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102 MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO.
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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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.
-^_ It Is Considerably More Than Fifty Y...
in case your syntax were open to objection . But she knew everything that was to be known in history or fiction by a merely English
reader . From the romances of Scuderi ( translated ) to the last publication of ( I think ) Radcliffe or Inchbald , all lay before her in her
memory , as on a map . From her ( and I am constrained to add , from the cuts also ) I learned the whole history of England ;—from
her * _Kasselas , with ' suitable ' Gulliver comments ' Uncle , Tob came y' lived the Divine again in ' Life her of narratives Christ : . '
She repeated , me the , entire story , of ' Pamela , ' interspersed with numberless quotations , conversationsand portions of letters—all of
, which , observe , I verified afterwards from the book itself . The sweet patience of Amelia , the delightful vanity of the Rev . Mr . Adams ,
the recording angel of Sterne , even the military manoeuvres of Captain Tobias Shandyfound in her an historian . She has repeated
, to me—sitting by her side at the kitchen fire—speech after speech , page after pageof Shakespeare . The whole of Hubert and Arthur , —
, much of Constance , —much of Titania , Rosalind , and Perdita , were thus made known to me . I was fired by her talk ! " As soon as I
am able , " said I , " I will buy a Shakespeare . " "It is the best book in the world , " replied Alice , " always excepting , of course ,
the Bible . " To tell all that this extraordinary -woman recounted to me—all
that she taught me , is impossible . She infused into me a love of literature that has never deserted me , —never failed to solace me , —
throughout a long and laborious life . I bought the ' Shakespeare ' with the first money at my command , in pursuance of my promise
to her . I read it through , and through . I have been reading it ever since ; and should I live a century longer , I shall perhaps
understand it all . Yet , I do not know ! T have not , I fear , what Fichte calls " integrity of study . " I have been carelesscapricious ,
, influenced by external things , —fluttering , surging , descending ; in shortexhibiting all those weaknesses from which the true scholar is
, able to stand aloof . Alas ! it is now too late for me to begin to learn anew .
After a long absence I returned once more to W . The ancient people were still alive . My friend ( the dog ) was still
the same friend as formerly . All things seemed in their usual places , except that a ring of the bell brought a new face into the
parlour . " Where is Alice ? " I inquired hurriedly . " She is gone !" " Gone ? why ? when ? where ? " I asked . In return I learned that
she had become ill . A sort of fever had seized her ; and she went to her poor home , in order to rest , and to recover her strength . I went
to bed in my old room , resolved to go and visit Alice the next day . I slept and woke up by fits , an unusual mode with me of passing the
night . I was oppressed by something undefined . At daybreak , in a state half-way between sleep and consciousness , I saw in the large
figures of the bed-room paper ( which resembled old tapestry )
102 More Than Fifty Years Ago.
102 MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/30/
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