Dulness

“ In life were remember joy best--that is what makes us sad by contrast; pain somewhat, especially if it is acute; but dulness never. And a book--which has it in its own power to choose and to emphasize--has no business to record dulness. ”

“ The dreariest thing in life is dulness—monotony. The brightest thing in life is outlook—vision. And God has given us that. Like St. John we too can stand on the rim of the world and look out over the wall. ”

“ And this is it which men call dulness, and proceedeth from the appetite of sensual or bodily delight. And it may well be conjectured, that such passion hath its beginning from a grossness and difficulty of the motion of the spirit about the heart. ”

“ Thou knowest the dulness and hardness, the vanity and deceitfulness of them: we were born sinners, and so have we lived. We have added sin to sin. We have abused thy great and manifold mercies, tempted thy patience, and despised thy goodness. And justly mightest thou have cast us into outer darkness, where is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But of thy loving kindnesses there is no number. Thou still callest us to return to thee: and whosoever cometh to thee, thou wilt in no wise cast out. O meet us with thy heavenly grace, that we may be able to come to thee. ”

“ No woman, and you ought to know this, will be willing to elbow in your heart the phantom whom you hold there. You ask me to love you out of Christian charity. I could do much, I candidly admit, for charity; in fact I could do all—except love. You are sometimes wearisome and wearied; you call your dulness melancholy. ”

“ It is, no doubt, dull, but with the soberminded a large and spacious dulness like that of Hansard's Debates is better than the incongruous chirpings of the new 'humourists.' Besides, its dulness is exaggerated. If a reader cannot extract amusement from it the fault is his, not Hansard's. But, indeed, this perpetual talk of dulness and amusement ought not to pass unchallenged. Since when has it become a crime to be dull? Our fathers were not ashamed to be dull in a good cause. We are ashamed, but without ceasing to be dull. ”

“ In place of the weariness, dulness, and indifference toward every thing in the world, which I had been feeling the moment before, I experienced a necessity for love, a fulness of hope, and an unbounded enjoyment of life. ”

“ There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dulness. I need only suggest what kind of sermons are still listened to in the most enlightened countries. There are such words as joy and sorrow, but they are only the burden of a psalm, sung with a nasal twang, while we believe in the ordinary and mean. We think that we can change our clothes only. ”

“ Even the Malicious, though they may like the Libel, don’t always believe it. But since the Publication of your last new Dunciad (where you still seem to enjoy your so often repeated Glory of being bright upon my Dulness) my Friends now insist, that it will be thought Dulness indeed, or a plain Confession of my being a Bankrupt in Wit, if I don’t immediately answer those Bills of Discredit you have drawn upon me: For, say they, your dealing with him, like a Gentleman, in your Apology for your own Life, &c. ”

“ I should die of dulness; if there is danger in a life of freedom, there is pleasure too, which you cannot enjoy, shut up in, a wooden cage, and fed at the will of a master or mistress.—Well, I shall be shot if the Indians awake and see me ”

“ This dismal piece of verse effectually cleared the smoking-room, and filled me with a great sorrow, since{271} I had just recollected three or four stories of my own. I now take the liberty of laying these before the ingenuous reader. If he says they are dull, let me tell him (i.) that he has no perception of humour, and (ii.) that occasional dulness is the inalienable privilege of every free-born Briton. Many a spry wight thinks it his duty to be continuously funny and monotonously merry. Let a quiet and demure dulness be the foil of your side-splitting sallies. ”

“ And this is the case of those who waste their time in sleep; it does not disorder their lives, or wound their consciences, as notorious acts of intemperance do; but, like any other more moderate course of indulgence, it silently, and by smaller degrees, wears away the spirit of religion, and sinks the soul into a state of dulness and sensuality. ”

“ The quiet assumption of Dulness for the highest point of desirable human attainment—the good-nature and indulgent parental concern of the wish to save the younger emulator of his own glory from spending superfluous pains on a consummation sure to come of itself—the confidence of the veteran Dullard in the blood of the race, and in the tried and undegenerate worth of his successor—the sufficient direction of a life and reign comprehended, summed up, concentrated in the one master-precept—"do not labour to be dull"—are inimitable. You feel the high artist, whom experience has made bold ”

“ Peter was dull—he was at first
Dull—oh, so dull—so very dull!
Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed— _705
Still with this dulness was he cursed—
Dull—beyond all conception—dull. ”

“ These are the natural associates of Madam Dull. The danger of dulness, whether natural or acquired, is the danger of complacently lingering among stupid and conventional ideas, and losing all the bright interchange of the larger world. ”

“ We may provide against this inconstancy of our hearts, by having at hand such forms of prayer, as may best suit us when our hearts are in their best state, and also be most likely to stir them up, when they are sunk into dulness. ”

“ In peace, great Goddess, ever be ador'd;
120 How keen the war, if Dulness draw the sword!
Thus visit not thy own! on this blest age
Oh spread thy Influence, but restrain thy Rage.
And see, my son! the hour is on its way,
That lifts our Goddess to imperial sway;
125 This fav'rite Isle, long sever'd from her reign,
Dove-like, she gathers [R 21] to her wings again. ”

“ Whether it be the instinctive property of dulness to be dark, and bewildered, in proportion to the efforts it makes to be bright and perspicuous, or that though he has much reading, he has not enough for the office he has arrogated, it is certain that his book abounds with so many blunders, and overflows with so much presumption, that it seems a sort of mixed animal, engendered be-47tween a persevering dulness on one side, and an envious mind on the other. ”

“ Tears gush'd again, as from pale Priam's eyes,
When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.
Rous'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head,
Then snatch'd a sheet of Thulé from her bed;
Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre:
Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire.
Her ample presence fills up all the place;
A veil of fogs dilates her awful face:
Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and Mayors
She looks, and breathes herself into their airs. ”

“ But as it cannot consist with his modesty to claim this as a justice, it lies not on him, but entirely on the public, to defend its own judgment.
There remains what in my opinion might seem a better plea for these people, than any they have made use of. If Obscurity or Poverty were to exempt a man from satyr, much more should Folly or Dulness, which are still more involuntary; nay, as much so as personal Deformity. But even this will not help them: Deformity be comes an object of Ridicule when a man sets up for being handsome; and so must Dulness when he sets up for a Wit. ”

“ What can I now? my Fletcher cast aside,
Take up the Bible, once my better guide?
Or tread the path by venturous heroes trod,
This box my Thunder, this right hand my God?
Or chair'd at White's, amidst the doctors sit,
Teach oaths to Gamesters, and to Nobles Wit?
O bidd'st thou rather Party to embrace?
(A friend to party thou, and all her race;
'T is the same rope at diff'rent ends they twist;
To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist;)
Shall I, like Curtius, desp'rate in my zeal,
O'er head and ears plunge for the Commonweal? ”

“ On page 5 the same space exists in both issues between "F" and "i" of "First" in the running head-line; on page 23, line 159, the misprint "spirits" occurs in both issues. In the note on page 5 "Interlude" of the first issue is changed to "Enterlude" in the second.
In the first issue the verso of H2 is blank; in the second it contains an announcement: "Speedily will be Published The Progress of Dulness, an Historical Poem. By an Eminent Hand. Price 1s. 6d."
Signature A of the first issue is not lettered ”

“ To love with an infinite love, and with the divine beauty of our desire ever beyond our reach, as was the Dulcinea he so passionately loved! Folly! To walk with the soul ever fronting the ideal, along the rough and prosaic path of human realities, which is like running after one of heaven's stars through crags and rocky places. ”

“ To know that a stain lies on the man I [195] love, to know that others distrust him, and will forever pass him by on the other side. That is the horror. Dulce, I am ignoble, I fear many things; the future terrifies me; but yet, as I am so wretched, dear, dear Dulce, take me back into your heart! ”

“ Dulce, clad all in severe black, with her hands crossed upon her knees, like a small devotee, is looking straight before her at nothing particular, and is utterly unconscious that the strange young man in the "Fens" pew is regarding her with an amount of attention he has certainly not expended on his prayers. ”

“ Is the man I love duly
On the earth, or under the sod,
Sick or well,—in the name of God?”
Some minutes passed in perfect silence, and anxiety was rapidly turning cheeks and lips pale, when the colour rapidly returned. There was a gush of clear water from below, bubble rapidly followed bubble, sparkling brightly in the morning sunshine. Full of joy, the young mother rose from her knees, kissed her child, and exclaimed, “I am happy now!” ”

“ How do you show your goodness, girls, my ducy, dulcy day?'
'We all do as we're bidden, sir, my ducy, dulcy officer,
We all do as we're bidden, sir, my ducy, dulcy day.'
'Then I bid you stop your game, stop your game, stop your game,
Then I bid you stop your game, my ducy, dulcy day.'
'No, we will not stop for you, stop for you, stop for you,
No, we will not stop for you, my ducy, dulcy day.'
'So, naughty girls, you won't obey, won't obey, won't obey,
So, naughty girls, you won't obey, my ducy, dulcy day? ”

“ I could not speak, but only moan like a child for cheer and comfort. And she smiled on me—the angel smiled on me, as Dolly, sweet and loving, had smiled of old. Oh, God! Oh, God! Thus to permit her to come from over the desolate waste for solace of my torment!
Was all this only figurative of the warring clash of passion and conscience? The presence was to me actual and divine. It led me, or seemed to lead, from the mouthing death—across the room—out by the open door, that none had ever shut; and then it was no longer and I stood alone in the gusty passage. ”

“ Those who have reached that stage in sweetness and love, who can change their winter into a gentle Indian summer, have come as victors through the ordeal of life. Lady Holden was a small, alert woman, with a kindly eye, and her expression as she glanced at him was a certificate of character to her husband. And yet, though I read a mutual love in their glances, I read also a mutual horror, and recognized in her face some reflection of that stealthy fear which I detected in his. ”

“ Would to God the end of him had come before he had met this girl! Look at her now! The old sprightliness had left her face, and in its place dwelt the more subduing expression of melancholy. What man, being a man and nothing more, and knowing he was dear to that most dear of women, could forbear folding her in his arms, and pressing her to his breast? But there was more in man than humanity. Of old he used to think in addition to humanity there was divinity in man--a possible high and beautiful spirit better and stronger than the unembodied angels. ”

“ His words, the scenes with him in the garden, in the field—his voice, looks, gestures—his anxiety and sympathy—his passionate letter—all were now vividly recalled, that they might be forgotten; and their influence confessed, that it might for ever be renounced. Her conscience stood beside her love as though it were some great fast-growing deadly plant in her heart, with deep-twisted roots and strangling tendrils, each of which to the smallest fibre must be uptorn so that not a germ should be left.
But who can describe the prayer of such a soul? It is easy to ask to be rid of ignoble passions. ”

“ In Vicious Days and Nights his Life is spent;
The Pleasure his, but her's the Punishment;
For now the Heav'n she Dreamt of, proves her Hell,
Whose only Fault was Loving him too well.
Pensive all Day she sits; all Night alone;
She does her slighted Love, but more his Loss bemoan.
By kind Endearments Fraught with Innocence,
She strives to soften his Impenitence;
Fain wou'd she turn him from the winding Maze,
Win him to Love, and be the same he was ”

“ Thou dost me with pleasure fill.
As I note thy varied charms
Dulcet sounds fall on my ear,
Soothing much a saddened heart;
Easing me of grief and fear,
Till I grieve from thee to part.
Modest, unassuming Rill,
Thou art formed by matchless skill.
Grace and beauty are displayed
In thy ever-smiling face
And the objects which surround
This thy home ”

“ CHAPTER LXXVII
"Accuse not thyself overmuch, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all thy fault." "AH thy living is penance profitable." "In the remedy He willeth that we rejoice"
OUR good Lord shewed the enmity of the Fiend: in which Shewing I understood that all that is contrary to love and peace is of the Fiend and of his part. And we have, of our feebleness and our folly, to fall; and we have, of mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost, to rise to more joy. ”

“ In the history of duelling we read the history of mankind in the developement of our evil passions, and the occasional display of some redeeming qualities. 6 It is a reflective mirror stained with blood, and we must wipe off the clotted gore of ages to contemplate truth in all its bearings, to feel what miserable creatures we are!—the occasional foot-balls of vanity and pride, or the tools of ambition and hypocrisy, but always the victims of ideal pursuits and visionary joys! ”