As desert lakes in sad illusion fly,
Before the weary traveller's cheated eye
So memory shows, those hopes we still would cherish.
Pleased but to fade, allured us but to perish.
M.B.S.
* * * * *
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
* * * * *
ON COALHEAVERS.
Although in this age of all but universal hypocrisy and make-believe,
every man has at least two fashions of one countenance, it is in dress
principally that most men are most unlike themselves. But the coalheaver
always sticks close to the attire of his station; he alone wears the
consistent and befitting garb of his forefathers; he alone has not
discarded "the napless vesture of humility," to follow the always
expensive, and often absurd fashions of his superiors. All ungalled of
him is each courtier's heel or great man's kibe. Yet, is not even his
every-day clothing unseemly, or his aspect unprepossessing. He casts
as broad and proper a shadow in the sun as any other man. Black he is,
indeed, but comely, like the daughters of Jerusalem.--To begin with the
hat which he has honoured with a preference--what are your operas or
your fire-shovels beside it? they must instantly (on a fair comparison)
sink many degrees below zero in the scale of contempt. In a word, I
would make bold to assert that it unites in perfection the two grand
requisites of a head covering, beauty and comfort.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53