1996] ’ The Seven Ages. G15 
day,” with all its paraphernalia of corded trunks, plum-cakes, | nd. post- 
chaisés ; nor how willingly we would have forfeited the MAELO 
Upon us ‘at patting, to be allowed a week’s respite from school. _Ere 
Tone however, these grievances die away; and the same tongue wh ich, 
but’a few days back’ was choked in its attempt to utter a “ farewell,” may 
endow heard’ in’ the school play-ground, as lustily bawling for “ fair 
lay,” as if home had never had an existence. fet ing 
* At fifteen. or ‘sixteen he leaves school, and is now enjoying, perhaps, 
the ‘happiest period of his life. Still even this age has its drawbacks ; 
it is’ for’ a time extremely awkward and undefined. The homunculus 
stands, as it were, rocking on a pivot of perplexity between man and 
boy—rejected by each estate, and claimed by neither. He wears a long 
coat, and assumes the neckcloth ; but boys in the street cry “ a-hem !” 
or stroke their chins as he passes along. “Some people call him “ Mis- 
ter ;” others, “ Master :” the former appellation does not sit well yet ; 
and the latter is insulting. The elderly ladies tell him “he’s quite a 
man ;” the vulgar married women begin to quiz him about his sweet- 
heart; and the younger ladies are not so familiar with him as they were 
wont to be. He maintains his dignity when in the company of a school- 
boy, but is somewhat in doubt as to whether he ought not to quit the 
room with the ladies after dinner. 
But he has now “ discontinued school above a twelvemonth.” He has 
lost his shamefacedness (we hope not his sense of shame)—is reckoned 
gentlemanly in his manners, and is invited out. He feels his heart 
opened—ceases to be shy before ladies in general—and begins to feel 
something like a tenderness for ladies in particular. 
“ And then the lover ! 
 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad 
Made to his mistress’ eye-brow.”’ 
’ What a'sensation is that created by the first impression of love upon 
the young and feeling heart! He is reproved by parental wisdom— 
laughed at by his companions—and scorned by the object of his adora- - 
tion! And with a heart “ already stabbed by a white wench’s black 
eye,” he goes to the field of battle, and encloses his lacerated bosom in 
a breast-plate of steel. 
“ And then.a soliier; 
Jealous in honour, suilden and quick in quarrel, 
Secking the bubble repatation, 
Even in the cannon’s mouth.” 
He finds steel lozenges a cure for love—or, at least, Glory is now his 
mistress. He no longer now supplicates through tears“ a return of affec- 
tion,;”, but, « with an eye like Mars to threaten and command,” he sum- 
mons the surrender of a foreign fort. His movements are too rapid for 
scence to keep pace with them, and in the reyelries of a mess- 
table he drowns his sorrows. ‘The drum and fife accompany him through 
many a year of servitude ; till at length, ‘ tired of war’s alarms,” and 
perhaps favoured by the inducement of a seasonable legacy, he sells his 
omission, and retires to his country-seat. From the whining loyer, he is 
th ed to the gallant captain ; and instead of singing (as he was wont to 
° eh. Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,” he now chaunts 
K lusty heartiness, * With my glass in one hand, and my jug in the other.” 
: 1 Gy tel : 
