Feeling seems to have been strangely disproportioned to the
occasion, and words were laughably trivial and scanty to set
forth the feeling even such as it was. Juvenal des Ursins
chronicles calamity after calamity, with but one comment for
them all: that "it was great pity." Perhaps, after too much
of our florid literature, we find an adventitious charm in
what is so different; and while the big drums are beaten
every day by perspiring editors over the loss of a cock-boat
or the rejection of a clause, and nothing is heard that is
not proclaimed with sound of trumpet, it is not wonderful if
we retire with pleasure into old books, and listen to authors
who speak small and clear, as if in a private conversation.
Truly this is so with Charles of Orleans. We are pleased to
find a small man without the buskin, and obvious sentiments
stated without affectation. If the sentiments are obvious,
there is all the more chance we may have experienced the
like. As we turn over the leaves, we may find ourselves in
sympathy with some one or other of these staid joys and
smiling sorrows. If we do we shall be strangely pleased, for
there is a genuine pathos in these simple words, and the
lines go with a lilt, and sing themselves to music of their
own.
CHAPTER VIII - SAMUEL PEPYS
IN two books a fresh light has recently been thrown on the
character and position of Samuel Pepys.
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