The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-09
[copyrsgat ,seu,sa according 10 lac. !
For the Nnlonal Era
JASPER: A ROMANO
BY EDWARD SPENCER.
HOE lMr. Classie CAanqed His Lodainqs.

vi.
HO'c Mr.. Classic Changed HIS Lodgings.
When We apply the epithet I" Bookworm " 10
Plato Classic, A. NJ, we have sufficiently char
acterized him. Books, their production and
their consumption, their age, condition, and
current price, were his chief, almost his whole
concern. Secondarily, however, this matter OF
price involved him in certain other relations
Price and value, those stumbling blocks of the
economists, relatively equalized themselves in
Plato Classics thinking far otherwise than they
do at the Bourse. A books price was thing
he did not consider at all its value to himself
for merits perhaps recognizable only by himself
was the point of view he acted from. Money,
notes, gold, silver, what are they, in comparison
with this glorious manuscript this superbly -illu
minated Black Letter, this rarest Editio Prin.
cepsF The merest inconceivable dross to a sun
lighted Golconda What if do, like beside
rus Erasmus, want a new coat Have / not
far greater need of this new Exegesis? What
if the butcher do refuse further credit till his
bill be paid Is meat to be preferred before
this Critical Examen2 By no means, and SO
the money (of which there never had been at
any time an exceeding great STOREY slipped
away faster even than the books came in, and
Plato dined in threadbare coat upon tea and
crackers, while, daily, new volumes numbered
his shelves.
Phis could not last. He was in debt, and
though he could do without meat, the butcher
would not do without his money Platos house
keeper, also, faithful enough woman, found
that, however she might like her place, it was
impossible for her at once to do without money
and without food. So one day she reused our
bookworm out of his studies, and, busting the
room with vehemence that nearly smothered
herself as we'll as Classic, propounded to him a
clear and plain statement of the case
You see now, Mr.. Classic" said she in con.
clusion, "this won't do. If things go on in this
way, you will starve. Ifyou don't pay the bills
more promptly, you will not get anybody to
trust you; and if you can't get anything to eat
want to know what good all this lumbers 90.
ing to do you ?" And here she banged away
so energetically with her busting cloth, that she
tumbled a heavy, musty blocking folio prone to
the floor. Mr. Classic sprang to his feet in terrible
dismay, picked the volume reverently up, wiped
it off with great care, and restored it to its place
excaiming the while
"For Heavens sake my good woman, dc not
do that again. Be more moderate and circum-
spect. That book, so roughly handled by you,
is worth its weight in gold 1t is the famous
Florentine Homer, published under the auspices
of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and edited by the
learned Demetrius of Crete, Ammo DOmini
fourteen hundred and lightweight. 1t is a mon
umeht of the topographic art, and the only per
feet copy in the country"
" | don't know what sort of monument that
is Mr. Classic; but all I've got to say is, if the
books worth its weight in gold you'd better
sell it, and pay your just debts if you don't,
yoaU be monument. Why, the people begin
to talk about you real shameful even now; and
1t does look bad to see minister of the Gospel
throwing his money away in tomfooleries, when
he can't even lay by enough to pay butchers
bill and buy himself new coat"
Mr.. Classic groaned piteously. Evidently
that new coat and that butchers bill were fire.
quent subjects for the exercise of worthy Mrs
Keyes's volubility.
"Mrs. Keyes," said Plato, spiritedly, "no one
shall have cause to complain that have dealt
unjustly with them. Let me hear no more of
this. That butchers bill shall be settled next
week; and as for my coat" cycling that garment
with affectionate regard, al consider that a
matter in which | am entitled to consult my
own sense of propriety."
Mrs. Keyes hustled out of the room, very
much miffed indeed and Plato, after several
unsuccessful attempts to read, laid his book
down, and, lighting pipe, went out into his
shady garden to solilOquize among his flowers,
his invariable custom when labofing under any
mental perturbation. This was a truly lament
able state of things, thought our poor Plato that
man OF his habits, one who had but single
luxury, and was in all things else frugal even to
parslmony, a man, too, of prOperty-should have
to deprive himself of the one source of pleasure
he had in life. Truly sad it was indeed, to see
aspirations so limited cut short by want of
means. Yet it is always so. If we conquer
one world, we cannot find means to get at
another. If we desire quarto, we must con-
hne ourselves to an octave or a duedecimo.
All, life, what is it but series of disappoint-
ments and rebuffs ? or, if it suit you better, a
series of corrections and reproofs? But because
We go into the fire, are we therefore purged of
our dross, and converted into gold of hundred
carat purity2 Pshawl we SINCE our hair, and
get ourselves wigs forthwith.
Plato, we have said, went into his garden.
Thither he always resorted in moments Of anger
or Impotence, or when he needed in any way
to be Gained or consoled. He thought of his
garden as Bacon wrote of it "God Almighty
first planted garden; and, indeed, it is the
purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest
refreshment to the spirits Of man; without which,
buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks /;
and man shall ever see that, when ages grow
to civility and elegancy, men come to build
stately, sooner than to garden finely as it
gardening were the greater perfection" 1t was
the worthy pastors chief delight, after reading,
to walk among his flowers, watch their growth,
their bloom, their maturity, foster them, and
cultivate intimate and friendly relations with
them. Gods gift to man in that first grand
garden planted, sir," he would say. "Unmis
takably intended for mans dedication, as the
Invertebrates of the deep-blue sky were.
Which position is sustained and indeed estab
lished by cur modern science, which, searching
carefully among the fossiliferous products of
the earth, has found no rose, though plenty of
Rosaceae, antecedent to man. A very signif-
cant fact, sir, and one that teaches more than
all DIR. Paley's Natural Theology. And shall
we try to transfer their beauties to the button
hole of an exquisite, or the Bohemian vase of a
coquette? Neyer-it a perversion of Gods
gift" Ut is probable that Plato would have
modified his views on this subject, had he
Glanced to witness the queenly way in which
Jasper's mother was wont to wear the proud
Camela over her earl 1t is no wonder that
Mr. Classic loved and was proud of his garden
he was an excellent botanist, instinctivey
gifted with an exquisite taste in such matters,