The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 13, September, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 13, September, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
We were not long after this necessary arrangement in effecting an
escape from the dungeons of the sepulchre. The united strength of our
resuscitated voices was soon efficiently apparent. Scissors, the Whig
Editor, republished a treatise upon "the nature and origin of
subterranean noises." A reply--rejoinder--confutation--and
justification followed in the columns of an ultra Gazette. It was not
until the opening of the vault to decide the controversy, that the
appearance of Mr. Windenough and myself proved both parties to have
been decidedly in the wrong.
I cannot conclude these details of some very singular passages in a
life at all times sufficiently eventful, without again recalling to
the attention of the reader the merits of that indiscriminate
philosophy which is a sure and ready shield against those shafts of
calamity which can be neither seen, felt, nor fully understood. It was
in the spirit of this wisdom that, among the ancient Hebrews, it was
believed the gates of Heaven would be inevitably opened to that
sinner, or saint, who with good lungs and implicit confidence, should
vociferate the word "_Amen!_" It was in the spirit of this wisdom that
when a great plague raged at Athens, and every means had been in vain
attempted for its removal, Epimenides--as Laertius relates in his
second book of the life of that philosopher--advised the erection of a
shrine and temple _to prostekonti Theo_--"to the proper God."
The "Acajou et Zirphile" of Du Clos is a whimsical and amusing Fairy
Tale, ingeniously composed in illustration of a series of grotesque,
and extravagant engravings, whose figures, rats, apes, butterflies,
and men, have no earthly meaning or connection but that given by the
pen of the writer.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.
CUPID'S SPORT.
"And is this Cupid's realm?--if so, good by!
Cupid, and Cupid's votaries I fly:
No offering to his altar do I bring--
No bleeding heart, nor hymeneal ring."
In the third number of the Messenger, my good reader, you and I were
engaged in taking a peep at Cupid's Sport. Unless you have fallen out
with me, (as I certainly have not with you,) we will again travel
together, in a half merry, half serious mood, through some three or
four pages. We shall perhaps be forced to scramble over hedges matted
with brambles, or amble along some grassy mead or velvet lawn; it may
be we
"Must pore where babbling waters flow,
And watch unfolding roses blow."
You no doubt remember in what a sad plight we left our young friend
Timothy Wilberforce; how he had been gradually led on by Cupid, buoyed
up and transported, till he attained within a step of the pinnacle of
bliss--and then, how the mischief-making God had precipitated him to
the very brink of despair; how, like Sisyphus,
"Up the high hill he heav'd the huge round stone;"
and how
"The huge round stone resulting with a bound,
Thunder'd impetuous down, and smoked along the ground."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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