No pleasure or success in life quite meets the capacity of our hearts. We take in our good things with enthusiasm, and think ourselves happy and satisfied; but afterward4, when the froth and foam5 have subsided6, we discover that the goblet7 is not more than half-filled with the golden liquid that was poured into it.
How singularly fresh and sweet is Mozart's music!—like the cadence10 of waters over a rocky bed, or the bird-chorus of a May morning. His melodies and those of Nature have always some subtle association. It is as if we knew the noble mother, and walked often by her side, and some fine day we meet the intelligent and sportive child, finding in his voice, his gestures, his salutation, something foreshadowed to us in that other, and beautiful in both.
Life is a breathing-space between two eternities, a holiday with appalling11 realities behind and before.
Barbarians12 "speak with naked hearts together:" we have polite conversation.
I am fond of smelling the spring,—detecting growth before it shows itself by the delicious damp odor in the fields. Snow and rain have their separate fragrance13. I know at a distance the aromatic14 pine, the eatable whiff of-58- birch-bark, the oily sweetness of sappy maples15, the tart16 goodness of a sorrel-patch, and the scent17 of crushed tansy.
The Chinese countenance18 is impassive, as if the old, old weight of Asiatic civilization had blunted and oppressed it.
Vandyck deified his sitters. He is like the sun in Shakespeare's line,—
B. knew a little French girl who always insisted, with a pretty extravagance of intonation21, that pigs in their grunt22 were saying, "Nous aurons congé."
The beauty of youth is inconstant and shifting as the tint24 at the heart of a rose, not two mornings the same; or the fall of snow-flakes, blown by every wind into new and airy relationships.
The Brook25 Farmer is extinct now as the dodo. It would be a delight to come across one who is sensitive yet on the subject of that Arcadian failure.
When genius seems to work disregarding rule, we may be sure that it has assimilated to itself whatever is best in every rule.
The undertaker ostensibly reverses the venerable truism that "the young may die, the old must," by thrusting forward the smaller coffins26 in his awful windows, and keeping the others (in the subjunctive mood, as it were) well in the background.
The mind is fearless so long as there is no reproach of conscience. When that comes, come breakage and bondage27 and a host of terrors.
Shelley was all fire and air. His eye had perpetually the fixed28 light of a day-dreamer's. There is a marked resemblance between the portrait of him taken at Rome in 1819, by Miss Curran, and that of Sir Philip Sidney, engraved29 from the original and prefixed to Grosart's edition,—a resemblance not astonishing save to-60- those unacquainted with both mild and "heroick spirits."
It seems a little difficult to discern clearly the happiness or misery30 of those very near to us in affection. Souls have their perspective, and need to be removed from the eye, that it may scan them justly.
We try hard to cure superstition33, which has been defined as the surplus of faith, the mere34 foam and scum of what is valuable. Over-confidence and enthusiasm, which are in the same degree the excess of hope and love, we do not try to cure at all.
Thomson, the poet, was so lazy that he used to eat peaches off the trees, standing35 with his hands contentedly36 plunged37 in his pockets.
Would not the weather hang itself in despair if no notice were taken of it, and if every man, woman, and child forbore to speak of it for three successive days?
"Frostling" used to signify a bough38, blossom, or fruit nipped by the cold; and "windling" one blown from its natural support; two sweet and expressive39 words, now obsolete40 and without synonymes. It is hard to account for their being left behind in the race for the development of our English.
W., whose beliefs are quite fixed, vacillates nobly in matters of opinion. In a group of debaters he holds with no one long, but must needs jump at a conclusion so liberal and sure that it reconciles all hostilities41.
All lovers are bewitched, steeped in illusions, versed42 in the oracles43,—the riddle44 themselves of the whole world.
"Ye smiler with ye knif under ye cloke!" What a picture in that line of Chaucer!
The Puritan was a man of severities. He never forgot that God struck Oza and buried Pharaoh in the sea. He went through the world wearing his creed45, like a sword, solely46 for aggressive purposes.
The deficiency of gentle manners, in one not bred to their practice, can nearly always be supplied by sensibility or by tact47.
Which bends the branches of thy tree
And trails its blossoms thro' the dust."
I never knew a critic to note the metaphor50 in these musical lines of Longfellow, but it seems to me quite haunting and overpowering, and of extraordinary beauty.
When you wear your old and shabby coat, anticipating a continued storm; and the sun shines, making you out of place with your ill-chosen garb51, how natural it is to trace the analogy from dress to manners, and to reflect how poor a show premeditated surliness and sourness make in the broad light of the world!
We die and are forgotten; but must we forget?
The Greek pastoral compliment, "Thou singest better than a cicada," would do very well now-a-days for an amiable52 old lady to address to her tea-kettle on the hob.
Thoreau greatly rejoiced in what he called his "invisible suit," a sort of mottled brown-and-green stuff in which he could cross a field undetected.
There was once a golden age because golden hearts beat in it. If it come again, it will scarcely be through scientific progress.
What an excellent, high-minded motto would the last words of Walter Raleigh make: "So the heart be straight, it matters nought53 how the head lieth." It is an echo of that celestial54 text, "Be ye not solicitous," and implies serene55 disregard of all but things essential.
It may be exacting56, but not a whit57 so beyond justice, when I feel that if I serve the king, he must repay me in love and trust, or my allegiance cannot thrive.
I came of late across a newly told jest of C. Lamb's concerning Stilton cheese, which pleased me tremendously, having the indubitable flavor of his wit, and being (what is rarely the case with floating anecdotes58 of him) unmistakably his.
I cannot recall faces or forms that I have seldom met, or recognize them again with ease, unless some revealed trait or expression of soul has made gait, contour, and presence memorable59.
Pride is the distorter of souls; cheerfulness the helper; love the beautifier; sorrow the redeemer.
If I ever had the heroic strain, it has receded60 beyond my own perception; and like an athlete out of practice, I have to "brace61" before doing that which is right, in defiance62 of inclination63.
"The pure in heart shall see God,"—severe and lovely touchstone for mankind.
I saw once two sisters, the younger resembling the other as the translation of a poem does its original, moving by the same laws of beauty, yet inevitably64 lacking something of the earlier grace and flavor.
Twenty-third May, 1881. Hawthorne buried seventeen years ago to-day. "Who henceforth shall sing to thy pipe, O thrice-lamented? Who shall set mouth to thy reeds?"
How very considerate of the failings of others must that man be who remembers constantly the Infinite Mercy he himself needs!
A good temper is a jewel extraordinary, and a worker of wonders. One of the old chroniclers tells of an irresistibly66 amiable monk67 who for some misdemeanor was sent to hell and released again, because Satan could not provoke or torment68 him.
The sight of a hearse against the joyous69 streets is always depressing: a dark line drawn70 through thoughtless festivity, like the dread71 writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast.
C.'s poetry has much simplicity72, calmness, pastoral sense, and beauty; his prose is jerky and barbaric. He is a sort of medal having the king's head finished on one side, the rough uncouth73 surface wanting a stamp on the other.
An odd and good resolve,—to carry the right hand always ungloved, lest one should meet a friend, and be off one's cordiality, so to speak; or a foe74, and be off one's self-defence.
Reserve is made sometimes of chain-mail, sometimes of solid plate steel. One is as good armor as the other, though not so obvious.
Some people wear out everything quickly and naturally,—clothes, acquaintanceship, books, pleasures, even dear life itself.
I am delighted at Lowell's saying that our modern terms, "the deuce" and "Old Scratch," were evidently derived75 from dus and scrat, hairy wood-demons among the Celts and Teutons.
The best of everything is the only individual of that thing. We should ignore the rest.
I think one of the drollest stories I ever heard of absent-mindedness, is this of old P., the barrister. He and his friend M. were sitting close together about the hearth76 of a winter night. There was no light; they were alone and silent. Suddenly P. got thinking of some project, and according to his villanous and immemorial habit, meditatively77 began to scratch his cranium. He came to a pause; but recovering the sequence of his thoughts, felt compelled likewise to resume the physical operation. But this time P. wildly clutched not his own, but M.'s profuser locks, and furiously recommenced. M. stood it for a moment, inwardly convulsed with laughter, then lightly removed the offending hand; and P. roared out angrily, faltering78 in the middle of his speech with a bewilderment beautiful to see: "Great George! don't you suppose I have a right, a right to— to— You don't mean to say that wasn't my own head!"
Standing is the most royal and natural pose. I have a sympathy for that Roman emperor who sprang to his feet to meet the quick death that came upon him.
Spenser: "The noblest mind the best contentment has." Thoreau, by way of exemplification: "I shall not fret79 to be a giant, but be the biggest pygmy that I can."
Hawthorne wrote with his conscience. It was a sort of celestial-colored ink which he kept by him, and into which ever and anon he dipped his pen.
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I was struck anew, of late, with the complete ideality of the Venus of Melos, its charm of detail, out-naturing Nature: the head so delicately moulded, the neck so slender yet so strong, the scarce-deviating outline from shoulder to hip9; the very apotheosis80 of health and beauty, with a spirituality over all that sets you thinking of a sweet and ample heart within.
There is scarcely a blow in after life comparable to that first sad intimation (perhaps in early youth), that human nature is not what we thought it, not the thing of our dreams; little else than a tissue of frailties81 woven together.
Shakespeare's "Rosalind" is not very dissimilar to the best type of the much-maligned American girl. She is full of "frolic parley," self-reliant, tender, womanly.
"Old hushed Egypt." Put down that golden phrase, along with many another, to Leigh Hunt. When a delightsome author threatens to be forgotten, credit him at least with what he has added to the soul of literature, and let him be buried "with all his travelling glories round him."
The French language is eau sucré; the German "A cup o' thy small beer, sweet hostess."
If I have a friend, though absent many years, I hold a true treasure with fear and trembling, knowing that whatever losses come, I have been blessed beyond measure with the wealth no chance can take away.
Love is unlike the bow of Ulysses, in that it can be drawn to its full capacity of magnificence or destruction not only by the greatest.
I know a man who looks like Boccaccio, and does not appreciate it.
Genius, like the lowly insect having prophetic stirrings of the beauty it is to evolve, needs solitude82, and must build it unaided for itself. If it come forth65 in due time winged and lovely to the sun, or if it die in the dark, unsuspected of its aim, either end will be found best relatively83 to the life it affects.
There is no participator who serves so well in any conversation as an adept84 in commonplaces and "words, words, words."
Milton's "charm of half-awakened birds" means charm in the pretty old English sense of "twittering," "piping softly and confusedly."
Much of Thomas Hood's more serious work is overlooked by the public eye. Some one will be obliged to come forth by and by to say, and to say truly, that nobler poems than the "Haunted House," the "Poet's Portion," and "Death" were never written.
In the matter of reform, I should choose often to be a crab-reformer, and to move backward after many wish-worthy85 things of yesterday.
Thackeray says somewhere that "we see the world, each of us, with our own sight, and make from within us the world we see."
By way of experiment, a youngling of scholarly race might be kept wholly from books, etc., to see if the ancestral learning would not revive of itself.
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It pains me to see coarseness predominant in the human countenance,—a thing so ethereal and divine of itself. Think of the forerunning wrongs back in the generations which have prompted and helped it to its present degradation86!
The poets, in chronicling strong emotion over things actual or imagined, must frequently outgo the force of the emotion in the expression of it, so that they have the power of draining off the whole supply and depth of their feeling.
Coleridge should have lived in the times of the oracles. He would have "drawn," as we say, better than Delphi.
At the funeral of a celebrated87 artist, wherein I took no part whatever, and had only a genuine sorrow for the public loss to excuse my slipping into the church, the sexton wanted to seat me conspicuously88, taking me for a chief mourner, for a relative at least, he said. I was pleased at the limiting clause.
We are stricken mute by an heroic death. Praise is poor and vain if the life forerunning it was heroic too; and if it was not, love and forgiveness seem not half good enough to offer at the ruined shrine91, where at last a divinity has descended92.
In sensitive natures, just as the ordinary blessings93 of life cast an aggrandized94 shadow and result in supreme95 pleasure, so their denial becomes a matter of deep pain, equally disproportionate to the cause.
Frankness prevents troubles that only time can cure.
A good and worthy life cannot be detached or wholly useless, because unfinished. When you throw a number of broken rings on the floor, on lifting one you find it casually97 joined with another, and each, in turn, with many more. So must a man's endeavor co-operate with a-73- predecessor's, and be linked again with some life-work to be ended to-morrow, in beautiful, enduring sequence; though to outward vision all three were but severally a fragment and a failure.
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1
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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transcribe
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| v.抄写，誉写；改编(乐曲)；复制，转录 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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goblet
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| n.高脚酒杯 | |
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requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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maples
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| 槭树，枫树( maple的名词复数 )； 槭木 | |
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tart
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| adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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gilding
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| n.贴金箔，镀金 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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coffins
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| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
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bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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infliction
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| n.（强加于人身的）痛苦，刑罚 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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oracles
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| 神示所( oracle的名词复数 )； 神谕； 圣贤； 哲人 | |
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riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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52
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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53
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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54
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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60
receded
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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61
brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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62
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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64
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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65
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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68
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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apotheosis
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| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
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81
frailties
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| n.脆弱( frailty的名词复数 )；虚弱；（性格或行为上的）弱点；缺点 | |
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82
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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84
adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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optimists
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| n.乐观主义者( optimist的名词复数 ) | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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aggrandized
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| v.扩大某人的权力( aggrandize的过去式和过去分词 )；提高某人的地位；夸大；吹捧 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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alienate
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| vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等) | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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