Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1879-08-14

ner, bis seeming cyz3s<ikfH. n16 bIiEsf-
ness, he bofe very tAn9ek and ioesaR
heart IL letter written II I65l. end
quoted in James Hannay ake.eh, Sc
expressed tirns4If EAnH ~ hale yu1e~
nal !" BE says. Il mean. I khink hin 8
truculsnt fellow; / love Horace better
than y.,u a.. and rsie Churchill n4ch
lower; and ~ lot 6wifl, Foa hnven'f i
made me aiter nv opinfo1 I 4ixnlre,
or rather admit. bis poser A. much -
you 10, bot \ don't admire fssat kind of
power 80 m0<h as id ff>sen years
ago. ~ twenty, ahall We say Love IA
I ahsshnF intslisctuaI exercise than -
tired, and when yua ssl ora nrlNo ssase
6E Gh0se yoah& snes ybn sTffs6 ~ ss1ssI
antly shout you'll come over 70 fhe side
'of the kind wags, I think, rather than
The cruel ones" The pathetic sadness
visible in much that he wrote sprung
partly from temperament and partly
from his own private caIamities. Loss
of fortune was not the only cause.
When Q young man in Paris he mas-
Fied. and after enjoying domestic hap
piness for several years his wife caught
fever, from whfch she never after
ward sufficiently recovered to be able
10 be with her husband and children.
She was thenceiorth entrusted to the
care of q kind family, where every COM
fort and attention was secured for her.
The lines Of the ballad OF the "Bouilla-
baisse" are supposed to refer to this ear
ly time Of domestic felicity
',Ah me I how quick the days ore iiittingl
mind me Of time that's gone,
When here I'd sit as now I'm sitting,
In this same pIace-bat not alone.
A fair young form was nestled near ms,
A dear, dear face looked fondly up,
Aed sweetly spoke and smiled 70 cheer me-
There's no one now TO share my cup"
In debating to bis amanuensls the
composition of the lectures on the
"Four Georges" he would light cigar,
pace The room for few minutes, and
then resume ais work with increased
cheerfulness. changing his position very
frequently, SO that he was sometimes
sitting, standing, walking, or lying about.
His enunciation was always clear and
distinct, and his words and thoughts
were so well weighed that the progress
Of writing was but seldom checked. He
dictated with calm deliberation, and
showed no visible feeling even when
he had made humorous point. His
whole literary career was one OF unre-
mitting industry; he wrote slowly, and,
like George Eliot, gave forth hls thoughts
in such perfect form that he rarely re-
qaired to retouch his work. His hand
,w,ITnls1ing was neat and plain. often very
all trades failed he would earn sixpen-
ces by writing the Lords Prayer and
the Greed in the size Of one. Unlike
many men OF less talent, he looked upon
caligraphy as one Of the ine arts. When
at the height ofhis fame he was satisfied
when he wrote six pages day, gener-
ally working during the day, seldom at
night. An idea which would only be
slightly developed in some of his shorter
stories he treasured up and expanded
in some of his larger works.
While Alfred Tennyson, the future
Laureate, received the gold medal at
Cambridge given by the Chancellor Of
the University for the best English
poem, the subject heing "Timbuctoo," /"
we find Thackeray satirizing the sub
jeet in. a humorous. paper called the
Snob. Here are a few lines from his
clever skis on the prize poem:
sSThcre stalks the tiger--there the lion roars,
Who sometimes eats the luekless hlackamoors;
All that he leaves Of them the monster throws
r.. L. Lmtm u.A
His hunger thus the forest monarch gluts,
And then lies down meath trees called cocoanuts
The personal appearance of Thscke-
ray has been frequently described. His
nose, through an early accident, was
misshapen: it was broad at the bridge,
and stubbe6 al the end. He was near
sighted; and his hair at forty was al
ready gray, but massy and abundant:
his keen and kindly eyes twinkled some-
times through and sometimes over his
spectacles. A friend remarked that
what he ''should call the predominant
expression Of his countenance was cour-
age--a readiness 10 face the world on
its own terms" Unlike Dickens, he
took 10 regular walking exercise, and.
being regardless Of the laws Of health,
suffered in consequence. In reply to
one who asked him u be had ever re-
ceived the best rsedical advice, his re-
ply was "What is the use Of advice IL
you don't follow iti They tell me not
to drink. and do drink. They tell me
not TO smoke, aud l do smoke: They
tell me not TO eat, and I do eat. In
short. do everything that I am desired
not to do; aud therefore what am to
expecti" And so enc morning he was
found lying. like DR.. Chalmers, m the
sleep OF death, with his arms beneath
his head, after one ofhis violent attacks
OF illness, to be mourned by his mother
and daughters, who formed his house,
hold, aud by q wider public beyond.
which had learned to love him through
his admirable works.