Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ The peasant boy, who followed the coloured track of the rainbow, hoping to find the blue and charmed flower which springs where the arch touches earth, is wiser far than one who gives youth, genius, and time to literature. Half the exertion, and a tithe of the talent, would, if directed to another pursuit, win for him, if not 'golden opinions,' yet gold in reality; and what can make life endurable in this world but wealth? ”

“ Never till they deepen into the night of death! Buoyant and reckless spirit of my youth, all ye thousand hopes that bore me up as with the wings of an eagle, where are ye now? The knowledge I acquired, the fame for which I burned, the wealth I so coveted—all mine, yet not mine! And must all that makes life desirable be purchased but by the loss of life? Is this the secret of existence? At what a price of wretchedness must even this miserable and monotonous life be bought! My poor Ellen, what must my absence seem to her! ”

“ I forgot the sweet low voice that so often asked my opinion, the knowledge so unconsciously displayed of my pursuits, and the large black eyes whose every look was a flattery. I have often wondered why she willed to number me among her conquests: but, though I could not give rank or wealth, I could give a name; and, as we always tire of what we do possess, she might desire to exchange the present for the future; the poetry she could not feel, she wished to inspire. Or perhaps, to put it more simply—vanity, like all social vices, craves for novelty ”

“ Going into company purely as a relaxation, I enjoyed it,—to enjoy yourself is the easy method to give enjoyment to others; hence I became popular. My imagination, always on the alert to seek in real life materials for its solitude, flung its interest over every object. I was also lively. What a mistake it is to confound conversational vivacity with good spirits! Few persons who mix in society on the reputation of talent, but feel, or fancy, that there is a necessity for sustaining such reputation: the only method of accomplishing this is by saying something clever, or at least amusing. ”

“ I advise you to go home, and be bled and blistered," said Scott. "The broken neck of the auctioneer is just an unlucky coincidence."
"It is my terrible destiny!" cried Charles Smythe.
Wealth, wealth unbounded, and which every day some lucky chance served to increase, was now in Charles Smythe's possession—he had all of pleasure, all of luxury, excepting their enjoyment; for the weight was on his spirits, and the worm at his heart. His slightest wish was invariably accomplished; but at every wish the skin of shagreen diminished, and with it he felt his health and strength decline. ”

“ And there she dwelt, who might have given him wealth, love, and life; but who left him to penury, despair, and death. She—for whose sake he had abandoned all the pursuits that once made his hope and his happiness; who had turned his course of contented study into a delirious fever; who was the cause that he now stood on the threshold of the grave—why should she have freedom and wealth, while he was consumed by passion, and weighed down by poverty? ”

“ Who pauses to think in what poverty, in what obscurity, in what wretchedness, the writer of that noble ballad may have wasted a desolate and a disappointed existence? Did he die young, poisoned by the first draught of life and its sorrows? or did he drag on a weary old age, whose hope had long since perished? Who knows? and, alas! who cares? We take our pleasure, and we think not of gratitude. ”

“ So saying, an old woman hurried on, bending beneath a heavy basket; and at her side ran one of those wan, under-sized children, ragged, dirty, and meagre, among the most sorrowful spectacles of sorrowful humanity. Poverty is a terrible thing when it bows to the very ground the pride of the strong man—a terrible thing when it leaves old age destitute: still, the strong man may yet redeem his fortunes, and that old age may have had enjoyment while it was capable of enjoying. But a child, with the step slow from weakness, which from its age should be so buoyant ”

“ A few weeks saw him established in an upper room in one of those small gloomy streets made for the poor, and in which every city abounds, devoting himself to study and composition, with all the energy of hope, and the delight of present occupation. What a falsehood it is to say that genius and industry are incompatible! Does one work of genius exist that has not also been a work of labour?
"And yet," said Charles, "I cannot describe to you how my heart sunk within me when I first entered the gloomy attic, henceforth destined to be my home, my study, and where so much of my life was to pass. ”

“ From this Charles turned away: what sympathy had he with sunshine?—The genius of Salvator and of Byron alike asked immortality of pain. To the majority of mankind misery is a familiar thing: the dark colour and the mournful word find a home and an echo in every human heart.—Beneath stood a table made of mosaic from Pompeii. How many would admire the intricate blending of its varied colours, without giving a thought to the scene of mortal destruction and desolation from which it came! ”

“ The bright and buoyant month of June, the brightest of all our year, witnessed Charles Smythe's marriage. The bells were yet ringing a joyous peal, softened by the distance into music, as he stood with a folded paper in his hand by a small ebon escritoire. "Why," said he, "should I be weak enough to allow a vain delusion to prey upon my spirits and wear away my health? No doubt being exposed to the open air shrinks up the skin: for three months I will not look at it." ”

“ Charles was allowed little time to gaze by the impatient auctioneer, who pointed at once to the shagreen skin, which lay on a black oak table. He read the inscription; and a strange feeling of vague belief, and desire for its possession, entered his heart. One wish for wealth, and then every enjoyment was at his feet; and truly, a few years of life were a slight sacrifice, considering that they would be taken from his old age. ”

“ How terrible, when we think of what time may achieve, is the manner in which we waste it! At the end of every man's life, at least three-quarters of the mighty element of which that life was composed will be found void—lost—nay, utterly forgotten! And yet that time, laboured and husbanded, might have built palaces, gathered wealth, and, still greater, made an imperishable name. ”

“ Strange that this idea carried with it something of exultation! so much does the pride of man rejoice in aught that marks him from his fellows, and little does it seem to matter whether that mark be for good or for evil. There must be some deep-rooted anti-social principle in every man's nature, so dearly does he love aught that separates him from his kind; or is it but one of the many shapes taken by that mental kaleidoscope, vanity, the varying and the glittering, the desire of distinction, sinking into that of notice? Charles's was just an exciting consciousness ”

“ But Charles's spirits were too much those of feverish excitement to last. The jest died upon his lips; Scott's questions were first unanswered, and then unheard: he was only roused from contemplation by confidence.
We again repeat, that there is no temper so communicative as an imaginative one. The poet seems under a necessity of sharing with others the thoughts he has half-created and half-coloured—and among the most reserved of us, who has not experienced, at some time or other, that words had all the relief of tears? One feeling leads to another, in conversation as in every thing else ”

“ I rejoiced in my independence, and was careless about my poverty. I rather disdained than coveted the luxuries I saw: alas! we desire riches more for others than ourselves. What a precious thing would choice be to life! why have we not the sorrowful privilege of rejection? Why, when Laura wished to be introduced to me, did not some interior voice warn me of approaching misery? ”

“ Again, I feel that youth is rapidly passing, and with it that happiness which youth only can enjoy. What will it avail me, even if future years bring me pleasures for which I no longer care,—pleasures which, if I could command them now, would send the blood through my pulses as if it bore a thousand lives? ”

“ Cameron; "but you must make Charles have medical advice: he looks wretchedly ill, and grows worse every day."
He saw Ellen start, as if first awakened to the terrible consciousness of her husband's ill health—he saw her bow her face on her hands in an agony of tears; but he staid not to console her—his heart was hardened by the fear of death. "I have been married three months to-day; I will go and look at the skin of shagreen." ”

“ But most beautiful of all, shewing the deep delight the heart takes in loveliness, were the stands of many flowers. There they crowded in fragrant multitudes, each kind tied up in separate bunches; the yellow lupin, like "a clump of shining spears;" pinks, each with the dark central spot, like the purple and painted stain round the eye of an eastern sultana; the light branches of the small saffron flowers, of that deep blue so rare among "the painted populace," which seem to delight in gayer dyes; the sweet pea, with its wings of the butterfly, its colours of the rainbow ”

“ A merely well-born and well-educated young man is the most helpless object in nature. False shame is in him a principle, and the privation of poverty is nothing to its mortification. His habits are opposed to one means of maintenance, his feelings to a second, and his pride to a third. "Dig he cannot, and to beg he is ashamed."
But Charles Smythe had an energy that only required to be thrown upon its own resources, in order to find them. ”

“ He was rather past the middle age, intellectual in face, and stately in figure; but the face was pale and care-worn, and the figure bent, as if from physical weakness. The loose black gown in which he was wrapped, gave him the appearance of an invalid, or of a recluse, to whom dress was matter of indifference.
"You have seen the baubles I destine for the fools who may fancy them; they shall all be sent to the city in the course of to-morrow: prepare your rooms for their reception, and attend to the sale." ”

“ The room was filled with all that ingenuity could invent, or luxury wish—all that taste could select, or wealth purchase. The spoils of a palace built and furnished by the most magnificent of misanthropes—the collection of a life—were being dispersed in the caprice of a day. There was the alabaster vase, carved in snow, to which some spell had given stability ”

“ Not that we would detract one iota from the benevolence which does exist in humanity; there is both more gratitude and more cause for gratitude than it is the fashion now-a-days to admit: but this we do say, that the obligation is never from those on whom we have a claim. Kindness is always unexpected; and "overcomes us like a summer cloud," exciting our "special wonder" as well as thankfulness. In the present state of society, a noble name, without its better part—a noble fortune, is only an encumbrance to its owner. ”

“ You know that the many go into the world on the strength of rank or wealth—they have performed their part when they have shewn themselves, their diamonds, or their cashmeres; but you seem to have contracted a debt by your mere admission—and we are all naturally anxious to return an obligation. Soon this exertion for the amusement of others grows a habit—vanity as usual steps in, and then popularity becomes a passion. ”

“ Look at those vast edifices, so vast where space is such an object! There, while weeping for sorrows which are not, laughing at the light jest or the ludicrous misadventure, how little is remembered of the want which makes fear the only bond that binds the living to life! ”

“ The auctioneer had been watching his eager look, as one accustomed to drive a hard bargain eyes his customer: his whole plan of action was arranged. A plum being his own ultimatum of fortune and felicity, he supposed that would also be the aim of his visitor: twenty per cent was in his opinion fair profit—he must not expect too much from such a mere speculation.
"You see, sir," turning to Charles, "desperate diseases require desperate remedies—you cannot be worse off, and you may be better. ”

“ I rather think that noise is. Nothing so soon assembles the inhabitants of a house as a loud and sudden noise: it did so in the present instance.
"For the love of God, run for a surgeon; he is quite senseless!" And the first thing the friends saw was Mr. Greaves and the servant raising the body of the auctioneer.
Charles, faint and trembling, grasped the bannisters: Scott sprang forward.
"The whole College of Physicians can do him no good: he has broken his neck!"
"Do you now doubt," exclaimed Charles, "my fatal power? Behold how, within the last minute, the skin has shrunk!" ”