s: And then, of a sudden, it--ah, but stay,


s: I'll tell you what happened without delay,


s: That the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.


s: Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,


s: There is always somewhere a weakest spot,--


s: In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,


s: In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,


s: In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still,


s: That a chaise breaks down, but doesn't wear out.


s: With an "I dew vum," or an "I tell yeou,")


s: He would build one shay to beat the taown


s: 'N' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun';


s: It should be so built that it couldn' break daown:


s: "Fur," said the Deacon, "'t's mighty plain


s: Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain;


s: T' make that place uz strong uz the rest."


s: So the Deacon inquired of the village folk


s: That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke,--


s: That was for spokes and floor and sills;


s: He sent for lancewood to make the thills;


s: The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees,


s: The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese,


s: But lasts like iron for things like these;


s: The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum,"--


s: Last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em,


s: And the wedges flew from between their lips,


s: Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips;


s: Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide;


s: There! said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!"


s: Children and grandchildren--where were they?


s: But there stood the stout old one-hoss shay


s: The Deacon's masterpiece strong and sound.


s: In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth,


s: Take it.--You're welcome.--No extra charge.)


s: FIRST OF November,--the Earthquake-day,--


s: There are traces of age in the one-hoss shay.


s: There couldn't be,--for the Deacon's art


s: That there wasn't a chance for one to start.


s: For the wheels were just as strong as the thills,


s: And the floor was just as strong as the sills,


s: And the panels just as strong as the floor,


s: And the whipple-tree neither less nor more,


s: And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore,


s: "Huddup!" said the parson.--Off went they.


s: The parson was working his Sunday's text,-


s: Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed


s: Then something decidedly like a spill,--


s: At half past nine by the meet'n'-house clock,--


s: As if it had been to the mill and ground!


s: You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,


s: Discoursed awhile, 'mongst other matter,


s: Stretched at its ease, the beast I viewed


s: "'Tis green, 'tis green, sir, I assure ye!"


s: "Why, sir!--d'ye think I've lost my eyes?"


s: "'Twere no great loss," the friend replies,


s: "Sirs," cries the umpire, "cease your pother!


s: "And I'll be sworn, that when you've seen


s: The reptile, you'll pronounce him green."


s: "Well, then, at once to ease the doubt,"


s: If you don't find him black, I'll eat him."


s: Produced the beast, and lo!--'twas white.


s: Both stared, the man looked wondrous wise--


s: (Then first the creature found a tongue),


s: A monk, when his rites sacerdotal were o'er,


s: In the depths of his cell with its stone-covered floor,


s: Resigning to thought his chimerical brain,


s: Once formed the contrivance we now shall explain;


s: But whether by magic's or alchemy's powers


s: We know not; indeed, 'tis no business of ours.


s: Perhaps it was only by patience and care,


s: At last, that he brought his invention to bear.


s: In youth 'twas projected, but years stole away,


s: And ere 'twas complete he was wrinkled and gray;


s: But success is secure, unless energy fails;


s: And at length he produced the Philosopher's Scales.


s: "What were they?" you ask.  You shall presently see;


s: These scales were not made to weigh sugar and tea.


s: Oh no; for such properties wondrous had they,


s: That qualities, feelings, and thoughts they could weigh,


s: Together with articles small or immense,


s: From mountains or planets to atoms of sense.


s: Naught was there so bulky but there it would lay,


s: And naught so ethereal but there it would stay,


s: And naught so reluctant but in it must go:


s: All which some examples more clearly will show.


s: The first thing he weighed was the head of Voltaire,


s: Which retained all the wit that had ever been there;


s: As a weight, he threw in the torn scrap of a leaf


s: Containing the prayer of the penitent thief;


s: When the skull rose aloft with so sudden a spell


s: That it bounced like a ball on the roof of the cell.


s: With the garment that Dorcas had made, for a weight;


s: And though clad in armor from sandals to crown,


s: The hero rose up and the garment went down.


s: By a well-esteemed Pharisee, busy and proud,


s: Next loaded one scale; while the other was pressed


s: By those mites the poor widow dropped into the chest:


s: Up flew the endowment, not weighing an ounce,


s: And down, down the farthing-worth came with a bounce.


s: He found that ten chariots weighed less than one plough;


s: A sword with gilt trappings rose up in the scale,


s: Though balanced by only a ten-penny nail;


s: A shield and a helmet, a buckler and spear,


s: Weighed less than a widow's uncrystallized tear.


s: When a bee chanced to light on the opposite scale;


s: Ten doctors, ten lawyers, two courtiers, one earl,


s: Ten counsellors' wigs, full of powder and curl,


s: All heaped in one balance and swinging from thence,


s: Weighed less than a few grains of candor and sense;


s: A first-water diamond, with brilliants begirt,


s: Than one good potato just washed from the dirt;


s: Yet not mountains of silver and gold could suffice


s: One pearl to outweigh,--'twas the Pearl of Great Price.


s: Last of all, the whole world was bowled in at the grate,


s: With the soul of a beggar to serve for a weight,


s: When the former sprang up with so strong a rebuff


s: That it made a vast rent and escaped at the roof!


s: When balanced in air, it ascended on high,


s: And sailed up aloft, a balloon in the sky;


s: While the scale with the soul in't so mightily fell


s: That it jerked the philosopher out of his cell.


s: "Wise sir, please tell me wherein lies--


s: He smiled, then bending plucked the flower,


s: "Who stuffed that white owl?  No one spoke in the shop:


s: The barber was busy, and he couldn't stop;


s: The customers, waiting their turns, were all reading


s: The Daily, the Herald, the Post, little heeding


s: The young man who blurted out such a blunt question;


s: Not one raised a head, or even made a suggestion;


s: How flattened the head is, how jammed down the neck is--


s: In short, the whole owl, what an ignorant wreck 'tis!


s: I've passed days and nights in a hundred collections,


s: And cannot be blinded to any deflections


s: Arising from unskilful fingers that fail


s: To stuff a bird right, from his beak to his tail.


s: Or you'll soon be the laughing-stock all over town!"


s: I've made the white owl my study for years,


s: And to see such a job almost moves me to tears!


s: To look at that owl really brings on a dizziness;


s: The man who stuffed him don't half know his business!"


s: Stuck up there so stiff like a side of coarse leather.


s: In fact, about him there's not one natural feather."


s: Just then, with a wink and a sly normal lurch,


s: The owl, very gravely, got down from his perch,


s: Walked round, and regarded his fault-finding critic


s: (Who thought he was stuffed) with a glance analytic


s: And then fairly hooted, as if he would say:


s: "Your learning's at fault this time, any way;


s: Don't waste it again on a live bird, I pray.


s: I'm an owl; you're another.  Sir Critic, good-day!"


s: If they hint, O Musician, the piece that you played


s: Is naught but a copy of Chopin or Spohr;


s: That the ballad you sing is but merely "conveyed"


s: From the stock of the Ames and the Purcells of yore;


s: That there's nothing, in short, in the words or the score,


s: Make answer--Beethoven could scarcely do more--


s: That the man who plants cabbages imitates, too!


s: If they tell you, Sir Artist, your light and your shade


s: Are simply "adapted" from other men's lore;


s: You've "stolen" your grouping from three or from four;


s: That (however the writer the truth may deplore),


s: 'Twas Gainsborough painted your "Little Boy Blue";


s: Smile only serenely--though cut to the core--


s: For the man who plants cabbages imitates, too!


s: If they whisper your Epic--"Sir Eperon d'Or"--


s: In a tissue that's taken from Morris's store;


s: That no one, in fact, but a child could ignore


s: That you "lift" or "accommodate" all that you do;


s: Take heart--though your Pegasus' withers be sore--


s: POSTCRIPTUM.--And you, whom we all so adore,


s: Dear Critics, whose verdicts are always so new!--


s: One word in your ear.  There were Critics before....


s: And the man who plants cabbages imitates, too!


s: And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to


s: When the flicker of London sun falls faint on the clubroom's


s: From the madding crowd they stand apart,


s: The Western one from the nameless place,


s: Who blushing said: "What a lovely vace!"


s: To crush the stranger with one small word.


s: She cries: "'Tis, indeed, a lovely vaze!"


s: With the consciousness of two grandpapas,


s: And glances round with an anxious thrill,


s: But the Boston maid smiles courteouslee,


s: I was so entranced with that charming vaws!"


s: While over his shoulder sneered these two,


s: And when he was done, "Do you think, my Lord,


s: Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;


s: When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;


s: And dreamed, and rested from his labors;


s: Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,


s: Scratched his head and kept on thinking;


s: Jim Bowker, he said, ef he'd had a fair show,


s: And a big enough town for his talents to grow,


s: And the least bit assistance in hoein' his row,


s: He'd filled the world full of the sound of his name,


s: An' clumb the top round in the ladder of fame;


s: But he had tarnal luck--everythin' went ag'in him,


s: The arrers er fortune they allus 'ud pin him;


s: So he didn't get no chance to show off what was in him.


s: Ef he'd had a fair show, you couldn't tell where he'd come,


s: An' the feats he'd a-done, an' the heights he'd a-clumb--


s: But we're all like Jim Bowker, thinks I, more or less--


s: Charge fate for our bad luck, ourselves for success,


s: An' give fortune the blame for all our distress,


s: Ef it hadn' been for luck an' misfortune an' sich,


s: We might a-been famous, an' might a-been rich.


s: What!  Be a great, tall, handsome beast,


s: Why!  You'd have to change your nature!"


s: Said he, "My friends, in course of time,


s: We are going to want the earth, and take


s: We are going to wear great piles of stuff


s: Cried all, "Before such things can come,


s: Have brains and hearts, and feel and know.


s: A calf walked home, as good calves should;


s: Through those old woods a path was made;


s: And through this winding wood-way stalked,


s: That bent, and turned, and turned again;


s: Ah! many things this tale might teach,--


s: "O come and be my mate!" said the Eagle to the Hen;


s: But I joy to see my mate careering through the sky!"


s: They wed, and cried, "Ah, this is Love, my own!"


s: And the Hen sat, and the Eagle soared, alone.


s: "O come and be my mate!" said the Lion to the Sheep;


s: But I joy to see my mate pursue, devour and kill."


s: And the Sheep browsed, the Lion prowled, alone.


s: "O come and be my mate!" said the Salmon to the Clam;


s: And I joy to have my mate traverse lake and stream and ocean!"


s: And the Clam sucked, the Salmon swam, alone.


s: Released, he hopefully for entrance cries


s: "Hast been through purgatory?" Brahma said.


s: "I have been married!" and he hung his head.


s: "Come in! come in! and welcome, too, my son!


s: In bliss extreme he entered heaven's door,


s: And knew the peace he ne'er had known before.


s: He scarce had entered in the gardens fair,


s: The self-same question Brahma asked again:


s: "Hast been through purgatory?"  "No; what then?"


s: "Thou canst not enter!" did the god reply.


s: "He who went in was there no more than I."


s: "All that is true, but he has married been,


s: And so on earth has suffered for all his sin."


s: "Married?  Tis well, for I've been married twice."


s: "Begone!  We'll have no fools, in paradise!"


s: He fought, he hacked, he crushed his way:


s: How, till you have him gagged and bound,


s: (God in the Garden laughed and frowned).


s: "There, equal, purged of soul and sense,


s: "Are women fair?"  Ay! wondrous fair to see too.


s: "Are women sweet?"  Yea, passing sweet they be too;


s: Most fair and sweet to them that only love them;


s: Chaste and discreet to all save those that prove them.


s: "Are women wise?"  Not wise, but they be witty.


s: "Are women witty?"  Yea, the more the pity;


s: That be you ne'er so wise, they will beguile ye.


s: "Are women fools?"  Not fools, but fondlings many.


s: When snow-white swans do turn to color sable,


s: Then women fond will be both firm and stable.


s: "Are women saints?"  No saints, nor yet no devils.


s: "Are women good?"  Not good, but needful evils;


s: So Angel-like, that devils I do not doubt them;


s: So needful evils, that few can live without them.


s: "Are women proud?"  Ay! passing proud, and praise them.


s: "Are women kind?"  Ay! wondrous kind and please them,


s: Or so imperious, no man can endure them,


s: Or so kind-hearted, any may procure them.


s: No man need boast their love possessing.


s: Bespoke the fair from whence she sprung,


s: "I'll soon with Jenny's pride quit score,


s: "What bait do you use," said a Saint to the Devil,


s: "When you fish where the souls of men abound?"


s: "Well, for special tastes," said the King of Evil,


s: "Gold and Fame are the best I've found."


s: "But for general use?" asked the Saint.  "Ah, then,"


s: Said the Demon, "I angle for Man, not men,


s: So I fish with a woman the whole year round."


s: When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,


s: He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside;


s: But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail,


s: For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.


s: When Nag, the wayside cobra, hears the careless foot of man,


s: He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can;


s: When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,


s: They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.


s: Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,


s: For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;


s: Man, a bear in most relations--worm and savage otherwise,--


s: Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.


s: Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact


s: To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.


s: Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,


s: To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.


s: Mirth obscene diverts his anger--Doubt and Pity oft perplex


s: Him in dealing with an issue--to the scandal of The Sex!


s: But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame


s: The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.


s: She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast


s: May not deal in doubt or pity--must not swerve for fact or jest.


s: These be purely male diversions--not in these her honor dwells.


s: She, the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.


s: She is wedded to convictions--in default of grosser ties;


s: Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies!--


s: Unprovoked and awful charges--even so the she-bear fights;


s: So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer


s: With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her


s: That hands like hers can touch the springs


s: That move who knows what men and things?


s: That on her will their fates have hung!--


s: As Tom and his wife were discoursing one day


s: Of their several faults in a bantering way,


s: I'm sure, my dear husband, our friends will attest


s: This much, at the least, that my judgment is best."


s: Quoth Tom, "So they said at our marriage."


s: And the former called the latter "Little Prig;"


s: Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;


s: That man's a fool who tries by art and skill


s: For if she will, she will; you may depend on't--


s: And if she won't, she won't--and there's an end on't.


s: Why should they make what all their lives


s: And pavements fanged with murderous stones,


s: And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;


s: Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,


s: If It be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai,


s: Does not the Young Man try Its temper and pace ere he buy?


s: If She be pleasant to look on, what does the Young Man say?


s: "Lo!  She is pleasant to look on, give Her to me today!"


s: Yea, though a Kaffir die, to him is remitted Jehannum


s: If he borrowed in life from a native at sixty per cent per annum.


s: Blister we not for bursati?  So when the heart is vexed,


s: Who are the rulers of Ind--to whom shall we bow the knee?


s: Make your peace with the women, and men will make you L. G.


s: Does the woodpecker flit round the young ferash?


s: Is she under thirty, the woman who holds a boy in her thrall?


s: If She grow suddenly gracious--reflect. Is it all for thee?


s: Seek not for favor of women.  So shall you find it indeed.


s: Does not the boar break cover just when you're lighting a weed?


s: With a "weed" among men or horses verily this is the best,


s: As the thriftless gold of the babul, so is the gold that we spend


s: The ways of a man with a maid be strange, yet simple and tame


s: In public Her face is averted, with anger She nameth thy name.


s: If She have spoken a word, remember thy lips are sealed,


s: My Son, if a maiden deny thee and scufflingly bid thee give o'er,


s: They are pecked on the ear and the chin and the nose


s: If we fall in the race, though we win, the hoof-slide is scarred


s: Though Allah and Earth pardon Sin, remaineth forever Remorse.


s: As in smooth oil the razor best is whet,


s: Their want of edge from their offence is seen,


s: Both pain the heart when exquisitely keen.


s: "If you're a fool, I think you're very wise;


s: If you are wise, I think you are a fool."


s: Philosopher, whom dost thou most affect,


s: Friend, 'tis my grave infrangible design


s: With those to study, and with these to dine.


s: Joy is the blossom, sorrow is the fruit,


s: Of human life; and worms are at the root.


s: No truer word, save God's, was ever spoken,


s: Than that the largest heart is soonest broken.


s: "Then tax receipts," Lord North replies,


s: You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come.


s: Knock as you please,--there's nobody at home.


s: Swans sing before they die--'twere no bad thing


s: Did certain persons die before they sing.


s: Should, in his mouth, be never without honey.


s: Who killed Kildare?  Who dared Kildare to kill?


s: Death killed Kildare--who dare kill whom he will.


s: When doctrines meet with general approbation,


s: Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?


s: Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.


s: God bless the King--I mean the faith's defender!


s: God bless (no harm in blessing!) the Pretender!


s: God bless us all!--that's quite another thing.


s: The Love, being naked, should promote a suit:


s: Whose fire's so oft extinguished by a match?


s: "Come, come," said Tom's father, "at your time of life,


s: There's no longer excuse for thus playing the rake.--


s: It is time you should think, boy, of taking a wife."--


s: Why, so it is, father,--whose wife shall I take?"


s: Whilst Adam slept, Eve from his side arose:


s: Strange! his first sleep should be his last repose!


s: "What? rise again with all one's bones,"


s: After such years of dissension and strife,


s: Some wonder that Peter should weep for his wife;


s: But his tears on her grave are nothing surprising,--


s: He's laying her dust, for fear of its rising.


s: A lovely young lady I mourn in my rhymes:


s: She was pleasant, good-natured, and civil sometimes.


s: Her figure was good: she had very fine eyes,


s: And her talk was a mixture of foolish and wise.


s: Her adorers were many, and one of them said,


s: "She waltzed rather well!  It's a pity she's dead!"


s: Where God talks to Jones in the very same tones


s: One for her Club and her own Latch-key fights,


s: Another wastes in Study her good Nights.


s: Ah, take the Clothes and let the Culture go,


s: Nor heed the grumble of the Women's Rights!


s: Look at the Shop-girl all about us--"Lo,


s: The Wages of a month," she says, "I blow


s: Doubtless my Friend will take me to the Show."


s: And she who saved her coin for Flannels red,


s: Will both be Underground in Fifty Years,


s: And Prudence pays no Premium to the dead.


s: Th' exclusive Style you set your heart upon


s: Cheers but a moment--soon for you 'tis gone.


s: Think, in the sad Four Hundred's gilded halls,


s: Whose endless Leisure ev'n themselves appalls,


s: How Ping-pong raged so high--then faded out


s: To those far Suburbs that still chase its Balls.


s: They say Sixth Avenue and the Bowery keep


s: The dernier cri that once was far from cheap;


s: Green veils, one season chic--Department stores


s: Mark down in vain--no profit shall they reap.


s: I sometimes think that never lasts so long


s: The Style as when it starts a bit too strong;


s: That all the Pompadours the parterre boasts


s: Some Chorus-girl began, with Dance and Song.


s: That fills the most of us with helpless Woe,


s: What long-necked Peeress had to wear it so!


s: Ah, my beloved, try each Style you meet;


s: To-day brooks no loose ends, you must be neat.


s: Wearing it down your back like Marguerite!


s: That ever a French hand-boned Corset prest,


s: Wore what they used to call Prunella Boots,


s: And put on Nightcaps ere they went to rest.


s: They wore, and whom their Crinoline appalls,


s: Ourselves shall from old dusty Fashion plates


s: Assist our Children in their Costume balls.


s: Ah, make the most of what we yet may wear,


s: Before we grow so old that we don't care!


s: Sans Plumes, sans Wings, sans Chiffon, and--sans Hair!


s: Alike to her who Dines both Loud and Long,


s: Or her who Banting shuns the Dinner-gong,


s: Some Doctor from his Office chair will shout,


s: "It makes no Difference--both of you are Wrong!"


s: Why, all the Health-Reformers who discussed


s: High Heels and Corsets learnedly are thrust


s: Square-toed and Waistless forth; their Duds are scorned,


s: And Venus might as well have been a Bust.


s: Delsarte and Ling, and heard great Argument


s: Of muscles trained to Hold me up, but still


s: Spent on my Modiste what I'd always spent!


s: With walking Clubs I did the best I could;


s: With my own Feet I tramped my Ten Miles, good;


s: I ate much more for Dinner than I should.


s: The Joy of Life from other people's Sprees;


s: The Art will not have Perished--au contraire,


s: When you and I have ceased Champagne to Sup,


s: Be sure there will be More to Keep it Up;


s: Full many a Girl will lead her Brindled Pup.


s: And finds, too late, that man won't bend,


s: But still they grew, and grew, and grew,


s: Have reared their stately heads so high,


s: Their leaves the dews of evening quaff,--


s: There's little Will, a five years' child--


s: "You are old, Father William," the young man said,


s: And yet you incessantly stand on your head--


s: Do you think, at your age, it is right?"


s: "In my youth," Father William replied to his son,


s: But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,


s: "You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,


s: Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--


s: "In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,


s: By the use of this ointment--one shilling the box--


s: "You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak


s: Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak--


s: "In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,


s: And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,


s: "You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose


s: Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--


s: "I have answered three questions and that is enough,"


s: Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!


s: Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?


s: Ring out, wild bells--and tame ones too;


s: Short-frocked, still yields me pinks in plenty;


s: I've more than once been scratched and bitten;


s: The blight, the wind, the sun, or shower


s: If you will not be angry at my, writing it--


s: But I've been used, since childhood's happy day,


s: When I have thought of something, to inditing it;


s: I seldom think of things; and, by the way,


s: Although this meter may not be exciting, it


s: Which is not what one always is in verse.


s: I used to know a man,--such things befall


s: The observant wayfarer through Fate's domain--


s: What statement is, since Shakespeare? or, since Cain,


s: What murder?  I believe 'twas Shakespeare said it, or


s: Perhaps it may have been your Fighting Editor.


s: Though why an Editor should fight, or why


s: For me to solve with any sort of credit.


s: Some greatly more accomplished man than I


s: Must tackle them: let's say then Shakespeare said it;


s: I should not mind dilating on this matter.


s: I feel its import both in head and heart,


s: Or on the lonely housetop; hold! this chatter


s: Diverts me from my purpose.  To the point:


s: The time, as Hamlet said, is out of joint,


s: And perhaps I was born to set it right,--


s: I don't see any cause for cursing in it.  I


s: In such pursuits since first I read divinity.


s: As long as I'm allowed to right its wrongs.


s: What's Eton but a nursery of wrong-righters,


s: A forcing-house of genius?  Now and then


s: The world at large shrinks back, abashed and beaten,


s: I don't suppose such knowledge is forbid.


s: We nearly all do, more or less, know men,--


s: But who this man was, what, if aught, he did,


s: Not a sou had he got--not a guinea or note--


s: As he bolted away without paying his shot,


s: All bare and exposed to the midnight dews,


s: And he looked like a gentleman taking a snooze


s: "The doctor's as drunk as the devil," we said,


s: We raised him; and sighed at the thought that his head


s: We bore him home, and we put him to bed,


s: To give him next morning a couple of red-


s: Loudly they talked of his money that's gone,


s: But little he recked, so they let him snore on


s: 'Neath the counterpane, just as we laid him.


s: We heard the rough voice of a son of a gun


s: A rushlight we placed on the cold hearth-stone,


s: "Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail,


s: "You can really have no notion how delightful it will be


s: "What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied.


s: "There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.


s: The further off from England the nearer is to France--


s: Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.


s: Then they praised him--called him "smart,"


s: One, who is not, we see: but one, whom we see not, is;


s: Surely this is not that: but that is assuredly this.


s: What, and wherefore, and whence? for under is over and under;


s: Doubt is faith in the main: but faith, on the whole, is doubt;


s: We cannot believe by proof: but could we believe without?


s: Why, and whither, and how? for barley and rye are not clover;


s: Neither are straight lines curves: yet over is under and over.


s: Two and two may be four: but four and four are not eight;


s: Fate and God may be twain: but God is the same thing as fate.


s: Ask a man what he thinks, and get from a man what he feels;


s: God, once caught in the fact, shows you a fair pair of heels.


s: Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which;


s: One and two are not one: but one and nothing is two;


s: Truth can hardly be false, if falsehood cannot be true.


s: Once the mastodon was: pterodactyls were common as cocks;


s: Then the mammoth was God; now is He a prize ox.


s: Parallels all things are: yet many of these are askew.


s: You are certainly I: but certainly I am not you.


s: Springs the rock from the plain, shoots the stream from the rock;


s: God, whom we see not, is: and God, who is not, we see;


s: Fiddle, we know, is diddle; and diddle, we take it, is dee.


s: Maidens of England, take caution by she!


s: And always remember to take the door-key.


s: Where'er there's a thistle to feed a linnet


s: Or an acorn-cup to catch dew-drops in it


s: For linnets will follow, if linnets are minded,


s: And ships will reel by the tempest blinded--


s: Aye, ships and shiploads of men to boot!


s: And we blow the thistle-down hither and thither


s: The dew! for its want an oak will wither--


s: But thistles were only for donkeys intended,


s: And that donkeys are common enough is clear,


s: And that drop! what a vessel it might have befriended,


s: Does it add any flavor to Glugabib's beer?


s: And her spectacles lay on her aproned knees.


s: The piper he piped on the hill-top high,


s: Till the cow said "I die," and the goose asked "Why?"


s: And the dog said nothing, but searched for fleas.


s: The farmer he strode through the square farmyard;


s: His last brew of ale was a trifle hard--


s: The connection of which with the plot one sees.


s: The farmer's daughter hath frank blue eyes;


s: She hears the rooks caw in the windy skies,


s: As she sits at her lattice and shells her peas.


s: The farmer's daughter hath ripe red lips;


s: If you try to approach her, away she skips


s: Over tables and chairs with apparent ease.


s: The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair;


s: And I met with a ballad, I can't say where,


s: Which wholly consisted of lines like these.


s: She sat, with her hands 'neath her dimpled cheeks,


s: And spake not a word.  While a lady speaks


s: There is hope, but she didn't even sneeze.


s: She sat, with her hands 'neath her crimson cheeks,


s: She gave up mending her father's breeks,


s: And let the cat roll in her new chemise.


s: She sat, with her hands 'neath her burning cheeks,


s: And gazed at the piper for thirteen weeks;


s: Then she followed him out o'er the misty leas.


s: Her sheep followed her, as their tails did them.


s: And this song is considered a perfect gem,


s: And as to the meaning, it's what you please.


s: She curved and writhed, and then she said,


s: She sobbed a blue-and-green-checked sob,


s: This week is the third since you began."


s: "I'm writing a ballad; be still if you can,


s: What chickens are these between sea and heaven?)"


s: "But why does your figure appear so lean,


s: And why do you dress in sage, sage green?"


s: "Children should never be heard, if seen,


s: What fowls are a-wing in the stormy heaven!)"


s: And why are your skirts so funnily tight?"


s: "Be quiet, you torment, or how can I write,


s: How gathers thy train to the sea from the heaven!)"


s: "And who's Mother Carey, and what is her train,


s: And why do you call her again and again?"


s: "You troublesome boy, why that's the refrain,


s: What work is toward in the startled heaven?)"


s: "And what's a refrain?  What a curious word,


s: Is the ballad you're writing about a sea-bird?"


s: "Not at all; why should it be?  Don't be absurd,


s: Thy brood flies lower as lowers the heaven.)"


s: "The refrain you've studied a meaning had,


s: It gave strange force to a weird ballad.


s: But refrains have become a ridiculous 'fad',


s: Has a bearing on nothing in earth or heaven.


s: "But the finical fashion has had its day,


s: And let's try in the style of a different lay


s: Collect your chickens and go to--heaven."


s: (A pause.  Then the big brother singeth, accompanying himself


s: "Look in my face.  My name is Used-to-was,


s: I am also called Played-out and Done-to-death,


s: The ballad-burden trick, now known too well,


s: Am turned to scorn, and grown contemptible--


s: "What a cheap dodge I am!  The cats who dart


s: Tin-kettled through the streets in wild surprise


s: And yet no critics praise the urchin's 'art',


s: Who to the wretched creature's caudal part


s: Its foolish empty-jingling 'burden' ties."


s: And life's swift stream flows straighter,


s: From the depth of the dreamy decline of the dawn through


s: Pallid and pink as the palm of the flag-flower that flickers


s: Are the looks of our lovers that lustrously lean from a marvel of


s: These that we feel in the blood of our blushes that thicken and


s: threaten with throbs through the throat?


s: Thicken and thrill as a theatre thronged at appeal of an actor's


s: Fainter with fear of the fires of the future than pale with the


s: Flushed with the famishing fulness of fever that reddens with


s: Gaunt as the ghastliest of glimpses that gleam through the gloom


s: Nay, for the nick of the tick of the time is a tremulous touch on


s: Strained as the sinews yet strenuous with strife of the dead who


s: Surely no soul is it, sweet as the spasm of erotic, emotional,


s: Bathed in the balms of beatified bliss, beatific itself by


s: Surely no spirit or sense of a soul that was soft to the spirit


s: Sweetens the stress of suspiring suspicion that sobs in the


s: Mild is the mirk and monotonous music of memory, melodiously mute


s: While the hope in the heart of a hero is bruised by the breach of


s: As they grope through the graveyard of creeds under skies growing


s: Blank is the book of his bounty beholden of old, and its binding


s: Out of blue into black is the scheme of the skies, and their dews


s: Till the darkling desire of delight shall be free as a fawn that


s: is freed from the fangs that pursue her,


s: Till the heart-beats of hell shall be hushed by a hymn from the


s: hunt that has harried the kennel of kings.


s: And the window-pane is blurred with rain


s: "Hath love an end, thou more than friend,


s: But I cannot speak, for my voice is weak,


s: To the dripping and the dropping of my tears.


s: And the debit and the credit are as one to him and me!


s: Lucre of the market, was the most that I could raise!


s: Devils held me for the inkstand and the pen;


s: Where the tempest whispers, "Pay him!" and I answer,


s: Maud only blushed, and stammered, "Ha-ow?"


s: And spoke of her "pa," and wondered whether


s: He'd give consent they should wed together.


s: Begged that the Judge would lend him "ten";


s: And the "craps," this year, were somewhat slow.


s: And the Judge was blest, but thought it strange


s: That bearing children made such a change.


s: For Maud grew broad, and red, and stout,


s: And the waist that his arm once clasped about


s: And thought of the twins, and wished that they


s: Looked less like the men who raked the hay


s: And the sentimental,--that's one-half "fudge";


s: And the Judge would have bartered Maud's fair face


s: And you should come to my cold corpse and say,


s: Weeping and heartsick o'er my lifeless clay--


s: And you should come in deepest grief and woe--


s: And say: "Here's that ten dollars that I owe,"


s: And you should come to my cold corpse and, kneel,


s: Clasping my bier to show the grief you feel,


s: And you should come to me, and there and then


s: The clear cool note of the cuckoo which has ousted the legitimate


s: The whistle of the railway guard dispatching the train to the


s: The maiden's monosyllabic reply to a polysyllabic proposal,


s: But better than all of them is the absolutely last chord of the


s: apparently inexhaustible pianoforte player.


s: "O crikey, Bill!" she ses to me, she ses.


s: "Look sharp," ses she, "with them there sossiges.


s: Yea! sharp with them there bags of mysteree!


s: For lo!" she ses, "for lo! old pal," ses she,


s: "I'm blooming peckish, neither more nor less."


s: Was it not prime--I leave you all to guess


s: How prime!--to have a Jude in love's distress


s: Come spooning round, and murmuring balmilee,


s: For in such rorty wise doth Love express


s: His blooming views, and asks for your address,


s: And makes it right, and does the gay and free.


s: Was pals.  And if that ain't good business,


s: And stretching of the hands, and blinded eyes,


s: And a, great darkness falling on my soul.


s: As the sin that was sweet in the sinning


s: Pass the pills on the window-sill; notice the capsule


s: (A sick man's fancy, no doubt, but I place


s: Reliance on trade-marks, Sir)--so perhaps you'll


s: Excuse the digression--this cup which I hold


s: Light-poised--Bah, it's spilt in the bed--well, let's on go--


s: Hold Bohea and sugar, Sir; if you were told


s: The sugar was salt, would the Bohea be Congo?


s: I called that milk"--she blushed with pride--


s: What a world of rapturous thought its fragrance brings to me!


s: But he always came home to tea, tea, tea, tea, tea,


s: (O weary mother, drive the cows to roost),


s: (O weary mother, drive the cows to roost);


s: (O weary mother, drive the cows to roost).


s: Many for you.  Allons, camerados, we will drink together,


s: Eighteen-pence if the bottles are returned.


s: Two voices are there: one is of the deep;


s: It learns the storm cloud's thunderous melody,


s: Now roars, now murmurs with the changing sea,


s: Now birdlike pipes, now closes soft in sleep;


s: And indicates that two and one are three,


s: That grass is green, lakes damp, and mountains steep:


s: And, Wordsworth, both are thine: at certain times,


s: Forth from the heart of thy melodious rhymes


s: The form and pressure of high thoughts will burst;


s: Than write such hopeless rubbish as thy worst.


s: But after all, there is not enough theology, good or bad, in


s: It is only incidentally, however, that the Professor at the


s: What he said, what he heard, and what he saw.


s: --Life is a great bundle of little things,--I said.


s: (NOW, THEN!) The great end of being, after all, is....


s: --I should think so,--said that young man whom I hear them call


s: You speak well, Madam,--I said;--yet there is room for a gloss or


s: --I don't know what you mean by "depolarizing" an idea,--said the


s: I will tell you,--I said.--When a given symbol which represents a


s: Our old friend, Dr. Holyoke, whom we gave the dinner to some time


s: Stop! stop!--I said,--let me come to you.


s: merchant, it was that blew them all to--


s: Never mind where he blew them to,--I said; for the little man was


s: This episode broke me up, as the jockeys say, out of my square


s: conversational trot; but I settled down to it again.


s: Here, look at medicine. Big wigs, gold-headed canes, Latin


s: --You don't know what I mean, indignant and not unintelligent


s: a little something of each other, and you don't think I am such a


s: --You don't know what plague has fallen on the practitioners of


s: --Resuming the conversation, I remarked,--I am, ex officio, as a


s: This remark was thought by some of us to have a hidden personal


s: --My friend who used to board here was accustomed sometimes, in a


s: --What shall I do with this little man?--There is only one thing


s: to do,--and that is to let him talk when he will. The day of the


s: --My friend,--said I to the young fellow whom, as I have said,


s: the boarders call "John,"--My friend,--I said, one morning, after


s: What! the Sculpin?--said the young fellow.


s: About the Sculpin?--said the young fellow.


s: Yes, yes,--I said, thoughtfully,--the strong hate the weak. It's


s: all right. The arrangement has reference to the race, and not to


s: festivals, beginning, "Aldiborontiphoscophornio, Where left you


s: --The gingerbread-rabbit expression was coming on so fast, that I


s: Drop him?--he answered,--I ha'n't took him up yet.


s: --Here we are, then, at our boarding--house. First, myself, the


s: Professor, a little way from the head of the table, on the right,


s: We must take care not to confound this frequent difficulty of


s: --Bridget enters and begins clearing the table.


s: Tell me, O Provincial! speak, Ceruleo-Nasal!


s: Lives there one De Sauty extant now among you,


s: Whispering Boanerges, son of silent thunder,


s: Is there a De Sauty, ambulant on Tellus,


s: Bifid-cleft like mortals, dormient in night-cap,


s: Having sight, smell, hearing, food-receiving feature


s: Breathes there such a being, O Ceruleo-Nasal?


s: Or is he a mythus,--ancient word for "humbug,"


s: --Such as Livy told about the wolf that wet-nursed


s: Was he born of woman, this alleged De Sauty?


s: Like the status bred in Crosses flint-solution?


s: Many things thou askest, jackknife-bearing stranger,


s: Pretermit thy whittling, wheel thine ear-flap toward me,


s: When the charge galvanic tingled through the cable,


s: Suddenly appeared a white-faced man among us


s: As the small opossum held in pouch maternal


s: Grasps the nutrient organ whence the term mammalia,


s: So the unknown stranger held the wire electric,


s: When the current strengthened, bloomed the pale-faced stranger,


s: Took no drink nor victual, yet grew fat and rosy,


s: And from time to time, in sharp articulation,


s: From the lonely station passed the utterance, spreading


s: Through the pines and hemlocks to the groves of steeples


s: Till the land was filled with loud reverberations


s: When the current slackened, drooped the mystic stranger,


s: Faded, faded, faded, as the stream grew weaker,


s: Wasted to a shadow, with a hartshorn odor


s: Drops of deliquescence glistened on his forehead,


s: Whitened round his feet the dust of efflorescence,


s: Till one Monday morning, when the flow suspended,


s: Nothing but a cloud of elements organic,


s: Born of stream galvanic, with it he had perished!


s: There is no De Sauty now there is no current!


s: Give us a new cable, then again we'll hear him


s: "Creation's heir,--the world, the world is"


s: The conscious water saw its Lord and blushed,


s: Alas for the loved one, too gentle and fair


s: The joys of the banquet to chasten and share!


s: Her eye lost its light that his goblet might shine,


s: And the rose of her cheek was dissolved in his wine!


s: Don't be "consistent,"--but be simply true.


s: grinding-down action.--Now give me a chance. Better eternal and


s: --Thought, conscience, will, to make them all thy own


s: He rent a pillar from the eternal throne!


s: --Made in His image, thou must nobly dare


s: The thorny crown of sovereignty to share.


s: --Think not too meanly of thy low estate;


s: Thou hast a choice; to choose is to create!


s: But, after all, here is a great fact between us. We belong to two


s: B.--Second voice, or Mental Barytone,--my running accompaniment.


s: A.--White lace, three skirts, looped with flowers, wreath of


s: --I should like to ask,--said the divinity-student,--since we are


s: --I thought it best not to hear this question.


s: --The young fellow called John arose and placed himself in a neat


s: Salem! Salem! not Boston,--shouted the little man.


s: But the Koh-i-noor laughed a great rasping laugh, and the boy


s: --Do you know Richardson's Dictionary?--I said to my neighbor the


s: --Boston has enough of England about it to make a good English


s: I turned and looked him full in the face,--for the pure, manly


s: intonations arrested me. The voice was youthful, but full of


s: You're go'n' to have a young lady next you, if you wait till


s: --So we are to have a new boarder to-morrow. I hope there will be


s: voice, and finished in alto rilievo, would be a variety in the


s: Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys?


s: If there has, take him out, without making a noise!


s: Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite!


s: Old Time is a liar!  We're twenty to-night!


s: We're twenty!  We're twenty!  Who says we are more?


s: He's tipsy,--young jackanapes!--show him the door!


s: --"Gray temples at twenty?"--Yes! white, if we please;


s: Where the snow-flakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze!


s: Was it snowing I spoke of?  Excuse the mistake!


s: Look close,--you will see not a sign of a flake;


s: We want some new garlands for those we have shed,


s: And these are white roses in place of the red!


s: We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told.


s: Of talking (in public) as if we were old;


s: That boy we call Doctor, (1) and this we call Judge (2)


s: --It's a neat little fiction,--of course it's all fudge.


s: That fellow's the Speaker, (3)--the one on the right;


s: Mr. Mayor, (4) my young one, how are you to-night?


s: That's our "Member of Congress,"(5) we say when we chaff;


s: There's the "Reverend" (6) What's his name?--don't make me laugh!


s: That boy with the grave mathematical look(7)


s: Made believe he had written a wonderful book,


s: And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true!


s: So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too.


s: There's a boy,--we pretend,--with a three-decker-brain


s: That could harness a team with a logical chain:


s: When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire,


s: We called him "The Justice,"--but now he's "The Squire."(1)


s: And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith,(2)


s: Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith,


s: But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,


s: --Just read on his medal,--"My country,--of thee!"


s: You hear that boy laughing?--you think he's all fun,


s: But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;


s: The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,


s: And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!(3)


s: Yes, we're boys,--always playing with tongue or with pen,


s: --And I sometimes have asked,--Shall we ever be men?


s: Shall we always be youthful and laughing and gay,


s: Till the last dear companion drops smiling away?


s: Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray!


s: The stars of its Winter, the dews of its May!


s: And when we have done with our life-lasting toys,


s: Dear Father, take care of thy children, the Boys!


s: I see that they have crowded the chairs a little at that end of


s: the table, to make room for another newcomer of the lady sort. A


s: well-mounted, middle-aged preparation, wearing her hair without a


s: were fifty-eight separate pieces in a fiddle. How many "swimming


s: "--misera ante diem, subitoque accensa furore;"


s: "Ergo Iris croceis per coelum roscida pennis


s: Mille trahens varios adverso Sole colores,"


s: "Iris shall be her name!"--he said. So her name was Iris.


s: In some cases it takes a great many years to kill a tutor by the


s: crystallization to scholars, and you can never get them away till


s: So it was with this child. She had glanced off from her parental


s: By-and-by she went to school, and caricatured the schoolmaster on


s: Yet no man was known to have loved her, or even to have offered


s: to her.--Well,--these are two highly oxygenated adverbs,


s: In the little southern parlor of the house you may have seen


s: Stood the London-made piano I am dreaming of to-night.


s: Ah me! how I remember the evening when it came!


s: What a cry of eager voices, what a group of cheeks in flame,


s: When the wondrous boa was opened that had come from over seas,


s: With its smell of mastic-varnish and its flash of ivory keys!


s: Then the children all grew fretful in the restlessness of joy,


s: For the boy would push his sister, and the sister crowd the boy,


s: Till the father asked for quiet in his grave paternal way,


s: For the dear soul knew that music was a very sovereign balm;


s: She had sprinkled it over Sorrow and seen its brow grow calm,


s: In the days of slender harpsichords with tapping tinkling quills,


s: So Mary, the household minstrel, who always loved to please,


s: Sat down to the new "Clementi," and struck the glittering keys.


s: Hushed were the children's voices, and every eye grew dim,


s: As, floating from lip and finger, arose the "Vesper Hymn."


s: --Catharine, child of a neighbor, curly and rosy-red,


s: (Wedded since, and a widow,--something like ten years dead,)


s: Hearing a gush of music such as none before,


s: Steals from her mother's chamber and peeps at the open door.


s: Just as the "Jubilate" in threaded whisper dies,


s: --"Open it! open it, lady!" the little maiden cries,


s: I don't know whether our literary or professional people are more


s: The Rev.  Mr. Overcome, by the Clergyman of this Parish.


s: Misses Dorcas, Tabitha, Rachel, and Hannah, Overcome, by their


s: All I meant to say, when I began, was, that this was not a


s: surprise-party where I read these few lines that follow:


s: two feathered songsters of the barnyard, game and dunghill, come


s: --America, Sir,--he exclaimed,--is the only place where man is


s: antagonistically, and in the soul of an American to whom it is


s: --What do you mean by the provisional races, Sir?--said the


s: Well, Sir, these races dying out, the white man has to acclimate


s: himself. It takes him a good while; but he will come all right


s: And what of Philadelphia?--said the Marylander.


s: And what do you say to New York?--asked the Koh-i-noor.


s: I tell you what, Sir,--with all these magnificent appliances of


s: warmed with their contact:--John Wilkes's--the ugliest man's in


s: Like many other old women, she shows a great nervousness and


s: The poor boarder in bombazine is my dynamometer. I try every


s: Romance! Was there ever a boarding-house in the world where the


s: I should stir him, quiet as you think him. A heart which has been


s: bullfinch; but a wild heart which has never been fairly broken in


s: I could never meet an Irish gentleman--if it had been the Duke of


s: I have been worried to know whether this was owing to some innate


s: anthropophagus of me, or to some law of thought for which I was


s: It suddenly occurred to me what I had been doing, and I saw the


s: He, (the person I have been speaking of,)--she said,--seemed to


s: be kinder hankerin' round after that young woman. It had hurt her


s: I think Iris loves to hear the Little Gentleman talk. She smiles


s: Here are some lines I read to the boarders the other day:--


s: --The gap that struck our schoolboy trail,


s: --Though many a rood might stretch between,


s: The Professor finds a Fly in his Teacup.


s: that silences all complainings! Sleep, sleep, sleep! says the


s: repetition of an effete Confession of Faith?


s: In 1817, perhaps you remember, the law of wager by battle was


s: of semi-barbarism": invasive procedures for the prolongation


s: of death rather than prolongation of life; "faith" as slimly


s: based as medieval faith in minute differences between


s: control and treated groups; statistical manipulation to


s: prove a prejudice.  Medicine has a good deal to answer for!


s: Danger to truth,--he replied, after a slight pause.


s: If a minister had attended lectures on the theory and practice of


s: That was the end of my long conference with the divinity-student.


s: You must look to yourself,--said the divinity-student,--if your


s: --Humility is the first of the virtues--for other people.


s: I don't mind the exclamation of any old stager who drinks Madeira


s: --I should be sorry,--I remarked, a day or two afterwards, to the


s: How sweet the sacred legend--if unblamed


s: In my slight verse such holy things are named


s: Silent, but pondering on her wondrous boy!


s: Those heavenly words that shame my earthly song!


s: The choral host had closed the angel's strain


s: Sung to the midnight watch on Bethlehem's plain;


s: And now the shepherds, hastening on their way,


s: Sought the still hamlet where the Infant lay.


s: They passed the fields that gleaning Ruth toiled O'er,


s: They saw afar the ruined threshing-floor


s: Where Moab's daughter, homeless and forlorn,


s: Found Boaz slumbering by his heaps of corn;


s: And some remembered how the holy scribe,


s: Skilled in the lore of every jealous tribe,


s: Traced the warm blood of Jesse's royal son


s: To that fair alien, bravely wooed and won.


s: So fared they on to seek the promised sign


s: That marked the anointed heir of David's line.


s: At last, by forms of earthly semblance led,


s: They found the crowded inn, the oxen's shed.


s: No pomp was there, no glory shone around


s: On the coarse straw that strewed the reeking ground;


s: One dim retreat a flickering torch betrayed,


s: In that poor cell the Lord of Life was laid!


s: The wondering shepherds told their breathless tale


s: Of the bright choir that woke the sleeping vale;


s: Told how the skies with sudden glory flamed;


s: Told how the shining multitude proclaimed


s: "Joy, joy to earth!  Behold the hallowed morn!


s: In David's city Christ the Lord is born!


s: 'Glory to God!' let angels shout on high,


s: 'Good-will to men!' the listening Earth reply!"


s: They spoke with hurried words and accents wild;


s: Calm in his cradle slept the heavenly child.


s: No trembling word the mother's joy revealed,


s: One sigh of rapture, and her lips were sealed;


s: Unmoved she saw the rustic train depart,


s: But kept their words to ponder in her heart.


s: Twelve years had passed; the boy was fair and tall,


s: Growing in wisdom, finding grace with all.


s: The maids of Nazareth, as they trooped to fill


s: Their balanced urns beside the mountain-rill,


s: The gathered matrons, as they sat and spun,


s: Spoke in soft words of Joseph's quiet son.


s: Of star-led kings or awe-struck shepherds' tale;


s: In the meek, studious child they only saw


s: The future Rabbi, learned in Israel's law.


s: So grew the boy; and now the feast was near,


s: When at the holy place the tribes appear.


s: Scarce had the home-bred child of Nazareth seen


s: Beyond the hills that girt the village-green,


s: Save when at midnight, o'er the star-lit sands,


s: Snatched from the steel of Herod's murdering bands,


s: A babe, close-folded to his mother's breast,


s: Through Edom's wilds he sought the sheltering West.


s: Then Joseph spake: "Thy boy hath largely grown;


s: Weave him fine raiment, fitting to be shown;


s: Fair robes beseem the pilgrim, as the priest


s: And Mary culled the flaxen fibres white;


s: Till eve she spun; she spun till morning light.


s: The thread was twined; its parting meshes through


s: From hand to hand her restless shuttle flew,


s: Till the full web was wound upon the beam,


s: Love's curious toil,--a vest without a seam!


s: They reach the holy place, fulfil the days


s: To solemn feasting given, and grateful praise.


s: At last they turn, and far Moriah's height


s: Melts in the southern sky and fades from sight.


s: In devious trails along the winding road,


s: (For many a step their homeward path attends,


s: And all the sons of Abraham are as friends.)


s: Evening has come,--the hour of rest and joy;


s: Hush! hush!--that whisper,-"Where is Mary's boy?"


s: O weary hour!  O aching days that passed


s: Filled with strange fears, each wilder than the last:


s: The soldier's lance,--the fierce centurion's sword,


s: The crushing wheels that whirl some Roman lord,


s: The midnight crypt that suck's the captive's breath,


s: The blistering sun on Hinnom's vale of death!


s: Thrice on his cheek had rained the morning light,


s: Thrice on his lips the mildewed kiss of night,


s: Crouched by some porphyry column's shining plinth,


s: Or stretched beneath the odorous terebinth.


s: At last, in desperate mood, they sought once more


s: The Temple's porches, searched in vain before;


s: They found him seated with the ancient men,


s: The grim old rufflers of the tongue and pen,


s: Their bald heads glistening as they clustered near;


s: Their gray beards slanting as they turned to hear,


s: Lost in half-envious wonder and surprise


s: That lips so fresh should utter words so wise.


s: And Mary said,--as one who, tried too long,


s: Tells all her grief and half her sense of wrong,


s: "What is this thoughtless thing which thou hast done?


s: Lo, we have sought thee sorrowing, O my son!"


s: Few words he spake, and scarce of filial tone,


s: Strange words, their sense a mystery yet unknown;


s: Then turned with them and left the holy hill,


s: To all their mild commands obedient still.


s: The tale was told to Nazareth's sober men,


s: And Nazareth's matrons told it oft again;


s: The maids retold it at the fountain's side;


s: The youthful shepherds doubted or denied;


s: It passed around among the listening friends,


s: With all that fancy adds and fiction fends,


s: Till newer marvels dimmed the young renown


s: Of Joseph's son, who talked the Rabbis down.


s: But Mary, faithful to its lightest word,


s: Kept in her heart the sayings she had heard,


s: Till the dread morning rent the Temple's veil,


s: And shuddering Earth confirmed the wondrous tale.


s: Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall;


s: A mother's secret hope outlives them all.


s: Master Benjamin Franklin rushed into the dialogue with a breezy


s: But I am a teetotaller,--said the divinity-student in a subdued


s: I began,--The whole essence of true gentle-breeding (one does not


s: old European monarchies. Only there position is more absolutely


s: hereditary,--here it is more completely elective.


s: Does not money go everywhere?--said the Model.


s: --I don't think the Model exactly liked this. She said,--a little


s: I wish I could,--said the young fellow John.


s: Thus,--Nothing so vulgar as to be in a hurry. True, but hard of


s: Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an


s: I have sometimes thought, with a pang, of the position in which


s: political chance or contrivance might hereafter place some one of


s: syllogism, I say, is one that most persons have had occasion to


s: --So, the old fellah's off to-morrah,--said the young man John.


s: Why, the one that came with our little beauty, the old fellah in


s: --Now that means something,--said I to myself.--These rough young


s: "The frolic wind that breathes the spring,


s: Justice! A good man respects the rights even of brute matter and


s: But fashion and wealth are two very solemn realities, which the


s: Wealth, too,--what an endless repetition of the same foolish


s: Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as they fall,


s: To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid


s: And, as a moment turns its slender rill,


s: --One to long darkness and the frozen tide,


s: Our landlady's daughter is a young lady of some pretensions to


s: But confound the make-believe women we have turned loose in our


s: If any gentleman will have the kindness to stop this run-away


s: And long halloos and screams, and echoes loud


s: --Our young girl keeps up her early habit of sketching heads and


s: I have never yet crossed the threshold of the Little Gentleman's


s: You understand, then, distinctly, that I do not believe there is


s: Mighty close quarters they were where the young man John bestowed


s: You have lived in this house some time?--I said,--with a note of


s: interrogation at the end of the statement.


s: What do you think of our young Iris?--I began.


s: Fust-rate little filly;-he said.--Pootiest and nicest little chap


s: What do you think he employs himself about? said I.


s: I don't believe in witches,--said the young man John.


s: Ere yet the Mayflower's sail was spread,


s: While round his feet the Pilgrims clung,


s: They passed the frowning towers of Briel,


s: --And these were they who gave us birth,


s: --Their nameless graves our holiest shrine,


s: Still cry them, and the world shall hear,


s: There has been a sort of stillness in the atmosphere of our


s: Now among the visible objects which hint to us fragments of this


s: Angelico,--and I just now came across a print of Raphael's Santa


s: smoothest-rolling vehicle. Suddenly we hear the deep underground


s: reverberation that reveals the unsuspected depth of some abyss of


s: That bland, quiet old gentleman, of whom I have spoken as sitting


s: "Oh that those lips had language!  Life has pass'd


s: With me but roughly since I heard thee last."


s: I turned over the leaves of the book before us. Academic studies,


s: The soul, having studied the article of which it finds itself


s: "Blest be the art that can immortalize!"


s: the same remarkable sensibility; the same docility; the same


s: The Professor (meaning ourselves) is in a hurry, as usual; let


s: the horn-combers wait,--he shall be bumped without inspecting the


s: A short Lecture on Phrenology, read to the Boarders at our


s: to, certainly, better than you do. The next argument you will all


s: I proceed, therefore, to explain the self-adjusting mechanism of


s: Oh! oh! I see.--The argument may be briefly stated thus by the


s: Amativeness, 7.        Most men love the conflicting sex, and all


s: Alimentiveness, 8.     Don't you see that he has burst off his


s: lowest waistcoat-button with feeding,--hey


s: Acquisitiveness, 8.    Of course.  A middle-aged Yankee.


s: Approbativeness 7+.    Hat well brushed.  Hair ditto.  Mark the


s: Self-Esteem 6.         His face shows that.


s: Benevolence 9.         That'll please him.


s: Conscientiousness 8 1/2  That fraction looks first-rate.


s: Mirthfulness 7         Has laughed twice since he came in.


s: Ideality 9             That sounds well.


s: The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's shore,


s: No fear lest praise should make us proud!


s: That follows still the conquering Right,


s: With soft, white hands to dress the spoil


s: That sunbrowned valor clutched in fight.


s: --Then Passion's half-coiled adders spring,


s: And, smitten through their leprous mail,


s: Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,--


s: To this I gave several answers, adapted to particular classes of


s: c. Knowledge and observance of the fitness of things in social


s: Answered in the following epigram, by a young man about town:


s: Quoth Tom, "Though fair her features be,


s: The landlady said them that merried for money didn't deserve the


s: --Patent thumb-screws,--will crush the bone in three turns.


s: --The cast-iron boot, with wedge and mallet, only five dollars!


s: Women are twice as religious as men;--all the world knows that.


s: celibacy of the clergy, which was enforced for so long a period.


s: The Church of Saint Polycarp had very much the look of a Roman


s: arrangements. Then there were boys to sing alternately in choirs


s: During the wars of the French Empire, no doubt,--I said.


s: I am never well,--he answered.--His eyes fell mechanically on the


s: A very odd personage, to be sure! Seems to know what is going on,


s: Many blondes are very gentle, yielding in character, impressible,


s: I cannot pretend to deny that I am interested in the girl. Alone,


s: catch others in mischief when they themselves are too mature for


s: These young girls that live in boarding-houses can do pretty much


s: This is full of caricatures of all of us, I am sure,--said I.


s: She laughed, and said,--No,--not all of you.


s: Why, no,--she had never taken so much pains with me.


s: Then she would let me see the inside of it?


s: Not that,--the palm-tree's rustling leaf


s: The broad gray plumes,--the eagle's wing.


s: Its murmuring voice shall blend with mine,


s: I pray thee by the soul of her that bore thee,


s: By thine own sister's spirit I implore thee,


s: Deal gently with the leaves that lie before thee!


s: Nor ever leaned upon a sister's shoulder,


s: Telling the twilight thoughts that Nature told her.


s: She had not learned the mystery of awaking


s: Those chorded keys that soothe a sorrow's aching,


s: Yet lived, wrought, suffered.  Lo, the pictured token!


s: Why should her fleeting day-dreams fade unspoken,


s: Like daffodils that die with sheaths unbroken?


s: She knew not love, yet lived in maiden fancies,


s: Walked simply clad, a queen of high romances,


s: And talked strange tongues with angels in her trances.


s: Twin-souled she seemed, a twofold nature wearing,


s: Sometimes a flashing falcon in her daring,


s: Then a poor mateless dove that droops despairing.


s: Questioning all things: Why her Lord had sent her?


s: What were these torturing gifts, and wherefore lent her?


s: Scornful as spirit fallen, its own tormentor.


s: And then all tears and anguish: Queen of Heaven,


s: Sweet Saints, and Thou by mortal sorrows riven,


s: Save me! oh, save me!  Shall I die forgiven?


s: And then--Ah, God!  But nay, it little matters


s: Look at the wasted seeds that autumn scatters,


s: The myriad germs that Nature shapes and shatters!


s: If she had--Well!  She longed, and knew not wherefore


s: Had the world nothing she might live to care for?


s: No second self to say her evening prayer for?


s: She knew the marble shapes that set men dreaming,


s: Yet with her shoulders bare and tresses streaming


s: Showed not unlovely to her simple seeming.


s: Vain?  Let it be so!  Nature was her teacher.


s: What if a lonely and unsistered creature


s: Loved her own harmless gift of pleasing feature,


s: Saying, unsaddened,--This shall soon be faded,


s: And double-hued the shining tresses braided,


s: And all the sunlight of the morning shaded?


s: --This her poor book is full of saddest follies,


s: Of tearful smiles and laughing melancholies,


s: With summer roses twined and wintry hollies.


s: In the strange crossing of uncertain chances,


s: Somewhere, beneath some maiden's tear-dimmed glances


s: May fall her little book of dreams and fancies.


s: Sweet sister!  Iris, who shall never name thee,


s: Trembling for fear her open heart may shame thee,


s: Speaks from this vision-haunted page to claim thee.


s: Spare her, I pray thee!  If the maid is sleeping,


s: Peace with her! she has had her hour of weeping.


s: No more!  She leaves her memory in thy keeping.


s: creatures,--many small fishes, for instance,--which are literally


s: In the town called Cantabridge, now a city, water-veined and gas


s: windpiped, in the street running down to the Bridge, beyond which


s: The three maidens were of comely presence, and one of them had


s: had claims to be considered a Beauty. When I saw them in the old


s: One after another they all three dropped away, objects of kindly


s: next page a procession wound along, after the fashion of that on


s: Poets are never young, in one sense. Their delicate ear hears the


s: A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience. I have


s: Talent is a very common family-trait; genius belongs rather to


s: asparagus-bed wants salt as much as you do. Just at the period of


s: Take the poet. On the one hand, I believe that a person with the


s: arrowheads. Whether a hundred or a thousand years old, who knows?


s: Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops


s: But think of the Old World,--that part of it which is the seat of


s: the Caesars. In Italy, the works of mediaeval Art seem to be of


s: When I say difficulty about the heart, I do not mean any of those


s: I thought it only fair to say something of what I apprehended to


s: Shall wheel their circling shadows round


s: That drinks the greenness from the ground,


s: And drop their dead leaves on her mound.


s: When o'er their boughs the squirrels run,


s: And through their leaves the robins call,


s: The crickets, sliding through the grass,


s: I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little


s: simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most


s: A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their


s: I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak.


s: This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed


s: Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the


s: That girl will kill herself over me, Sir,--said the poor Little


s: Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near!


s: A young fellow, born of good stock, in one of the more thoroughly


s: And that leads me to say a few words of this young gentleman, who


s: your respected papa, though, if we should compare a young


s: girl's man-as-she-thinks-him with a forty-summered matron's


s: And now the days had come for our little friend, whose whims and


s: --All this, of course, was nothing but my poor notion about these


s: The divinity-student prayed, in low, tender tones,


s: Many more petitions he uttered, but all in the same subdued tone


s: of tenderness. In the presence of helpless suffering, and in the


s: After a time not to be counted in minutes, as the clock measures,


s: The Little Gentleman lies where he longed to lie, among the old


s: As our old boarding-house is still in existence, I do not feel at


s: Some of the boarders were of opinion that Iris did not return the


s: But one fine June morning there rumbled up to the door of our


s: boarding-house a hack containing a lady inside and a trunk on the


s: The Sunday after the Model's arrival, that lady had an attack of


s: She looked in his face an instant, as if startled, for there was


s: The poor girl said nothing, but quietly laid her ungloved hand in


s: Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love,


s: I have endeavored to give fair play to the protest of gentle and


s: reverential conservatism in the letter of the Lady, which was not


s: self-satisfaction, with such accompanying faults as pedantry,


s: triviality, and the kind of partial blindness which belong to


s: --The Member's eyes began to look heavy.


s: --The Member was wide awake by this time.


s: --I don't seem to remember of them partickler phrases, he said.


s: --You can't go agin human natur', said the Member


s: "To be, or not to be: that is the question


s: --"William, shall we have pudding to-day, or flapjacks?"


s: "Whether 't is nobler--nobler--nobler--"


s: "Whether 't is nobler--in the mind--to suffer


s: unpunishable cherub over its portal, and the rest of my early


s: I hope you will not say that I have built a pillared portico of


s: the history of the old house. How those dear friends of mine, the


s: can reproduce phonetically its vibrating nasalities of "General


s: Mmbongaparty,"--a name suggestive to my young imagination of a


s: Arminianism was about as agreeable as any of them. And here I may


s: It was a real delight to have one of those good, hearty, happy,


s: Beyond the garden was "the field," a vast domain of four acres or


s: peaceable refuge the many books, invalids from their birth, which


s: Go seek thine earth-born sisters,--thus the Voice


s: That all obey,--the sad and silent three;


s: These only, while the hosts of heaven rejoice,


s: Smile never: ask them what their sorrows be:


s: And when the secret of their griefs they tell,


s: Look on them with thy mild, half-human eyes;


s: Say what thou wast on earth; thou knowest well;


s: So shall they cease from unavailing sighs.


s: --Why thus, apart,--the swift-winged herald spake,


s: --Sit ye with silent lips and unstrung lyres


s: While the trisagion's blending chords awake


s: In shouts of joy from all the heavenly choirs?


s: --Chide not thy sisters,--thus the answer came;


s: --Children of earth, our half-weaned nature clings


s: To earth's fond memories, and her whispered name


s: Untunes our quivering lips, our saddened strings;


s: For there we loved, and where we love is home,


s: Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts,


s: Though o'er us shine the jasper-lighted dome:--


s: The chain may lengthen, but it never parts!


s: Sometimes a sunlit sphere comes rolling by,


s: And leaning toward the silvery orb, we try


s: To catch, perchance, some flashing glimpse of green,


s: Or breathe some wild-wood fragrance, wafted through


s: The opening gates of pearl, that fold between


s: The blinding splendors and the changeless blue.


s: --Nay, sister, nay! a single healing leaf


s: Plucked from the bough of yon twelve-fruited tree,


s: Would soothe such anguish,--deeper stabbing grief


s: I from my clinging babe was rudely torn;


s: His tender lips a loveless bosom pressed


s: The kiss of love still burns upon my cheek,


s: --Him through the spirit realm in vain I seek.


s: Sweet faces turn their beaming eyes on mine;


s: Ah! not in these the wished-for look I read;


s: Still for that one dear human smile I pine;


s: Thou and none other!--is the lover's creed.


s: --And whence thy sadness in a world of bliss


s: Where never parting comes, nor mourner's tear?


s: Art thou, too, dreaming of a mortal's kiss


s: Amid the seraphs of the heavenly sphere?


s: --Nay, tax not me with passion's wasting fire;


s: When the swift message set my spirit free,


s: Blind, helpless, lone, I left my gray-haired sire;


s: My friends were many, he had none save me.


s: I left him, orphaned, in the starless night;


s: Alas, for him no cheerful morning's dawn!


s: I wear the ransomed spirit's robe of white,


s: Yet still I hear him moaning, She is gone!


s: --Ye know me not, sweet sisters?--All in vain


s: Ye seek your lost ones in the shapes they wore;


s: The flower once opened may not bud again,


s: The fruit once fallen finds the stem no more.


s: Child, lover, sire,--yea, all things loved below,


s: Fair pictures damasked on a vapor's fold,


s: Fade like the roseate flush, the golden glow,


s: When the bright curtain of the day is rolled.


s: I was the babe that slumbered on thy breast.


s: --And, sister, mine the lips that called thee bride.


s: --Mine were the silvered locks thy hand caressed,


s: That faithful hand, my faltering footstep's guide!


s: Each changing form, frail vesture of decay,


s: The soul unclad forgets it once hath worn,


s: Stained with the travel of the weary day,


s: And shamed with rents from every wayside thorn.


s: To come with love's warm kisses back to thee,


s: To show thine eyes thy gray-haired father's face,


s: Not Heaven itself could grant; this may not be!


s: Then spread your folded wings, and leave to earth


s: The dust once breathing ye have mourned so long,


s: Till Love, new risen, owns his heavenly birth,


s: And sorrow's discords sweeten into song!


s: just sipping his tea, and a South-Sea-Islander (with undeveloped


s: --A pretty wide subject,--I ventured to suggest.


s: --Is it dark meat or white meat you will be helped to?--said the


s: --It 's pretty much the same in men and women and in books and


s: They have a new term nowadays (I am speaking to you, the Reader)


s: for people that do a good deal of talking; they call them


s: Do you,--Beloved, I am afraid you are not old enough,--but do you


s: Aigle pamphanoosa di' aitheros ouranon ike!


s: as if he should have spoken in our poorer phrase of


s: Splendor far shining through ether to heaven ascending.


s: That Greek line, which I do not remember having heard mention of


s: some minute labor, I suppose. Very slender limbs, with bends like


s: --How do you think the vote is likely to go tomorrow?--I said.


s: --It isn't to-morrow,--he answered,--it 's next month.


s: --Next month!--said I.--Why, what election do you mean?


s: --I suppose you are an entomologist?--I said with a note of


s: --And how did the Lady receive these valuable and useful gifts?


s: There were Ophthalmoscopes and Rhinoscopes and Otoscopes and


s: and scales to weigh you in, and tests and balances and pumps and


s: a pocket-glass which he carried. Then he drew back a space, for a


s: --But I had the impression that the author of the Spectator was


s: --Landlady did look at it. Said it was a bump, and no mistake.


s: portrait, like our friend's the other day.


s: --To be sure I will,--said I.--First, I like its mechanical


s: --Good,--said the Master, and laughed a hearty terrestrial laugh.


s: That Boy.--You bet! Give me a stick and see if I don't.


s: teachers used to call "cramming" now and then?


s: --If you like your breakfast you must n't ask the cook too many


s: --Will you go, if we make up a party?--I asked the Master.


s: --A cold in the head lasts me from three to five days,--answered


s: the Master.--I am not so very fond of being out in the dew like


s: Nebuchadnezzar: that will do for you young folks.


s: --I suppose I must be one of the young folks, not so young as our


s: --A beauty!--he exclaimed,--and the only specimen of the kind in


s: --I was glad to hear that there were no more like it in this


s: Do you think it really the larva of meloe?


s: --I don't like the word tolerant,--the Master said.--As long as


s: the Lord can tolerate me I think I can stand my fellow-creatures.


s: U-n-i-ni United States of America 5 cents.


s: The Master turned the coin over. Now read that.


s: --Is that the same piece of money as the other one?


s: --Take it,--said the Master, with a good-natured smile.


s: If your ship springs a leak, what would you do?


s: What do you read such things for, my dear? said I.


s: --You have a laugh together sometimes, do you?


s: Aunt Tabitha tells me that isn't the way;


s: Aunt Tabitha tells me they never did so.


s: Dear aunt!  If I only would take her advice!


s: But I like my own way, and I find it so nice!


s: And besides, I forget half the things I am told;


s: But they all will come back to me--when I am old.


s: If a youth passes by, it may happen, no doubt,


s: He may chance to look in as I chance to look out;


s: She would never endure an impertinent stare,


s: It is horrid, she says, and I mustn't sit there.


s: A walk in the moonlight has pleasures, I own,


s: But it is n't quite safe to be walking alone;


s: So I take a lad's arm,--just for safety, you know,


s: But Aunt Tabitha tells me they didn't do so.


s: How wicked we are, and how good they were then!


s: They kept at arm's length those detestable men;


s: What an era of virtue she lived in!--But stay


s: Were the men all such rogues in Aunt Tabitha's day?


s: If the men were so wicked, I'll ask my papa


s: How he dared to propose to my darling mamma;


s: Was he like the rest of them?  Goodness!  Who knows


s: And what shall I say if a wretch should propose?


s: I am thinking if aunt knew so little of sin,


s: What a wonder Aunt Tabitha's aunt must have been!


s: And her grand-aunt--it scares me--how shockingly sad.


s: That we girls of to-day are so frightfully bad!


s: A martyr will save us, and nothing else can;


s: Let me perish--to rescue some wretched young man!


s: Aunt Tabitha'll tell me she never did so!


s: "So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed


s: Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve


s: "Yet went she not, as not with such discourse


s: Of what was high; such pleasure she reserved,


s: Chose rather; he she knew would intermix


s: Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute


s: --The p'int 's carried,--said the Member of the Haouse.


s: --Damage the goods as bad as mice,--said the Salesman.


s: --Eat half the binding off Folio 67,--said the Register of Deeds.


s: interchanges of thought and feeling with her that make an hour


s: memorable? What can equal her tact, her delicacy, her subtlety of


s: Do you mean that it is hard work to write a poem?--said the old


s: Master.--I had an idea that a poem wrote itself, as it were, very


s: --Did you ever see a great ballet-dancer?--I asked him.


s: --I have seen Taglioni,--he answered.--She used to take her steps


s: (Confound this old college book-worm,---he has seen everything!)


s: Well, did these two ladies dance as if it was hard work to them?


s: of Letters changed color a little and betrayed a certain awkward


s: --The Master paused and fell into a deep thinking fit, as he does


s: I puzzled over it for some minutes and gave it up.


s: --What is the Creator's divinest work?--I asked.


s: --Is there anything more divine than the sun; than a sun with its


s: "Sweet day! so cool, so calm, so bright,"


s: "Ambition sighed; she found it vain to trust


s: The faithless column and the crumbling bust;


s: Huge moles, whose shadows stretched from shore to shore,


s: Their ruins perished, and their place no more!


s: Convinced, she now contracts her vast design,


s: And all her triumphs shrink into a coin.


s: A narrow orb each crowded conquest keeps,


s: Now scantier limits the proud arch confine,


s: And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine;


s: A small Euphrates through the piece is rolled,


s: And little eagles wave their wings in gold."


s: off, making a Selah of him whenever I want to change the subject.


s: --I have been tempted sometimes,--said he, to envy the immediate


s: In tear-dimmed eyes, in mirth's eclipse,


s: --Hark! heard I not that ringing strain,


s: "Chronological History of New England," I suppose? He begins, you


s: Well, I 'll tell you about it. You see they have a way of pushing


s: --I thought we had had enough of this particular matter, and that


s: The lawyers are a picked lot, "first scholars" and the like, but


s: "Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse,"


s: I suppose everybody who reads this paper has visited one or more


s: observatories, and of course knows all about them. But as it may


s: will undoubtedly make four, irrespective of the emotions or other


s: She threw her hair back and took her position at the instrument.


s: Will you show me the double star you said I should see?


s: With the greatest pleasure,--he said, and proceeded to wheel the


s: --And the two revolve round each other?--said the Young Girl.


s: The Young Girl kept her eye closely applied to the eye-piece of


s: and anxious to alleviate all human misfortunes. They will go to


s: I confess I was appalled when I cast my eye upon the title of the


s: --Oh! oh!--I said,--that will never do. People don't know what


s: Another clouded night; the stars are hid,


s: The orb that waits my search is hid with them.


s: Patience!  Why grudge an hour, a month, a year,


s: To plant my ladder and to gain the round


s: That leads my footsteps to the heaven of fame,


s: Where waits the wreath my sleepless midnights won?


s: Not the stained laurel such as heroes wear


s: That withers when some stronger conqueror's heel


s: Treads down their shrivelling trophies in the dust;


s: But the fair garland whose undying green


s: Not time can change, nor wrath of gods or men!


s: With quickened heart-beats I shall hear the tongues


s: That speak my praise; but better far the sense


s: In the dark mines of unaccomplished time


s: Yet to be stamped with morning's royal die


s: And coined in golden days,--in those dim years


s: I shall be reckoned with the undying dead,


s: Unfading till the stars themselves shall fade.


s: Then, as they call the roll of shining worlds,


s: Shall count me with the Olympian ones of old,


s: Whose glories kindle through the midnight sky


s: Here glows the God of Battles; this recalls


s: The Lord of Ocean, and yon far-off sphere


s: The Sire of Him who gave his ancient name


s: To the dim planet with the wondrous rings;


s: Here flames the Queen of Beauty's silver lamp,


s: And there the moon-girt orb of mighty Jove;


s: But this, unseen through all earth's aeons past,


s: A youth who watched beneath the western star


s: Sought in the darkness, found, and showed to men;


s: Linked with his name thenceforth and evermore!


s: In all the tongues of all the tribes of men:


s: I that have been through immemorial years


s: Shall live in accents shaped of blood-warm breath,


s: Yea, rise in mortal semblance, newly born


s: And stand on high, and look serenely down


s: On the new race that calls the earth its own.


s: Is this a cloud, that, blown athwart my soul,


s: Wears a false seeming of the pearly stain


s: Where worlds beyond the world their mingling rays


s: Blend in soft white,--a cloud that, born of earth,


s: Would cheat the soul that looks for light from heaven?


s: On each poor grain he lent to build the reef,


s: As Babel's builders stamped their sunburnt clay,


s: Or deem his patient service all in vain?


s: I set upon the rock that wrecked my keel,


s: Have I not done my task and served my kind?


s: Nay, rather act thy part, unnamed, unknown,


s: And let Fame blow her trumpet through the world


s: With noisy wind to swell a fool's renown,


s: Joined with some truth be stumbled blindly o'er,


s: Or coupled with some single shining deed


s: That in the great account of all his days


s: Will stand alone upon the bankrupt sheet


s: His pitying angel shows the clerk of Heaven.


s: The noblest service comes from nameless hands,


s: And the best servant does his work unseen.


s: Who found the seeds of fire and made them shoot,


s: Fed by his breath, in buds and flowers of flame?


s: Who forged in roaring flames the ponderous stone,


s: And shaped the moulded metal to his need?


s: Who gave the dragging car its rolling wheel,


s: And tamed the steed that whirls its circling round?


s: All these have left their work and not their names,


s: Why should I murmur at a fate like theirs?


s: This is the heavenly light; the pearly stain


s: Was but a wind-cloud drifting oer the stars!


s: The Young Girl made a slight movement; it was a purely accidental


s: --You don't mean you doubt everything?--I said.


s: I glanced off, as one often does in talk.


s: --No,--said I,--I was thinking of something very different. I was


s: And that leads me to say, I cannot help thinking that the kind of


s: Take half a sheet of paper and copy upon it any of Angelina's


s: But there is a form of criticism to which none will object. It is


s: bodily faculties are common gifts; but nobody except editors and


s: conceit, false sentiment, hunger for notoriety, and eagerness for


s: Pursue the triumph and partake the gale."


s: "The subject of this commemorative history was remarkable for a


s: --I should like to see any man's biography with corrections and


s: fertilizers? Let us summon him in imagination and ask him a few


s: --What is the prevalent religious creed of civilization?


s: --Has the planet met with any accident of importance?


s: --How general is the republican form of government?


s: --Has the universal language come into use?


s: --Is the euthanasia a recognized branch of medical science?


s: --Is the oldest inhabitant still living?


s: --Is the Daily Advertiser still published?


s: Brief glimpses of the bright celestial spheres,


s: False lights, false shadows, vague, uncertain gleams,


s: Pale vaporous mists, wan streaks of lurid flame,


s: The climbing of the upward-sailing cloud,


s: The sinking of the downward-falling star,


s: All these are pictures of the changing moods


s: Borne through the midnight stillness of my soul.


s: Here am I, bound upon this pillared rock,


s: That feeds upon my life.  I burst my bands


s: And steal a moment's freedom from the beak,


s: The clinging talons and the shadowing plumes;


s: Then comes the false enchantress, with her song;


s: "Thou wouldst not lay thy forehead in the dust


s: Like the base herd that feeds and breeds and dies!


s: Lo, the fair garlands that I weave for thee,


s: The spangled stream of Berenice's hair!"


s: And so she twines the fetters with the flowers


s: Around my yielding limbs, and the fierce bird


s: Stoops to his quarry,--then to feed his rage


s: Of ravening hunger I must drain my blood


s: And let the dew-drenched, poison-breeding night


s: Steal all the freshness from my fading cheek,


s: And leave its shadows round my caverned eyes.


s: All for a stone that tells to gaping clowns,


s: "Here lies a restless wretch beneath a clod


s: Where squats the jealous nightmare men call Fame!"


s: And thinks not sadly of the time foretold


s: When the old hulk we tread shall be a wreck,


s: A slag, a cinder drifting through the sky


s: Without its crew of fools!  We live too long


s: But load the mould that covers up our bones


s: With stones that stand like beggars by the road


s: And show death's grievous wound and ask for tears;


s: Write our great books to teach men who we are,


s: Sing our fine songs that tell in artful phrase


s: The secrets of our lives, and plead and pray


s: Those few swift seasons while the earth shall wear


s: Its leafy summers, ere its core grows cold


s: And the moist life of all that breathes shall die;


s: Or as the new-born seer, perchance more wise,


s: Would have us deem, before its growing mass,


s: Heats like a hammered anvil, till at last Man


s: and his works and all that stirred itself


s: Shines a new sun for earths that shall be born.


s: Brother to them that squared the pyramids


s: By the same stars I watch.  I read the page


s: Where every letter is a glittering world,


s: With them who looked from Shinar's clay-built towers,


s: Had missed the fallen sister of the seven.


s: I dwell in spaces vague, remote, unknown,


s: Save to the silent few, who, leaving earth,


s: Quit all communion with their living time.


s: Till I have tired my wings and long to fill


s: My breast with denser air, to stand, to walk


s: With eyes not raised above my fellow-men.


s: I ask to change the myriad lifeless worlds


s: Of this dull spheroid and a little breath


s: To shape in word or deed to serve my kind.


s: Was ever tyrant's fetter forged so strong,


s: Was e'er such deadly poison in the draught


s: The false wife mingles for the trusting fool,


s: Digs, forges, mingles, for his captive soul?


s: I was very sure that the old Master was hard at work about


s: --Come in!--said the Master in his grave, massive tones.


s: --There they are!--he exclaimed,--look in.


s: --That is nothing. The liquid is clear. We shall find no signs of


s: --Six hours kill 'em all, according to this experiment,--said the


s: We must agree they couldn't stand six hours' boiling,--I said.


s: --Good for the Pope of Rome!--exclaimed the Master.


s: I thought, on the whole, I would n't answer that question.


s: as calmly as if they were discussing the age of their deceased


s: qualities, but it does not promote devotional habits.


s: You see that I am tolerably liberal in my habit of looking at all


s: but I do not now feel quite so sure that the contemplation of all


s: all things in the place of the unquestioning faith of earlier and


s: I have thought a good deal about this letter and the writer of it


s: The snows that glittered on the disk of Mars


s: Rolls in the crimson summer of its year;


s: Of worlds that throb with life in forms unknown,


s: If life indeed be theirs; I heed not these.


s: For them whose dust is fashioned like mine own;


s: These ache with cold and hunger, live in pain,


s: And shake with fear of worlds more full of woe;


s: There may be others worthier of my love,


s: But such I know not save through these I know.


s: There are two veils of language, hid beneath


s: Whose sheltering folds, we dare to be ourselves;


s: And not that other self which nods and smiles


s: And babbles in our name; the one is Prayer,


s: Lending its licensed freedom to the tongue


s: That tells our sorrows and our sins to Heaven;


s: The other, Verse, that throws its spangled web


s: Around our naked speech and makes it bold.


s: In the great temple where I nightly serve


s: Him who is throned in light, have dared to claim


s: The poet's franchise, though I may not hope


s: To wear his garland; hear me while I tell


s: But breathed in fitful whispers, as the wind


s: Sighs and then slumbers, wakes and sighs again.


s: Thou Vision, floating in the breathless air


s: Between me and the fairest of the stars,


s: Look not for marvels of the scholar's pen


s: And trust its meaning to the flattering eye


s: That reads it in the gracious light of love.


s: Ah, wouldst thou clothe thyself in breathing shape


s: And nestle at my side, my voice should lend


s: Whate'er my verse may lack of tender rhythm


s: When, with her fingers wandering o'er the keys,


s: The white enchantress with the golden hair


s: Breathed all her soul through some unvalued rhyme;


s: Some flower of song that long had lost its bloom;


s: Lo! its dead summer kindled as she sang!


s: The sweet contralto, like the ringdove's coo,


s: Thrilled it with brooding, fond, caressing tones,


s: And the pale minstrel's passion lived again,


s: The wind has shaken till it fills the air


s: With light and fragrance.  Such the wondrous charm


s: His verse sounds doubly sweet, for none like him


s: Feels every cadence of its wave-like flow;


s: He lives the passion over, while he reads,


s: That shook him as he sang his lofty strain,


s: And pours his life through each resounding line,


s: As ocean, when the stormy winds are hushed,


s: Still rolls and thunders through his billowy caves.


s: That made me what I am.  A man most wise,


s: But overworn with toil and bent with age,


s: Sought me to be his scholar,--me, run wild


s: From books and teachers,--kindled in my soul


s: The love of knowledge; led me to his tower,


s: Showed me the wonders of the midnight realm


s: His hollow sceptre ruled, or seemed to rule,


s: Taught me the mighty secrets of the spheres,


s: Trained me to find the glimmering specks of light


s: Beyond the unaided sense, and on my chart


s: To string them one by one, in order due,


s: The echo to his thought; whate'er he knew


s: Was mine for asking; so from year to year


s: We wrought together, till there came a time


s: When I, the learner, was the master half


s: Of the twinned being in the dome-crowned tower.


s: Minds roll in paths like planets; they revolve


s: But round they come at last to that same phase,


s: That self-same light and shade they showed before.


s: I learned his annual and his monthly tale,


s: And watched them laboring up to vocal breath,


s: Even as the first-born at his father's board


s: Knows ere he speaks the too familiar jest


s: Forewarned, the click before the striking bell.


s: He shrivelled as I spread my growing leaves,


s: Till trust and reverence changed to pitying care;


s: He lived for me in what he once had been,


s: The guardian of his fame, his guide, his staff,


s: Leaned on so long he fell if left alone.


s: I was his eye, his ear, his cunning hand,


s: Love was my spur and longing after fame,


s: But his the goading thorn of sleepless age


s: That sees its shortening span, its lengthening shades,


s: That clutches what it may with eager grasp,


s: And drops at last with empty, outstretched hands.


s: All this he dreamed not.  He would sit him down


s: Thinking to work his problems as of old,


s: And find the star he thought so plain a blur,


s: Without my comment, blind and senseless scrawls


s: That vexed him with their riddles; he would strive


s: And struggle for a while, and then his eye


s: Would lose its light, and over all his mind


s: The cold gray mist would settle; and erelong


s: The darkness fell, and I was left alone.


s: Feels the dread stillness round him as it chills


s: The heart of him who leaves the slumbering earth


s: To watch the silent worlds that crowd the sky.


s: Alone!  And as the shepherd leaves his flock


s: Finds converse in the warblings of the pipe


s: Himself has fashioned for his vacant hour,


s: That smile and whisper round us in our dreams.


s: Thus have I learned to search if I may know


s: The whence and why of all beneath the stars


s: And all beyond them, and to weigh my life


s: That flung me forth among the whirling worlds,


s: That every wind may blow where'er it will.


s: Clad in such robes as Nature had at hand;


s: Took what she gave, not chose; I know no shame,


s: Borne in a giant's arms, he knows not where;


s: Each several heart-beat, counted like the coin


s: As from an unseen hand; if that withhold


s: Something I find in me that well might claim


s: This doubtful twilight world of right and wrong;


s: Something that shows me of the self-same clay


s: That creeps or swims or flies in humblest form.


s: Of shapeless dust, what clothing I would wear,


s: I would have said, More angel and less worm;


s: But for their sake who are even such as I,


s: Of the same mingled blood, I would not choose


s: Which makes me brother to the least of men.


s: Who dare to question all things in my soul;


s: Some men may find their wisdom on their knees,


s: Some prone and grovelling in the dust like slaves;


s: Let the meek glow-worm glisten in the dew;


s: As they who hold their lamps above their heads,


s: Rather than crossing eddies round their breast,


s: Threatening with every puff the flickering blaze.


s: My life shall be a challenge, not a truce!


s: This is my homage to the mightier powers,


s: By muttered threats that some hysteric sense


s: Of wrong or insult will convulse the throne


s: Where wisdom reigns supreme; and if I err,


s: They all must err who have to feel their way


s: As bats that fly at noon; for what are we


s: But creatures of the night, dragged forth by day,


s: Who needs must stumble, and with stammering steps


s: Spell out their paths in syllables of pain?


s: Thou wilt not hold in scorn the child who dares


s: Look up to Thee, the Father,--dares to ask


s: More than Thy wisdom answers.  From Thy hand


s: The worlds were cast; yet every leaflet claims


s: From that same hand its little shining sphere


s: Of star-lit dew; thine image, the great sun,


s: Girt with his mantle of tempestuous flame,


s: Glares in mid-heaven; but to his noontide blaze


s: The slender violet lifts its lidless eye,


s: And from his splendor steals its fairest hue,


s: Its sweetest perfume from his scorching fire.


s: The Young Astronomer had told me I might read any portions of his


s: --Or dockermunts?--added the Member of the Haouse.


s: "Purple calico, three quarters wide, six yards."


s: --So there was one Judas among them,--I remarked.


s: --I laughed at that. I have just such a fellow always with me, as


s: "'An honest man's the noblest work of God.'


s: I adjourned from the table in company with the old Master to his


s: --More or less; less rather than more,--was my humble reply.


s: And Quidlibet, who is a pleasant body to deal with,--only he has


s: The Master took the three books from a cupboard and continued.


s: Here is a paragraph from his Dedication:


s: --Which book furnished you the old cover you wanted?--said I.


s: --You don't mean to say you have studied insects as well as solar


s: Yes, yes, I have amused a summer or two with insects, among other