Part 19 (2/2)
”A pleasure that I enjoy alone affects me but slightly, and is of short duration. It is for my friends as well as myself that I read, that I reflect, that I write, that I meditate, that I listen, that I look, that I feel. In their absence I am still devoted to them; I am continually thinking of their happiness. If I am struck with a beautiful line, they must know it. If I meet with a fine pa.s.sage, I promise myself to impart it to them. If I have before my eyes some enchanting spectacle, I unconsciously plan a description of it for their benefit. I have consecrated to them the use of all my senses and faculties; and it is perhaps for this reason that everything becomes somewhat enriched in my imagination and exaggerated in my discourse. Nevertheless, the ungrateful creatures sometimes reproach me.”
LA BRUYeRE [Sidenote: _Sainte-Beuve_]
That philosopher, always accessible, even in the deepest studies, who tells you to come in, for you bring him something more precious than gold or silver, _if it is the opportunity of obliging you._
SABBATH BELLS [Sidenote: _Anon._]
Ding--ding-a-ding! Ding--ding-a-ding!
The church bells they du ring, Ding--ding-a-ding! Ding--ding-a-ding!
An' seems they bells du zing: ”O merry be! O merry be!
The work it all be done, Zee, peas and brocoli du graw Tremenjus in the zun; An' hot it is, an' calm it is, Bees buzz an' cattle doze; Zo, laze about, an' talk about, All in your Zunday clo's.”
_Ding--ding-a-ding_! Ding--ding-a-ding_!
Ding--ding-a-ding! Ding--ding-a-ding!
The church bells merry ring, Ding--ding-a-ding! Ding--ding-a-ding!
An,' dang it! doan't they zing?-- ”O rest awhile! O rest awhile!
Vor 'tis amazin' sweet To watch the white-heart cabbages All bustin' in the heat; Zo, zit about, an' stand about, Beside ov Early Rose, An' puff a pipe, an' think ov things, All in your Zunday clo's.”
_Ding--ding-a-ding_! Ding--ding-a-ding_!
Dong! Dong! Dong!
There's a shadow on the marn, Dong! Dong! Dong!
The one larst bell du warn: ”O fulish mun! O fulish mun!
Life be no more than gra.s.s, It glitters in the s.h.i.+nin' zun-- Until the Reaper pa.s.s!
An', hark! I call 'ee up to prayer, Wi' pa.s.sen, clerk, an' schule, Come up along, an' take thee seat Thou ole pig-headed fule!”
_Dong_! _Dong_! _Dong_!
UNCLE TOBY AND THE FLY [Sidenote: _Sterne_]
My uncle _Toby_ was a man patient of injuries;--not from want of courage,--I have told you in a former chapter, ”that he was a man of courage”:--And will add here, that where just occasions presented, or called it forth,--know no man under whose arm I would have sooner taken shelter;--nor did this arise from any insensibility or obtuseness of his intellectual parts;--for he felt this insult of my father's as feelingly as a man could do;--but he was of a peaceful, placid nature,--no jarring element in it,--all was mixed up so kindly within him; my uncle _Toby_ had scarce a heart to retaliate upon a fly.
--Go--says he, one day at dinner, to an over-grown one which had buzzed about his nose, and tormented him cruelly all dinner-time,--and which, after infinite attempts, he had caught at last, as it flew by him;--I'll not hurt thee, says my uncle _Toby_, rising from his chair, and going across the room, with the fly in his hand,--I'll not hurt a hair of thy head;--Go, says he, lifting up the sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it escape;--go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee?--This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.
I was but ten years old when this happened: but whether it was, that the action itself was more in unison to my nerves at that age of pity, which instantly set my whole frame into one vibration of most pleasurable sensation;--or how far the manner and expression of it might go towards it;--or, in what degree, or by what secret magick,--a tone of voice and harmony of movement, attuned by mercy, might find a pa.s.sage to my heart, I know not;--this I know, that the lesson of universal good-will then taught and imprinted by my uncle _Toby_ has never since been worn out of my mind: And tho' I would not depreciate what the study of the _Literae humaniores,_ at the University, have done for me in that respect, or discredit the other helps of an expensive education bestowed upon me, both at home and abroad since;--yet I often think that I owe one half of my philanthropy to that one accidental expression.
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