CHRISTOPHER IN HIS SPORTING JACKET 



often flickering, or seemingly blown out, like a taper 

 in the wind, but all at once self-reillumined, and shin- 

 ing in inextinguishable and self-fed radiance — like a 

 star in heaven. 



Therefore, bad as boys too often are — and a dis- 

 grace to the mother who bore them — the cradle in 

 which they were rocked — the nurse by whom they 

 were suckled — the schoolmaster by whom they were 

 flogged — and the hangman by whom it was prophe- 

 sied they were to be executed — wait patiently for 

 a few years, and you will see them all transfigured — 

 one into a preacher of such winning eloquence, that 

 he almost persuades all men to be Christians — an- 

 other into a parliamentary orator, who commands the 

 applause of listening senates, and 



'^ Reads his history in a nation's eyes'''' 



— one into a painter, before whose thunderous heavens 

 the storms of Poussin "pale their ineffectual fires'" 

 — another into a poet composing and playing, side 

 by side, on his own peculiar harp, in a concert of 

 vocal and instrumental music, with Byron, Scott, and 

 Wordsworth — one into a great soldier, who, when 

 Wellington is no more, shall, for the freedom of the 

 world, conquer a future Waterloo — another who, 

 hoisting his flag on the "mast of some tall ammiral," 

 shall, like Eliab Harvey in the Temeraire, lay two 

 [27] 



