Charles Lamb died suddenly, from the effects of a slight accident, in 1834, being in his sixtieth year. Few literary men have passed away leaving more heart-felt regrets for the loss than did the gentle and loving author of "Essays of Elia." Of the character and influence of his works, Charles Knight thus writes:-"Few are his writings; but there are, in their way, not many higher things in any language. They are finished works of art. How did he form his style? It is the revelation of his own nature. It lets us into the innermost depths of the man. He has a large toleration of all human infirmity, and a cordial love of all human excellence. He delights in queer books, and queer men and women. He sees in what is called a character some rich fruit under a rough rind; and he gets at the juice through the husk in a way which is, to say the least, real philosophy. If any man thoroughly believed in the humanizing principle that 'there is a soul of goodness in things evil,' it was Charles Lamb." EXERCISE 1.-Define :-Thoroughfare, quaint, mental, remembrance, characteristics, parsonage, preceded, bard, mysteries, reechoed, geniality, attraction, pasturage. EXERCISE 2.-Write a short life of Charles Lamb, saying when and where he lived, his education, occupation, his associations and works, and his death, EXERCISE 3.-Describe Charles Lamb personally and as an author. ROSAMUND GRAY. CHAP. I. CHARLES. LAMB. Suspecting,having slight grounds Indiscriminate, without due se for belief. Calamity, trouble. Contributed, gave to a common stock. Argued, reasoned against. lection. Occasional, happening now and then. Resembling, being like in ap pearance. Courtesy, little outward marks Authority, the right to com- Contemplation, quiet thoughts upon. Reflective, looking back upon. Desolate, having nothing tending to cheer. Affectionate, loving. Benefactor, a doer of kind and generous deeds to others. Ir was noontide. The sun was very hot. An old gentlewoman sat spinning in a little arbour at the door of her cottage. She was blind, and her granddaughter was reading the Bible to her. The old lady had just left her work, to attend to the story of Ruth. "Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her." It was a passage she could not let pass without a comment. The moral she drew from it was not very new, to be sure. The girl had heard it a hundred times before, and a hundred times more she could have heard it without suspecting it to be tedious. Rosamund loved her grandmother. The old lady loved Rosamund too, and she had reason for so doing. Rosamund was to her at once a child and a servant. She had only her left in the world. They two lived together. They had once known better days. The story of Rosamund's parents, their failure, their folly, and distresses, may be told another time. Our tale hath grief enough in it. It was about a year and a half since old Margaret Gray had sold off all her effects, to pay the debts of Rosamund's father, just after the mother had died with a broken heart; for her husband had fled his country to hide his shame in a foreign land. At that period the old lady retired to a small cottage in the village of Widford in Hertfordshire. Rosamund, in her thirteenth year, was left destitute, without fortune or friends: she went with her grandmother. In all this time she had served her faithfully and lovingly. Old Margaret Gray, when she first came into these parts, had eyes, and could see. The neighbours said they had been dimmed by weeping. Be that as it may, she was latterly grown quite blind. "God is very good to us, child; I can feel you yet." This she would sometimes say, and we need not wonder to hear that Rosamund clave unto her grandmother. Margaret retained a spirit unbroken by calamity. There was a principle within, which it seemed as if no outward. circumstances could reach. It was a religious principle;. and she taught it to Rosamund, for the girl had mostly resided with her grandmother from her earliest years: indeed, she had taught her all that she knew herself, and the old lady's knowledge did not extend a vast way. Margaret had drawn her maxims from observation, and a pretty long experience in life had contributed to make her, at times, a little positive; but Rosamund never argued with her grandmother. Their library consisted chiefly in a large family Bible, with notes and expositions by various learned expositors, from Bishop Jewell downwards. This might never be suffered to lie about like other books, but was kept constantly wrapped up in a handsome case of green velvet, with gold tassels—the only relic of departed grandeur they had brought with them to the cottage; everything else of value had been sold off for the purpose above-mentioned. This Bible Rosamund, when a child, had never dared to open without permission, and even yet, from habit, continued the custom. Margaret had parted with none of her authority; indeed it was never exerted with much harshness ; and happy was Rosamund, though a girl grown, when she could obtain leave to read her Bible. It was a treasure too valuable for an indiscriminate use; and Margaret still pointed out to her granddaughter where to read. Besides this, they had the "Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation," with cuts; "Pilgrim's Progress;" the first part of a cookery book, with a few dry sprigs of rosemary and lavender stuck here and there between the leaves (I suppose to point to some of the old lady's most favourite receipts); and there was Withers' "Emblems," an old book and quaint. The old-fashioned pictures in this last book were among the first exciters of the infant Rosamund's curiosity. Her contemplation had fed upon them in rather older years. Rosamund had not read many books besides these; or, if any, they had been only occasional companions: these were to Rosamund as old friends, that she had long known. I know not whether the peculiar cast of her mind might not be traced, in part, to a tincture she had received, early in life, from Walton and Withers, from John Bunyan and her Bible. Rosamund's mind was pensive and reflective, rather than what passes generally for clever and acute. From a child she was remarkably shy and thoughtful; this was taken for stupidity and want of feeling, and the child had been sometimes whipped for being a stubborn thing, till her little heart was almost bursting with affection. Even now her grandmother would often reprove her when she found her too grave or melancholy; give her sprightly lectures about good humour and rational mirth, and not unfrequently fall a-crying herself, to the great discredit of her lecture. These tears endeared her the more to Rosamund. Margaret would say, " Child, I love you to cry, when I think you are only remembering your poor dear father and mother; I would have you think about them sometimes; it would be strange if you did not; but I fear, Rosamund-I fear, girl, you sometimes think too deeply about your own situation and poor prospects in life. When you do so, you do wrong. Remember the naughty rich man in the parable. He never had any good thoughts about God. and His religion; and that might have been your case." Rosamund, at these times, could not reply to her; she was not in the habit of arguing with her grandmother, so she was quite silent on these occasions, or else the girl knew well enough herself that she had only been sad to think of the desolate condition of her best friend, to see her, in her old age, so infirm and blind. But she had never been used to make excuses when the old lady said she was doing wrong. The neighbours were all very kind to them. The veriest rustics never passed them without a bow or a pulling off the hat some show of courtesy, awkward indeed but affectionate, with a "Good-morrow, madam," or "young madam," as it might happen. Rude and savage natures, who seem born with a propensity to express contempt for everything that looks like prosperity, yet felt respect for its declining lustre. The farmers, and better sort of people, as they are called, all promised to provide for Rosamund, when her grandmother should die. Margaret trusted in God and believed them. She used to say, “I have lived many years in the world, and have never known people, good people, to be left without some friend, a relation, a benefactor, a something. God knows our wants, that it is not good for man or woman to be alone; and He always sends us a helpmate, a leaningplace, a somewhat." Upon this sure ground of experience did Margaret build her trust in Providence. EXERCISE 1.-Define :-Tedious, retired, resided, observation, relic, permission, rosemary, lavender, curiosity, peculiar, affection, awkward, receipts, passive. EXERCISE 2.-Describe the good qualities of Bosamund as a granddaughter. |