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Begbie, Harold, 1871-1929

"The Bed-Book of Happiness"



FROM THE BALLAD A-LA-MODE
[Sidenote: _Austin Dobson_]
"Ah, Phillis! cruel Phillis!
(I heard a shepherd say)
You hold me with your eyes, and yet
You bid me--Go my way!"
"Ah, Colin! foolish Colin!
(The maiden answered so)
If that be all, the ill is small,
I close them--You may go!"
But when her eyes she opened
(Although the sun it shone),
She found the shepherd had not stirred--
"Because the light was gone!"
Ah, Cupid! wanton Cupid!
'Twas ever thus your way:
When maids would bid you ply your wings,
You find excuse to stay!

DREAMTHORP
[Sidenote: _Alexander Smith_]
I do not think that Mr. Buckle could have written his "History of
Civilisation" in Dreamthorp, because in it books, conversation, and the
other appurtenances of intellectual life are not to be procured. I am
acquainted with birds, and the building of nests--with wildflowers, and
the seasons in which they blow,--but with the big world far away, with
what men and women are thinking, and doing, and saying, I am acquainted
only through the _Times_, and the occasional magazine or review, sent by
friends whom I have not looked upon for years, but by whom, it seems, I
am not yet forgotten. The village has but few intellectual wants, and
the intellectual supply is strictly measured by the demand.


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