the right way is to take a thing up heartily1 if it is only making a bed4 ,why1 dear ah me6 making a bed may be done after a ,christian fashion1 ,i take it1 or else what's to come of such as me in heaven1 who've had little enough time on earth for clapping ourselves down on our knees for set prayers80 ,this quaint speaker had laid to heart the lesson once for all enforced upon her1 to do her duty in that state of life to which it had pleased ,god to call her2 her station was that of a servant1 and1 looked at aright1 as honourable as a king's3 she was to help and serve others in one way1 just as a king is in another4 ,her parting counsel to ,ruth runs thus3 8,just try for a day to think of all the odd jobs as to be done well and truly in ,god's sight1 not just slurred over any how1 and you'll go through them twice as cheerfully10 besides doing them more efficiently4 ,john ,brown1 of ,haddington1 being waited on by a lad of excitable temperament1 who informed him of his desire to become a preacher1 and whom the shrewd pastor saw to be as weak in intellect as he was strong in conceit1 advised him to continue in his present vocation4 ,the young man said1 8,but ,i wish to preach and glorify ,god40 ,the old commentator replied1 8,my young friend1 a man may glorify ,god making broom besoms2 stick to your trade1 and glorify ,god by your life and conversation40 ,as it was said of ,bossuet1 in the seventeenth century1 that he could not walk1 or sit down1 or even pluck a currant1 without your recognising in him the great bishop 7so asserts a modern ,french divine1 not of ,bossuet's church71 just so the workman and the domestic servant who are animated by their ,master's spirit1 distinguish themselves among their fellows by a certain air of nobility2 under their blouse or their livery may be seen to shine the signal light of their aristocratie spirituelle1 the image of the ,most ,high ,himself4 ,however mean their employment1 they go about it with neither disgust nor indifference2 but with an intelligent interest1 because1 in the sight of ,god1 and indeed in their own eyes1 their occupation is on a level with that of king or emperor4 ,what constitutes the difference between man and man1 is not1 urges ,m4 ,colani1 the wielding a sceptre or plying a needle1 but the being loyal to the trust1 be it great or small1 committed to us4 ,this1 he contends1 is the only true point of view from which men and women should regard their occupations1--they should consider themselves as collaborateurs du ,tout-,puissant4 ,if their work seem the reverse of noble1 let them ennoble it by this thought1 in ,wordsworth's phrase1-- 8,and with the lofty sanctify the low40 ,a ,christian nursemaid is pictured1 forgetting the thousand dsagrments of her humble functions1 and reminding herself that in reality she is in charge of souls1 as much as pastor or preacher is1 and this grande conviction suffices to save her from servile dejection4 ,so1 again1 the artisan and day labourer may be sustained by the ,spirit from on high1 and taught to magnify their calling1 in a deep and a wide sense1 because it is what they are called to1 and because they respond to the call1 in the spirit of it4 ,they are toilers co-operant to an end2 and the end1 the result1 is with ,god4 8,they also serve who only stand and wait40 ,but the whole sonnet of ,milton's which closes with that grand line1 is too germane to the matter1 and too largely suggestive in its main issue1 to be omitted here2 the sonnet which the blind poet wrote touching his blindness3-- 8,when ,i consider how my light is spent1 ,ere half my days1 in this dark world and wide1 ,and that one talent which is death to hide1 ,lodged with me useless1 though my soul more bent ,to serve therewith my ,maker1 and present ,my true account1 lest ,he1 returning1 chide2 #8,doth ,god exact day-labour1 light denied8' ,i fondly ask3 but ,patience1 to prevent ,that murmur1 soon replies1 #8,god doth not need ,either man's work1 or ,his own gifts2 who best ,bear his mild yoke1 they serve ,him best2 ,his state ,is kingly2 thousands at ,his bidding speed1 ,and post o'er land and ocean without rest2 ,they also serve who only stand and wait40 ,,subordinate1 ,,not ,,superfluous2 ,,or1 ,,depreciated ,,membership4 #a ,,corinthians xii4 #bb4 ,strenuously ,st4 ,paul insists on the importance of not overlooking the feebler members of the body--be it physical1 politic1 or ecclesiastical1--and of upholding their rights to due consideration1 on the mere score of membership4 ,subordinate they may be1 but superfluous they are not4 ,the body would not be a body without them4 8,nay1 much more1 those members of the body1 which seem to be more feeble1 are necessary40 8,now ye are the body of ,christ1 and members in particular40 ,if all were one member1 where were the body8 ,but now are they many members1 but one body4 ,and one member differeth from another in honour2 yet1 without the seeming minor and meaner ones1 for all the abundant honour of the greater ones1 where were the body8 99 99 99 99 99 ,human society1 it has been said1 is a vast and intricate machine1 composed of innumerable wheels and pulleys3--every one has his special handle to grind at2 some with great and obvious effects1 others with little or no assignable result2 but if the object ultimately produced by the combined efforts of all is in itself a good one1 it is not to be denied that whatever is essential to its production is good also4 ,human society is thus regarded as a body corporate1 made up of different members1 each of which has its own special function3 one class tilling the ground1 another combining and distributing its produce1 a third making1 and a fourth executing laws1 and so on1 through every class of society4 8,if all these functions are properly discharged1 the whole body corporate is in a healthy condition2 and thence it follows that whoever contributes to the full and proper discharge of any one of these functions1 is contributing to the general good of the whole body2 so that a person occupied in them is doing good in the strictest sense of the words40 ,an able discourser on social subjects1 arguing against a current crotchet1 utterly denies that a girl in a respectable family does not earn the honourable title of a worker1 though she be only employed in assisting in house-keeping and at the family work-table1 just as fairly and as completely as if she walked to a solicitor's office for an eight hours' daily task of copying briefs and making out bills of costs4 8,they work in spirit who for service wait40 ,frederick ,robertson glowingly expatiates on the glory of womanhood1 as surely one which1 if woman rightly comprehended her place on earth1 might enable her to accept its apparent humiliation unrepiningly2 the glory1 as he defines it1 of unsensualizing coarse and common things1 sensual things1 the objects of mere sense1 meat and drink and household cares1 elevating them by the spirit in which she ministers them1 into something transfigured and sublime4 8,the humblest mother of a poor family1 who is cumbered with much serving1 or watching over a hospitality which she is too poor to delegate to others1 or toiling for love's sake in household work1 needs no emancipation in ,god's sight4 ,it is the prerogative and the glory of her womanhood to consecrate the meanest things by a ministry which is not for self40 ,what hundreds and thousands of female invalids have felt1 and almost in the same words said1 with ,lucy ,aikin1 when enfeebled with age and other ailments1 8,the thought which sits heavy on my mind is that of my own inutility4 ,alas6 what important end of existence do ,i fulfil8 ,to whom is it of any real consequence whether or not ,i continue to fill a place in the world8 ,i hope that involuntary uselessness will not be imputed1 and that we may say1 #8,they also serve who only stand and wait4'0 ,a fellow-worker of the same sex1 but made of sterner stuff1 in the dedication of a book written in illness1 tells her friend1 8,you know1 as well as ,i1 how withering would be the sense of our own nothingness1 if we tried to take comfort from our own dignity and usefulness40 ,and she goes on to say how ridiculous1 if it were not shocking1 would be any complacency on the ground of having followed the instincts of her nature to work1 while work was possible1--the issues of such divinely appointed instrumentality being wholly brought out and directed by ,him who framed and actuated her4 ,to apply the words of ,aurora ,leigh3-- 444 8,though we fail indeed1-- ,you1 ,i1 a score of such weak-workers1--,he ,fails never4 ,if ,he cannot work by us1 ,he will work over us4 ,does ,he want a man1 ,much less a woman1 think you8 ,every time ,the star winks there1 so many souls are born1 ,who all shall work too4 ,let our own be calm3 ,we should be ashamed to sit beneath those stars1 ,impatient that we're nothing40 ,so ,mrs4 ,browning4 ,and pitched in the self-same key is this stanza of her husband's3-- 8,all service ranks the same with ,god3 ,if now1 as formerly ,he trod ,paradise1 ,his presence fills ,our earth1 each only as ,god wills ,can work--,god's puppets1 best and worst1 ,are we2 there is no last nor first40 ,wordsworth is eloquently suggestive in those prefatory lines of his1 which weave a moral and infer a solace1 from the fact1 that the stars pre-eminent in magnitude1 and they that from the zenith dart their beams1 are yet of no diviner origin1 no purer essence1 than the one he watched from ,rydal ,mount1 burning like an untended watch-fire on the ridge of some dark hill-top2 or than those which seem 8,humbly to hang1 like twinkling winter lamps1 ,among the branches of the leafless trees2 ,all are the undying offspring of one ,sire4 ,then1 to the measure of the light vouchsafed1 ,shine1 poet1 in thy place1 and be content40 ,if we weave a yard of tape in all humility1 says ,emerson1 and as well as we can1 long hereafter we shall see that it was 8no cotton tape at all1 but some galaxy which we braided1 and that the threads were ,time and ,nature40 ,without number1 as ,archdeacon ,hare puts it1 are the sutlers and pioneers1 the engineers and artisans1 who attend the march of intellect2 many of them busied in building and fitting up and painting and emblazoning the chariot2 others in lessening the friction of the wheels2 while others move forward in detachments1 and level the way it is to pass over1 and cut down the obstacles which would impede its progress4 ,and these too1 he proceeds to say1 8have their reward4 ,if so be they labour diligently in their calling1 not only will they enjoy that calm contentment which diligence in the lowliest task never fails to win2 not only will the sweat of their brows be sweet1 and the sweetener of the rest that follows2 but1 when the victory is at last achieved1 they come in for a share of the glory2 even as the meanest soldier who fought at ,marathon or at ,leipsic became a sharer in the glory of those saving days40 ,remember1 with ,owen ,meredith1-- 8,remember1 every man ,god made ,is different3 has some deed to do1 ,some work to work4 ,be undismay'd ,though thine be humble3 do it too40 ,an elder teacher would qualify the ,remember by a ,do not forget1 that 8it matters infinitely less what we do than what we are40 ,if we cannot pursue a trade or a science--says a memorable voice from a sick-room1--if we cannot keep house1 or help the state1 or write books1 or earn our own bread or that of others1 we can do the work to which all this is only subsidiary2 8we can cherish a sweet and holy temper2 we can vindicate the supremacy of mind over body2 we can1 in defiance of our liabilities1 minister pleasure and hope to the gayest who come prepared to receive pain from the spectacle of our pain2 we can1 here as well as in heaven's courts hereafter1 reveal the angel growing into its immortal aspect1 which is the highest achievement we could propose to ourselves1 or that grace from above1 could propose to us1 if we had a free choice of all possible conditions of human life40 ,to all those possible conditions1 so manifold in their potentialities1 the doctrine applies4 ,the membership is a constant quantity4 ,nil me officit unquam1 says ,horace1 ,ditior hic1 aut est quia doctior2 est locus uni ,cuique suus4 ,and we have ,shakspeare's word for it1 that nought so vile upon the earth doth live1 but to the earth some special good doth give2 and though he is speaking of stones and the like1 are there not sermons in stones1 as well as good in everything8 ,holy ,george ,herbert shall furnish us with a versicle to the purpose4 ,as ever1 he is looking upwards when he says1-- 8,indeed the world's ,thy book ,where all things have their leaf assign'd3 ,yet a meek look ,hath interlined4 ,thy board is full1 yet humble guests ,find nests40 ,but more pertinent1 and less quaintly obscure1 is that stanza from another little lyric of his1 in which the ,country ,parson exalts the exalting power of a simple trust in ,god and devotion to ,his service3 8,a servant with this clause ,makes drudgery divine3 ,who sweeps a room1 as for ,thy laws1 ,makes that and the action fine40 ,,the ,,wrath-,,dispelling ,,power ,,of ,a ,,soft ,,answer4 ,,proverbs xv4 #a4 ,while it is the effect1 if not the end and aim1 of grievous words to stir up anger1--8a soft answer turneth away wrath40 ,though 8the wrath of a king is as messengers of death1 a wise man will pacify it40 8,by long forbearing is a prince persuaded1 and a soft tongue breaketh the bone40 ,when the men of ,ephraim1 enraged at ,gideon's failing to invoke their aid when he went to fight with the ,midianites1 chided with him sharply1 his soft answer was of instant avail to turn away their wrath4 ,what had he done now in comparison of them8 the champion deferentially exclaimed2 and what was he able to do in comparison of them8 ,was not the mere gleaning of the grapes of ,ephraim better than the entire vintage of ,abi-ezer8 8,then their anger was abated toward him1 when he had said that40 ,what threatened to be a very bone of contention1--well1 so soft a tongue as that of ,jerubbaal1 who is ,gideon1 breaketh the bone4 ,discussing ,lord ,aberdeen's settlement of the vexed question of the right of search1 in #ahdc1 the historian of ,europe observes that never was there a truer maxim than that it requires the consent of two persons to make a quarrel2 a soft word1 a seasonable explanation1 often turns aside wrath1 and sometimes prevents the most serious wars that threaten to devastate the world4 sop ,smith says he never knew a downright quarrel yet1 where two people were not in the wrong2 8drop your battledore1 and the shuttlecock will fall4 #8,a soft answer turneth away wrath4' ,no doubt it does1 in nine cases out of ten10--but not quite always1 this authority affirms2 there being some unreasonable quarrellers1 who will batter the peacemaker when he drops his battledore4 ,but as a rule1 and on the authority of an older and still more widely recognised maker of proverbs1 the mere fact of yielding pacifieth great offences4 ,the historian of the conquest of ,peru tells us how ,gasca was assailed by reproaches and invectives which1 however1 had no power to disturb his equanimity2 he patiently listened1 and replied to all in the mild tone of expostulation best calculated to turn away wrath4 8,by this victory over himself10 says ,garcilasso1 8he acquired more real glory1 than by all his victories over his foes40 ,as ,spenser has it1-- 8,words well-disposed ,have secret power t' appease inflamd rage40 ,sir ,matthew ,hale's celebrated letter of advice includes this counsel1--if a person be passionate1 and give you ill language1 rather to pity him than be moved to anger4 ,we shall find1 the pious judge asserts1 that silence1 or very gentle words1 are the most exquisite revenge for reproaches2 they will either cure the distemper in the angry man1 and make him sorry for his passion1 or they will be a severe reproof and punishment to him4 8,but at any rate10 adds ,sir ,matthew1 8they will preserve your innocence1 give you the deserved reputation of wisdom and moderation1 and keep up the serenity and composure of your mind4 ,passion and anger make a man unfit for everything that becomes him as a man or as a ,christian40 ,the fact is1 maintains the author of 8,the ,gentle ,life10 all hard words are a mistake3 most of our quarrels arise from a total misunderstanding of each other2 and at any rate1 hard words will not mend the matter4 ,one might as well1 he says1 try to mend glass windows by pelting them with stones4 ,soft words1 on the other hand1 fall like a healing balm on the hearts of all4 8,such power10 in the words of one who loved to be written1 if not to write himself1 ,leontius1 8such power has the least shadow of a pleasant speech1 to do away an ill-feeling of the moment1 in the complacency it produces1 both in the giver and receiver40 ,to apply1 again1 a passage from ,spenser1 descriptive of a damsel's success in deterring two doughty knights from mortal encounter1 so effective was her speech to 444 8calm the sea of their tempestuous spite3 ,such power have pleasing words6 ,such is the might ,of courteous clemency in gentle heart60 ,we are all of us fond of gentle words1 once more to quote an ex titulo authority on all that concerns gentle living2 and he denies the truth of the common rough proverb1 8,soft words butter no parsnips10 which is shown to be1 after all1 an apologetic proverb1 meaning that the hearer is tickled with the politeness1 albeit real satisfaction is not yet made4 8,soft words do butter parsnips2 and many an oily fellow1 whose talent1 industry1 and conscientiousness are small1 owes his position and advancement in life to the soft words which drop continually from his mouth40 ,the soft answer that avails to dispel wrath1 comes of practised patience2 and when patience has its perfect work1 it works miracles1 as detailed by that fine old forgotten poet1 ,decker3-- 8,it is the greatest enemy to law ,that can be1 for it doth embrace all wrongs1 ,and so chains up lawyers and women's tongues2 444 ,and last of all1 to end a household strife1 ,it is the honey 'gainst a waspish wife40 ,this reminds us of a passage in 8,the ,gordian ,knot10 where the gentle laying of a husband's hand in an irritated wife's1 or vice vers1 is recommended 7by example7 as a good plan to adopt in conjugal discussions when differences arise4 ,the tongue1 says our author1 is very proud1 abominably proud and sulky1 and often refuses to say what the heart desires should be said2 but the fingers know their duty1 and are ready to convey an apologetic or forgiving pressure1 which1 he makes bold to assert1 8will stop ninety-nine quarrels out of a hundred1 if the parties love one another40 ,the greatest1 widest1 deepest of all observers of human nature puts into the mouth of one of the sagest of kings this counsel to a younger son1 in respect to his bearing towards the elder3-- 444 8,blunt not his love2 444 ,for he is gracious1 if he be observed2#ci ,yet notwithstanding1 being incensed1 he's flint3 ,as humorous as winter1 and as sudden ,as flaws#dj congealed in the spring of day4 ,his temper1 therefore1 must be well observed3 ,chide him for faults1 and do it reverently1 ,when you perceive his blood inclined to mirth3 ,but being moody1 give him line and scope2 ,till that his passions1 like a whale on ground1 ,confound themselves with working40 ,in a later one1 again1 of his noble series of ,english history plays--indeed the latest--,shakspeare makes a ducal politician1 astute in practical psychology as well as in politics1 utter this apophthegm1 of his own coinage3-- 8,anger is like ,a full-hot horse1 who being allowed his way1 ,self-mettle tires him40 ,a ,,twice-,,told ,,tale ,,of ,,years4 ,,ecclesiastes vi4 #f4 ,the preacher1 whose text was ,vanity of vanities1 all is vanity1 pictures in one section of his homily a man who has lived many years1 8so that the days of his years be many10 but whose soul is not filled with good1 but aches rather with a gnawing sense of emptiness1 so that his many years1 gloomy as they have been1 are all too few4 8,yea1 though he live a thousand years twice told1 yet hath he seen no good3 do not all go to one place80 ,what more tedious than such a twice-told tale of years8 ,yet1 to look back upon1 how fleet their transit1 how imperceptible their lapse1 how petty the sum of them6 ,that tale is soon told1 even if told twice4 ,the days of our life are threescore years and ten1 and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years1 yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow2 nor do the fourscore seem longer to the retrospective reviewer than do to the sexagenarian his sixty years1 or to the septuagenarian his threescore and ten4 ,the most popular of contemporary authors describes a man of seventy-eight1 of whom a loveless1 sad-hearted questioner asks whether his seventy-eight years would not be seventy-eight heavy curses1 if he could say to himself1 as the questioner can1 8,i have secured to myself the love and attachment1 the gratitude or respect1 of no human creature2 ,i have won myself a tender place in no regard2 ,i have done nothing good or serviceable to be remembered by40 ,the ,royal ,preacher would apply context as well as text to such a retrospect1 with an 8,i say1 that an untimely birth is better than he4 ,for he cometh in with vanity1 and departeth in darkness1 and his name shall be covered with darkness4 ,moreover he hath not seen the sun1 nor known anything3 this hath more rest than the other4 ,yea1 though he live a thousand years twice told1 yet hath he seen no good40 ,the same questioner1 already cited1 asks the same old man if his childhood seems far off1--if the days when he sat at his mother's knee seem days of very long ago8 ,to which the experience of threescore and eighteen years gives this reply3 8,twenty years back1 yes3 at this time of my life1 no4 ,for1 as ,i draw closer and closer to the end1 ,i travel in the circle1 nearer and nearer to the beginning40 ,but he is not one to feel and say with the ,french cynic1 8,mais enfin la vie se passe1 et mourir aprs s'tre amus ou s'tre ennuy dix ou vingt ans1 c'est la mme chose40 ,he has not so learned life1 and the meaning of life1 and its purpose1 and its end4 ,infinite is the swiftness of time1 says ,seneca1 as seen by those who are looking back at time past4 ,infinita est velocitas temporis1 qu magis apparet respicientibus4 ,looked forward to1 it is another matter altogether4 ,as ,cowper has it1 when retracing the windings of his way through many years1-- 8,short as in retrospect the journey seems1 ,it seemed not always short2 the rugged path1 ,and prospect oft so dreary and forlorn1 ,moved many a sigh at its disheartening length40 ,but as ,cowper elsewhere draws the contrast1 in the ,latin motto he wrote for the king's clock1-- 8,qu lenta accedit1 quam velox prterit hora60 7,slow comes the hour2 its passing speed how great6--so ,hayley ,englished the line47 8,since this new epoch in my life10 writes ,schleiermacher on a certain occasion1 8time seems to fly twice as quickly as before1 and ,i can quite fancy that when ,jatte and ,i are grown old and grey1 we shall still feel as if only a few days had gone by40 ,moore was in his sixtieth year when ,lord ,john ,russell talked with him of the speed with which time seems to fly2 and ,moore records in his ,diary the question he put1 8,if you find it so now1 what will you say of it when you are as old as ,i am80 ,the 8peculiar melancholy0 of the answer given is emphasised in the same journal4 ,another retrospective reviewer pictures our race as struggling ever onward1 toiling up towards some air-built goal never to be attained--while the past crumbles instantly away behind our steps1 like the staircase of the ,epicurean1 as we advance in our progress2 and every step1 which was of such magnitude when we passed it1 is forgotten in the 8collectiveness of retrospection10 insomuch that at times a passing thought would compass the events of years4 ,few and evil the patriarch declares the days of the years of his pilgrimage to have been1 when1 in answer to ,pharaoh's 8,how old art thou80 the answer is1 ,a hundred and thirty years4 ,man that is born of a woman is of few days1 said another patriarch1 and full of trouble4 ,his days are swifter than a post1 they flee away1 they see no good4 ,they are passed away as the swift ships2 they are swifter than a weaver's shuttle4 ,festinat enim decurrere velox ,flosculus angust miserque brevissima vit ,portio4 ,and thus in ,juvenal's pregnant phrase1 obrepit non intellecta senectus4 ,or1 as with the ageing subject of the ,three ,warnings1-- 8,old ,time whose haste no mortal spares1 ,uncalled1 unheeded1 unawares1 ,brought him on his eightieth year40 ,we bring our years to an end1 as it were a tale that is told4 ,in one of his letters to his old friend ,mrs4 ,hughes1 ,southey commences a paragraph with the truism1 8,the last twenty years1 to you and me1 are but as yesterday20 and he adds1 that if we could but bring ourselves to feel1 as truly as we know1 that the next twenty years are but as to-morrow1 that feeling1 with a trust in ,god's mercy1 would be sufficient consolation under all sorrows4 ,half a year later we find him writing to her in the same strain3 8,it seems but as yesterday when ,i look back twenty1 thirty1 forty1 and even more years2 the end1 therefore1 of my mortal term would seem but as to-morrow if it were rightly looked on to4 ,a little while1 and we shall be young again1 beyond all power of time and change1 with those whom we love1 and to continue with them for ever and ever40 ,madame de ,svign utters her pure ,french hlas6 over the like retrospect of twenty years3 8,hlas6 est-il possible qu'il y ait vingt-un ans8 il me esembleque ce fut l'anne passe2 mais je juge1 par le peu que m'a dur ce temps1 ce que me paratront les annes qui viendront encore40 ,home1 straight home to every heart comes the homely moral of the bard addressing the busy1 curious1 thirsty fly he freely welcomed to his cup1 and whose little life he compared with his longer yet little own3-- 8,both alike are mine and thine1 ,hastening quick to their decline3 ,thine's a summer1 mine no more1 ,though repeated to threescore2 ,threescore summers1 when they're gone1 ,will appear as short as one40 ,if for threescore we read fourscore1 it would not mar the metre1 or the rhyme or reason4 ,man is never so deluded as when he dreams of his own duration1 says ,cowper2 and he goes on to cite ,jacob's retrospective reviewal of years elapsed3 8,the answer of the old patriarch to ,pharaoh may be adapted by every man at the close of the longest life4 #8,few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage4' ,whether we look back from fifty or from twice fifty1 the past equally appears a dream2 and we can only be said truly to have lived while we have been profitably employed40 ,and as the sovereign lady of ,french letter-writers has her ,hlas6 so one of the princes among ,english letter-writers has his ,alas6 to utter on this trite topic1 8,alas1 then1 making the necessary deductions1 how short is life60 ,though the life be made up of a thousand years twice told1 the tale is told so soon1 and the teller seems to himself but as a dreamer1 and his little life is rounded with a sleep2 like as a dream when one awaketh4 ,the good emperor ,marcus ,antoninus1 one of those whom a broad churchmanship is free and fain to recognise as ,seekers after ,god1 is taken to intimate that the difference between a so-called long and a short life is insignificant1 in regard of ,eternity1 when he indites this aphorism1 among his ,meditations3 8,when frankincense is thrown upon the altar1 one grain usually falls before another2 but then the distance of time is of no moment40 ,the moments1 so to speak1 of difference1 are not momentous4 ,do not all go to one place8 ,but in the issue1 all depends on the using4 ,happy the few and evil years of a patriarch1 if a patriarch indeed1 of a pilgrim going home4 ,be they few and evil in one sense1 or in another very many1-- 8,they will appear like moments when he soars ,beyond those sunbreaks40 ,,daybreak ,,no ,,solace3 ,,nightfall ,,no ,,relief4 ,,deuteronomy xxviii4 #cf1 #cg4 ,not the least impressive of the afflictions denounced against a disloyal people1 in the book ,deuteronomy1 is that which should make day and night a fear and a trouble to them2 so that in the morning they should say1 8,would ,god it were even60 and at even1 8,would ,god it were morning60 ,there is at once terrible realism and suggestiveness in words but too familiar to most who have themselves suffered1 or watched by the couch of sleepless suffering4 ,job utters a complaint of wearisome nights as appointed to him2 so that when he lay down1 he said1 8,when shall ,i arise1 and the night be gone80 and thus was he full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day4 ,like the ,psalmist1 he cried in the daytime1 but it seemed that ,god heard not2 and in the night season he was not silent1 but it seemed as though from above there was neither voice1 nor any to answer1 nor any that regarded4 ,in such cases1 one day telleth another of seeming desolation2 and one night certifieth another almost of despair4 ,and the eventide is longed for in broad daylight1 if haply1 with mere change1 it may bring relief4 ,but when it has set in1 and eve has saddened into night1 there is wearying for daybreak1 as possibly the bringer of a boon that1 however1 it fails to bring4 ,a stanza in one of ,shakspeare's poems contains an example to the purpose3-- 8,thus ebbs and flows the current of her sorrow1 ,and time doth weary time with her complaining3 ,she looks for night1 and then she longs for morrow2 ,and both she thinks too long with her remaining3 ,short time seems long in sorrow's sharp sustaining4 ,though woe be heavy1 yet it seldom sleeps2 ,and they that watch1 see time how slow it creeps40 ,and thus runs one of ,landor's imitations from the ,greek1 of an address to ,hesperus3-- 8,i have beheld thee in the morning hour1 ,a solitary star1 with thankless eyes1 ,ungrateful as ,i am6 who bade thee rise ,when sleep all night had wandered from my bower40 ,one of1 and not the least fearful of1 the curses denounced against ,byron's ,manfred is1 that to him shall ,night deny all the quiet of her sky2 and the day shall have a sun which shall make him wish it done4 ,crabbe's ,tale of ,edward ,shore has to tell how1 at one stage of that sombre career1-- 8,struck by new terrors1 from his friends he fled1 ,and wept his woes upon a restless bed2 ,retiring late1 at early hour to rise1 ,with shrunken features1 and with bloodshot eyes2 ,if sleep one moment closed the dismal view1 ,fancy her terrors built upon the true2 ,and night and day had their alternate woes1 ,that baffled pleasure1 and that mocked repose40 ,the hero of one popular prose fiction describes himself as lying awake night after night1 quivering with his great sorrow--wishing that the first dull grey of morning would appear at the window2 and when it came1 longing for night and darkness once more4 ,of the heroine in another we read that 8the terrible #8demon of the bed1' that invests our lightest sorrows with such hopeless and crushing anxiety1 reigned triumphant over its gentle victim2 and yet1 when the daylight crept through her uncurtained windows1 she shrunk from it1 as though in her broken spirit she preferred to hide her distress in the gloom of night1 fearful and unrelieved as was its dark dominion40 ,how sickening1 how dark1 exclaims ,keats1 in the fantastic diction of 8,endymion10 8the dreadful leisure of weary days1 made deeper exquisite by a foreknowledge of unslumbrous night60 ,mr4 ,tennyson pictures to us the simple maid ,elaine1 who went half the night repeating1 ,must she die8 8,and now to right she turned1 and now to left1 ,and found no ease in turning or in rest0-- like one of those depicted by ,keble-- 8444 who darkling and alone1 ,would wish the weary night were gone1 ,though dawning morn should only show ,the secret of their unknown woe40 ,shelley sings of the desire 8of the night for the morrow0 when expressing the devotion to something afar from the sphere of our sorrow4 ,gray vividly depicts the state of mind of one who-- 8444 starts from short slumbers1 and wishes for morning-- ,to close his dull eyes when he sees it returning40 ,of ,mrs4 ,gaskell's ,jemima we read1 that 8the night1 the sleepless night1 was so crowded and haunted by miserable images1 that she longed for day2 and when day came1 with its stinging realities1 she wearied and grew sick for the solitude of night40 ,so with ,shenstone's ,jessie3-- 8,amid the dreary gloom of night ,i cry1 ,when will the morn's once pleasing scenes return8 ,yet what can morn's returning ray supply1 ,but foes that triumph1 or but friends that mourn80 ,,buyer',s ,,bargain ,,and ,,boast4 ,,proverbs xx4 #ad4 ,considering what goes to make up a proverb1 it would be strange if1 in the book of ,proverbs1 part though it be of holy writ1 there should be no touches of the humorous1 however restrained and dignified its manifestation4 ,shrewd insight into character1 finding expression in phrases of homely vigour1 or tranquil irony1 or two-edged sarcasm1--without much of this1 what were a book of proverbs8 ,assuredly the collected proverbs of ,solomon1 the son of ,david1 king of ,israel1 are not careful to eschew a touch of humour when the subject invites1 or allows of1 not to say requires it4 ,such a subject we have1 and such a touch of the jocose1 in a verse which sets forth so tersely the tactics of traffickers and bargain-makers2 how the bidder depreciates the wares he is bidding for1 until they are his2 and how he alters his tone then1 and brags at once of their superior worth1 and of his own superior skill in effecting a purchase4 ,he haggles1 and beats them down1 and pooh-poohs them1 as all but unsaleable1 while yet they are on sale2 but so soon as the bargain is struck1 he goes on his way rejoicing1 and perhaps calls his kinsfolk and acquaintance together1 to rejoice with him1 for he has bought dirt cheap what was worth its weight in gold4 8,it is naught1 it is naught1 saith the buyer2 but when he is gone his way1 then he boasteth40 ,the ,paris of 8,troilus and ,cressida0 compliments1 or1 as may be1 upbraids a subtle ,greek with his dexterity in this line of policy3-- 8,fair ,diomede1 you do as chapmen do1 ,dispraise the thing that you desire to buy40 ,in measure with the intending buyer's dispraise1 is kept up by the would-be seller a song of praise4 ,as ,horace has it1 ,laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces2 and the laudation is apt to be in inverse proportion to the intrinsic worth of his wares4 ,good wine may need no bush2 but bad wine1 on that showing1 may need one as big as a tree2 and the wine merchant is equal to the occasion4 ,a4 ,k4 ,h4 ,b4 has said of men in towns1 aware of the value of time1 that by long experience they are assured of the uselessness of trying to overreach a neighbour in a bargain1 because he is so sharp that they will not succeed4 ,but in agricultural districts such practical essayists in the art of overreaching are declared to be common enough and to spare2 and it is one of the ,recreations of the ,country ,parson aforenamed 7initially at least7 to mark out in detail the course which these bargain-makers are alleged invariably to follow4 8,if they wish to buy a cow or rent a field1 they begin by declaring with frequency and vehemence that they don't want the thing1--that in fact they would rather not have it1--that it would be inconvenient for them to become possessors of it4 ,they then go on to say that still1 if they can get it at a fair price1 they may be induced to think of it4 ,they next declare that the cow is the very worst that ever was seen1 and that very few men would have such a creature in their possession40 ,and so on1--till the strenuous haggler1 after wasting two hours1 telling sixty-five lies1 and stamping himself as a cheat1 ends the negotiation1 without taking anything at all by his petty trickery1 so complicated and so clumsy withal in its convolutions4 ,it is in his estimate of the real merits of ,english horses1 that ,fuller discreetly observes1 in meting out temperate but cordial praise of their good points1 8,and whilst the seller praiseth them too much1 the buyer too little1 the indifferent stander-by will give them their due commendation40 ,what was true of horseflesh and its breeders and purchasers1 in old ,fuller's day holds good still4 ,type of a large class is that manuvring major in a popular fiction1 of whom1 and of his1 8bargains0 in the stable--mostly sedate1 elderly animals--we read1 that certainly1 if the animals could have spoken1 they would have expressed their surprise at the difference in the language used by the major when a buyer and when a seller2 for while1 as a buyer1 he made them out to be1 like ,gil ,blas' mule1 all faults1 as a seller he suddenly came round to believe in them as paragons of perfection4 ,leigh ,hunt records as his experience of the ,italians at home1 that to cheat you through thick and thin was the universal endeavour--so that a perpetual warfare was inevitable1 in which you were obliged to fight in self-defence4 8,if you paid anybody what he asked you1 it never entered into his imagination that you did it from anything but folly4 ,you were pronounced a minchione 7a ninny71 one of their greatest terms of reproach4 ,on the other hand1 if you battled well through the bargain1 a perversion of the natural principle of self-defence led to a feeling of respect for you40 ,dispute might increase1 it is added2 the man might grin1 stare1 threaten2 might pour out torrents of argument and of 8injured innocence10 as they always do2 but be firm1 and he went away equally angry and admiring4 8,did anybody condescend to take them in1 the admiration as well as the anger was still in proportion1 like that of the gallant knights of old when they were beaten in single combat40 ,such chaffering1 or 8prigging10 as ,burns calls it 7in his satiric touch at town councillors waddling down the street1 in all the pomp of ignorant conceit1-- 8,men wha grew wise prigging owre hops and raisins710 such haggling1 and stickling1 and demurring1 and deferring1 are too truly said to distinguish the ,british system of arranging settlements--in which1 embodying completely the ,oriental theory of marriage1 a woman is dealt with 8as a valuable security1 to be exchanged for due consideration40 ,a marriage conducted according to the approved principles is therefore 8a matter of sharp1 close bargaining4 ,no sooner is the romantic part of it over1 than it is surrendered to the lawyers1 who proceed to chaffer over it and cheapen their adversary's claim1 as they might do if they were purchasing a cow40 ,a self-styled ,oriental student of the modern ,syrians1 in a book bearing that title1 graphically sketches a representative bargaining scene in a caf at ,damascus1 between a ,christian indigo-dealer1 in ,beyrout costume1 and a ,jewish dyer2 the former pretending to feel insulted at being offered so low a price1 and the latter pretending to get into a passion at having his time taken up with a fruitless negotiation4 ,captain ,marryat's ,travels in ,north ,america supply a plurality of parallel passages2 now of two misses 8swopping0 bonnets1 with an assumed indifference and a suppressed ardour almost ridiculous enough to verge on the sublime2 and now of a couple of ,down-,easters1 whittling all the while they are bargaining1 and doing both with all their might and main4 ,fiction-writers who make a study of character and manners are fond of introducing scenes of this kind4 ,scott's ,antiquary chuckles over his feats in cheapening old curiosities1 and delights to tell how often he has stood haggling on a halfpenny1 lest1 by a too ready acquiescence in the dealer's first price1 he should be led to suspect the value ,mr4 ,oldbuck sets upon the article3 8,and then1 ,mr4 ,lovel1 the sly satisfaction with which one pays the consideration1 and pockets the article1 affecting a cold indifference1 while the hand is trembling with pleasure60 ,the bargaining match with ,maggie1 the ,fairport fishwife1 is one of the gems of the story4 ,mr4 ,charles ,reade offers a racy pendant in his trafficking encounter between ,christie ,johnstone1 the pride of ,newhaven1 and the four ,irish merchants who have agreed to work together1 and to make a show of competition1 the better to keep the price down within bounds1 but who are no match for woman's wit and woman's tongue1 as exercised by ,christie4 ,the author of 8,doctor ,jacob0 depicts in ,herr ,schmidt a rosy1 round man1 with eyes that were never in tune with his mouth2 the former being sharp1 ,jewish1 and speculative2 the latter1 supine1 commercial1 and conservative3 8,he made use of his eyes when he bought1 and of his mouth when he sold1 giving his customers to understand that he was the easiest going man in the world1 only desirous of small profits1 and by no means miserable if a gold watch or any other article went for half its value40 ,canon ,kingsley enlivens the adventures of 8,hereward0 with a certain ,dick ,hammerhand1 the richest man in ,walcheren1 who tries to overreach the hero1 and fails to his cost2 one stage of the transaction taking this turn3 8,the less anxious the stranger seemed to buy1 the more anxious grew ,dick to sell2 but he concealed his anxiety1 and let the stranger turn away1 thanking him for his drink10 but anon renewing the treaty with as much semblance of disregard as he could put on4 ,the author of 8,the ,gayworthys0 works up a clever bit of homely chaffering between ,mrs4 ,vorse and ,widow ,horke the strawberry-dealer4 ,and we find ourselves between a couple of horse-dealers again in 8,silas ,marner30 8,bryce of course divined that ,dunstan wanted to sell the horse1 and ,dunstan knew that he divined it 7horse-dealing is only one of many human transactions carried on in this ingenious manner72 and they both considered that the bargain was in its first stage1 when ,bryce replied ironically1 to the other's boast of a recent high bid1 #8,i wonder at that now1 ,i wonder you mean to keep him2 for ,i never heard of a man who didn't want to sell his horse1 getting a bid of half as much again as the horse was worth1'0 etc4 ,trust ,bryce to boast of that horse1 and of that bargain1 so soon as he is gone his way1 the horse his1 and the bargain made4 ,it must be a distorted type of human nature that resembles the discontented man of ,theophrastus1 who1 after taking a great deal of pains to beat down the price of a slave1 and after he has paid his money for him1--instead of boasting1 breaks out into the grumble1 8,i am sure thou art good for nothing1 or ,i should not have had thee so cheap40 ,a companion picture1 in its way1 but with the difference between an inveterate grumbler and an impenetrable oaf1 is that by ,plautus of a fool with an old grange to sell1 of which property he advertises the singular attractions to draw buyers to bid and buy4 ,nothing ever thrived on it1 he says2 no owner of it ever died in his bed2 the trees were all blasted2 the swine died of the measles1 the cattle of the murrain1 the sheep of the rot2 nothing was ever reared there1 not a duckling1 or goose4 ,hospitium fuit calamitatis4 ,it is naught1 it is naught1 saith the buyer8 ,no1 the seller1 in this case4 ,,gray-,,haired ,,unawares4 ,,hosea vii4 #i4 ,among the reminders and remonstrances which it was the mission of the prophet1 the son of ,beeri1 in the days of ,ahaz and ,hezekiah1 to deliver to ,ephraim1 there was this significant passage1 expressive of a reckless people's unconscious decline1 whose lapses were taken account of on high1 and ,ephraim knew it not--8,yea1 gray hairs are here and there upon him1 yet he knoweth not40 ,who1 asks ,hartley ,coleridge1 ever saw their first gray hairs1 or marked the crow feet at the angle of their eyes1 without a sigh or a tear1 a momentaneous self-abasement1 a sudden sinking of the soul1 a thought that youth is fled for ever8 8,none but the blessed few that1 having dedicated their spring of life to ,heaven1 behold in the shedding of their vernal blossoms a promise that the season of immortal fruit is near40 ,gray hairs1 in an advancing stage of the plural number1 may be here and there upon us before we know of it4 ,but the actual discovery of the first is a bit of an epoch in one's life2 and if one exclaims ,eureka6 it is hardly in the most jubilant of tones or the most exultant of tempers4 ,falstaff was surprised into a full purpose of amendment of life when he lighted on the first white hair on his chin2 but only to keep on renewing the purpose weekly1 long after chin and head1 too1 must have been covered with silver or snow4 ,with some the humour is to pass off the discovery in seeming glee2 and perhaps it is the saturnine1 melancholy temperament that is likeliest to do this4 ,for instance1 ,gerbier relates of ,charles the ,first1 that one morning 8as the ,king was combing his head1 he found a white hair1 which he sent to the ,queen in merriment4 ,henrietta ,maria immediately wrote back that ,don ,carlos would cause many more to come up before the ,emperor gave up the ,palatinate40 ,had the ,king not been himself combing his head on this not too auspicious occasion1 the probability is1 as courts and courtiers go1 that his first white hair would not thus have been allowed to attract and invite attention4 ,a courtly dresser would have been shocked to reveal what he saw1 and would have kept the secret with ex officio conscientiousness4 ,many and many are the uncrowned heads upon which gray hairs are gathering here and there--a familiar sight enough to overseeing 7and not overlooking7 attendants or friends1 but by the owners themselves unsuspected as yet4 ,mrs4 ,browning lets ,aurora ,leigh espy one such straggler1 which even the neat-handed maid-in-waiting overlooks1 at ,lady ,waldemar's toilet3-- 8,her maid must use both hands to twist that coil ,of tresses1 then be careful lest the rich ,bronze rounds should slip3--she missed1 though1 a gray hair1 ,a single one1--,i saw it2 otherwise ,the woman looked immortal40 ,it is among the graver of his ,recreations that a clerical essayist pictures to himself man or woman1 thoughtful1 earnest1 and pious1 sitting down and musing1 at the sight of the first gray hairs4 ,here is the slight shadow1 he puts it1 of 8a certain great event which is to come20 the earliest touch of a chill hand which must prevail at length4 8,here is manifest decay3 we have begun to die4 ,and no worthy human being will pretend that this is other than a very solemn thought4 ,and we look backward as well as forward3 how short a time since we were little children1 and kind hands smoothed down the locks now grown scanty and gray40 ,so in ,mrs4 ,southey's 7,caroline ,bowles'7 tender1 simple verses on the same trite theme3-- 8,some there were took fond delight1 ,sporting with these tresses bright1 ,to enring with living gold ,fingers now beneath the mould 7,woe is me67 grown icy cold4 444 ,now again a shining streak ',gins the dusky cloud to break2-- ,here and there a glittering thread ,lights the ringlets1 dark and dead-- ,glittering light6--but pale and cold-- ,glittering thread6--but not of gold4 ,silent warning6 silvery streak6 ,not unheeded dost thou speak4 ,not with feelings light and vain1 ,not with fond1 regretful pain1 ,look ,i on the token sent ,to declare the day far spent40 ,mr4 ,thackeray makes his youngish widow1 ,amelia ,osborne1 take tranquilly enough this sort of revelation4 8,in these quiet labours and harmless cares the gentle widow's life was passing away1 a silver hair or two marking the progress of time on her head1 and a line deepening ever so little on her fair forehead4 ,she used to smile at these marks of time40 ,which accords with her placid temperament4 ,quite otherwise constituted is ,currer ,bell's ,madame ,beck4 8,a loud bell rang for morning school4 ,she got up4 ,as she passed a dressing-table with a glass upon it1 she looked at her reflected image4 ,one single white hair streaked her nut-brown tresses2 she plucked it out with a shudder40 ,that is an early phase of the decadence of which ,mr4 ,robert ,browning graphically depicts a later stage3-- 8,one day1 as the lady saw her youth ,depart1 and the silver thread that streaked ,her hair1 and1 worn by the serpent's tooth1 ,the brow so puckered1 the chin so peaked-- ,she wondered who the woman was1 ,so hollow-eyed and haggard-cheeked40 ,mr4 ,trollope's ,captain ,cutwater is the representative of a large constituency in at least this one salient particular1 that he 8had no idea that he was an old man4 ,he had lived for so many years among men of his own stamp1 who had grown gray and bald and rickety and weak alongside of him10 that when he moved into a younger circle1 and settled there1 he ignored the disparity of ages4 ,in ,juvenal's emphatic phrase1 old age steals upon us unawares1--unperceived1 unrecognised3 obrepit non intellecta senectus4 ,this stealthy in-coming1 or on-coming1 of old age is an iterated topic in the classics4 ,cicero1 indeed1 had been beforehand with ,juvenal1 almost word for word3 non intelligitur quando obrepit senectus4 ,there is ,ovid1 again1 with his 8stealthy lapse0 of age1 beguiling as it wears away3 labitur occulte1 fallitque volubilis tas2 and with his elsewhere reminder1 that time glides on1 and with noiseless years we grow older till we grow old3 ,tempora labuntur1 tacitisque senescimus annis4 ,without1 as ,hazlitt says1 our in the least suspecting it1 the mists are at our feet1 and the shadows of age encompass us4 ,leigh ,hunt somewhere comments feelingly on the difficulty of learning how narrow and dim a boundary separates mature from old age2 and quoting his own personal experience1 says1 that a single illness made the line of demarcation clear to him4 ,so ,m4 de ,ste4-,beuve3 ,rien n'est pnible dmler comme les confins des ages3 il faut souvent que quelque chose vienne du dehors et coupe court4 ,there is all the more force in the kindly wish of ,mr4 ,tennyson's ,will ,waterproof1 that the plump object of it may live long1 ere from his topmost head the thickset hazel dies2 long1 ere the hateful crow shall tread the corners of his eyes2 all the more force as coming from one who has to own of himself-- 8,for ,i had hope1 by something rare1 ,to prove myself a poet2 ,but1 while ,i plan1 and plan1 my hair ,is gray before ,i know it40 ,,restrained ,,anger4 ,,proverbs xvi4 #cb4 8,he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty2 and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city40 ,to be ruled by one's angry spirit is cruel bondage indeed1 for that taskmaster never spares the lash4 ,to rule or to be ruled1--that is the question4 8,ira furor brevis est3 animum rege2 qui1 nisi paret1 ,imperat3 hunc frenis1 hunc tu compesce caten40 ,marcus ,antoninus1 in his ,meditations1 calls rage and resentment marks of an unmanly disposition2 mildness and temper being not only more humane1 but1 he contends1 more masculine too4 ,and the philosophic emperor wrote and spoke as one of1 what ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold calls1 those 8444 milder natures1 and more free1 ,whom an unblamed serenity ,hath freed from passions1 and the state ,of struggle these necessitate40 ,from that state of struggle many a victor emerges with honourable scars1 but deep4 ,famous and significant is the story of the physiognomist who detected in the features of ,socrates the traces of that fiery temper which for the most part he kept in severe control1 but which1 when it did break loose1 is described by those who witnessed it as absolutely terrible1 overleaping both in act and language every barrier of the ordinary decorum of ,grecian manners4 ,le ,clerc's loge of ,john ,locke includes the remark that if he had any defect1 it was the being somewhat passionate2 8but he had got the better of it by reason1 and it was very seldom that it did him or any one else any harm40 ,of ,rudolf of ,hapsburg we are told that he was by nature warm and choleric1 but that as he advanced in years he corrected this defect4 ,to some of his friends1 expressing their wonder that since his elevation to the imperial dignity he had restrained the vehemence of his temper1 the founder of the ,house of ,austria replied1 8,i have often repented of being passionate1 never of being mild and humane40 ,one of ,cromwell's biographers reports his 8temper exceeding fiery2 but the flame of it kept down for the most part1 or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had40 ,the admirable ,frederick ,borromeo was admired for a placability1 a sweetness of manner nearly imperturbable1 which1 however1 as ,manzoni reminds us1 was not natural to the devout prelate1 but was the effect of continual combat against a quick and hasty disposition4 ,lord ,clarendon more than once in his autobiography1 plumes himself on having mastered and 8suppressed that heat and passion he was naturally inclined to be transported with40 8,they who knew the great infirmity of his whole family1 which abounded in passion1 used to say he had much extinguished the unruliness of that fire40 ,lord ,macaulay turns to the advantage of his favourite chancellor the assertion of his detractors1 that the disposition of the great ,somers was very far from being so gentle as the world believed1 that he was really prone to the angry passions1 and that sometimes1 while his voice was soft1 and his words kind and courteous1 his delicate frame was almost convulsed by suppressed emotion4 ,his brilliant advocate is fain to accept this reproach as the highest of all eulogies4 ,again3 ,sir ,archibald ,alison assures us of ,sir ,robert ,peel1 that he was by nature afflicted with a most violent temper1 and that so extreme were his paroxysms of anger1 when a young man1 that he used1 while they were coming on1 to shut himself up alone till the dark fit was over4 8,by degrees1 however1 he obtained the mastery of this infirmity1 and this at length so effectually that he passed with the world1 at a distance1 as a man of a singularly cold and phlegmatic temperament40 ,lady ,holland reports her distinguished father to have been naturally choleric1--prefacing the statement by a reflection1 that1 although it is not the part of a daughter to reveal faults1 yet a fault nobly repaired1 or repented of1 adds to the respect and interest which a character inspires4 ,by her showing1 then1 ,mr4 ,sydney ,smith was by nature quick and hasty1 but always struggled against the failing1 and made many regulations to avoid exciting any such emotions2 and when he did give way1 it often excited his biographer's admiration to see him gradually subduing his chafed spirit1 and to observe his dissatisfaction with himself till he had humbled himself and made his peace1 it mattered not with whom1 groom or child4 8,he could not bear the reproaches of his own heart40 ,so ,mr4 ,henry ,rogers observes of ,locke1 and his success1 by dint of 8immense pains0 taken1 in subjugating his choleric propensity1 that his anxiety for its complete subjugation appears in his never being so angry with another as he always was with himself--for being angry4 ,those who are conversant with the journal and letters of ,dr4 ,chalmers1 may remember how often that good man takes himself to task for infirmities of temper1 and how strenuously he resolves to strive to keep down every tendency to irritation when in company1 to 8try to maintain a vigorous contest with this unfortunate peculiarity of my temper10 to 8school down every irritable feeling20 and how remorsefully he records such instances as getting 8into a violent passion with ,sandy10 and getting 8ruffled with ,jane10 in a manner and to a degree 8quite unchristian40 ,passages abound such as1 8,now is the time for reflecting on the evils of intemperate passion20 8erred egregiously this evening in venting my indignation20 8,i may at least ward off the assaults of anger20 8erred in betraying my anger to my servant and wife20 8constant visitations of indignancy2 this exceedingly wrong3 there is not a greater foe to spirituality than wrath40 8,o my ,god1 deliver me from all rancour and much irritableness10#da etc41 etc4 8,here10 to apply the lines of ,wordsworth's son-in-law1-- 8,here was a temper less by nature tuned ,than harmonized by discipline to rule1 ,and by religion sanctified to peace40 ,the pen is too truly said to be a fruitful source of regrets to some of us1 in regard of the outbreaks of temper we allow it to put on paper2 and never is the sting sharper1 says one essayist1 than when we realize that our imprudence is in black and white1 beyond our reach1 irrevocable4 8,we send off our letter1 to repent sometimes how bitterly60 ,litera scripta manet4 ,hence the advice of another1 never to write in anger1 or1 at any rate1 to keep your letter till you are cool4 ,we are recommended1 when indignant at any one's conduct1 to write a letter couched in the strongest terms possible1 as satirical and cutting as we can make it1 and having done this1 to direct1 seal1 and put it in our desk for a few hours1 then read it for our own satisfaction1 and tear it up4 ,another popular authority1 earnestly deprecating angry letters1 lays down as a rule to be observed throughout the letter-writing world1 that no angry letter be posted till four and twenty hours shall have elapsed since it was written4 8,we all know how absurd is that other rule1 of saying the alphabet when you are angry4 ,trash6 ,sit down and write your letter2 write it with all the venom in your power2 spit out your spleen at the fullest2 it will do you good3 you think you have been injured2 say all that you can say with all your poisoned eloquence1 and gratify yourself by reading it while your temper is still hot4 ,then put it in your desk1 and1 as a matter of course1 burn it before breakfast the following morning4 ,believe me that you will then have a double gratification40 ,loquitur the perhaps most widely read1 and without a perhaps the most prolific1 writer of the day4 ,when ,cur-de-,lion1 in ,scott's 8,talisman10 incensed and mortified at the ,templar's tactics1 yet foresaw the penalty of giving way to his headlong resentment1 with a strong effort he remained silent till he had repeated a pater noster1 that being the course which 8his confessor had enjoined him to pursue when anger was likely to obtain dominion over him40 ,the familiar 8count five-and-twenty1 ,tattycoram10 in one of ,mr4 ,dickens' later stories is but another practical application of the selfsame text4 ,gibbon adds to his account of the public penance inflicted by ,ambrose on ,theodosius1 for the massacre of ,thessalonica1 this remark3 8and the edict which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days between the sentence and the execution1 may be accepted as the worthy fruits of his the emperor's repentance40 ,for it was by a hasty resolve that ,theodosius swore in his wrath to expiate the blood of his lieutenant1 ,botheric1 by the blood of a guilty people2 his fiery and choleric temper being impatient of the dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry4 ,in hot haste he despatched the messengers of death2 but attempted1 when it was too late1 to prevent the execution of his own orders4 ,avenging furiously in haste1 he had to repent at leisure2 and he did repent4 ,it is impossible1 perhaps1 observed ,dean ,swift1 for the best and wisest among us to keep so constant a guard upon our temper but that we may at some time or other lie open to the strokes of fortune4 ,incensed on one occasion1 8it was natural for me to have immediate recourse to my pen and ink2 but before ,i would offer to make use of them1 ,i resolved deliberately to tell over a hundred2 and when ,i came to the end of that sum1 ,i found it more advisable to defer drawing up my intended remonstrance till ,i had slept soundly on my resentments40 ,we are told of the celebrated ,macklin1 that although so particular in drilling the performers at rehearsals1 he was scrupulous in keeping his temper down1 the irritability of which he knew too well2 and that on one occasion he interposed an hour by his stop-watch1 all retiring together from the stage to the green-room1 at the end of which time all were in good humour again1 and the rehearsal was resumed4 8,when the evil effects of hasty anger approach1 the consequences of which may be irretrievable10--thus moralizes a fellow-craftsman1 ,john ,o',keeffe1--8it would be no harm if all of us could suppress our own feelings1 even for ,macklin's green-room hour40 ,his mighty master1 ,shakspeare1 would have supplied him with a precedent1 in the case of good ,duke ,humphrey1 who says as he re-enters1-- 8,now1 lords1 my choler being overblown ,with walking once about the quadrangle1 ,i come to talk of commonwealth affairs40 ,sir ,thomas ,fowell ,buxton's secretary1 ,mr4 ,nixon1 on his own showing1 could not refrain from blurting out just what he felt at the moment1 when differences arose between the two4 ,this used to vex ,sir ,thomas1 who however would say nothing till the next day1 and then1 when the secretary thought that the whole matter had passed off 7having perhaps received great kindness in the meantime71 the remonstrance would come out1 8,what a silly fellow you were1 ,nixon1 to put yourself in such a passion yesterday6 ,if ,i had spoken then1 we should most probably have parted4 ,make it a rule never to speak when you are in a passion1 but wait till the next day40 ,and we are assured that1 if at any time he happened to transgress this rule himself1 he was seriously vexed and grieved1 and could not rest till he had in some way made amends for his want of self-restraint4 ,molire's ,arnolphe propounds the prophylactic rule with emphasis and discretion3 8,un certain ,grec disait l'empereur ,auguste1 ,comme une instruction utile autant que juste1 ,que lorsqu'une aventure en colre nous met1 ,nous devons1 avant tout1 dire ntre alphabet1 ,afin que dans ce temps la bile se tempre1 ,et qu'on ne fasse rien que l'on ne doive faire40 ,,evanescence ,,of ,,the ,,early ,,dew4 ,,hosea vi4 #c4 ,by the word of the prophet ,hosea1 the ,divine reproach fell on ,ephraim and on ,judah1 that their goodness was as a morning cloud1 and that as the early dew it passed away4 ,bright was the promise of innocent dawn1 but the promise was unfulfilled4 ,a stern moral application lies in the words of ,dante3 8444 ,the will in man ,bears goodly blossoms2 but its ruddy promise ,is1 by the dripping of perpetual rain1 ,made mere abortion3 faith and innocence ,are met with but in babes2 each taking leave ,ere cheeks with down are sprinkled40 ,adam ,smith observes1 in his 8,theory of ,moral ,sentiment10 that1 in the eye of nature1 it would seem1 a child is a more important object than an old man1 and excites a much more lively1 as well as a much more universal sympathy4 8,it ought to do so10 he adds4 8,everything may be expected1 or at least hoped1 from the child4 ,in ordinary cases1 very little can be either expected or hoped from the old man40 ,it is regretful1 remorseful eld that is supposed to utter the lament1 in gazing on childish faces and forms1 heaven-encompassed infancy1-- 8,o little souls6 as pure and white ,and crystalline as rays of light ,direct from heaven1 their source divine2 ,refracted through the mist of years1 ,how red my setting sun appears1 ,how lurid looks this soul of mine60 ,mrs4 ,trench writes to the poet of the 8,pleasures of ,memory10 and with direct reference to that poem1 8,in looking back1 the only days ,i earnestly desire to recall1 are those which glided away while ,i was #8girt with growing infancy1' and read in the eyes and the smiles of my children1 who were affectionate and beautiful1 a promise of happiness1 such as this world can never fulfil40 ,a more vigorous poet than ,samuel ,rogers1 has a vigorous but gloomy stanza on the kindling emotions of young motherhood1 when the wife-- 8,blest into mother1 in the innocent look1 ,or even the piping cry of lips that brook ,no pain and small suspense1 a joy perceives ,man knows not1 when from out its cradled nook ,she sees her little bud put forth its leaves-- ,what may the fruits be yet8--,i know not--,cain was ,eve's40 ,the fallen young mother in ,mrs4 ,gaskell's story hails in her child a new1 pure1 beautiful1 innocent life1 which she fondly imagines1 in the early passion of maternal love1 she can guard from every touch of corrupting sin by ever watchful and most tender care4 8,and her mother had thought the same1 most probably2 and thousands of others think the same1 and pray to ,god to purify and cleanse their souls1 that they may be fit guardians for their little children40 ,juvenal asks1 8what morn's so holy but its sun betrays theft1 perfidy1 and fraud40 ,the thief1 the betrayer1 the cheat1 was once a child4 ,ovid urges the dissimilitude between such a man and such a child3 dissimiles hic vir1 et ille puer4 ,the ,abb ,delille expatiates on the attractions of each ,spring-tide1 and1 by affinity1 of each new-born ,day1 as consisting in its refreshing redolence of promise--8qui ne nous fait que des promesses40 ,fraught with feeling in every line is the following sonnet addressed by the late ,baron ,alderson to one of his children on her second birthday3 8,sweet is the fragrance of the morning hour1 ,sweet is the sun's first radiance1 sweet the year1 ,in the spring's early promise1 sweet the flower1 ,seen in its buds1 ere yet its leaves appear-- ,but sweeter far1 my angel babe1 to me ,is that blue eye that speaks thy opening mind1 ,that beams with new quick thoughts1 yet undefined1 ,that tell of what is now and what may be4 ,o may the ,god who taught us that1 like thee1 ,we should be pure and spotless1 bless thee still2 ,lay on thy infant head ,his hand1 to free ,thine heart from sin1 and form thee to ,his will1 ,cleanse thee from aught that's evil or defiled1 ,and keep thee as thou art1 my darling child40 ,george ,eliot somewhere speaks of a promise void1 like so many other sweet1 illusory promises of our childhood2 void as promises made in ,eden before the seasons were divided1 and when the starry blossoms grew side by side with the ripening peach--impossible to be fulfilled when the golden gates had been passed4 ,mr4 ,dickens says of the faint image of ,eden which is stamped upon our hearts in childhood1 that it 8chafes and rubs in our rough struggles with the world1 and soon wears away2 too often to leave nothing but a mournful blank remaining40 ,elia1 the essay writer1 is no way backward to own the demerits and even delinquencies of himself as ,elia1 the middle aged man2 but for the child ,elia1 that 8other me10 there1 in the background1--he must take leave to cherish the remembrance of that young master--with as little reference1 he protests1 to this stupid changeling of five-and-forty1 as if it had been a child of some other house1 and not his father's son4 8,i know how it shrank from any the least colour of falsehood4 ,god help thee1 ,elia1 how art thou changed6 ,thou art sophisticated4 ,i know how honest1 how courageous 7for a weakling7 it was--how religious1 how imaginative1 how hopeful4 ,from what have ,i not fallen1 if the child ,i remember was indeed myself60 ,stupid changelings of forty-five1 their name is ,legion1 for they are indeed many4 ,glance with ,shenstone at the shiny row of plump promissory faces in the dame school3-- 8,even now sagacious foresight points to show ,a little bench of heedless bishops here1 ,and there a chancellor in embryo1 ,or bard sublime1 if bard may e'er be so1 ,as ,milton1 ,shakspeare1 names that ne'er shall die60 ,so1 to apply the words of ,hazlitt1 if we look back to past generations 7as far as eye can reach71 we see the same fears1 hopes1 wishes1 followed by the same disappointments1 throbbing in the human heart2 and so we may ever see them 7if we look forward7 rising up for ever1 and disappearing like vapourish bubbles4 ,capable of application even are ,joanna ,baillie's lines assimilating the stupid changelings aforesaid to a dull cat in contrast with its sprightly1 mercurial kittenhood3-- 8,ah6 many a lightly sportive child1 ,who hath like thee our wits beguiled1 ,to dull and sober manhood grown1 ,with strange recoil our hearts disown40 ,il y a en chacun de nous1 writes ,sainte-,beuve1 un tre primitif1 idal1 que la nature a dessin de sa main la plus maternelle1 mais que l'homme trop souvent toffe ou corrompt4 ,mr4 ,kingsley1 in a touching reflection--literally reflection1 looking back--on the 8long lost might-have been10 adverts to that personal idea which every soul brings with it into the world1 which shines dim and potential in the face of every sleeping babe1 before it has been scarred1 and distorted1 and encrusted in the long tragedy of life4 ,dr4 ,caird has said of the birthday of the worst of men1 that although it ushered a new agent of evil into existence1 and was a day fraught with more disastrous results to the world than the day in which the pestilence began to creep over the nations1 or the blight to fasten on the food of man1 or any other physical evil to enter on a career of world-wide devastation1--yet might this day1 when the vilest of humanity first saw the light1 be in some aspects of it regarded as better 7despite ,solomon's text7 than the day of his death4 8,for1 to take only one view of it1 when life commenced1 the problem of good or evil1 to which death has brought so terrible a solution1 was1 in his case1 as yet unsolved4 ,the page of human history which he was to write was yet unwritten1 and to that day belonged1 at all events1 the advantage of the uncertainty whether it was to be blurred and blotted1 or written fair and clean40 ,life1 even in the most unfavourable circumstances1 it is urged1 has ever some faint gleams of hope to brighten its outset4 ,the preacher owns that the simplicity1 the tenderness1 the unconscious refinement that more or less characterize infancy1 even among the lowest and rudest1 soon indeed pass away1 and give place to the coarseness of an unideal1 if not the animal repulsiveness of a sensual or sinful life4 ,but he insists that at least at the beginning1 for a little while1 there is something in the seeming innocency1 the brightness1 the unworldliness1 the unworn freshness of childhood1 that gives hope room to work4 ,is there not1 he asks1 for every child1 not in the dreams of parental fondness only1 but in reality1 and in ,god's idea1 the possibility of a noble future8 8,the history of each new-born soul is surely in ,god's plan and intention a bright and blessed one4 ,for the vilest miscreant that was ever hounded out of life in dishonour and wretchedness1 there was1 in the mind of the ,all-,good1 a ,divine ideal1 a glorious possibility of excellence1 which might have been made a reality40 ,the most hardened ruffian1 the most obdurate criminal1 the most impenetrable reprobate1 was once a child4 ,if it be a philosophical truth that the child is father of the man--all that is now broadly emblazoned in the man having been once latent--seen or not seen--as a vernal bud in the child2 it is not therefore true universally1 as ,mr4 de ,quincey points out1 that all which pre-exists in the child finds its development in the man4 8,rudiments and tendencies1 which might have found1 sometimes by accident1 do not find1 sometimes under the killing frost of counter forces1 cannot find1 their natural evolution40 ,most of what he has1 the grown-up man is shown to inherit from his infant self2 but it does not follow that he always enters upon the whole of his natural inheritance4 ,childhood has been passionately apostrophized as 8444 thou vindication ,of ,god--thou living witness against all men ,who have been babes--thou everlasting promise ,which no man keeps60 ,,ears ,,to ,,hear4 ,,st4 ,,luke viii4 #h4 8,he that hath ears to hear1 let him hear40 ,these words cried ,jesus1 at the close of ,his parable of the ,sower4 ,and ,he went on to say that to some1 to the many1 ,he spake in parables1 that seeing they might not see--not having eyes to see2 and that hearing they might not understand--not having ears to hear in the ,gospel sense4 ,nor in the ,old ,testament sense2 for these very words are cited from ,isaiah2 in ,deuteronomy too we read of those to whom the ,lord hath not given ears to hear2 and in both ,jeremiah and ,ezekiel1 of those who have ears to hear1 and hear not4 ,one apostle laments the destiny of those to whom ,god hath given the spirit of slumber1 eyes that they should not see1 and ears that they should not hear4 ,and to another was entrusted the appeal1 8,he that hath an ear1 let him hear what the ,spirit saith unto the churches40 ,for only the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge4 ,the unwise is like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear4 ,the hearing ear1 and the seeing eye1 the ,lord hath made even both of them4 ,give but interest in the theme1 and the listener's ear fulfils its natural function1 that of hearing4 8,mine ears hast ,thou opened40 ,intensify the interest1 and the listener is all ears1 all ear4 ,milton pictures a time-- 8when1 ,adam first of men1 ,to first of women1 ,eve thus moving speech1 ,turn'd him1 all ear40 ,so again the attendant spirit in his 8,comus03-- 8444 ,i was all ear1 ,and took in strains that might create a soul ,under the ribs of ,death40 ,webster's ill-starred ,duchess of ,malfi assures her brother1 8,i will plant my soul in my ears to hear you40 ,je t'coute sans cligner la paupire1 exclaims ,marillac1 in 8,gerfaut10 dt ta narration durer sept jours et sept nuits4 8,alarmed nature starts up in my heart1 and opens a thousand ears to listen10 cries ,colonel ,talbot in an old play4 ,perplexed in the extreme1 and cut to the heart1 by a revelation of household treachery and wrong1 an incredulous husband is described in a modern romance1 with his hands clasped together1 and with his head bent to catch every syllable of the harrowing news1--listening 8as if his whole being were resolved into that one sense of hearing40 ,that reads like a literal translation of ,balzac's description of one whose whole vie se concentra dans le seul sens de l'oue4 ,on another page he is not forgetful of certains hommes who se bouchent les oreilles pour ne plus rien entendre4 ,none so deaf as those who will not hear4 ,next to them may rank those who do not care to4 ,the familiar narrative of 8,eyes and ,no ,eyes0 might easily have its pendent and parallel1 point by point1 and paragraph by paragraph1 in one to be called ,ears and ,no ,ears4 ,it is with hearing as with seeing4 ,the eye is not satisfied with seeing1 nor the ear filled with hearing4 ,mendelssohn1 in one of his letters from abroad1 rapturous with gazing on his 8favourite ,titian10 declares that one 8might well wish for a dozen more eyes to look one's fill at such a picture40 8,had ,i three ears ,i'd hear thee60 exclaims ,macbeth1 when summoned to attend by the apparition of an ,armed ,head1 in the witches' cave4 ,just as one of ,plato's epigrams expresses a wish for the thousand eyes of the starry sky1 that he might gaze his fill on the star of his life3 1 4 ,horace uses the expressive phrase1 bibit aure1 in one of his odes--literally1 8drink in with the ear0--a phrase admired by the commentators for its lyric boldness4 8,i was all fixed to listen10 says ,dante1 in the tenth gulf of l',inferno4 8,o speak your counsel now1 for ,saturn's ear is all a-hungered10 entreats the ,titan1 in ,keats's ,hyperion4 ,d',artagnan1 in the ante-chamber of ,m4 de ,treville1 is described as looking with all his eyes and listening with all his ears1 stretching his five senses so as to lose nothing4 ,the same author tells how ,mazarin listened1 dying as he was1 to ,anne of ,austria1 as ten living men could not have listened4 8,will you listen80 asks a prince in the same story2 and is answered1 8,can you ask me8 ,you speak of a matter of life or death to me1 and then ask if ,i will listen40 ,when ,falstaff asks the prince1 8,dost thou hear me1 ,hal80 8,ay1 and mark thee too10 is the reply2 and that there is a difference between hearing and marking1 between lending one ear and giving both1 ,falstaff knew as well as most men4 ,and could practise what he knew1 if occasion prompted4 ,witness his wilful deafness when taken to task by the ,lord ,chief ,justice4 8,boy1 tell him ,i'm deaf10 he bids his page say4 ,so1 8,you must speak louder1 my master's deaf10 says the boy4 8,i am sure he is1 to the hearing of anything good10 rejoins the ,chief ,justice4 ,and when1 anon1 his lordship taxes the incorrigible knight with being deaf to what he is saying1 ,sir ,john assures him1 with that consummate assurance of his1 that he hears him very well3 8,rather1 an't please you1 it is the disease of not listening1 the malady of not marking1 that ,i am troubled withal40 ,quite capable is that witty profligate of entering into the import of each phrase in the collect on the ,holy ,scriptures1 which prays that we may in such wise hear them1 as to mark and learn1 and inwardly digest them4 ,a late divine1 treating of 8animal men0 in the 8animal0 sense of ,st4 ,paul1 as those who cannot discern spiritual things1 but are absorbed in animalism as their being's end and aim1 affirmed that unavailing as it seems to be to talk to them of religion1 it avails no more talking of poetry1 and art1 or speculative science1 or the nobler things of the soul3 8,how can such men discern the things of the ,spirit8 ,they understand ,tennyson as little as they understand ,st4 ,paul40 ,having ears they hear not anything so far away as the music of the spheres4 ,of that1 and such as that1 the animal man might say1 by self-application of a couplet of ,cowper's1 8,for which1 alas6 my destiny severe1 ,though ears she gave me two1 gave me no ear40 ,,not ,,alone ,,in ,,the ,,valley ,,of ,,shadows4 ,,psalm xxiii4 #d4 ,no good thing will ,he1 from whom cometh every good gift1 withhold from them that love ,him1 and that walk uprightly2 least of all then ,his presence when most that presence is indispensable1--as a very present help in trouble4 ,and when so indispensable as in the valley of the shadow of death--darkening more and more unto the perfect night8 ,we must die alone4 ,it is a truism1 in its natural sense4 ,but in what the devout mind refuses to call or consider a non-natural sense1 the righteous hath companionship as well as hope in his death4 ,he who can say1 ,the ,lord is my shepherd1 ,i shall not want1 confines not his reliance to the range of green pastures and still waters1 but extends it to the glooms of the grave and the swellings of ,jordan4 ,not alone at the last1 for the ,good ,shepherd knoweth ,his sheep1 and is known of them4 ,and how known8 ,for one that will not let them want4 8,yea1 though ,i walk through the valley of the shadow of death ,i will fear no evil2 for ,thou art with me2 ,thy rod and ,thy staff they comfort me40 ,pascal said that the solitude of death was the bitterest pang of humanity2 and because one must die alone1 the end of life is its heaviest trial4 ,some ,frenchmen and ,frenchwomen1 very ,french1 have essayed1 in their peculiar fashion1 to elude the disaster1 simply by dying in public4 ,people in ,paris died in public in the seventeenth century4 ,death1 as ,mr4 ,herman ,merivale puts it1 was but the last scene of the play1 to be performed with a theatrical bow and exit4 ,he shows us the young beauty1 perishing of dissipation1 who made her adieux to the world in appropriate costume and sentiments2 and the worn-out statesman1 who might not turn his face to the wall in peace1 but was surrounded by a whole court in full dress1 and talked on till his husky accents could no longer convey the last of his smart sayings to the listeners4#db ,with all his fribbles and frivolities ,horace ,walpole was not quite ,frenchified enough to willingly face death in a ,french hotel1 with all its noise and excitement1 8and1 what would be still worse1 exposed to receive all visits2 for the ,french1 you know10 he writes to ,conway1 8are never more in public than in the act of death4 ,i am like animals1 and love to hide myself when ,i am dying0--which refers to his periodical1 and prolonged1 and always perilous attacks of gout4 8,if10 says the author of 8,life in the ,sick-room10 8,i could not trust my friends to save me from involuntary encroachment at the last1 ,i had rather scoop myself a hole in the sand of the desert1 and die alone1 than be tended by the gentlest hands1 and soothed by the most loving voices in the choicest chamber40 ,wordsworth's ,marmaduke exclaims1-- 8,give me a reason why the wisest thing ,that the earth knows shall never choose to die1 ,but some one must be near to count his groans4 ,the wounded deer retires to solitude1 ,and dies in solitude3 all things but man1 ,all die in solitude40 ,special note has been taken of the exceptional characteristic in the altogether exceptional career of the prophet ,elijah1 that1 in his last hour1 when he was on his way to a strange and unprecedented departure from this world--when the whirlwind and flame chariot were ready1 he asked for no human companionship4 8,the bravest men are pardoned if one lingering feeling of human weakness clings to them at the last1 and they desire a human eye resting on them--a human hand in theirs--a human presence4 ,but ,elijah would have rejected all4 ,in harmony with the rest of his lonely severe character1 he desired to meet his ,creator alone40 ,one hears of such preferences now and then1 in oddly constituted natures4 ,sir ,walter ,scott1 in a letter to his sister-in-law1 appears to indicate a disposition of this kind as prevalent in his father's family4 8,poor aunt ,curle10 he tells her1 8died like a ,roman1 or rather like one of the ,sandy-,knowe bairns1 the most stoical race ,i ever knew4 ,she turned every one out of the room1 and drew her last breath alone4 ,so did my uncle1 ,captain ,robert ,scott1 and several others of that family40 ,affectation was so inherent in ,chateaubriand's confessions and professions1 that one knows not how far genuine may have been his plea for what he calls the 8necessity of isolation10 and its advantages in death as in life4 8,any hand is good enough to reach us the glass of water that we call for in the fever of death4 ,ah6 may that hand not be too dear to us60 ,the 8necessity of isolation0 reminds us of ,keble's query3-- 8,why should we faint and fear to live alone1 ,since all alone1 so ,heaven has will'd1 we die1 ,nor even the tenderest heart1 and next our own1 ,knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh80 ,and that again reminds us1 with a difference--the difference between ,madame de ,stal and the sweet singer of the 8,christian ,year10--of ,corinne on her death-bed1 saying to ,castel ,forte3 8,but for you1 ,i should die alone4 ,there is no help for such a moment2 friends can but follow us to the brink2 there begin thoughts too deep1 too troublous1 to be confided40 ,mon sort est de mourir seul1 writes ,rousseau's bereaved ,solitaire2 et la seule ,providence me fermera les yeux4 ,scott was not of mere imagination all compact when he made ,edie ,ochiltree say1 in the cave that forms the old mendicant's favourite retreat1 8,i hae had mony a thought1 that when ,i found myself auld and forfairn1 and no able to enjoy ,god's blessed air ony langer1 ,i wad e'en streek mysell out here1 and abide my removal1 like an auld dog that trails its useless ugsome carcass into some bush or bracken40 ,montaigne says that1 might he have his choice1 he thought he should like best to die out of his own house1 and away from his own people4 ,the ,emperor ,marcus ,aurelius1 on the seventh day of his last illness1 admitted none but his unworthy son 7,commodus7 to his chamber1 and after a few words dismissed him1 8covered his head for sleep1 and0--in ,dean ,merivale's words--8passed away alone and untended40 ,epigrammatic historians love to tell of ,catherine the ,great1 who had reigned over five hundred and forty towns1 over forty-two governments1 over a multitude of isles of the sea from ,kamschatka to ,japan1 and over eighty millions of slaves1 that she died alone1 entirely alone1 without a single slave at hand to support her drooping head4 ,the picture is meant to be sensational1 and as written in ,french and for the ,french1 it may be telling enough4 ,it tells1 for instance1 upon such a nature as ,madame ,sophie ,gay1 who used to promise her friends to come and die among them1 when it was her turn and her time2 adding1 in her very ,french style1 8,je ne veux pas que cette demoiselle0--meaning la mort--8me trouve seule40 ,upon others1 the grand climax of supreme solitude fails of effect4 8,it has always been my wish10 writes ,southey1 for example1 8to die far from my friends1 to crawl like a dog into some corner and expire unseen4 ,i would neither give nor receive unavailing pain40 ,when death overtook ,st4 ,francis ,xavier1 he was on board of a vessel bound for ,siam1 and at his own request he was removed to the shore1 that he might die with the greater composure4 ,stretched on the naked beach1 with the cold blasts of a ,chinese winter aggravating his pains--thus ,sir ,james ,stephen describes his last moments--he contended alone with the agonies of the fever which wasted his vital power4 8,it was an agony and a solitude for which the happiest of the sons of men might well have exchanged the dearest society1 and the purest of the joys of life4444 ,it was a solitude thronged by blessed ministers of peace and consolation1 visible in all their bright and lovely aspects to the now unclouded eye of faith2 and audible to the dying martyr through the yielding bars of his mortal prison-house1 in strains of exulting joy till then unheard and unimagined40 8,thou must go forth alone1 my soul1 thou must go forth alone1-- ,to other scenes1 to other worlds1 that mortal hath not known1 ,thou must go forth alone1 my soul1 to tread the narrow vale2 ,but ,he1 whose word is sure1 hath said ,his comforts shall not fail4 ,his rod and staff shall comfort thee across the dreary road1 ,till thou shalt join the blessed ones1 in ,heaven's serene abode40 ,mr4 de ,quincey has finely said of solitude1 that1 although it may be silent as light1 it is1 like light1 the mightiest of agencies2 for solitude is essential to man4 8,all men come into this world alone2 all leave it alone4 ,even a little child has a dread1 whispering consciousness1 that1 if he should be summoned to travel into ,god's presence1 no gentle nurse will be allowed to lead him by the hand1 nor mother to carry him in her arms1 nor little sister to share his trepidations40 ,king and priest1 we are further reminded1 warrior and maiden1 philosopher and child1 all must walk those mighty galleries alone4 ,the solitude1 therefore1 which this author describes as in this world appalling or fascinating a child's heart1#dc is but the echo of a far deeper solitude1 through which already he has passed1 and of another solitude1 deeper still1 through which he has to pass3 reflex of one solitude--prefiguration of another4 ,crabbe says of man that1 feeling his weakness1 it is his habit to run to society1 to numbers1-- 8,himself to strengthen1 or himself to shun2 ,but though to this our weakness may be prone1 ,let's learn to live1 for we must die1 alone40 ,among the pangs which belong to death is emphatically reckoned by ,f4 ,w4 ,robertson1 in his sermon on ,victory over it1 the sensation of loneliness which attaches to that transit through the valley of shadows4 ,have we ever1 he asks1 seen a ship preparing to sail with its load of pauper emigrants to a distant colony8 for that is keenly suggestive of the desolation which comes from feeling unfriended on a new and untried excursion4 ,he dilates on all beyond the seas being to the ignorant poor man a strange land--away from the helps and friendships and companionships of life1 scarcely knowing what is before him2 and it is in such a moment1 when a man stands upon a deck1 taking his last look of his fatherland1 that there comes upon him what the preacher calls 8a sensation new1 strange1 and inexpressibly miserable--the feeling of being alone in the world4 ,brethren1 with all the bitterness of such a moment1 it is but a feeble image when placed by the side of the loneliness of death4 ,we die alone4 ,we go on our dark mysterious journey for the first time in all our existence1 without one to accompany us4 ,friends are beside our bed1 they must stay behind4 ,grant that a ,christian has something like familiarity with the ,most ,high1 that breaks this solitary feeling2 but what is it with the mass of men8 ,it is a question full of loneliness to them40 ,says the elder ,humboldt 7,wilhelm71 in one of his letters3 8,however many companions a man may have in the active sympathising world1 he must ever make the journey which leads across the boundaries of earthly things alone2 no one may accompany him40 ,not but that in some moods1 and in some sense1 this contemplative philosopher might have assented to the protest of ,paul ,flemming1 that had we spiritual organs1 to see and hear things now invisible and inaudible to us1 we should behold the air thronged with the departing souls of that vast multitude which every moment dies4 ,for1 8truly the soul departs not alone on its last journey1 but spirits of its kind attend it1 when not ministering angels2 and they go in families to the unknown land4 ,neither in life nor in death are we alone40 ,but then as we have not the spiritual organs in question1 the fact of conscious isolation in articulo mortis is not affected2 and their character1 after all1 pertains rather to spiritualism than to spirituality4 ,a latter-day ,christian lyrist expatiates on the sense of loneliness one has at midnight1 in the dread calmness of the dark1--or again1 on pathless hills1 when the sun is set1 and the ear listens in vain for some social sound from afar4 ,but1-- 8,if this be solitude1 while life retains her healthful tone1 ,how shall ,i feel when1 faint with pain1--,i die alone8 8,of all the happy things that live in ocean1 earth1 or air1 ,not one with kindred sympathy my lonely lot shall share4 ,my friend shall vainly scan the glance that speaks no language now2 ,my dog shall lick the languid hand that falters on his brow3 ,but none shall venture forth with me1 to meet the dread unknown1 ,and ,i between two living worlds--must die alone60 ,je mourrai seul4 ,pascal's words are continually cited1 though only to be forgotten4 ,mrs4 ,browning feelingly and earnestly expands into a sonnet what she entitles 8,a ,thought for a ,lonely ,death-bed4 ,inscribed to my friend ,e4 ,c40 8,if ,god compel thee to this destiny1 ,to die alone1--with none beside thy bed ,to ruffle round with sobs thy last word said1 ,and mark with tears the pulses ebb from thee1-- ,then pray alone--#8,o ,christ1 come tenderly6 ,by ,thy forsaken ,sonship in the red ,drear wine-press1--by the wilderness outspread1-- ,and the lone garden where ,thine agony ,fell bloody from ,thy brow1--by all of those ,permitted desolations1 comfort mine6 ,no earthly friend being near me1 interpose ,no deathly angel 'twixt my face and ,thine1 ,but stoop ,thyself to gather my life's rose1 ,and smile away my mortal to ,divine4'0 ,one can hardly quit this subject without recalling the awful significance of a cry that once expressed1 if one may say it1 inexpressible anguish1--anguish indescribable1 incommunicable1--8,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast ,thou forsaken ,me60 ,penultimate words1 these were2 and appalling in their suggestiveness of uttermost desolation4 ,but not the last words of all4 ,he was not alone1 consciously not alone1 at the very last4 ,later than these1 and triumphant over these--however subdued and serene the triumph--came those other words1 ,divinely calm1 as became the ,speaker1--8,father1 into ,thy hands ,i commend my spirit40 ,and it was when ,he had this said1 that ,he gave up the ghost4 ,,footnotes #a 8,wave your hand2 the motion which has apparently ceased is taken up by the air1 from the air by the walls of the room1 etc41 and so by direct and re-acting waves1 continually comminuted1 but never destroyed40--,grove's ,correlation of ,physical ,forces4 #b ,the ,candidate1 ,lord ,sandwich4 #c ,see on the scope of the words 7,st4 ,luke xvi4 #ba71 ,analecta ,theologica 7,rev4 ,w4 ,trollope's7 in loc4 #d ,earlier in the tale there is a touch to remind us of ,lear on the heath3 8#8,know you his conduct8' #8,yes1 indeed1 ,i know1 ,and how he wanders in the wind and snow2 ,safe in our rooms the threatening storm we hear1 ,but he feels strongly what we faintly fear4'0 #e ,plentiful illustrations might be drawn from ,plutarch to the same effect4 ,there is ,mutius ,scvola1 for instance1 addressing ,porsenna3 8,your threatenings ,i regarded not1 but am subdued by your generosity40 ,there is ,porsenna himself1 who1 as ,publicola found1 could not be quelled by dint of arms1 but whom he converted into a friend to ,rome1 by 8the gentle arts of persuasion40 ,there is young ,alexander1 afterwards to be1 or to be called1 the ,great1 whose astute father saw that he did not easily submit to authority1 because he would not be forced to anything1 but that he might be led to his duty by the gentler hand of reason2 and therefore1 as a wise father1 who knew his own son1 ,philip took the method of persuasion rather than of command4 ,what ,plutarch says of the gentler hand of reason1 reminds us of ,swift's account of the ,houyhnhnms1 that 8they have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled1 but only advised or exhorted40 ,and by the way1 ,swift remarks in a letter on ,england's harsh rule over the ,irish1 8,supposing even the size of a native's understanding just equal to that of a dog or a horse1 ,i have often seen these two animals civilized by rewards at least as much as by punishments40 ,but to return to ,plutarch4 ,there is his ,flaminius1 again1 whose appointment to the command in the war with ,macedon1 he calls very fortunate for ,rome1 since what was required was 8a general who did not want to do everything by force and violence1 but rather by gentleness and persuasion40 ,as ,claudian says1 ,peragit tranquilla potestas quad violenta nequit4 ,fear1 observes ,adam ,smith1 is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government1 and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency4 8,to attempt to terrify them1 serves only to irritate their bad humours1 and to confirm them in an opposition which more gentle usage perhaps might easily induce them1 either to soften1 or to lay aside altogether40 #f ,the history of ,latin ,christianity supplies abundant examples1 more or less pertinent4 ,columban and his disciples are characterized as having had little of the gentle and winning perseverance of missionaries3 they had been accustomed to dictate to trembling sovereigns2 and their haughty and violent demeanour provoked the pagans1 instead of weaning them from their idolatries 7iii4 #ajf74 ,so of ,boniface 7v4 #afg73 it was in the tone of a master that he commanded the world to peace1 a tone which provoked resistance4 8,it was not by persuasive influence1 which might lull the conflicting passions of men1 and enlighten them as to their real interests40 ,contrast with these the temper and policy of ,pope ,eugenius ,,iii4 7iii4 #djg71 whose 8skilful and well-timed use of means more becoming the head of ,christendom than arms and excommunications1 wrought wonders in his favour20 and who1 by his gentleness and charity1 gradually supplanted the senate in the attachment of the ,roman people3 8the fierce and intractable people were yielding to this gentler influence40 ,on a later page we come across the able portraiture of our ,henry ,,ii41 as drawn by a churchman who was warning ,becket as to the formidable adversary he had undertaken to oppose3 8,he will sometimes be softened by humility and patience1 but will never submit to compulsion10 etc4 ,ariste a raison when he counsels ,geronte1 in ,gresset's 8,le ,mchant10 as the bien plus sage course of dealing with a difficult subject1 8,que vous le rameniez par raison1 par douceur1 ,que d'aller opposer la colre l'humeur40 #g 8,such access as ,protestantism has gained to the minds of the ,catholics in ,ireland1 it owes1 not to the thunders of any missionary ,boanerges1 but to men like the late ,archbishop of ,dublin ,whately1 and the ,dean of ,elphin1 who have taken a very different course1 and presented ,protestant ,christianity to their neighbours in a very different form40--,saturday ,review1 xi4 #ga4 #h ,gently soothing4 #i ,another type of mind1 deficient in the higher attributes of independence1 is often feverishly eager to sink its sense of individual responsibility by seeking what is called 8rest in the ,church40 ,dr4 ,bungener represents his ,julian1 when committed to the ,bastile1 as rather rejoicing at than terrified by the despotism of the hand laid upon him2 and in the same way1 on taking holy orders1 he1 being 8subdued in heart1 enslaved in mind1 tired of being his own master1 only to create his own torments10 flatters himself that he gives the ,church complete power over his faculties at the same time that he gives her plenary power over his actions4 ,to the baser sort1 remarks ,sir ,james ,stephen1 no yoke is so galling as that of self control1 no deliverance so welcome as that of being handsomely rid of free agency4 8,with such men mental slavery readily becomes a habit1 a fashion1 and a pride4 ,to the abject many the abdication of self-government is a willing sacrifice40 ,one of our acutest essayists on social subjects comments on the readiness of a man to exult in the fact that he has done something which he cannot undo1 and has pledged himself to a course from which he cannot draw back1 as more commonly the sign of a weak than of a strong nature4 8,the comfort of plunging right into the stream is unspeakable to anybody who has been accustomed to stand shivering and irresolute on the bank40 ,when a person of this sort1 it is justly observed1 has brought himself to take the plunge1 his exultation and fearlessness are wonderful3 the knowledge that the ,rubicon is crossed1 and the die cast1 seems to relieve him from the necessity of further resolution4 8,he has set in motion a machine which will of itself wind off results and consequences for him without more ado on his own part2 and this is an order of release from the demands of circumstances upon his will1 for which he cannot be too thankful40 #aj ,when at ,bologna he used to visit the ,campo ,santo1 the sexton of which was a favourite of his1 and the 8beautiful and innocent face0 of whose daughter of fifteen1 he used to contrast with the skulls that peopled several cells there--and particularly with that of one skull dated #agff1 8which was once covered 7the tradition goes7 by the most lovely features of ,bologna--noble and rich40 #aa ,not to be forgotten1 however1 is the suggestive rejoinder of ,mercury1 that ,menippus would have been as easily fooled as the rest of them1 had he but seen1 not that grinning skull1 but the living face that once concealed it4 #ab ,in the book called 8,god's ,acre2 or1 ,historical ,notices relating to ,churchyards10 there is a loathsome story of a ,mr4 ,thompson1 of ,worcester1 who baited his angling-hook with part of the corrupted form of ,king ,john1 and carried the fish he caught with it in triumph through the streets4 #ac 8,et puisque le monde n'est qu'une comdie1 il faut prendre la queue lapin et l'pe de bois comme les autres40--,lettres de ,chaulieu1 ed4 #ahej4 #ad ,boswell's 8,life of ,johnson10 ,april #bi1 #aghc4 #ae ,in the etymological sense1 now practically obsolete1 of misbeliever4 #af ,perhaps a better version of perhaps the same story is that of the young ,dauphin exclaiming to his right reverend preceptor1 when some book mentioned a king as having died1 8,quoi donc1 les rois meurent-ils80 8,quelquefois1 monseigneur10 was the reply--ironical1 or parasitical1 as may be4 #ag ,john ,asgill distinguished himself by maintaining in a treatise now forgotten1 that death is no natural necessity1 and that to escape it is within the range of the humanly practicable4 ,but ,asgill's biography1 like every other1 has for a last page the inevitable 8,and he died40 #ah ,that is1 8,let thy spirit 7goste71 not thy appetite1 lead thee40 ,in ,st4 ,peter's words1 8,abstain from fleshly lusts40 #ai ,st4 ,augustine1 ,lyra1 ,bellarmine1 and others1 are chargeable with this judgment and sentence4 #bj 8,fortunately these things are known to ,him1 from whom no secrets are hidden2 and let us rest in the assurance that ,his judgments are not as ours40--,rogers's ,italy4 #ba ,the friends spoken of were ,coleridge and ,miss ,wordsworth4 ,the scene was the eastern shore of ,grasmere4 ,the date of the poem is #ahjj4 #bb ,on the 8false humility0 which shrinks from all censure or reprobation of what is evil1 under cover of the text 8judge not1 that ye be not judged10--as if it were the intent of that text1 not to warn us against rash1 presumptuous1 and uncharitable judgments1 but absolutely to forbid our taking account of the distinction between right and wrong1--see ,sir ,henry ,taylor's essay on ,humility and ,independence in his valuable 8,notes from ,life40 ,the man of true humility1 we are there taught1 will come to the task of judgment1 on serious occasions1 not lightly or unawed1 but praying to have 8a right judgment in all things20 and whilst exercising that judgment in no spirit of compromise or evasion1 he will feel that to judge his brother is a duty and not a privilege2 and he will judge him in sorrow1 humbled by the contemplation of that fallen nature of which he is himself part and parcel4 7,see 8,notes from ,life0 7#ahdg71 pp4 #df1 sqq47 #bc ,were we all turned inside out1 however1 ,mr4 ,trollope elsewhere surmises1 some of us might find 8our shade of brown to be very dark40--,the ,bertrams1 chap4 xix4 #bd ,the avoidance of moral estimate1 on the other hand1 is imputed to an insufficient sense of the duty incumbent on all of us to form determinate estimates of men and actions1 if only as bearing on our own conduct in life4 7,see 8,w4 ,c4 ,roscoe's ,essays10 vol4 ii41 p4 #cjh47 #be ,owen ,meredith3 8,the ,artist40 #bf 8,cleon10 by ,robert ,browning4 #bg ,completed4 ,finis coronat opus4 ,children and fools1 it has been observed1 should not see a work that is half done1 they not having the sense to make out what the artist is designing4 8,the whole of this world that we see1 is a work half done2 and thence fools are apt to find fault with ,providence40--,,archbishop ,,whately4 #bh ,sonnets1 by ,elizabeth ,barrett ,browning3 8,perplexed ,music40 #bi ,he is said to have emptied two baskets of figs and of eggs1 which he swallowed alternately1 and the repast was concluded with marrow and sugar4 ,in one of his pilgrimages to ,mecca1 ,soliman is asserted to have eaten1 at a single meal1 seventy pomegranates1 a kid1 six fowls1 and a huge quantity of the grapes of ,tayaf4 8,if10 says ,gibbon1 8the bill of fare be correct1 we must admire the appetite rather than the luxury of the sovereign of ,asia40--,hist4 ,rom4 ,empire1 ch4 lii4 #cj ,a broken-down old schoolmaster bore witness to ,dr4 ,chalmers' modus operandi4 8,many a pound-note has the doctor given me1 and he always did the thing as if he were afraid that any person should see him4 ,may ,god reward him60--,hanna's 8,life of ,chalmers10 chap4 i4 #ca ,the case of ,st4 ,peter was expressly within the preacher's view4 8,it is shocking1 doubtless1 to allow ourselves even to admit that this is possible2 yet no one knowing human nature from men and not from books1 will deny that this might befall even a brave and true man4 ,st4 ,peter was both2 yet this was his history4 ,in a crowd1 suddenly1 the question was put directly1 #8,this man also was with ,jesus of ,nazareth8' ,then a prevarication--a lie3 and yet another40--,sermon on the ,restoration of the ,erring4 #cb ,froude1 8,history of ,reign of ,elizabeth10 vol4 ii41 pp4 #abf1 #bae1 #bbf1 #bgg1 #bgh4 #cc ,mr4 ,thackeray incidentally opposes the quasi-apologists for smuggling on the ground that it is a complicated tissue of lying4 ,in his very last and unfinished work1 he makes a good old rector allow that to run an anker of brandy may seem no monstrous crime2 but when men engage in these lawless ventures1 who knows how far the evil will go8 8,i buy ten kegs of brandy from a ,french fishing-boat1 ,i land it under a lie on the coast1 ,i send it inland ever so far1 and all my consignees lie and swindle4 ,i land it1 and lie to the revenue officer4 ,under a lie 7that is1 a mutual secrecy71 ,i sell it to the landlord of the ,bell at ,maidstone1 say4444 ,my landlord sells it to a customer under a lie4 ,we are all engaged in crime1 conspiracy1 and falsehood2 nay1 if the revenue looks too closely after us1 we out with our pistols1 and to crime and conspiracy add murder4 ,do you suppose men engaged in lying every day will scruple about a false oath in a witness-box8 ,crime engenders crime1 sir40--,denis ,duval1 chap4 vii4 #cd ,from ,sir ,walter ,scott we might gather numerous examples and aphorisms to the purpose4 8,it's a sair judgment on a man10 says ,ratcliffe1 in the 8,heart of ,mid-,lothian10 8when he has once gane sae far wrang as ,i hae dune0--the present thief-taker being in fact an ex-thief--that never a bit 8he can be honest1 try't whilk way he will40 ,the career of ,effie ,deans1 anon ,lady ,staunton1 in the same story1 is a practical sermon on the same text4 8,i drag on10 she owns1 8the life of a miserable impostor1 indebted for the marks of regard ,i receive to a tissue of deceit and lies1 which the slightest accident may unravel40 ,her sister1 on perusing the letter which contains these confessions1 is impressed with such an instance of the staggering condition of those who have risen to distinction by undue arts1 and the 8outworks and bulwarks of fiction and falsehood1 by which they are under the necessity of surrounding and defending their precarious advantages40 ,then again there is old ,caleb ,balderstone1 querulous at being what he calls 8forced0 to imperil his soul 8wi' telling ae lee after another faster than ,i can count them10--and elsewhere at the 8cost0 of 8telling twenty daily lees to a wheen idle chaps and queans1 and1 what's waur1 without gaining credence40 ,and for another instance we have the titular ,earl of ,etherington1 in 8,st4 ,ronan's ,well10 in the position as of a spider when he perceives that his deceitful web is threatened with danger1 and sits balanced in the centre1 watching every point1 and uncertain which he may be called upon first to defend4 8,such is one part1 and not the slightest part1 of the penance which never fails to wait on those1 who1 abandoning the #8fair play of the world1' endeavour to work out their purposes by a process of deception and intrigue40 ,in one of ,mr4 ,disraeli's earlier fictions1 there is a young man whose frankness is proverbial1 but who finds himself involved in a course of prevarication--due effect being given to its preliminary process1 though 8only the commencement of the system of degrading deception which awaited him40 ,but perhaps the most direct and forcible illustration of the subject in modern fiction1 is to be found in the 8,white ,lies0 of ,mr4 ,charles ,reade1 a work the title of which declares its didactic scope4 ,rose ,beaurpaire in an unguarded moment equivocates1 or tells a white lie1 and thereby hangs the tale4 ,soon we have her bitterly bewailing the imbroglio in which she has involved herself and others1 and the necessity of fresh fibs to maintain the meaning and credit of the first4 8,there is no end to it10 she sobs despairingly4 8,it is like a spider's web3 every struggle to be free but multiplies the fine yet irresistible thread that seems to bind me40 ,in the next chapter a significant paragraph intimates1 8,this was the last lie the poor entangled wretch had to tell that morning40 ,and the penultimate chapter opens with a notice anew of the 8fatal entanglement0 into which two high-minded sisters had been led1 through yielding to a natural foible3 the desire1 namely1 to hide everything painful from those they loved1 even at the expense of truth4 ,the author lays stress on the inextricable complications due to their 8amiable dishonesty10 and he importunes the reader to take notice that after the first ,white ,lie or two1 circumstances overpowered them1 and drove them on against their will4 ,it was no small part1 he insists1 of all their misery1 that they longed to get back to truth and could not4 #ce ,in apposition1 or opposition1 to which1 note the bidding and the demur in ,talfourd's tragedy of 8,ion03-- 8,adrastus4 ,no2 strike at once2 my hour is come3 in thee ,i recognise the minister of ,jove1 ,and1 kneeling thus1 submit me to his power4 ,ion4 ,avert thy face4 ,adras4 ,no2 let me meet thy gaze10 etc4 #cf ,deut4 xiii4 #f4 ,observe too the seeming climax1--ascending from 8thy brother1 the son of thy mother10 through the successive stages of 8thy son1 thy daughter10 and 8the wife of thy bosom10 to 8thy friend1 which is as thine own soul40 ,as though 8,the force of ,nature could no further go40 #cg 8,if our friends appear to look upon us with little interest1 if our arrival is seen without pleasure1 and our departure without regret1 instead of charging them with a deficiency of feeling1 we should turn our scrutiny upon ourselves40--,essays on the ,formation and ,publication of ,opinions1 v4 i4 #ch ,hartley ,coleridge1 ,sonnets4 #ci ,that is1 if attention be shown him4 #dj ,gusts of wind4 #da ,see ,hanna's ,life of ,chalmers1 ,journal of #ahaj and of #ahbe-f1 passim4 #db 8,see the well-known print of ,mazarin's death-bed1 surrounded by ladies at cards4 ,according to ,grimm1 the ,marchale de ,luxembourg and two of her friends played at loto by that of ,madame du ,deffand till she expired4 ,but at that time the proceeding was at least thought singular40--8,historical ,studies10 by ,herman ,merivale4 #dc 8,god speaks to children1 also1 in dreams1 and by the oracles that lurk in darkness4 ,but in solitude1 above all things1 444 ,god holds with children #8communion undisturbed4'0--8,autobiographic ,sketches10 by ,thomas de ,quincey1 i4 #bd4 ,,index4 ,answer1 a soft1 wrath-dispelling1 #ceg2 most exquisite revenge for reproaches1 #ceh2 like healing balm1 #cei2 comes of practised patience1 #cei2 ,illustrations from ,alison1 ,sir ,matthew ,hale1 ,spenser1 ,decker1 and others1 #ceg-cfj4 ,anticipations of the future1 delusive1 #ccc2 often crushed when nearest realization1 #ccd2 when seeming fulfilled1 extinguished by death1 #ccf2 ,illustrations from ,homer1 ,michelet1 ,cowper1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell1 and others1 #ccc-ccg4 ,anxious foreboding1 forbidden by ,scripture1 #dg2 deprecated by pagan philosophy1 #dh2 no preparation for coming ills1 #dh2 only causes a depression of spirits1 #di2 and cripples energy1 #ej2 destroys present enjoyment1 #ea2 cannot see into the future1 #eb2 indulged in1 breeds despair1 #ed2 remedy for1 #ed2 ,illustrations from ,hume1 ,swift1 ,schleiermacher1 ,longfellow1 and others1 #dh-ee4 ,appetite1 indulgence in1 indecent1 #bdi2 cause of death to royalty1 #bej2 inability of some to resist1 #bea2 allowed in ,italy1 in case of fatal sickness1 #bec2 a common weakness1 #bed2 ,illustrations from ,adam ,smith1 ,gibbon1 ,tennyson1 ,gray1 ,george ,herbert1 and others1 #bdb-bee4 ,bargains1 makers of1 their tactics1 #cfg2 depreciate when buying1 #cfh2 exaggerate when selling1 #cfi2 customs of different countries1 #cgj2 horse-dealers1 their tactics1 #cga2 an exception to the general rule of1 #cgb2 ,illustrations from ,a4 ,k4 ,h4 ,b41 ,fuller1 ,leigh ,hunt1 ,capt4 ,marryat1 ,kingsley1 ,plautus1 and others1 #cfg-cgb4 ,beauty1 but a clothed skeleton1 #aja2 all lost in the grave1 #ajb2 only food for worms1 #acc2 ,illustrations from ,byron1 ,southey1 ,blair1 ,macaulay1 and others1 #ajj-ajd4 ,beneficence1 secret1 an exception to the rule1 #bei2 dislike of1 to thanks1 #bfj2 of ,wellington and ,byron1 #bfa2 finds a reward in itself1 #bfb2 ,illustrations from ,chamfort1 ,goldsmith1 ,smollett1 ,cowper1 and others1 #bei-bfb4 ,childhood1 everything may be hoped from1 #chb2 evanescence of promise in1 #chc2 retrospect of1 shows how we have fallen1 #chd2 possibility of a noble future for all1 #che2 much of the good in1 checked from development1 #chf2 ,illustrations from ,dante1 ,adam ,smith1 ,samuel ,rogers1 ,baron ,alderson1 ,charles ,lamb1 ,dr4 ,caird1 and others1 #cha-chf4 ,children1 dying before their parents1 an inversion of natural order1 #ahb2 one of the greatest sorrows to man1 #ahc2 the case of ,mohammed cited1 #ahd2 ruins the hopes of the parents1 #ahf2 ,citations from ,canon ,melvill1 ,edmund ,burke1 ,moore1 and others1 #ahb-ahg4 ,co-workers1 all human beings1 #cdh2 each in his place or degree1 #cdi2 all required to account for their performance of their part1 #cej2 the difference in1 not position1 but how duties performed1 #cea2 all to one end1 and that is with ,god1 #ceb2 ,illustrations from ,coleridge1 ,john ,newton1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell1 ,colani1 ,milton1 and others1 #cdh-ceb4 ,darkness1 increases the sense of danger1 #bbc2 and the bitterness of death1 #cbd2 power of1 over the guilty1 #cbd2 natural dread of1 in mankind1 #cbf2 of coming death1 rouses a longing for light1 #cbg2 the concomitant of misery1 #cbg2 ,illustrations from ,marlowe1 ,scott1 ,croly1 ,professor ,newman1 ,lord ,lytton1 ,dickens1 and others1 #cbc-cbh4 ,death1 sum and story of all humanity1 #aef2 the inevitable fate of all1 #aeg2 a leveller of all distinctions and grades1 #afj2 even in ,arcadia1 #afc2 the actions of the just blossom in1 #afe2 ,illustrations from ,addison1 ,barry ,cornwall1 ,james ,montgomery1 ,gibbon1 ,warton1 ,prior1 ,george ,herbert1 and others1 #aef-afe4 ,elements1 the1 ,god only can control1 #bcc2 the folly of man commanding1 #bcb2 all men subject to1 #bcb2 folly of ,xerxes cited1 #bcc2 legends of power of priests over1 #bcd2 the greatest conquerors1 impotent against1 #bce2 moral application1 #bcg2 ,illustrations from ,pepys1 ,longfellow1 ,gibbon1 ,carlyle1 ,cowper1 and others1 #bca-bcg4 ,falsity of friends1 the sharpest pang of all1 #bja2 darkens man's views of the moral government of ,god1 #bjf2 shakes confidence in the whole world1 #bjf2 ,david's lament over1 #bjh2 ,illustrations from ,colani1 ,milman1 ,longfellow1 ,corneille1 ,shakspeare1 and others1 #bjj-bjh4 ,faults in others1 more easily discerned than in ourselves1 #ahg2 we should mend our own1 before looking for those of others1 #ahh2 we often possess those1 that we attribute to others1 #aij2 ,illustrations from ,trench1 ,horace1 ,hogg1 ,molire1 ,mrs4 ,inchbald1 and others1 #ahg-aia4 ,flowers1 not to be considered in a utilitarian light1 #aji2 awaken finer sensibilities1 #aaj2 akin to the poetic faculty in man1 #aaa2 the teaching of1 lost on the dull1 #aab2 woman compared to1 #aac2 ,illustrations from ,tennyson1 ,leigh ,hunt1 ,isaac ,taylor1 ,shenstone1 and others1 #aji-aac4 ,freedom1 from righteousness1 a service to sin1 #fj2 true1 only found in ,god's service1 #fa2 sweetened by constraint1 #fa2 without law1 pernicious1 #fb2 at times a relief to give up1 #fc2 too much1 in art and literature1 hurtful1 #fd2 obedience nobler than1 #fe2 ,illustrations from ,gray1 ,wordsworth1 ,goethe1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell1 and others1 #fj-ff4 ,freedom1 the service of1 #ff2 from self-control1 a bane1 #fg2 not idleness1 #fg2 may be enjoyed in a prison1 #fh2 maintained by law1 #gj2 ,illustrations from ,keble1 ,cowper1 ,johnson1 ,hawthorne1 and others1 #ff-gj4 ,friendship1 closer than relationship1 #cbh2 want of with relatives1 arises from lack of sympathy1 #cbi2 or of knowledge of each other1 #ccb2 ,illustrations from ,samuel ,bailey1 ,thackeray1 ,sir ,thos4 ,browne1 ,montaigne1 ,richardson1 and others1 #cbh-ccb4 ,futurity1 prying into brings a penalty1 #gf2 ignorance of1 an advantage and happiness1 #gg2 a knowledge of1 would cloud our life1 #gh2 hidden from us by ,god1 #gi2 could we foresee1 we should suffer by anticipation1 as well as reality1 #hj2 and lose hope1 #ha2 visionary previsions of1 vanity1 #hb2 ignorance of1 a source of content1 #hd2 and deprives death of part of its gloom1 #he2 ,illustrations from ,cicero1 ,froude1 ,de ,quincey1 ,scott1 ,la ,bruyre1 and others1 #gf-hf4 ,gray hairs1 first notice of decline1 #cgb2 various ways1 first discovery of1 met1 #cgc2 a shadow of the end1 #cgd2 come unawares1 #cge2 ,illustrations from ,coleridge1 ,c4 ,bowles1 ,thackeray1 ,trollope1 ,tennyson1 and others1 #cgb-cgf4 ,greatness and affluence1 sometimes productive of selfishness1 #ae2 loss of1 awakens sympathy with poor and afflicted1 #af2 peculiar sin of1 carelessness rather than inhumanity1 #ag2 this often the result of early education1 #ah2 sympathy with poverty need not destroy natural joy of1 #ah2 one object of suffering1 to re-unite poverty with1 #ai2 of some1 not a cause of poverty in others1 #bj2 oft performs its charity by commission1 #ba2 desirable for1 to make personal acquaintance with misery and suffering1 #bb2 case of the ,pretender cited1 #bf2 causes an isolation from the poor1 #bh2 shows best when engaged in works of mercy1 #bh2 results of want of thought in1 #bi-ca2 benefit of proper use of1 #cb2 ,illustrations from ,shakspeare1 #ag2 ,la ,bruyre1 ,hannah ,more1 and others1 #ah-cb4 ,guilt1 first thoughts of1 abhorrent1 #bee2 case of ,hazael1 #bee2 mere protestation against1 no safeguard against1 #bef2 familiarity with1 breeds apologies for1 #beg2 one step in1 speedily induces others1 unsuspected1 #beh2 transforms those subject to it1 #bei2 ,illustrations from ,miss ,lee1 ,tobin1 ,dr4 ,hamilton1 ,southey1 ,sainte-,beuve1 and others1 #bee-bei4 ,hearing1 with the mind as well as ears1 #chf2 interest in theme1 creates attentive1 #chg2 compared with seeing1 #chh2 difference between1 and marking1 #chh2 some have no1 for spiritual things1 #chi2 ,illustrations3 ,milton1 ,webster1 ,balzac1 ,dumas1 ,shakspeare1 and others1 #chf-chi4 ,human body1 the1 reduced to its lowest terms1 #ajd2 ,hamlet's speculation on1 #aje2 as ,mummy1 a merchandise1 #ajf2 turned to animal black1 #ajf2 suggestion to use bones as a manure1 #ajg2 used for earthworks1 #ajh2 ,illustrations from ,sydney ,smith1 ,chateaubriand1 ,xenophon1 ,dicey1 and others1 #aja-aji4 ,human ,knowledge1 imperfection of1 #bbd2 in things of this world1 #bbf2 in the workings of providence1 #bbf2 imperfect1 because we cannot see the end of all1 #bbi2 ,illustrations from ,locke1 ,mrs4 ,browning1 ,thomson1 ,addison1 ,le ,maistre1 and others1 #bbd-bca4 ,hurry and ,excitement1 the characteristic of the present age1 #bdb2 its effect on current literature1 #bdc2 destructive of calm thought1 #bdd2 different from haste1 #bde2 hinders clearness of perception1 #bdf2 deadens capacity for simpler enjoyments1 #bdg2 too little work as fatal as1 #bdh2 ,illustrations from ,chateaubriand1 ,dr4 ,boyd1 ,longfellow1 ,sir ,henry ,taylor1 and others1 #bdb-bdi4 ,joy--human1 mostly overshadowed1 #hg2 of success1 overclouded by the thought of the future1 #hh2 of hope1 by thought of others' present suffering1 #hi2 present1 by the thought of death1 #ij2 soon fades1 #ia2 ,illustrations from ,gibbon1 ,r4 ,browning1 ,lord ,lytton1 ,hannay1 and others1 #hf-ia4 ,judgment1 ,man's1 of his fellow1 deprecated1 #bjh2 wrong1 because he knows not himself1 #baj2 nor the secrets of others1 #baa2 nor their motives1 #bab2 the habit of1 presumptuous1 #bac2 ,god's1 the only just1 #bad2 ,god's1 more merciful than man's1 #bae2 man's necessarily imperfect1 #baf2 human1 severe1 #bai2 of the heart1 belongs only to ,god1 #bba2 should be charitable1 because of our own failings1 #bbd2 ,illustrations from ,shakspeare1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,la ,bruyre1 ,arthur ,helps1 ,o4 ,w4 ,holmes1 ,anthony ,trollope1 ,carlyle1 and others1 #bjh-bbd4 ,lies1 lead to further lies1 case of ,jacob1 #bij2 carry their punishment1 in necessity of further lies1 #bia2 inextricably entangle those who use them1 #bic2 injurious to those who tell them1 #bid2 one makes a necessity for others1 #bie2 ,illustrations from ,mrs4 ,browning1 ,scott1 ,corneille1 ,cellini1 ,jeremy ,taylor1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher1 and others1 #bij-bif4 ,light--8at evening time0--the promise of1 a comfort1 #cac2 a deliverance from the fear of death1 #cad2 often clears up the end of a life of trial1 #cae2 disperses all darkness and difficulties1 #caf2 a relief from troubles in declining years1 #cag2 appears sometimes unexpectedly1 #cah2 ,light--a longing of the human soul1 #cai2 to die in1 almost a universal craving1 #cba2 the comfort of dying moments1 #cbb2 ,illustrations from ,bunyan1 ,o4 ,w4 ,holmes1 ,dickens1 ,shirley ,brooks1 ,mrs4 ,schimmelpenninck1 ,sophocles1 ,landor1 and others1 #cac-cbc4 ,love and ,gentleness more powerful agents than force1 #cc2 illustrations from ,plutarch1 #cc2 children more easily governed by1 than fear1 #cd2 this also the case with nations1 #ce2 natures not amenable to1 exceptional1 #ce2 the means usually employed by women to gain their ends1 #cf2 the best method for missionaries1 #cg2 used by ,queen ,elizabeth and ,empress ,catherine towards their people1 #ch2 when rulers fail with1 they employ worse means1 #ci2 best means of eliciting truth1 #dj2 works even on the most depraved natures1 #dj2 ,illustrations from ,ben ,jonson1 ,mr4 ,freeman1 ,scott1 ,dr4 ,beattie1 and others1 #cb-da4 ,lying1 engenders lying1 #bhf2 the case of ,st4 ,peter1 #bhg2 demands a good memory1 #bhh2 leads to hopeless entanglement1 #bhi2 first step in all wrong doing1 #bhi2 ,illustrated by ,trench1 ,swift1 ,robertson1 ,froude1 and others1 #bhf-bij4 7,see also pp4 #bij-bif47 ,mirth1 good in due season1 #bif2 must be recommended by higher qualities1 #big2 too much is wearisome1 #bih2 deep and true feeling of more real value than mere1 #bii2 in some1 always inclines to sadness1 #cjj2 ,illustrations from ,tennyson1 ,st4 ,evremond1 ,richardson1 ,scott1 ,mrs4 ,riddell1 ,hood1 and others1 #bif-cjj4 ,music--its power to dispel evil humours1 #ee2 gives ease in various nervous disorders1 #ef2 used by ,luther to repel his visions of ,satan1 #eg2 removed the melancholy of a king of ,spain1 #eg2 wakes up feelings of the past1 #eh2 studied by the ,jewish priesthood1 #eh2 effect of1 on lunatics1 #ei2 soothes grief1 #fj2 ,illustrations from ,beveridge1 ,burton1 ,sir ,james ,stephen1 ,schiller1 and others1 #ee-fj4 ,order1 ,heaven's first law1 #bgc2 human not to be compared with ,divine1 #bgd2 obedience to1 the stay of the world1 #bge2 to be found in all ,god's handiwork1 #bgf2 man should be the servant of1 #bgg2 love of1 improving to the mind1 #bgh2 the basis of civil government1 #bgi2 truth is1 #bhj2 a love of1 may subsist with a low mental standard1 #bha2 the happiness of heaven1 #bha2 ,illustrations from ,c4 ,h4 ,townshend1 ,hooker1 ,carlyle1 ,shaftesbury1 ,lowell1 ,george ,herbert1 ,crabbe1 ,patmore1 ,southey1 #bgc-bhb4 ,plans1 of ,man1 overruled by ,god1 #cje2 for the future1 vain1 #cjf2 often bring but trouble1 #cjh2 ,illustrations from ,helps1 ,lady ,mary ,wortley ,montagu1 ,thackeray1 ,schiller1 ,congreve1 ,tasso1 #cje-cji4 ,praise1 of self1 unseemly1 #if2 productive of ridicule1 #if2 common among savages1 #ig2 a mark of vanity1 #ih2 fault of ,cato and ,cicero1 #ih2 true merit disdains1 #ii2 degrading1 #ajj2 ,illustrations from ,plutarch1 ,swift1 ,chateaubriand1 ,barrow1 ,feltham1 ,carlyle1 #if-ajj4 ,prayer1 without action1 the mark of feebleness1 #cdb2 with action1 shows trust in ,god1 #cdc2 for help1 must be accompanied by self-help1 #cde2 only when in danger1 the folly of some1 #cdf2 of ,benvenuto ,cellini1 #cdg2 ,illustrations from ,bentley1 ,kingsley1 ,froude1 ,john ,brown1 ,lord ,broughton1 and others1 #cdb-cdg4 ,prayers--at times made for what would be our own hurt1 #adg2 made in ignorance of true needs1 #adh2 the best1 for those things which ,god sees needful for us1 #adi2 instances of ruin1 by granted1 #aej2 real answer to1 opposite of what we expect1 #aeb2 granted1 by seeming to be rejected1 #aed2 ,illustrations from ,plato1 ,juvenal1 ,montaigne1 ,madame de ,svign1 ,carlyle1 ,walpole1 ,jane ,taylor1 ,de ,quincey1 ,tennyson1 #adg-aef4 ,present despair1 succeeded by comfort1 #ib2 anger1 by joy1 #ib2 joy1 by grief1 #ib2 pleasure1 mixed with pain1 #ic2 triumph1 with anxiety for the future1 #id2 prosperity bears within it decay1 #ie2 ,illustrations from ,shakspeare1 ,byron1 ,mrs4 ,browning1 ,johnson1 ,tennyson1 ,pope1 #ia-ie4 8,prophet1 no man one in his own country10 #adc2 few admired by their own domestics1 #add2 mankind apt to underrate those they are familiar with1 #ade2 some exceptions to the rule1 #adf2 ,illustrations from ,montaigne1 ,ben ,jonson1 ,scott1 ,mrs4 ,oliphant1 ,milman1 #adc-adg4 ,protestation1 fervid1 case of ,peter's1 #afe2 too much1 a mark of insincerity1 #aff2 over1 awakens suspicion1 #afg2 over1 the refuge of base minds1 #afh2 not needful to truth1 #afh2 seldom to be trusted1 #afi2 fails of its purpose1 #agj2 ,illustrations from ,racine1 ,disraeli1 ,milman1 ,hawthorne1 ,wolcot1 ,corneille1 ,feltham1 ,fielding1 ,b4 ,jonson1 ,alison1 #afe-agj4 ,purposes of man1 often frustrated by ,god1 #cja2 confounded by the smallest accident1 #cjb2 often end as least expected1 #cjb2 ,illustrations from ,molire1 ,dryden1 ,w4 ,irving1 ,burns1 ,wordsworth1 #cja-cjd4 ,repentance and ,relapse1 in the case of ,pharaoh1 #abe2 in sickness1 and falling back in health1 a mark of weak minds1 #abf2 made in fear of death1 usually vanishes on removal of cause1 #abg2 the irreligious1 prompt with in trouble1 #abh2 ,infidels in health1 repentant in sickness1 #acj2 at times1 but want of power to sin1 #aca2 may in some1 be measured by their health1 #acb2 when in danger1 no repentance1 #acd2 ,illustrations from ,boileau1 ,lady ,m4 ,w4 ,montagu1 ,scott1 ,le ,sage1 ,crabbe1 ,montesquieu1 ,butler1 ,wolcot1 ,gibbon1 ,whately1 #abe-acd4 ,retributive ,justice1 in the case of ,haman1 #da2 that of ,daniel1 and his accusers1 #db2 the delight of early ballads1 #db2 popular history teaches1 by examples1 #dc2 examples of1 from ancient history1 #dd2 ,illustrations from ,hamlet1 #dg4 ,retrospect of ,human ,life1 vanity1 #cfa2 in1 swiftness of time seems infinite1 #cjb2 in1 past seems as a dream1 #cfd2 nothing in regard to eternity1 #cfd2 ,illustrations from ,seneca1 ,moore1 ,southey1 ,mde4 de ,svign1 ,cowper1 and others1 #cfa-cfe4 ,saints considered as ,strangers and ,pilgrims1 #aib2 to them1 this world but as an inn1 #aic2 looking to their home1 lightens their earthly troubles1 #aid2 this world as a wilderness1 #aif2 their home on high1 #aig2 look there for their rest1 #aih2 this1 to them1 a subject of rejoicing1 #bjj2 ,illustrations3 ,leighton1 ,beveridge1 ,lamennais1 ,john ,foster1 ,chaucer1 ,mrs4 ,browning1 ,robertson1 ,keble1 #aib-bjj4 ,scripture1 often quoted1 by the vicious1 to excuse their faults1 #aj1 #ac2 by divines to support their own peculiar tenets1 #aa2 used in election squibs1 #ab2 sometimes quoted for self-deceit1 #ad2 misused quotations1 #ad2 ,illustrations from ,bunyan1 ,shakspeare1 ,carlyle1 ,dickens1 and others1 #aj-af4 ,self-control1 the greatest victory1 #bgf2 the effort of all noble minds1 #cgg2 constant practice of1 subdues the most violent tempers1 #cgg2 strengthened by religion1 #cgh2 should be exercised in letter writing1 #cgi2 failure of1 causes the greatest mischief1 #chj2 ,illustrations from ,marcus ,antoninus1 ,clarendon1 ,macaulay1 ,dr4 ,chalmers1 ,scott1 ,gibbon1 ,swift1 ,buxton1 ,molire1 #cgf-cha4 ,shadow a1 man's life compared to1 #agj2 earthly pursuits and pleasures1 but1 #aga2 man's corpse becomes1 #agc2 some waste their life in hunting1 #age2 reality to be sought above1 and hereafter1 #aha2 man's soul a reality1 #ahb2 ,illustrations3 ,burke1 ,emerson1 ,g4 ,herbert1 ,scott1 ,r4 ,browning1 ,abb ,gerbert1 ,hawthorne1 ,la ,bruyre1 ,de ,tocqueville1 ,hare1 ,sterling1 ,rob4 ,lytton1 ,churchill1 ,carlyle1 #agj-ahb4 ,silence1 discreet in a fool1 #gj2 a virtue in wise men1 #ga2 when it breaks1 ignorance shows itself1 #gb2 by keeping1 fools acquire respect1 #gc2 often taken as a mark of wisdom1 #ge2 ,illustrations3 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,montaigne1 ,ben ,jonson1 ,c4 ,lamb1 ,w4 ,irving1 ,jewsbury1 ,goldsmith1 and others1 #gj-gf4 ,sin of ,one ,man1 consequences of felt by whole nations1 cases of ,achan and ,david1 #a2 results of1 felt in distant lands and by future generations1 #b2 affects others by force of example1 #d2 remote consequences of1 even greater than present1 #e2 the effects of1 often show when deed forgotten by sinner1 #e2 ,illustrations from ,south1 ,g4 ,eliot1 ,robert ,browning1 and others1 #a-f4 ,sleep1 ,death compared to1 in ,scripture1 #acd2 and ,death as twin brothers1 #ace2 a counterfeit of death1 #acf2 ,sancho ,panza's apostrophe to1 #acf2 a daily death1 #acg2 of a child1 as death of a ,christian1 #ach2 ,illustrations from ,homer1 ,warton1 ,byron1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,george ,herbert1 ,mrs4 ,browning1 and others1 #acd-aci4 ,sleep1 peaceful1 destroyed by crime1 #bhb2 exceptions to the rule1 #bhc2 disturbed by feelings of remorse1 #bhd2 only enjoyed by an innocent mind1 #bhf2 ,illustrations from 8,macbeth10 ,g4 ,w4 ,cooke1 ,r4 ,lytton1 ,hawthorne1 ,godwin1 ,roscoe1 ,webster1 #bhb-bhf4 ,society1 regarded as a body1 #cec2 each member in1 has his peculiar functions1 #cec2 subordination in1 no degradation1 #ced2 all service in1 the same in ,god's sight1 #cee2 contentment to be found by each member of1 in doing his duty1 #cef2 ,illustrations3 ,f4 ,w4 ,robertson1 ,mrs4 ,browning1 ,r4 ,browning1 ,wordsworth1 ,j4 ,c4 ,hare1 ,r4 ,lytton1 ,g4 ,herbert1 #cec-ceg4 ,solitude1 in death1 #chi2 in a spiritual sense1 not to the ,christian1 #cij2 the bitterest pang of humanity1 #cij2 the choice of the animal creation1 #cia2 a preference for1 in some natures1 #cia2 in a natural sense1 a necessity1 #cic2 our ,lord1 the highest example of1 #cif2 ,illustrations from ,pascal1 ,wordsworth1 ,scott1 ,merivale1 ,de ,quincey1 ,crabbe1 ,robertson1 ,w4 ,humboldt1 ,mrs4 ,browning1 #chi-cif4 ,stage1 this world considered as a1 #aad2 man an actor on1 #aae2 human life in its varieties1 like a play1 #aaf2 one man plays many parts1 #aah2 man of the world1 only first-class actor1 #aah2 ,mary ,stuart1 an actress on the political1 #aai2 every man spectator as well as actor1 #abj2 players the representatives of human nature1 #aba2 an epitome of this world1 #aba2 necessity for each to act his part well1 on1 #abc2 ,illustrations from ,shakspeare1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,cervantes1 ,dr4 ,maginn1 ,sainte-,beuve1 ,chamfort1 ,hazlitt1 ,overbury1 ,r4 ,hall1 #aad-abe4 ,sympathy1 as first shown by ,job's friends1 #f2 often best proved by silence1 #g2 moralizing no evidence of1 #h2 more strongly evidenced by deeds1 #h2 ,illustrations from ,steele1 ,rousseau1 and others1 #f-i4 ,to-morrow1 cannot be calculated upon1 #bfc2 hopes and fears intent on1 #bfd2 penitence deferred till1 too late1 #bff2 vain the pursuit of1 #bff2 the refuge of fools1 #bfh2 a favourite phrase with ,napoleon1 #bgj2 a vanishing quantity1 #bga2 one1 will come to all1 #bgc2 ,illustrations3 ,shakspeare1 ,c4 ,rossetti1 ,charles ,reade1 ,hawthorne1 ,prior1 ,macaulay1 ,southey1 and others1 #bfc-bgc4 ,unconscious peril--the case of ,saul1 #bcg2 surrounds man1 #bch2 retrospect of1 more interesting than that of positive danger1 #bci2 escape from1 proof of superintending ,providence1 #bdj2 often nearest when least suspected1 #bda2 ,illustrations3 ,cowper1 ,de ,quincey1 ,hawthorne1 ,scott1 ,southey1 ,milman1 ,young1 #bcg-bdb4 ,unrest1 one of the woes denounced against the ,jews1 #cfe2 one of the greatest afflictions of man1 #cff2 ,illustrations3 ,shakspeare1 ,landor1 ,crabbe1 ,keats1 ,keble1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell1 ,shenstone1 #cfe-cfg4 ,utilitarianism1 of the crass1 pur-blind sort1 #cji2 has no sympathy with the beautiful as such1 #caj2 or self-sacrifice1 #caa2 only a one-sided and degrading way of satisfying the mind1 #cab2 sees nothing beyond money-making1 #cac2 ,illustrations from ,hare1 ,carlyle1 ,coleridge1 ,buckle1 ,de ,tocqueville1 ,haliburton1 #cji-cac4 ,vain-glory1 punishment of1 in the case of ,nebuchadnezzar1 #ccg2 of ,belshazzar1 #cch2 mostly the forerunner of a fall1 #cci2 founded on the favour of man1 #cda2 ,illustrations from ,prescott1 ,ben ,jonson1 ,milman1 ,shakspeare1 and others1 #ccg-cdb4 ,worth1 unrecognized1 by one's kindred1 case of ,david cited1 #aci2 ,pythagoras said to have borrowed his learning1 etc41 #adj2 familiarities of common life hinder appreciation of1 #ada2 one's family most difficult to convince of1 #adb2 ,illustrations from ,euripides1 ,gibbon1 ,david ,hume1 ,swift1 ,horace ,walpole1 and others1 #aci-adc4 ,butler ,tanner1 ,the ,selwood ,printing ,works1 ,frome1 and ,london ,,hodder ,,stoughton',s ,,works ,,in ,,theology ,,religious ,,literature4 ,,london1 ,october1 #ahgj4 ,the ,church of the ,restoration4 ,by ,,john ,,stoughton1 ,d4,d4 ,forming the ,third and ,fourth ,volumes of 8,the ,ecclesiastical ,history of ,england40 #b vols4 #hvo1 #bes4 ,the ,church of the ,civil ,wars and the ,church of the ,commonwealth4 ,being the ,first and ,second ,volumes of 8,the ,ecclesiastical ,history of ,england40 ,by the same author4 #b vols4 #hvo1 #bhs4 ,secular ,annotations on ,scripture ,texts4 ,by the ,rev4 ,,francis ,,jacox4 ,crown #hvo1 #fs4 ,ecclesia3 ,church ,problems considered in a ,series of ,essays4 ,edited by ,,henry ,,robert ,,reynolds1 ,d4,d4 ,second ,thousand4 #hvo1 #ads41 cloth4 ,christus ,consolator2 or1 ,the ,pulpit in ,relation to ,social ,life4 ,by ,,alexander ,,macleod1 ,d4,d4 ,crown #hvo1 #es4 ,contents3--,the ,social ,mission of the ,pulpit2 ,the ,preacher as an ,elevator--,poverty and the ,poor2 ,the ,preacher as a ,healer--,restoration of the ,fallen2 ,the ,preacher as a ,reconciler--,employers and ,employed2 ,the ,preacher as an ,educator--,national ,education2 ,the ,preacher as a ,liberator--,the ,crushed ,classes2 ,the ,preacher as a ,regenerator--the ,renewal of ,life2 ,some ,results of ,preaching2 ,secrets of ,failure2 ,range of ,preaching2 ,detraction2 ,preachers and ,sermons4 ,rain upon the ,mown ,grass1 and other ,sermons4 ,by the ,rev4 ,,samuel ,,martin1 of ,westminster ,chapel4 #hvo1 #ajs4 #f;d4 ,life ,problems answered in ,christ4 ,six ,sermons4 ,by ,,leigh ,,mann4 ,with ,preface by ,rev4 ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,b4,a4 ,crown #hvo1 #ds4 #f;d4 ,the ,life and ,times of the ,rev4 ,john ,wesley1 ,m4,a41 ,founder of the ,methodists4 ,by the ,rev4 ,,luke ,,tyerman4 ,vol4 ,i41 #hvo1 #abs4 ,to be completed in ,three ,vols41 #hvo1 with ,portraits1 price #abs4 each4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 will appear in ,december1 and ,vol4 ,,iii4 in ,march4 ,one ,thousand ,gems from the ,rev4 ,henry ,ward ,beecher4 ,compiled 7with ,mr4 ,beecher's sanction7 by the ,rev4 ,g4 ,d4 ,,evans4 ,crown #hvo1 #es41 with ,portrait4 ,,by ,,rev4 ,t4 ,,binney4 #a4 ,the ,practical ,power of ,faith4 ,an ,exposition of part of the ,eleventh ,chapter of ,hebrews4 ,fourth edition4 ,with ,new ,preface4 ,crown #hvo1 #es41 cloth4 #b4 ,money3 a ,popular ,exposition in ,rough ,notes4 ,with ,remarks on ,stewardship and ,systematic ,beneficence4 ,third ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #es41 cloth4 #c4 ,micah the ,priest-,maker4 ,a ,handbook on ,ritualism4 ,second ,edition1 enlarged4 ,post #hvo1 #es41 cloth4 ,lectures on the ,first and ,second ,epistles of ,peter4 ,by ,,john ,,lillie1 ,d4,d41 author of 8,lectures on the ,epistles of ,st4 ,paul to the ,thessalonians10 c4 ,with a ,preface by ,,philip ,,schaff1 ,d4,d4 ,in #hvo1 price #abs41 cloth4 ,beacons and ,patterns3 ,a ,book for ,young ,men4 ,by the ,rev4 ,w4 ,,landels1 ,d4,d41 author of 8,the ,young ,man in the ,battle of ,life10 c4 #cs4 #f;d4 ,bible ,lore2 or1 ,brief ,studies on ,subjects relating to the ,holy ,scriptures4 ,by ,rev4 ,j4 ,,comper ,,gray2 author of 8,topics for ,teachers40 #cs4 #f;d4 ,,works ,,by ,,dr4 ,,pressens4 #a4 ,the ,early ,years of ,christianity4 ,a ,sequel to 8,jesus ,christ3 ,his ,times1 ,life1 and ,work40 #hvo1 #abs41 cloth4 #b4 ,the ,martyrs and ,apologists4 ,being the ,second ,volume of 8,the ,early ,years of ,christianity40 #hvo4 ,in the press4 #c4 ,jesus ,christ3 ,his ,times1 ,life1 and ,work4 ,third and ,cheaper ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #is41 cloth4 #d4 ,the ,mystery of ,suffering1 and ,other ,discourses4 ,new ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #cs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #e4 ,the ,land of the ,gospel3 ,notes of a ,journey in the ,east4 ,in crown #hvo1 #es41 cloth4 #f4 ,the ,church and the ,french ,revolution4 ,a ,history of the ,relations of ,church and ,state from #aghi to #ahjb4 ,in crown #hvo1 #is4 ,human ,power in the ,divine ,life2 or1 ,the ,active ,powers of the ,mind in ,relation to ,religion4 ,by the ,rev4 ,,nicholas ,,bishop1 ,m4,a4 ,crown #hvo1 #fs4 ,,by ,j4 ,,baldwin ,,brown1 ,b4,a4 #a4 ,the ,first ,principles of ,ecclesiastical ,truth4 #hvo1 #ajs4 #f;d4 #b4 ,the ,divine ,mysteries2 the ,divine ,treatment of ,sin1 and the ,divine ,mystery of ,peace4 ,new ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #gs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #c4 ,misread ,passages of ,scripture4 ,new ,edition4 #cs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #d4 ,misread ,passages of ,scripture4 ,second ,series1 crown #hvo1 #cs4 #f;d4 #e4 ,idolatries1 ,old and ,new3 ,their ,cause and ,cure4 #es4 #f4 ,the ,divine ,life in ,man4 ,second ,edition4 #gs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #g4 ,the ,doctrine of the ,divine ,fatherhood in ,relation to the ,atonement4 #as4 #f;d41 cloth4 ,,by ,,rev4 ,,charles ,,stanford4 #a4 ,symbols of ,christ4 ,second ,edition4 #cs4 #f;d4 ,small crown #hvo1 cloth4 #b4 ,central ,truths4 ,third ,edition4 ,small crown #hvo1 price #cs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #c4 ,power in ,weakness3 ,memorials of the ,rev4 ,william ,rhodes4 ,new ,edition4 #cs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #d4 ,instrumental ,strength3 ,thoughts for ,students and ,pastors4 ,crown #hvo1 price #as41 cloth4 #e4 ,joseph ,alleine3 ,his ,companions and ,times4 ,second ,thousand4 ,crown #hvo1 #ds4 #f;d4 ,the ,prophecies of ,our ,lord and ,his ,apostles4 ,a ,series of ,discourses delivered in the ,cathedral ,church of ,berlin4 ,by ,w4 ,,hoffmann1 ,d4,d41 ,chaplain-in-,ordinary to the ,king of ,prussia4 ,crown #hvo1 #gs4 #f;d41 cloth4 ,incidents in the ,life of ,edward ,wright4 ,including ,reference to his ,work among the ,thieves of ,london4 ,by ,,edward ,,leach1 author of 8,sketches of ,christian ,work among the ,lowly40 ,crown #hvo1 #es41 with ,portrait4 ,christian ,work on the ,battle ,field4 ,being incidents of the ,labours of the ,united ,states' ,christian ,commission4 ,with an ,historical ,essay on the ,influence of ,christianity in ,alleviating the ,horrors of ,war4 ,eight full-page ,illustrations4 ,crown #hvo1 #fs4 ,the ,history of the ,church in the ,eighteenth and ,nineteenth ,centuries4 ,by ,k4 ,r4 ,,hagenbach1 ,d4,d41 ,professor of ,theology in the ,university of ,basle1 author of 8,german ,rationalism40 ,translated by ,,john ,f4 ,,hurst1 ,d4,d4 ,in #b vols41 #hvo1 #bds4 cloth4 ,masterpieces of ,pulpit ,eloquence4 ,ancient and ,modern1 with ,historical ,sketches of ,preaching in the ,different ,countries represented1 and ,biographical and ,critical ,notices of the several ,preachers and their ,discourses4 ,by ,,henry ,c4 ,,fish1 ,d4,d4 ,in #b vols4 #hvo1 cloth1 #bas4 ,,by ,,joseph ,,parker1 ,d4,d4 #a4 ,ad ,clerum3 ,advices to a ,young ,preacher4 ,crown #hvo1 #es4 #b4 ,the ,city ,temple3 ,sermons ,preached in the ,poultry ,chapel1 #ahfi-gj4 #hvo1 #fs4 #c4 ,a ,homiletic ,analysis of the ,gospel according to ,st4 ,matthew4 ,with an ,introductory ,essay on the ,life of ,jesus ,christ1 considered as an appeal to the imagination4 ,in #hvo1 price #gs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #d4 ,springdale ,abbey3 ,extracts from the ,diaries and ,letters of an ,english ,preacher4 #hvo1 #gs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #e4 ,ecce ,deus3 ,essays on the ,life and ,doctrine of ,jesus ,christ4 ,fourth ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #es4 ,the ,epistle to the ,hebrews3 a ,popular ,exposition4 ,by ,rev4 ,r4 ,w4 ,,dale1 ,m4,a41 author of 8,week-day ,sermons40 ,second and ,cheaper ,edition4 #fs4 ,discourses ,delivered on ,special ,occasions4 ,by the same author4 ,crown #hvo1 #fs4 ,,by ,,rev4 ,e4 ,,paxton ,,hood4 #a4 ,dark ,sayings on a ,harp1 and other ,sermons on some of the ,dark ,questions of ,human ,life4 ,new ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #fs4 #b4 ,lamps1 ,pitchers1 and ,trumpets3 ,lectures on the ,vocation of the ,preacher4 ,illustrated by ,anecdotes--,biographical1 ,historical1 and ,elucidatory--of every order of ,pulpit ,eloquence1 from the ,great ,preachers of all ,ages4 ,second ,thousand4 #ajs4 #f;d41 cloth4 #c4 ,the ,world of ,anecdote3 ,an ,accumulation of ,facts1 ,incidents1 and ,illustrations--,historical and ,biographical--from ,books and ,times1 ,recent and ,remote4 ,second ,thousand4 ,large crown #hvo1 #ajs4 #f;d41 cloth1 #gjj pp4 #d4 ,the ,world of ,religious ,anecdote4 ,being a ,second ,series of 8,the ,world of ,anecdote40 #hvo1 #ajs4 #f;d4 ,the ,pulpit ,analyst4 ,designed for ,preachers1 ,students1 and ,teachers4 ,vols4 ,i4 to ,v41 price #gs4 #f;d4 each1 handsomely bound in cloth4 ,the ,daily ,prayer-,book1 for the ,use of ,families1 with additional ,prayers for ,special ,occasions4 ,edited by ,,john ,,stoughton1 ,d4,d4 ,crown #hvo1 #es41 cloth2 or morocco antique1 #ajs4 #f;d4 ,the ,gospel according to ,st4 ,mark4 ,a ,new ,translation1 with ,critical ,notes and ,doctrinal ,lessons4 ,by ,,john ,h4 ,,godwin1 author of 8,a ,new ,translation of ,st4 ,matthew's ,gospel10 etc4 #ds4 #f;d41 cloth4 ,remarkable ,facts3 ,illustrative and ,confirmatory of ,different ,portions of ,holy ,scripture4 ,by the late ,rev4 ,j4 ,,leifchild1 ,d4,d41 with a ,preface by his son4 ,new and ,cheaper ,edition1 #cs4 #f;d4 ,credo4 ,crown #hvo1 #es41 cloth4 ,the ,state of the ,blessed ,dead4 ,advent ,sermons4 ,by the ,very ,rev4 ,,henry ,,alford1 ,d4,d41 ,dean of ,canterbury4 ,third ,thousand4 ,square #afmo1 #as4 #f;d41 cloth4 ,the ,coming of the ,bridegroom4 ,advent ,sermons4 ,by the same author4 ,uniform with above4 ,square #afmo1 #as4 #f;d4 ,the ,theology of the ,new ,testament3 ,a ,handbook for ,bible ,students4 ,by the ,rev4 ,j4 ,j4 ,,van ,,oosterzee1 ,d4,d4 ,translated by the ,rev4 ,m4 ,j4 ,,evans1 ,b4,a4 ,crown #hvo1 #fs41 cloth4 ,the ,son of ,man3 ,discourses on the ,humanity of ,jesus ,christ4 ,delivered at ,paris and ,geneva4 ,with an ,address on the ,teaching of ,jesus ,christ4 ,by ,,frank ,,coulin1 ,d4,d4 ,fcap4 #hvo4 #es4 ,the ,melody of the ,twenty-third ,psalm4 ,by ,,anna ,,warner4 ,square #afmo1 #bs41 cloth4 ,the ,song of ,christ's ,flock in the ,twenty-third ,psalm4 ,third ,edition4 ,crown #hvo1 #cs4 #f;d41 cloth4 ,the ,heritage of ,peace2 or1 ,christ our ,life4 ,by ,t4 ,s4 ,,childs1 ,d4,d4 ,square #afmo1 #bs41 cloth4 ,ancient ,hymns and ,poems2 chiefly from ,st4 ,ephrem1 of ,syra1 ,prudentius1 ,pope ,gregory the ,first1 and ,st4 ,bernard4 ,translated and imitated by the ,rev4 ,t4 ,g4 ,,crippen4 ,fcap4 #hvo1 price #bs41 cloth1 red edges4 ,,london3 ,,hodder ,,stoughton1 #bg1 ,,paternoster ,,row4