William Hone

“ Society to regulation tends, As naturally as means pursue their ends; The wit of man could never yet invent, A way of life without a government; And government has always been begun, In those who, to be govern'd, gave the crown. He that would other schemes of rule contrive And search for powers the people could not give, Must seek a spring which can those powers convey, And seek a People too that will obey. At length paternal rule was less complete, And as mankind increas'd became unfit; The petty Lords grow quarrelsome and proud, And plunge their little governments in blood. ”

“ The rich glow of summer is seldom in perfection till August. We now enjoy settled hot weather, a glowing sky, with varied and beautiful, but not many clouds, and delightfully fragrant and cool evenings. The golden yellow of the ripe corn, the idea of plenty inspired by the commencing harvest of wheat, the full and mature appearance of the foliage, in short the tout ensemble of nature at this time is more pleasing than perhaps that of any of the other summer months. ”

“ THE EVENING LARK. For the Table Book.
I love thee better at this hour, when rest
Is shadowing earth, than e’en the nightingale:
The loudness of thy song that in the morn
Rang over heaven, the day has softened down
To pensive music.
In the evening, the body relaxed by the toil of the day, disposes the mind to quietness and contemplation. The eye, dimmed by close application to books or business, languishes for the greenness of the fields; the brain, clouded by the smoke and vapour of close rooms and crowded streets, droops for the fragrance of fresh breezes, and sweet smelling flowers. ”

“ Fat, fifty-eight, and frisky, still a beau, Grasping a half-made match; by Leech-light go; Led by a passion, prurient, blind, and letter'd, Lame, bloated, pointless, flameless, age'd and shatter'd; Creeping, like Guy Fawkes, to blow up his wife, Whom, spurn'd in youth, he dogs through after-life. Scorn'd, exiled, baffled, goaded in distress, She owes her safety to a fearless Press: With all the freedom that it makes its own, It guards, alike, the people and their throne; While fools with darkling eye-balls shun its gaze, And soaring villains scorch beneath its blaze. ”

“ Here are seen Norwood, Shooter’s-hill, Seven Droog Castle, Peckham, Walworth, Greenwich, Deptford, and bounding the horizon, the vast gloom of Epping Forest. What a holiday! What a feast for the mind, the eye, and the heart! A few paces from us we suddenly discerned a humble, aged, wintry object, sitting as if in mockery of the golden sunbeam which played across his furrowed cheek. The philanthropy of the good and gentle Elia inspired our hearts on viewing this “dim speck,” this monument of days gone by. Love is charity, and it was charitable thus to love. ”

“ You smell the wholesome, and we may truly say, aromatic soil, as it is turned up to the sun, brown and rich, the whole country over. It is delightful as you pass along deep hollow lanes, or are hidden in copses, to hear the tinkling gears of the horses, and the clear voices of the lads calling to them. It is not less pleasant to catch the busy caw of the rookery, and the first meek cry of the young lambs. The hares are hopping about the fields, the excitement of the season overcoming their habitual timidity. The bees are revelling in the yellow catkins of the sallow. ”

“ So men of blood, incited by its taste, By lust of rule urged on, laid England waste; Oppression then upon oppression grew, One royal wretch another overthrew; They made a football of the People's crown, And brother-tyrant brother-king pull'd down, Succeeding robberies revenged the past, And every age of crime outdid the last. Look on once more—the tangled line survey, By which kings claim to bind men to obey. ”

“ A common meadow is a sorry thing to a ditcher or a coxcomb; but by the help of its dues from imagination and the love of nature, the grass brightens for us, the air soothes us, we feel as we did in the daisied hours of childhood. Its verdures, its sheep, its hedge-row elms,—all these, and all else which sight, and sound, and association can give it, are made to furnish a treasure of pleasant thoughts. Even brick and mortar are vivified, as of old at the harp of Orpheus. A metropolis becomes no longer a mere collection of houses or of trades. ”

“ The dinner once despatched, the flowing bowl succeeds, and the sparkling glass flies to and fro like a weaver’s shuttle. As it continues its rounds, the spirits of the company become the more jovial and happy. Animated by its cheering influence, even old decrepitude no longer feels his habitual pains—the fire of youth is in his eye, as he details to the company the exploits which distinguished him in the days of “auld langsyne;” while the young, with hearts inflamed with “love and glory,” long to mingle in the more lively scenes of mirth, to display their prowess and agility. ”

“ Kings spurn at limitations, laws, and rules, And rob mankind—because mankind are fools; Wheedled to act against their common sense, To jumble tyranny with providence; To hope from God what God expects from them, For what they ought to do, look up to Him; Leave unperform'd the duties which they know, And lift up hands they should employ below! Christians must no more miracles expect, The men that will be slaves, He'll not protect; God never will our base petitions hear, Till our endeavours supersede our prayer; Not always then; but nation's may be sure, The willing bondage ever shall endure. ”

“ Brighton stands facing the sea, on the bare cliffs, with glazed windows to reflect the glaring sun, and black pitchy bricks shining like the scales of fishes. The town is however gay with the influx of London visiters—happy as the conscious abode of its sovereign! Every thing here appears in motion—coming or going. People at a watering-place may be compared to the flies of a summer; or to fashionable dresses, or suits of clothes, walking about the streets. The only idea you gain is, of finery and motion. The road between London and Brighton, presents some very charming scenery ”

“ All is dreary and repelling. No gentle face welcomes his arrival—no loving hand meets his—no kind looks answer the listless gaze he throws round the apartment as he enters. He sits down to a book—alone. There is no one sitting by his side to enjoy with him the favourite passage, the apt remark, the just criticism—no eyes in which to read his own feelings—his own tastes are unappreciated and unreflected—he has no resource but himself—no one to look up to but himself—all his enjoyment, all his happiness must emanate from himself. ”

“ The woods, as well as the single timber trees that occasionally start up with such fine effect from out of the hedge-rows, or in the midst of meadows and corn-fields, we shall now find sprinkled with what at first looks like gleams of scattered sunshine lying among the leaves, but what, on examination, we shall find to be the new foliage that has been put forth since midsummer, and which yet retains all the brilliant green of the spring. ”

“ Stretching half over the boxes at the theatre, adorned by maternal love, see their enraptured faces now turned to the galleries wondering at their height and at the number of regular placed heads contained in them, now directed towards the green cloud which is so lingeringly kept between them and their promised bliss. The half-peeled orange laid aside when the play begins; their anxiety for that which they understand; their honest laughter which runs through the house like a merry peal of sweet bells; the fear of the little girl lest they should discover the person hid behind the screen ”

“ To-day the monarch glories in his crown, A soldier thief to-morrow knocks him down, And calls the fancied right divine his own! In the next age that 'rightful' Lord's forgot, And rampant treason triumphs on the spot: Success gives title, makes possession just, For if the fates obey, the subjects must. We should be last of all that should pretend, The long descent of princes to defend; Since, if hereditary right's the claim, The English line has forty times been lame; Of all the nations in the world, there's none Have less of true succession in their crown. ”

“ Are glad to be a mercenary Painter.
Lass. A Painter, fair Lucilia: why, the world
With all her beauty was by PAINTING made.
Look on the heavens, colour’d with golden stars,
The firmamental part of it all blue.
Look on the air, where with an hundred changes
The watery rainbow doth embrace the earth.
Look on the summer fields, adorn’d with flowers,
How much is Nature’s painting honour’d there.
Look in the mines, and on the eastern shore,
Where all our metals and dear gems are drawn;
Though fair themselves, made better by their foils. ”

“ I love to see the smooth dry track, winding away in easy curves, along some green slope, to the churchyard, to the embosomed cottage, or to the forest grange. It is to me an object of certain inspiration. It seems to invite one from noise and publicity, into the heart of solitude and of rural delights. It beckons the imagination on, through green and whispering corn fields, through the short but verdant pasture; the flowery mowing-grass; the odorous and sunny hayfield; the festivity of harvest ”

“ The conquer'd nation—fell a dear bought prey, And Britain's island, Saxon Lords obey: The shouting troops their victories proclaim, And load their chiefs with royalty and fame: The garland of their triumphs was their crown, Mob set them up, and rabble pull'd them down! Fighting was all the merit they could bring, The bloodiest wretch appear'd the bravest King! Nor did his kingship any longer last, Than till by some more powerful rogue displaced. In spoil and blood was fix'd the right divine. ”

“ The graces of outside strokes, and spread eagles, are the work of time and ambition.
But December has one circumstance in it, which turns it into the merriest month of the year,—Christmas. This is the holiday, which, for obvious reasons, may be said to have survived all the others; but still it is not kept with any thing like the vigour, perseverance, and elegance of our ancestors. They not only ran Christmas-day, new-year’s-day, and twelfth-night, all into one, but kept the wassail-bowl floating the whole time, and earned their right to enjoy it by all sorts of active pastimes. ”

“ Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds nowhere more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a Sunday dress, casts a look of disdain upon a bundle of rags; it boasts the honour of a family, while poverty unites a sole and upper leather with a bandage of shop-thread. There are people who even pride themselves upon humility. ”

“ The voice of man is no longer heard, hailing her approach as she hastens to bless him; and his choral symphonies no longer meet and bless her in return—bless her by letting her behold and hear the happiness that she comes to create. The soft songs of women are no longer blended with her breath as it whispers among the new leaves; their slender feet no longer trace her footsteps in the fields and woods and wayside copses, or dance delighted measures round the flowery offerings that she prompted their lovers to place before them on the village green. ”

“ At the close of this day he who can reflect with satisfaction on the past, may anticipate with calm delight the entrance of the new year, and lift his eyes to the living lustres of the firmament with grateful feelings. They shine out their prismatic colours through the cold thin air, keeping watch while man slumbers, or cheering him, who contemplates their fires, to purposes of virtue. ”

“ Trace the first Tyrants to their fancied thrones, Placed in that heaven that all their crimes disowns:— If in the Royal lists some monsters reign'd, Abborr'd by heaven, and hated by mankind, By lust and blood exalted to a throne, For all the exquisites of Tyrant known, The meaner name of monarch they despise, Alive, usurp the throne, and dead, the skies; Above the clouds th' incarnate devil stands, And nations worship with polluted hands! ”

“ A shepherd lies down at ease by the sides of his flocks and fountains, listens to the plaints of injured birds, the voice of water and the music of skies, and dreams away his existence, years of youth, manhood, and old age. Jack is more tranquil even than the shepherd. He creeps silently in woods and forests, and on retired hot banks, in search of serpentine amusement—he is a viper catcher. ”

“ It was twilight; the green of the distant hills changed to a greyish hue, their outlines were enlarged, the trees assumed a more gigantic appearance, and soft dews began to ascend; faint upshootings of light in the eastern horizon foretold the rising of the moon; she appeared at length above the clouds, and a deeper stillness seemed to come with her, as if nature, like man at the presence of a lovely women, was hushed into silent admiration; the grey clouds rolled away on each side of her as rolls the white foam of the ocean before the bows of the vessel ”

“ Oh, spare thy poor lion the pangs of such a death as may perhaps be his,—save him from being torn to pieces—have pity on the dogs that may be torn by him. Spare the horrid spectacle—spare thyself the sufferings that I fear will yet reach thee if thou persist—show a noble example of humanity. Whoever have persuaded thee to expose thy lion to the chance of being torn to pieces, or of tearing other animals, are far beneath the brutes they torment, are unworthy the name of men, or rational creatures. ”

“ Art may by mighty dams keep out the tide, Check the strong current, and its streams divide; Pen up the rising waters, and deny The easy waves to glide in silence by: But if the river is restrain'd too long, It swells in silence to resent the wrong; With fearful force breaks opposition down, And claims its native freedom for its own. So Tyranny may govern for a time, Till Nature drowns the tyrants with their crime! ”

“ There, too, I have heard a company of merry-hearted labourers and holiday-making journeymen, who had straggled away from their smithies and furnaces in the lanes of London, to breathe the fresh air, pealing out loud laughter, while the birds whistled over their heads from the slender branches of the green elms. In the old man I saw nothing but unremitting industry; and in his customers nothing but rude yet inoffensive good-nature. He was getting his bread by the sweat of his brow, and his brow was daily moistened by labour. ”

“ As soon as the victim is dead, a great carnage begins. Every Moor sacrifices, according to his means, one or more sheep, and this in the open street; the blood streams down on all sides; men and women imbrue themselves in it as much as they please; they cry, sing, dance, and endeavour to manifest the joy that animates them in a thousand forms. As soon as night appears, the town resounds with discharges of musketry, and it is not till the end of eight days that this charming festival concludes. ”

“ Even the poor charity-boy at this season feels a transient glow of cheerfulness, as with pale blue face, frost-nipped hands and ungreatcoated, from door to door, he timidly displays the unblotted scutcheon of his graphic talents, and feels that the pence bestowed are his own, and that for once in his life he may taste the often desired tart, or spin a top which no one can snatch from him in capricious tyranny. ”

“ When settled peace in stated order reigns, And, nor the nation, nor the king complains; If kings may ravish, plunder, and destroy, Oppress the world, and all its wealth enjoy; May harass nations, with their breath may kill, And limit liberty by royal will; Then was the world for ignorance design'd, And God gave kings to blast the human mind; And Kings but general farmers of the land; And men their stock for slaughter at command; Mere beasts of draught, to crouch and be opprest, Whom God, the mighty landlord, form'd in jest. ”

“ But the flights of poetry can seldom bear to be shackled by homely truth, and if we are to receive the fine imagery, that places the summit of this rock in clouds brooding eternal mists and tempests—that represents it as inaccessible, even to a man provided with twenty hands and twenty feet, and immerses its base among ravenous sea-dogs;—why not also receive the whole circle of mythological dogmas of Homer, who, though so frequently dragged forth as an authority in history, theology, surgery, and geography, ought in justice to be read only as a poet. ”

“ It is there that he gazes upon the gorgeous sunset,—the evening star following with silvery lamp the fading day, or the moon showering her pale lustre through the balmy night air, with a fancy that kindles and soars into the heavens before him,—there, that we have all felt the charm of woods and green fields, and solitary boughs waving in the golden sunshine, or darkening in the melancholy beauty of evening shadows. ”

“ The earth puts on her livery to await the call of her lord; the air breathes gently on his cheek, and conducts to his ear the warblings of the birds, and the odours of new-born herbs and flowers; the great eye of the world “sees and shines” with bright and gladdening glances; the waters teem with life, man himself feels the revivifying and all-pervading influence ”

“ The mighty wretches dwell among the stars, And vice in virtue's glorious robes appears; And Poets celebrate their praises there, As Indians worship Devils that they fear! Yet let us look around the world awhile, And find a Patron-God for Albion's Isle; Has she so many Tyrants borne in vain? Has she no Star in the celestial train? Heaven knows, the difficulty only lies, In who's the fittest monster for the skies!— Satire, reflect with care, due caution give, Some ———— are dead, beware of those that live. If thou too near the present age begin, Truth will be crime, and courage will be sin! ”

“ The fair creation of nature, and the works of man afford him a wide field of continual gratification. The brook, brawling over its bed of rocks or pebbles, half concealed by the overhanging bushes that fringe its banks—or the great river flowing, in unperturbed majesty, through a wide vale of peace and plenty, or forcing its passage through a lofty range of opposing hills—the gentle knoll, and the towering mountain—the rocky dell, and the awful precipice—the young plantation, and the venerable forest, are alike to him objects of interest and of admiration. ”

“ They seem flushed with life. Their boughs are of a clear and glossy lead colour, and the tree-tops are rich with the vigorous hues of brown, red, and purple; and if you plunge into their solitudes, there are symptoms of revivification under your feet, the springing mercury, and green blades of the blue-bells—and perhaps, above you, the early nest of the missel-thrush perched between the boughs of a young oak, to tinge your thoughts with the anticipation of summer. ”

“ We all love what nature proffers to our enjoyment. Now—the humble tenant of the lofty attic in the metropolis, cultivates a few flowers in garden pots, within the ridge of the parapet that bounds the eye from all things but sky and clouds; and when he can, walks with his wife in search of fields where grass grows and cattle feed. Now—the better conditioned take a trip a few miles beyond the suburbs, and all manifest hopes or wishes for prolonged enjoyment of the country in the approaching summer. ”

“ Again their blood the Saxon chariots stains, And heaps of heroes strew th' ensanguin'd plains; Thus, though they leave the world, they keep the field, And thus their lives, but not their freedom yield. Three hundred years of bloody contest past, Plunder'd at first, and dispossest at last, The few remains, with freedom still inspir'd, To Western mountains, to resist retired; Their dear abandon'd country thence they view, And thence their thirst of Liberty renew; Offers of peaceful bondage they defy, What's peace to man without his liberty? ”

“ THE LINNET FANCY. To the Editor of the Table Book.
It is my fantasie to have these things,
For they amuse me in my moody hours:
Their voices waft my soul into the woods:
Where bends th’ enamour’d willow o’er the stream,
They make sweet melody.
Of all the earthly things by which the brain of man is twisted and twirled, heated and cooled, fancy is the most powerful. Like a froward wife, she invariably leads him by the nose, and almost every man is in some degree ruled by her. ”

“ What is so linked with our rural tastes, our sweetest memories, and our sweetest poetry, as stiles and fieldpaths? Goldsmith, Thomson, and Milton have adorned them with some of their richest wreaths. They have consecrated them to poetry and love. It is along the footpath in secluded fields,—upon the stile in the embowered lane,—where the wild-rose and the honey-suckle are lavishing their beauty and their fragrance, that we delight to picture to ourselves rural lovers, breathing in the dewy sweetness of a summer evening vows still sweeter. ”

“ Beyond what oldest history relates, While kings had people, people magistrates; Nations, e'er since there has been king or crown, Have pull'd down tyrants to preserve the throne. The laws of nature then, as still they do, Taught them, their rights and safety to pursue; That if a king, who should protect, destroys, He forfeits all the sanction he enjoys.
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There's not a nation ever own'd a crown, But if their kings opprest them, pull'd them down; Concurring Providence has been content, And always blest the action in th' event. ”