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Article ARRIVALS, SURVIVALS, AND REVIVALS. ← Page 4 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Arrivals, Survivals, And Revivals.
you worshipped not in cushioned peAvs , " flexing condescending knees" to velvet hassocks but often"Turned aside , and from the simple sod , Sued as in forma , ' pauperis to God . " The bard ' s robes you folded about you were not of the finest of fine linen . Your harp not a presentation instrument framed of the most glittering goldorat least of the
was , , choicest Mosaic , embossed Avith joAvels of the first Avater , or at all events , of very presentable paste . Bather was the lyre like unto the torques and annula Ave sometimes dig up from the ruins of what were once great cities—gold , pure , unalloyed , as dug from the mine , yet ah ! hoAV artfully and dexterously fashioned . You sung rather as the poet oi Lazarus than as the laureate of Dives . Yet in my heart of hearts do I believe that it has ere thisbeen said unto thee " As ye have hymned even the least of these , ye have
, , carolled unto me !" So we see Christmas again arriving as Ave have—some of us—seen it revived , and as wo—all of us—see it surviving , and may AVO all live to see the dear old felloAv arrive again and again for many happy and festive , or at all events , tranquil , years . In the course of composing this paper there has been borne m upon me again and again the oft-repeated axiom
that"the best laid schemes of mice and men Gang oft aglee . " The capital , or stock in trade , with -which I began this recondite dissertation , has been most Avoefully diminished , in the matter of arrivals , at least , since I took pen in hand , and thereby the reader has lost much most learned disquisition . For instance , there was a long expected arrival about which I had proposed to gossip , Avhich has not justified my title by a survival , ancl there—see IIOAV fate goes against me!—Avas an expected arrival
which I had quite justifiably discounted , which , hasn't arrived at all . I do not know , however , whether I should most pity or congratulate the patient peruser . Can you not conceive the vast mass of erudition you have lost by the untimely decease of that provoking visitor , Mrs . Balama , if that be the precise denomination of the late ponderous mammal . Why , if the lady had survived , IIOAV can you tell IIOAV far afield—ice field—I might have carried you ? Othello in the marvellous recital of his moving accidents b y flood and field transported his mistress , in fancy , to
" antres vast and deserts idle , Rough quarries , rocks , and hills whose heads touch heaven . " And mi ght not I have bidden you follow me to Greenland ' s icy mountains , to snoAvy Spitsbergen , to the cold blue waves with crisp white crests , breaking on tbe bleak shores of Lapland . Would not the capacious Avhilom inmate of the Royal Aquarium tank have served me for . a text , whereon I might have discoursed eloquently of harpoons and blubber and caravelsand Polar bearsand Arctic expeditionsancl I know not
, greasy , , , what 1 Don't you remember the story of the gushing " young man , " Avbo , bidden to write a treatise on Chinese metaphysics , Avas locked up in a room with an Encyclopaedia , and the suggestion to look out the respective words " China ' ' and " metaphysics , " and combine his information . HOAV do you know what varied information I had combined merit the subject , when that interesting animal took it into her prodigious head to < l'c ! Go to , then , and be disappointed or grateful as ye list . And then again , yon remember
that poor Mr . Dick couldn't get the late King Charles ' s head out of his Much laboured memorial . Well , I take it , that do Avhat my collaborateurs may , they cannot altogether escape from importing a flavour , as it were , of the square and compasses , the triple tan , ancl the level ancl plumb rule , into the columns of this Magazine . , ell , then , hoAV naturally ancl gracefully AVOUM the expected arrival—that didn't arrive—• jave introduced the esoteric element into this article ! The delayed avatar—onl
y 1 eto-ted let us hope—was of a magnificent and munificent present by an exalted member 0 our noble Craft . Beshrew me!—you will perceive that I get mediaeval in my language when I am disappointed and angry—it yerked me forsooth , when on Friday last I saw ' ™ counterfeit presentment ancl image of the great gift in an undignified , reclining— . s
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Arrivals, Survivals, And Revivals.
you worshipped not in cushioned peAvs , " flexing condescending knees" to velvet hassocks but often"Turned aside , and from the simple sod , Sued as in forma , ' pauperis to God . " The bard ' s robes you folded about you were not of the finest of fine linen . Your harp not a presentation instrument framed of the most glittering goldorat least of the
was , , choicest Mosaic , embossed Avith joAvels of the first Avater , or at all events , of very presentable paste . Bather was the lyre like unto the torques and annula Ave sometimes dig up from the ruins of what were once great cities—gold , pure , unalloyed , as dug from the mine , yet ah ! hoAV artfully and dexterously fashioned . You sung rather as the poet oi Lazarus than as the laureate of Dives . Yet in my heart of hearts do I believe that it has ere thisbeen said unto thee " As ye have hymned even the least of these , ye have
, , carolled unto me !" So we see Christmas again arriving as Ave have—some of us—seen it revived , and as wo—all of us—see it surviving , and may AVO all live to see the dear old felloAv arrive again and again for many happy and festive , or at all events , tranquil , years . In the course of composing this paper there has been borne m upon me again and again the oft-repeated axiom
that"the best laid schemes of mice and men Gang oft aglee . " The capital , or stock in trade , with -which I began this recondite dissertation , has been most Avoefully diminished , in the matter of arrivals , at least , since I took pen in hand , and thereby the reader has lost much most learned disquisition . For instance , there was a long expected arrival about which I had proposed to gossip , Avhich has not justified my title by a survival , ancl there—see IIOAV fate goes against me!—Avas an expected arrival
which I had quite justifiably discounted , which , hasn't arrived at all . I do not know , however , whether I should most pity or congratulate the patient peruser . Can you not conceive the vast mass of erudition you have lost by the untimely decease of that provoking visitor , Mrs . Balama , if that be the precise denomination of the late ponderous mammal . Why , if the lady had survived , IIOAV can you tell IIOAV far afield—ice field—I might have carried you ? Othello in the marvellous recital of his moving accidents b y flood and field transported his mistress , in fancy , to
" antres vast and deserts idle , Rough quarries , rocks , and hills whose heads touch heaven . " And mi ght not I have bidden you follow me to Greenland ' s icy mountains , to snoAvy Spitsbergen , to the cold blue waves with crisp white crests , breaking on tbe bleak shores of Lapland . Would not the capacious Avhilom inmate of the Royal Aquarium tank have served me for . a text , whereon I might have discoursed eloquently of harpoons and blubber and caravelsand Polar bearsand Arctic expeditionsancl I know not
, greasy , , , what 1 Don't you remember the story of the gushing " young man , " Avbo , bidden to write a treatise on Chinese metaphysics , Avas locked up in a room with an Encyclopaedia , and the suggestion to look out the respective words " China ' ' and " metaphysics , " and combine his information . HOAV do you know what varied information I had combined merit the subject , when that interesting animal took it into her prodigious head to < l'c ! Go to , then , and be disappointed or grateful as ye list . And then again , yon remember
that poor Mr . Dick couldn't get the late King Charles ' s head out of his Much laboured memorial . Well , I take it , that do Avhat my collaborateurs may , they cannot altogether escape from importing a flavour , as it were , of the square and compasses , the triple tan , ancl the level ancl plumb rule , into the columns of this Magazine . , ell , then , hoAV naturally ancl gracefully AVOUM the expected arrival—that didn't arrive—• jave introduced the esoteric element into this article ! The delayed avatar—onl
y 1 eto-ted let us hope—was of a magnificent and munificent present by an exalted member 0 our noble Craft . Beshrew me!—you will perceive that I get mediaeval in my language when I am disappointed and angry—it yerked me forsooth , when on Friday last I saw ' ™ counterfeit presentment ancl image of the great gift in an undignified , reclining— . s