5 staid, to be out of the sound of our noise. Matthew Field belonged to that class of modest divines who affect to mix in equal proportion the gentleman, the scholar, and the Christian; but, I know not how, the first ingredient is generally found to be the predominating dose in the composition. He was engaged in gay parties, or with his courtly bow at some episcopal levée, when he should have been attending upon us. He had for many years the classical charge of a hundred children, during the four or five first years of their education; and his very highest form seldom proceeded further than two or three of the introductory fables of Phædrus. How things were suffered to go on thus, I cannot guess. Boyer, who was the proper person to have remedied these abuses, always affected, perhaps felt, a delicacy in interfering in a province not strictly his own. I have not been without my suspicions that he was not altogether displeased at the contrast we presented to his end of the school. We were a sort of Helots to his young Spartans.* He would sometimes, with ironic deference, send to borrow a rod of the Under Master, and then, with sardonic grin, observe to one of his upper boys, "how neat and fresh the twigs looked." While his pale students were battering their brains over Xenophon and 1 Jonson, To the Memory of My Beloved Master, William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us, 39. A game in which the players,-one French and one English,-with eyes closed, draw a pencil across a piece of paper covered with dots. The player wins whose pencil strikes the most dots. a Rousseau and Locke advocated a system of education which combined the practical with the theoretical. A reference to the practice of the Spartans of exhibiting to their sons, as a warning, a drunken Helot, or slave. 3 Plato, with a silence as deep as that enjoined by the Samite, we were enjoying ourselves at our ease in our little Goshen.2 We saw a little into the secrets of his discipline, and the prospect did but the more reconcile us to our lot. His thunders rolled innocuous for us; his storms came near, but never touched us; contrary to Gideon's miracle, while all around were drenched, our 10 fleece was dry. His boys turned out the better scholars; we, I suspect, have the advantage in temper. His pupils cannot speak of him without something of terror allaying their gratitude; the remembrance of Field comes back with all the soothing images of indolence, and summer slumbers, and work like play, and innocent idleness, and Elysian exemptions, and life itself a "playing holiday." 20 25 30 35 40. 45 Though sufficiently removed from the jurisdiction of Boyer, we were near enough (as I have said) to understand a little of his system. We occasionally heard sounds of the Ululantes,5 and caught glances of Tartarus. B. was a rabid pedant. His English style was crampt to barbarism. His Easter anthems (for his duty obliged him to those periodical flights) were grating as scrannel® pipes." He would laugh, ay, and heartily, but then it must be at Flaccus's quibble about Rexs or at the tristis severitas in vultu, or inspicere in patinas,10 of Terence-thin jests, which at their first broaching could hardly have had vis11 1 Pythagoras (6th cent. B. C.), the Greek philosopher of Samos, who enjoined silence upon his pupils until they had listened to his lectures for five years. They were also bound to keep everything secret from the outer world. 2 See Genesis, 47:6; Exodus, 8:22. 9 3 Lamb cites Cowley as the source of this phrase. See Cowley's The Complaint, 69-74; also, Judges, 6:37-38. 41 Henry IV, 1, 2, 227. howling sufferers (Eneid, 6, 557) thin; dry (See Lycidas, 124.) 7 "In this and everything B. was the antipodes of his coadjutor. While the former was digging his brains for crude anthems, worth a pignut, F. would be recreating his gentlemanly fancy in the more flowery walks of the Muses. A little dramatic effusion of his, under the name of Vertumnus and Pomona, is not yet forgotten by the chroniclers of that sort of literature. It was accepted by Garrick, but the town did not give it their sanction. B. used to say of it, in a way of halfcompliment, half-irony, that it was too classical for representation."-Lamb. 8 Flaccus,i. e., Horace, in his Satires, I, 7, 35, 10 to look into the stewnons (A servant in enough to move Roman muscle.-He had two wigs, both pedantic, but of differing omen. The one serene, smiling, fresh powdered, betokening a mild day. The other, an old discolored, unkempt, angry caxon,1 denoting frequent and bloody execution. Woe to the school, when he made his morning appearance in his passy, or passionate wig. No comet expounded surer.2-J. B. had a heavy hand. I have known him double his knotty fist at a poor trembling child (the maternal milk hardly dry upon its lips) with a "Sirrah, do you presume to set your wits at me?"-Nothing was more common than to see him make a headlong entry into the schoolroom, from his inner recess, or library, and, with turbulent eye, singling out a lad, roar out, "Od's my life," Sirrah" (his favorite adjuration), "I have a great mind to whip you,"-then, with as sudden a retracting impulse, fling back into his lair-and, after a cooling lapse of some minutes (during which all but the culprit had totally forgotten the context) drive. headlong out again, piecing out his imperfect sense, as if it had been some Devil's Litany, with the expletory yell "and I WILL, too."-In his gentler moods, when the rabidus furor was assuaged, he had resort to an ingenious method, peculiar, for what I have heard, to himself, of whipping the boy, and reading the Debates, at the same time; a paragraph, and a lash between; which in those times, when parliamentary oratory was most at a height and flourishing in these realms, was not calculated to impress the patient with a veneration for the diffuser graces of rhetoric. Once, and but once, the uplifted rod was known to fall ineffectual from his handwhen droll squinting W-5 having been caught putting the inside of the master's desk to a use for which the architect had clearly not designed it, to justify himself, with great simplicity averred, that he did not know that the thing had been forewarned. This exquisite irrecognition of any law antecedent to the oral or declaratory, struck so irresistibly upon the fancy of all who heard it (the pedagogue himself not excepted) that remission was unavoidable. L. has given credit to B.'s great merits as an instructor. Coleridge, in his Literary Life, has pronounced a more intelligible. 1 An old kind of wig. Comets were regarded as omens of impending disaster. as God is my life raging fury (Catullus, Carmina, 63, 38) Whas not been identified. • Biographia Literaria, 1. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 and ample encomium on them. The author of The Country Spectator1 doubts not to compare him with the ablest teachers of antiquity. Perhaps we cannot dismiss him better than with the pious ejaculation of C- when he heard that his old master was on his death-bed-"Poor J. B.!—may all his faults be forgiven; and may he be wafted to bliss by little cherub boys, all head and wings, with no bottoms to reproach his sublunary infirmities." Under him were many good and sound scholars bred. First Grecian2 of my time was Lancelot Pepys Stevens, kindest of boys and men, since Co-grammar-master (and inseparable companion) with Dr. Te.3. What an edifying spectacle did this brace of friends present to those who remembered the anti-socialities of their predecessors!-You never met the one by chance in the street without a wonder, which was quickly dissipated by the almost immediate sub-appearance of the other. Generally arm in arm, these kindly coadjutors lightened for each other the toilsome duties of their profession, and when, in advanced age, one found it convenient to retire, the other was not long in discovering that it suited him to lay down the fasces also. Oh, it is pleasant, as it is rare, to find the same arm linked in yours at forty, which at thirteen helped it to turn over the Cicero De Amicitia, or some tale of Antique Friendship, which the young heart even then was burning to anticipate!-Co-Grecian with S. was Th-, who has since executed with ability various diplomatic functions at the Northern courts. Th- was a tall, dark, saturnine youth, sparing of speech, with raven locks. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton followed him (now Bishop of Calcutta) a scholar and a gentleman in his teens. He has the reputation of an excellent critic; and is author (besides The Country Spectator) of A Treatise on the Greek Article, against Sharpe.-M. is said to bear his mitre" in India, where the regni novitass (I dare say) sufficiently justifies the bearing. A humility quite as primitive as that of Jewel or Hooker might not be 1 Thomas Fanshaw Middleton. A name given to the students of the first class in Christ's Hospital. Dr. Arthur William Trollope, who succeeded Cicero's Essay Concerning Friendship. (See the 20 Come back into memory, like as thou wert 15 in the day-spring of thy fancies, with hope like a fiery column. before thee-the dark pillar not yet turned-Samuel Taylor Coleridge-Logician, Metaphysician, Bard!How have I seen the casual passer through the Cloisters stand still, intranced with admiration (while he weighed the disproportion between the speech and the garb of the young Mirandula), to hear thee unfold, in thy deep and sweet intonations, the mysteries of Jamblichus, or Plotinus (for even in those years thou waxedst not pale at such philosophic draughts), or reciting Homer in his Greek, or Pindar—while the walls of the old Grey Friars re-echoed to the accents of the inspired charity-boy!Many were the "wit-combats' 996 (to dally 25 30 awhile with the words of old Fuller), between him and C. V. LeG," "which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon, and 35 an English man of war; Master Coleridge, like the former, was built far higher in learning, solid, but slow in his performances. C. V. L., with the English man of war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention." Nor shalt thou, their compeer, be quickly forgotten, Allen, with the cordial smile, and still more cordial laugh, with which thou wert wont to make the old Cloisters shake, in thy cognition of some poignant jest of 1 See 1 Corinthians, 3 :6-8. 2 A student named Scott, who died in an insane hospital. A student named Maunde, who was dismissed from school. Prior, Carmen Seculare for the Year 1700, st. 8, 4-5. The reference is to the students_of Christ's Hospital, which was founded by Edward VI in 1551. 5 See Exodus, 13:21: Numbers, 9:15-23. Adapted from a passage in Fuller's The History of the Worthies in England (1662), in which is described a wit combat between Shakspere and Ben Jonson. ?Charles Valentine Le Grice_(1773-1858), one of the Grecians at Christ's Hospital. 40 45 50 theirs; or the anticipation of some more material, and, peradventure, practical one, of thine own. Extinct are those smiles, with that beautiful countenance, with which (for thou wert the Nireus formosus1 of the school), in the days of thy maturer waggery, thou didst disarm the wrath of infuriated town-damsel, who, incensed by provoking pinch, turning tigress-like round, suddenly converted by thy angel-look, exchanged the half-formed terrible "bl for a gentler greeting-"bless thy handsome face!" Next follow two, who ought to be now alive, and the friends of Elia-the junior Le G2 and F; who impelled, the former by a roving temper, the latter by too quick a sense of neglect-ill capable of enduring the slights poor sizars are sometimes subject to in our seats of learningexchanged their Alma Mater for the camp; perishing, one by climate, and one on the plains of Salamanca:-Le G, sanguine, volatile, sweet-natured; F dogged, faithful, anticipative of insult, warmhearted, with something of the old Roman height about him. 6 Fine, frank-hearted Fr, the present master of Hertford, with Marmaduke T, mildest of missionaries-and both my good friends still-close the catalogue of Grecians in my time. THE TWO RACES OF MEN 1820 The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow, and the men who lend. To these two original diversities may be reduced all those impertinent classifications of Gothic and Celtic tribes, white men, black men, red men. All the dwellers upon earth, "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites,"" flock hither, and do naturally fall in with one or other of these primary distinctions. The infinite superior-1 ity of the former, which I choose to designate as the great race, is discernible in their figure, port, and a certain instinctive sovereignty. The latter are born degraded. 1 handsome Nireus (Nireus was the handsomest man among the Greeks before Troy. See the Iliad, 2, 673.) Samuel Le Grice, who became a soldier and died In the West Indies. Joseph Favell, who left Cambridge because he was ashamed of his father, a house-painter. He is the "noor W" of Lamb's Poor Relations (p. 955b, 45). 4 students exempted from college fees Frederick William Franklin. • Marmaduke Thompson. 7 Acts, 2:9. What a careless, even deportment hath your borrower! what rosy gills! what a beautiful reliance on Providence doth he manifest,-taking no more thought than lilies !3 What contempt for money,-accounting it (yours and mine especially) no better than dross. What a liberal confounding of those pedantic distinctions of meum and tuum or rather, what a noble simplification of language (beyond Tooke), resolving these supposed opposites into one clear, intelligible pronoun adjective!What near approaches doth he make to the primitive community,5-to the extent of one half of the principle at least! He is the true taxer who "calleth all the world up to be taxed"; and the distance is as vast between him and one of us, as subsisted betwixt the Augustan Majesty and the poorest obolarys Jew that paid it tribute-pittance at Jerusalem!-His exactions, too, have such a cheerful, voluntary air! So far removed from your sour parochial or state-gatherers,-those ink-horn varlets, who carry their want of welcome in their faces! He cometh to you with a smile, and troubleth you with no receipt; confining himself to no set season. Every day is his Candlemas, or his Feast of Holy Michael." He applieth the lene tormentum1o of a pleasant look to your purse,-which to that gentle warmth expands her silken leaves, as naturally as the cloak of the traveler, for which Isun and wind contended!11 He is the true Propontic which never ebbeth !12 The sea which taketh handsomely at each man's hand. In vain the victim, whom he delighteth to honor,13 struggles with destiny; he is in the net. Lend therefore cheerfully, O 1 Genesis, 9:25. 2 See Julius Cæsar, 1, 2, 194-95. 8 See Matthew, 6:28-29. mine and thine (See Fielding's The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great, 3, 14.) 5 See Acts, 2:44. Luke, 2:1. 7 The Imperial Government. man ordained to lend-that thou lose not in the end, with thy worldly penny, the reversion promised. Combine not preposterously in thine own person the penalties of 5 Lazarus and of Dives!2-but, when thou seest the proper authority coming, meet it smilingly, as it were half-way. Come, a handsome sacrifice! See how light he makes of it! Strain not courtesies with a noble enemy. 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Reflections like the foregoing were forced upon my mind by the death of my old friend, Ralph Bigod, Esq., who departed this life on Wednesday evening, dying, as he had lived, without much trouble. He boasted himself a descendant from mighty ancestors of that name, who heretofore held ducal dignities in this realm. In his actions and sentiments he belied not the stock to which he pretended. Early in life he found himself invested with ample revenues, which, with that noble disinterestedness which I have noticed as inherent in men of the great race, he took almost immediate measures entirely to dissipate and bring to nothing: for there is something revolting in the idea of a king holding a private purse; and the thoughts of Bigod were all regal. Thus furnished, by the very act of disfurnishment; getting rid of the cumbersome luggage of riches, more apt (as one sings) To slacken virtue, and abate her edge, Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise; 3 he set forth, like some Alexander, upon his great enterprise, "borrowing and to borrow''14 In his periegesis,5 or triumphant progress throughout this island, it has been calculated that he laid a tythe part of the inhabitants under contribution. I reject this estimate as greatly exaggerated:-but having had the honor of accompanying my friend, divers times, in his perambulations about this vast city, I own I was greatly struck at first with the prodigious number of faces we met who claimed a sort of respectful acquaintance with us. He was one day so obliging as to explain the phenomenon. It seems, these were his tributaries; feeders of his exchequer; gentlemen, his good friends (as he was pleased to express himself), to whom he had occasionally been impoverished; possessing only small coins like 55 beholden for a loan. Their multitudes did oboli These were days on which rents fell due. 10 gentle stimulus (Horace, Odes, III, 21, 13) In one of the fables of Esop. 12 See Othello, III, 3, 453. 13 See Esther, 6:6. no way disconcert him. He rather took a pride in numbering them; and, with Comus, seemed pleased to be "stocked with so fair a herd. " To one like Elia, whose treasures are rather cased in leather covers than closed in iron coffers, there is a class of alienators more formidable than that which I have 5 touched upon; I mean your borrowers of books-those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes. There is Comberbatch, matchless in his depredations! 15 20 25 With such sources, it was a wonder how he contrived to keep his treasury always empty. He did it by force of an aphorism, which he had often in his mouth, that "money kept longer than three days stinks." So he made use of it while it was 10 fresh. A good part he drank away (for he was an excellent toss-pot), some he gave away, the rest he threw away, literally tossing and hurling it violently from him-as boys do burrs, or as if it had been infectious, -into ponds, or ditches, or deep holes,inscrutable cavities of the earth;-or he would bury it (where he would never seek it again) by a river's side under some bank, which (he would facetiously observe) paid no interest-but out away from him it must go peremptorily, as Hagar's offspring into the wilderness,2 while it was sweet. He never missed it. The streams were perennial which fed his fisc. When new supplies became necessary, the first person that had the felicity to fall in with him, friend or stranger, was sure to contribute to the deficiency. For Bigod had an undeniable way with him. He had a cheerful, open exterior, a quick jovial eye, a bald forehead, just touched with gray (cana fides1). He anticipated no excuse, and found none. And, waiving for a while my theory as to the great race, I would put it to the most untheorizing reader, who may at times have disposable coin in his pocket, whether it is not more repugnant to the kindliness of his nature to refuse such a one as I am describing, than to say no to a poor petitionary rogue (your bastard borrower) who, by his mumping visnomy,5 tells you, that he expects nothing better, and, therefore, whose preconceived notions and expectations you do in reality so much less shock in the refusal. When I think of this man; his fiery glow of heart; his swell of feeling; how magnificent, how ideal he was; how great at the midnight hour; and when I compare with him the companions with whom I have associated since, I grudge the saving of a few idle ducats, and think that I am fallen into the society of lenders, and little 30 35 40 45 50 55 That foul gap in the bottom shelf facing you, like a great eye-tooth knocked out (you are now with me in my little back study in Bloomsbury, reader!), with the huge Switzer-like1 tomes on each side (like the Guildhall giants,2 in their reformed posture, guardant of nothing), once held the tallest of my folios, Opera Bonaventura,3 choice and massy divinity, to which its two supporters (school divinity also, but of a lesser calibre, Bellarmine, and Holy Thomas), showed but as dwarfs,-itself an Ascapart!-that Comberbatch abstracted upon the faith of a theory he holds, which is more easy, I confess, for me to suffer by than to refute, namely, that "the title to property in a book (my Bonaventure, for instance) is in exact ratio to the claimant's powers of understanding and appreciating the same. "Should he go on acting upon this theory, which of our shelves is safe? The slight vacuum in the left-hand casetwo shelves from the ceiling-scarcely distinguishable but by the quick eye of a loser -was whilom the commodious resting-place of Browne on Urn Burial. C. will hardly allege that he knows more about that treatise than I do, who introduced it to him, and was indeed the first (of the moderns) to discover its beauties-but so have I known a foolish lover to praise his mistress in the presence of a rival more qualified to carry her off than himself.-Just below, Dodsley's dramas want their fourth volume, where Vittoria Corombona is! The remainder nine are as distasteful as Priam's refuse sons, when the Fates borrowed Hector. Here stood The Anatomy of Melancholy, in sober state.-There loitered The Complete Angler, quiet as in life, by some stream side.-In yonder nook, 1 That is, enormous, like the giant Swiss guards formerly in the French service. 2 Two colossal wooden figures of Gog and Magog in the council hall of London. & Works of Bonaventura (1221-74), an Italian theologian. In the Trojan War, Hector, the favorite son of Priam, was slain by Achilles. With nine of his fifty sons still living. Priam begged Achilles for the body of Hector. See the Iliad, 24, 486 ff. |