25 Till, fainting, in the public way, Half dead with fear, she gasping lay. "Let me," says she, " your back ascend, And owe my safety to a friend. You know my feet betray my flight; The horse replied, "Poor honest Puss, For all your friends are in the rear." 45 50 The goat remarked her pulse was high, Her languid head, her heavy eye: 66 My back," says she, "may do you harm; The sheep's at hand, and wool is warm." The sheep was feeble, and complained, 66 'His sides a load of wool sustained;" Said he was slow, confessed his fears, 66 For hounds eat sheep as well as hares." She now the trotting calf addressed, To save from death a friend distressed: 55 "Shall I," says he, "of tender age, In this important case engage? How strong are those! how weak am I! Should I presume to bear you hence, 63. Adieu: Goodbye has exactly the same derivative meaning, being a contraction of "God be with ye," which, rapidly pronounced, became "God-b-wiye," goodbye. 133. Edward Young. 1681-1765. (History, p. 166.) PROCRASTINATION. Be wise to day: 'tis madness to defer; 5 Year after year it steals till all are fled, 10 If not so frequent, would not this be strange? Of man's miraculous mistakes, this bears All pay themselves the compliment to think At least, their own; their future selves applaud. 14. Drivel, become idiotic. 15. Praise this word, fr. Lat. pretium, through It. pregio, Fr. prix, priser, properly means nothing more than "to set a value on," in which sense it still exists in appraise. Thus praise, price, and prize are the same word. 18. Vails, perquisites, money given to servants-supposed to be a shortened form of avail. See Eduard Müller's Wörterbuch, sub voce. That lodged in fate's, to wisdom they consign; 20 The thing they can't but purpose, they postpone. "Tis not in folly, not to scorn a fool; And scarce in human wisdom, to do more. All promise is poor dilatory man, And that through every stage: when young, indeed, 25 In full content we, sometimes, nobly rest, Unanxious for ourselves; and only wish, As duteous sons, our fathers were more wise. Resolves; and re-resolves; then, dies the same. And why? Because he thinks himself immortal. 40 As from the wing, no scar the sky retains; 36. Alarming: alarm, once written al' arme, It. all' arme, is Lat. ad arma, to arms! 41. Keel, O. E. ceol, once meant the entire ship, as indeed it still does on the Tyne, CHAPTER XI. THE ESSAYISTS. Joseph Addison. 1672-1719. (History, p. 168.) 134. From 'THE SPECTATOR.' THE VISION OF MIRZA. On the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here refreshing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream. Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, but who was in reality a being of superior nature. I drew near with profound reverence, and fell down at his feet. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability, that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, "Mirza,” said he, “I have heard thee in thy soliloquies; follow me." He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock; and placing me on the top of it, "Cast thy eyes eastward," said he, "and tell me what thou seest." "I see," said I, "a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it." "The valley that thou seest," said he, "is the vale of misery; and the tide of water that thou seest, is part of the great tide of eternity." "What is the reason," said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other?" "What thou seest," said 66 he, "is that portion of eternity which is called time measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Examine1 now," said he, "this sea that is bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it." "I see a bridge," said I, "standing in the midst of the tide." "The bridge thou seest," said he, "is human life; consider it attentively." Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of three score and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number about a hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it. "But tell me further," said he, "what thou discoverest on it." "I see multitudes of people passing over it," said I, “and a black cloud hanging on each end of it." As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and, upon further examination, perceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, than they fell through them into the tide, and immediately disappeared. These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud than many fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the end of the arches that were entire. There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk. I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy, to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by them, to save themselves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and, in the midst of a speculation, stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles, that glittered in their eyes, and danced before them; but often, when they thought themselves within the reach of 1. Examine: a word that properly means to weigh, fr. Lat. examen, the tongue of a balance. |