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38 EVEBY-DAY GHOSTS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
There Are Some Shadows Which, Like Gout,...
of the House that Jack built . True , my beloved reader , upon my honorfor has not the maiden all forlorn therein alluded to taken
entire ; possession of the epithet and made It simply absurd ? Does not the word forlorn always and invariably go on to imply the cow
with _And I the cannot crump lay led that horn ghost ? Sadl . y Now and if solemnl I want y an I ans association wer , Always _" with .
ingale it , why / , ' where I ask you the , word cannot forlorn I let it is call dwelt up on Keats so beautifull ' s " Ode to y ? a Ni "Wh ght y - ?
her I onl crump y know led I horn cannot tliroug . Nay h , that that lovel idiotic y poem cow itself has , actuall and ruined y poked it
for me—ruined it irretrievabl . I took it up the other day and y read _^ till I eame to the line
* Forlorn , the very word is like a knell , " yes correctness graduall , and y indeed sli of pped it juvenile from was a my kn asump hand ell , and , tion and what that I g did lided when it int ring the o a ? priest reverie Why all the as shaven to book the
and shorn married my the man all tattered , and tornhe , of necessity , , married him to the maiden all forlorn . I began to doubt this now ;
for the text hardly authorised the belief . Aid , indeed , —as I went on to think—a bad match he must have been from all we
know of his , appearance very ; but , on the other hand , the maiden all forlorn would not probably have been very particular , and perhaps
after the notoriety wMch his previous attentions to her had gained , it miht be as well for his future domestic peace , that she and no
other g should be his wife . So far did I get , when I checked myself , and resumed the poem : utterly spoilt for me as you will allow .
Well , that is an absurd ghost , which I would gladly get rid of if I couldbut there is a far more grotesque and hideous one , which
, haunts one of the most pathetic , the most sacred texts of Scripture . It is a mere jingle of sound , a mere word ; and I shrink from it , I
argue with myself against it , and the more I hate it , and the more I hate myself for not getting rid of it , the more surely does it come
and hide the beauty and solemnity of the Scripture words ; as though some ludicrous and absurd mask was continually interposed when
one tried to gaze at a sad and sacred picture . But on the whole perhaps , words have less power of calling up
these Do we g ever hosts hear than of either magicians scents rai or sing sounds either . devil And or scent ghost s esp , without ecially .
burning some herb or powder and producing a smoke of a strong and peculiar odour ? I dare say they only conjured up old
associations , just as certain perfumes raise up for me old ghosts of my childhood or my youth .
And strangely enough , in all these associations , the physical sensation of pleasure , or pain , or fear , comes and answers the call before
we remember why it is , and what special ghost has risen beside us and is so strangelinfluencing us . There is one smell that carries
y me back many long years ago- —I had rather not say how
many—but to a time long before I had been to college at Bonn , and passed
38 Eveby-Day Ghosts.
38 EVEBY-DAY GHOSTS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/38/
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