172 



THE POPULAR EDUOATOE. 



LETTER II. 

 FROM CHARLES LAMB TO SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 



[Giving a detailed account of the deaXk of his mother, who teas stabbed by 

 his sister, in a fit of delirium,.] 



October 3rd, 1796. 



MY DEAREST FRIEND. Tour letter was an inestimable treasure to 

 me. It will be a comfort to you, I know, to know that our prospects 

 are somewhat brighter. My poor dear, dearest sister, the unhappy 

 and unconscious instrument of the Almighty's judgments on our 

 house, is restored to her senses ; to a dreadful sense and recollection 

 of what has passed, awful to her mind and impressive (as it must 

 be to the end of life), but tempered with religious resignation, and 

 the reasonings of a sound judgment, which, in this early stage, knows 

 how to distinguish between a deed committed in a transient fit of 

 frenzy, and the terrible guilt of a mother's murder. I have seen her. 

 I found her, this morning, calm and serene ; far, very far from an 

 indecent forgetful serenity ; she has a most affectionate tender concern 

 for what has happened. Indeed, from the beginning, frightful and 

 hopeless as her disorder seemed, I had confidence enough in her 

 strength of mind and religious principle, to look forward to a time 

 when even she might recover tranquillity. 



God be praised, Coleridge, Wonderful as it is to tell, I have never 

 once been otherwise than collected and calm ; even on the dreadful 

 day, and in the midst of the terrible scene, I preserved a tranquillity 

 which bystanders may have construed into indifference a tranquillity 

 not of despair. Is it folly or sin in me to say that it was a religious 

 principle that most supported me ? I allow much to other favourable 

 circumstances. I felt that I had something else to do than to regret. 

 On the first evening (September 22nd), my aunt was lying insensible, 

 to all appearances like one dying, my father, with his poor forehead 

 plaistered over, from a wound he had received from a daughter dearly 

 loved by him, and who loved him no less dearly, my mother, a dead 

 and murdered corpse in the next room yet I was wonderfully sup- 

 ported. I closed not my eyes in sleep that night, but lay without 

 terrors and without despair. I have lost no sleep since. I had been 

 long used not to rest in things of sense, had endeavoured after a 

 comprehension of mind, unsatisfied with the " ignorant present time," 

 and this kept me up. I had the whole weight of the family thrown on 

 me ; for my brother, little disposed (I speak not without tenderness 

 for him) at any time to take care of old age and infirmities, had now, 

 with his bad leg, an exemption from such duties, and I was now left 



alone 



I mention these things because I hate concealment, and love to give 

 a faithful journal of what passes within me. Our friends are very 

 good. Sam Le Grice, who was then in town, was with me the first 

 three or four days, and was as a brother to me. He gave up every 

 hour of his time, to the very hurting of his health and spirits, in con- 

 stant attendance and humouring my poor father ; talked with him, 

 read to him, played at cribbage with him (for so short is the old man's 

 recollection, that he was playing at cards as though nothing had 

 happened, while the coroner's inquest was sitting over the way) ! 

 . . . Of all the people I ever saw in the world, my poor sister 

 was most and thoroughly devoid of the least ^tincture of selfishness. 

 I will enlarge upon her qualities, poor dear, dear soul, in a future 

 letter, for my own comfort, for I understand her thoroughly ; and, if 

 I mistake not, in the most trying situation that a human being can 

 be found in, she will be found (I speak not with sufficient humility, I 

 fear, but humanly and foolishly speaking), she will be found, I trust, 

 uniformly great and amiable. God keep her in her present mind, to 

 whom be thanks and praise for all His dispensations to mankind ! 



C. LAMB. 

 LETTER III. 



FROM LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU TO HER SISTER, THE COUNTESS 

 OF MAS. 



[Giwng o brief description of her journey from Ratisbon to Vienna, and. 

 some account of the last-named city.] 



Vienna, September 8ih, 1716. 



I am now, my dear sister, safely arrived at Vienna ; and, I thank 

 God, have not at all suffered in my health, nor (what is dearer to me) 

 in that of my child, by all our fatigues. 



We travelled by water from Eatisbon, a journey perfectly agreeable, 

 down the Danube, in one of those little vessels, that they very pro- 

 perly call wooden houses, having in them almost all the conveniences 

 of a palace stoves in the chambers, kitchens, etc. They are rowed 

 by twelve men each, and move with an incredible ewiftness, that in 

 the same day you have the pleasure of a vast variety of prospects ; 

 and, within a few hours' space of time, one has the different diversion 

 of seeing a populous city adorned with magnificent palaces, and the 

 j most romantic solitudes, which appear distant from the commerce of 

 ' mankind, the banks of the Danube being charmingly diversified with 

 woods, rocks, mountains covered with vines, large cities, and ruins of 

 ancient castles. I saw the great towns of Passau and Lintz, famous 

 for the retreat of the Imperial Court when Vienna was besieged. 



This town, which has the honour of being the Emperor's residence, 

 did not at all answer my idea of it, being much less than I expected to 

 find it ; the streets are very close, and so narrow one cannot observe the 

 fine fronts of the palaces, though many of them very well deservo 

 observation, being truly magnificent, all built of nne white stone, and 

 excessively high. The town being so much too little for the number of 

 people that desire to live in it, the buildings seem to have been projected 

 to repair that misfortune by clapping one town on the top of another, 

 most of the houses being of five, and some of them of six storeys. 

 You may easily imagine that the streets being so narrow, the lower 

 rooms are extremely dark, and what is an inconvenience much more 

 intolerable, in my opinion, there is no house that has so few as five of 

 six families in it. The apartments of the greatest ladies, and even of 

 the ministers of state, are divided but by a partition from that of a 

 tailor or a shoemaker; and I know nobody that has above two floors 

 in any house, one for their own use, and one higher for tneir servants. 

 Those who have houses of their own, let out the rest of them to who- 

 ever will take them; thus the great stairs (which are all of stone) are 

 as common and as dirty as the street. 'Tis true, when you have once 

 travelled through them, nothing can be more surprisingly magnificent 

 than the apartments. They are commonly a suite of eight or ten 

 large rooms, all inlaid, the doors and windows richly carved and gilt, 

 and the furniture such as is seldom seen in the palaces of sovereign 

 princes in other countries the hangings the finest tapestry of Brussels, 

 prodigious large looking-glasses in silver frames, fine Japan tables, 

 beds, chairs, canopies, and window curtains of the richest Genoa 

 damask or velvet, almost covered with gold lace or embroidery, the 

 whole made gay by pictures and vast jars of Japan china, and almost 

 in every room large lustres of rock crystal. 



I have already had the honour of being invited to dinner by several 

 of the first people of quality, and I must do them the justice to say 

 the good taste and magnificence of their tables very well answers to 

 that of their furniture. I have been more than once entertained with 

 fifty dishes of meat, all served in silver, and well dressed, the dessert 

 proportionable, served in the finest china. But the variety and rich- 

 ness of their wines is what appears the most surprising. The con- 

 stant way is, to lay a list of their names upon the plates of their 

 guests, along with the napkins ; and I have counted several times to 

 the number of eighteen different sorts, all exquisite in theii? kinds. 



I was yesterday at Count Schonbrunn, the vice-chancellor's garden, 

 where I was invited to dinner, and I must own that I never saw a 

 plase so perfectly delightful as the Fauxbourgs of Vienna. It is very 

 large, and almost wholly composed of delicious palaces; and if the 

 emperor found it proper to permit the gates of the town to be laid 

 open, that the Fauxbourgs might be joined to it, he would have one of 

 the largest and best-built cities of Europe. Count Schonbrunn's villa 

 is one of the most magnificent ; the furniture, all rich brocades, so 

 well fancied and fitted up, nothing can look more gay or splendid ; 

 not to speak of a gallery, full of rarities of coral, mother-of-pearl, etc., 

 and, throughout the whole house, a profusion of gilding, carving, fine 

 paintings, the most beautiful porcelain, statues of alabaster and ivory, 

 and vast orange and lemon trees in gilt pots. The dinner was per- 

 fectly fine and well ordered, and made still more agreeable by the good 

 humour of the count. 



I have not yet been to court, being forced to stay for my gown, 

 without which there is no waiting on the empress ; though I am not 

 without a great impatience to see a beauty that has been the admira- 

 tion of so many different nations. When I have had that honour, I 

 will not fail to let you know my real thoughts, always taking a parti- 

 cular pleasure in communicating them to my dear sister. 



EXERCISES IN COMPOSITION. 



1. Form sentences, each having in it one of the following 

 words : 



Debts; light; sing; come; health; water; sky; home; day; night; 

 ark; rose; Victoria; Mary; Henry; mother; bread; England; 

 wife ; buttercup ; linnet ; daisy ; stone. 



2. Give brief descriptions of the following objects and 

 places : 



A chair ; a wheel of a coach ; a kite ; a waterpot ; an oak-tree ; the 

 room in which you write; and the place where you work. 



3. Write historical themes on the following subjects : 



1. The patriarch Abraham's visit to Egypt. 



2. The battle of Hastings. 



3. The conversion of St. Paul. 



4. The murder of Thomas a Becket. 



4. Write letters on the following subjects : 



1. A letter of condolence to an intimate friend on the death of a 

 tear relation. 



2. A letter to a friend in town, inviting him to pay you a visit in 

 he country, and describing the scenery of the neighbourhood in which 

 r ou live. 



3. A letter of thanks to a gentleman who has enabled you to obtain 

 situation in a house of business by his recommendation. 



