hoard him up as misers do their
granddam gold, only to look on it themselves, and hinder others from
making use of it. In sum, I seriously protest, that no man ever had,
or can have, a greater veneration for Chaucer than myself. I have
translated some part of his works, only that I might perpetuate his
memory, or at least refresh it, amongst my countrymen. If I have
altered him any where for the better, I must at the same time
acknowledge, that I could have done nothing without him. _Facile est
inventis addere_ is no great commendation; and I am not so vain to
think I have deserved a greater."

You are an Englishman, and a scholar in your mother-tongue. Good! You have
dabbled, it may be, in Anglo-Saxon, Alfred's English. It is all very well.
You read Chaucer easily. We congratulate you. You will, we hope, love the
speech, and the soul, and the green, grassy mould of old England all the
better. We praise you for searching England near and far, high and low. Do
this heartily; do this understandingly; and you are excellently engaged.
But do not grudge your next neighbour, who is merely a modern
Englishman--a thorough good-fellow of one, however--_his_ Chaucer, in a
tongue and manner that he can read without stepping out of himself--his
Chaucer, for his possession of whom he thanks Dryden, and from his
grateful heart ejaculates "glorious John!"

MAYNOOTH.

It is due to the character of this Journal, unflinching in its
Conservative politics through one entire stormy generation, that, in any
great crisis of public interest, or in any fervent strife of public
opinion, it should utter its voice strongly; under the shape of a protest
and a parting testimony to the truth, where the case practically may be
hopeless; under the shape of a hearty effort, co-operating with other
efforts, where the case is _not_ hopeless. There is nothing more
depressing to patriotic honour and loyalty than the cowardice of
despondency, even when a cause has touched the very brink of defeat; and
we believe that no spectacle of firmness is more naturally congenial to
the temper of our countrymen, than the fidelity which still makes signal
of its affection in circumstances desperate for resistance, and which in
mortal extremities will not relax its hold from a cause once
conscientiously adopted. Do we insinuate by this that the anti-Maynooth
cause looks desperate? Our trust is otherwise. But if it we