Love's Meinie Part 10

And of the n.o.blesse, the first five gentlemen on the right (spectator's right) of the line, in the ball at Stilton House, (July 3d, 1880).

136. Of the manner or state of lout, to which our manufacturing prosperity has reduced its artisan, as represented in the first of these frescoes, I do not think it needful to speak here; neither of the level of sublime temperament and unselfish heroism to which the dangers of commercial enterprise have exalted Mr. Smith. But the five consecutive heads in the third fresco are a very notable piece of English history, representing the polished and more or less l.u.s.trous type of lout; which is indeed a kind of rolled s.h.i.+ngle of former English n.o.blesse capable of nothing now in the way of resistance to Atlantic liberalism, except of getting itself swept up into ugly harbor bars, and troublesome shoals in the tideway.

And observe also, that of the three types of lout, whose combined chorus and tripudiation leads the present British Const.i.tution its devil's dance, this last and smoothest type is also the dullest. Your operative lout cannot indeed hold his cup of coffee with a grace, or possess himself of a biscuit from Lady Clara's salver without embarra.s.sment; but, in his own mill, he can at least make a needle without an eye, or a nail without a head, or a knife that won't cut, or something of that sort, with dexterity. Also, the middle cla.s.s, or Smithian lout, at least manages his stockbroking or marketing with decision and cunning; knows something by eye or touch of his wares, and something of the characters of the men he has to deal with. But the Ducal or Marquisian lout has no knowledge of anything under the sun, except what sort of horse's quarters will carry his own, farther weighted with that smooth block or pebble of a pow; and no faculty under the sun of doing anything, except cutting down the trees his fathers planted for him, and selling the lands his fathers won.

137. That is indeed the final result of hunting and horse-racing on the British landlord. Of its result on the British soldier, perhaps the figures of Lord George Sackville at the battle of Minden, and of Lord Raglan at the battle of Alma, (who in the first part of the battle did not know where he was, and in the second plumed himself on being where he had no business to be,) are as ill.u.s.trative as any I could name; but the darkest of all, to my own thinking, are the various personages, civil and military, who have conducted the Caffre war to its last successes, of blowing women and children to death with dynamite, and harrying the lands of entirely innocent peasantry, because they would not betray their defeated king.

138. Of the due and n.o.ble relations between man and his companion creatures, the horse, dog, and falcon, enough has been said in my former writings--unintelligible enough to a chivalry which pa.s.ses six months of its annual life in Rotten Row, and spends the rents of its c.u.mberland Hills in building furnaces round Furness Abbey; but which careful students either of past knighthood, or of future Christianity, will find securely and always true. For the relations between man and his beast of burden, whether the burden be himself or his goods, become beautiful and honorable, just in the degree that both creatures are useful to the rest of mankind, whether in war or peace. The Greeks gave the highest symbol of them in the bridling of Pegasus for Bellerophon by Athena; and from that myth you may go down to modern times--understanding, according to your own sense and dignity, what all prophecy, poetry, history, have told you--of the horse whose neck is clothed with thunder, or the ox who treadeth out the corn--of Joseph's chariot, or of Elijah's--of Achilles and Xanthus--Herminius and Black Auster--down to Scott and Brown Adam--or Dandie Dinmont and Dumple.

That pastoral one is, of all, the most enduring. I hear the proudest tribe of Arabia Felix is now reduced by poverty and civilization to sell its last well-bred horse; and that we send out our cavalry regiments to repet.i.tions of the charge at Balaclava, without horses at all; those that they can pick up wherever they land being good enough for such military operations. But the cart-horse will remain, when the charger and hunter are no more; and with a wiser master.

"I'll buy him, for the dogs shall never Set tooth upon a friend so true; He'll not live long; but I forever Shall know I gave the beast his due.

Ready as bird to meet the morn Were all his efforts at the plow; Then the mill-brook--with hay or corn, Good creature! how he'd spatter through.

I left him in the shafts behind, His fellows all unhook'd and gone; He neigh'd, and deemed the thing unkind; Then, starting, drew the load alone.

Half choked with joy, with love, and pride, He now with dainty clover fed him; Now took a short, triumphant ride, And then again got down, and led him."

139. Where Paris has had to lead _her_ horses, we know; and where London had better lead hers, than let her people die of starvation. But I have not lost my hope that there are yet in England Bewicks and Bloomfields, who may teach their children--and earn for their cattle--better ways of fronting, and of waiting for, Death.

Nor are the uses of the inferior creatures to us less consistent with their happiness. To all that live, Death must come. The manner of it, and the time, are for the human Master of them, and of the earth, to determine--not to his pleasure, but to his duty and his need.

In sacrifice, or for his food, or for his clothing, it is lawful for him to slay animals; but not to delight in slaying any that are helpless. If he choose, for discipline and trial of courage, to leave the boar in Calydon, the wolf in Taurus, the tiger in Bengal, or the wild bull in Aragon, there is forest and mountain wide enough for them: but the inhabited world in sea and land should be one vast unwalled park and treasure lake, in which its flocks of sheep, or deer, or fowl, or fish, should be tended and dealt with, as best may multiply the life of all Love's Meinie, in strength, and use, and peace.

APPENDIX.

140. This part of the book will, I hope, be continuous with the text of it, containing henceforward, in each number, the nomenclature hitherto used for the birds described in it, and the Author's reason for his choice or change of names. In the present number, it supplies also the nomenclature required for the two preceding ones, and thus finishes the first volume.

The names given first, in capitals, for each bird, are those which the Author will in future give it, and proposes for use in elementary teaching. They will consist only of a plain Latin specific name, with one, or at the most two, Latin epithets; and the simplest popular English name, if there be one; if not, the English name will usually be the direct translation of the Latin one.

Then in order will follow--

I. Linnaeus's name, marked L.

II. Buffon's name, marked F, the F standing also for 'French' when any popular French name is given with Buffon's.

III. The German popular name, marked T (Teutonic), for I want the G for Mr. Gould; and this T will include authoritative German scientific names also.

IV. The Italian popular name, if one exists, to give the connection with old Latin, marked I.

V. Mr. Gould's name, G; Yarrell's, Y; Dressler's, D; and Gesner's, Ges, being added, if different.

VI. Bewick's, B.

VII. Shakspeare's and Chaucer's, if I know them; and general references, such as may be needful.

The Appendix will thus contain the names of all the birds I am able to think or learn anything about, as I can set down what I think or learn; and with no other attempt at order than the slight grouping of convenience: but the numbers of the species examined will be consecutive, so that L. M. 25,--Love's Meinie, Number twenty-five,--or whatever the number may be, will at once identify any bird in the system of the St. George's schools.

The following note by the Author has in previous editions faced the first page of Lecture III., with the exception of the Nos. i.-vii., which are now added by the Editor for the sake of completeness.

Names of the birds noticed, according to the Author's system, with reference to the sections of the text and the Appendix in which the reader will find their more melodious scientific nomenclature:--

Sect. Sect.

I. _Rutila Familiaris._ _Robin Redbreast_ Text 1 seqq. App. 141 II. _Hirundo Domestica._ _House Swallow_ " 41 seqq. " 142 III. _Hirundo Monastica._ _Martlet_ " -- " 143 IV. _Hirundo Riparia._ _Bank Martlet_ " -- " 144 V. _Hirundo Sagitta._ _Swift_ " 64 " 145 VI. _Hirundo Alpina._ _Alpine Swift_ " -- " 146 VII. _Noctua Europaea._ _Night-jar of Europe_ " -- " 147 VIII. _Merula Fontium._ _Torrent Ouzel_ " 89 " 148 IX. _Allegretta Nymphaea._ _Lily Ouzel_ " 93 " 149 IX.A. _Allegretta Maculata._ _Spotted Allegret_ " 96 " 149 IX.B. _Allegretta Stellaris._ _Starry Allegret_ " 97 " 149 IX.C. _Allegretta Minuta._ _Tiny Allegret_ " 98 " 149 X. _Trepida Stagnarum._ _Little Grebe_ " 100 " 150 XI.A. _t.i.tania Arctica._ _Arctic Fairy_ " 111 " 151 XI. _t.i.tania Inconstans._ _Changeful Fairy_ " 114 " 151 XII. _Rallus Aquaticus._ _Water Rail_ " 116 " 152 XII.A. _Pulla Aquatica._ _Water Hen_ " 133 " 153

I.

141. RUTILA FAMILIARIS. ROBIN REDBREAST.

Motacilla Rubecula. L.

Rouge-Gorge. F.

Roth-breustlein.--Wald-roetele.--Winter-roetele.--Roth-kehlschen. T.

Petti-rosso. I.

Erythacus Rubecula. G. Rubecula Erythacus. Ges.

Erythaca Rubecula. Y.

Rebecula Familiaris. D.

Ruddock. B.

Ruddock, in Cymbeline; _tame_ Ruddocke, in a.s.sembly of Fowles; full robin-redebreast, in the Court of Love:

"The second lesson, Robin Redebreast sang."

It is rightly cla.s.sed by F. and Y. with the Warblers. Gould strangely puts it with his rock-birds, 'saxicolinae,'--in which, however, he also includes the sedge warbler.

The true Robin is properly a wood-bird; the Swedish blue-throated one lives in marshes and arable fields. I have never seen a robin in really wild mountain ground.

There is only one European species of the red-breasted Robin. Gould names two j.a.panese ones.

II.

142. HIRUNDO DOMESTICA. HOUSE SWALLOW.

Hirundo Rustica. L.

Hirondelle Domestique. F.

Schwalbe. T. Swala, Swedish, and Saxon, whence our Swallow: but compare Lecture II., -- 44.

Rondine Comune. I. (note Rond_i_ne, the Swallow; Rondone, the Swift).