LXIX. I say at first-for he found out at last, LXX Though travell'd, I have never had the luck to Trace up those shuffling negroes, Nile or Niger, To that impracticable place, Timbuctoo, Where geography finds no one to oblige her With such a chart as may be safely stuck toFor Europe ploughs in Afric like "bos piger: " But if I had been at Timbuctoo, there No doubt I should be told that black is fair. LXXI. It is. I will not swear that black is white; Or if I'm wrong, I'll not be ta'en aback :- LXXII. But I'm relapsing into metaphysics, That labyrinth, whose clue is of the same Construction as your cures for hectic phthisics, Those bright moths fluttering round a dying flame; And this reflection brings me to plain physics, And to the beauties of a foreign dame, Compared with those of our pure pearls of price, Those Polar summers, all sun, and some ice. LXXIII. Or say they are like virtuous mermaids, whose Beginnings are fair faces, ends mere fishes ;Not that there's not a quantity of those Who have a due respect for their own wishes, Like Russians rushing from hot baths to snows 3 Are they, at bottom virtuous even when vicious: They warm into a scrape, but keep of course, As a reserve, a plunge into remorse. LXXIV. But this has nought to do with their outsides. I said that Juan did not think them pretty At the first blush; for a fair Briton hides Half her attractions-probably from pityAnd rather calmly into the heart glides, That storms it as a foe would take a city; But once there (if you doubt this, prithee try) She keeps it for you like a true ally. LXXV. She cannot step as does an Arab barb, Nor in her eye Ausonia's glance is burning; LXXVI. She cannot do these things, nor one or two (A thing approved as saving time and toil,) But though the soil may give you time and trouble Well cultivated, it will render double. LXXVII. And if in fact she takes to a "grande passion," The reason's obvious: if there's an eclat, They lose their caste at once, as do the Parias; And when the delicacies of the law [various, Have fill'd their papers with their comments Society, that china without flaw, (The hypocrite!) will banish them like Marius, o sit amid the ruins of their guilt: For Fame's a Carthage not so soon rebuilt. LXXIX. Perhaps this is as it should be ;-it is A comment on the Gospel's "Sin no more, For me, I leave the matter where I find it, By all the laws the strictest lawyer pleads, LXXXI. But Juan was no casuist, nor had ponder'd A little "blasé "-'tis not to be wonder'd LXXXII. He also had been busy seeing sights- To hear debates whose thunder roused not (rouses, The world to gaze upon those northern lights, Which flash'd as far as where the musk-bul. browses: He had also stood at times behind the throne And have, or had, an ear that served me prettily)-'But Grey was not arrived, and Chatham gone. LXXXIII. He saw, however, at the closing session, Of such a throne as is the proudest station, There too he saw (whate'er he may be now) And full of promise, as the spring of prime. He had then the grace too, rare in every clime, And Juan was received, as hath been said, Besides the mark'd distinction of his air, LXXXVI. CANTO XIII. I. 1 NOW mean to be serious;-it is time, Although when long a little apt to weary us; And therefore shall my lay soar high and solemn, As an old temple dwindled to a column. II. The Lady Adeline Amundeville ("Tis an old Norman name, and to be found In pedigrees by those who wander still Along the last fields of that Gothic ground) Was high-born, wealthy by her father's will, And beauteous, even where beauties most abound, In Britain-which of course true patriots find The goodliest soil of body and of mind. III. But what, and where, with whom, and when, and I'll not gainsay them; it is not my cue: Is not to be put hastily together; And as my object is morality, [why, (Whatever people say,) I don't know whether I'll leave a single reader's eyelid dry, But harrow up his feelings till they wither, And hew out a huge monument of pathos, As Philip's son proposed to do with Athos. LXXXVII. Here the twelfth canto of our introduction From what some people say 'twill be when done: I leave them to their taste, no doubt the best: An eye's an eye, and whether black or blue, Is no great matter, so 'tis in request: 'Tis nonsense to dispute about a hue The kindest may be taken as a test. The fair sex should be always fair; and no man Till thirty, should perceive there's a plain woman. IV. And after that serene and somewhat dull Epoch, that awkward corner turn'd for days More quiet, when our moon's no more at full, We may presume to criticise or praise; Because indifference begins to lull way Our passions, and we walk in wisdom's ways; Also because the figure and the face Should neither court neglect, nor dread to bear it ;- Hint, that 'tis time to give the younger place. LXXXVIII. And if my thunderbolt not always rattles, An usurer could scarce expect much more- That is your present theme for popularity: To show the people the best way to break. Reserve it) will be very sure to take. Meantime read all the national debt-sinkers, And tell me what you think of our great thinkers. VII. Within these latest thousand years or later. But neither love, nor hate in much excess; And now and then it also suits my rhymes. I should be very willing to redress Men's wrongs, and rather check than punish crimes, Had not Cervantes, in that too true tale Of Quixote, shown how all such efforts fail. IX. Of all tales, 'tis the saddest-and more sad, X. Redressing injury, revenging wrong, To aid the damsel and destroy the caitiff; Opposing singly the united strong, From foreign yoke to free the helpless native ;Alas must noblest views, like an old song, Be for mere fancy's sport a theme creative? A jest, a riddle, fame through thick thin and sought? And Socrates himself but Wisdom's Quixote? XI. Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away; A single laugh demolish'd the right arm Of his own country;-seldom since that day [charm, Has Spain had heroes. While Romance could The world gave ground before her bright array; And therefore have his volumes done such harm, That all their glory as a composition Was dearly purchased by his land's perdition. XII. I'm "at my old Lunes "-digression, and forget The fair most fatal Juan ever met, Although she was not evil nor meant ill: But Destiny and Passion spread the net, (Fate is a good excuse for our own will,) And caught them; what do they not catch, methinks? But I'm not Edipus, and life's a sphinx. XIII. I tell the tale as it is told, nor dare Sweet Adeline, amid the gay world's hum, |