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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. CIiap._:.'___.

Copyright

JVo

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

"

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS " FROM

BULWER-LYTTON

4197G jl_ibr»iiry

Congress

of

i"*\AL Copies R€ce««/eo

1

SEP

1900

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fir,n,'iil)ly

in

Mondng.

iiciul.

liiiry h'liid

waH

painted

hnh>w

worJdH thai ntretch

of tiino on whJcJi

wo

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

100

stand, Imagination

perhaps holier

is

than Memory. Alice.

—

Ma/y 2d. The Spirit of the Age. I would make every man's conduct

more or

less

mechanical

;

for system

mind over matter

the triumph of

just equilibrium of all the

may seem

passions

Be

it so.

the

like

;

is

the

powers and machinery.

Nature meant the world

creation

—man

himself,

for

ma-

chines. Ernest Maltravers.

May The

seas

of

Wisdom may it

must

first

3d.

human

life

are wide.

suggest the voyage, but look to the condition of

the ship, and the nature of the mer-

chandise

to

exchange.

Not

every

BULWER LYTTON.

FliOM that

vessel

sails

101

from Tarshish can

bring back the gold of Ophir shall

No

;

it

therefore rot in

give

its sails

tlie

;

but

harbor?

wind

to the

Tlie Caxtons.

May In the tale of there

ages,

is

Jf^th.

human passion,

in past

something of interest

even in the remoteness of the time.

We

love to feel within us the

bond

which unites the most distant eras men,

nations,

customs

perish

AFFECTIONS AKE IMMOKTAL

!

;

the

— they

are the sympathies which unite the

The past lives when we look upon its emotions

ceaseless generations.

again,

—

it

lives

was, ever

our

in is

!

own

!

That which

The magician's

that revives the dead

—that

gift,

animates

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

102

the dust of forgotten graves,

the author's the reader

skill

—

it is

is

not in

in the heart of

!

The Last Days of Pompeii.

May You

world says

Deeds

6th.

man —the wide —do not deceive woman men— words women

never deceived

kill

it

The Last of

May Oh,

the

Barons.

6th.

Madeline! methinks

there

is

nothing under heaven like the feeling

which puts us apart from tates,

and

herd of

fevers,

men

;

upon

it

that agi-

which grants us to con-

trol the tenor of

cause

all

and degrades the our future

annihilates

life,

be-

our dependence

others, and, while the rest of the

earth are hurried on, blind and uncon-

FE03I

BULWEB LYTTON.

103

by the hand of Fate, leaves us

scious,

the sole lords of our destiny, and able,

from the Past, which we have governed, to

become the prophets of our

Future Eugene Aram,

MoA/

7th,

Even the most unearthly love selfish in the

rapture of being loved

is !

Bienzi.

May IN'either

man

uses of life

till

8th,

nor wood comes to the the green leaves are

And

stripped and the sap gone.

the

uses

of

life

strange things with other names tree

a tree no more

is

a ship

;

the youth

then

transform us into

is

—

it is

;

the

a gate or

a youth no more,

but a one-legged soldier;

a hollow-

—

!

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

104

eyed statesman

;

a scholar spectacled

and slippered The Caxtona,

May Had

9th.

the early Christians been more

controlled

by

" the

" ties of custom

—

solemn

less of

plausibili-

democrats in

the pure and lofty acceptation of that

perverted word,

—Christianity

have perished in

its

would

cradle

The Last Days of Pompeii.

Mmj " It

is

10th.

an excitement," said Yalerie,

"to climb a mountain, though tigues

;

fa-

and though the clouds may even

deny us a prospect from it is

it

its

summit

an excitement that gives a very

universal pleasure,

most as

if it

and that seems

were the

result of a

al-

com-

FROM BULWER LYTTON.

mon human

instinct,

desire to rise

—to

105

which makes us

get above the ordi-

nary thoroughfares and level of

Some such intellectual

mind

is

the

pleasure

ambition,

upward

life.

you must have

in

which the

in

traveller." Ernest Maltravera,

May Nothing

is

11th.

strong on earth but the

Will; and hate to the will

is

as the

iron in the hands of the war-man. Harold.

May

mil.

Is there not distinction

the best

?

enough at

Does not one wear purple,

and the other rags? ease and the other toil ?

Ilath not one

Doth not the

one banquet while the other starves

Do

I nourish

any mad scheme to

?

level

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

106

the ranks which society renders a necessary evil

?

No.

war no more

I

with Dives than with Lazarus.

l>iit

before man's judgment-scat, as before God's,

Lazarus and Dives are

equaL

JNo more. The Last

May I

])tx(/s

made

of Povipcii.

loth.

have never yet found

in

life

one

man who made happiness his end and aim. One wants to gain a fortune, another

to

s}>ond

it

— one

phice, another to buikl a

they

all

know very

well that

happiness thoy search tarian terest,

to

for.

poor man, Ids

when he

unpopular

;

it is

but

not

]\o Utili-

was ever actuated by

scribble

get a

name

sat

self-in-

down

crotchets

to to

FKCm nULWER LYTTON.

And

prove solf-interest universal. to

iiolalxlo

tliJit

enliglitene(J is

and

or

If

it.

man who

you

fine speech, that

be any hapjiier

if

of Milton or the

Jiad mucii

the

But

he will not

power of

Pitt,

the country, and posti)one to

last

the days of dyspepsia and

you

fairJy:

quite as sensible of that as

am

I

I shall

mind

and

own happiness,

better cultivate a farm,

gout, he will answer

am

are inllu-

the young

he attain to the fame

that, for the sake of his

live in

we

tell

has just written a line book

made a

he

self-interest

— the more the self-interest

enliglitened, the less

enced by

as

— between

distinction

vulgar

seli'-in teres t

107

you

"I are.

not thinking whether or not

be happy.

to be,

if 1

I

have made up

my

can, a great author, or

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

108

So

a prime minister."

it

is

is

And you

the law of nature.

all

To push

the active sons of the world.

on

with

can

no more say to men and to nations than to children

"Sit

:

still,

and don't

wear out your shoes." The Caxtom,

May It is

an awful

—

What is wisdom— virtue men piety to Heaven all nurture we bestow on ourselves

human

life

—faith

to

the all

nth. state of being, this

!

—

—

our desire to win a loftier sphere,

when we merest

are thus the tools of the

chance

—the

pettiest villainy;

ence

—our

victims

of

and our very

the

exist-

very senses almost, at the

mercy of every

traitor

and every fool ? Ernest Maltravers.

FB03I

BULWER LYTTON.

May

109

15th,

These vain prophecies of human wit

They

guard the soul from no danger.

mislead us by riddles which our hot hearts interpret according to their desires.

Keep thou

fast

to

own

youth's

simple wisdom, and trust only to the

pure

spirit

and the watchful God. Harold,

May

16th.

—the discovery—the despair — hear me, as

The crime mediable voice of a

man who

is

irre-

the

on the brink of

a world, the awful nature of which reason cannot pierce

—hear me

!

when

your heart tempts to some wandering

from the men,

and

line allotted to the rest of

whispers

crime in others, but

is

may be " not so in thee

"This

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

110

—tremble

;

cling fast, fast to the path

you are lured

to

Eemember

leave.

me! Eugene Aram,

May Alas that

is

I

it

17th.

only to be

among men

freedom and virtue are to be

deemed

Why

united?

should

the

slavery that destroys you be consid-

ered the only method to preserve us

Ah

!

believe me,

error

of

worked

men

it

has been the great

—and

bitterly

on

one

has

that

their destinies

imagine that the nature of (I will

?

—to

women is may be

not say inferior, that

from

so,

but) so different

in

making laws unfavorable

their

tellectual

advancement

Have they

not, in so doing,

of

own,

to the in-

women.

made laws

FROM BULWER LYTTON.

whom women

against their children,

are to rear ?

Ill

—against the husbands, of

whom women

are to be the friends,

nay, sometimes the advisers

?

The Last Days of Pompeii,

May "

good

him

carries

—one

heart, "

my

18th.

Everybody who two

here,"

is

in earnest to be

about with

fairies

and he touched

my

and one here," and he touched

forehead. The

May " It

is

19th.

not the ambition that pleases,"

replied Maltravers, "

it is

the following

a path congenial to our

made dear to us in a The moments

habit.

Caxtons.

tastes,

short time in

and

by

which we

look beyond our work, and fancy our-

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

112

selves seated beneath the Everlasting It is the

Laurel, are few.

whether of action or

and

interests

work

excites

us.

length the dryness of

toil

And

charm

But in

there

another

is

—we become more intimate with

our

own

soul

grow

nature.

affections

we

labor

at

takes the

familiar sweetness of custom. intellectual

itself,

literature, that

The heart and the

friends, as it were,

and aspirations

are never without society

never alone; learned,

all

that

and the

unite.

—we are

we have

and discovered,

is

Thus,

read,

company

to

us." Ernest Maltravers.

MOA/ Wth.

What

love has most to dread in the

wild heart of aspiring man,

is

not per-

FE03I:

BULWER LYTTON.

sons, but tilings,

—

113

not things, but

is

their symbols. Harold.

May I

then

see

form

solemn in their

I

as he stood

him before me,

—his

smile, a

^Ist

erect, his light,

dark eyes

a serenity in his

grandeur on his brow, that

had never marked

that the same

man

I

till

then!

Was

had recoiled from

as the sneering cynic, shuddered at as

the audacious traitor, or wept over as

the cowering outcast

?

How

little

the

nobleness of aspect depends on sym-

metry of

feature, or the

What

tions of form!

the

man who

is

filled

mere propordignity robes

with a lofty

thought The

Caxtons.

— BEAUTIFUL TBOUGHTS

114

May 2M. But the

the body usually

illness of

brings out a latent power and philoso-

phy

of the soul,

which health never

knows; and God has mercifully dained

it

as the customary

ture, that in proportion as

into the grave,

or-

lot of na-

we

decline

the sloping path

made smooth and easy

is

to our feet;

and every day, as the films of clay are

removed from our

eyes.

Death

the false aspect of the spectre, fall

at last into its

child

arms

upon the bosom

loses

and we

as a wearied

of its mother. Ernest Maltravers.

May 2Sd. I love not the trader spirit,

man

the spirit that cheats, and cringes, and haggles,

and

splits

straws for pence.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. and

roasts eggs

115

by other men^s blazing

rafters. The Last of the Barons,

May For oh

what a

!

^Ifih.

terrible devil creeps

into that man's soul at his door

many life

One tender

!

sees famine act,

and how

black designs, struggling into

you may crush forever!

within,

He who deems vince

who

him

it is like

the world his foe, con-

that he has one friend, and

snatching a dagger from his

hand Eugene Aram.

May

^5th.

Oh,

God

!

— Westminster Bridge. how many

stormy hearts have

on that thought

spot, for

—of

stilled

wild

and

themselves

one dread instant of

calculation

—of

resolve

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

116

one instant, the

last of life

!

Look

at

night along the course of that stately

how

river,

gloriously

it

seems to mock

the passions of them that dwell beside

Unchanged

it.

around life

;

itself

all

smiling up to the grey stars,

and singing from bounds along.

proud of

—unchanging—

quick death, and troubled

it

solemn

its

deep heart as

its

Beside

it is

it

the Senate,

triflers,

and there

the cloistered tomb, in which, as the loftiest

honor, some handful of the

fiercest

of the

f orgetf ulness

and a grave

no moral to a great that washes

may

strugglers !

gain

There

is

city like the river

its walls.

Eugene Aram.

May Say

'26tli.

to the busiest

man whom

thou

FEOM BULWER LYTTQN. camp, or senate,

seest in mart,

seems

thee

to

117

worldly schemes,

who

upon

intent

all

"Thy home

his

reft

is

—thy household gods are shattered—that sweet noiseless content

from thee

in the regular

which into

mechanism

set the large

movement

—and

is

straightway

robbed of

thine nevermore " !

all

object

its

of the springs

wheels of thy soul

exertion seems

—

aim of

all

its

alluring charm. Harold.

May What bor,

my la-

me

of re-

now thou

pose?

How

wrung from and

foes,

27th.

are all the rewards to

hast robbed little

are all the gains

strife, in

a world of rivals

compared to the smile whose

sweetness I

knew not

till

it

was

lost,

—

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

118

and the sense of security from mortal ill

which I took from the

and

trust

sympathy of love ? Harold.

May The burning

^8th.

have known

desires I

the resplendent visions I have nursed

—the lifted

sublime

me

aspirings

so often

that

have

from sense and clay

—these me, that, whether for good or —I am the thing of an Immortaltell

ill

ity,

and the creature of a God Eugene Aram,

May S9th. Nor

is

he whom, for high purposes,

Heaven hath

raised

from the cottage

to the popular throne, without invisi-

ble aid

and

protection.

If

hereditary monarchs are deemed

sa-

spiritual

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

119

cred, how much more one in whose power the divine hand hath writ its

Yes, over

him who

witness

!

for his

country, whose greatness

country's gift, try's liberty, just,

whose

lives

life is his

watch the

is

but his

coun-

souls of the

and the unsleeping eyes of the

s worded

seraphim Bienzi.

May To be thing

;

great

?

—

Memorial Bay. you must sacrifice some-

30th.

free,

for freedom,

what

sacrifice too

Bienzi.

May Slst. Yery near

are

two hearts that have

no guile between them. The Caxtom.

JUNE.

June

Our own earth

itself,

yoath

when

and waters with ran

;

it

—

peopled the woods

divinities

;

when

life

all its

shapes of poetry,

—

all

the melodies of Arcady and

airs,

Olympus

The Golden Age never

!

leaves the world; shall exist,

no more

like that of the

and yet only gave birth to

riot,

beauty its

Ist. is

;

till

it

exists

still,

and

love, health, poetry, are

but only for the young Eienzi,

June 2d. Not in such jaded bosoms can Nature awaken that enthusiasm which alone draws from her chaste reserve all

her unspeakable beauty

:

she de-

;

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

124

mands from you, not the exhaustion but

passion,

which you

that

all

onl}^ seek, in

of

from

fervor,

adoring her, a

release. The Last Days of Pompeii,

June

Was

ture, that

dearer

3d.

the perversity of

it

makes the things

to

human

na-

of morality

us in proportion as they

fade from our hopes, like birds whoso

hues are only unfolded

when they

take wing and vanish amidst the skies or was

on

it

that he had ever doted of

loveliness

form, and the

more

mind than that

first

more, the more the

of

bloomed out the

last

decayed

?

Ernest Maltravers.

June

He who

is

Jt-th.

ambitious of things afar

FR03T

BULWEB LYTTON.

125

and uncertain, passes at once into the Poet-Land of Imagination; to aspire

and to imagine are yearnings twinborn.

_

,^

Harold.

June 6th. Mankind are not instantaneously corrupted.

Villainy

is

pro-

always

We decline from right— not

gressive.

suddenly, but step after step. Eugene Aram.

June In a word, dear

6th. sir

and

friend, in

this crowded Old World, there

the same

room

men

to

jostle their neighbors.

must

sit

down

not

that our bold fore-

fathers found for

and

is

like

walk about

No

;

they

boys at their form,

:

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

126

and work out

their tasks, with

rounded

shoulders and aching fingers.

There

has been a pastoral age, and a hunting age,

and a fighting age.

Now we have

arrived at the age sedentary.

who

sit

longest carry

all

Men

before them

puny, delicate fellows, with hands just strong enough to wield a pen, eyes so bleared by the midnight lamp that they see

no joy

draws

me

draws the

in that

buxom sun (which

forth into the fields, as living),

life

and digestive organs

worn and macerated by the

relentless

flagellation of the brain. The Caxtom.

June Wise

is

whose book

ever is

the

7th.

the counsel of him

human

heart. Harold.

FB03I

BULWEB LYTTON. June

127

8th.

From LITEKATUEE he imagined had come

all

ened

and men humane.

makes nations

that

loved Literature

her

he

because

were not those of

distinctions

the world

And

more,

the

enlight-

—because

she had neither

ribands, nor stars, nor high places at

A

her command. gratitude and

name

in the deep

hereditary delight of

men — this was

the

title

she bestowed.

Hers was the Great Primitive Church of

the

Muftis

world,

Her

hierarchies.

the

without

—sinecures,

earth

anxious

as

the

only to

Popes

pluralities,

or

and

servants spoke to

prophets of

be

old,

heard and be-

lieved. Ernest Maltravers.

.

128

BEAUTIFUL TEOUOHTS

June

He who

9th.

awaits death, dies twice. The Last Days of Pompeii

June 10 th. lu

all

these solemn riddles of the

Jove world and the Christ's

the imperious necessity that of repentance

involved

is

man hath

and atonement through :

their clouds, as a rainbow, shines the

covenant that reconciles the God and the man. Harold.

June

11th.

Observe, that, throughout the whole world, a great revolution has begun.

The barbaric darkness been broken; the

made men

of centuries has

knowledge which

as demigods in

the past

time has been called from her urn

;

a

FEOM BULWEB LYTTON. Power, subtler

129

brute force, and

tliiiii

mightier than armed men,

at

is

we have begun once more

work

I

do hom-

to

age to the Jioyalty of Mind. Riejizi.

June

We may talk of but no

man

12th.

the fidelity of books,

own

ever wrote even his

biography, without being com[)elled to

omit at least nine- tent

— what

six

volumes in a joy,

day

is

are three

We

live

how

fear,

prolix

they might each

I

But man's

and everlasting and

curate

;

confessions

are

a

tell

life itself

a brief epitome of that which

finite

six

Thought, emotion,

!

be, if

their hourly tale

of the most

is

volumes?

sorrow, hope,

would they

I

What

important materials.

his

is in-

most

ac-

miserable

!

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

130

abridgment of a hurried and confused

compendium Ernest Maltravera.

June

New

13th.

laws are declared to him

who

—a heaven, a true Olympus, revealed to him who has eyes —heed has ears

then,

is

and

listen.

The Last Days of Pompeii.

June nth. Ass indeed

warn

others,

his eyes

what

is

he

who

pretends to

nor sees an inch before his

own

fate will be Harold.

June

15th.

I say, then, that books, taken indis-

criminately, are no cure to the diseases

and

afflictions of

the mind.

There

is

a

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

131

world of science necessary in the taking them.

have known some people

I

in great sorrow fly to a novel, or the last light

as

One might

book in fashion.

well take a rose-draught for the

plague!

when

Light reading does not do

the heart

is

told that Goethe,

really heavy.

when he

Ah

!

am

lost his son,

took to study a science that was to him.

I

new

Goethe was a physician

who knew what

he was about.

In a

great grief like that you cannot tickle

and divert the mind you must wrench ;

it

away, abstract, absorb

an abyss, hurry

it

— bury

it

in

into a labyrinth.

Therefore, for the irremediable sor-

rows of middle

recommend a science

life

strict

and old age,

I

chronic course of

and hard reasoning

—Counter-

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

132

Bring the brain to act upon

irritation.

the heart The Caxtona.

June that

fear

I

travers ence,

as

had gained

16th.

yet little

Ernest

Mal-

from Experi-

except a few current coins of

worldly wisdom (and not very valuable those of

that

!

),

while he had lost

nobler

much

wealth with which

youthful enthusiasm sets out on the

Experience

journey of

life.

giver, but

a stealthy

thief.

is

an open

There

is,

however, this to be said in her favor,

we retain her gifts; and if ever we demand restitution in earnest, 'tis ten to one but what we recover her that

thefts. Ernest Maltravera.

FEOM BULWER LYTTON.

"

June 17 th. Norman,

He

ingly

my

died," said the " but shriven

;

133

sooth-

and absolved and ;

cousin says, calm and hopeful, as

who have

they die ever Saviour's

tomb

knelt at the

!

Harold.

June

"How him "

little

in the eyes of

The

18th.

a man's virtues profit

men

!

" thought he.

subject saves the crown,

and the

crown's wearer never pardons the pre-

sumption

!

The Last of the Barona.

June "

19th.

God never made Genius

to be

envied " interrupted Yillani, with an !

energy

that

overcame

his

respect.

"

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

134

"

We

!

envy not the sun, but rather the

valleys that ripen beneath his beams."

" Yerily,

if

I

be the sun," said Kienzi

with a bitter and melancholy smile, " long for night,

—and

come

it will,

I

to

human as to the celestial Pilgrim Thank Heaven at least, that our ambition cannot make us immortal the

—

!

Bienzi.

June 20th. The tench, no doubt, pond in which he lives World.

There

stagnant, which

is is

no

People

who have still

as the Great

place,

however

not the great world

to the creatures that

in a village

considers the

move about

in

lived all their lives

talk of the world as

they had ever seen

it.

it

!

An

old

if

woman

in a hovel does not put her nose out of

FEOM BULWEB LYTTON.

135

her door on a Sunday without thinking she

and

is

going amongst the pomps

vanities of the great world.

the great world circle in

is

Ergo,

to all of us the little

which we

live. Ernest Maltravers.

June Sir,

a religious

'21st.

man

does not want

to reason about his religion is

not mathematics.

felt,

not proved.

—religion

Keligion

is

to be

There are a great

many things in the religion of a good man which are not in the catechism. The Caxtona.

He was

June 22d. the more original because

he sought rather after the True than

New.

two minds are ever the same; and therefore any man who the

]^o

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

136

will give us fairly

own

sults of his

enced by the w^ill

and frankly the

re-

impressions, uninflu-

servilities of imitation,

be original. Ernest Maliravers.

June ^3d.

A man is a poor

creature

in a passion sometimes;

who

and

in the

wrong

not

but a very

unjust, or a very foolish one,

in a passion with the

is

wrong

if

he be

person,

place and time. Ernest Maliravers.

J\ine 24th.

And

as

gold, the

adorner of the

world, springs from the sordid bosom of earth, so

chastity,

gold, rose bright

the clay of

human

the image of

and unsullied from desire. Harold.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. June

137

25th.

In that era of passionate and poetical

romance, which Petrarch repre-

sented rather than created, Love had

already begun to assume a more tender

and sacred character than erto

known,

had

hith-

had gradually imbibed

it

the divine spirit which Christianity,

it

it

derives from

and which associates

its

sorrows on earth with the visions and hopes of heaven.

To him who

relies

upon immortality,

fidelity to the

dead

is

easy; because death cannot extin-

guish

hope,

mourner

is

to come.

and the

soul

of

the

already half in the world It is

an age that desponds

—representing death as separation — in which,

of a future life

an

men

eternal

if

grieve awhile for the dead, they

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

138

hasten to reconcile themselves to the

For true

living.

is

the old aphorism,

that love exists not without hope. Bienzi.

It is in

learn

June Mth. sorrow or sickness that we

why Faith was given as a man— Faith, which is Hope

soother to

with a holier name

—hope that knows

neither deceit nor death.

Ah, how

wisely do you speak of the philosophy of belief

It

!

is,

indeed, the telescope

through which the stars grow large

upon our

gaze. Ernest Maltravers.

June

Man

is

for others.

27th.

never wrong while he lives

The philosopher who

con-

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. templates from the rock

image than the

sailor

is

139

a less noble

who

struggles

with the storm. The Caxtons.

June ^8th.—A Lover's Farting. I know not, in the broken words that passed between us, in the sorrow-

which those words revealed I know not if there were that which

ful hearts

—

they

who own,

in

human

passion, but

the storm and the whirlwind, would call

the love of maturer years

—the

love that gives fire to the song, and

tragedy to the stage

;

but I

know

that

was neither a word nor a thought which made the sorrow of the

there

children a rebellion to the heavenly

Father. The Caxtons.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

140

Janr Thero tellect,

is

in

with

'29th.

a sound and correct its

all

gilts

fairly

in-

bal-

anced, a calm consciousness of power,

a cm'tainty

tliaX

fairly put out, it

when

must be to

ond-rate faculties, on the

by Muur

tower,

own

tl

u^y

contrar}'',

are

are its

do not estimate

talents, but

some one but

uujasuring

own

of sec-

and nervous, lidgeting after a

celebrity wliicli

ents of

is

realize the

Men

usual result of strength.

fretful

strength

its

by the

They

else.

occupied

tal-

see a

only with

shadow, and think their

height (which they never calcu-

late) is to cast as Inroad

earth.

It is tln^ short

a,

one over the

man who

is al-

ways throwing up his (^hin, and is as The tall man stoops. erect as a dart.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. and the strong man

is

not

141

always

using the dumb-bells. Ernest Maltravers.

June 30th. The eye that would guard the living should not be dimmed by the vapors that encircle the dead. Harold.

JULY.

July

1st.

Oh, what a crushing sense

of impo-

when we

feel that

tence comes over us,

our frame cannot support our mind

when

the hand can no longer execute

what the ceives to the

soul, actively

and

dead

as ever, con-

—the quick tied form— the ideas fresh as

desires

life

!

immortality, gushing forth rich and golden, and the broken nerves, and the

aching frame, and the weary eyes

!

the spirit athirst for liberty and heaven

—and the damning, choking consciousness that in a

place

we

are walled up

and prisoned

dungeon that must be our !

Talk not of freedom

burial-

—there

no such thing as freedom to a

is

man

!

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

146

whose body ties are

is

the

jail,

whose

infirmi-

the racks, of his genius Ernest Maltravers.

July 2d.

Only by the candle held eton hand of Poverty can

own dark

in the skel-

man read his

heart. The Last of

July 3d. I value Gold, for Gold tect of

Power

!

storms the city place

—

it

—

is

camp

—

fills

it

buys the market-

I value

means necessary

the Archi-

the

It

— Gold, —

raises the palace

the throne.

the Barons.

to

my

it it

it

founds is

the

end Bienzi.

July

Jith.

—Independence Day.

Depend on

it,

the

New

"World will

be friendly or hostile to the Old, not in

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. jprojportion to the hinshij^

147

of race^ hut in

j^roportion to the similarity of ^manners

and

institxLtions

—a

mighty truth to

which we colonizers have been

blind.

The Caxtona.

July

A man is a rude, mal, and requires tions to dignify

6th.

coarse, sensual ani-

all

and

manner of associa-

refine him,

women

are so naturally susceptible of every-

thing beautiful in sentiment and generous in purpose, that she true

woman

is

a

fit

who

is

a

peer for a king. Tlie Caxtona,

July

No man gods,

and

its

miserable creeds

upon the weak great

—

its

6th.

ever so scorned

—

its

its

—

its

false

war

fawning upon the

ingratitude to benefactors

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

148

its

league

sordid

against excellence.

with

mediocrity

Yes, in proportion

as I love mankind, I despise

and detest

that worse than Venetian oligarchy

which mankind "

set over

them and

call

THE WOELD." Ernest Maltravers.

July 7th. While the mind alone

is

occupied,

you may be contented with the pride of stoicism:

when

but there are moments

the heart wakens as from a sleep

—wakens

like a frightened child

feel itself alone

and

—to

in the dark. Ernest Maltravers,

July

8th.

I tell thee that I renounce henceforth all faith

save in

Him whose ways

concealed from our eyes.

Thy

are seid

FBOM BULWEB LYTTON.

149

and thy galdra have not guarded me

armed me against

against peril, nor sin.

will

Nay, perchance

—but

peace:

I

no more tempt the dark art, I will

no more seek to disentangle the awful truth from the juggling foretold

All so

lie.

me I will seek to forget,

—hope

from no prophecy, fear from no warning.

Let the soul go to the future un-

der the shadow of

God Harold.

July

When—when parities

9th.

will these hideous dis-

be banished from the world

How many

noble natures

glorious hopes

?

—how many

—how much

of the ser-

aph's intellect, have been crushed into

the mire, or blasted into guilt, by the

mere force of physical want?

"What

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

150

are the temptations of the rich to those

Yet

of the poor ?

see

how

lenient

we

—how

re-

are to the crimes of the one, lentless to those of the other

I

Eugene Aram.

July

There stronger

Poverty

a

is

than ^6"

10th.

stern

truth which

the master-ill of the Avorld.

Look round.

Does poverty leave

signs over the graves ?

large

Look

tomb fenced round

long inscription

husbands "

is

Spartan lessons

all

—

''

:

affectionate

"inconsolable grief" joyful hope,''

;

" Virtue "

etc.,

read that

— " best of father " —

— "sleeps

etc.

pose these stoneless

its

at that

in

the

Do you sup-

mounds hide no

what were men just as good ? But no epitaph tells their virtues, be-

dust of

FROM BULWER LYTTON.

151

speaks thoir wives' grief, or promises joyful

hope to them

Does

it

matter

I

Does God care for

?

the epitaph and tombstone ? Tlie Caxtons.

July Their talk love.

11th.

now was

only of their

Over the rapture of the present

the hopes of the future glowed like the

heaven above the gardens of spring.

They went far

down

in their trustful thoughts

the stream of time

:

they laid

out the chart of their destiny to come

they sulFercd the light of to-day to suffuse the

their hearts

morrow. it

In the youth of

seemed as

if

care,

and

change, and death, were as things un-

known. The Last Days of Pompeii.

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

152

"

July mil. mystic lights," said he,

Ye

quizing " worlds upon worlds ;

—incalculable. and change,

we

solilo-

infinite

Bright defiers of rest

rolling forever above our

petty sea of mortality,

wave,

—

wave

as,

after

fret forth our little life,

sink into the black abyss

;

and

— can we look

upon you, note your appointed order, and your unvarying feel that

we

course,

and not

are indeed the poorest

puppets of an all-pervading and

resist-

less destiny ?

Eugene Aram.

July Is

some ?

me

13th.

that too masculine a spirit for

the

Let each please himself.

woman who

can

thoughts that are noblest in

Give

echo

all

men

The Caxtons.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. July

When we what stop where

is

153

Htli.

have commenced a career,

is

there

till

the grave?

the definite barrier of that am-

bition which,

the eastern bird,

like

seems ever on the wing, and never rests

upon the

earth. Ernest Maltravers.

July

Man

is

15th.

arrogant in proportion to his

ignorance. Zanoni.

July

16th.

The man who hath served me wrongs me till I have served him again ! The Last of the Barons.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

154

July 17th.

Conduct lies

my

— conduct—conduct—there

talent

;

and what

is

conduct but

a steady walk from a design to cution

its

exe-

I

Ernest Maltravers,

July

Poor of

is

18th.

the strength of body

law can entangle

it,

—a web

and a word from

a priest's mouth can palsy. Harold,

July

19th.

HoAV a man past thirty scarcely twenty

mere est

!

foils

a

man

— what superiority the

fact of living-on gives to the dull-

dog

I

The Caxtons.

July Wth. It is a fearful thing to see men weep Eugene Aram.

I

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

155

Jtoly ^Ist

There seems something intuitive in the

wliich

science

teaches

knowledge of our race. emerge from all at once,

us

the

Some men

their seclusion,

and

find,

a power to dart into the

minds and drag forth the motives of those they see sight,

it is

;

a sort of second

born with them, not acquired. Eugene Aram.

Had less

I

July nd. more with men, and

lived

with dreams and books,

have made

my

I

should

nature large enough

to bear the loss of a single passion.

But

in

plant so

and the

solitude

much

as

we shrink up. Ko man needs the sun

air.

The Caxtons.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

156

July 23d.

Love should dence as jealousy

its is

have

oonfu

implicit

bond and nature

doubt,

and doubt

—and the

is

death of love. Ernest Maltravers.

July ^ith.

As

ashes cannot be rekindled

—as

love once dead can never revive, so

freedom

departed from a people

is

never regained. The Lost Days of Pompeii,

July 25th.

Of

all

heart

is

the conditions to which the subject, suspense

is

the one

gnaws and cankers into the One little month of that suspense, when it involves death, we are told, in a ver}^ remarkable work lately that most

frame.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. published by an eyewitness,

plough fixed lines

157

is

and

suffi-

fur-

cient

to

rows

in the face of a convict of five-

and-twenty

— sufficient

dash

to

brown hair with grey, and

the

to bleach

the grey to white. Eugene Aram.

Jtdy ^6th. Is

a crime to murder

it

crime

greater

which

the

is

to

man?—

murder

life of all

thought,

men.

The Last of

the Barons.

July 27th. It is not

a writer as in

;

study alone that produces

it is

intensity.

In the mind,

yonder chimney, to make the

fire

burn hot and quick, you must narrow the draft. The Caxtons.

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

158

July 28th.

The moment we

we it

lose sight of a

lose forethought,

duty

;

seems like a paradox,

dom

and though

we can

be careless without being

sel-

selfish.

Ernest Maltravers.

'Tis

—It and

July 29th. a winning thing,

sir,

a garden

brings us an object every day; that's

to have

if

what

I

think a

man

ought

he wishes to lead a happy

life.

Eugene Aram.

July 30th.

The great

moments.

limited of the

struggles

In

in

the

life

are

drooping

head upon the bosom, in the

pressure of the hand upon the brow,

we may

scarcely

consume a second

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. in our threescore years

what revolutions

may

and ten; but

of our whole being

pass within us while that single

sand drops noiseless

tom

159

down

to the bot-

of the hour-glass The Caxtom.

July

Thou

31st.

art wise in the lore of the

heart and love hath been thy study

from youth to grey is

it

hairs.

Is it love,

hate, that prefers death for the

loved one, to the thought of her

life

as another's ? Harold.

AUGUST.

August

The

1st.

who

situation of a Patrician

honestly loves the people

is,

in those

when power oppresses and freedom struggles, — when the two divisions of men are wrestling against evil times,

each

other,

—the

most irksome and

perplexing their destiny can possibly contrive

nobles? "With

!

Shall he take part with the

—he

betrays his conscience!

people

the

?

— he

deserts

his

friends Bienzi.

August

A he

baker

is

sells his

'2d.

not to be called venal

loaves

—he

is

venal

if

if

he

sells himself.

Tht Caxtons.

— !

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

164

August

3d.

However we may darken and ourselves with fancies

and

puzzle

visions,

and

the ingenuities of fanatical mysticism,

no man can mathematically or gistically

contend

the

that

syllo-

world

which a God made, and a Saviour visited,

was designed to be damned Ernest Maltravers.

August

ith.

I shudder not at the creed of others. I

dare not curse them

—I

pray the

Great Father to convert. The Last Days of Pompeii.

August

One that,

5th.

thing, however,

is

quite clear

whether Fortune be more

Plutus or an angel,

it is

like

no use abusing

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. her a

—one

star.

may And

165

throw stones at

as well

one looked

I think, if

narrowly at her operations, one might perceive that she gives every

man

chance, at least once in his

;

take and

renew her

make

the best of

visits, if not,

life it,

itur

if

a

he

she will

ad astra

!

The Caxtons.

Aitgust 6th.

But they were both thing

alike

one

in

—they were not with the Future, —the

they were sensible of the Present sense of the actual of

the

life,

breathing

within them.

the enjoyment

time,

Such

was strong

the privilege of

is

the extremes of our existence

and Age. to-day, its

Middle

home

is

life

in

is

—Youth

never with

to-morrow

.

.

.

anxious, and scheming, and desiring,

BEAUTIFUL TBOUQHTS

166

and wishing hope

this plot ripened

while every

fulfilled,

forgotten

Time brings

nearer to the end of

our

consumed

life is

it

and that

wave

of the

nearer and

all things.

Half

in longing to be

nearer death. Ernest MaUravns.

Augitst 7th.

For we should be

we

men before when we wish

as old

engage, and as youths

to perform. Harold.

August 8th. Too mean there go to I

ing

mean

—

!

base soul under high boy, there

—

before God, unless

is

Nature signs

titles.

is

noth-

it

bo a

With me,

but one nobility, and

its

charter. Riemi.

FROM BULWER LYTTON. August Kill

me!

167

0th.

—not my thought The Last of

!

the Baro7i8.

August 10 th.

What an

incalculable field of dread

and sombre contemplation every

man who,

opened to

with his heart disen-

from himself,

gaged

is

and

his

eyes

accustomed to the sharp observance of his tribe, walks through the streets

What

of a

great city

dark

and troublous

!

breast of every one

you!

Goethe

has

a world of in

secrets

who said

the

hurries

by

somewhere,

that each of us, the best as the worst, hides

within

feeling,

him something

some remembrance

—some

that,

known, would make you hate him. Eugene Aram.

if

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

168

August I

11th.

advanced, and beheld a spectacle

of such agony, as can only be con-

ceived by those tlie

who have

looked on

which takes no fortitude

grief

from reason, no consolation from conscience

—the

grief

which

tells

what

us

would be the earth were man abandoned of the

to his passions,

atheist

merciless heavens.

Pride humbled to

ambition shivered into frag-

the dust

;

ments;

love

taken for

and the chance

reigned alone in the

it)

(or

the

bereaved of

first

onset,

holiest

ties,

forsaken

by

its

guide!

shame that writhed

venge,

and

prayer— all,

mis-

blasted into ashes;

the

at

passion

remorse all

that

life,

its

truest

for re-

knew not

blended, yet distinct.

FROM JiULWKR LYTTON. were

169

in that avvlul spectaclo of

tlio

guilty son. The Caxtona.

August

l^th.

Night, to tho earnest soul, opens the bil)h3

of

of tho universe, and on the Uiaves

Heaven

where

is

written

—

*'

God

is

every-

I

The Last of the

liaronn.

A m/uH mh. Tell a man, in the full tide of his

triumphs, that he bears death within

him

;

and what

crisis of

thought can

be more startling and more terrible ErncM

A uquHt The good all

!

MnltraverH.

1J,th.

pilot wins his

way through

winds, and the brave heart fastens

fate to its flag. Harold.

"

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

170

Augicst

Human

life is

15tli.

compared to the

circle

—Is the simile just?—All lines that are drawn from the centre to touch the circumference, by the law of the circle, are

But

equal.

the

lines

drawn from the heart the verge of his destiny

—Alas

that are

of the

man

—do they equal some seem so

each

other

brief,

and some lengthen on as

?

!

to

for-

ever. Ernest Maltravers.

August There

is

16th.

but one philosophy (though

there are a thousand schools), and

name is Fortitude. "to bear is to conquer our fate

its

!

The Last Days of Pompeii.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

171

August 17 th. So

is

fade;

it

ever in

immortal

life

:

mortal things

things

spring more

freshly with every step to the tomb. The Caxtons.

August

He who

18th.

himself betrays, cannot call

vengeance treason The Last of

August

Humph! — when and in

the Barons.

19th.

nobles are hated,

soldiers are bought, a

mob may,

any hour, become the master.

honest people and a weak mob,

An

—

corrupt people and a strong mob. Bienzi.

August

The end

20th.

of a scientific morality

is

not to serve others only, but also to

— 172

BEAUTIFUL THOUOETS

perfect

and accomplish our individual

selves;

our

trust to

own souls our own lives.

are a solemn

Ernest Maltravers.

August

^Ist.

Master books, but do not master you.

Eead

let

them

to live, not live to

read. The Caxtons.

August 22d.

Whoever strives to know learns that no human lore is despicable. Despicable bloated

only

things

you

—ye

— slaves

sluggards in thought

of

fat

and

luxury

— who, cultivating

nothing but the barren sense, dream that

its

poor

soil

myrtle and the only can enjoy

can produce alike the laurel.

InTo,

the wise

—to us only true luxury

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. given,

is

when mind,

173

brain, invention,

experience,

thought, learning, imagi-

nation,

contribute

all

swell the seas of

sense

like

rivers

to

!

The Last Days of Pompeii.

August 23 d.

What

royal robe so invests with im-

perial majesty the

form of man as the

grave sense of power responsible, in an earnest soul ? Harold.

August It

is

the Senior, of from two to ten

years, that us.

He

^Jpth.

most seduces and enthrals

has the same pursuits

—views,

objects, pleasures, but more art and

experience in them us in the path

all.

we

He

goes with

are ordained to

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

174

tread, but

from which the elder gener-

ation desires to

very

little

warn

influence

us

There

off.

where there

is

is

not

great sympathy. Ernest Maltravers.

August

Who

25th.

shall describe those

awful and

mysterious moments, when man, with his

all

fiery

passions,

turbulent

thoughts, wild hopes, and despondent fears,

demands the

of his

Maker ?

solitary audience

Bienzi,

August

When

Fate

agents, her dark is

at

26th.

her

selects

human

and mysterious

work within them

;

spirit

she moulds

their hearts, she exalts their energies,

she shapes them to the part she has

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. allotted them,

175

and renders the mortal

instrument worthy of the solemn end. Eugene Aram.

August

We

should begin

27th. life

with books;

they multiply the sources of employ-

ment

;

so does capital

of no use, unless est,

we

;

—but capital

live

on the

is

inter-

—books are waste paper, unless we

spend in action the wisdom

we

get

from thought. Ernest Maltravers.

August

28th.

All that wakes curiosity if

innocent

—

all

is

wisdom,

that pleases the fancy

now, turns hereafter to love or to knowledge. The Caxtona.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

176

August Wth.

Mne

times out of ten

Bridge of Sighs that

row

That interval an

Youth

gulf from is

over the

pass the nar-

to

Manhood.

usually occupied

by

ill-placed or disappointed affection.

We

recover,

new

being.

and we find ourselves a

The

hardened by the it

it is

we

has passed.

intellect has fire

become

through which

The mind

profits

by the

wrecks of every passion, and we

may

measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows

we have undergone. Ernest Maltravers.

August

As

the

moon

30th.

plays upon the waves,

and seems to our eyes to favor with a peculiar

beam one long

track amidst

the waters, leaving the rest in com-

FliOM

BULWEB LYTTON.

parative obscurity

;

yet

all

177

the while,

no niggard in her lustre— for though the rays that meet not our

she

is

eyes seem to us as though they were not, yet she with an equal and unf avor-

ing loveliness, mirrors herself on every

wave: even

so,

perhaps. Happiness falls

with the same brightness and power over the whole expanse of life, though to our limited eyes she seems only to rest on those billows from which the

ray

is

reflected

back upon our

sight.

Eugene Aram.

August For few,

names may

alas!

31st.

are

they,

outlive the grave

thoughts of every

man who

made undying ;—others advance, exalt

them

;

;

whose but the

writes, are

appropriate,

and millions of

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

178

minds unknown,

uiulri^anied of, are re-

quired to pi-oduco the immortality of

one

I

Eienzi.

SEr^TEMBER.

September I

WAS

Happy

always

the

1st.

an

early

who

man

riser.

Every

is!

morning day comes to him with a of bloom, and full love, virgin's purity,

ITature of a

and is

freshness.

The youth

happy

child.

I

doubt

if

any man

can be called "old " so long as he early riser and an early walker.

oh Youth

of

contagious, like the gladness

is

an

And,

—take my word of —youth it

in dressing-gown

and

slippers,

ling over breakfast at noon,

is

dawda very

decrepit, ghastly

image of that youth

which

sun blush over the

sees

the

mountains, and the dews sparkle upon

blossoming hedgerows. TAe Caxtons.

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

182

SepteTriber 2d.

Custom

blunts us to every

surely

may happen

chance, every danger, that to us hourly,

you

were the avalanche over

for a day,

torture,

— but

—I

grant your state of

had an avalanche rested

over you for years, and not yet

you would forget that fall;

you would

love, as

if it

fallen,

could ever

it

eat, sleep,

and make

were not Eugene Aram.

September 3d. of Authors, those

The biographies ghostlike beings

no

life

who seem

but in the shadow

to have

of their

had

own

haunting and imperishable thoughts,

dimmed

the inspiration he might have

caught from their pages. Those Slaves of the

Lamp, those Silk-worms of the

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

183

Closet, how little had they enjoyed, how little had they lived Condemned !

by the wholesale

to a mysterious fate of

destinies

born but to

and

to spin thoughts

common crowd — and,

the

for

the world, they seemed toil

their

task performed in drudgery and in

when no be wrung from

darkness, to die

further serv-

ice could

their exhaus-

l^ames had they been in

tion,

and life

life,

names they

lived forever, in

as in death, airy

and unsubstantial

as

phantoms. Ernest Maltravers.

September

There bling to

is

J^th.

something,

human

Lester,

hum-

pride in a rustic's

life.

It grates against the heart to think of

the tone in which

we

unconsciously

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

184

permit ourselves to address him.

him humanity

in

see

gtate

we

despise

it

our species

is

by

art

;

its

simple

a sad thought to feel that

it is

;

in

We

we

that all

;

respect in

what has been created

the gaud}^ dress, the glittering

equipage, or even the cultivated intellect

the mere and naked material of

;

Nature we eye with indifference or trample on with disdain. Eugene Aram.

Se-ptemher 6th.

Poor child of

dawn

to

toil,

from the grey

the setting sun, one long

—no

thought

awakened beyond those that

suffice to

task!

—no

idea

elicited

make him the machine serf of the

hard

soil

!

of others

And

mark how we scowl upon

—the

then, too,

his scanty

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. holidays,

how we hedge

185

in his mirth

with laws, and turn his hilarity into crime

We

!

make

the whole of the

gay world, wherein we walk and take our pleasure, to him a place of snares

and an

If

perils.

he leave his labor for

instant, in that instant

how many And

temptations spring up to him

yet

we have no mercy

the

jail

lows

;

—the

!

for his errors

transport-ship

—the

gal-

those are our sole lecture-books,

and our only methods of expostulation. Eugene Aram.

September

6th.

Fie on the disparities of the world

They sense,

links

two

cripple the heart, they blind the

they concentrate the thousand

between man and

man

basest of earthly ties

into the

—servility

;

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

186

and out

pride.

Methinks the devils laugh

when they hear

that his soul

as glorious

is

our own;

as

us tell the boor

and eternal

and yet when

grinding drudgery of his

in

life,

the

not a

spark of that soul can be called forth

when

it

sleeps,

walled around in

its

lumpish clay, from the cradle to the without a dream to

grave,

deadness of

its

stir

the

torpor. Eugene Aram.

September' 7th.

Action, Maltravers, action; that

the

life

for us.

passion,

fancy,

is

At our age we have sentiment; we can't

read them away, nor scribble them

away

;

we must

live

upon them gener-

ously, but economically. Ernest Maltravers.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. September 8th, one man is resolved to

When another,

187

it

vent him

:

is

know

almost impossible to pre-

we

see daily the

most

re-

markable instances of perseverance on one side conquering distaste on the other.

September 9th.

No

I don't say that

;

it is

an

inevi-

table

law that man should not be

happy

;

but

it is

an inevitable law that

a man, in spite of himself, should live for

something higher than his

happiness.

He

however

or for himself,

may

try to be.

links

him with

machine

—he

is

own

cannot live in himself

Every others.

egotistical

he

desire he has

Man

is

not a

a part of one. The Caxtons.

;

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

188

September 10th.

Three

ever

are

things

silent:

Thought, Destiny, and the Grave. Harold,

September 11th.

We whose

are life

and the rivals,

but

here

as

schoolboys,

begins where school ends

battles

we

fought with our

and the toys that we shared

with our playmates, and the names that wall,

we

carved, high or low, on the

above our desks

—will

much

bestead us hereafter?

fates

crowd upon

us,

than pass through the smile or a sigh? school-days,

they so

As new

can they more

memory with

a

Look back to thy

and answer. The Caxtons.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. September

A

vulgar

knows what steps

—I

boy

189

l^tli.

Heaven move three

requires

assiduity to

do not say

gentleman,

like a

but like a body that has a soul in

it

but give the least advantage of society or tuition to a peasant girl, and a hun-

dred to one but she will glide into finement before the boy can

bow

re-

make a

without upsetting the table. Ernest Maltravera.

/September ISth.

O

literal ratiocinator,

and dull to the

true logic of Attic irony

comprehend that an genuine as be

nature others

?

A

felt

!

can't

affection

may

by the man, yet

spurious

man may

in

you

relation

be its

to

genuinely be-

—

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

190

lieve

he

when he

loves roasts

or guillotines

fellow-creatures,

his

them

them

like

Torquemada,

like St. Just The Caxtons.

Every

September l^th. cheek was flushed

—every

tongue spoke: the animation of the orator had passed, like a living

spirit,

He

into the breasts of the audience.

had thundered against the disorders of the patricians, yet, by a word, he had

disarmed the anger of the plebeians

he had preached freedom, yet he had

had calmed the

opposed

license.

present,

by a promise

He had

lie

of the future.

chid their quarrels, yet had

supported their cause.

He had

mas-

tered the revenge of to-day by a

emn

sol-

assurance that there should come

FROM BULWEB LYTTOK justice for the

morrow.

191

So great

may

be the power, so mighty the eloquence, so formidable the genius, of one

man

— without arms, without rank, without sword or ermine, who addresses himself to

a people that

is

oppressed liienzi.

September ISth. All great knavery

is

madness

world could not get on

if

The

!

truth and

goodness were not the natural tendencies of sane

minds. 27ie Caxtons.

September 16th.

Oh, like

most

my

dear brother, what minds

yours should guard against the is

not the meanness of evil

—

it is

the evil that takes false nobility, by

BEAUTIFUL

192

garbing

in

itself

OUGHTS

TJff

the royal magnifi-

cence of good. The Caxtons.

Septemher 17th.

The great

secret of eloquence,

be in earnest

;

the

Kienzi's eloquence

ness

of

great

was

spoke as one

secret

to of

in the mighti-

enthusiasm.

his

is

He

never

who doubted of success. men who undertake

Perhaps, like most

high and great actions, he himself was never

thoroughly aware of the ob-

stacles in his

way.

He saw

the end,

bright and clear, and overleaped, in

the vision of his soul, the crosses and the length of the path convictions of his

themselves

;

thus the deep

own mind stamped

irresistibly

upon

others.

FBOM BULWEB LYTTON.

He

seemed

less

to

193

promise than to

prophesy. Bienzi,

September 18th. In our estimate of the ills of

never

suificiently take into

life,

we

our consid-

eration the wonderful elasticity of our

moral

frame, the unlooked

startling facility with

ject

the

which the hu-

man mind accommodates change of

for,

itself to all

circumstance, making an

ob-

and even a joy from the hardest

and seemingly the

least

redeemed con-

ditions of fate. Eugene Aram.

Let any let

him

September 19th. look over his past

man

recall not

of agony, for to

life,

moments, not hours

them Custom lends

— ;

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

194

not her blessed magic; but single out

physical or moral endurance tily first,

reverting to

series of days

but

it,

—the

let

him

;

in has-

wretched

life,

him look more little

closely, it

was ;

a

things, in the bustle of

dormant

him

a

;

without a star;

and

unheeded,

started forth into notice, to

at

marked with the black

clouds

not so during the time of suffering

thousand

of

may seem

it

I grant, altogether

stone,

let

some lengthened period

then

and became

objects of interest or diversion

made familiar, away from him, not less than if had been all happiness; his mind

the dreary present, once glided it

dwelt not on the dull intervals, but the stepping-stone

placed at each

;

it

had created and

and, by that

moral

FEOM BULWEB LYTTON.

195

dreaming which forever goes on within man's secret heart, he lived as

little in

the immediate world before him, as in

the most sanguine period of his youth, or the most scheming of his maturity. Eugene Aram.

Septemher Wth. "

Good

sense," said he one

Maltravers,

day to

not a merely intellec-

''is

It is rather the result

tual attribute.

of a just equilibrium of all our faculties, spiritual

est,

and moral.

or the toys of their

may have ever,

genius

have good

;

The

own

dishon-

passions,

but they rarely,

if

sense in the conduct

They may often win large prizes, but it is by a game of chance, not skill. But the man whom I perof

life.

ceive walking

an honorable and up-

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

196

right career

—just

to himself (for selves

to others,

we owe

and

also

justice to our-

—to the care of our fortunes, our

—to the management of our — a more dignified repre-

character passions)

is

Maker than the mere

sentative of his child of genius.

Ernest Maltravers.

jSeptemher 21st.

Of such a man, we say, he has good SENSE yes, but he has also integrity, ;

self-respect,

sand

trials

and

self-denial.

which

A

thou-

his sense braves

and

conquers, are temptations also to his

probity the

—his temper—in a word, to

many

ture.

have

all

sides of his complicated na-

]^ow, I do not think he will this

good

se7ise

any more than a

drunkard will have strong nerves, un-

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. less

197

he be in the constant habit of

keeping his mind clear from the intoxication of envy, vanity,

and the various

emotions that dupe and mislead

Good

sense

is

not, therefore,

an ab-

stract quality or a solitary talent it is

us.

;

but

the natural result of the habit of

thinking justly, and therefore seeing

and

clearly,

is

as different

from the

sagacity that belongs to a diplomatist

or attorney, as the philosophy of Socrates

differed

Gorgias.

from the rhetoric of

As a mass of individual exmake up this attribute in a a mass of such men thus char-

cellencies

man, so

acterized give a character to a nation. Ernest Maltravera.

jSeptemher 22d.

And

out from

all

these speculations,

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

198

to

which

do such hurried and scanty

I

justice,

he drew the blessed truth, that

carries

hope to the land of the

the hut of the

Bushman

Caffre,

— that there

is

nothing in the flattened skull and the

ebon aspect that

improvement ciple

which

;

God's law

rejects

that by the same prin-

raises the dog, the lowest

of animals in its savage state, to the

highest after

—you

race

man

—

viz,

admixture of

can elevate into nations of

majesty and power the outcasts of humanity,

now your compassion

or your

scorn. The Caxtona.

/Septemher 23d.

The worst

fatigue

is

that which

comes without exercise. Ernest Maliravers.

FROM BULWER LYTTON. Bejptember

199

^Iith.

But he who admits Ambition

to the

companionship of Love, admits a giant that outstrides the gentler footsteps of its

comrade. Harold.

" Forget

we

!

SejptembeT ^5th. " said Aram, stopping ab-

"ay, forget

ruptly; truth

!

do

—

it

forget

!

passes over the furrow,

springs up

;

is

a strange

the

summer

and the corn

the sod forgets the flower

of the past year; the battlefield for-

gets the blood that has been spilt upon its

turf

;

the sky forgets the storm

;

and the water the noonday sun that slept

upon

its

bosom.

preaches forgetfulness. is

All Its

ISTature

very order

the progress of oblivion. Eugene Aram.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

200

September 26th.

He who pletely

never despairs seldom com-

fails.

Kenelm

Chillingly.

September 27th.

Do you ety sitting

ever see a

mute

man

in

for hours,

any

soci-

and not

an uneasy curiosity to penetrate

feel

the wall he thus builds up between others and himself ?

Does he not

in-

terest you far more than the brilliant

talker at your left

—the

your right, whose shafts

on

the

man

!

airy wit at fall in

sullen barrier of Silence,

dark

vain

the silent

sister of

Nox and

Erebus, how, layer upon layer, shadow

upon shadow, blackness upon ness,

black-

thou stretchest thyself from hell

FROM BULWER LYTTON. to heaven, over thy

—man's

201

two chosen haunts

heart and the grave

!

The Caxtons.

Septemher 28th.

Ah! do not fancy that in lovers' quarrels there is any sweetness that compensates the

sting. Ernest Maltravers.

Septemler 29th. us, not to indulge only in

God made crystal

pictures,

pine alone, and

weave

idle

fancies,

mourn over what we

cannot help—but to be alert and tive

—givers of happiness.

ac-

The Caxtons.

Septem.her 20th.

The pen

is

mightier than the sword. Richelieu,

OCTOBER.

October

Theee

is

1st,

something so unselfish in

tempers reluctant to despond. You that such persons are not occupied see

with their

own

existence

they are not

;

life fretting the calm of the present the egotisms of care, and con-

with

jecture,

anxiety,

and calculation it is

for another

heart of that other,

how

they learn

if

;

;

but in the

entire

trust

is

their

Eugene Aram.

October

Less terrible

is

it

M. to find the

body

the wasted, the features sharp with on the great life-struggle, than to look face

from which the mind

is

gone—

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

206

the eyes in which there tion.

Such a sight

is

no recogni-

a startling shock

is

to that unconscious habitual material-

ism with which to regard those

we we

are apt familiarly love

;

for in thus

missing the mind, the heart, the tion that sprang to ours,

denly

made aware

that

we

affec-

are sud-

was the

it

something within the form, and not the form

itself,

The form altered

;

that was so dear to us.

itself

is still,

but that

lip

perhaps,

little

which smiles no

welcome, that eye which wanders over us as strangers, that ear which distinguishes no

more our

we sought own love is

is

not there

chilled

the friend

voices

back

—

!

Even our

grows a kind

of vague superstitious terror.

was not the matter,

still

Yes,

it

present to us.

FBOM BULWEB LYTTON. which had conciliated

all

207

those subtle

nameless sentiments which are classed

and fused

was the

in the

word

" affection^''

it

airy, intangible, electric some-

thing^ the absence of

which now

ap-

pals us. Tlie Caxtons.

October 3d.

The on the

influence of fate seems so small

man who,

in erring, but errs as

the egoist, and shapes out of use that can profit himself.

ill

some

But Fate

hangs a shadow so vast on the heart that errs but in venturing abroad, and

knows only

in others the sources of

sorrow and joy. Ernest Maltravers.

October

Shame

is

liili.

not in the loss of other

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

208

men's esteem,

—

it is

in the loss of our

own. The Last Days of Pompeii.

October 5th.

In the pure heart of a girl loving for the

first

time

— love

is

far

more

than in man, inasmuch as fevered by desire

makes the only ence which

ecstatic

it

is

un-

—love then and there

state of

human

exist-

at once capable of calm-

is

ness and transport. Eugene Aram.

October 6th.

Things seem to approximate to God in

proportion

movement. and

How

Of

to

their

vitality

all things, least

sullen should be the soul of

and inert

man.

the grass grows up over the very

FEOM BULWEB LYTTON. graves

— but my

—quickly

it

209

grows and greenly

neither so quick nor so green,

Blanche, as hope and comfort from

human

sorrows. The Caxtons.

October 7th. It is

in small states that glory

most active and pure,

—the more con-

fined the limits of the circle, the

In small

ardent the patriotism. opinion

is

is

more

states,

concentrated and strong,

every eye reads your actions

—your

public motives are blended with your

private

ties,

row sphere familiar

— every is

since

spot in your nar-

crowded with forms your

childhood,

applause of your citizens caresses of

your

is

— the

like the

friends. The Last Days of Pompeii.

210

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS October 8th.

The haughty woman who can stand alone and requires no leaning-place in

our heart, loses the spell of her sex. Ernest MaUravers.

October 9th.

Genius

is

essentially honest. Ernest MaUravers,

October 10th.

For, despite Helvetius, a

experience

teaches

education

and

us

that

common though

circumstances

mould the mass, Nature

may

herself some-

times forms the individual, and throws into the clay, or its spirit, so

much

of

beauty or deformity, that nothing can utterly subdue the original elements of character. Ernest MaUravers,

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

211

October 11th.

No

man

son of fortune, no

himself and the world

placing

in antagonism,

can ever escape from some belief in the

and

Caesar could ridicule

invisible.

Koman

profane the mystic rights of

mythology, but he must

still

believe in

\A^ fortune. Harold.

Octoler 12th.

Thou

—Discovery

beautiful

land

!

the exiles, and Ararat to tered

whom

Ark

!

of America.

Canaan

many

of

a shat-

Fair cradle of a race for

the unbounded heritage of a

future, that

no sage can conjecture, no

prophet divine, promise-light of

lies

afar in the golden

Time

!

— destined, per-

chance, from the sins and sorrows of a civilization

struggling with

its

own

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

212

elements of decay, to renew the youth of the world,

and transmit the great

England through the

soul of Infinite

Change.

All

cycles of

climates

that

can best ripen the products of earth,

form into various character and

or

temper the different families of man, " rain

influences "

from

heaven

the

that smiles so benignly on those

who

had once shrunk ragged from the wind, or scowled on the thankless sun. The Caxtons.

•

October 13th. I

do think

it

requires a great sense

of religion, or, at all events, children

of one's own, in

whom

one

is

young

again, to reconcile oneself to becom-

ing old. The Caxtons.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

213

October Hth.

Harold's Prayer hefore the Battle of Hastings,

1066

Fought on

Octoler

Hth,

:

Lord of Hosts— We Children of

O

Doubt and Time, trembling

in the

dare not take to ourselves to

dark,

Sorrow

question Thine unerring will.

and death, as joy and life, are at the breath of a mercy divine, and a wis-

dom

all-seeing

of evil

:

and out

Thou drawest,

the eternity of Good.

of the hours

in mystic circle, "

Thy

will be

in heaven."

done on earth, as

it is

O

events,

If,

prayers are not adverse to

human Thy pre-

judged decrees, protect these

lives,

Disposer

of

our

bulwarks of our homes and

whom

the

altars, sons

the land offers as a sacrifice.

/ !

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

214

May

Thine angel turn aside the blade

—as

of old

But

if,

O

from the heart of Isaac

Kuler of E"ations, in whose

moments, and

sight the ages are as

generations but as sands in the sea, these lives are doomed,

may

the death

expiate their sins, and, shrived on the battlefield,

and receive the

absolve

soul! Harold.

October 15th.

Come, of

my

I will tell

public

life

you the one

all its failure (for, in spite

tion, I

have

secret

—that which explains

failed)

and

its

of

my

posi-

regrets

—

want conviction ! Tlie Caxions.

October 16th.

"There,"

— Heaven.

thought

the

musing

FROM BULWER LYTTON.

cease

and

"cruelty

maiden,

—there,

vanish

215

shall

strife

harsh

the

—there,

those

dif-

whom

ferences

of

we have

loved and lost are found, and

life

through the Son, sorrow,

we

who

tasted of mortal

are raised to the

the Eternal Father

The Last of

mh.—The

Octoher

"And sage,

home

of

!

the Barons.

Same.

there," thought the aspiring

"the

mind,

dungeoned

and

chained below, rushes free into the

realms of space

mystery

falls

Omniscient

—there,

the

smiles

veil

on

through the darkness of that

lamp

—the

soul

from every

— there, those life,

—there.

the

who,

have fed Thought,

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

216

but the seed on earth, bursts into the flower,

and ripens

to the fruit The Last of

" !

the

Barom.

October ISth. Life

a sleep in which

is

we dream

most at the commencement and the close

—the

much

middle part absorbs us too

for dreams. Ernest Maltravers.

October 19th.

Perhaps

I

would rather dream of

him, such as I would have him, than

know him

for

what he

He might or love me

is.

be unkind, or ungenerous, but at

little

all,

my

;

rather Avould I not be loved

than loved coldly, and eat away

heart by comparing

it

can love him

now

stract, unreal,

and divine

as

with

his.

I

something ab:

but what

FBOM BULWER LYTTON.

my

would be

shame,

were to find him agined

less

Then, indeed,

!

have been wasted

:

my

217

grief, if

than

my

I

I

have im-

would

life

then, indeed, the

beauty of the earth would be gone Bienzi,

October Wth. Soldiers brave not the dangers that

are braved

by a wise man

in

an un-

wise age The Last of

the Barons.

October 2 1st.

How

incalculable

—how measureless

—how viewless the consequences of one crime, even

when we think we have

weighed them

would

have

all

with

turned

scales

with

a

that hair's

weight Eugene Aram.

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

218

October

from

yourself

De-fine-gentlemanize

the crown of your head to the sole of

your

foot,

and become the greatest

aristocrat for so doing

than an aristocrat, he

;

for he is

is

suffices in all things for himself is

his

own

more

who who

a king,

—

master, because he wants no

valetaille.

The Caxtons.

Oetoher 23d.

Stop there, Mr. Simcox.

Never mind

awhile.

Let her

learn to do good, that

God may

the devil

her; rather

yet

the rest will follow.

make people

I

religious

first

love

would

through

their best feelings than their worst,

through their gratitude and

affections,

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

219

rather than their fears and calculations of risk

and punishment. Ernest Maltravers.

October ^th.

we love that make haunts we have known.

It is the persons

beautiful the

Harold,

October 26th.

A

man who gets in himself may be soon

a passion with

out of temper

with others. Eugene Aram.

October 26th.

The brave

man wants no charms

to

encourage him to his duty, and the

good man scorns

would deter

all

him from

warnings that fulfilling

it.

Harold.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

220

There

is

October mth. nothing more salutary to

men than occasional intervals when we look within, inrepose,

active

—

of

stead of without,

and examine almost

insensibly (for I hold strict scious self-scrutiny a thing

than

we

—what

suspect)

we

settling,

is

and con-

much

rarer

— what we have done

are capable of doing. as

it

It

were, a debtor and

creditor account with the Past, before

we

plunge into

new

speculations. Ernest Maltravers.

October 28th. It is

better

to

sow a good heart

with kindness than a

field

for the heart's harvest

is

with corn,

perpetual. Eugene Aram,

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

221

October 29th.

We

are apt to connect the voice of

Conscience with the

But

night.

innocent "

I

think

hour.

It

stillness of

mid-

we wrong

that

that

is

NEXT MORNING," when

wide fastens

away duel

upon which

awake, its

his

—

fangs. all,

is

remorse

Has a man gambled

or shot his friend in a

when

—

it is

the next morn-

the irretrievable past rises

before him like a spectre the churchyard of its

reason

has he committed a crime, or

incurred a laugh ing,

terrible

grizzly

dead

hour when

;

memory

— then

is

then doth yield

up

the witching

the foul fiend within us

can least tempt perhaps, but most

tor-

ment. Ernest Maltravers.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

222

October 30th.

The doubt and the

—the caprice

fear

and the change, which agitate the

sur-

face, swell also the tides, of passion.

Woman,

whose love

too,

is

so

much

the creature of her imagination,

al-

ways asks something of mystery and conjecture in

It is a

fection.

object of her af-

the

luxury to her to per-

plex herself with a thousand apprehensions lover

;

and the more

occupies

restlessly her

her mind, the

deeply he enthrals

more

it.

Eugene Aram.

October 31st.

By

St.

Dunstan

!

doth

what may be the cause

it

matter

of quarrel.

FE03I SO long as

BULWEB LYTTON.

223

dog or man bears himself

bravely, with a due sense of honor and derring-do. The Last of

the Barons.

NOVEMBER.

I^ovemher

Me

!

—Is

it

1st.

ruin

to

possible

the

and strong, and Kuin me, with these thews and sinews ruin me, with the education you have healthy

young,

!

—

me—thews and sinews of the mind! Oh no! there, Fortune is given

harmless

I

The

Novemher

What

contradiction of

our

'2d.

deduction from

ever apply to love

—the

high-spirited,

meek,

—

—the

man

is

can

a very

the elements of

ordinary nature,

proud

reason

Love

?

all

Caxtons.

it

makes the

cheerful, sad,

tame

;

our strong-

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

228

est

resolutions,

fail

before

our hardiest

energy-

it.

Eugene Aram. ISl'ovem'ber 3d.

Continue to cultivate the mind, to sharpen by exercise the genius, to

at-

tempt to delight or to instruct your race

and even supposing you

;

short of every model

you

— supposing

with your dust, passed

life

you

your name still

you

moulder will

more nobly than the

borious herd.

how can you

may have

have unla-

Grant that you win not

that glorious accident, **a

low,"

fall

set before

tell

name

be-

but what you

fitted yourself for

high des-

tiny and employ in the world not of

men, but of

spirits ?

The powers

of

the mind are things that cannot be

FE03f less

BULWEB LYTTON.

229

immortal than the mere sense of

identity

;

their acquisitions

accompany

us through the Eternal Progress

we may

;

obtain a lower or a higher

grade hereafter, in proportion as are

and

more or

less fitted

of our intellect to

we

by the exercise

comprehend and

ex-

ecute the solemn agencies of God. Ernest 3IaUraver8,

JVoveviher 4th.

"A king without letters is a crowned ass ? " When the king is an ass, asinine are his

subjects.

Learn that a

full

head makes a weighty hand. Harold,

Novemher

6th.

Happiness will not permit us to be mirthful. The Last Days of Pompeii.

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

230

November " It is destiny " !

human

heart

—

" It

!

6th.

phrase of the weak is

destiny

apology for every error

!

!

"

dark

The strong

and the virtuous admit no destiny!

On earth, guides Conscience—in heaven watches God. And Destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one

—to dethrone the other The Last of the Barons.

November 7th, "Giacomo," said Angelo, thoughtfully, " there are

some men

whom

we,

mind and mould, can

rarely

comprehend, and never fathom.

And

of another

of such

men

have observed that a

I

supreme confidence in their own tunes or their

own

common feature.

souls, is

for-

the most

Thus impressed, and

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

231

thus buoyed, they rush into danger

with a seeming madness, and from danger soar to greatness, or sink to death. Bienzi.

November 8th. The only gold a young man should covet

is

enough

to

suffice

the

for

knight's spurs to his heels. The Last of the Barons.

November "

Men

sadly, yet

women

9th.

are often deceived," said she

with a half smile

rarely,

;

^'

but

—save in love." Bienzi.

November "Whoever

is

10th.

above the herd, whether

knight or scholar, must learn to despise the hootings that follow Merit.

The Last of the Barons.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

232

Novemher

God and His

11th.

angels are in every

spot where virtue trembles and resists. The Last of the Barons.

Noveiiiber l^th. It

is

when

a dark epoch in a man's sleep

tosses to

forsakes him;

and

fro,

not be silenced;

when he

and Thought

when

life

will

the drug and

draught are the courters of stupefaction, is

not sleep

;

when

as a knotted log

close but

with an

;

down pillow when the eyelids the

effort,

and there

is

a

drag and a weight, and a dizziness in the eyes at morn. Eugene Aram.

Novemher

13th.

Desire and grief, and love, these are the

young man's torments, but

iliQj

233

FBOM BULWEB LYTTON.

Time; Time are the creatures of the vigils moves them as it brings, and re-

days come keep, "while the evil brief and few. But not," if weary, are

we

and Memory, and Care and Ambition, demon-gods that Avarice, these are the them. the Time that fathered defy

Eugene Aram.

Novemher

The growth grave

is

of

mature

dug but

IJfth.

are

passions

worldlier

years,

the

and their

in our own.

northern dark Spirits in the

As tale,

the that

of one of a watch against the coming lest, if he brighter and holier race, he bind them seize them unawares, ward in his chain, they keep

prisoners

entrance of that deep at night over the

— ;

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

234

cave

—the

away

human

heart

—and

scare

the angel Sleep Eugene Aram.

November 15th. Amidst the grief and solitude

of the

pure, there comes, at times, a strange

and rapt

serenity

—a

sleep-awake

over which the instinct of

life

beyond

the grave glides like a noiseless dream

and ever that heaven that the soul yearns for the fond

is

colored

human

by the

heart,

fancies of

—each fashion-

ing the above from the desires unsatisfied below.

The Last of the Barons.

JVovemher 16th. Better task than that of astrologers,

and astronomers to boot

!

Who among

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. them can

" loosen the

band

235

of Orion " ?

—but who amongst us may not be permitted by

God

to

have sway over the

action and orbit of the

human The

November

soul ? Caxtons.

17th.

In a dominant church the genius of intolerance

hetrays

its

cause;

weak and a persecuted same genius mainly

—in

a

church, the

supports.

The Last Days of Pompeii.

November

18th.

Terrible and eternal moral for Wis-

dom and kings

for Avarice, for sages

and for

— ever shall he who would be the

maker

of

gold,

breathe

the air of

death The Last of the Barons.

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

236

NoveTnher 19th. these The Night and the Solitude make the ladder round which angels !

cluster,

Oh

can dream of God.

know what

is

none can

!

;

nursing no

and dreading no danger

him

with

murmur in the

spirit

the pilgrim feels as he

walks on his holy course fear,

my

and beneath which

He

!

glad tidings

shadow

of

—for God

hears the winds ;

the woods sleep

Almighty wings

stars are the Scriptures of

;

the

Heaven, the

tokens of love, and the witnesses of immortality.

J^ight

is

the Pilgrim's

day. The Last Days of Pompeii.

Behold

!

out of his

November Wth. the kingdom a man makes

own mind

is

the only one

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. that

it

delighteth

hold, he

lord over

is

movements

man

;

its

237

to govern its

!

Be-

springs and

wheels revolve and

stop at his bidding. The Last of the Barons.

JSTovemher 21st.

Freedom alone makes men

sacrifice

to each other. The Last Days of Pompeii.

Novemher '2'2d. But while a nation has already a fair

degree of constitutional freedom,

I believe

no struggle so perilous and

awful as that between the aristocratic

and the democratic

principle.

ple against a despot

quires no prophet

an

;

A peo-

that contest re-

but the change from

aristocratic to a democratic

com-

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

238

monwealth

is

indeed the wide, un-

bounded prospect upon which

rest

shadows, clouds, and darkness. Ernest Maltravers.

NovemheT ^Sd. with stern and

It is ever the case

stormy

spirits,

the

that

which contrast them into their affections.

human

meek ones

steal strangely

This principle of

nature can alone account for

the enthusiastic devotion which the

mild in

sujfferings of

the Saviour

awoke

the fiercest exterminators of the

North.

In proportion, often, to the

warrior's ferocity,

was

his love to that

Divine model, at whose sufferings he wept, to whose barefoot,

tomb he wandered

and whose example of com-

passionate forgiveness he would have

FEOM BULWEB LYTTON. thought himself the basest of follow

239

men

to

I

Harold,

November

^^th.

Charm was the characteristic of Lady EUinor a charm indefinable.

—

It

was not the mere grace of refined

breeding, though that went a great

way

;

it

was a charm that seemed to

spring from natural sympathy.

Whom-

soever she addressed, that person ap-

peared for the

moment

to

engage

all

her attention, to interest her whole

mind.

She had a

very peculiar.

gift of conversation

She made what she

said like a continuation of said to her.

She seemed as

what was if

she had

entered into your thoughts, and talked

them

aloud.

Her mind was

evidently

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

240

cultivated with great care, but she

A

perfectly void of pedantry.

an allusion she

knew

sufficed to

was

hint,

show how much

to one well instructed, with-

out mortifying or perplexing the

ig-

norant. The Caxtons.

November

The law polite

than

is

^5th.

very obliging, but more

efficient.

The Last Days of Pompeii,

November

26th.

Ambition, like any other passion, gives us

unhappy moments

us also an animated suit,

not

life.

;

but it gives

In

its

pur-

the minor evils of the world are felt

;

little crosses, little

do not disturb in sleep,

we

us.

Like

vexations

men who walk

are absorbed in one pow-

BULWEB LYTTON.

FE03I erful dream,

241

and do not even know the

obstacles in our way, or the dangers

that surround us

no private

life.

:

in a

word we have

All that

anxiety

merely

is

and the

domestic,

the

which

other men, which blight the

fret

happiness of other men, are not us

:

we

we lose

are wholly public

much

comfort,

we

;

loss

felt

— so

by

that

escape

if

much

care. Eugene Aram.

I^ovemher

From

27tli.

this record of error

he drew

forth the grand eras of truth.

He

showed how earnest men never think in vain, errors.

though their thoughts

He

age after age, the

on

—like

may

proved how, in vast

be

cycles,

human mind marches

the ocean, receding here, but

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

242

there advancing

;

how from

the specu-

lations of the Greeks sprang all true

how from the institutions Koman rose all durable systems government how from the robust

philosophy

;

of the of

;

follies of

chivalry,

the north came the glory of

and the modern

delicacies of

honor, and the sweet, harmonizing fluences of

in-

woman. The Gaxtons.

J^ominber 28th.

Time had been, indeed, at work but, with the same exulting bound and happy voice, that little brook leaped along its way. Ages hence, may the ;

course be as glad, and the full of

mirth

!

They

murmur

as

are blessed things,

those remote and unchanging streams

— they

fill

us with the same love as

!

if

FEOM BULWEE LYTTON.

243

they were living creatures !— and in a green corner of the world there is one that, for

my

part, I never see

without

forgetting myself to tears— tears that I would not lose for a king's ransom tears that call

from

affection,

no other sight or sound could their source

what

;

tears of

soft regret

;

what

tears that

leave me, for days afterward, a better

and a kinder man

!

Eugene Aram.

Nommher Wth. I

have noted myself in life, that there

are objects, senseless as that iron,

which,

round

if

we

labor at

our hearts as

and blood.

if

mould

of

them, wind

they were flesh

So some men love

learn-

ing, others glory, others power. The La8t of the Barons,

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

244

JVovemher SOth. Better

hew wood and draw

water,

then attach ourselves devotedly to an art in

which we have not the capacity

to excel.

...

It is to

healthful objects of

dream, it

is

—worse

to

throw away the

life

for a diseased

than the Kosicrucians,

make a

sacrifice of all

human

beauty for the smile of a sylphid, that never

visits

us but in visions. Ernest Maltravera,

DECEMBER.

December

Examine

not,

O

1st.

child of

man

!

—ex-

amine not that mysterious melancholy with the hard eyes of thy reason canst not impale

it

;

thou

on the spikes of thy

thorny logic, nor describe

its

enchanted

by problems conned from thy

circle

schools.

worlds

Borderer

—the

thyself

two

Dead and the Living

give thine ear to the tones, soul to the

of

shadows that

bow thy

steal, in

the

Season of Change, from the dim Border

Land. The Caxtons.

Decemher

'2d.

—

Tlie

Creed of an An-

cient Egyptian.

Of

that which created the world,

we know, we can know,

nothing, save

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

248

—power and unvarying — crushing, relentless regularity — heeding no individual cases —rolling—sweeping—burning on —no these attributes

regularity

:

stern,

;

matter what scattered hearts, severed

from the general mass, scorched beneath

its

fall

ground and

wheels.

The Last Days of Pompeii.

December 3d. Thus,

when a great man, who has

en-

grossed our thoughts, our conjectures,

our homage, left

in

dies,

a gap seems suddenly

the world

;

a wheel in

the

mechanism of our own being appears abruptly stilled

;

a portion of ourselves,

and not our worst portion, for how

many it

pure, high, generous sentiments

contains, dies with

him

!

The Last Days of Pompeii.

FROM BULWER LYTTON, December

Thou

Ifth.

249

— A Loveless Match.

dost not love.

Bid farewell

ever to thy fond dreams of a

life

for-

more

From

blessed than that of mortals.

the stormy sea of the future are blotted

out eternally for thee

Golden the

Thou

Isle.

paint on the

canst

dim canvas

form of

couldst

— Calyph and her

dwell

no more

of thy desires

her with

whom

thou

forever.

Thou

hast

been unfaithful to thine

own

ideal

thou hast given thyself forever and forever

to

another

—thou

—thou

must

nounced hope

prison, with a being with

hast

re-

live as in a

whom

thou

hast not the harmory of love. Ernest Maltravers.

December

5th.

—A Love Match.

Attest the betrothal of these young

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

250

hearts,

O

ye Powers that draw nature

to nature

by

can trace,

which no galdra

spells

and have wrought

—Attest —attest

fect as love,

thou altar! air!

may

While

the

in the

no mystery so per-

secrets of creation

thou temple,

it,

it,

O

sun and

O

forms are divided,

the souls cling together

—sorrow

with sorrow, and joy with joy.

And

when, at length, bride and bridegroom are one,

—O

stars,

may

the trouble

with which ye are charged have exburthen

may no danger

hausted

its

molest,

and no malice

;

disturb,

but,

over the marriage-bed, shine in peace,

O

ye stars Harold.

Decemher In that love

my

6th.

spirit

awoke, and

FBOM BULWEB LYTTON.

251

was baptized every thought that has in risen from earth, and lost itself by heart my into heaven, was breathed ;

thee!

Thy

creature

hadst thou tempted

and thy

me

slave,

to sin, sin

had

seemed hallowed by thy voice; but thou saidst, " True love is virtue," and thee. so I worshipped virtue in loving

Strengthened, purified, by thy bright companionship, from thee came the strength to resign

thee—from thee the

refuge under the wings of

God

—from

thee the firm assurance that our union

yet shall

be—not

as our poor Hilda

dreams, on the perishable earth,—but there! oh, there! yonder by the celestial altars, in the all spirits

land in which

are filled with love. Harold.

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

252

my

Kill

Decemher 7th. labor and thou destroyest

VCLQ

The Last of

the Barons.

December 8th. Look round on Nature

—behold the

only company that humbles

me

not

except the dead whose souls speak to us

from the immortality of books.

These herbs at your secrets

—I

their life

me

know

feet, I

their

watch the mechanism of

—they have taught language the stars— I have

;

their

the winds

;

unravelled their mysteries

;

and

these,

God by my mood to

the creatures and ministers of these I offend not

them

I utter

forth into

my

and without

my

—

thoughts, and break

dreams, without reserve

fear.

Eugene Aram.

FB03I

BULWEB LYTTON.

Decemher

253

9th.

The tyrant thinks he is free, because the meanest he commands slaves peasant in a free state is more free :

than he

is.

Bienzi.

December "

And

travers, lieart

if,

O

stars

!

10th.

"

murmured Malhis excited

from the depths of

—"

if

I

have been insensible to

your solemn beauty

—

if

the Heaven

and the Earth had been to air

and

clay—

if

I

me

but as

were one of a dull

and dim-eyed herd

—I

might

live on,

and drop into the grave from the ness of unprofitable years.

ripe-

It is be-

cause I yearn for the great objects of

an immortal being, that

and

shrivels

up

life

like a scroll.

shrinks

Away

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

254

I will not listen to these

human and

material monitors, and consider

life

as a thing greater than the things that I

would

glory

is

live for.

My

choice

is

made,

more persuasive than the

grave." Ernest Maltravers.

December

As courage was honor

called

from which proceed

—so

all

11th.

the

forth

first

—the

safety and

we do

virtue that first

virtue

civilization

right to keep that

one virtue at least clear and unsullied

from

all

the money-making, mercenary,

pay-me-in-cash abominations which are

the vices, not the virtues, of the zation

it

civili-

has produced. The Caxtona.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. December There

is

255

12th.

a terrible disconnection be-

tween the author and the man author's

life

and the man's

eras of visible triumph

life

may

—the —the

be those

of the most intolerable, though unre-

vealed

and

unconjectured

The book that delighted

may

first

anguish.

us to compose

appear in the hour when

all

things under the sun are joyless. Ernest Maltravers.

December

13th.

—Ars Longa

Vita

Brevis.

A

vast empire rises on

my

view,

greater than that of Caesars and con-

querors

—an

empire durable and uni-

versal in the souls of men, that time itself

cannot overthrow

marches with me,

side

by

;

and Death side,

and the

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

256

hand waves me back

skeleton

nothingness of

to the

common men. Ernest Maltravers.

December

"Your

IJ/ih.

Holiness knows well," said

the Cardinal, " that for the multitude of

men

war

there are

two watchwords

of

—Liberty and Keligion." Bienzi,

Decemher

A young man's ity,

—

it

15th.

ambition

has no definite aim,

with a thousand toys.

is

but van-

—

it

plays

As with one

passion, so with the rest.

love

is

In youth,

ever on the Aving, but, like the

birds in April,

it

hath not yet built

its

nest. With so long a career of summer and hope before it, the disappointment of to-day is succeeded by the

FE03I

BULWER LYTTON.

novelty of to-morrow

—and

257

the sun

that advances to the noon but dries up its

But when we have

fervent tears.

arrived at that epoch of if

the light

wither,

—we

fail

us

—

life,

— when,

the last rose

if

feel that the loss

cannot

be retrieved, and that the frost and the darkness are at hand,

—Love

be-

comes to us a treasure that we watch over and hoard with a miser's care.

Our youngest-born darling

and

our

affection idol,

the

is

our

fondest

pledge of the Past, the most cherished of our hopes for the Future.

A cer-

tain melancholy that mingles with our

joy the possession, only enhances

charm. ent on

We it

feel ourselves so

for all that

Our other barks

—our

is

its

depend-

yet to come.

gay

galleys of

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

258

pleasure

—have

—our stately argosies of

morseless wave.

we

pride

been swallowed up by the

On

freight our all

ment we commit that guides

it is

re-

this last vessel

—to

our guide,

tempest that menaces,

tene-

its frail

ourselves.

The

star

—and in the

we behold our

own doom Alice,

December It

was one

those strange

16th.

of those listless panics, fits

of indifference and

lethargy which often seize upon a people

who make

liberty a matter of im-

pulse and caprice, to

whom

it

has be-

come a catchword, who have not long enjoyed

all its rational,

practical,

and blessed

and sound, and results;

who

have been affrayed by the storms that

FBOM BULWEB LYTTON. herald

its

common

dawn

;

—a

people such as

to the south:

the north has

259

is

such as even

known; such

had

as,

Cromwell lived a year longer, even England might have seen; and,

in-

deed, in some measure, such a reaction

from popular enthusiasm to pop-

ular

indifference

when her the

fruits

children of

a

England

did

see,

madly surrendered bloody war, with-

out reserve, without foresight, to the

lewd pensioner of Louis, and the royal murderer of Sydney.

To such

prostra-

tion of soul, such blindness of intellect,

even the noblest people will be subjected,

when

liberty,

which should be

the growth of ages, spreading

its

roots

through the strata of a thousand toms,

is

raised, the exotic of

cus-

an hour.

— BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

260

and

(like

the tree and

cient fable) flourishes

Dryad

of an-

and withers with

the single spirit that protects

it.

Bienzi,

December

What

17th.

has been the use of those ac-

quirements

Has he

?

kind by them the historian

?

Show me

—the

yield to none of line herself in

benefited man-

and

orator,

you

the poet I will

no, not to

;

homage

Made-

of their genius

but the mere creature of books

dry and

:

—the

sterile collector of

other men's

—no—no.

should I ad-

learning

What

mire in such a machine of

literature,

except a waste of perseverance

?

Eugene Aram,

December Love, in

its first

18th,

dim and imperfect

FROM BULWER LYTTON. shape,

is

on one

261

but imagination concentrated

object.

It is a genius of the

heart, resembling that of the intellect it

appeals

sentiments

to, it

and

stirs up, it

evokes the

sympathies that

lie

Its sigh is

most latent in our nature.

that moves over the ocean,

the spirit

and rouses the Anadyomene into Therefore

is

it,

that

life.

mind produces

affections deeper than those of exter-

nal form

;

therefore

that

it is,

are worshippers of glory,

women

which

is

the

palpable and visible representative of

a genius whose operations they cannot

always comprehend. Alice.

December

19th.

Genius has so much in love

—the

common with

imagination that animates

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

262

one

much

so

is

the property of the

—that there

other

is

not a surer sign of

the existence of genius than the love that

creates

it

etrates

and bequeaths.

deeper

than

It pen-

reason

the

—

it

binds a nobler captive than the fancy.

As

the sun upon the

the

human

its light.

gives to

heart both

its

shadow and

Nations are

its

worshippers

and wooers its

dial, it

and Posterity learns from

;

oracles

to

dream

—to

aspire

—to

adore Alice.

December Wth. If a

man

that he

is

is

called a genius,

in this

life.

for anything but a garret

into

means

to be thrust out of all the

good things nius

it

office

!

—make

He !

is

not

Put a

fit

ge-

a genius a

FB03I bishop

!

BULWER LYTTON. a

or

lord

chancellor

263

!

—the

world would be turned topsyturvy

You

see that

you are quite astonished,

that a genius can be even a county

know

magistrate, and

the difference

between a spade and a poker fact,

a genius

is

!

In

supposed to be the

most ignorant, impracticable, good-fornothing, do-nothing, sort of thing that

ever walked upon two legs.

men have and

fishes

rise in

fers

Mediocre

the monopoly of the loaves ;

and even when talent does

life, it is

a talent that only

dif-

from mediocrity by being more

energetic and bustling. Alice.

Decemher '21st. His was the age when we most sitively enjoy the

mere sense of

sen-

exist-

!

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

264

ence

;

when

the face of J^ature, and a

passive conviction of the benevolence of our Great Father, suffice to create a

serene and ineffable happiness, which rarely visits us

the passions; alive

—

till

we have done with

till

memories,

if

more

than heretofore, are yet mel-

lowed

in the hues of time,

harmony

softens

into

perities

and harshness

all ;

—

and Faith their

till

as-

nothing

within us remains to cast a shadow

over the things without

verge of

life,

;

—and

on the

the Angels are nearer to

us than of yore.

There

is

an old ago

which has more youth of heart than youth

itself Alice,

December 22d. Oh, Youth! begin not thy career

FB03I

BULWEB LYTTON.

265

too soon, and let one passion succeed

due order to another

in its

— so

every season of life

may have

propriate pursuit and

charm

that

its

ap-

Alice,

December ^Sd,

The

fact

is,

that in civilization

behold a splendid aggregate;

—

we

litera-

ture and science, wealth and luxury,

commerce and glory

;

we

but

see not

the million victims crushed beneath

—the health breadless —the

the wheels of the machine sacrij&ced

—the board —the hospitals

jails

filled

the

human

spring,

poisoned

and poured forth

Neither do

marked

life

we remember

by

reeking

desolation,

all

every

in

like

water!

the steps,

crime,

and

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

266

bloodshed,

by which

barren sum-

this

mit has been reached. Alice.

December

2Jf.th.

But the discontent does not prey upon the springs of

life

;

it is

the

content of hope, not of despair;

dis-

it calls

forth faculties, energies, and passions, in

which there

row.

It

is

more joy than

is

this

which makes

desire

the citizen in private

an anxious

life

father, a careful master,

sor-

an

active,

and

You

therefore not an unhappy, man.

allow that individuals can effect individual good

:

this

very

restlessness,

this very discontent with the exact

place that he occupies,

makes the

zen a benefactor in his narrow

Commerce, better than

citi-

circle.

charity, feeds

FB03I

BULWEB LYTTON.

267

the hungry, and clothes the naked.

Ambition, better than brute affection, gives education to our children, and teaches them the love of industry, the

pride of independence, the respect for others and themselves

!

^^^^^

December ^5th.— Christmas Day. Was it not worthy of a God to descend to these dim valleys, in order to clear up the clouds gathered over the

mount beyond— to satisfy the doubts of sages— to convert specula-

dark

tion

into

certainty— by example to

point out the rules of life— by revelation to solve the

enigma of the grave

and to prove that the soul did not yearn in vain when it dreamed of an immortality? "^

„,

, . ^ The Last Days of Pompeii.

;

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

268

December

26th.

said the

Nazarene

"Come,"

perceived the effect "

come

meet

to the

—a

listen

and

of

our

which we

hall in

chosen few

a

there to our prayers

sincerity

he

he had produced)

humble

select

(as

;

note the

repentant

mingle in our simple

sacrifice

tears

—not of

victims, nor of garlands, but offered

by white-robed thoughts upon the of the heart.

there

are

over us

The flowers

imperishable

when we

that

—they

are no

more

altar

we

lay

bloom ;

nay,

they accompany us beyond the grave, they spring up beneath our feet in heaven, they delight us with an eternal odor, for they are of the soul, they

partake of

its

nature; these offerings

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. are

269

overcome, and sins

temptations

repented." The Last Days of Pompeii.

Thou

December '27th. comest amongst us

an

as

examiner, mayest thou remain a convert

Yon

Our

!

religion ?

you behold

cross our sole image,

yon

it

scroll

the mysteries of our Csere and Eleusis

Our morality ? sinners

we

all

it

is

in

have been; who

can accuse us of a crime

?

tized ourselves

from the

not that this

of us,

is

our lives

we have past.

it is

!

now bap-

Think

of God.

The Last Days of Pompeii.

Decemher

28th.

Apaecides had already learned that the faith of the philosophers

was not

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

270

that of the herd

;

that

they secretly

if

some diviner

professed

a

power,

was not the creed which

it

creed

in

they thought

it

community.

He had

wise to impart to the already learned,

that even the priest ridiculed

what he

—that

the no-

preached to the people tions of the

few and the many were

never united. it

But, in this

new

faith,

seemed to him that philosopher,

priest,

and people, the expounders of

the religion and alike accordant

and

:

its

followers,

were

they did not speculate

debate upon immortality, they

spoke of

it

assured;

the

as

a thing certain and

magnificence

promise dazzled him

—

its

of

the

consolations

soothed. The Last Days of Pompeii.

FROM BULWEB LYTTON.

271

December 29th. Yes, he was a rare character, that village

priest

Would

!

it

have been

better for Christianity, or the State,

yet, alas! so

spiritual

if

And

they had made him a bishop?

do we confound things

with things temporal, that

nine readers out of ten would be glad to find, at the

end of these volumes,

that the poor curate had been " properly

rewarded for

Do lawn and the

sleeves, a

title

make more

his deserts."

of "

powdered wig,

My Lord the Bishop,"

beautiful on the mountain-

tops the feet of

him who bringeth glad

tidings ? Alice.

December

30th.

Beauty, thou art twice blessed

!

thou

—a BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS

272

blessest the gazer

and the possessor;

often, at once the effect

and the cause

—A sweet disposition— —an affectionate nature will speak in the eyes —the —the brow— and become the cause of beauty. of goodness

!

lovely soul

lips

On

the other hand, they

commands

gift that

opens

all

hearts,

the world to hope

love, a

are

clined to look with

who have

a

key that

ordinarily in-

happy eyes upon

—to be cheerful and serene

and to

confide.

There

more

is

wisdom than the vulgar dream

of, in

our admiration of a fair face. Alice,

December

What its

is

31st.

the Earth to Infinity

duration to the Eternal

?

—what

Oh,

how

FROM BULWEB LYTTON. much

greater

is

273

the soul of one

than the vicissitudes

of

the

man

whole

globe. Zanoni.

stp

I

mo

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111

April

2009

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