friends and relations hold up their hands in quite a little elegiacal synod about his path: and what cares he for all this? Being a true lover of living, a fellow with something pushing and spontaneous in his inside, he must, like any other soldier, in any other stirring, deadly warfare, push on at his best 5 pace until he touch the goal. "A peerage or Westminster Abbey!" cried Nelson in his bright, boyish, heroic manner. These are great incentives; not for any of these, but for the plain satisfaction of living, of being about their business in some sort or other, do the brave, serviceable men of every 10 nation tread down the nettle danger and pass flyingly over all the stumbling-blocks of prudence. Think of the heroism of Johnson, think of that superb indifference to mortal limitation that set him upon his dictionary and carried him through triumphantly until the end! Who, if he were wisely 15 considerate of things at large, would ever embark upon any work much more considerable than a halfpenny post-card? Who would project a serial novel, after Thackeray and Dickens had each fallen in mid course? Who would find heart enough to begin to live, if he dallied with the considera- 20 tion of death? And, after all, what sorry and pitiful quibbling all this is! To forego all the issues of living, in a parlor with a regulated temperature as if that were not to die a hundred times over, and for ten years at a stretch! As if it were not to die in 25 one's own lifetime, and without even the sad immunities of death! As if it were not to die, and yet be the patient spectators of our own pitiable change! The Permanent Possibility is preserved, but the sensations carefully held at arm's length, as if one kept a photographic plate in a dark chamber. 30 It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser. It is better to live and be done with it than to die daily in the sick-room. By all means begin your folio; even if the doctor does not give you a year, even if he hesitates about a month, make one brave push and see what can 35 be accomplished in a week. It is not only in finished undertakings that we ought to honor useful labor. A spirit goes out of the man who means execution, which outlives the most untimely ending. All who have meant good work with their whole hearts, have done good work, although they may die before they have the time to sign it. Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind 5 it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind. And even if death catch people, like an open pitfall; and in mid career, laying out vast projects, and planning monstrous foundations, flushed with hope, and their mouths full of boastful language, they should be at once tripped up and 10 silenced; is there not something brave and spirited in such a termination? and does not life go down with a better grace, foaming in full body over a precipice, than miserably straggling to an end in sandy deltas? When the Greeks made their fine saying that those whom the gods love die young, 15 I cannot help believing they had this sort of death also in their eye. For surely, at whatever age it overtake the man, this is to die young. Death has not been suffered to take so much as an illusion from his heart. In the hot-fit of life, a-tiptoe on the highest point of being, he passes at a bound 20 on to the other side. The noise of the mallet and chisel is scarcely quenched, the trumpets are hardly done blowing, when, trailing with him clouds of glory, this happy-starred, full-blooded spirit shoots into the spiritual land. APPENDIX. SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH Early Translations of the Bible. THE LORD'S PRAYER. Anglo-Saxon Version (about 1000 a. D.). Fæder ure pu pe eart on heofonum; si pin nama gehalgod. To-becume pin rice. Gewurpe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg. And forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gylten5 dum. And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele. Soplice. [Matthew 6: 9-13.] Wiclif's Version (about 1380 a. D.). Oure fadir that art in heuenes, halwid be thi name; thi kyngdom cumme to; be thi wille don as in heuen and in erthe; 3if to vs this day oure breed ouer other substaunce; and 10 forzeue to vs oure dettis, as we forzeue to oure dettours; and leede vs nat in to temptacioun, but delyuere vs fro yuel. Amen. [Matthew 6: 9-13.] Tyndale's Version (1534 a. D.). O oure father which arte in heven, halowed be thy name. Let thy kyngdome come. Thy wyll be fulfilled as well in 15 erth as it ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure dayly breede. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve oure trespacers. And leade vs not into temptacion: but delyver vs from evell. For thyne is the kyngedome and the power and the glorye for ever. Amen. [Matthew 6: 9-13.] THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. Wiclif's Version (about 1380 a. D.). Sum man hadde tweye sones; and the jongere seide to the fadir, Fadir, 3yue to me the porcioun of substaunce that byfallith to me. And the fadir departide to him the substaunce. And not aftir manye dayes, alle thingis gederid to gidre, the jongere sone wente in pilgrymage in to a fer 5 cuntree; and there he wastide is substaunce in lyuynge leccherously. And aftir that he hadde endid alle thingis, a strong hungir was maad in that cuntree, and he bigan to haue nede. And he wente, and cleuyde to oon of the citeseyns of that cuntree. And he sente him in to his toun, that he 10 schulde feede hoggis. And he coueitide to fille his wombe of the coddis whiche the hoggis eeten, and no man 3af to him. Sothli he turned azen in to him silf, seyde, Hou many hirid men in my fadir hous, han plente of looues; forsothe I perische here thur3 hungir. I schal ryse, and I schal go 15 to my fadir, and I schal seie to him, Fadir, I haue synned azens heuene, and bifore thee; now I am not worthi to be clepid thi sone, make me as oon of thi hyrid men. And he rysinge cam to his fadir. Sothli whanne he was 3it fer, his fadir sy3 him, and he was stirid by mercy. And he rennynge 20 to, felde on his necke, and kiste him. And the sone seyde to him, Fadir, I haue synned agens heuene, and bifore thee; and now I am not worthi to be clepid thi sone. Forsoth the fadir seyde to his seruauntis, Soone bringe e forth the firste stoole, and clothe 3e him, and 3yue je a ring in his hond, and 25 schoon in to the feet; and brynge 3e a calf maad fat, and sle 3e, and ete we, and plenteuously ete we. For this my sone was deed, and hath lyued azen; he perischide, and is founden. And alle bigunnen to eat plenteuously. Forsoth his eldere sone was in the feeld; and whanne he cam, and neizede to 30 the hous, he herde a symphonye and a crowde. And he clepide oon of the seruauntis, and axide, what thingis thes weren. And he seide to him, Thi brodir is comen, and thi fadir hath slayn a fat calf, for he receyuede him saf. Forsoth he was wroth, and wolde not entre. Therfore his fadir 35 |