On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
May 4, 1850.] 0.f| * &£&&*?«, 139
-
^(Tt -t* "f-PiT 11ir J^UnimiU* '
-
We should do our utmost to encourage the...
-
TO THE WORM. First born of all creation ...
-
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LIFE. BY G. H. LEW...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
May 4, 1850.] 0.F| * &£&&*?«, 139
May 4 , 1850 . ] 0 . f | * & £ &&*?« , 139
^(Tt -T* "F-Pit 11ir J^Unimiu* '
^ nrtfnltn .
We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — GOKTHE .
To The Worm. First Born Of All Creation ...
TO THE WORM . First born of all creation ! yet unsung 1 I call thee not to listen to my lay , For well I know thou turnest a deaf ear Indifferent to the sweetest of complaints , Sweetest and most importunate . The voice Which would awaken , and which almost can , The sleeping dead , thou rearest up against And no more heedest than the wreck below . Yet art thou gentle ; and for due reward , Because thou art so > humble in thy ways , Thou hast survived the giants of waste worlds , Giants , whom chaos left unborn behind , And earth with fierce abhorrence at first sight Shook from her bosom , some on burning sands , Others on icy mountains , far apart ; Mammoth , and mammoth ' s architype , and coil Of serpent cable-long , and ponderous mail Of lizard , to whom crocodile was dwarf . " Wrong , too , hath oft been done thee : I have watched The nightingale , that most inquisitive Of plumed powers , send forth a sidelong glance From the low hazel , on the smooth footpath , Attracted by a glimmering tortuous thread Of silrer left there when the dew had dried , And dart on one of thine , that one of hers Might play with it . Alas ! the young will play , Reckless of leaving pain and death behind . I , too ( but early from such sin forbore ) , Have fastened on my hook , aside the stream Of shady Arrowe , on the broad mill-pond , Thy writhing race . Thou wilt more patiently Await my hour , more quietly pursue Thy destined prey legitimate . First born , I call'd thee at the opening of my song ; Last of creation I will call thee now . What fiery meteors have we seen transcend Our firmament ! and mighty was their power , To leave a solitude and stench behind . The vulture may have revell'd upon men ; Upon the vulture ' s self thou revellest : Princes may hold high festival ; for thee Chiefly they hold it . Every dish removed , Thou comest in the silence of the night , Takest thy place , insinuest thy whole train Into the breast , lappest that wrinkled heart Stone-cold within , and with fresh appetite Again art ready for a like carouse . Behold before thee the first minstrel known , To know from them and laud unbidden guest ! One who hath never bent his brow to king , Perforce must bend it , mightier lord , to thee . April 22 . Walter Savage Landob .
The Apprenticeship Of Life. By G. H. Lew...
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LIFE . BY G . H . LEWES . SECOND EPISODE . —THE INITIATION OF LOVE . Chap . II . —( Continued . ) II y a fagots et fagots , says Moliere ; which for the nonce I may translate " there are kisses and kisses ; " so thought Hortense when Armand threw bo much cousinly warmth into his salute that her colour rose slightly ; and her emotion was increased by observing the bright admiration of his eyes . She began to remember he was nineteen ! From that moment she ceased to treat him as a boy .
A turn round the garden was followed by a chatty delightful breakfast . All lassitude had vanished at the sight of his cousin , and he was now in sparkling spirits , rattling on to her amazement , playing with paradoxes , and throwing about some of the subtle mystic aphorisms he had picked up from Frangipolo . Breakfast over , Hortense proposed to show him the grounds . " He cared not what it was , " he said , " so that he was with her . " A charming morning they spent ! She took him over the estate , visiting several of her farmers and tenants ; and here he saw fresh reason to be enamoured of his beautiful cousin , in the noble simplicity of her demeanour and in the evident affection and respect with which she was regarded by all around her .
Though of ancient family , and retaining in her manners the indubitable traces of high breeding , it was impossible to be more gracefully familiar , more unassumingly kind , than Hortense to her tenants : equally free from reserved haughtiness and from patronising condescension . She was among them as one of them , only more lovely and more refined . Democratic in her ideas , she did not commit the great mistake of aristocratic democrats—she did not make her inferiors feel that her sympathy with the cause of the people was a theoretical sympathy—the assent to an intellectual proposition rather than a genuine honest feeling . Her brain and heart were democratic . Accustomed to live among her peasantry , she recognised and respected their unsophisticated excellences and their homely virtues . She
i dealised perhaps and attributed to simplicity much that was mere ignorance , and to ignorance much that was brute selfishness ; for the artificial refinements of civilization throw into strong relief the equally artificial but less refined manners of the peasantry , and we are apt to give people credit for virtues if their vices are unlike our vices . Right or wrong , Hortense admired the people and loved them . Her conduct sprang from that feeling , and no wonder she was adored in return .
It was a day of perfect happiness ! The weather was superb 5 the country bore everywhere the rich ripe glowing aspect of summer ; Hortense was gay , unaffected , enchanting . When they returned home to a late dinner , fatigued , yet not more so than permitted them to appreciate repose , Armand was in love . In love ! Does the suddenness astonish you ? He has known her but few hours , it is true , if you measure time by the clock ; but who measures time thus , unless it be the listless and unoccupied ? There are hours in all
our lives to be counted as years . One evening will often bring two souls into closer communion and more thorough sympathy than ages can effect for others . Armand had been beside his cousin for one whole day . In that long interview a thousand topics had been discussed , and the most characteristic traits of their nature had been unveiled . In such interviews reserves are thrown aside , souls are frank , and excitement so stirs the hidden depths of our nature that words have intense meaning , and glances give to the nothings of conversation an immense significance .
Armand was as yet quite unconscious of this passion . He felt intensely happy , and that sufficed him . The sound of his cousin ' s voice , the touch of her hand , the lustre of her eyes , the magic of her smile , filled him with new and exquisite sensations ; but he did not pause to question them , to analyse their import ; it was enough that he felt them . Twilight brought with it dreamy reveries . Borne away upon the wandering stream of thought , his soul seemed to lose itself in the infini te , as a river loses itself in the sea . Hortense was at the piano playing snatches of Beethoven , and occasionally pausing to yield herself to the reveries which the music called up .
Evening , summer evening , with its coolness and its fragrance , gradually deepened . Hortense ceased playing . Armand took the hand which she abandoned to him , and held it in his own in silence , ti ll his temples throbbed , and then he drooped his head upon her shoulder . This recalled * her to a sense of their position , and rising gently , she said : " It is time to order the candles . " He was awakened brusquely from his dream . The candles were brought : he hated them ! He tried to sustain conversation , but all his efforts were useless , and pleading fatigue as an excuse , retired discontented to bed . r Chap . III . —The Avowal .
Hortense de Chazalon nee Fayol was a strange creature . Married at eighteen to a noble , narrowminded , upright , perfectly stupid gentilhomme campagnard whom she made legally happy and who made her legally wretched , she conceived such a disgust for marriage that , on his death , she vowed never again to link herself in its indissoluble bonds . Left a widow at three-and-twenty , rich , beautiful , and accomplished , she had , of course , a fatiguing suite of lovers , but had resisted them all . She would not love , she
would not marry . The doctrines of St . Simon came to her knowledge , and , prepared by her own miserable experience , she readily adopted that which proclaims the bond of love to be the only bond of marriage , and that it is an unsacred thing to force two human beings to live together as man and wife , after all affection , has died out .
But , in adopting this dogma , she was not prepared to carry it out . Like many others , she maintained with great eloquence that marriage was the union of souls , and that affection was its motive and its tie ; yet , inasmuch as all our social arrangements are against such a doctrine being enforced , she would not brave the world . Resolved not to marry , she determined not to love . Having hitherto resisted the imperious instincts of her nature , and controlled her sympathies when she found them tending exclusively towards one object , she felt herself in no danger with Armand , whom she continually said was a mere boy . That he was in love with her she perfectly discerned ; but she believed his boyish passion would soon wear itself out if not unchecked .
Weeks passed , and his love had grown impassioned , without any overt act on her side to check it . Her manner , indeed , became more reserved ; but then her eyes were unreserved , and suffered his eyes to gaze into their lustrous depths , and to speak that language of the soul which words are not airy and delicate enough to express . She cheated herself with the belief that her affection for him was only maternal tenderness —( he was such a boy!)—and , under this stalking-horse , the insidious passion stole up into her heart . Curiously enough , this man whom she affected to consider as a boy , had inspired her with that feeling of reverence which is inseparable from exalted love . His intellect commanded her ; and the purity and rigidity of his
moral sentiments filled her with respect . The power and capacity of his brain , developed as it had been by unusual studies , had less effect upon her than the chivalrous and ideal purity of all his sentiments . They were somewhat absolute and rigid , indeed j as the principles of young and uncorrupted men usually are , before experience has aided charity in teaching tolerance and in modifying the severity of abstract conclusions . This is a merit in youth It is of essential importance that we begin life with stern principles and an exalted ideal . Contact with the world will be sure to abrade asperities and soften severities , and thus leave us midway in life with a residuary force
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 4, 1850, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04051850/page/19/
-