Not with more joy the school-boys run To the gay green fields, when their task is done; Not with more haste the members fly, When Hume has caught the Speaker's eye. At last the daylight came; and then Had happened to their lord and master, Within the sound of the castle-clock At the base of the black and beetling cliff. EVERY-DAY CHARACTERS. I. THE VICAR. SOME years ago, ere Time and Taste Back flew the bolt of lisson lath; Fair Margaret in her tidy kirtle, Led the lorn traveller up the path, Through clean-clipt rows of box and myrtle: And Don and Sancho, Tramp and Tray, Upon the parlor steps collected, Wagged all their tails and seemed to say, "Our master knows you; you're expected!" Up rose the Reverend Dr. Brown, Up rose the Doctor's "winsome marrow;" The lady lay her knitting down, Her husband clasped his ponderous Barrow; Whate'er the stranger's caste or creed, Pundit or papist, saint or sinner, He found a stable for his steed, And welcome for himself, and dinner. If, when he reached his journey's end, And twenty curious scraps of knowledge;If he departed as he came, With no new light on love or liquor,Good sooth, the traveller was to blame, And not the Vicarage, or the Vicar. His talk was like a stream which runs It passed from Mahomet to Moses: The planets in their radiant courses, And ending with some precept deep For dressing ells or shoeing horses. He was a shrewd and sound divine, Of loud Dissent and mortal terror; And when, by dint of page and line, He 'stablished Truth, or started Error, The Baptist found him far too deep; The Deist sighed with saving sorrow; And the lean Levite went to sleep, And dreamed of tasting pork to-morrow. His sermon never said or showed That Earth is foul, that Heaven is gracious, Without refreshment on the road From Jerome, or from Athanasius; And sure a righteous zeal inspired The hand and head that penned and planned them, For all who understood, admired, And some who did not understand them. He wrote, too, in a quiet way, Small treatises, and smaller verses; He did not think all mischief fair, Although he had a taste for smoking: He held, in spite of all his learning, That if a man's belief is bad, It will not be improved by burning. And he was kind, and loved to sit And when his hand unbarred the shutter, The clammy lips of Fever smiled The welcome which they could not utter. He always had a tale for me Of Julius Cæsar or of Venus: From him I learned the rule of three, Cat's cradle, leap-frog, and Quæ genus; I used to singe his powdered wig, To steal the staff he put such trust in; And make the puppy dance a jig When he began to quote Augustin. Alack the change! in vain I look For haunts in which my boyhood trifled; The level lawn, the trickling brook, The trees I climbed, the beds I rifled : The church is larger than before; And pews are fitted Sit in the Vicar's seat: you'll hear The doctrine of a gentle Johnian, Whose hand is white, whose tone is clear, Whose tone is very Ciceronian. |