The literary echo. (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1851, 1851-05-15

little world of ours; yet some quarter OF
thousand years ago, if we take Shaks-
peare's word for it;--onc, perhaps, OF the
very Rochester sisterhood rhymed 1t !
after the above fashion. And down to
our own times there have been Enockngs
gentle, and knockings loud-pretty, quiet
taps, that come modestly to ask, and loud
clamorous rappings which seem to demand
that the fastenings Of your door be loos-
ened. These may be in no way mysterious
in lands where the aristocratic spirit finds
an abiding place; but in this country of IT,
tle-abhorring, and distinction -eschewmg
Gberty-where the pure spirit Of dem
ocracy dwells, and where no one can en-
dure the thought Of being seated one inch
above his neighbor, or of being " Colonel
ed,n "General-ed," or |'HOnorabl-ed"--|
here in this land of unambitious equality,
we have not yet reached the point Of dis
tinSuishing a visitor by the knock OF
his footman; though there is lit
tie, a very faint distinction, between the
aristocratic, and the plebian rap-a differ
ence lust enough to enable the initiated to
conjecture whether the visitor be from
Avenue No. 5, or its next neighbor, Az
enue No. 6.
But, gentle friends, there are other
knockings. not quite SO physical or gross in
their nature There arc, | think, those
who, if they would, could tell of knockings
of quite another sort--of ideas, it may be
mathematical, it may be philosophical, or
ethical, that have knocked and knocked
and knocked again for admittance at the
doors of some of their minds, and gone
away to report "Nobody at home"
And it has teen suspected-of course,
very much against the truth Of the matter,
or, if with any reason as to those OF past
generations, surely no sane man, or hall
H. sane woman, could suspect it Of the pres
at ent; vet, as / was going to say, there have
RS been idle surmises, that in certain gran
ito frontcd building in the city OF New
York, there have been certain young per,
sons occasionally driven to rubbing and
rapping their craniums to wake up II pos
sible something having as much OF the
scmblance of ideas as might suffice to bio
and spoil a fair page. -,
Incxorablc teachers, it has been said
st. were there in the habit of exscting thought
he from the thoughtless, and ideas from head
Is, where Spurzheim, with ten fingers and
d. microscope, could never have found a
p, apology for the bump of ideality. lfther
en- be truth in these tales, bottles of salt teal
ID, will witness against such cruelty. De9
of schoolmates what knockings we mlgf
S. have suffered had our lot been cast anon
all taskmastcrs so unreasonable.
or On the whole, this is q knocking worl'
or just sec how men knock and jostle OF
ee- another in these crowded streets, each II
I'VE tent on something for himself and carele
the of what befalls the thousands he elboy
all, aside. This might be very mysterious
sed it were only new But sclilshncss Is
can old fellow, and were it not for the prln
of his knocks for some scores years bac
mi his green old age would be taken for jU
or ripening manhood A hale fellow, he
,m- intimate, very intimate real check b
ing iowl companion, with n-ta few in tt
is great Babel, with whom he goes abo
ing knocking right and left.
aim nor is this moral frame of ours withc
INTO its share of these mysterious demonstl
tons. Truth comes rapping and whisp'
inc gently at the door of the heart; and
,blc. the clamorous knockings Of rcmorse, al'
sent few are strangers they awaken US fr'