XCII.
She was, or thought she was, his friend--and this Without the farce of Friendship, or romance Of Platonism, which leads so oft amiss Ladies who have studied Friendship but in France Or Germany, where people _purely_ kiss.[nc]
To thus much Adeline would not advance; But of such friendship as Man"s may to Man be She was as capable as Woman can be.
XCIII.
No doubt the secret influence of the s.e.x Will there, as also in the ties of blood, An innocent predominance annex, And tune the concord to a finer mood.[nd]
If free from Pa.s.sion, which all Friendship checks, And your true feelings fully understood, No friend like to a woman Earth discovers, So that you have not been nor will be lovers.
XCIV.
Love bears within its breast the very germ Of Change; and how should this be otherwise?
That violent things more quickly find a term Is shown through Nature"s whole a.n.a.logies;[728]
And how should the most fierce of all be firm?
Would you have endless lightning in the skies?
Methinks Love"s very t.i.tle says enough: How should "the _tender_ pa.s.sion" e"er be _tough?_
XCV.
Alas! by all experience, seldom yet (I merely quote what I have heard from many) Had lovers not some reason to regret The pa.s.sion which made Solomon a zany.[ne]
I"ve also seen some wives (not to forget The marriage state, the best or worst of any) Who were the very paragons of wives, Yet made the misery of at least two lives.[nf]
XCVI.
I"ve also seen some female _friends_[729] ("t is odd,[ng]
But true--as, if expedient, I could prove) That faithful were through thick and thin, abroad,[nh]
At home, far more than ever yet was Love-- Who did not quit me when Oppression trod Upon me; whom no scandal could remove; Who fought, and fight, in absence, too, my battles, Despite the snake Society"s loud rattles.
XCVII.
Whether Don Juan and chaste Adeline Grew friends in this or any other sense, Will be discussed hereafter, I opine: At present I am glad of a pretence To leave them hovering, as the effect is fine, And keeps the atrocious reader in _suspense_; The surest way--for ladies and for books-- To bait their tender--or their tenter--hooks.
XCVIII.
Whether they rode, or walked, or studied Spanish, To read Don Quixote in the original, A pleasure before which all others vanish; Whether their talk was of the kind called "small,"
Or serious, are the topics I must banish To the next Canto; where perhaps I shall Say something to the purpose, and display Considerable talent in my way.
XCIX.
Above all, I beg all men to forbear Antic.i.p.ating aught about the matter: They"ll only make mistakes about the fair, And Juan, too, especially the latter.
And I shall take a much more serious air Than I have yet done, in this Epic Satire.
It is not clear that Adeline and Juan Will fall; but if they do, "t will be their ruin.
C.
But great things spring from little:--Would you think, That in our youth, as dangerous a pa.s.sion As e"er brought Man and Woman to the brink Of ruin, rose from such a slight occasion, As few would ever dream could form the link Of such a sentimental situation?
You"ll never guess, I"ll bet you millions, milliards[730]-- It all sprung from a harmless game at billiards.
CI.
"T is strange,--but true; for Truth is always strange-- Stranger than fiction: if it could be told, How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the World would men behold!
How oft would Vice and Virtue places change!
The new world would be nothing to the old, If some Columbus of the moral seas Would show mankind their Souls" antipodes.
CII.
What "antres vast and deserts idle,"[731] then, Would be discovered in the human soul!
What icebergs in the hearts of mighty men, With self-love in the centre as their Pole!
What Anthropophagi are nine of ten Of those who hold the kingdoms in control!
Were things but only called by their right name, Caesar himself would be ashamed of Fame.[732]
FOOTNOTES:
[703] Fry. 23, 1814 (_sic_).--[MS.]
[704] [Compare--
"Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be."
Tennyson"s _In Memoriam_.]
{517}[705] [With this open mind with regard to the future, compare Charles Kingsley"s "reverent curiosity" (_Letters and Memoirs, etc._, 1883, p. 349).]
{518}[706] ["We usually try which way the wind bloweth, by casting up gra.s.s or chaff, or such light things into the air."--Bacon"s _Natural History_, No. 820, _Works_, 1740, iii. 168.]
[707] ["The World was all before them." _Paradise Lost_, bk. xii. line 646.]
{519}[708]
["But why then publish?--Granville, the polite, And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write."
Pope, _Prologue to Satires_, lines 135, 136.]
{521}[709] [Virg., _Aen._, ii. 91 "(Haud ignota);" et _ibid._, line 6.]
[710] [Hor., _Od._ iii. 2. 26.]
{522}[mv]
_And though by no means overpowered with riches_, _Would gladly place beneath it my last rag of breeches_.--[MS. erased.]
{524}[711] _Craning_.--"To _crane_" is, or was, an expression used to denote a gentleman"s stretching out his neck over a hedge, "to look before he leaped;"--a pause in his "vaulting ambition," which in the field doth occasion some delay and execration in those who may be immediately behind the equestrian sceptic. "Sir, if you don"t choose to take the leap, let me!"--was a phrase which generally sent the aspirant on again; and to good purpose: for though "the horse and rider" might fall, they made a gap through which, and over him and his steed, the field might follow.
{525}[mw]
_The sulky Huntsman grimly said "The Frenchman_ _Was almost worthy to become his henchman_."--[MS. erased.]
[mx]