an who, however, in the rich,
loving heart of his brother stands out as handsome, affectionate,
noble and brave. How keenly he feels the bitter loss which comes to
him with tenfold severity when he awakens, and which he makes the
closing thought in the essay! Lastly, the faithful Mary, unchanged,
appears at his side,--his waking companion, his greatest burden and
his greatest joy.

Besides these evidences of his devoted and affectionate
disposition, we find proof of his vivid imagination when as a child
he gazes _upon the old busts of the twelve Caesars that had been
emperors of Rome, till the old marble heads would seem to live
again, or I to be turned into marble with them_. In his _busy-idle_
amusements at the great house he shows the innocence and simplicity
of his pleasures, and in the delicate way in which he reproves
Alice and John, his genial, sympathetic disposition as well as his
abundant good humor. How much finer it was to say, "_and such-like
common baits of children_" than to have said, "John, put the grapes
back on the plate."

FOOTNOTES:

[335-1] Lamb's grandmother, Mary Field, was for a long time housekeeper
in one of the great English country houses, but not in the county
alluded to in the text.

[335-2] This means that the incidents had but lately become familiar to
the children. The story is the old one of the _Babes in the Wood_, as it
is sometimes called.

[335-3] One of Lamb's fancies; the chimney-carving in the real house
represented stag and boar hunts.

[336-4] Westminster Abbey.

[336-5] An imaginary person with a cheap, showy drawing-room.

[336-7] The Book of Psalms, or such a portion of it as is used in the
services of the English Church.

[336-8] New Testament.

[338-9] The trees were planted on the south side of the walls, which
protected them from the north wind and ripened them by reflected warmth.

[338-10] The foliage of the yews is very dark, and because these trees
are so often planted about cemeteries they give a hint of sadness to
every one.

[338-11] The glass house which protected the trees in the winter and
hastened the ripening of the fruit in summer.

[338-12] A small fish resembling our chub--usually seen in schools in
still waters.

[340-13] Lamb's brother John--twelve years his senior. John was rather a
lazy, selfish fellow--at least he never gave up his own pleasures