The Hive, or, Mental gatherings.

Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hive, or, Mental gatherings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Simon was not likely so far to commit himself as that. Oh no! for had not his mother carefully detained him at home until he went to college ? The world presents so many and hazardous temptations; false doctrine and fal- lacious opinions might have unduly influenced him, whilst other accidents of possible occurrence in the best re- gulated families might have proved a snare. The reverend gentleman early showed the result of these kind inten- tions—he admired the Fathers, hated cricket, and wore an eye-glass. Nature, however, will out, as is the case with murder. Simon had a monomania for self-improvement, and, in the depths of his severe waistcoat, would like now and then to see a few of those flowery paths from which he had been so steadily warned. Once—and the fact is written with a tremor—once, when up in town, he had gone so far as to see Kean in Shakspeare, but that was after much consideration, and he never told his aunt. The fellowship was a new era for him ; the world and a long vacation were before him; he resolved to travel. For was not Caesar an energetic traveller? did not Cicero migrate ? or Herodotus visit foreign climes ? and was not Pliny smothered by an eruption of Vesuvius when he was out exploring ? what argument should deter the Eeverend Simon Smiles from following their bright ex- ample ? Off he went, leaving his distracted family to lament at home. He got a passport and a new portman- teau, his aunt gave him a copy of that inestimable work The Whole Duty of Man; and Mrs. Smiles presented him with Murray's Handbook ; with these he betook himself to the South-Western Eailway. Now, sir ! this way for Eichmond, said the porter. Eichmond!
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