SEC. CLXXV. THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 1 Vital spark of heavenly flame! 3 Cease, fond Nature! cease thy strife, 4 6 7 Hark! 5 They whisper: angels say, What is this absorbs me quite : Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! 90 Grave! where is thy victory? O Death! where is thy sting? Pope. There is great danger, in the delivery of this piece, of falling into a whining canting, measured manner. Read it, if possible, as you would read prose. 1 SEC. CLXXVI. A CURTAIN LECTURE OF MRS. CAUDLE. Bah! that's the third umbrella gone since Christmas. 2 What were you to do! 3 Why, let him go home in the 4 rain, to be sure. I'm very certain there was nothing about 5 him that could spoil.-Take cold, indeed! 6 He does'nt 7 look like one of the sort to take cold. Besides, he 'd have 8 better taken cold than taken our umbrella.-Do you hear 9 the rain, Mr. Caudle? I say, do you hear the rain? 10 And as I'm alive, if it is'nt St. Swithin's day! 11 Do you 12 hear it against the windows? Nonsense: you don't im pose upon me; you can't be asleep with such a shower as 13 that! Do you hear it, I say? 14 Oh! you do hear it!— 15 Well, that's a pretty flood, I think, to last for six weeks; 16 and no stirring all the time out of the house. Pooh ! don't think me a fool, Mr. Caudle; don't insult me; he re17 turn the unbrella! Any body would think you were born 18 yesterday. As if any body ever did return an umbrella! 19 There do you hear it? 20 Worse and worse. Cats and 21 dogs, and for six weeks: always six weeks; and no umbrella! 22 I should like to know how the children are to go to school 23 to-morrow. They shan't go through such weather; I am 24 determined. No; they shall stop at home and never learn anything, (the blessed creatures!) sooner than go and get 25 wet! And when they grow up, I wonder who they'll have to thank for knowing nothing: who, indeed, but their father. 26 People who can't feel for their own children ought never to be fathers. 28 27 But I know why you lent the umbrella: oh! yes, I know very well. I was going out to tea at dear mother's to-morrow: you knew that, and you did it on purpose. Don't tell 29 me; you hate me to go there, and take every mean advan30 tage to hinder me. But don't you think it, Mr. Caudle; no, sir; if it comes down in buckets full, I'll go all the 31 more. No; and I won't have a cab! 32 Where do you 33 think the money's to come from? You've got nice high 34 notions at that club of yours? A cab, indeed! Cost me 35 sixteen-pence, atleast: sixteen-pence! two-and-eight-pence; 36 for there's back again. Cabs, indeed! I should like to 37 know who's to pay for 'em; for I 'm sure you can't, if you go on as you do, throwing away your property, and beggaring your children, buying umbrellas! 38 Do you hear the rain, Mr. Caudle? 39 I say, do you 40 hear it? But I don't care—I'll go to mother's to-morrowI will; and what's more I'll walk every step of the way; 41 and you know that will give me my death. Don't call me a foolish woman; it's you that's the foolish man. You 42 know I can't wear clogs; and with no umbrella, the wet's sure to give me a cold: it always does: but what do you 43 care for that? Nothing at all. 44 I may be laid up for what you care, as I dare say I shall; and a pretty doctor's 45 bill there'll be. I hope there will. 46 It will teach you 47 to lend your umbrellas again. I should'nt wonder if I caught my death: yes, and that's what you lent the umbrella for. 48 Of course! 49 Nice clothes I get, too, trapesing through weather like 50 this. My gown and bonnet will be spoiled quite. 51 Need'nt 52 I wear 'em then? Indeed, Mr. Caudle, I shall wear 'em. 53 No, sir; I'm not going out a dowdy to please you or any body else. Gracious knows! it is'nt often that I step over 54 the threshhold;—indeed, I might as well be a slave at once better, I should say; but when I do go out, Mr. 55 Caudle, I choose to go as a lady. Oh! that rain—if it is'nt enough to break in the windows. 56 Ugh! I look forward with dread for to-morrow! How 57 I am to go to mother's, I'm sure I can't tell, but if I die, I'll 58 do it.—No, sir; I won't borrow an umbrella: no; and you shan't buy one. (With great emphasis.) Mr. Caudle, 59 if you bring home another umbrella, I'll throw it in the 60 street. Ha! And it was only last week I had a new nozzle put 61 to that umbrella. I'm sure if I'd have known as much as 62 I do now, it might have gone without one. Paying for new 63 nozzles for other people to laugh at you! Oh! it's all very well for you; you can go to sleep. You've no thought of 64 your poor patient wife, and your own dear children; you think of nothing but lending umbrellas! 65 Men, indeed!-call themselves lords of the creation! pretty lords, when they can't even take care of an umbrella! I know that walk to-morrow will be the death of me, but 66 that's what you want: then you may go to your club, and do as you like; and then nicely my poor dear children will be used; but then, sir, then you'll be happy. Oh! don't 67 tell me! I know you will: else you'd never have lent the umbrella! 68 You have to go on Thursday about that summons; and, 69 of course, you can't go. No, indeed : you don't go without the umbrella. You may lose the debt for what I care—it 70 won't be so much as spoiling your clothes-better lose it, people deserve to lose debts who lend umbrellas! 71 And I should like to know how I'm to go to mother's 72 without the umbrella. Oh! don't tell me that I said I would go; that's nothing to do with it: nothing at all. 73 She'll think I'm neglecting her; and the little money we 're to have, we shan't have at all:-because we've no umbrella. The children, too!-(dear things!) they'll be sopping 74 wet; for they shan't stay at home; they shan't lose their learning; it's all their father will leave them, I'm sure.75 But they shall go to school. Don't tell me they should'nt ; (you are so aggravating, Caudle, you'd spoil the temper of 76 an angel ;) they shall go to school: mark that; and if they get their deaths of cold, it's not my fault; I did'nt lend the umbrella. "Here," says Caudle, in his manuscript, "I fell asleep 77 and dreamed that the sky was turned into green calico, with whalebone ribs: that, in fact, the whole world revolved under a tremendous umbrella!" Sentence 2d. Mr Caudle is supposed to have asked here, "What he should have done." Mrs. C repeats his words as if she had not heard distinctly. Sentence 5th. The first part of a decl. double compact: the second part understood: "but the reverse." Sentence 7th.-The first part of a single compact, "Because we shall itself compact. Therefore-because, the correlative words. want it ourselves" is probably the reason in the mind of the speaker. Sentence 12th." Therefore you don't, because therefore you can't [; because it makes too much noise."] Sentence 15th." As it is well that you hear, so that 's a pretty flood, &c." Sentence 16th.-Mr. C. is supposed to have said the umbrella would be returned. A double compact declar. excl.: thus made out. "Don't think me fool enough to believe it'; don't insult my understanding by calling on me to believe it; for he will never return the umbrella." The second proposition is virtually negative, though it has an affirmative form. Sentence 21st. It rains cats and dogs, and so it will rain for six weeks;" that is, "as it rains, so it will rain, &c." Sentence 23d.-A double compact, with the first and second propositions expressed: "They shall not, &c., for on that, I'm determined." Sentence 24th. They shall not, &c., but they shall, &c. Sentence 25th.-Who ungrammatically used for whom. Compound decl. imperf. loose. Sentence 29th.-Very much abbreviated. "Don't tell me that, for it is not true: you hate, &c." Sentence 30th." But don't you think it; no sir; for if it, &c." Sentence 31st."Not only so, indeed, but I won't have a cab !" Sentence 33d.-An indirect interrogative, first kind. Sentence 37th.-Indirect semi-interrogative exclam. Sentence 40th.-Extremely abbreviated and fragmentary again. "But yet I don't care; [if it does rain:] yet I will go, &c., [if it does rain:] yet I will, [it t does rain; &c."] Sentence 41st." Therefore don't, because it 's you, &c." Sentence 42d.-The first part of this semi-interrog. is a fragment. double compact, with the first proposition only expressed: the second, or the reason for the first being understood. Sentence 72d." Therefore don't, for that's, &c." i SEC. CLXXVII. A HANDBILL DISTRIBUTED THROUGH BOSTON ON MONDAY, FEB. 6, 1775. Friends, Countrymen, and Citizens, Have you read and weighed his Majesty's speech? the address of the Lords and Commons of Great Britain? 2 I fear we have got into the wrong box! Therefore let us not any longer be led by frenzy, but seize upon and deliver up to justice, at once, those who have seduced us from our duty and happiness! or, depend upon it, they will leave us 3 in the lurch! nay, I am assured, some of them, who had property, have already mortgaged all their substance for fear of confiscation; but that shall not save their necks, for I am one of forty misled people, who will watch their motions, and not suffer them to escape the punishment due to the disturbers of our repose. Remember the fate of Wat 4 Tyler; and think how vain it is for Jack, Sam, or Will, to war against Great Britain, now she is in earnest! It is 5 greatly inferior to the giants waging war against Olympus ! 6 These had strength; but what have we? Our leaders are 7 desperate bankrupts! our country is without money, stores or necessaries of war! without one place of refuge or defence! If we were called together, we should be a con8 fused herd, without any disposition to obedience: without a General of ability to direct and guide us; and our numbers would be our destruction! Never did a people rebel with 9 so little reason: therefore our conduct cannot be justified before God! never did so weak a people dare to contend 10 with so powerful a state: therefore it cannot be justified by prudence. It is all the consequence of the arts of crafty 11 knaves, over weak minds and wild enthusiasts, who, if we continue to follow, will lead us to inevitable ruin. Rouse, rouse. ye Massachusetians, while it be yet time! 12 ask pardon of God! submit to our King and Parliament, 13 whom you have wickedly and grievously offended. Eyes had we, but saw not, neither have we heard with our ears. Let not our posterity curse us for having wantonly lost the 14 estates that should have been theirs, or for entailing misery upon them, by implicitly adhering to the prom.ses of a few 15 desperadoes. Let us seize our seducers, make peace with our mother country, and save ourselves and children. 16 Amen! A YEOMAN OF SUFFOLK COUNTY. Boston, Sabbath Eve, Feb. 5th, 1775. 1 2 SEC. CLXXVIII. THE SHIPWRECK. At half-past eight o'clock, hen-coops, spars, And all things, for a chance, had been cast loose, For yet they strove, although of no great use. And going down head-foremost-sunk, in short. Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell; Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave; Then some leaped overboard, with dreadful yell, 3 As eager to anticipate their grave; 4 And the sea yawned round her like a hell, And down she sucked with her the whirling wave, Like one who grapples with his enemy, And strives to strangle him before he die. And first a universal shriek there rushed, A solitary shriek: the bubbling cry Byron. |