+ ~ -
 
Please report pronunciation problems here. Select and sample other voices. Options Pause Play
 
Report an Error
Go!
 
Go!
 
TOC
 

were in it so many things that will be pre-
eminently serviceable, such as the shawl, which
will be a great prize to my dear wife ; and the
coat, and vests, and stockings, and shoes, which
will be a rich prize to me, as they fit me just as
well as if they had been made for me, and also
the shirts ; and for my dear boy, things
innumerable. May God reward you for your goodness."

Sometimes distress comes of an innocent
imprudence like the following: " Some years
since, I was presented with part of a divided
living, destitute of a residence. I endeavoured
to build myself a residence out of an income of
only £120. I could not finish without borrowing
money. I procured a loan of £300, for which,
as security, I had to assure my life for double
that sum.

"I finished the house, and pay £6 per cent,
for my loan, but am sorely distressed in making
out nearly £40 per annum to meet expenses.

"I have seven children: the eldest I am
trying to educate at —— school.

"To effect this, I deny myself and family all
but the necessaries of life. We never can
afford animal food more than once a week."

There are many more such cases of suffering
in the reports on which we found this notice;
there were many more such cases in the heaps
of letters which supplied only to those reports a
few examples. There are many, many more
such cases, of which no society, no man, God
alone, hears the cry of patient suffering. Yet,
though silence, while the very heart is being
gnawed, be great in Spartans and not rare in
Englishmen both in and out of holy orders, it is
hard to find, as we do, a bishop writing, in reply
to questions, about a sick vicar with a hundred
pounds a year of living, and a wife who has
brought him seventeen children, that " all the
facts are true, and he and his family are certainly
under great privations, but in past years they
have not been as frugal to make their little go
far as they might have been. I fear, too, they
are rather extensive letter-writers, and have
reproved them for such habit. Upon the whole, I
should say the case is one in which some help
may be worthily and mercifully bestowed, for
who knows but they who experience them what
such trials are?"

Did that dignitary with the high sense of
decorum in others, and the small sense of decorum
in himself, inhabit one of the eight palaces, on
the replenishing of which the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners had bestowed its charity of one
hundred and forty thousand pounds?

THE WORLD OF LOVE.

WHERE low the sun's last beams were shed,
        Watching the sinking day,
A tender sadness, earthly bred,
        Fell on me as I lay.

The white, white moon went flowing fast
        To steal to his embrace,
His parting smile upon her cast
        Had brightened all her face.

So, constant still, I marked them move,
        My soul meanwhile construing
How he was like to mortal Love,
        And she like Death pursuing.

I sleptand woke: O wond'rous world!
        Mine eyes were eastward turned ;
The cold moon waned with wings half furled
        The skies with glory burned.

"Pale shape," I cried, " thy regal brow
        Ruled this benighted strand :
But, O my soul ! how fares it, now
        In yon blest morning land?"

I gazed, and saw: the broad sun rose
        With radiance crowned and belted;
The white, white moon, like scattered snows
        Into the shadows melted.

Then first I learned what name to give
        That world beyond the sky :
God's heaven, where only Love can live,
        And only Death can die.

A DAY'S RIDE: A LIFE'S ROMANCE.

CHAPTER XXII.

WE continued our journey the next morning,
but it was not without considerable
difficulty that I succeeded in maintaining my
former place in the cabriolet. That stupid old
woman fancied that princes were born to be
bored, and suggested accordingly that I should
travel inside with her; leaving the macaw and
the toy terriers to keep company with Miss
Herbert. It was not only by insisting on an
outside place as a measure of health that I
at last prevailed, telling her that Dr. Corvisart
was peremptory on two points regarding
me. "Let him," said he, "have abundance
of fresh air, and never be without some young
companion."

And so we were again in our little leathern
tent, high up in the fresh breezy atmosphere,
above dusty roads, and with a glorious view
over that lovely country that forms the
approach to the Black Forest. The road was hilly,
and the carriage-way a heavy one, but we had
six horses who trotted along briskly, shaking
their merry bells, and flourishing their scarlet
tassels, while the postilions cracked their whips
or broke out into occasional bugle performances,
principally intended to announce to the
passing peasants that we were very great folk,
and well able to pay for all the noise we
required.

I was not ashamed to confess my enjoyment
in thus whirling along at some ten miles the
hour, remembering how that great sage Dr.
Johnson had confessed to a like pleasure, and
animated by the inspiriting air and the lovely
landscape, could not help asking Miss Herbert
if she did not feel it " very jolly?"

She assented with a sort of constrained curtsey
that by no means responded to the warmth
of my own sensations, and I felt vexed and
chafed accordingly.

"Perhaps you prefer travelling inside?" said
I, with some pique.

"No, sir."