Central High School - Almanac Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

Page 148 text:

embrace of my favorite arm-chair, I had no light but the glowing coals in the grate, for light is crude, and disturbs the imagination, and dims the memory pictures, my hookah With its fragrant breath Was inviting repose, and all Was peace Without and all Within. Then- Ecce deus ramum Lethaeo rore madentem Vique soporatum Stygia super utraque quassat Tempora cunctantique natantia lumina solvitf' Ah, the solitary happiness of such a time, with no sight nor sound of man to break in upon one's meditations, nor frighten his spirit friends away-for they are easily fright- ened, these spirit friends. Hmm-Ballon-must be quite an old man by this time -and Brown-how old that fellow is getting to look-Why, he's as gray as-as gray as-as I am-Wonder if he remem- bers hovv he used to tumble around in Greek. Hm-m-Vance-havenit heard from the old boy since he left for Athens-six-eight-ten years ago-Miss Ritchie used to-I Wonder if she still advocates those Rules of Rhetoric -never remembered them five minutesmabsurd- as if a literary style were ever built on such a foundation- Hamlet, for instance, or Paradise Lost. Mm-m-Shakespeare-I can imagine him conning rules-absurd-extremely absurd-ah! good evening, who- ever you are-come a little closer, the light is very dim, and be sides you are so thin that I can look right through you and see the book-case yonder-ah, Mr. Shakespeare of England, I believe. You doubtless are acquainted With my name, perhaps Bacon may have mentioned me to you. Bacon was here last evening along With Elizabeth and Ra- leigh-and I-Iomer-you have met Homer, of course-no?- you have had a chance to make some acquaintances in four hundred years. But to What happy cause am I to attribute this extraordinary honor?

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Reverics of a Bachelor. CDedicated to Miss Ritchie and her valuable ru1esJ'J BY W. H. W., ,99. WAS reflecting the other night, as is the habit of old men for Whom much is behind and little in the future save the enjoyment of the past-I Was reiiecting upon sun- dry things of which I had not thought for years, and which ,J 'S X SITTING DREAMING.,' were so deeply buried by the accumulated memories of suc- ceeding events that I Was startled at the vividness With which they arose before me. I Was sunk in the billowy

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My lord, methought I heard you say but a moment gone that rules of rhetoric were of no use, and more, that I have ' never used them, I could not then forbear but that I should speak to you against the matter, for hark you, 'twere not for my little note-book Wherein are kept the ' pro- perties of style,' I never had Written the like of I-Iamletf' an in ,, 1, il N if Q 'fri-IE SHADE OF SHAKESPEARE. Then, my dear Shakespeare, you mean to say that I-Iamlet's Soliloquy and Antony's Oration Were Written by rule? Marry, my lord, that Was the manner of it. For oft have I paused when I Would Write a Word that I might counsel with my note-book copied full of the Wise sayings of myipreceptress, Dame Ritchie, a Wonderful Woman! She-