Given over to a blind and endless strife 73 74 75 PEEL AIR freshens, earth revives, the rock is cloven, To spread perennial verdure flower-inwoven ! DIOGENES LAERTIUS, Anth. Gr. VII 92 Ἐς Σκυθικὴν ̓Ανάχαρσις ὅτ ̓ ἤλυθε πολλὰ μογήσας πάντας ἔπειθε βιοῦν ἤθεσιν Ελλαδικοῖς. τὸν δ ̓ ἔτι μῦθον ἄκραντον ἐνὶ στομάτεσσιν ἔχοντα πτηνὸς ἐς ἀθανάτους ἥρπασεν ὠκα δόναξ. DORAN, Life of Edward Young, LL.D. HE was once walking in his garden at Welwyn, with Lady Betty and another lady on either side of him, when a servant summoned him into the house where a gentleman was waiting to see him. The poet showed little inclination to go: whereon the ladies insisted and led him, each taking a hand, to his garden gate' 74 τυφλῶς ἐς ἀεὶ προσπαλαιόντων κακοῖς, 73 λαμπρότερος μὲν πέπταται αἰθήρ, ἔνθεν ἀείζων ἔαρ αὐξάνεται χλωρά τ ̓ ἀνθεσφόρος ήβη. The Fate of the Social Reformer 75 FORTE quondam in Tusculano in hortulis suis obambulabat, lateri iunctis hinc Elissa sua, hinc altera muliere, cum intro a seruulo nescio quo uocatus est; adesse enim qui copiam eius uellet. parere cum ipse cunctaretur, instare illae manuque eum haec dextra illa sinistra adprehensa usque ad hortorum exitum As he turned from them, he is said to have made the following impromptu : 'Thus Adam looked, when from the garden driven; And thus disputed orders sent from Heaven. Like him I go, and yet to go am loath; Like him I go, for angels drove us both. Hard was his fate, but mine still more unkind : 76 CHARLOTTE BRONTË, The Professor THE place was large enough to afford half an hour's strolling without the monotony of treading continually the same path; and for those who love to peruse the annals of graveyards, here was variety of inscription enough to occupy the attention for double or treble that space of time. Hither people of many kindreds, tongues and nations had brought their dead for interment; and here on pages of stone, of marble, and of brass were written names, dates, last tributes of pomp or love in English, in French, in German, and Latin.... Every tribe and kindred mourned after its own fashion; and how soundless was the mourning of all! My own tread, though slow and upon smoothrolled paths, seemed to startle, because it formed the sole break to a silence otherwise total. Not only the winds, but the very fitful, wandering airs were that afternoon, as by common consent, all fallen asleep in their various quarters; the north was hushed, the south silent, the east sobbed not nor did the west whisper. The clouds in heaven were condensed and dull, but apparently quite motionless. Under the trees of this cemetery nestled a warm breathless gloom, out of which the cypresses stood up straight and mute, above which the willows hung low and still, where the flowers, as languid as fair, waited listless for night dew or thunder-shower; where the tombs and those they hid lay impassible to sun or shadow, to rain or drought. deducere, quas cum maxime dimitteret hos dicitur profudisse uersus: Hoc Adamus uoltu Felicibus actus ab hortis par et nostra fugast. inuiti cedimus ambo; illud erat durum; multo hoc sed iniquius. ibat 76 Locvs in tantum patebat ut semihoram ibi obambulare posses nec tuis semper insistendo uestigiis taedio adfici: quod si cui esset rerum gestarum memoriam qualem sepulcra praeberent pernoscendi, tanta inerat ibi elogiorum uarietas ut duplex quoque uel triplex temporis spatium posset haec legendo traduci. illuc enim genere natione lingua diuersi alii aliunde suos ad sepulturam conuexerant, et nomina annosque cum supremis quoque amoris uel ambitionis testimoniis Anglice Gallice Germanice atque etiam Latine scripta in tabulas aereas marmoreas lapideas incidenda curauerant. mortuos sibi quaeque gens, cognatio quaeque more suo lugebant, quanto omnes in illo luctu silentio! enimuero ad meos ipse ingressus, quamuis tarde in aequata manu glarea incedentis, paene expaueram, cum altissimum silentium sonus ille unus interrumperet. nam illo die non uentos modo ipsos sed uagas quoque et incertas auras, uelut consensu quodam obdormissent, sua quamque sedes tenuerat. conticuerat Aquilo, Auster silebat, ne Eurus quidem singultus ullos dabat nec Fauonius suos spiritus. spissae per caelum nullo candore nubes speciem praebebant prorsus immotam. sepulcralis luci tamquam in sinu cubans a tepore quaedam,ut uidebatur, anhelans caligo cupressuum erigebat taciturnam proceritatem, salicum sustinebat humilitatem quietam, florum integebat flaccescentium pulchritudinem (languorem crederes aestiuos imbris uel nocturnos rores expectantium), sepulcra uero et sepultos iam solis umbraeque, iam pluuiarum et siccitatium securos operuerat. THE king of Scots hearing of this disaster was astonished: and being naturally of a melancholic disposition as well as endowed with a high spirit he lost all command of his temper on this dismal occasion. Rage against his nobility who he believed had betrayed him; shame for a defeat by such unequal numbers; regret for the past, fear of the future; all these passions so wrought upon him that he would admit of no consolation, but abandoned himself wholly to despair. His body was wasted by sympathy with his anxious mind; and even his life began to be thought in danger. He had no issue living; and hearing that his queen was safely delivered he asked whether she had brought him a male or female child? Being told the latter, he turned himself in his bed: 'The crown came with a woman,' said he, ' and it will go with one: many miseries await this poor kingdom: Henry will make it his own either by force of arms or by marriage.' |