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Article COLLEGE MUSINGS. ← Page 2 of 5 →
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College Musings.
defer travelling for an hour or two , but failing to persuade his cver-Iove-sick-home mania , I declined accompanying him altogether , not being prompted by the same desire to tempt a soaking . Rash impetuosity , in whatever cause , is reprehensible . It is ever prudent to reflect in whatever you are about to engage . Precipitate determinations are almost invariably attended with vexation , if not positive mischief . After my friend ' s departure I sat clown to revise some crude essays of former
years , doubtful whether they merited the dignified title of Sermons . My subsequent experience has confirmed the previously received maxims of philosophy , that it is an index of wisdom to fix an humble estimation on one ' s own works . If there be any intrinsic value either in yourself or your productions , time and society will give them a very fair appreciation .
I occupied myself in quill-driving till tea-time , a beverage we literati are very fond of , ancl after discussing a due proportion of ' ¦ ' green souchong fermented "—for be it known to all town-folks that their fellow-Christians of this northern corner of the isle do not wait till the fashionable hour of nine or ten—I started on a constitutional , as they say at Alma Mater , to the sea-port of Whitehaven . If my reader requires a description of that place I fear I shall ill be able to satisfy him
or her . Truly did the poet say , " Gocl made the country , man made the town , " for the former only ever calls forth my admiration . But to oblige you I will assay something . For one thing it is very remarkable , that the celebrated Paul Jones , in the number of his daring exploits , entered its harbour , burnt all the shipping before the inhabitants were sufficiently awake to be conscious of his neighbourhood , and escaped unscathedthanks to the unskilful dexterity of the gunners at the fort !
, It is also remarkable for its coal-mines , some of which run many miles out under the bed of the sea , affording an immense revenue to the proprietor , the Earl of Lonsdale , and for its concerts , ivhich used to muster a room-full of the—I was going to say—but forbid it gallantry ! —I mean the plainest women my eyes ever lighted upon . In all other respects it is like most other dirty , nasty , sea-port , trading towns .
An impertinent article of dress led me to moralize upon the injurious consequences of yielding to habits of indolent indulgence as I walked home , ancl being alone as usual , my thoughts reverted to the strange and ungenerous behaviour of the man to whom I hacl to look up to as my only relation or individual to whom I was known in this dreary part of the empire . Feeling unconscious of any just cause of offence , or reason for his neglect and repulsive behaviour , I resolved it by that rule of
treatment ivhich , with some few magnanimous exceptions , the children of misfortune ever receive from the hands of those whose circumstances are an exemption from the sorrows of pitiless ancl pinching penury . These and other melancholy reveries upon the short-sighted pride ancl vain-glory of mankind cast my mind into a most sombre mood long before I regained my domicile . While in the town defraying a bill and inquiring of the shopman
about the sailing of the Manx boats , I could not help remarking a person in the shop , who certainly in a very civil way answered several of my queries , but who seemed , in the literal acceptation of the common phrase , to be possessed of " more money than wit . " He to me forcibly illustrated the vulgar folly of what is called " showing off' ! " I know I am apt to be critical , perhaps sometimes unjustly , but in the present case the observation was per se thrust upon me , from his demanding aloud , with a
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
College Musings.
defer travelling for an hour or two , but failing to persuade his cver-Iove-sick-home mania , I declined accompanying him altogether , not being prompted by the same desire to tempt a soaking . Rash impetuosity , in whatever cause , is reprehensible . It is ever prudent to reflect in whatever you are about to engage . Precipitate determinations are almost invariably attended with vexation , if not positive mischief . After my friend ' s departure I sat clown to revise some crude essays of former
years , doubtful whether they merited the dignified title of Sermons . My subsequent experience has confirmed the previously received maxims of philosophy , that it is an index of wisdom to fix an humble estimation on one ' s own works . If there be any intrinsic value either in yourself or your productions , time and society will give them a very fair appreciation .
I occupied myself in quill-driving till tea-time , a beverage we literati are very fond of , ancl after discussing a due proportion of ' ¦ ' green souchong fermented "—for be it known to all town-folks that their fellow-Christians of this northern corner of the isle do not wait till the fashionable hour of nine or ten—I started on a constitutional , as they say at Alma Mater , to the sea-port of Whitehaven . If my reader requires a description of that place I fear I shall ill be able to satisfy him
or her . Truly did the poet say , " Gocl made the country , man made the town , " for the former only ever calls forth my admiration . But to oblige you I will assay something . For one thing it is very remarkable , that the celebrated Paul Jones , in the number of his daring exploits , entered its harbour , burnt all the shipping before the inhabitants were sufficiently awake to be conscious of his neighbourhood , and escaped unscathedthanks to the unskilful dexterity of the gunners at the fort !
, It is also remarkable for its coal-mines , some of which run many miles out under the bed of the sea , affording an immense revenue to the proprietor , the Earl of Lonsdale , and for its concerts , ivhich used to muster a room-full of the—I was going to say—but forbid it gallantry ! —I mean the plainest women my eyes ever lighted upon . In all other respects it is like most other dirty , nasty , sea-port , trading towns .
An impertinent article of dress led me to moralize upon the injurious consequences of yielding to habits of indolent indulgence as I walked home , ancl being alone as usual , my thoughts reverted to the strange and ungenerous behaviour of the man to whom I hacl to look up to as my only relation or individual to whom I was known in this dreary part of the empire . Feeling unconscious of any just cause of offence , or reason for his neglect and repulsive behaviour , I resolved it by that rule of
treatment ivhich , with some few magnanimous exceptions , the children of misfortune ever receive from the hands of those whose circumstances are an exemption from the sorrows of pitiless ancl pinching penury . These and other melancholy reveries upon the short-sighted pride ancl vain-glory of mankind cast my mind into a most sombre mood long before I regained my domicile . While in the town defraying a bill and inquiring of the shopman
about the sailing of the Manx boats , I could not help remarking a person in the shop , who certainly in a very civil way answered several of my queries , but who seemed , in the literal acceptation of the common phrase , to be possessed of " more money than wit . " He to me forcibly illustrated the vulgar folly of what is called " showing off' ! " I know I am apt to be critical , perhaps sometimes unjustly , but in the present case the observation was per se thrust upon me , from his demanding aloud , with a