"Did he not curse me, child?"--"He never cursed,
But could not breathe, and said his heart would burst."
"And so will mine:"--"Then, father, you must pray:
My uncle said it took his pains away."
Repeating thus his sorrows, Isaac shows
That he, repenting, feels the debt he owes,
And from this source alone his every comfort flows.
He takes no joy in office, honours, gain;
They make him humble, nay, they give him pain:
"These from my heart," he cries, "all feeling drove;
They made me cold to nature, dead to love."
He takes no joy in home, but sighing, sees
A son in sorrow, and a wife at ease;
He takes no joy in office--see him now,
And Burgess Steel has but a passing bow;
Of one sad train of gloomy thoughts possess'd,
He takes no joy in friends, in food, in rest -
Dark are the evil days, and void of peace the best.
And thus he lives, if living be to sigh,
And from all comforts of the world to fly,
Without a hope in life--without a wish to die.
TALE XXI.
THE LEARNED BOY.
Like one well studied in a sad ostent,
To please his grandam.
SHAKESPEARE, Merchant of Venice.
And then the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping, like a snail,
Unwillingly to school.
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