[_Vide Life of S. T. C._, by James Gillman, 1838, p. 223.]
[Sidenote: FOR THE "SOOTHER IN ABSENCE." May 28, 1807 Bristol]
How villainously these metallic pencils have degenerated, not only in the length and quantity, but what is far worse, in the _quality_ of the metal! This one appears to have no superiority over the worst sort sold by the Maltese shopkeepers.
Blue sky through the glimmering interspaces of the dark elms at twilight rendered a lovely deep yellow-green--all the rest a delicate blue.
The hay-field in the close hard by the farm-house--babe, and totterer little more [than a babe]--old cat with her eyes blinking in the sun and little kittens leaping and frisking over the hay-lines.
What an admirable subject for an Allston would Tycho Brahe be, listening with religious awe to the oracular gabble of the idiot, whom he kept at his feet, and used to feed with his own hands!
The sun-flower ought to be cultivated, the leaves being excellent fodder, the flowers eminently melliferous, and the seeds a capital food for poultry, none nourishing quicker or occasioning them to lay more eggs.
Serpentium allapsus timet. Quære--_allapse_ of serpents. _Horace_.--What other word have we? Pity that we dare not Saxonise as boldly as our forefathers, by unfortunate preference, Latinised. Then we should have on-glide, _angleiten_; onlook _anschauen_, etc.
I moisten the bread of affliction with the water of adversity.
If kings are gods on earth, they are, however, gods of earth.
Parisatis poisoned one side of the knife with which he carved, and eat of the same joint the next slice unhurt--a happy illustration of affected self-inclusion in accusation.
It is possible to conceive a planet without any general atmosphere, but in which each living body has its peculiar atmosphere. To hear and understand, one man joins his atmosphere to that of another, and, according to the sympathies of their nature, the aberrations of sound will be greater or less, and their thoughts more or less intelligible. A pretty allegory might be made of this.
Two faces, each of a confused countenance. In the eyes of the one, muddiness and lustre were blended; and the eyes of the other were the same, but in them there was a red fever that made them appear more fierce. And yet, methought, the former struck a greater trouble, a fear and distress of the mind; and sometimes all the face looked meek and mild, but the eye was ever the same.