2. Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, Byron: Sonnet on Chillon. Life: The quality or fact of animate existence conceived as a part of an animal's being or as a separable attribute of his body; hence, the principle or force by which animals and plants are conceived as maintained in the performance of their organic functions; the vital force, whether regarded as physical or spiritual, the presence of which distinguishes organic from inorganic matter; the duration of a life from birth to death; as, the average human life is forty years. Webster's New International Dictionary. Somewhere in the oldest English writings there is an allgory which has never faded. Of a night, it tells us, a little group was gathered about the fireside in a hall where the flicker of flame cast light on some and threw others into shadow, but none into shadow so deep as the darkness without. And into the window from the midst of the night flew a swallow lured by the light; but unable by reason of his wildness to linger among men, he sped across the hall and so out again into the dark, and was seen no more. To this day, as much as when the old poet first saw or fancied it, the swallow's flight remains an image of earthly life. From whence we know not, we come into the wavering light and gusty warmth of this world; but here the law of our being forbids that we remain. A little we may see, fancying that we understand, the hall, the lords and the servants, the chim ney and the feast; more we may feel, the light and the warmth, the safety and the danger, the hope and the dread. Then we must forth again, into the voiceless, unseen eternities. Barrett Wendell: A Literary History of America.1 1 Copyright, 1900, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Used with the kind pernission of the publishers. 3. Mont Blanc (15,782 feet in height), the monarch of the Alps, which since 1860 has formed the boundary between France and Italy, is composed chiefly of granite, and is shrouded with a stupendous mantle of perpetual snow. It was ascended for the first time in 1786 by the guide Jacques Balmat, and by Dr. Paccard the same year. The ascent, though very fatiguing, offers no very great difficulties to experienced mountaineers, but travellers are cautioned against attempting it in foggy or stormy weather, as fatal accidents have frequently occurred. The view from the summit is extremely grand, though unsatisfactory in the ordinary sense. Owing to their great distance, all objects appear indistinct; even in the clearest weather we can descry only the outlines of the great chains, the Swiss Alps, the Jura, the Dauphiny, Graian, and Cottian Alps, and the Apennines. Baedeker's Switzerland. Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful Form! O dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody, So sweet, we know not we are listening to it, Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my Thought, Till the dilating Soul, enrapt, transfused, 4. Into the mighty vision passing- there As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven! Coleridge: Hymn to Mont Blanc. 2. Joy, exultation, anger Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost. Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in! "I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. O Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!" He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears. His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance. "I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath, and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to everybody! A Happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here. Whoop! Hallo!" He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there, perfectly winded. "There's the saucepan that the gruel was in! cried Scrooge, starting off again, and going round the fireplace. "There's the door by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat! There's the window where I saw the wandering Spirits! It's all right, it's all true, it all happened. Ha, ha, ha!” "I don't know what day of the month it is," said Scrooge. "I don't know how long I have been among the Spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! Hallo here!" He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell! Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious! Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; golden sunlight; heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious! "What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. "EH?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder. "What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge. "To-day!" replied the boy. "Why, CHRISTMAS Day.” "It's Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself. “I have n't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!" "Hallo!" returned the boy. 66 Do you know the poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired. "I should hope I did," replied the lad. "An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? not the little prize Turkey, the big one ?" "What, the one as big as me ? returned the boy. "What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck! "It's hanging there now," replied the boy. "Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it." "Walk-ER!" exclaimed the boy. "No, no," said Scrooge, "I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring it here, that I may give them the directions where to take it. Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes, and I'll give you half a crown! The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast. "I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's," whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. “He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will be!" Dickens: A Christmas Carol, stave v. 5. Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! To show they still are free. Methinks I hear And bid your tenant welcome home again! Hail! Hail! Oh sacred forms, how proud you look! How huge you are! how mighty, and how free! whose smile Ye are the things that tower, that shine, 6. King. Knowles: William Tell, 1, ii.1 But, sirrah, henceforth Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer. Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland, Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it. [Exeunt King Henry, Blunt, and train. 1 Used with the kind permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton and Com pany. |