Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848 — John Shaqi
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"Adieu, my son; make the best of the time that remains with
you at the Philhellenic. A full mind is the true Pantheism,
_plena Jovis_. Wherever there is knowledge, there is God. It
is only in some corner of the brain which we leave empty,
that Vice can obtain a lodging. When she knocks at your
door, my son, be able to say, 'No room for your
ladyship,--pass on.'--Your affectionate father,
"A. CAXTON."
* * * * *
2.--FROM MRS CAXTON.
"MY DEAREST SISTY,--You are coming home!--My heart is so
full of that thought that it seems to me as if I could not
write any thing else. Dear child, you are coming home;--you
have done with school, you have done with strangers,--you
are our own, all our own son again! You are mine again, as
you were in the cradle, the nursery, and the garden, Sisty,
when we used to throw daisies at each other! You will laugh
at me so, when I tell you, that as soon as I heard you were
coming home for good, I crept away from the room, and went
to my drawer where I keep, you know, all my treasures. There
was your little cap that I worked myself, and your poor
little nankeen jacket that you were so proud to throw
off--oh! and many other relics of you when you were little
Sisty, and I was not that cold formal 'Mother' you call me
now, but dear 'Mamma.' I kissed them, Sisty, and said 'My
little child is coming back to me again!' So foolish was I,
I forgot all the long years that have passed, and fancied I
could carry you again in my arms, and that I should again
coax you to say 'God bless papa.' Well, well! I write now
between laughing and crying. You cannot be what you were,
but you are still my own dear son--your father's son--dearer
to me than all the world--except that father.
"I am so glad, too, that you will come so soon: come while
your father is really warm with his book, and while you can
encourage and keep him to it. For why should he not be great
and famous? Why should not all admire him as we do? You know
how proud of him I always was; but I do so long to let the
world know _why_ I was so proud. And yet, after all, it is
not only because he is so wise and learned,--but because he
is so good, and has such a large noble heart. But the heart
must appear in the book too, as well as the learning. For
though it is full of things I don't understand, every now
and then there _is_ something I do understand--that seems as
if that heart spoke out to all the world.
"Your uncle has undertaken to get it published; and your
father is going up to town with him about it, as soon as the
first volume is finished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account