Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-03-18
MOTHER GOOSE's COMMENTARIES J.
Black spiders.
title Miss Muffet
Little Miss Munet
Sat on a tutfet,
hating OF curds and whey;
Long came black spider
And sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet

hating of curds and whey;
Long came black spider
And sat down beside her
Aud frightened Miss Muffet away.
From time immemorial allegory has been
a favorite vehicle for the transmission of the
weightiest truths from the projecting mind
Of the pioneers of thought 10 the receptive
minds Of the multitude; and the great and
sapient dame, whose light still shines before
all men, was too true an artist to under
value this powerful medium of impressing
her wisdom upon the peoples.
Wrapped up in the (seemInglyl airy nom
sense of tho above stanza lies hidden
truth rs broad as space, as deathless as
mans ambition and as universal as his
disappoini ments. Little Miss Muffet is but
an aliego ical lay figure doing duty for poor
humanity! For her "tuffet," read "the
world" and for the curds and whey, which
in her fond delusion she thinks is to prove
sufficient unto her every earthly need, read
the hopes, the dreams, the projects, the
countless msterial blessing after which we
make ceaseiess pursuit, as the sum of all
things good, to find lin the very moment
when anticipated enjoyment is ours), close
beside us, that ugly, universal, never-dying,
Daleful black spider-frustration- the
alert to turn our anticipated enjoyment into
the emptiness of disappointment, the hunger
OF hope deferred.
Would one make haste to get rich? Do
his curds and whey take on the semblance of
houses and lands and foe horses and spark
ling Jewels? He tolls through the heat aud
burden of the day, laying up his treasure
here on esrth-hers little, there a little,
gloaiing over the accommodating pile! look
ing forward with eager anticipation, when,
through the tireless energy aud the desecra-
ton OF his noblest self to the basest ends, he
shall have cushioned his tuffet luxuriously
and shall be prepared to enter into the rest and
leisure necessary for the enjoyment of his
curds and whey, only to find, when that
blissful moment has reached the dial of to-
day, sitting close beside him, potent to
brighten and to destroy, the black spider OF
Ruin terminated by that vaulting ambition
which o'erleaps itself and filings its victim
from the fancied security of prosperity 10
tuffet upon the cold charities of the world,
and his curds and whey are turned TO sour
ness and bitterness.
Would one live again in his children to
the best of poor humanity, knowing he es-
says 10 rear them 80 that they may be a
"credit TO the family" His boys shall be the
shrswdest, sharpest, manifest boys that ever
made glad fathers heart. His girls shall
be models of all the virtues and possessors
OF such untold charms Of mind and person
Ih at the world will be at their feet, in that
momentous time when the parental curds
and whey come to them in the shape of sad
vantageous settlements" But mans propo-
sitious are not always in accord with Fate's
The time for rest and culmIns-
ton comes to find him sitting upon the hard,
uncushioned tuHet of repentance; his Sous, 80
shrewd aud sharp as 10 have set at Daught
every caleuls ton of the parental heart; his
daughters, 30 beautiful and SO willful as TO
have gone their own mad gait and chosen the
vorst instead OF the best, and the black spi-
der of disappointment siis down close beside
him to remind that this world is all hollow
show for mans delusion given.
Would one with restless. craving, unsatis-
fed heart reach after the unsttainable and
say in the presumption of his ignorance, II
will emulate the wisdom of the sage oil
ssges; give me neither poverty nor riches
shall be my prayer. Ny curds and whey
shall be taken in the form of intellectual
feastiug, rational indulgence. Far from the
m add Mug crowd will burn the midnight oil;
and subiecting matter TO mind will so sppor
ton my days that the storehouses of all
shall be at my command; my
words and written thoughts shall burn with
starry radiance along the corridors of time;
men shall marvel at the prefundity of my
al the brilliancy of my accom-
Aud starving the body life TO
iced the mental, poor dotard; fesstipg in
over that most delusive of all
curds and wheys-immortal fame-Nalure
suddenly asserts herself; arises in her wrath,
saying, $50 far and no farther" and the black
spider Of Disease sits down beside the stricken
aspiraut 10 brighten him away from every
hope Of fruition this side the grave.
Would one essay TO walk this tangled
maze Of earth by the light of pure reason,
and, departing from the beaten pathways of
his fathers, worn smooth and distinct BY the
ste adfast tread of the faithful, yauntiBgly
assert bis own suficiency for his own
from the pitfalls that lie hid
den on every side. He may walk insolently
erect; for, in the fresh morning Of his days,
sure of his own ability to possess himself, in
the hour of his need, Of all the alimeut
necessary in the curds and whey of rational
ism, what need has he TO be led in trodden |
paths? When the hour of repose shall |
come he will enter into the enjoyment OF
tuffet padded aud cushioned all over with |
good works known Of all men), with aims
giving mot done in secret), with the evi. |
iences OF his own individual efforts to i'm |
oress bis own Individuality upon his times. |
But at the eleventh hour, when the shadows |
If night are gathering thick about him, he |
urns him restlessly upon his tuffet 10 find |
be black spider Of Doubt close beside him,
mighty TO frighten away repose of mind and
leart!
The world, the great bright gay world |
warns with black spiders--hideous, mocking,
emorseless demons of doubt, deceit, disap- |
cruelty, tyranny, sickness and |
despair, lying in wait for hapless mortals, |
patient, until, in the point of
coveted enjoyment, when the lips that are
FINGERED turn with eagerness to such curds
md whey as they have wrested from fste,
hen they loom into prominence and brighten
heir victims away.
Which commentary, 10 reduce 1t to more |
,lscid expression, means that every new ex-
,ectation is prone to meet with that disap- |
continent which is inevitable TO mortal con- |
Iitions and mortal efforts. A doubtful |
Imalgsm lie the best of our joys and it is |
he part Of wisdom to enjoy eur curds and |
shey as we 20 along, and not TO make the |