; some fierce and sharp as those of
Norwegian Skaldaglam; some as replete with wild and wizard force as
Finland's runes, singing of Kalevale's moors, and the deeds of
Woinomoinen! Honour to thee, thou island stream! Onward mayst thou ever
roll, fresh and green, rejoicing in thy bright past, thy glorious
present, and in vivid hope of a triumphant future! Flow on, beautiful
one!--which of the world's streams canst thou envy, with thy beauty and
renown? Stately is the Danube, rolling in its might through lands
romantic with the wild exploits of Turk, Polak, and Magyar! Lovely is
the Rhine! on its shelvy banks grows the racy grape; and strange old
keeps of robber-knights of yore are reflected in its waters, from
picturesque crags and airy headlands!--yet neither the stately Danube,
nor the beauteous Rhine, with all their fame, though abundant, needst
thou envy, thou pure island stream!--and far less yon turbid river of
old, not modern renown, gurgling beneath the walls of what was once proud
Rome, towering Rome, Jupiter's town, but now vile Rome, crumbling Rome,
Batuscha's town, far less needst thou envy the turbid Tiber of bygone
fame, creeping sadly to the sea, surcharged with the abominations of
modern Rome--how unlike to thee, thou pure island stream!"

In this passage Borrow concentrates upon one scene the feelings of three
remote periods of his life. He gives the outward scene as he remembers
it forty years after, and together with the thoughts which now come into
his mind. He gives the romantic suggestion from one of the favourite
ballads of his youth, "Elvir Hill." He gives the child himself weeping,
he knows not why. Yet the passage is one and indivisible.

These, at any rate, are not "lies--damned lies."

CHAPTER II--HIS OWN HERO

Borrow's principal study was himself, and in all his best books he is the
chief subject and the chief object. Yet when he came to write
confessedly and consecutively about himself he found it no easy task. Dr.
Knapp gives an interesting account of the stages by which he approached
and executed it. His first mature and original books, "The Zincali," or
"The Gypsies of Spain," and "The Bible in Spain," had a solid body of
subject matter more or less interesting in itself, and anyone with a pen
could have made it acceptable to the public which desires information.
"The Bible of Spain" was the book of the year 1843, read by everybody in
one or other of the six editions