FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104  
105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  
e old man be led on his path and the child left thinking. Man should not dispute or assert, but whisper results to his Neighbour, and thus, by every germ of spirit sucking the sap from mould ethereal, every human might become great, and humanity instead of being a wide heath of furze and briars, with here and there a remote Oak or Pine, would become a grand democracy of forest trees. It has been an old comparison for urging on--the bee-hive--however it seems to me that we should rather be the flower than the Bee--for it is a false notion that more is gained by receiving than giving--no, the receiver and the giver are equal in their benefits. The flower, I doubt not, receives a fair guerdon from the Bee--its leaves blush deeper in the next spring--and who shall say between Man and Woman which is the most delighted? Now it is more noble to sit like Jove than to fly like Mercury:--let us not therefore go hurrying about and collecting honey, {124} bee-like, buzzing here and there impatiently from a knowledge of what is to be arrived at. But let us open our leaves like a flower, and be passive and receptive; budding patiently under the eye of Apollo and taking hints from every noble insect that favours us with a visit--Sap will be given us for meat, and dew for drink. (_Letters_.) THOMAS CARLYLE 1795-1881 THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES One finds that in the second week in June Colonel de Choiseul is privately in Paris; having come "to see his children." Also that Fersen has got a stupendous new Coach built, of the kind named _Berline_; done by the first artists; according to a model: they bring it home to him, in Choiseul's presence; the two friends take a proof-drive in it, along the streets; in meditative mood; then send it up to "Madame Sullivan's, in the Rue de Clichy," far north, to wait there till wanted. Apparently a certain Russian Baroness de Korff, with Waiting-woman, Valet, and two Children, will travel homewards with some state: in whom these young military gentlemen take interest? A Passport has been procured for her, and much assistance shewn, with Coachbuilders and such-like;--so helpful-polite are young military men. . . These are the Phenomena, or visual Appearances, of this wide-working terrestrial world: which truly is all phenomenal, what they call spectral; and never rests at any moment; one never at any moment can know why. On Monday night, the Twentieth of June 1791, about eleven o'c
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104  
105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  



Top keywords:
flower
 

leaves

 

military

 
Choiseul
 
moment
 
Berline
 

streets

 

friends

 

meditative

 

Madame


Sullivan
 
VARENNES
 

Colonel

 

Clichy

 

children

 

Fersen

 

stupendous

 

presence

 

privately

 

artists


terrestrial
 

working

 

phenomenal

 
Appearances
 

polite

 
helpful
 
visual
 

Phenomena

 

spectral

 

Twentieth


eleven

 

Monday

 
Waiting
 
travel
 

Children

 
Baroness
 

Russian

 

wanted

 

Apparently

 

homewards


procured

 

assistance

 
Coachbuilders
 

Passport

 
gentlemen
 
interest
 

budding

 

comparison

 
urging
 

forest