happened that Mason received this little billet at almost the precise moment when it would be most affecting. 66 Horace Walpole, again, writes to an afflicted correspondent, -"I say no more, for time only, not words, can soften such afflictions, nor can any consolations be suggested, that do not more immediately occur to the persons afflicted. To moralize can comfort those only who do not want to be comforted.” So Marcia replies to Lucia, in Addison's tragedy: "Lucia. What can I think or say to give thee comfort? Words are words, says Shakspeare's Brabantio, and never yet heard he that the bruised heart was relieved through the ear. When, towards the close of Campbell's metrical tale of fair Wyoming, on Susquehanna's side, "prone to the dust, afflicted Waldegrave hid his face on earth, him watched, in gloomy ruth, his woodland guide; but words had none to soothe the grief that knows not consolation's name." But the Oneyda chief was not on that account Waldegrave's least efficient comforter. What though others around him, less reticent, and more demonstrative, found utterance easy, and shaped their kind common-place meaning into kind common-place words?"Of them that stood encircling his despair, he heard some friendly words, but knew not what they were.” Wisehearted, too, was Southey's young Arabian, in watching silently the frantic grief of the newly childless old diviner in pitying silence Thalaba stood by, and gazed, and listened: "not with the officious hand of consolation, fretting the sore wound he could not hope to heal." It has been called the last triumph. of affection and magnanimity, when a loving heart can respect the suffering silence of its beloved, and allow that lonely liberty in which alone some natures can find comfort. A late author portrayed in one of his tales a dull, common-place fellow enough, of limited intellect and attainments, whose, however, was one of those kind and honest natures fortunately endowed with subtle powers of perception that lie deeper than the head. Accordingly he is described, in the capacity of an unofficious condoler, as appreciating perfectly the grief of his friend; at : his side throughout the day, but never obtruding himself, never attempting jarring platitudes of condolence: "in a word he fully understood the deep and beautiful sympathy of silence." So with Adela and Caroline in The Bertrams,-interchanging those pressures of the hand, those mute marks of fellow-feeling, "which we all know so well how to give when we long to lighten the sorrows which are too deep to be probed by words." But though we all may know so well how to give these mute marks, we do not all and always practice what we know. 'Tis true, 'tis pity; pity 'tis 'tis true. Adam Bede's outburst of maddened feelings, uttered in tones of appealing anguish, when the loss of Hetty is first made clear to him, is noted in silence by the discreet rector, who is too wise to utter soothing words at present, as he watches in Adam that look of sudden age which sometimes comes over a young face in moments of terrible emotion. As Bartle Massey elsewhere describes this silent sympathizer, “Ay, he's good metal; . . says no more than's needful. He's not one of those that think they can comfort you with chattering, as if folks who stand by and look on knew a deal better what the trouble was than those who have to bear it." Madame de Sévigné frankly deposes of her capacity as regards wordy consolation: "Pour moi, je ne sais point de paroles dans une telle occasion." Mr. Tennyson submits what is applicable to any telle occasion, Miss Procter sings the praises of a true comforter in little Effie," just I think that she does not try,-only looks with a wistful wonder why grown people should ever cry." It is such a comfort to be able to cry in peace, adds that sweet singer (with larmes dans la voix): "And my comforter knows a lesson Wiser, truer than all the rest :- Love and silence are always best." "IT THE TEMPTER'S “IT IS WRITTEN.” MATTHEW iv. 6. T is written," said the Tempter, quoting Scripture for his purpose, when it was his hour and the power of darkness, in the day of temptation in the wilderness. The quotation was refuted on the spot, and the Tempter was foiled. But his failure has not deterred mankind, at sundry times and in divers manners, from venturing on the same appeal, with no very unlike design. The wise as serpents (there was a serpent in Eden) who are not also harmless as doves, have now and then essayed to round a sophistic period, or clench an immoral argument, with an It is written. But Among the crowd of pilgrims who throng the pages of his allegory, Bunyan depicts one Mr. Selfwill, who holds that a man may follow the vices as well as the virtues of pilgrims; and that if he does both, he shall certainly be saved. what ground has he for so saying? is Mr. Greatheart's query. And old Mr. Honesty replies, "Why, he said he had Scripture for his warrant." He could cite David's practice in one bad direction, and Sarah's lying in another, and Jacob's dissimulation in a third. And what they did, he might do too. have heard him plead for it, bring Scripture for it, bring arguments for it," etc., quoth old Honesty with a degree of indignation that does credit to his name. "The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the core." "I Such is Antonio's stricture on Shylock's appeal to Jacob's practice, "When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep"; and there is a parallel passage in the next act, where Bassanio is the speaker : "In religion, What damned error but some sober brow Against divines, indeed, of every school and age, the reproach of citing a text in support of doctrine or practice the reverse of divine, has been freely cast, with more or less of reason. Orthodox and heterodox, each has flung against the other his retort uncourteous. "Have not all heretics the same pretence To plead the Scriptures in their own defence ? That strong debate? Was it by Scripture tried? With texts point-blank and plain he faced the foe; A Dublin synod of the Irish Roman Catholic bishops, a few years since, which distinguished itself by its enthusiasm for Pope Pius IX., against the King of Italy, and by its arrogation of a divine right of practical monopoly in overseeing the schools and colleges of Ireland, was made the theme of comment by unsympathetic British critics; who remarked that when the question of education is stirred in such quarters, the dullest heretic can divine that the national system is to be denounced'; and that it is easy to guess at the text of Scripture to be quoted in support of the pretensions of the Church. "The command to 'go and teach all nations' vested in the successors of the Apostles a rightful monopoly of instruction in Greek, mathematics, and civil engineering." According to the same elastic authority, the "Puritans," we are reminded, were justified in shooting and hanging their enemies, because Samuel hewed Agag in pieces, or because Phineas arose and executed judg"There never was a proposition which could not be proved by a text; and perhaps the effect is more complete when the citation is taken from the Vulgate." Gray's malicious lines against Lord Sandwich, a notorious evil-liver, as candidate for the High Stewardship in the University of Cambridge, include this stanza, supposed to be uttered by a representative ment. D.D., of the old port-wine school, and a staunch supporter of his profligate lordship: "Did not Israel filch from th' Egyptians of old Their jewels of silver and jewels of gold? The prophet of Bethel, we read, told a lie; Gray's jeu d'esprit was, throughout, not in the best of taste; but it was vastly relished at the time, as an election squib. The reference to spoiling the Egyptians is a well worked one in the history of quotations. Coleridge has a story of a Mameluke Bey, whose "precious logic" extorted a large contribution from the Egyptian Jews. "These books, the Pentateuch, are authentic ?” "Yes." "Well, the debt then is acknowledged and now the receipt, or the money, or your heads! The Jews borrowed a large treasure from the Egyptians; but you are the Jews, and on you, therefore, I call for the repayment." Such conclusions, from such premises, and backed by such vouchers, are open to logicians of every order, sacred and profane. "Hence comment after comment, spun as fine As bloated spiders draw the flimsy line; If stubborn Greek refuse to be his friend, Hebrew or Syriac shall be forced to bend : If languages and copies all cry, No! Burns was never any too backward in having his fling at a "minister"; and there is exceptional (and perhaps exceptionable) gusto in his averment that, "E'en ministers, they have been kenn'd, In holy rapture, A rousing whid, at times, to vend, And nail't wi' Scripture." There was a time in the life of Diderot when that freest of free-thinkers made a living, such as it was, by writing sermons The Candidate, Lord Sandwich. |