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Cast;ar;/aring a preparat the bottoof this article -- as the wary oisseur in prints, with cursory eye (which, while it reads, see as though it read not,) neer fails to su the quis sculpsit in the er, before he pronounces so rare piece to be a Viares, or a Woollet -- thinks I hear you eci Reader, Who is Elia?
Because in st I tried to diert thee with so half-fotten huurs of so old clerks defunct, in an old house of business, long since goo decay, doubtless you hae already set down in your nd as one of the self-salege -- a otary of the desk -- a notched and cropt ser -- ohat sucks his sustenance, as certain sick people are said to do, through a quill.
Well, I do aghing of the sort. I fess that it is huur, fancy -- in the forest of the day, when the nd of your n of letters requires so reation -- (ahan such as at first sight see st abhorrent frohis beloed studies) -- to while away so good hours of ti iion of indigosttons, raw silk, piece-goods, flowered or otherwise. In the first pce * * * * * * and then it sends you ho with sucreased appetite to your books * * * * * not to say, that your outside she?99ｌib?;/aets, and waste ers of foolscap, do receie into the st kindly and naturally, the iression of sos, epigra, essays -- so that the ery parings of a ting-house are, in so sort, the settings up of an author. The enfranchised quill, that has plodded all the ang the cart-rucks of figures and cyphers, frisks and curets so at its ease oer the flowery carpet-ground of a dnight dissertation. -- It feels its protion. * * * * * * * So that you see, upon the whole, the literary dignity of Elia is ery little, if at all, prosed in the dession.
Not that, in anious detail of the ny odities ial to the life of a public office, I would be thought blind to certain fws, which a ing carper ght be able to pi this Josephs est. And here I st hae leae, in the fulness of soul, tret the abolition, and doing-away-with aogether, of those sotory iices, and sprinklings of freedh the four seasons, -- the red-letter days, now bee, to all is and purposes, dead-letter days. There aul, and Stephen, and Barnabas -
quot;Andrew and John, n faus in old tis quot;
we were used to keep all their days holy, as long back as I was at school at Christs. I reer their effigies, by the sa token, in the old Baskett Prayer Book. There huer in his uneasy posture -- holy Bartle iroubleso act of fying, after the faus Marsyas by Spagi. I hoheall, anuld alst hae wept the defalcation of Iscariot -- so ch did we loe to keep holy ries sacred -- only thought I a little grudged at thalition of the better Jude with Sin -- clubbing (as it were) their sanctities together, to ke up one paudy-day between the-- as an ey unworthy of the dispensation.
These were bright isitations in a schors and a clerks life -- quot;far off their ing shone.quot; -- I was as good as an alna those days. uld hae told you such a saints-day falls out week, or the week after. Peradehe Epiphany, by so periodical infelicity would, on si years, rge in a Sabbath. Now aI little better than one of the profane. Let not be thought tn the wisdoof ciil superiors, who hae judged the further obseration of these holy tides to be papistical, superstitious. Only in a of such long standing, thinks, if their Holihe Bishops had, in decy, been first sounded -- but I awading out of depths. I anot the n to decide the lits of ciil and elesiastical authority -- I apin Elia -- no Selden, nor Archbishop Usher -- though at present ihick of their books, here in the heart of learning, uhe shadow of the ghty Bodley.
I here py the gehe student. To such a one as self, who has been defrauded in his young years of the sweet food of acadestitution, nowhere is so pleasant, to while away a few idle weeks at, as one or other of the Uies. Their acation, too, at this ti of the year, falls in so pat with ours. Here I take walks ued, and fancy self of what degree or standing I please. I seeadtted ad eunde I fetch up past opportunities. I rise at the chapel-bell, and dreathat it rings for . In ods of hulity I be a Sizar, or a Seritor. When the pck ein rises, I strut a Gentlen oner. In graer nts, I proceed Master of Arts. Indeed I do not think I alike that respectable character. I hae seen your dieyed ergers, and bed-kers iacles, drop a bow or curtsy, as I pass, wisely staking for sothing of the sort. I go about in bck, which faours the notion. Only in Christ Church reerend quadrangle, I be tent to pass for nothing short of a Seraphic Doctor.
The walks at these tis are so es own -- the tall trees of Christs, the groes of Magdalen! The halls deserted, and with open doors, initing oo slip in unperceied, and pay a deoir to so Founder, or noble or royal Beress (that should hae been ours) whose portrait see to sle upon their oer-looked beadsn, and to adopt for their own. Then, to take a peep in by the way at the butteries, and sculleries, redolent of antique hospitality: the iense caes of kits, kit fire-pcesrdial recesses; oens whose first pies were baked four turies ago; and spits which haoked for Chaucer! Not the a nister ang the dishes but is hallowed to through his igination, and the ok goes forth a Manciple.
Antiquity! thou wondrous char what art thou? that, being nothing, art eery thing! When thou wert, thou wert not antiquity -- then thou wert nothing, but hadst a reter antiquity, as thou calledst it, to look back to with blind eion; thou thyself being to thyself ft, jejune, dern! What stery lurks in this retroersion? or what half Januses * are we, that ot look forward with the sa idotry with which we for eer reert! The ghty future is as nothing, beihing! the past is eery thing, being nothing!
[Footnote] * Januses of one face. -- Sir Thos Browne.
What were thy dark ages? Surely the sun rose a;tt;/tts brightly then as now, and n got hito his work in the Why is it that we eer hear ntion of thewithout an apanying feeling, as though a palpable obscure had died the face of things, and that our aors wao and fro groping!
Aboe all thy rarities, old Oenford, what do st arride and soce , are thy repositories of uldering learning, thy sheles -
What a pce to be in is an old library! It see as though all the souls of all the writers, that hae bequeathed their bours to these Bodleians, were reposing here, as in so dortory, or ddle state. I do not want to hao profahe leaes, their winding-sheets. uld as soon dislodge a shade. I seeto inhale learning, walking ad their foliage; and the odour of their old th-sted cs is fragrant as the first blooof those stial apples which grew ad the happy orchard.
Still less hae I curiosity to disturb the elder repose of MSS. Those ariae lees, so teting to the re erudite pates, do but disturb and ule faith. I ano Herean raker. The credit of the three witnesses ght hae slept unieached for . I leae these curiosities to Porson, and to G. D. -- who by the way, I found busy as a th oer so rotten archie, ruaged out of so seldoeplored press, in a nook at Oriel. With long p, he is grown alst into a book. He stood as passie as one by the side of the old sheles. I loo hiin Russia, and assign hihis pce. He ght hae stered for a tall Scapu.
D. is assiduous in his isits to these seats of learning. No insiderable portion of his derate fortune, I apprehend, is ed in journeys between theand Cliffords-inn -- where, like a doe on the asps , he has long taken up his unscious abode, ad an ingruous assely of attorneys, attorneys clerks, apparitors, proters, ern of the w, ang whohe sits, quot;in d sinless peace.quot; The fangs of the w pierce hinot -- the winds of litigation blow oer his hule chaers -- the hard sheriffs officer es his hat as he passes -- legal nor illegal durtesy touches hi-- hinks of iolence or injusti you would as soon quot;strike an abstract idea.quot;
D. has been engaged, he tells , through urse of borious years, in an iigation into all atter ected with the two Uies; and has tely lit upon a MSlle of charters, retie to C--, by which he hopes to settle so disputed point --particurly that long troersy betweeo priority of foundation. The ardor with which he engages in these liberal pursuits, I aafraid, has not t with all the e it desered, either here, or at C--. Your caputs, and heads olleges, care less than any body else about these questions. -- teo suck the lky fountains of their Al Maters, without inquiring into the enerable gentlewons years, they rather hold such curiosities to be ierti -- unreerend. they hae their good glebe nds in nu, and care not ch to rake into the title-deeds. I gather at least so ch froother sources, for D. is not a n to pin.
D. started like an unbroke heifer, when I interrupted hi A priori it was not ery probable that we should hae t in Oriel. But D. would hae dohe sa, had I sted hion the sudden in his own walks in Cliffords-inn, or iele. In addition to a prooking short-sightedness (the effect of te studies and watgs at the dnight oil) D. is the st absent of n. He de a call the other at our friend M.s in Bedford-square; and, finding nobody at ho, was ushered into the hall, where, asking for pen and ink, with great eactitude of purpose he enters his na in the book -- which ordinarily lies about in such pces, to rd the failures of the untily or unfortunate isitor -- and takes his leae with ny ies, and professio. So two or three hours after, his walkiinies returned hiinto the sa neighbourhood again, and again the quiet ige of the fire-side circle at M.s -- Mrs. M. presiding at it like a Queen Lar, with pretty A. S. at her side -- striking irresistibly on his fancy, he kes another call (fetting that they were quot;certainly not to return frothe try before that day weekquot;) and disappointed a sed ti, inquires for pen and paper as before: again the book is brought, and in the line just aboe that in which he is about to print his sed na (his re-script) his first na (scarce dry) looks out upon hilike another Sosia, or as if a n should suddeer his own duplicate ! -- The effect y be ceied. D. de ny a good resolution against any such pses in future. I hope he will not keep thetorously For with G. D. -- to be absent frothe body, is sotis (not to speak it profanely) to be present with the Lord. At the ery ti when, personally entering thee, he passes on with no ;bdo藏书网;/bdognition or, being stopped, starts like a thing surprised -- at that nt, reader, he is on Mount Tabor -- or Parnassus -- o-sphered with Pto -- or, with Harrington, frang quot;iortal ohsquot; -- deising so pn of alioration to thy try, or thy species -- peradeating so indiidual kindness ourtesy, to be doo thee thyself, the returning sciousness of which de hito start so guiily at thy obtruded personal presence.
D. is delightful any where, but he is at the best in such pces as these. He cares not ch for Bath. He is out of his elent at Buton, at Scarbh, or Harrowgate. The d the Isis are to hiquot;better than all the waters of Dascus. -- On the Muses hill he is happy, and good, as one of the Shepherds on the Delectable Mountains; and when he goes about with you to show you the halls anlleges, you think you hae with you the Interpreter at the House Beautiful.
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