Part 26

I Prior sought, but could not see The Hood so late in front; And when I turned to hunt for Lee, Oh! where was my Leigh Hunt?

I tried to laugh, old care to tickle, Yet could not Tickell touch, And then, alas! I missed my Mickle, And surely mickle's much.

'Tis quite enough my griefs to feed, My sorrows to excuse, To think I cannot read my Reid, Nor even use my Hughes.

To West, to South, I turn my head, Exposed alike to odd jeers; For since my Roger Ascham's fled, I ask 'em for my Rogers.

They took my Horne--and Horne Tooke, too, And thus my treasures flit; I feel when I would Hazlitt view, The flames that it has lit.

My word's worth little, Wordsworth gone, If I survive its doom; How many a bard I doated on Was swept off--with my Broome.

My classics would not quiet lie, A thing so fondly hoped; Like Dr. Primrose, I may cry, 'My Livy has eloped!'

My life is wasting fast away-- I suffer from these shocks; And though I've fixed a lock on Gray, There's grey upon my locks.

I'm far from young--am growing pale-- I see my Butter fly; And when they ask about my _ail_, 'Tis Burton! I reply.

They still, have made me slight returns, And thus my griefs divide; For oh! they've cured me of my Burns, And eased my Akenside.

But all I think I shall not say, Nor let my anger burn; For as they never found me Gay, They have not left me Sterne.

S. LAMAN BLANCHARD.

THE BOOK OF NATURE

Of this fair volume which we World do name, If we the sheets and leaves could turn with care, Of Him who it corrects, and did it frame, We clear might read the art and wisdom rare: Find out His power which wildest powers doth tame, His providence extending everywhere, His justice which proud rebels doth not spare, In every page, no, period of the same. But silly we, like foolish children, rest Well pleased with coloured vellum, leaves of gold, Fair dangling ribands, leaving what is best, On the great Writer's sense ne'er taking hold; Or if by chance our minds do muse on aught, It is some picture on the margin wrought.

W. DRUMMOND.

In Nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read.

W. SHAKESPEARE. _Antony and Cleopatra._

THE BOOK

Eternal God! Maker of all That have lived here since the Man's fall! The Rock of Ages! in whose shade They live unseen when here they fade!

Thou knew'st this _paper_ when it was Mere seed, and after that but grass; Before 'twas dressed or spun, and when Made linen, who did _wear_ it then, What were their lives, their thoughts and deeds, Whether good _corn_, or fruitless _weeds_.

Thou knew'st this _tree_, when a green shade Covered it, since a _cover_ made, And where it flourished, grew, and spread, As if it never should be dead.

Thou knew'st this harmless _beast_, when he Did live and feed by thy decree On each green thing; then slept, well fed, Clothed with this _skin_, which now lies spread A _covering_ o'er this aged book, Which makes me wisely weep, and look On my own dust; mere dust it is, But not so dry and clean as this. Thou knew'st and saw'st them all, and though Now scattered thus, dost know them so.

O knowing, glorious Spirit! when Thou shalt restore trees, beasts and men, When thou shalt make all new again, Destroying only death and pain, Give him amongst thy works a place Who in them loved and sought thy face!

H. VAUGHAN.

THE BOOK OF LIFE

That Life is a Comedy oft hath been shown, By all who Mortality's changes have known; But more like a Volume its actions appear, Where each Day is a Page and each Chapter a year.

'Tis a Manuscript Time shall full surely unfold, Though with Black-Letter shaded, or shining with gold; The Initial, like youth, glitters bright on its Page, But its text is as dark--as the gloom of old Age. Then Life's Counsels of Wisdom engrave on thy breast, And deep on thine Heart be her lessons impressed.

Though the Title stands first it can little declare The Contents which the Pages ensuing shall bear; As little the first day of Life can explain The succeeding events which shall glide in its train. The Book follows next, and, delighted, we trace An Elzevir's beauty, a Gutenberg's grace; Thus on pleasure we gaze with as raptured an eye, Till, cut off like a Volume imperfect, we die! Then Life's Counsels of Wisdom engrave on thy breast, And deep on thine Heart be her lessons impressed.

Yet e'en thus imperfect, complete, or defaced, The skill of the Printer is still to be traced; And though death bend us early in life to his will, The wise hand of our Author is visible still. Like the Colophon lines is the Epitaph's lay, Which tells of what age and what nation our day, And, like the Device of the Printer, we bear The form of the Founder, whose Image we wear. Then Life's Counsels of Wisdom engrave on thy breast, And deep on thine Heart be her lessons impressed.

The work thus completed its Boards shall enclose, Till a Binding more bright and more beauteous it shows; And who can deny, when Life's Vision hath passed, That the dark Boards of Death shall surround us at last. Yet our Volume illumed with fresh splendours shall rise, To be gazed at by Angels, and read to the skies, Reviewed by its Author, revised by his Pen, In a fair new Edition to flourish again. Then Life's Counsels of Wisdom engrave on thy breast, And deep on thine Heart be her lessons impressed.

R. THOMSON.

THE WIND OVER THE CHIMNEY

See, the fire is sinking low, Dusky red the embers glow, While above them still I cower, While a moment more I linger, Though the clock, with lifted finger, Points beyond the midnight hour.

Sings the blackened log a tune Learned in some forgotten June From a school-boy at his play, When they both were young together, Heart of youth and summer weather Making all their holiday.

And the night-wind rising, hark! How above there in the dark, In the midnight and the snow, Ever wilder, fiercer, grander. Like the trumpets of Iskander, All the noisy chimneys blow!

Every quivering tongue of flame Seems to murmur some great name, Seems to say to me, 'Aspire!' But the night-wind answers, 'Hollow Are the visions that you follow, Into darkness sinks your fire!'

Then the flicker of the blaze Gleams on volumes of old days, Written by masters of the art, Loud through whose majestic pages Rolls the melody of ages, Throb the harp-strings of the heart.

And again the tongues of flame Start exulting and exclaim: 'These are prophets, bards, and seers; In the horoscope of nations, Like ascendant constellations, They control the coming years.'

But the night-wind cries: 'Despair! Those who walk with feet of air Leave no long-enduring marks; At God's forges incandescent Mighty hammers beat incessant, These are but the flying sparks.

'Dust are all the hands that wrought; Books are sepulchres of thought; The dead laurels of the dead Rustle for a moment only, Like the withered leaves in lonely Churchyards at some passing tread.'

Suddenly the flame sinks down; Sink the rumours of renown; And alone the night-wind drear Clamours louder, wilder, vaguer,-- ''Tis the brand of Meleager Dying on the hearth-stone here!'

And I answer,--'Though it be, Why should that discomfort me? No endeavour is in vain; Its reward is in the doing, And the rapture of pursuing Is the prize the vanquished gain.'

H. W. LONGFELLOW. _Wise Books._

For half the truths they hold are honoured tombs.--G. ELIOT. _The Spanish Gipsy._

A GREAT NECROMANCER

Alonso of Aragon was wont to say of himself that he was a great Necromancer, for that he used to ask counsel of the dead: meaning Books.--F. BACON, LORD VERULAM. _Apophthegmes._

BOOKS FOR MAGIC

Resolve you, doctors, _Bacon_ can by books Make storming _Boreas_ thunder from his cave, And dim fair _Luna_ to a dark Eclipse. The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell, Trembles, when _Bacon_ bids him, or his fiends, Bow to the force of his Pentageron. What art can work, the frolic friar knows, And therefore will I turn my Magic books, And strain out Necromancy to the deep. I have contrived and framed a head of brass (I made _Belcephon_ hammer out the stuff), And that by art shall read Philosophy: And I will strengthen _England_ by my skill, That if ten _Caesars_ lived and reigned in _Rome_, With all the legions _Europe_ doth contain, They should not touch a grasse of English ground: The work that _Ninus_ reared at _Babylon_, The brazen walls framed by _Semiramis_, Carved out like to the portal of the sun, Shall not be such as rings the _English_ strand From _Dover_ to the market place of _Rye_.

R. GREENE. _The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay._

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH

'Tis a custom with him I' the afternoon to sleep: there thou may'st brain him, Having first seized his books; or with a log Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake, Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember First to possess his books; for without them He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not One spirit to command: they all do hate him As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.

W. SHAKESPEARE. _The Tempest._

RED LETTERS AND CONJURING

SMITH. The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and cast accompt.

CADE. O monstrous!

SMITH. We took him setting of boys' copies.

CADE. Here's a villain!

SMITH. Has a book in his pocket with red letters in't.

CADE. Nay, then, he is a conjurer.

W. SHAKESPEARE. _Second Part of King Henry the Sixth._

MERLIN'S BOOK

_You_ read the book, my pretty Vivien! O aye, it is but twenty pages long, But every page having an ample marge, And every marge enclosing in the midst A square of text that looks a little blot, The text no larger than the limbs of fleas; And every square of text an awful charm, Writ in a language that has long gone by. So long, that mountains have arisen since With cities on their flanks--_you_ read the book! And every margin scribbled, crost, and crammed With comment, densest condensation, hard To mind and eye; but the long sleepless nights Of my long life have made it easy to me. And none can read the text, not even I; And none can read the comment but myself; And in the comment did I find the charm.

LORD TENNYSON. _Idylls of the King: Vivien._

FAST AND LOOSE

Fast bind, fast find: my Bible was well bound; A Thief came fast, and loose my Bible found: Was't bound and loose at once? how can that be? 'Twas loose for him, although 'twas bound for me.

J. TAYLOR.

READ THE SCRIPTURES

Read the Scriptures, which Hyperius holds available of itself; 'the mind is erected thereby from all worldly cares, and hath much quiet and tranquillity.' For, as Austin well hath it, 'tis _scientia scientiarum, omni melle dulcior, omni pane suavior, omni vino hilarior_: 'tis the best nepenthe, surest cordial, sweetest alterative, presentest diverter: for neither as Chrysostom well adds, 'those boughs and leaves of trees which are plashed for cattle to stand under, in the heat of the day, in summer, so much refresh them with their acceptable shade, as the reading of the Scripture doth recreate and comfort a distressed soul, in sorrow and affliction.' Paul bids us 'pray continually'; _quod cibus corpori, lectio animae facit_, saith Seneca, 'as meat is to the body, such is reading to the soul.' 'To be at leisure without books is another hell, and to be buried alive.' Cardan calls a library the physic of the soul; 'Divine authors fortify the mind, make men bold and constant'; and (as Hyperius adds) 'godly conference will not permit the mind to be tortured with absurd cogitations.'--R. BURTON. _The Anatomy of Melancholy._

TO THE HOLY BIBLE

O Book! Life's guide! how shall we part, And thou so long seized of my heart? Take this last kiss; and let me weep True thanks to thee before I sleep.

Thou wert the first put in my hand When yet I could not understand, And daily didst my young eyes lead To letters, till I learnt to read.

But as rash youths, when once grown strong, Fly from their nurses to the throng, Where they new consorts choose, and stick To those till either hurt or sick; So with the first light gained from thee Ran I in chase of vanity, Cried dross for gold, and never thought My first cheap book had all I sought. Long reigned this vogue; and thou cast by, With meek, dumb looks didst woo mine eye, And oft left open would'st convey A sudden and most searching ray Into my soul, with whose quick touch Refining still, I struggled much. By this mild art of love at length Thou overcam'st my sinful strength, And having brought me home, didst there Show me that pearl I sought elsewhere,-- Gladness, and peace, and hope, and love, The secret favours of the Dove; Her quickening kindness, smiles, and kisses, Exalted pleasures, crowning blisses, Fruition, union, glory, life, Thou didst lead to, and still all strife. Living, thou wert my soul's sure ease, And dying mak'st me go in peace:-- Thy next effects no tongue can tell; Farewell, O Book of God! farewell!

H. VAUGHAN.

ON BUYING THE BIBLE

'Tis but a folly to rejoice or boast How small a price thy well-bought Pen'worth cost: Until thy death thou shalt not fully know Whether thy purchase be good cheap, or no; And at that day, believe 't, it will appear If not extremely cheap, extremely dear.

F. QUARLES. _Divine Fancies._

'I READ ONLY THE BIBLE'

Read the most useful books, and that regularly, and constantly. Steadily spend all the morning in this employ, or, at least, five hours in four-and-twenty.

'But I read only the Bible.' Then you ought to teach others to read only the Bible, and, by parity of reason, to hear only the Bible. But if so, you need preach no more. 'Just so,' said George Bell. 'And what is the fruit? Why, now he neither reads the Bible, nor anything else. This is rank enthusiasm.' If you need no book but the Bible, you are got above St. Paul. He wanted others too. 'Bring the books,' says he, 'but especially the parchments,' those wrote on parchment. 'But I have no taste for reading.' Contract a taste for it by use, or return to your trade.--J. WESLEY. _Minutes of Some Late Conversations._

A MAN OF ONE BOOK

I want to know one thing,--the way to heaven; how to land safe on the happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me the book! At any price, give me the book of God. I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be _homo unius libri_. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book.... And what I thus learn, that I teach.--J. WESLEY. _Preface to Sermons._

HOMO UNIUS LIBRI

When St. Thomas Aquinas was asked in what manner a man might best become learned, he answered, 'By reading one book.' The _homo unius libri_ is indeed proverbially formidable to all conversational figurantes.--R. SOUTHEY. _The Doctor._

THE SCRIPTURES: WHAT ARE THEY?

I remember he alleged many a scripture, but those I valued not; the scriptures, thought I, what are they? A dead letter, a little ink and paper, of three or four shillings price. Alas! What is the scripture? Give me a ballad, a news-book, George on horseback, or Bevis of Southampton; give me some book that teaches curious arts, that tells of old fables; but for the holy scriptures I cared not.--J. BUNYAN. _Sighs from Hell._

'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS'

I know of no book, the Bible excepted, as above all comparison, which I, according to my judgement and experience, could so safely recommend as teaching and enforcing the whole saving truth according to the mind that was in Christ Jesus, as the _Pilgrim's Progress_. It is, in my conviction, incomparably the best _summa theologiae evangelicae_ ever produced by a writer not miraculously inspired.

This wonderful work is one of the few books which may be read repeatedly at different times, and each time with a new and different pleasure. I read it once as a theologian--and let me assure you that there is great theological acumen in the work--once with devotional feelings--and once as a poet. I could not have believed beforehand that Calvinism could be painted in such exquisitely delightful colours....

The _Pilgrim's Progress_ is composed in the lowest style of English, without slang or false grammar. If you were to polish it, you would at once destroy the reality of the vision. For works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.--S. T. COLERIDGE. _Table Talk._

NO BOOK LIKE THE BIBLE

I would have you every morning read a portion of the Holy Scriptures, till you have read the Bible from the beginning to the end: observe it well, read it reverently and attentively, set your heart upon it, and lay it up in your memory and make it the direction of your life: it will make you a wise and a good man. I have been acquainted somewhat with men and books, and have had long experience in learning, and in the world: there is no book like the Bible for excellent learning, wisdom, and use; and it is want of understanding in them that think or speak otherwise.--SIR M. HALE. _A Letter to one of his Sons, after his recovery from the Smallpox._

TO A FAMILY BIBLE

What household thoughts around thee, as their shrine, Cling reverently!--of anxious looks beguiled, My mother's eyes, upon thy page divine, Each day were bent--her accents gravely mild, Breathed out thy love: whilst I, a dreamy child, Wandered on breeze-like fancies oft away, To some lone tuft of gleaming spring-flowers wild, Some fresh-discovered nook for woodland play, Some secret nest: yet would the solemn Word At times, with kindlings of young wonder heard, Fall on my wakened spirit, there to be A seed not lost:--for which, in darker years, O Book of Heaven! I pour, with grateful tears, Heart blessings on the holy dead and thee!

FELICIA D. HEMANS.

THE BOOK OF BOOKS

No man was a greater lover of books than he [Shelley]. He was rarely to be seen, unless attending to other people's affairs, without a volume of some sort, generally of Plato or one of the Greek tragedians. Nor will those who understand the real spirit of his scepticism, be surprised to hear that one of his companions was the Bible. He valued it for the beauty of some of its contents, for the dignity of others, and the curiosity of all; though the philosophy of Solomon he thought too _Epicurean_, and the inconsistencies of other parts afflicted him. His favourite part was the book of Job, which he thought the grandest of tragedies. He projected founding one of his own upon it; and I will undertake to say, that Job would have sat in that tragedy with a patience and profundity of thought worthy of the original. Being asked on one occasion, what book he would save for himself if he could save no other? he answered, 'The oldest book, the Bible.'--J. H. LEIGH HUNT. _My Books._

A VERY PRICELESS THING

Precious temporal things are growing [in these years of peace]; priceless spiritual things. We know the Shakespeare Dramaturgy; the Rare-Ben and Elder-Dramatist affair; which has now reached its culmination. Yes; and precisely when the Wit-combats at the Mermaid are waning somewhat, and our Shakespeare is about packing up for Stratford,--there comes out another very priceless thing; a correct Translation of the Bible; that which we still use. Priceless enough this latter; of importance unspeakable! Reynolds and Chadderton petitioned for it, at the Hampton-Court Conference, long since; and now, in 1611, by labour of Reynolds, Chadderton, Dr. Abbot, and other prodigiously learned and earnest persons, 'forty-seven in number,' it comes out beautifully printed; dedicated to the Dread Sovereign; really in part a benefit of his to us. And so we have it here to read, that Book of Books: 'barbarous enough to rouse, tender enough to assuage, and possessing how many other properties,' says Goethe;--possessing this property, inclusive of all, add we, That it is written under the eye of the Eternal; that it is of a Sincerity like very Death; the truest Utterance that ever came by Alphabetic Letters from the Soul of Man. Through which, as through a window divinely opened, all men could look, and can still look, beyond the visual Air-firmaments and mysterious Time-oceans, into the Light-sea of Infinitude, into the stillness of Eternity; and discern in glimpses, with such emotions and practical suggestions as there may be, their far-distant, longforgotten Home.--T. CARLYLE. _Historical Sketches._

MATERIAL FOR POESY

What can we imagine more proper for the ornaments of wit and learning in the story of Deucalion than in that of Noah? Why will not the actions of Samson afford as plentiful matter as the labours of Hercules? Why is not Jephthah's daughter as good a woman as Iphigenia? and the friendship of David and Jonathan more worthy celebration than that of Theseus and Pirithous? Does not the passage of Moses and the Israelites into the Holy Land yield incomparably more poetic variety than the voyages of Ulysses or Aeneas? Are the obsolete, threadbare tales of Thebes and Troy half so stored with great, heroical, and supernatural actions (since verse will needs find or make such) as the wars of Joshua, of the Judges, of David, and divers others?... All the books of the Bible are either already most admirable and exalted pieces of poesy, or are the best material in the world for it.--A. COWLEY. _Preface to Davideis._

SACRED AND PROFANE WRITERS

Let those who will, hang rapturously o'er The flowing eloquence of Plato's page, Repeat, with flashing eye, the sounds that pour From Homer's verse as with a torrent's rage; Let those who list, ask Tully to assuage Wild hearts with high-wrought periods, and restore The reign of rhetoric; or maxims sage Winnow from Seneca's sententious lore. Not these, but Judah's hallowed bards, to me Are dear: Isaiah's noble energy; The temperate grief of Job; the artless strain Of Ruth and pastoral Amos; the high songs Of David; and the tale of Joseph's wrongs, Simply pathetic, eloquently plain.

SIR AUBREY DE VERE.

A STANDARD FOR LANGUAGE

It is your lordship's observation, that if it were not for the Bible and Common Prayer Book in the vulgar tongue, we should hardly be able to understand anything that was written among us a hundred years ago; which is certainly true: for those books, being perpetually read in churches, have proved a kind of standard for language, especially to the common people.... As to the greatest parts of our liturgy, compiled long before the translation of the Bible now in use, and little altered since, these seem to be in as great strains of true sublime eloquence as are anywhere to be found in our language.--J. SWIFT. _A proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English Tongue_ (Letter to the Earl of Oxford).

THE GRAND MINE OF DICTION