ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER
BYANNE H. M. BREWSTER.
"Our poet knows you will be just, but we Appeal to mercy. 'T is in you To make a little sprig of laurel grow And spread into a grove, where you may sit And hear soft stories, when by blasting it You gain no honor, though our ruins lie To tell the spoils of your offended eye." BEAUMONT & FLETCHER, Thicrry and Theodoret.BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS.
1866.Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE.
PREFACE.
POOR La Fontaine! Racine took him one evening during Holy Week to church. "Le bon homme," as his friends called him, was not at all learned, nor was religion, in the old sense of the word, one of his prominent characteristics; therefore he grew horribly weary with the length of the services.
To occupy him, Racine gave him a Bible which contained the Minor Prophets. La Fontaine opened it at the prayer of the Jews in Baruch. Struck with the sublime fulness of this grand diapason of supplication, he could not control his surprise and delight, and commenced elbowing Racine restlessly.
"O my friend," he whispered, eagerly, "what a fine genius this Baruch had! But tell me, who was he?"
And for some time after he was so full of Baruch that every friend he met in the streets of Paris was greeted with the question, "Avez-vous lu Baruch? Ah, c' était par ma foi un beau génie."
Poor great La Fontaine!
I have often thought during my journey in Southern page: iv-v[View Page iv-v] ern Italy of "Avez-vous lu Baruch?" when expressing my sincere enthusiasm. And while relating with innocent delight all this which was new to me in "Les Petites Prophètes" (the Minor Prophets) of the grand Bible of Art and History, I have been probably like le bon homme La Fontaine.
- "The holy laws of homely pastoral,
- And flowers, and founts, and nymphs, and semi-gods,
- And all the Graces, found their old abodes,"
- "We would fain please ye, and as fain be pleased;
- 'T is but a little liking, both are eased."
There are seasons of quiet that come in the midst of great trials, rare and short to be sure, but precious. All outside interferences seem to arrange themselves, and social tangles unweave their knots most graciously, as if to lend us a short rest and peace,—it may be to give strength for future trouble,—fresh discipline,—Mother Nature holding the soul back, as it were, with tender solicitude and pensive prevision on the edge of a moral winter.
During such a season were these pages written, and the pleasure of writing them under the influence of that sweet lull added greatly to the diversion of sad thoughts. Therefore, as they have performed such a gentle office to me, I would not have them ungently judged.
And now as I gather these journal leaves together, and think of that pleasant period, I name them, and that part of my life, after the sweet autumn season of the year which they resemble,—
CONTENTS.
- "WE." 1
- MIDNIGHT ON MONT CENIS. 13
- JANET'S STORY. 22
- RAILWAY TALK AND CARNIVAL STUDIES. 36
- PRIDE, PIETY, AND AMBITION. 51
- PLANTING ROOTS. 66
- ELECTRA. 80
- THE TITAN'S CHILDREN AND CAPRI THE SPHINX. 95
- NEW FRIENDS. 106
- SPIRITISM AND DREAMS. 119
- HUMAN FAME. 135
- "NOBILE OZIO." 154
- STONE TONGUE. 173
- "CASA DELLA SIRENA." 184
- PHILIP. 203
- PSYCHE. 220
- A MIRACLE. 242
- A DINNER AT BAIÆ. 255
- SKY-ROCKETS. 277
- MALEBOLGE. 291
- THREE DEAD CITIES. 306
- A MUSICAL EVENING. 325
- MRS. ROCHESTER'S BALL. 331
- CONSEQUENCES OF THE BALL. 345
- BEGINNING OF THE END. 362
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- A NOCTURNE. 374
- WANLUCK. 380
- LEAVING NAPLES. 388
- "CONCA D' ORO". 393
- IBERIAN COASTS. 406
- THE GADITANIAN GATES. 413
- TEMPTING FATE. 423
- MARE TENEBROSUM. 430
- FUGUE IN E MINOR. 435