C I A P. Y V. Bellarius , Guiderius, and Arviragus. . you Bel. A goodly day! not to keep house, with such hill, unfledg'd Have never wing'd from view o'th'nest; nor know What air's from home. Haply this life is best, If quiet life is best : sweeter to you , "That have a sharper known; well corresponding With your stiff age : but unto us, it is Arv. What should we speak of, Bel. How you speak! Did you but know the city's usuries, And felt them knowingly; the art o'th' court, As hard to leave , as keep; whose top to climb', Is certain falling; or so slipp’ry, that The fear's as bad as falling; the toil of war; A pain that only seems to seek out danger ['th' name of fame and honour ; which dies i' th? seareh, And hath as oft a sland'rous epitaph, As record of fair act; nay, many times, Doth ill deserve, by doing well: what's worse Must curt'sy at the censure.-Oh, boys, this story The world might read in me: my body's mark'd With Roman swords; and my report was once First with the best of note, Cymbeline lov'd me; And when a soldier was the theme , my name Was not far off: then was I as a tree, Whose boughs did bend with fruit. But, in one night, Guid. Uncertain favour! oft, * But that two villains (whose false oaths prevailid Before my perfect honour) swore to Cymbeline tains! BOOK VII. C H A P. I. · Sensibility: EAR Sensibilily ! source inexhausted of all that's precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows; thou chainest the martyr down upon his bed of straw, and it is thou who liftest him up to heaven. Eternal fountain of our feelings ! It is here I trace thee, and this is thy divinity which stirs within me : not, that in some sad and sickening moments, my soul shrinks back upon herself, and startles at destruction' --mere pomp of words !--but that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself --all comes from thee, great, great Sensoriam of the world ! which vibrates, if a hair of our head but falls upon the ground , in the remotest desert of thy creation. Touched with thee, Eugenius draws my curtain when I languish! hears my tale of symptoms, and blames the weather for the disorder of his nerves. Thou givest a portion of it sometimes to the roughest peasant who traverses the bleakest mountains. --He finds the lacerated lamb of another's flock. 'This moment I beheld him leaning with his head against his crook, with piteous inclination looking down upon it,--Oh! had I come one moment sooner !--it bleeds to death--his gentle heart bleeds with it. Peace to thee generous, swain ! I see thou walkest off with anguish--but thy joys shall balance it; for happy is thy cottage, and happy is the sharer of it, and happy are the lambs which sport about you. STERNE. D ISGUISE thyself as thou wilt, still, Sla very! still thou art a bitter draught; and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of the, thou art no less bitter on that account. It is thou, Liberty, thrice sweet and gracious goddess , whom all in public or in private worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till nature herself shall change--no tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or chymic power turn thy sceptre into iron--with thee to smile upon him as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou art exiled. Gracious Heaven ! grant me but health , thou great Bestower of it, and give me but this fair goddess as my companion ; and shower down thy mitres if it seems good unto thy divine providence, upon those heads which are aching for them- Pursuing these ideas, I sat down close by my table , and leaning my head upon my hand, I began to figure to myself the miseries of confinement. I was in a right frame for it, and so I gave full scope to my imagination. I was going to begin with the millions of my fellow-creatures born to no inheritance but Slavery ; but finding, however affecting the picture was, that I could not bring it nearer me , and that the multitude of sad groups in end, did but distract me- |