[62] "To what am I reserved?" writes Angelo in another piece. "To live long? that terrifies me. The shortest life is yet too long for the recompense obtained in serving with devotion."
[63] "Ahi, che null altro che pianto al mondo dura!"--_Petrarca._
[64] "_Ogni altro ben val men ch'una mia doglia!_"
* * * * "Chi t'ama con fede Si leva a Dio, e fa dolce la morte."
A GOSSIPING LETTER FROM THE SEASIDE TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH, ESQ. BY AN OLD CONTRIBUTOR.
------ Near ----, England, _October 1846_.
MY DEAR CHRISTOPHER,--Where am I? What am I doing? Why have I forgotten you and Maga? Bless us! what a pother!--Give a man time, my revered friend, to answer: I have _not_ forgotten either you or Maga; I am at the seaside; and I am doing, as well as I can, _nothing_. There are your testy questions answered: and as to divers objurgatory observations of your's, I shall not attempt to reply to them--regarding them as the results of some gout-twinges which have, I fear, a little quickened and heated the temper of that "old man eloquent," who, when in good health, plays but one part--that of a caressing father towards his children; for as such Christopher North has ever (as far as I know) regarded his contributors. "Why don't you _review_ something or other? There's ----, an impudent knave!--has just sent me his ----: you will find it pleasant to flagellate him, or ----, a Cockney coxcomb! And if you be not in that humour, there are several excellent, and one or two admirable works, which have appeared within the last eighteen months, and which really have as strong a claim on Maga as she has on her truant sons,--and you, among the rest, have repeatedly promised to take one, at least, in hand. If you be not in the critical vein--do, for heaven's sake, turn your hand to something else--you have lain fallow long enough!--With one of the many articles which you have so often told me that you were 'seriously thinking of' on ----, or ----, or ----, &c., &c., &c.; and if _that_ won't do--why, rather than do _nothing_, set to work for an hour or two on a couple of mornings, and write me a gossiping sort of letter--such as I can print--such as you have once before done, and I printed,--on Things in General. Surely the last few months have witnessed events which must have set you, and all observant men, thinking, and thinking very earnestly. Set to work, be it only in a simple, natural, easy way--care not you, as I care not, how discursively--a little touch of modest egotism, even, I will forgive on this occasion, if you find that--" Here, dear Christopher, I recalcitrate, and decline printing the rest of the sentence; but as to "_Things in General_"--I am somewhat smitten with the suggestion. 'Tis a taking title--a roomy subject, in which one can flit about from gay to grave, from lively to severe, according to the humour of the moment; and since you really do not dislike the idea of an old contributor's gossip on men and things, given you in his own way, I shall forthwith begin to pour out my little thoughts as unreservedly as if you and I were sitting together alone here. _Here_; but where? As I said before, at the seaside; at my favourite resort--where (eschewing "Watering-places" with lively disgust) I have spent many a happy autumn. When I first found it out, I thought that the _lines_ had indeed _fallen_ to me in _pleasant places_, and I still think so; but were I to tell the public, through your pages, of this green spot, I suspect that by this time next year the sweet solitude and primitive simplicity of the scene around me would have vanished: greedy speculating builders, tempting the proprietors of the soil, would run up in all directions vile, pert, vulgar, brick-built, slate-roofed, Quakerish-looking abominations, exactly as a once lovely nook in the Isle of Wight--Ventnor to wit--has become a mere assemblage of eyesores, a mass of _un_favourable eruptions, so to speak--Bah! I once used to look forward to the Isle of Wight with springy satisfaction. Why, the infatuated inhabitants were lately talking of having a railroad in the island!!