Essays on Life 



be more humdrum and unworthy of special 

 record than the one chosen by the artist for 

 the chapel we are considering ? Why should 

 this one get arrested in its flight and made 

 immortal when so many worthier ones have 

 perished ? Yet preserved it assuredly is ; it 

 is as though some fairy's wand had struck the 

 medieval Miss Pinkerton, Amelia Sedley, and 

 others who do duty instead of the Hebrew 

 originals. It has locked them up as sleeping 

 beauties, whose charms all may look upon. 

 Surely the hours are like the women grinding 

 at the mill the one is taken and the other 

 left, and none can give the reason more than 

 he can say why Gallio should have w r on 

 immortality by caring for none of "these 

 things." 



It seems to me, moreover, that fairies have 

 changed their practice now in the matter of 

 sleeping beauties, much as shopkeepers have 

 done in Regent Street. Formerly the shop- 

 keeper used to shut up his goods behind 

 strong shutters, so that no one might see them 

 after closing hours. Now he leaves everything 

 open to the eye and turns the gas on. So 



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