canals, and other works, the bones of whales, seals, and por-
poises have been found at a height of from twenty to thirty
feet above the level of high-water mark. Now it is evident
that whales did not crawl twenty or thirty feet above high-
water mark to die, and therefore they must have either died
upon the spot where their skeletons were found or been
floated there after death. That part of the country therefore
must have been covered with salt water, which is now oc-
cupied simply by common alluvial detritus. But the story
does not stop there ; for in the very same beds in which the
remains of these marine mammalia have been discovered on
the Clyde, canoes have been found in a state of preservation
so perfect, that all their form and structure could be well
made out. Some of them were simply scooped in the
trunks of large trees, but others were built of planks nailed
together, square-sterned boats indeed, built of well-dressed
planks ; and the inference has been drawn, that this last
elevation took place at a time that is historical, and even
since the Roman occupation of our island. RAMSAY,
Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain.
EXTRACTS. 143
56.
Of all the land far famed for goodly steeds,
Thou com'st, O stranger, to the noblest spot,
Colonos, glistening bright,
Where evermore, in thickets freshly green,
The clear-voiced nightingale
Still haunts and pours her song,
By purpling ivy hid,
And the thick leafage sacred to the God,
With all its myriad fruits,
By mortal's foot untouched,
By sun's hot ray unscathed,
Sheltered from every blast ;
There wanders Dionysos evermore,
In full, wild revelry,
And waits upon the nymphs who nursed his youth.
And yet another praise is mine to sing,
Gift of the mighty God
To this our city, mother of us all,
Her greatest, noblest boast,
Famed for her goodly steeds,
Famed for her bounding colts,
Famed for her sparkling sea.
Poseidon, son of Kronos, Lord and King,
To Thee this boast we owe,
For first in these our streets
Thou to the untamed horse ^
Didst use the conquering bit ;
And here the well-shaped oar,
By skilled hands deftly plied,
144 EXTRACTS.
Still leapeth through the sea,
Following in wondrous guise,
The fair Nereids with their hundred feet.
PLUMPTRE, (Edipus at Colonos.
57. The Porteous Riot at Edinburgh.
The passive resistance of the Tolbooth gate promised to
do more to baffle the purpose of the mob than the active
interference of the magistrates. The heavy sledge-hammers
continued to din against it without intermission, and with a
noise which, echoed from the lofty buildings around the
spot, seemed enough to have alarmed the garrison in the
Castle. It was circulated among the rioters, that the troops
would march down to disperse them, unless they could
execute their purpose without loss of time ; or that, even
without quitting the fortress, the garrison might obtain the
same end by throwing a bomb or two upon the street.
Urged by such motives for apprehension, they eagerly re-
lieved each other at the labour of assailing the Tolbooth
door; yet such was its strength that it still defied their
efforts. At length, a voice was heard to pronounce the
words, 'Try it with fire.' The rioters, with an unanimous
shout, called for combustibles, and as all their wishes
seemed to be instantly supplied, they were soon in posses-
sion of two or three empty tar-barrels. A huge red glaring
bonfire speedily arose close to the door of the prison,
sending up a tall column of smoke and flame against its
antique turrets and strongly-grated windows, and illumin-
ating the ferocious and wild gestures of the rioters who
surrounded the place, as well as the pale and anxious
groups of those who, from windows in the vicinage, watched
the progress of this alarming scene. The mob fed the fire
EXTRACTS. 145
with whatever they could find fit for the purpose. The
flames roared and crackled among the heaps of nourish-
ment piled on the fire, and a terrible shout soon announced
that the door had kindled, and was in the act of being
destroyed. The fire was suffered to decay, but, long ere
it was quite extinguished, the most forward of the rioters
rushed, in their impatience, one after another, over its yet
smouldering remains. Thick showers of sparkles rose high
in the air, as man after man bounded over the glowing
embers, and disturbed them in their passage. SCOTT, Heart
of Mid Lothian.
58.
The ancestor of Gyges the Lydian was a shepherd, so the
story runs, in the service of the reigning sovereign of Lydia,
when one day a violent storm of rain fell, the ground was
rent asunder by an earthquake, and a yawning gulf appeared
on the spot where he was feeding his flocks. Seeing what
had happened, and wondering at it, he went down into the
gulf, and among other marvellous objects he saw, as the
legend relates, a hollow brazen horse, with windows in its
sides, through which he looked, and beheld in the interior a
corpse, apparently of superhuman size ; from which he took
nothing but a golden ring off the hand, and therewith made
his way out. Now when the usual meeting of the shepherds
occurred, for the purpose of sending to the king their
monthly report of the state of his flocks, this shepherd came
with the rest, wearing the ring. And, as he was seated with
the company, he happened to turn the hoop of the ring
round towards himself, till it came to the inside of his hand.
Whereupon he became invisible to his neighbours, who fell
to talking about him as if he were gone away. While he
was marvelling at this, he again began playing with the ring,
146 EXTRACTS.
and turned the hoop to the outside, upon which he became
once more visible. Having noticed this effect, he made
experiments with the ring, to see whether it possessed this
virtue ; and so it was, that when he turned the hoop inwards
he became invisible, and when he turned it outwards he was
again visible. After this discovery, he immediately contrived
to be appointed one of the messengers to carry the report
to the king ; and upon his arrival he slew the king, and took
possession of the throne. PLATO, Republic, (Davies and
Vaughan).
59.
Now these men,
Though brown indeed through dint of that hot sun,
Were comely and well-knit, as any one
I saw in Greece, and fit for deeds of war,
Though as I said of all men gentlest far ;
Their arms were axe and spear, and shield and bow,
But nought of iron did they seem to know,
For all their cutting tools were edged with flint,
Or with soft copper, that soon turned and bent ;
With cloths of cotton were their bodies clad,
But other raiment for delight they had
Most fairly woven of some unknown thing;
And all of them from little child to king
Had many ornaments of beaten gold :
Certes, we might have gathered wealth untold
Amongst them, had that then been in our thought,
But none the glittering evil valued aught.
MORRIS, Earthly Paradise.
EXTRACTS. 147
60. The Old Margate Hoy.
All this time sat upon the edge of the deck quite a
different character. It was a lad, apparently very poor, very
infirm, and very patient. His eye was ever on the sea, with
a smile ; and, if he caught now and then some snatches of
these wild legends, it was by accident, and they seemed not
to concern him. The waves to him whispered more pleasant
stories. He was as one, being with us, but not of us. He
heard the bell of dinner ring without stirring; and when
some of us pulled out our private stores, our cold meat and
our salads, he produced none, and seemed to want none.
Only a solitary biscuit he had laid in ; provision for the one
or two days and nights, to which these vessels were often-
times obliged to prolong their voyage. Upon a nearer
acquaintance with him, which he seemed neither to court
nor decline, we learned that he was going to Margate, with
the hope of being admitted into the Infirmary there for sea-
bathing. His disease was a scrofula, which appeared to
have eaten all over him. He expressed great hopes of a
cure ; and when we asked him, whether he had any friends
where he was going, he replied 'he had no friends/
CHARLES LAMB.
f
61.
Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come,
Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,
For Cassius is a-weary of the world ;
Hated by one he loves ; braved by his brother ;
Checked like a bondman ; all his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learned and conned by rote,
To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep
My spirit from mine eyes ! There is my dagger,
L 2
148 EXTRACTS.
And here my naked breast ; within, a heart
Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold ;
If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth ;
I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart :
Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for I know,
When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better
Than ever thou lovedst Cassius.
SHAKESPEARE, Julius Ccesar.
62.
As I am one, who, by my profession, am obliged to look
into all kinds of men, there are none whom I consider with
so much pleasure, as those who have anything new or ex-
traordinary in their characters, or ways of living. For this
reason I have often amused myself with speculations on the
race of people called Jews, many of whom I have met with
in most of the considerable towns which I have passed
through in the course of my travels. They are, indeed, so
disseminated through all the trading parts of the world, that
they are become the instruments by which the most distant
nations converse with one another, and by which mankind
are knit together in a general correspondence. They are
like the pegs and nails in a great building, which, though
they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely neces-
sary to keep the whole frame together. Spectator.
63.
The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns
And winding glades high up like ways to Heaven,
The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes,
The lightning flash of insect and of bird,
The lustre of the long convolvuluses
That coil'd around the stately stems, and ran
EXTRACTS. 149
Ev'n to the limit of the land, the glows
And glories of the broad belt of the world,
All these he saw ; but what he fain had seen
He could not see, the kindly human face,
Nor ever hear a kindly voice, but heard
The myriad shriek of wheeling ocean-fowl,
The league-long roller thundering on the reef,
The moving whisper of huge trees that branched
And blossom' d in the zenith, or the sweep
Of some precipitous rivulet to the wave,
As down the shore he ranged, or all day long
Sat often in the seaward-gazing gorge,
A shipwrecked sailor, waiting for a sail ;
No sail from day to day, but every day
The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts
Among the palms and ferns and precipices ;
The blaze upon the waters to the east ;
The blaze upon his island overhead ;
The blaze upon the waters to the west ;
Then the great stars that globed themselves in Heaven,
The hollo wer-bello wing ocean, and again
The scarlet shafts of sunrise but no sail.
TENNYSON, Enoch Arden.
64. Of Gardens.
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the
air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music)
than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that
delight than to know, what be the flowers and plants that
do best perfume the air. Roses damask and red are fast
flowers of their smells, so that you may walk by a whole
row of them, anc} find nothing of their sweetness, yea,
150 EXTRACTS.
though it be in a morning's dew. Bays likewise yield no
smell, as they grow; rosemary little, nor sweet-marjoram.
That which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in
the air, is the violet ; specially the white double violet which
comes twice a-year, about the middle of April and about
Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk-rose
Then sweet-briar. Then wall-flowers, which are very de-
lightful to be set under a parlour, or lower chamber window.
Then pinks and gilly-flowers, specially the matted pink and
the clove gilly-flower. Then the flowers of the lime tree.
Then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of
bean-flowers I speak not, because they are field flowers.
But those which perfume the air most delightfully, not
passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed,
are three ; that is burnet, wild thyme, and water-mints.
Therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the
pleasure, when you walk or tread. BACON.
65.
Never stoops the soaring vulture
On his quarry in the desert,
On the sick and wounded bison,
But another vulture, watching
From his high aerial look-out,
Sees the downward plunge, and follows ;
And a third pursues the second,
Coming from the invisible ether,
First a speck, and then a vulture,
Till the air is dark with pinions.
So disasters come not singly ;
But as if they watched and waited,
Scanning one another's motions,
EXTRACTS. 151
When the first descends, the others
Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise
Round their victim, sick and wounded,
First a shadow, then a sorrow,
Till the air is dark with anguish.
LONGFELLOW, Hiawatha.
66. Alexander.
Alexander was bred and taught under Aristotle, the great
philosopher, who dedicated divers of his books of philosophy
unto him : he was attended with Callisthenes and divers other
learned persons, that followed him in camp, throughout his
journeys and conquests. What price and estimation he had
learning in doth notably appear in these three particulars :
first, in the envy he used to express that he bare towards
Achilles, in this, that he had so good a trumpet of his
praises as Homer's verses; secondly, in the judgement or
solution he gave touching that precious cabinet of Darius,
which was found among his jewels; whereof question was
made what thing was worthy to be put into it; and he gave
his opinion for Homer's works ; thirdly, in his letter to
Aristotle, after he had set forth his books of nature, wherein
he expostulateth with him for publishing the secrets or
mysteries of philosophy; and gave him to understand that
himself esteemed it more to excel other men in learning and
knowledge than in power and empire. And what use he
had of learning doth appear, or rather shine, in all his
speeches and answers, being full of science and use of
science, and that in all variety. BACON, Advancement of
Learning.
152 EXTRACTS.
67.
Therefore, O friends, if ye are of my mind,
When we are passed the French and English strait
Let us seek news of that desired gate
To immortality and blessed rest
Within the landless waters of the west,
But still a little to the southward steer.
Certes no Greenland winter waits us there,
No year-long night, but rather we shall find
Spice-trees set waving by the western wind,
And gentle folk who know no guile at least,
And many a bright-winged bird and soft-skinned beast,
For gently must the year upon them fall.
MORRIS, Earthly Paradise.
68. A Thunderstorm.
The thunder muttered far off, but there was neither rain
nor visible lightning. But on the opposite horizon appeared
a mass of dark blue cloud, which rose rapidly, and advanced
in the direct line of the tower. Before it rolled a lighter
but still lurid volume of vapour, which curled and wreathed
like eddying smoke before the denser blackness of the un-
broken cloud. Then followed the flashing of lightning, the
rolling of thunder, and a deluge of rain like the bursting of
a waterspout. They sate some time in silence, watching
the storm as it swept along, with wind, and driving rain, and
whirling hail, bringing for a time almost the darkness of
night, through which the forked lightning poured a scarcely
interrupted blaze. Suddenly came a long dazzling flash,
that seemed to irradiate the entire circumference of the sky,
followed instantaneously by one of those crashing peals of
thunder, which always indicate that something very near has
EXTRACTS. 153
been struck by the lightning One of two horses
in a gentleman's carriage had been struck dead, and a
young lady in the carriage had been stunned by the passing
flash, though how far she was injured by it could not be
immediately known. The other horse, it appeared, had been
prancing in terror, and had nearly overthrown the carriage ;
but he had been restrained by the vigorous arm of a young
farmer, who had subsequently carried the young lady into
the house. Gryll Grange.
69.
My children ! on this day ye cease to have
A father. All my days are spent and gone ;
And ye no more shall lead your wretched life,
Caring for me. Hard was it, that I know,
My children ! yet one word is strong to loose,
Although alone, the burden of these toils,
For love in larger store ye could not have
From any than from him who standeth here,
Of whom bereaved ye now shall live your life.
PLUMPTRE, (Edtpus at Colonos.
70.
That the British infantry soldier is more robust than the
soldier of any other nation, can scarcely be doubted by those
who, in 1855, observed his powerful frame distinguished
amidst the united armies of Europe; and notwithstanding
his habitual excess in drinking, he sustains fatigue and wet,
and the extremes of cold and heat, with incredible vigour ;
when completely disciplined, and three years are required to
accomplish this, his port is lofty and his movements free, the
whole world cannot produce a nobler specimen of military
bearing, nor is the mind unworthy of the outward man. He
154 EXTRACTS.
does not indeed possess that presumptuous vivacity which
would lead him to dictate to his commanders, or even to
censure real errors although he may perceive them ; but he
is observant and quick to comprehend his orders, full of
resources under difficulties, calm and resolute in danger, and
more than usually obedient and careful of his officers in
moments of imminent peril. SIR W. NAPIER.
71.
The time when we first begin really to know anything
about Britain is between fifty and sixty years before the
birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I suppose, that
this is the way in which Christian nations reckon time ; such
a thing happened so many years before, or so many years
after, the birth of Christ. At that time the greatest people
in the world were the Romans. These were originally the
people of the city of Rome in Italy. They were not so bold
at sea as the Phoenicians, nor were they so clever and
learned a people as the Greeks. They could not build such
fine temples, or carve such beautiful statues, or make such
eloquent speeches and poems as the Greeks could ; but they
were the best soldiers and the wisest law-makers that the
world ever saw. At Rome, in the best days of Rome, every
man knew both how to command and how to obey. The
Romanes chose their own rulers ; but when they had chosen
them, they submitted to all their lawful commands. They
made their own laws ; but they did not think that, because
they made the laws, they might therefore break them. Thus
they were able gradually to conquer, first all Italy, and then
nearly all the world that they knew of, that is, all the
countries round about the Mediterranean Sea. The people
of Italy itself they gradually admitted to the same rights as
themselves, so that at the time of which I am speaking,
EXTRACTS. 155
every Italian was reckoned as a Roman ; but the lands out
of Italy they made into Provinces, and the people of those
lands were their subjects. There was no King at Rome, but
the people of the Provinces had to obey the laws made by
the Senate and People of Rome, and to be governed by the
magistrates whom the Romans sent to rule over them. The
Romans were very proud of their freedom in having no King
or master of any kind, and for a long time they were worthy
of their freedom, and used it well. FREEMAN, Old English
History for Children.
72.
'Friends/ said the captain, 'the state of the weather ad-
vises each one of us to commend himself to God, and to
prepare for death.' He was asked by some who knew a
little about seamanship, for how many hours he thought he
could keep the ship together. He said he could promise
nothing, but certainly not more than three hours. What
were the folks on board doing meanwhile ? Not a few of
them fell flat on the deck, and began to worship the sea,
pouring all the oil they could get hold of upon the waves,
soothing it, just as we are wont to do to an irritated prince.
O most merciful sea, most noble sea, most wealthy sea !
O most beautiful sea ! grow calm and save us. Many
prayers of this kind they kept chanting to the deaf sea.
Some were only seasick, most of them kept making vows.
One Englishman was there, who kept promising mountains
of gold to our Lady of Walsingham, if ever he set foot on
land alive. Some made many promises to the wood of the
Cross in one place, and others to it in another. A few
promised to turn Carthusians. One there was who bound
himself to go to St. James of Compostella, with bare feet
and head, his body covered only with a shirt of iron mail,
156 EXTRACTS.
and begging his bread along the road. I could not but
laugh, as I heard one vowing as loud as he could bellow,
lest he should not be attended to, a wax figure as big as
the saint, to the St. Christopher who stands on the top of the
church in Paris, more like a mountain than a statue. While
he was thus vociferating at his best, an acquaintance that
happened to be standing next to him, gave him a nudge,
and added a hint. ( Mind what you promise/ he says, ' even
if you sell by auction everything you possess, you could
not pay this/ The other replied in a more subdued tone,
so that Christopher should not hear forsooth, ' Hold your
tongue, you idiot. Do you think I am speaking my real
mind ? If only once I set my foot ashore, I shall not give
him as much as a tallow candle/ ERASMUS, Colloquia
(Lowe).
73. The Ugly Duck.
Towards evening the Duck came to a miserable peasant's
hut. Here lived a woman with her Tom Cat and her Hen.
And the Tom Cat could arch his back and purr, he could
even give out sparks ; but for that one had to stroke his
fur the wrong way. In the morning the strange Duckling
was at once noticed, and the Tom Cat began to purr, and
the Hen to cluck. What is this? said the woman, and
looked all round : but she could not see well, and therefore
she thought the Duckling was a fat duck that had strayed.
' This is a rare prize/ she said. ' Now I shall have duck's
eggs. I hope it is not a drake/ And so the Duckling was
admitted on trial for three weeks ; but no eggs came. And
the Tom Cat was master of the house, and the Hen was the
lady, and always said ' We and the world/ for she thought
they were half the world, and by far the better half. ' Can
you lay eggs ?' she asked. ' No/ ' Then you will have the
EXTRACTS. 157
goodness to hold your tongue/ And the Tom Cat said,
' Can you curve your back, and purr, and give out sparks ?'
1 No/ ' Then you cannot have any opinion of your own
when sensible people are speaking/ And the Duckling sat
in a corner and was melancholy ; then the fresh air and the
sunshine streamed in ; and it was seized with such a strange
longing to swim on the water, that it could not help telling
the Hen of it. ' What are you thinking of? 7 said the Hen.
' You have nothing to do, that is why you have these fancies.
Purr or lay eggs, and they will pass over/ ' But it is so
changing to swim on the water/ said the Duckling, 'so
refreshing to let it close over one's head, and to dive down
to the bottom/ 'Yes, that must be a mighty pleasure,
truly/ quoth the Hen, ' ask the Cat about it, he is the
cleverest animal I know, ask him if he likes to swim on the
water, or to dive down. Ask our mistress, the old woman ;
no one in the world is cleverer than she. Do you think she
has any desire to swim or to let the water close over her
head?' 'You don't understand me/ said the Duckling.
' We don't understand you ! Then pray who is to under-
stand you ? You surely don't pretend to be cleverer than
the Tom Cat and the woman, I won't say anything of myself.
Don't be conceited, child. You may believe me, I speak for
your good. I tell you disagreeable things, and by that one
may always know one's true friends. Only take care that
you learn to lay eggs, or to purr and give out sparks/
ANDERSEN.
74. The Centaur.
But louder still the noise he hearkened grew,
Until at last in sight the Centaur drew,
A mighty grey horse, trotting down the glade,
Over whose back the long grey locks were laid,
158 EXTRACTS.
That from his reverend head abroad did flow :
For to the waist was man, but all below
A mighty horse, once roan, now well-nigh white