Here are old trees--tall oaks and gnarled pines--
That stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground
Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring up
Unsown, and die ungathered.
II.
It is sweet
To linger here, among the flitting birds
And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds
That shake the leaves, and scatter as they pass,
A fragrance from the cedars, thickly set
With pale blue berries. In these peaceful shades--
Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old--
My thoughts go up the long, dim path of years,
Back to the earliest days of liberty.
III.
O Freedom, thou art not, as poets dream,
A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs,
And wavy tresses, gushing from the cap
With which the Roman master crowned his slave
When he took off the gyves. A bearded man,
Armed to the teeth, art thou; one mailed hand
Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy brow,
Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred
With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs
Are strong with struggling.
IV.
Power at thee has launched
His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee;
They could not quench the life thou hast from Heaven.
Merciless power has dug thy dungeon deep,
And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires,
Have forged thy chain; yet while he deems thee bound,
The links are shivered, and the prison walls
Fall outward; terribly thou springest forth,
As springs the flame above a burning pile
And shoutest to the nations, who return
Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies.
V.
Thy birthright was not given by human hands;
Thou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields,
While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him,
To tend the quiet flock, and watch the stars,
And teach the reed to utter simple airs.
Thou, by his side, amid the tangled wood,
Didst war upon the panther and the wolf,
His only foes; and thou with him didst draw
The earliest furrows on the mountain-side,
Soft with the deluge.
VI.
Tyranny himself,
Thy enemy, although of reverend look,
Hoary with many years, and far obeyed,
Is later born than thou; and as he meets
The grave defiance of thine elder eye,
The usurper trembles in his fastnesses.
VII.
O, not yet
Mayst thou unbrace thy corselet, nor lay by
Thy sword; nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lids
In slumber; for thine enemy never sleeps,
And thou must watch and combat till the day
Of the new earth and heaven.
VIII.
But wouldst thou rest
Awhile from tumult and the frauds of men,
These old and friendly solitudes invite
Thy visit. They, while yet the forest trees
Were young upon the unviolated earth,
And yet the moss-stains on the rock were new,
Beheld thy glorious childhood, and rejoiced.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY.
FROM A SPEECH BEFORE THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF FRANCE, 1789.
1. I hear much said of patriotism, appeals to patriotism, transports of
patriotism. Gentlemen, why prostitute this noble world? Is it so very
magnanimous to give up a part of your income in order to save your whole
property? This is very simple arithmetic; and he that hesitates,
deserves contempt rather than indignation.
2. Yes, gentlemen, it is to your immediate self-interest, to your most
familiar notions of prudence and policy that I now appeal. I say not to
you now, as heretofore, beware how you give the world the first example
of an assembled nation untrue to the public faith.
3. I ask you not, as heretofore, what right you have to freedom, or what
means of maintaining it, if, at your first step in administration, you
outdo in baseness all the old and corrupt governments. I tell you, that
unless you prevent this catastrophe, you will all be involved in the
general ruin; and that you are yourselves the persons most deeply
interested in making the sacrifices which the government demands of you.
4. I exhort you, then, most earnestly, to vote these extraordinary
supplies; and God grant they may prove sufficient! Vote, then, I beseech
you; for, even if you doubt the expediency of the means, you know
perfectly well that the supplies are necessary, and that you are
incapable of raising them in any other way. Vote them at once, for the
crisis does not admit of delay; and, if it occurs, we must be
responsible for the consequences.
5. Beware of asking for time. Misfortune accords it never. While you are
lingering, the evil day will come upon you. Why, gentlemen, it is but a
few days since, that upon occasion of some foolish bustle in the Palais
Royal, some ridiculous insurrection that existed nowhere but in the
heads of a few weak or designing individuals, we were told with
emphasis, "Catiline is at the gates of Rome, and yet we deliberate."
6. We know, gentlemen, that this was all imagination. We are far from
being at Rome; nor is there any Catiline at the gates of Paris. But now
are we threatened with a real danger; bankruptcy, national bankruptcy,
is before you; it threatens to swallow up your persons, your property,
your honor,--and yet you deliberate.
MIRABEAU.
THE LANTERN BEARERS.
1. These boys congregated every autumn about a certain easterly
fisher-village, where they tasted in a high degree the glory of
existence. The place was created seemingly on purpose for the diversion
of young gentlemen. A street or two of houses, mostly red and many of
them tiled; a number of fine trees clustered about the manse and the
kirkyard, and turning the chief street into a shady alley; many little
gardens more than usually bright with flowers; nets a-drying, and
fisher-wives scolding in the backward parts; a smell of fish, a genial
smell of seaweed; whiffs of blowing sand at the street corners; shops
with golf-balls and bottled lollipops; such, as well as memory serves
me, were the ingredients of the town.
2. These, you are to conceive posted on a spit between two sandy bays,
and sparsely flanked with villas--enough for the boys to lodge in with
their subsidiary parents, not enough (not yet enough) to cocknify the
scene; a haven in the rocks in front: in front of that, a file of gray
islets; to the left, endless links and sand wreaths, a wilderness of
hiding-holes, alive with popping rabbits and soaring gulls: to the
right, a range of seaward crags, one rugged brow beyond another; the
ruins of a mighty and ancient fortress on the brink of one; coves
between--now charmed into sunshine quiet, now whistling with wind and
clamorous with bursting surges; the dens and sheltered hollows redolent
of thyme and southernwood, the air at the cliff's edge brisk and clean
and pungent of the sea--in front of all, the Bass Rock, tilted seaward
like a doubtful bather, the surf ringing it with white, the solan-geese
hanging round its summit like a great and glittering smoke.
3. This choice piece of seaboard was sacred, besides, to the wrecker;
and the Bass, in the eye of fancy, still flew the colors of King James;
and in the ear of fancy the arches of Tantallon still rang with
horse-shoe iron, and echoed to the commands of Bell--the--Cat.
4. ... But what my memory dwells upon the most was a sport peculiar to
the place, and indeed to a week or so of our two months' holiday there.
Maybe it still flourishes in its native spot; for boys and their
pastimes are swayed by periodic forces inscrutable to man; so that tops
and marbles reappear in their due season, regular like the sun and moon;
and the harmless art of knuckle-bones has seen the fall of the Roman
empire and the rise of the United States.
5. It may still flourish in its native spot, but nowhere else, I am
persuaded; for I tried myself to introduce it on Tweed-side, and was
defeated lamentably; its charm being quite local, like a country wine
that cannot be exported.
6. The idle manner of it was this: Toward the end of September, when
school-time was drawing near and the nights were already black, we would
begin to sally from our respective villas, each equipped with a tin
bull's-eye lantern. The thing was so well known that it had worn a rut
in the commerce of Great Britain; and the grocers, about the due time,
began to garnish their windows with our particular brand of luminary. We
wore them buckled to the waist upon a cricket belt, and over them, such
was the rigour of the game, a buttoned top-coat. They smelled noisomely
of blistered tin; they never burned aright, though they would always
burn our fingers; their use was naught; the pleasure of them merely
fanciful; and yet a boy with a bull's-eye under his top-coat asked for
nothing more.
7. The fishermen used lanterns about their boats, and it was from them,
I suppose, that we had got the hint; but theirs were not bull's-eyes,
nor did we ever play at being fishermen. The police carried them at
their belts, and we had plainly copied them in that; yet we did not
pretend to be policemen. Burglars, indeed, we may have had some haunting
thoughts of; and we had certainly an eye to past ages when lanterns were
more common, and to certain story-books in which we had found them to
figure very largely. But take it for all in all, the pleasure of the
thing was substantive, and to be a boy with a bull's-eye under his
top-coat was good enough for us.
8. When two of these asses met, there would be an anxious "Have you got
your lantern?" and a gratified "Yes!" That was the shibboleth, and very
needful too; for, as it was the rule to keep our glory contained, none
could recognize a lantern bearer, unless (like the pole-cat) by the
smell. Four or five would sometimes climb into the belly of a ten-man
lugger, with nothing but the thwarts above them--for the cabin was
usually locked, or choose out some hollow of the links where the wind
might whistle overhead. There the coats would be unbuttoned and the
bull's-eyes discovered; and in the chequering glimmer, under the huge
windy hall of the night, and cheered by a rich steam of toasting
tinware, these fortunate young gentlemen would crouch together in the
cold sands of the links or on the scaly bilges of the fishing-boat, and
delight themselves with inappropriate talk.
9. Woe is me that I may not give some specimens--some of their
foresights of life, or deep inquiries into the rudiments of man and
nature, these were so fiery and so innocent, they were so richly silly,
so romantically young. But the talk at any rate was but a condiment; and
these gatherings themselves only accidents in the career of the lantern
bearer. The essence of this bliss was to walk by yourself in the black
night; the slide shut, the top-coat buttoned; not a ray escaping,
whether to conduct your footsteps or to make your glory public: a mere
pillar of darkness in the dark; and all the while, deep down in the
privacy of your fool's heart, to know you had a bull's-eye at your belt,
and to exult and sing over the knowledge.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
TARPEIA.
Woe: lightly to part with one's soul as the sea with its foam!
Woe to Tarpeia, Tarpeia, daughter of Rome!
Lo, now it was night, with the moon looking chill as she went:
It was morn when the innocent stranger strayed into the tent.
The hostile Sabini were pleased, as one meshing a bird;
She sang for them there in the ambush: they smiled as they heard.
Her sombre hair purpled in gleams, as she leaned to the light;
All day she had idled and feasted, and now it was night.
The chief sat apart, heavy-browed, brooding elbow on knee;
The armlets he wore were thrice royal, and wondrous to see:
Exquisite artifice, work of barbaric design,
Frost's fixed mimicry; orbic imaginings fine
In sevenfold coils: and in orient glimmer from them,
The variform voluble swinging of gem upon gem.
And the glory thereof sent fever and fire to her eye.
"I had never such trinkets!" she sighed,--like a lute was her sigh.
"Were they mine at the plea, were they mine for the token, all told,
Now the citadel sleeps, now my father the keeper is old,"
"If I go by the way that I know, and thou followest hard,
If yet at the touch of Tarpeia the gates be unbarred?"
The chief trembled sharply for joy, then drew rein on his soul:
"Of all this arm beareth I swear I will cede thee the whole."
And up from the nooks of the camp, with hoarse plaudit outdealt,
The bearded Sabini glanced hotly, and vowed as they knelt,
Bare-stretching the wrists that bore also the glowing great boon:
"Yea! surely as over us shineth the lurid low moon,
"Not alone of our lord, but of each of us take what he hath!
Too poor is the guerdon, if thou wilt but show us the path!"
Her nostril upraised, like a fawn's on the arrowy air,
She sped, in a serpentine gleam to the precipice stair.
They climbed in her traces, they closed on their evil swift star:
She bent to the latches, and swung the huge portal ajar.
Repulsed where they passed her, half-tearful for wounded belief,
"The bracelets!" she pleaded. Then faced her, the leonine chief,
And answered her: "Even as I promised, maid-merchant, I do."
Down from his dark shoulder the baubles he sullenly drew.
"This left arm shall nothing begrudge thee. Accept. Find it sweet.
Give, too, O my brothers!" The jewels he flung at her feet,
The jewels hard heavy; she stooped to them, flushing with dread,
But the shield he flung after: it clanged on her beautiful head.
Like the Apennine bells when the villagers' warnings begin,
Athwart the first lull broke the ominous din upon din;
With a "Hail, benefactress!" upon her they heaped in their zeal
Death: agate and iron; death: chrysoprase, beryl and steel.
'Neath the outcry of scorn, 'neath the sinewy tension and hurl,
The moaning died slowly, and still they massed over the girl
A mountain of shields! and the gemmy hight tangle in links,
A torrent-like gush, pouring out on the grass from the chinks,
Pyramidal gold! the sumptuous monument won
By the deed they had loved her for, doing, and loathed her for, done.
Such was the wage that they paid her, such the acclaim:
All Rome was aroused with the thunder that buried her shame.
On surged the Sabini to battle. O you that aspire!
Tarpeia the traitor had fill of her woman's desire.
Woe: lightly to part with one's soul as the sea with its foam!
Woe to Tarpeia, Tarpeia, daughter of Rome!
LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY.
THE BELLS.
I.
Hear the sledges with the bells--
Silver bells.
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight,
Keeping, time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells--
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II.
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
All in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells,
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells--
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III.
Hear the loud alarum bells--
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled air of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire.
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now--now to sit, or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear, it fully knows,
By the twanging
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells--
Of the bells--
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells--
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV.
Hear the tolling of the bells--
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
With the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people--ah, the people--
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone--
They are neither man nor woman--
They are neither brute nor human--
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells,
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells--
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells--
Of the bells, bells, bells--
To the sobbing of the bells,
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells--
Of the bells, bells, bells,
To the tolling of the bells--
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells;
Bells, bells, bells--
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells!
E. A. POE.
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.
1. Some men look upon this temperance cause as a whining bigotry, narrow
asceticism, or a vulgar sentimentality, fit for little minds, weak
women, and weaker men. On the contrary, I regard it as second only to
one or two others of the primary reforms of the age, and for this
reason: every race has its peculiar temptation; every clime has its
specific sin.
2. The tropics and tropical races are tempted to one form of sensuality;
the colder and temperate regions, and our Saxon blood, find their
peculiar temptation in the stimulus of drink and food. In old times our
heaven was a drunken revel. We relieve ourselves from the over-weariness
of constant and exhausting toil by intoxication. Science has brought a
cheap means of drunkenness within the reach of every individual.
3. National prosperity and free institutions have put into the hands of
almost every workman the means of being drunk for a week on the labor of
two or three hours. With that blood and that temptation, we have adopted
democratic institutions, where the law has no sanctions but the purpose
and virtue of the masses. The statute book rests not on bayonets, as in
Europe, but on the hearts of the people.
4. A drunken people can never be the basis of a free government. It is
the corner-stone neither of virtue, prosperity, nor progress. To us,
therefore, the title-deeds of whose estates, and the safety of whose
lives depend upon the tranquility of the streets, upon the virtue of the
masses, the presence of any vice which brutalizes the average mass of
mankind, and tends to make it more readily the tool of intriguing and
corrupt leaders, is necessarily a stab at the very life of the nation.
Against such a vice is marshalled the Temperance Reformation.
5. That my sketch is no fancy picture every one of you knows. Every one
of you can glance back over your own path, and count many and many a one
among those who started from the goal at your side, with equal energy
and perhaps greater promise, who has found a drunkard's grave long
before this. The brightness of the bar, the ornament of the pulpit, the
hope and blessing and stay of many a family--you know, every one of you
who has reached middle life, how often on your path you set up the
warning, "Fallen before the temptations of the street!"
6. Hardly one house in this city, whether it be full and warm with all
the luxury of wealth, or whether it find hard, cold maintenance by the
most earnest economy; no matter which--hardly a house that does not
count among sons or nephews some victim of this vice. The skeleton of
this warning sits at every board. The whole world is kindred in this
suffering. The country mother launches her boy with trembling upon the
temptations of city life; the father trusts his daughter anxiously to
the young man she has chosen, knowing what a wreck intoxication may make
of the house-tree they set up.
7. Alas! how often are their worst forebodings more than fulfilled! I
have known a case--probably many of you recall some almost equal to
it--where one worthy woman could count father, brother, husband, and
son-in-law all drunkards--no man among her near kindred, except her
son, who was not a victim of this vice. Like all other appetites, this
finds resolution weak when set against the constant presence of
temptation.
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE.
I.
Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan--twenty miles away!
II.
And wilder still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon's bar;
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold,
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
And Sheridan--twenty miles away!
III.
But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down;
And there, through the flush of the morning light,
A steed as black as the steeds of night,
Was seen to pass as with eagle flight--
As if he knew the terrible need,
He stretched away with the utmost speed;
Hills rose and fell--but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away!
IV.
Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering South,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster;
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battlefield calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away!
V.
Under his spurning feet the road
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind;
And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire,
Swept on with his wild eyes full of fire.
But lo! he is nearing his heart's desire--
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away!
VI.
The first that the General saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;
What was done--what to do--a glance told him both,
Then striking his spurs with a muttered oath,
He dashed down the line 'mid a storm of huzzahs,
And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because
The sight of the master compelled it to pause.
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye, and his red nostril's play,
He seemed to the whole great army to say,
"I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day!"
VII.
Hurrah, hurrah for Sheridan!
Hurrah, hurrah for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high,
Under the dome of the Union sky--
The American soldier's temple of Fame,--
There, with the glorious General's name,
Be it said in letters both bold and bright:
"Here is the steed that saved the day,
By carrying Sheridan into the fight
From Winchester--twenty miles away!"
T. B. READ.
TO A PUPIL.
Is reform needed? Is it through you?
The greater the reform needed, the greater the
Personality you need to accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood,
complexion, clean and sweet?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a body and
soul that when you enter the crowd an atmosphere of
desire and command enters with you, and every one is
impressed with your Personality?
O the magnet! the flesh over and over!
Go dear friend, if need be give up all else and commence
to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem,
definiteness, elevatedness,
Rest not till you rivet and publish yourself of your own Personality.
WALT WHITMAN.
_CHAPTER IV._
FORMING PICTURES.
THE PICKWICKIANS ON ICE.
1. "Now," said Wardle, after a substantial lunch, with the agreeable
items of strong beer and cherry-brandy, had been done ample justice to,
"what say you to an hour on the ice? We shall have plenty of time."
"Capital!" said Mr. Benjamin Allen.
"Prime!" ejaculated Mr. Bob Sawyer.
"You skate, of course, Winkle?" said Wardle.
2. "Ye--yes; oh, yes!" replied Mr. Winkle. "I--am rather out of
practice."
"Oh, do skate, Mr. Winkle," said Arabella. "I like to see it so much!"
"Oh, it is so graceful!" said another young lady.
A third young lady said it was elegant, and a fourth expressed her
opinion that it was "swan-like."
3. "I should be very happy, I am sure," said Mr. Winkle, reddening; "but
I have no skates."
This objection was at once overruled. Trundle had got a couple of pair,
and the fat boy announced that there were half a dozen more down-stairs;
whereat Mr. Winkle expressed exquisite delight, and looked exquisitely
uncomfortable.
4. Old Wardle led the way to a pretty large sheet of ice; and, the fat
boy and Mr. Weller having shovelled and swept away the snow which had
fallen on it during the night, Mr. Bob Sawyer adjusted his skates with a
dexterity which to Mr. Winkle was perfectly marvellous, and described
circles with his left leg, and cut figures of eight, and inscribed upon
the ice, without once stopping for breath, a great many other pleasant
and astonishing devices, to the excessive satisfaction of Mr. Pickwick,
Mr. Tupman, and the ladies; which reached a pitch of positive enthusiasm
when old Wardle and Benjamin Allen, assisted by the aforesaid Bob
Sawyer, performed some mystic evolutions, which they called a reel.
5. All this time Mr. Winkle, with his face and hands blue with the cold,
had been forcing a gimlet into the soles of his feet, and putting his
skates on with the points behind, and getting the straps into a very
complicated and entangled state, with the assistance of Mr. Snodgrass,
who knew rather less about skates than a Hindoo. At length, however,
with the assistance of Mr. Weller, the unfortunate skates were firmly
screwed and buckled on, and Mr. Winkle was raised to his feet.
6. "Now, then, sir," said Sam, in an encouraging tone, "off with you,
and show 'em how to do it."
"Stop, Sam, stop!" said Mr. Winkle, trembling violently, and clutching
hold of Sam's arms with the grasp of a drowning man. "How slippery it
is, Sam!"
"Not an uncommon thing upon ice, sir," replied Mr. Weller. "Hold up,
sir."
This last observation of Mr. Weller's bore reference to a demonstration
Mr. Winkle made, at the instant, of a frantic desire to throw his feet
in the air, and dash the back of his head on the ice.
7. "These--these--are very awkward skates, ain't they, Sam?" inquired
Mr. Winkle, staggering.
"I'm afeered there's an orkard gen'lm'n in 'em, sir," replied Sam.
"Now, Winkle," cried Mr. Pickwick, quite unconscious that there was
anything the matter. "Come; the ladies are all anxiety."
"Yes, yes," replied Mr. Winkle with a ghastly smile, "I'm coming."
"Just a-goin' to begin," said Sam, endeavoring to disengage himself.
"Now, sir, start off."
8. "Stop an instant, Sam," gasped Mr. Winkle, clinging most
affectionately to Mr. Weller. "I find I've got a couple of coats at home
that I don't want, Sam. You may have them, Sam."
"Thankee, Sir," replied Mr. Weller.
"Never mind touching your hat, Sam," said Mr. Winkle hastily. "You
needn't take your hand away to do that. I meant to have given you five
shillings this morning for a Christmas-box, Sam. I'll give it to you
this afternoon, Sam."
"You're wery good, sir," replied Mr. Weller.
"Just hold me at first, Sam, will you?" said Mr. Winkle. "There, that's
right. I shall soon get in the way of it, Sam. Not too fast, Sam; not
too fast!"
9. Mr. Winkle stooping forward, with his body half doubled up, was being
assisted over the ice by Mr. Weller, in a very singular and un-swan-like
manner, when Mr. Pickwick most innocently shouted from the opposite
bank,--
"Sam!"
"Sir?" said Mr. Weller.
"Here! I want you."
"Let go, sir," said Sam; "don't you hear the governor a-callin'? Let go,
sir."
10. With a violent effort Mr. Weller disengaged himself from the grasp
of the agonized Pickwickian; and, in so doing, administered a
considerable impetus to the unhappy Mr. Winkle. With an accuracy which
no degree of dexterity or practice could have insured, that unfortunate
gentleman bore swiftly down into the centre of the reel, at the very
moment when Mr. Bob Sawyer was performing a flourish of unparalleled
beauty. Mr. Winkle struck wildly against him, and with a loud crash they
fell heavily down. Mr. Pickwick ran to the spot. Bob Sawyer had risen
to his feet; but Mr. Winkle was far too wise to do anything of the kind
in skates. He was seated on the ice, making spasmodic efforts to smile;
but anguish was depicted on every lineament of his countenance.
11. "Are you hurt?" inquired Mr. Benjamin Allen with great anxiety.
"Not much," said Mr. Winkle, rubbing his back very hard.
"I wish you would let me bleed you," said Mr. Benjamin Allen with great
eagerness.
"No, thank you," replied Mr. Winkle hurriedly.
"I really think you had better," said Mr. Allen.
"Thank you," replied Mr. Winkle, "I'd rather not."
"What do you think, Mr. Pickwick?" inquired Bob Sawyer.
12. Mr. Pickwick was excited and indignant. He beckoned to Mr. Weller,
and said in a stern voice, "Take his skates off."
"No; but really I had scarcely begun," remonstrated Mr. Winkle.
"Take his skates off," repeated Mr. Pickwick firmly.
The command was not to be resisted. Mr. Winkle allowed Sam to obey it in
silence.
"Lift him up," said Mr. Pickwick. Sam assisted him to rise.
13. Mr. Pickwick retired a few paces apart from the by-standers; and,
beckoning his friend to approach, fixed a searching look upon him, and
uttered in a low but distinct and emphatic tone, these remarkable words:
"You're a humbug, sir."
"A what?" said Mr. Winkle, starting.
"A humbug, sir. I will speak plainer if you wish it. An imposter, sir."
With these words Mr. Pickwick turned slowly on his heel, and rejoined
his friends.
14. While Mr. Pickwick was delivering himself of the sentiment just
recorded, Mr. Weller and the fat boy, having by their joint endeavors
cut out a slide, were exercising themselves thereupon in a very masterly
and brilliant manner. Sam Weller, in particular, was displaying that
beautiful feat of fancy sliding, which is currently denominated
"knocking at the cobbler's door," and which is achieved by skimming over
the ice on one foot, and occasionally giving a twopenny postman's knock
upon it with the other. It was a good long slide; and there was
something in the motion which Mr. Pickwick, who was very cold with
standing still, could not help envying.
15. "It looks a nice warm exercise, that, doesn't it?" he inquired of
Wardle, when that gentleman was thoroughly out of breath by reason of
the indefatigable manner in which he had converted his legs into a pair
of compasses, and drawn complicated problems on the ice.
"Ah, it does, indeed," replied Wardle. "Do you slide?"
"I used to do so on the gutters, when I was a boy," replied Mr.
Pickwick.
"Try it now," said Wardle.
"Oh, do please, Mr. Pickwick!" cried all the ladies.
"I should be very happy to afford you any amusement," replied Mr.
Pickwick; "but I haven't done such a thing these thirty years."
16. "Pooh! pooh! nonsense!" said Wardle, dragging off his skates with
the impetuosity which characterized all his proceedings. "Here! I'll
keep you company; come along." And away went the good-tempered old
fellow down the slide with a rapidity which came very close upon Mr.
Weller, and beat the fat boy all to nothing.
Mr. Pickwick paused, considered, pulled off his gloves, and put them in
his hat, took two or three short runs, balked himself as often, and at
last took another run, and went slowly and gravely down the slide, with
his feet about a yard and a quarter apart, amidst the gratified shouts
of all the spectators.
17. "Keep the pot a-bilin', sir," said Sam; and down went Wardle again,
and then Mr. Pickwick, and then Sam, and then Mr. Winkle, and then Mr.
Bob Sawyer, and then the fat boy, and then Mr. Snodgrass, following
closely upon each other's heels, and running after each other with as
much eagerness as if all their future prospects in life depended on
their expedition.
18. It was the most intensely interesting thing to observe the manner in
which Mr. Pickwick performed his share in the ceremony; to watch the
torture of anxiety with which he viewed the person behind gaining upon
him at the imminent hazard of tripping him up; to see him gradually
expend the painful force which he had put on at first, and turn slowly
round on the slide, with his face towards the point from which he
started; to contemplate the playful smile which mantled on his face when
he had accomplished the distance, and the eagerness with which he turned
round when he had done so, and ran after his predecessor, his black
gaiters tripping pleasantly through the snow, and his eyes beaming
cheerfulness and gladness through his spectacles. And when he was
knocked down, (which happened upon the average every third round), it
was the most invigorating sight that could possibly be imagined, to
behold him gather up his hat, gloves, and handkerchief with a glowing
countenance, and resume his station in the rank with an ardor and
enthusiasm which nothing could abate.
19. The sport was at its height, the sliding was at the quickest, the
laughter was at the loudest, when a sharp, smart crack was heard. There
was a quick rush towards the bank, a wild scream from the ladies, and a
shout from Mr. Tupman. A large mass of ice disappeared, the water
bubbled up over it, and Mr. Pickwick's hat, gloves, and handkerchief
were floating on the surface; and this was all of Mr. Pickwick that
anybody could see.
20. Dismay and anguish were depicted on every countenance; the males
turned pale, and the females fainted; Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle
grasped each other by the hand, and gazed at the spot where their leader
had gone down, with frenzied eagerness; while Mr. Tupman, by way of
rendering the promptest assistance, and at the same time conveying to
any person who might be within hearing the clearest possible notion of
the catastrophe, ran off across the country at his utmost speed,
screaming "Fire!" with all his might and main.
21. It was at this very moment, when old Wardle and Sam Weller were
approaching the hole with cautious steps and Mr. Benjamin Allen was
holding a hurried consultation with Mr. Bob Sawyer on the advisability
of bleeding the company generally, as an improving little bit of
professional practice,--it was at this very moment that a face, head,
and shoulders emerged from beneath the water, and disclosed the features
and spectacles of Mr. Pickwick.
22. "Keep yourself up for an instant, for only one instant," bawled Mr.
Snodgrass.
"Yes--do: let me implore you--for my sake," roared Mr. Winkle, deeply
affected. The adjuration was rather unnecessary; the probability being,
that, if Mr. Pickwick had not decided to keep himself up for anybody
else's sake, it would have occurred to him that he might as well do so
for his own.
"Do you feel the bottom there, old fellow?" said Wardle.
"Yes--certainly," replied Mr. Pickwick, wringing the water from his head
and face, and gasping for breath. "I fell upon my back. I couldn't get
on my feet at first."
23. The clay upon so much of Mr. Pickwick's coat as was yet visible bore
testimony to the accuracy of this statement; and, as the fears of the
spectators were still further relieved by the fat boy's suddenly
recollecting that the water was nowhere more than five feet deep,
prodigies of valor were performed to get him out. After a vast quantity
of splashing and cracking and struggling, Mr. Pickwick was at length
fairly extricated from his unpleasant situation, and once more stood on
dry land.
24. Mr. Pickwick was wrapped up, and started off for home, presenting
the singular phenomenon of an elderly gentleman dripping wet, and
without a hat, with his arms bound down to his sides, skimming over the
ground without any clearly defined purpose, at the rate of six good
English miles an hour.
CHARLES DICKENS.
THE REALM OF FANCY.
I.
Ever let the Fancy roam;
Pleasure never is at home:
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;
Then let winged Fancy wander
Through the thought still spread beyond her:
Open wide the mind's cage-door,
She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.
II.
O sweet Fancy! let her loose;
Summer's joys are spoilt by use,
And the enjoying of the Spring
Fades as does its blossoming;
Autumn's red-lipp'd fruitage too,
Blushing through the mist and dew,
Cloys with tasting: What do then?
Sit thee by the ingle, when
The sear faggot blazes bright,
Spirit of a winter's night;
When the soundless earth is muffled,
And the caked snow is shuffled
From the ploughboy's heavy shoon;
When the Night doth meet the Noon
In a dark conspiracy
To banish Even from her sky.
III.
Sit thee there, and send abroad,
With a mind self-overaw'd,
Fancy, high-commission'd:--send her!
She has vassals to attend her:
She will bring, in spite of frost,
Beauties that the earth hath lost;
She will bring thee, all together,
All delights of summer weather;
All the buds and bells of May,
From dewy sward of thorny spray;
All the heaped Autumn's wealth,
With a still, mysterious stealth:
IV.
She will mix these pleasures up
Like three fit wines in a cup,
And thou shalt quaff it:--thou shalt hear
Distant harvest-carols clear;
Rustle of the reaped corn;
Sweet birds antheming the morn:
And, in the same moment--hark!
'Tis the early April lark,
Or the rooks, with busy caw,
Foraging for sticks and straw.
V.
Thou shalt, at one glance, behold
The daisy and the marigold;
White-plumed lilies, and the first
Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst;
Shaded hyacinth, alway
Sapphire queen of the mid-May;
And every leaf, and every flower
Pearled with the self-same shower.
VI.
Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep
Meagre from its celled sleep;
And the snake all winter-thin
Cast on sunny bank its skin;
Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see
Hatching in the hawthorn-tree,
When the hen-bird's wing doth rest
Quiet on her mossy nest;
Then the hurry and alarm
When the bee-hive casts its swarm;
Acorns ripe down-pattering,
While the autumn breezes sing.
VII.
Oh, sweet Fancy! let her loose;
Everything is spoilt by use:
Where's the cheek that doth not fade,
Too much gazed at? Where's the maid
Whose lip mature is ever new?
Where's the eye, however blue,
Doth not weary? Where's the face
One would meet in every place?
Where's the voice, however soft,
One would hear so very oft?
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth.
VIII.
Let then winged Fancy find
Thee a mistress to thy mind:
Dulcet-eyed as Ceres' daughter,
Ere the God of Torment taught her
How to frown and how to chide;
With a waist and with a side
White as Hebe's, when her zone
Slipt its golden clasp, and down
Fell her kirtle to her feet,
While she held the goblet sweet,
And Jove grew languid.--Break the mesh
Of the Fancy's silken leash;
Quickly break her prison-string,
And such joys as these she'll bring.
--Let the winged Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.
J. KEATS.
THE BATTLE OF NASEBY.
I.
Oh, wherefore come ye forth, in triumph from the north,
With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red?
And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout?
And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which we tread?
II.
Oh, evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit,
And crimson was the juice of the vintage that ye trod;
For we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong,
Who sat in the high places, and slew the saints of God.
III.
It was about the noon of a glorious day in June,
That we saw their banner's dance, and their cuirasses shine:
And the Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair,
And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine.
IV.
Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword,
The general rode along us, to form us to the fight,
When a murmuring sound broke out, and swelled into a shout,
Among the godless horsemen, upon the tyrant's right.
V.
And, hark! like the roar of the billows on the shore,
The cry of battle rises along their charging line!
For God! for the Cause! for the Church! for the Laws!
For Charles, king of England, and Rupert of the Rhine!
VI.
The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums,
His bravoes of Alsatia, and pages of Whitehall;
They are bursting on our flanks. Grasp your pikes, close your ranks,
For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall.
VII.
They are here! They rush on! We are broken! We are gone!
Our left is borne before them like stubble on the blast.
O Lord, put forth thy might! O Lord, defend the right!
Stand back to back, in God's name, and fight it to the last.
VIII.
Stout Skippon hath a wound; the center hath given ground;
Hark! hark! What means this trampling of horsemen in our rear?
Whose banner do I see, boys? 'Tis he, thank God! 'tis he, boys.
Bear up another minute: brave Oliver is here.
IX.
Their heads all stooping low, their points all in a row,
Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on the dykes;
Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the Accurst,
And at a shock have scattered the forest of his pikes.
X.
Fast, fast, the gallants ride, in some safe nook to hide
Their coward heads, predestined to rot on Temple Bar;
And he--he turns, he flies:--shame on those cruel eyes
That bore to look on torture, and dare not look on war.
LORD MACAULAY.
THE GLORIES OF MORNING.
1. I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from
Providence to Boston; and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the
morning. Everything around was wrapt in darkness and hushed in silence,
broken only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of
the train. It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night--the sky was without
a cloud--the winds were whist. The moon, then in the last quarter, had
just risen, and the stars shone with a spectral lustre but little
affected by her presence. Jupiter two hours high, was the herald of the
day; the Pleiades, just above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in
the east; Lyra sparkled near the zenith; the steady pointers, far
beneath the pole, looked meekly up from the depths of the north to their
sovereign.
2. Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we
proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the
intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little
children, went first to rest; the sister-beams of the Pleiades soon
melted together; but the bright constellations of the west and north
remained unchanged. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands
of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens;
the glories of night dissolved into the glories of dawn.
3. The blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch-stars shut
up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple
soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with
the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from
above in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we reached the
Blue Hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon,
and turned the dewy tear-drops of flower and leaf into rubies and
diamonds. In a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were
thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for
the gaze of man, began his state.
4. I do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient Magians, who in
the morning of the world went up to the hill-tops of Central Asia, and,
ignorant of the true God, adored the most glorious work of his hand. But
I am filled with amazement, when I am told, that, in this enlightened
age and in the heart of the Christian world, there are persons who can
witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the Creator,
and yet say in their hearts, "There is no God."
EDWARD EVERETT.
THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.
I.
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purple wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
II.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl,--
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
III.
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
IV.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:
V.
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
O. W. HOLMES.
AUTUMN.
1. Once more I am upon this serene hill-top! The air is very clear, very
still, and very solemn or, rather, tenderly sad, in its serene
brightness. It is not that moist spring air, full of the smell of wood,
of the soil, and of the odor of vegetation, which warm winds bring to us
from the south.
2. It is not that summer atmosphere, full of alternations of haze and
fervent clearness, as if Nature were calling into life every day some
influence for its myriad children; sometimes in showers, and sometimes
with coercive heat upon root and leaf; and, like a universal
task-master, was driving up the hours to accomplish the labors of the
year.
3. No! In these autumn days there is a sense of leisure and of
meditation. The sun seems to look down upon the labors of its fiery
hands with complacency. Be satisfied, O seasonable Sun! Thou hast shaped
an ample year, and art garnering up harvests which well may swell thy
rejoicing heart with gracious gladness.
4. One who breaks off in summer, and returns in autumn to the hills,
needs almost to come to a new acquaintance with the most familiar
things. It is another world; or it is the old world a-masquerading; and
you halt, like one scrutinizing a disguised friend, between the obvious
dissemblance and the subtile likeness.
5. Southward of our front door there stood two elms, leaning their
branches toward each other, forming a glorious arch of green. Now, in
faint yellow, they grow attenuated and seem as if departing; they are
losing their leaves and fading out of sight, as trees do in twilight.
Yonder, over against that young growth of birch and evergreen, stood,
all summer long, a perfect maple-tree, rounded out on every side, thick
with luxuriant foliage, and dark with greenness, save when the morning
sun, streaming through it, sent transparency to its very heart.
6. Now it is a tower of gorgeous red. So sober and solemn did it seem
all summer, that I should think as soon to see a prophet dancing at a
peasant's holiday, as it transfigured to such intense gayety! Its
fellows, too, the birches and the walnuts, burn from head to foot with
fires that glow but never consume.
7. But these holiday hills! Have the evening clouds, suffused with
sunset, dropped down and become fixed into solid forms? Have the
rainbows that followed autumn storms faded upon the mountains and left
their mantles there? Yet, with all their brilliancy, how modest do they
seem; how patient when bare, or burdened with winter; how cheerful when
flushed with summer-green, and how modest when they lift up their
wreathed and crowned heads in the resplendent days of autumn!
8. I stand alone upon the peaceful summit of this hill, and turn in
every direction. The east is all a-glow; the blue north flushes all her
hills with radiance; the west stands in burnished armor; the southern
hills buckle the zone of the horizon together with emeralds and rubies,
such as were never set in the fabled girdle of the gods! Of gazing there
cannot be enough. The hunger of the eye grows by feeding.
9. Only the brotherhood of evergreens--the pine, the cedar, the spruce,
and the hemlock--refuse to join this universal revel. They wear their
sober green through autumn and winter, as if they were set to keep open
the path of summer through the whole year, and girdle all seasons
together with a clasp of endless green.
10. But in vain do they give solemn examples to the merry leaves which
frolic with every breeze that runs sweet riot in the glowing shades. Gay
leaves will not be counselled, but will die bright and laughing. But
both together--the transfigured leaves of deciduous trees and the calm
unchangeableness of evergreens--how more beautiful are they than either
alone! The solemn pine brings color to the cheek of the beeches, and the
scarlet and golden maples rest gracefully upon the dark foliage of the
million-fingered pine.
11. Lifted far above all harm of fowler or impediment of mountain, wild
fowl are steadily flying southward. The simple sight of them fills the
imagination with pictures. They have all summer long called to each
other from the reedy fens and wild oat-fields of the far north. Summer
is already extinguished there.
12. Winter is following their track, and marching steadily toward us.
The spent flowers, the seared leaves, the thinning tree-tops, the
morning frost, have borne witness of a change on earth; and these
caravans of the upper air confirm the tidings. Summer is gone; winter is
coming!
13. The wind has risen to-day. It is not one of those gusty, playful
winds that frolic with the trees. It is a wind high up in air, that
moves steadily, with a solemn sound, as if it were the spirit of summer
journeying past us; and, impatient of delay, it does not stoop to the
earth, but touches the tops of the trees, with a murmuring sound,
sighing a sad farewell and passing on.
14. Such days fill one with pleasant sadness. How sweet a pleasure is
there in sadness! It is not sorrow; it is not despondency; it is not
gloom! It is one of the moods of joy. At any rate I am very happy, and
yet it is sober, and very sad happiness. It is the shadow of joy upon
the soul! I can reason about these changes. I can cover over the dying
leaves with imaginations as bright as their own hues; and, by Christian
faith, transfigure the whole scene with a blessed vision of joyous dying
and glorious resurrection.
15. But what then? Such thoughts glow like evening clouds, and not far
beneath them are the evening twilights, into whose dusk they will soon
melt away. And all communions, and all admirations, and all
associations, celestial or terrene, come alike into a pensive sadness,
that is even sweeter than our joy. It is the minor key of our thoughts.
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
MIDSUMMER.
I.
Around this lovely valley rise
The purple hills of Paradise.
O, softly on yon banks of haze
Her rosy face the Summer lays!
Becalmed along the azure sky,
The argosies of Cloudland lie,
Whose shores, with many a shining rift,
Far off their pearl-white peaks uplift.
II.
Through all the long midsummer day
The meadow-sides are sweet with hay.
I seek the coolest sheltered seat,
Just where the field and forest meet,--
Where grow the pine trees tall and bland,
The ancient oaks austere and grand,
And fringy roots and pebbles fret
The ripples of the rivulet.
III.
I watch the mowers, as they go
Through the tall grass a white-sleeved row.
With even stroke their scythes they swing,
In tune their merry whetstones ring.
Behind, the nimble youngsters run,
And toss the thick swaths in the sun.
The cattle graze, while, warm and still,
Slopes the broad pasture, basks the hill,
And bright, where summer breezes break,
The green wheat crinkles like a lake.
IV.
The butterfly and humble bee
Come to the pleasant woods with me;
Quickly before me runs the quail,
Her chickens skulk behind the rail;
High up the lone wood-pigeon sits,
And the woodpecker pecks and flits,
Sweet woodland music sinks and swells,
The brooklet rings its tinkling bells,
The swarming insects drone and hum,
The partridge beats his throbbing drum,
The squirrel leaps among the boughs,
And chatters in his leafy house,
The oriole flashes by; and, look!
Into the mirror of the brook,
Where the vain bluebird trims his coat,
Two tiny feathers fall and float.
V.
As silently, as tenderly,
The down of peace descends on me.
O, this is peace! I have no need
Of friend to talk, of book to read.
A dear Companion here abides;
Close to my thrilling heart He hides;
The holy silence is His voice:
I lie and listen and rejoice.
J. T. TROWBRIDGE
THE KITTEN AND FALLING LEAVES.
I.
That way look, my Infant, lo!
What a pretty baby-show!
See the Kitten on the wall,
Sporting with the leaves that fall,
Withered leaves--one--two--and three--
From the lofty elder-tree!
II.
Through the calm and frosty air
Of this morning bright and fair,
Eddying round and round they sink
Slowly, slowly: one might think,
From the motions that are made,
Every little leaf conveyed
Sylph or Faery hither tending,--
To this lower world descending,
Each invisible and mute,
In his wavering parachute.
III.
--But the Kitten, how she starts,
Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts!
First at one, and then its fellow
Just as light and just as yellow;
There are many now--now one--
Now they stop and there are none.
What intenseness of desire
In her upward eye of fire!
IV.
With a tiger-leap half-way
Now she meets the coming prey,
Lets it go as fast, and then
Has it in her power again:
Now she works with three or four,
Like an Indian conjurer;
Quick as he in feats of art,
Far beyond in joy of heart.
V.
Were her antics played in the eye
Of a thousand standers-by,
Clapping hands with shout and stare,
What would little Tabby care
For the plaudits of the crowd?
Over happy to be proud,
Over wealthy in the treasure
Of her own exceeding pleasure!
VI.
Such a light of gladness breaks,
Pretty Kitten! from thy freaks,--
Spreads with such a living grace
O'er my little Dora's face;
Yes, the sight so stirs and charms
Thee, Baby, laughing in my arms,
That almost I could repine
That your transports are not mine,
That I do not wholly fare
Even as ye do, thoughtless pair!
And I will have my careless season
Spite of melancholy reason,
Will walk through life in such a way
That, when time brings on decay,
Now and then I may possess
Hours of perfect gladsomeness.
VII.
--Pleased by any random toy;
By a kitten's busy joy,
Or an infant's laughing eye
Sharing in the ecstasy;
I would fare like that or this,
Find my wisdom in my bliss;
Keep the sprightly soul awake,
And have faculties to take,
Even from things by sorrow wrought,
Matter for a jocund thought,
Spite of care, and spite of grief,
To gambol with Life's falling Leaf.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
SUMMER STORM.
I.
Untremulous in the river clear,
Toward the sky's image, hangs the imaged bridge;
So still the air that I can hear
The slender clarion of the unseen midge;
Out of the stillness, with a gathering creep,
Like rising wind in leaves, which now decreases,
Now lulls, now swells, and all the while increases,
The huddling trample of a drove of sheep
Tilts the loose planks, and then as gradually ceases
In dust on the other side; life's emblem deep,
A confused noise between two silences,
Finding at last in dust precarious peace.
II.
On the wide marsh the purple-blossomed grasses
Soak up the sunshine; sleeps the brimming tide,
Save when the wedge-shaped wake in silence passes
Of some slow water-rat, whose sinuous glide
Wavers the long green sedge's shade from side to side;
But up the west, like a rock-shivered surge,
Climbs a great cloud edged with sun-whitened spray;
Huge whirls of foam boil toppling o'er its verge,
And falling still it seems, and yet it climbs alway.
III.
Suddenly all the sky is hid
As with the shutting of a lid,
One by one great drops are falling
Doubtful and slow,
Down the pane they are crookedly crawling,
And the wind breathes low;
Slowly the circles widen on the river,
Widen and mingle, one and all;
Here and there the slenderer flowers shiver,
Struck by an icy rain-drop's fall.
IV.
Now on the hills I hear the thunder mutter,
The wind is gathering in the west;
The upturned leaves first whiten and flutter,
Then droop to a fitful rest;
Up from the stream with sluggish flap
Struggles the gull and floats away;
Nearer and nearer rolls the thunder-clap,
We shall not see the sun go down to-day:
Now leaps the wind on the sleepy marsh,
And tramples the grass with terrified feet,
The startled river turns leaden and harsh.
You can hear the quick heart of the tempest beat.
V.
Look! look! that livid flash!
And instantly follows the rattling thunder,
As if some cloud-crag, split asunder,
Fell, splintering with a ruinous crash,
On the Earth, which crouches in silence under;
And now a solid gray wall of rain
Shuts off the landscape, mile by mile;
For a breath's space I see the blue wood again,
And, ere the next heart-beat, the wind-hurled pile,
That seemed but now a league aloof,
Bursts crackling o'er the sun-parched roof;
Against the windows the storm comes dashing,
Through tattered foliage the hail tears crashing,
The blue lightning flashes,
The rapid hail clashes,
The white waves are tumbling,
And, in one baffled roar,
Like the toothless sea mumbling
A rock-bristled shore,
The thunder is rumbling
And crashing and crumbling,--
Will silence return never more?
VI.
Hush! Still as death,
The tempest holds his breath
As from a sudden will;
The rain stops short, but from the eaves
You see it drop, and hear it from the leaves,
All is so bodingly still;
Again, now, now, again
Plashes the rain in heavy gouts,
The crinkled lightning
Seems ever brightening,
And loud and long
Again the thunder shouts
His battle-song,--
One quivering flash,
One wildering crash,
Followed by silence dead and dull,
As if the cloud, let go,
Leapt bodily below
To whelm the earth in one mad overthrow,
And then a total lull.
VII.
Gone, gone, so soon!
No more my half-crazed fancy there
Can shape a giant in the air,
No more I see his streaming hair,
The writhing portent of his form;
The pale and quiet moon
Makes her calm forehead bare,
And the last fragments of the storm,
Like shattered rigging from a fight at sea,
Silent and few, are drifting over me.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
JAQUES' SEVEN AGES OF MAN.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits, and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then, the whining school-boy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping, like snail,
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then the soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like a pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange, eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
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Transcriber's note:
Spelling has been retained as in the original publication, including
"cocknify" on page 75 and "wery" on page 96. Changes have been made
as follows:
Page 26
a tax of pendantry
a tax of pedantry
Page 60
if its long for you to wait
if it's long for you to wait