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Article LONDON PLATITUDES. ← Page 2 of 13 →
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London Platitudes.
Quiet , wonderful in hard-breathings ! We marvel at the taste of the ancients , who raised temples to Mars , Bellona , and to various other violent divinities , to stormy Neptune and his noisy Triton , perpetually blowing needless blasts through that altogether extravagantly ciu-ved conch-shell . All of clatter and clap-trap seemed to find favour in the of
eyes these ancients , whilst that innocent goddess ( we forget her name ) who presided over " nods , " if not over "becks and wreathed smiles , " was , as it would seem , purposely overlooked . Well , indeed , might she be overlooked , for she wanted the spirit to assert her prerogative ; she was never awake to her own weight in the scale of things . That idleness divides the one
half of the world is evident , else why do people go to sleep ? In pulling weights upon our head , we forget for what sin we have to answer . I as little know the evils I now provoke in seizing , with rash hand , that dangerous implement the quill , as Jupiter did , what might come of it , when he began to thunder . Better sleep for a week , and overturn your
inkstand and permit the sable flood itself to inundate those sinless sheets of paper , lamb-like in their whiteness , than perhaps blacken them in two senses . Snores are sacred , but your rash thoughts , too hastily committed to life , you may find to quicken into snakes . We imagine that we afford a proof of our heroism in thus
breaking through with these cobwebs of the mind . Sleepers have spoken , and we , as waking men , shall perhaps sleep good dreams . If we wait too long that a sensible man should speak to oiu- j > rofit , we may not do amiss in applying to a fool that he may , at all events , sleep towards it . We have a high opinion of fools . They are as the silver cows that are
always standing ready to be milked . Those only make the mistake about their productiveness who bring the wrongpail . It is easy to unlock the heart of the world when you have an inkling of the true secret . Most people fumble with strange keys , and curse the lock , when they should blame the locksmith !
Blessed with an indomitable desire to travel , I have yet been as one of those Cockneys who are always at their ha 2 ipiest in clinging to their London post . I w as ever of so restless a disposition , that no clock ever went fast enough for me . I remember very well that I w as once caught mounted on a chair , with a stick in my hand , reaching on tiptoe to set on the hands of a clock , which , somehow , did not please me ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
London Platitudes.
Quiet , wonderful in hard-breathings ! We marvel at the taste of the ancients , who raised temples to Mars , Bellona , and to various other violent divinities , to stormy Neptune and his noisy Triton , perpetually blowing needless blasts through that altogether extravagantly ciu-ved conch-shell . All of clatter and clap-trap seemed to find favour in the of
eyes these ancients , whilst that innocent goddess ( we forget her name ) who presided over " nods , " if not over "becks and wreathed smiles , " was , as it would seem , purposely overlooked . Well , indeed , might she be overlooked , for she wanted the spirit to assert her prerogative ; she was never awake to her own weight in the scale of things . That idleness divides the one
half of the world is evident , else why do people go to sleep ? In pulling weights upon our head , we forget for what sin we have to answer . I as little know the evils I now provoke in seizing , with rash hand , that dangerous implement the quill , as Jupiter did , what might come of it , when he began to thunder . Better sleep for a week , and overturn your
inkstand and permit the sable flood itself to inundate those sinless sheets of paper , lamb-like in their whiteness , than perhaps blacken them in two senses . Snores are sacred , but your rash thoughts , too hastily committed to life , you may find to quicken into snakes . We imagine that we afford a proof of our heroism in thus
breaking through with these cobwebs of the mind . Sleepers have spoken , and we , as waking men , shall perhaps sleep good dreams . If we wait too long that a sensible man should speak to oiu- j > rofit , we may not do amiss in applying to a fool that he may , at all events , sleep towards it . We have a high opinion of fools . They are as the silver cows that are
always standing ready to be milked . Those only make the mistake about their productiveness who bring the wrongpail . It is easy to unlock the heart of the world when you have an inkling of the true secret . Most people fumble with strange keys , and curse the lock , when they should blame the locksmith !
Blessed with an indomitable desire to travel , I have yet been as one of those Cockneys who are always at their ha 2 ipiest in clinging to their London post . I w as ever of so restless a disposition , that no clock ever went fast enough for me . I remember very well that I w as once caught mounted on a chair , with a stick in my hand , reaching on tiptoe to set on the hands of a clock , which , somehow , did not please me ,