_Love_.--What a beautiful fabric would be human nature--what a divine
guide would be human reason--if Love were indeed the stratum of the
one, and the inspiration of the other.
_The Pathetic and Sublime_.--What a world of reasonings, not
immediately obvious, did the sage of old open to our inquiry, when he
said that the pathetic was the truest source of the sublime.
_Fortune-telling by Gipsies_.--Very few men under thirty ever
sincerely refuse an offer of this sort. Nobody believes in these
predictions, yet every one likes hearing them.
_Gardening_.--'Tis a winning thing, a garden! It brings us an object
every day; and that's what I think a man ought to have if he wishes to
lead a happy life.
_Knaresbro' Castle_.--You would be at some loss to recognise now the
truth of old Leland's description of that once stout and gallant
bulwark of the north, when "he numbrid 11 or 12 toures in the walles
of the Castel, and one very fayre beside in the second area." In that
castle, the four knightly murderers of the haughty Becket (the Wolsey
of his age) remained for a whole year, defying the weak justice of the
times. There, too, the unfortunate Richard the Second,--the Stuart of
the Plantagenets--passed some portion of his bitter imprisonment.
And there, after the battle of Marston Moor, waved the banner of
the loyalists against the soldiers of Lilburn. It was made yet more
touchingly memorable at that time, as you may have heard, by an
instance of filial piety. The town was straitened for want of
provisions; a youth, whose father was in the garrison, was accustomed
nightly to get into the deep, dry moat, climb up the glacis, and put
provisions through a hole, where the father stood ready to receive
them. He was perceived at length; the soldiers fired on him. He was
taken prisoner, and sentenced to be hanged in sight of the besieged,
in order to strike terror into those who might be similarly disposed
to render assistance to the garrison. Fortunately, however, this
disgrace was spared the memory of Lilburne and the republican arms.
With great difficulty, a certain lady obtained his respite; and after
the conquest of the place, and the departure of the troops, the
adventurous son was released.... The castle then, once the residence
of Pierce Gaveston,--of Hubert III,--and of John of Gaunt, was
dismantled and destroyed. It is singular, by the way, that it was
twice captured by men of the name of Lilburn, or Lilleburne, once
in the reign of Edward II., once as I have related. On looking over
historical records, we are surprised to find how often certain great
names have been fatal to certain spots; and this reminds me that we
boast (at Knaresbro',) the origin of the English Sibyl, the venerable
Mother Shipton. The wild rock, at whose foot she is said to have been
born, is worthy of the tradition.
_Consolation for the Loss of Children._--Better that the light cloud
should fade away into Heaven with the morning breath, than travail
through the weary day to gather in darkness, and end in storm!
_Bells before a Wedding._--The bells were already ringing loud and
blithely; and the near vicinity of the church to the house brought
that sound, so inexpressibly buoyant and cheering, to the ears of the
bride, with a noisy merriment, that seemed like the hearty voice of
an old-fashioned friend who seeks, in his greeting, rather cordiality
than discretion.
_The Murderer's Unction._--Ay, all is safe! He will not again return;
the dead sleeps without a witness.--I may lay this working brain upon
the bosom that loves me, and not start at night and think that the
soft hand around my neck is the hangman's gripe.
_Hogarth._--Nothing makes a picture of distress more sad than the
portrait of some individual sitting indifferently looking on in the
back-ground. This was a secret Hogarth knew well. Mark his death-bed
scenes:--Poverty and Vice worked up into Horror--and the physicians
in the corner wrangling for the fee!--or the child playing with the
coffin--or the nurse filching what fortune, harsh, yet less harsh than
humanity, might have left.
_Change of Circumstance._--In our estimate of the ills of life, we
never sufficiently take into consideration the wonderful elasticity of
our moral frame, the unlooked for, the startling facility with which
the human mind accommodates itself to all change of circumstance,
making an object and even a joy from the hardest and seemingly the
least redeemed conditions of fate. The man who watched the spider in
his cell, may have taken, at least, as much interest in the watch, as
when engaged in the most ardent and ambitious objects of his
former life; and he was but a type of his brethren; all in similar
circumstances would have found similar occupation.
_Eternal Punishment._--So wonderful in equalizing all states and all
times in the varying tide of life, are the two rulers yet levellers of
mankind, Hope and Custom, that the very idea of an eternal punishment
includes that of an utter alteration of the whole mechanism of the
soul in its human state, and no effort of an imagination, assisted by
past experience, can conceive a state of torture, which custom can
_never_ blunt, and from which the chainless and immaterial spirit can
_never_ be beguiled into even a momentary escape.
_Prison Solitude._--I have been now so condemned to feed upon myself,
that I have become surfeited with the diet.--_Aram_.
_Sensibility._--We may triumph over all weaknesses but that of the
affections.
_Silence of Cities._--The stillness of a city is far more impressive
than that of Nature; for the mind instantly compares the present
silence with the wonted uproar.
_Suspense._--Of all the conditions to which the heart is subject,
suspense is the one that most gnaws, and cankers into the frame. One
little month of that suspense, when it involves death, we are told,
in a very remarkable work lately published by an eye-witness,[7]
is sufficient to plough fixed lines and furrows in a convict of
five-and-twenty--sufficient to dash the brown hair with grey, and to
bleach the grey to white.
[7] Wakefield on "The Punishment of Death."
_Consolation._--Her high and starry nature could comprehend those
sublime inspirations of comfort, which lift us from the lowest abyss
of this world to the contemplation of all that the yearning visions of
mankind have painted in another.
It is a fearful thing to see _men_ weep.
We are seldom sadder without being also wiser men.
What is more appalling than to find the signs of gaiety accompanying
the reality of anguish.
_Consolation._--If we go at noon day to the bottom of a deep pit,[8]
we shall be able to see the stars which on the level ground are
invisible. Even so, from the depths of grief--worn, wretched,
seared, and dying--the blessed apparitions and tokens of heaven make
themselves visible to our eyes.
[8] The remark is in Aristotle. Buffon quotes it in, I think, the
first volume of his great work.
_Progress of Crime._--Mankind are not instantly corrupted. Villany
is always progressive. We decline from right--not suddenly, but step
after step.--_Aram's Defence_.
* * * * *