Slate

“ Slade prefers to have only two sitters at a time, one on his right and one opposite. The fourth side of the table he prefers to have unoccupied; his manipulations of the slate can be from that side more readily observed; moreover, strange Spiritual antics may be there manifested, such as upsetting chairs which happen to be there, making slates appear above the edge of the table, etc. ”

“ Slate′-axe, a slater's tool, a sax; Slate′-clay, a fissile shale.—adjs. Slā′ted, covered with slates; Slate′-gray, of a light slate colour.—ns. Slate′-pen′cil, a cut or turned stick of soft slate, or of compressed moistened slate-powder, for writing on slate; Slā′ter; Slā′tiness, the quality of being slaty; Slā′ting, the act of covering with slates: a covering of slates: materials for slating.—adj. Slā′ty, resembling slate: having the nature or properties of slate. [O. Fr. esclat—Old High Ger. slīzan, Ger. schleissen, to split.]
Slate, slāt, v.t. to abuse, criticise severely: (prov.) ”

“ The sum of all my investigation was, that in a kind of semi-corporeal dream life Slater wandered or floated through resplendent and prodigious valleys, meadows, gardens, cities, and palaces of light; in a region unbounded and unknown to man. That there he was no peasant or degenerate, but creature of importance and vivid life; moving proudly and dominantly, and checked only by a certain deadly enemy, who seemed to be a being of visible yet ethereal structure, and who did not appear to be of human shape, since Slater never referred to it as a man, or as aught save a thing. ”

“ The lips, too, seemed unusual; being tightly compressed, as if by the force of a stronger character than had been Slater's. The whole face finally began to grow tense, and the head turned restlessly with closed eyes. I did not rouse the sleeping nurse, but readjusted the slightly disarranged headbands of my telepathic "radio" intent to catch any parting message the dreamer might have to deliver. ”

“ Slater, although an amiable and kind-hearted human being who believed with confident superstition in a God of other people's making, did not, on the whole, welcome her lady friends with much cordiality. ”

“ He walked with the swing of an athlete, and only looked mean and small when he was stooping and dabbling in the snow.”
“His clothes. Describe his clothes.” There was an odd sound in Mr. Slater’s voice.
“He wore a silk hat and there was fur on his overcoat. I think the fur was black.”
Mr. Slater stepped back, then moved forward again with a determined air.
“I know the man,” said he.
III. THE MAN
“You know the man?”
“I do; or rather, I know a man who answers to this description. He comes here once in a while. ”

“ The slattern, with her nose in a book, is blind to the cobwebs that hang from the ceiling, and the rags and dirt visible to every one else. She is cultivating the eyes of her imagination, and reveling in scenes of fairy-like splendor, and has no eyes for the common things of every day life. ”

“ Slade's personal appearance noteworthy, and shall endeavor to obtain a photograph of him for preservation in our Records. He is probably six feet in height, with a figure of unusual symmetry, his hands are large but shapely, the nail of the second finger of his right hand is rather longer than the others, and appeared in the centre to be slightly split and worn. His face would, I think, attract notice anywhere for its uncommon beauty. He has a small, curling, dark moustache, and short, crisp, iron-grey hair, of a texture exceeding in fineness any that I have ever seen on a man's head. ”

“ It was this latter speculation more than any other that absorbed Slade, irresistibly intrigued by the elusiveness of a fascination which he could not analyze. She endured his fixed glance without annoyance, absorbed, too, in the thoughts which his entrance had brought her. Finally, adapting her manner to his, she said with his own abruptness:
"Well, what do you want to say to me?"
"I'm wondering what you are after in this life, pretty lady?" he said directly.
"What do you want?"
"Power." ”

“ THERSITES. Now I pray to Jupiter, that thou die a cuckold!
I mean a sallet, with which men do fight.
MULCIBER. It is a small tasting of a man's might,
That he should for any matter
Fight with a few herbs in a platter:
No great laud should follow that victory.
THERSITES. God's passion, Mulciber, where is thy wit and memory?
I would have a sallet made of steel.
MULCIBER. Why, sir, in your stomach long you shall it feel,
For steel is hard for to digest.
THERSITES. Man's bones and sides, he is worse than a beast! ”

“ Stall, masculine, ‘stall, stable, sty,’ from Middle High German stal (ll) , masculine and neuter, ‘standing or dwelling place, spot, stable,’ Old High German stal (ll) , masculine, ‘stable, spot’; properly identical with Stelle. The two senses of the Old High German word are ramifications of a primary meaning, ‘standing-place.’ Corresponding to Dutch stal, ‘stable, stall,’ Anglo-Saxon steall, ‘stable, standing-place,’ English stall. ”

“ And with a frequency growing more insistent as the minutes pass, the chill and the damp strike to Slade's very heart. Often now he fumbles with bottles and fills his glass—never forgetting the one opposite him, though it is never emptied—and at length the black mood is driven forth, only to stand once more at his elbow. ”

“ Slade was a powerful man but he was an infant in the grip of the two great hands that raised him clear of the ground and shook him before he was slammed down on his face ten feet away by a straight-arm thrust. ”

“ These five days have I hid me in these woods and
durst not peep out, for all the country is laid 4
for me; but now I am so hungry, that if I might
have a lease of my life for a thousand years I
could stay no longer. Wherefore, on a brick
wall have I climbed into this garden, to see if I 8
can eat grass, or pick a sallet another while,
which is not amiss to cool a man's stomach this
hot weather. And I think this word 'sallet'
was born to do me good: for many a time, but 12
for a sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a
brown bill ”

“ What shall we add more? Our Gardens present us with them all; and whilst the Shambles are cover'd with Gore and Stench, our Sallets scape the Insults of the Summer Fly, purifies and warms the Blood against Winter Rage: Nor wants there Variety in more abundance, than any of the former Ages could shew.
Survey we their Bills of Fare, and Numbers of Courses serv'd up by Athenæus, drest with all the Garnish of Nicander and other Grecian Wits: What has the Roman Grand Sallet worth the naming? Parat Convivium, The Guests are nam'd indeed, and we are told ”

“ Let none yet imagine, that whilst we justifie our present Subject through all the Topics of Panegyric, we would in Favour of the Sallet, drest with all its Pomp and Advantage turn Mankind to Grass again ”

“ So she sang and he said, ‘Nay, thou hast achieved nought.’ Whereupon she threw the lute from her hand in anger and said, ‘We have done our best: if thou have aught, favour us with it.’ Quoth he, ‘Bring me a lute which no hand has touched.’ So I bade the servant bring him a new lute and he tuned it and preluding in a mode I knew not, sang the following verses:
Across the middle dusk of night a maid fares swift and straight, Who knows the visitation-tides, to where her love doth wait. ”

“ Schlitten, masculine, ‘sleigh, sledge,’ from the equivalent Middle High German slitte, usually slite, masculine, Old High German slita, feminine, slito, masculine; compare Dutch slede, Middle English slede, English sled, sledge, Old Icelandic sleðe, masculine, ‘sleigh.’ From High German is derived Italian slitta, ‘sleigh.’ The Teutonic cognates are based on a Teutonic root slī̆d, ‘to slide,’ which is preserved in the English verb and substantive slide ”

“ He goes to the stable where his horses are and saddles the one he prizes most. “Arise, black steed, for thou art the strongest and fairest of all; for one short hour thou must fly like a swallow down by the sea.” ”

“ All this is delightful in sensation and description; but he who, like me, has made his first sleigh-ride in the weird power of a murderer, who has sat during it with an open knife in his hand as his only hope of life, knows the power of a first impression to kill for years all enjoyment from such a source. I never entered a sleigh for many winters which did not conduct me in thought to the banks of the Susquehanna. ”

“ Small of soul, narrow of mind, regardless of any interest that did not harmonize with his own, he would have remained the overseer's son, to live unhonored, and, dying, to pass into an oblivion merited by his worth; while I, William Slade, endowed with intellect and fine sensibilities, might have risen to greatness, the limits of which I hesitate to define. ”

“ The Rat, with a snort of contempt, swung round to go, tripped over a hat-box, and fell, with undignified remarks.
'If people would be more careful.' said a field-mouse rather stiffly, 'and look where they're going, people wouldn't hurt themselves—and forget themselves. Mind that hold-all, Rat! You'd better sit down somewhere. ”

“ A high and efficient servant of the Overland, an outlaw among outlaws and yet their relentless scourge, Slade was at once the most bloody, the most dangerous and the most valuable citizen that inhabited the savage fastnesses of the mountains. ”

“ What Care and Circumspection should attend the choice and collection of Sallet Herbs, has been partly shew'd. I can therefore, by no means, approve of that extravagant Fancy of some, who tell us, that a Fool is as fit to be the Gatherer of a Sallet as a Wiser Man. Because, say they, one can hardly choose amiss, provided [54] the Plants be green, young, and tender, where-ever they meet with them: But sad experience shews, how many fatal Mistakes have been committed by those who took the deadly Cicutæ, Hemlocks, Aconits, &c. ”

“ It would be tempting—but I resist the temptation—to show how many points of resemblance unite them—how each works in the dark, in a small, narrow, confined sphere, without view or outlet; how the tendency of each is to scratch his way upwards and gain the top, caring wonderfully little how black and dirty the process has made him. One might even go farther, and mark how, when indolence or weariness suggested sloth, the stimulus of a little fire underneath, whether a few lighted straws or a Birmingham mass-meeting, was sure to quicken progress and excite activity. ”

“ The Tops and young Shoots, like those of Rochet, never to be secluded our Composition, especially where there is much Lettuce. 'Tis highly cordial and friendly to the Head, Heart, Liver, correcting the weakness of the Ventricle, &c.
68. Thistle, Carduus Mariæ; our Lady's milky or dappl'd Thistle, disarm'd of its Prickles, is worth esteem: The young Stalk about May, being peel'd and soak'd in Water, to extract the bitterness, boil'd or raw, is a very wholsome Sallet, eaten with Oyl, Salt, and Peper; some eat them sodden in proper Broath, or bak'd in Pies, like the Artichoak ”

“ But, at any rate, one day a fat, podgy lady, vulgarly bedecked in satin and gold, goes up to Tell and points her splendid white parasol right at his chest. ‘Get up,’ says she, ‘and show yourself.’ Now Tell hasn’t the best of tempers at any time. ”

“ And a deal the most of the talk was about Slade. We had gradually come to have a realizing sense of the fact that Slade was a man whose heart and hands and soul were steeped in the blood of the offenders against his dignity; a man who awfully avenged all injuries, affronts, insults or slights, of whatever kind—on the spot if he could, years afterward if lack of earlier opportunity compelled it; a man whose hate tortured him day and night till vengeance appeased it—and not an ordinary vengeance either, but his enemy’s absolute death—nothing less ”

“ In one of the most populous cities of New England, a few years ago, a party of lads, all members of the same school, got up a grand sleigh ride. The sleigh was a very large one, drawn by six gray horses.
2. On the following day, as the teacher entered the schoolroom, he found his pupils in high glee, as they chattered about the fun and frolic of their excursion. In answer to some inquiries, one of the lads gave him an account of their trip and its various incidents. ”

“ Imagine how the poor woman felt at that ball, dressed as she was, and with the pot of broth! The king began to poke his sword at her in jest, until he hit the pot, and all the broth ran on the floor. Then all began to jeer her and laugh, until poor Stella fainted away from shame, and they had to go and get some vinegar to revive her. At last the king's mother came forward and said: "Enough; you have revenged yourself sufficiently." ”

“ Swing by me four on four.
And at the end you follow
Whom I shall see no more.
Oh, Stalk, where are you lying ?
Somewhere and far away,
Enemy hands have buried
Your quiet contemptuous clay. ”

“ What sayest thou by the king of lechery?
With all mankind he must be,
And with him I love to ling.
CONSCIENCE. Nay, Manhood, that may not be:
From lechery fast you flee.
For incumbrance it will bring thee,
And all that to him will lind. [236]
MANHOOD. Say, Conscience, of the king of sloth.
He hath behight me mickle troth,
And I may not forsake him for ruth.
For with him I think to rest.
CONSCIENCE. Manhood, in Scripture thus we find,
That sloth is a traitor to heaven king:
Sir knight, if you will keep your king [237]
From sloth clean you cast. ”

“ Of the sloth which, like a vapor, hugs the dull, insensate heart,
That can act in meek submission to the lowness of its part,—
In the broad terrestrial drama play the herald or the clown,
While the warrior wins his garlands and the monarch wears his crown! ”