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
Napoleon has now sent us back from the grave sufficient echoes of his
living renown: the twilight of posthumous fame has lingered long enough
over the spot where the sun of his glory set, and his name must at
length repose in the silence, if not in the darkness of night. In this
busy and evanescent scene, other spirits of the age are rapidly snatched
away, claiming our undivided sympathies and regrets, until in turn they
yield to some newer and more absorbing grief. Another name is now added
to the list of the mighty departed, a name whose influence upon the
hopes and fears, the fates and fortunes of our countrymen, has rivalled,
and perhaps eclipsed that of the defunct "child and champion of
Jacobinism," while it is associated with all the sanctions of legitimate
government, all the sacred authorities of social order and our most holy
religion. We speak of one, indeed, under whose warrant heavy and
incessant contributions were imposed upon our fellow-citizens, but who
exacted nothing without the signet and the sign manual of most devout
Chancellors of the Exchequer. Not to dally longer with the sympathies of
our readers, we think it right to premonish them that we are composing
an epicedium upon no less distinguished a personage than the Lottery,
whose last breath, after many penultimate puffs, has been sobbed forth
by sorrowing contractors, as if the world itself were about to be
converted into a blank. There is a fashion of eulogy, as well as of
vituperation; and though the Lottery stood for some time in the latter
predicament, we hesitate not to assert that "_multis ille bonis flebilis
occidit_." Never have we joined in the senseless clamour which condemned
the only tax whereto we became voluntary contributors, the only resource
which gave the stimulus without the danger or infatuation of gambling,
the only alembic which in these plodding days sublimised our
imaginations, and filled them with more delicious dreams than ever
flitted athwart the sensorium of Alnaschar.
[49] Since writing this article, we have been informed that the
object of our funeral-oration is not definitively dead, but only
moribund. So much the better; we shall have an opportunity of
granting the request made to Walter by one of the children in the
wood, and "kill him two times." The Abbé de Vertot having a siege to
write, and not receiving the materials in time, composed the whole
from his invention: shortly after its completion, the expected
documents arrived, when he threw them aside, exclaiming--"You are of
no use to me now; I have carried the town."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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