The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 1: Miscellaneous ProseLamb, Charles
General
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 1: Miscellaneous Prose
Lamb, Charles
English literature
_Good Master._--"In correcting his servant he becomes not a slave to his
own passion. Not cruelly making new _indentures_ of the flesh of his
apprentice. He is tender of his servant in sickness and age. If crippled
in his service, his house is his hospital. Yet how many throw away those
dry bones, out of the which themselves have sucked the marrow!"
_Good Widow._--"If she can speak but little good of him [her dead
husband] she speaks but little of him. So handsomely folding up her
discourse, that his virtues are shewn outwards, and his vices wrapped up
in silence; as counting it barbarism to throw dirt on his memory who
hath moulds cast on his body."
_Horses._--"These are men's wings, wherewith they make such speed. A
generous creature a horse is, sensible in some sort of honour; and made
most handsome by that which deforms men most--pride."
_Martyrdom._--"Heart of oak hath sometime warped a little in the
scorching heat of persecution. Their want of true courage herein cannot
be excused. Yet many censure them for surrendering up their forts after
a long siege, who would have yielded up their own at the first summons.
Oh! there is more required to make one valiant, than to call Cranmer or
Jewel coward; as if the fire in Smithfield had been no hotter than what
is painted in the Book of Martyrs."
_Text of St. Paul._--"St. Paul saith, let not the sun go down on your
wrath, to carry news to the antipodes in another world of thy revengeful
nature. Yet let us take the Apostle's meaning rather than his words,
with all possible speed to depose our passion; not understanding him so
literally, that we may take leave to be angry till sunset: then might
our wrath lengthen with the days; and men in Greenland, where the day
lasts above a quarter of a year, have plentiful scope for revenge."[19]
[19] This whimsical prevention of a consequence which no one would
have thought of deducing,--setting up an absurdum on purpose to hunt
it down,--placing guards as it were at the very outposts of
possibility,--gravely giving out laws to insanity and prescribing
moral fences to distempered intellects, could never have entered
into a head less entertainingly constructed than that of Fuller, or
Sir Thomas Browne, the very air of whose style the conclusion of
this passage most aptly imitates.
_Bishop Brownrig._--"He carried learning enough _in numerato_ about him
in his pockets for any discourse, and had much more at home in his
chests for any serious dispute."
_Modest Want._--"Those that with diligence fight against poverty, though
neither conquer till death makes it a drawn battle; expect not but
prevent their craving of thee: for God forbid the heavens should never
rain, till the earth first opens her mouth; seeing _some grounds will
sooner burn than chap_."
_Death-bed Temptations._--"The devil is most busy on the last day of his
term; and a tenant to be outed cares not what mischief he doth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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