England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Great Britain -- History -- William IV, 1830-1837
"A youth who has completed his 18th year within 100 hours of his
writing this advertisement, wishing to make head against the _res
angusta domi_, hereby TENDERS his CAPACITIES to any honourable
patronage which the chapter of accidents may raise up in his
behoof. Born to better hopes, his bringing up has not been wholly
neglected, and he would fain apply some of the little items of
his unpretending culture towards honest advancement in a life
which even his short experience has proved to be not altogether
unchequered--the mind's eye irresistably glancing at an example
which recent events have revived and made too memorable to be
overlooked by such a votary to fortune as the advertiser; to wit,
the august example of King Philip the first,[6] who when, in
"the turns of chance below," even his star was dimmed, did not
disdain to extract independent maintenance from knowledge which,
in his early days, he had learnt as mere ornament. Far from
aiming, like the variously accomplished Duke of Orleans, at
geometry, or the sublimer sciences, the humble advertiser
ventures to hope that his tolerable, hourly improving fluency in
French, Italian, and modern Greek (the latter language now become
of increased English interest from the increase of English
colonization in the Mediterranean), would enable him to give
lessons, and materially conduce to perfect pupils in each of
these branches, at most moderate remuneration. That same
Mediterranean has been the sad cause of this advertisement.
Nearly 1900 years after the prince of Latian poets wrote his
description of the storm which, all but, engulfed Æneas and his
followers--that description which, from Homer to Shakespeare,
from Shakespeare to the present hour, the universe of poetry has
never equalled--even in that very part of that very sea, a sudden
springing up of that wind, which, though the desire and delight
of northern regions, is proverbial for storms (_creber procellis
Africus_) not confined to illustrating the poet's text, in
abruptly shrouding a shipful of 'noble creatures' from the sight
of the clouds, from the face of heaven and the light of day, not
confined to a presentiment of instant death to all on shipboard,
but in rending reality, depriving every soul of clouds, of light
and life, by sinking the whole in fell ocean, without a single
survivor--the advertiser's dear father (an English functionary in
the Ionian Islands) being one of the sufferers--leaving his son a
burden, where he would be an alleviator, to the most affectionate
of mothers. A statement of other capabilities, penmanship,
arithmetic, etc., is forborne, because they may be implied.
Indeed, friends, too partial, no doubt, imagine that to any
mission, especially southward, the advertiser might be a not
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