The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [864]
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It is a remarkable fact, that during the whole period of the middle ages, the Germans lived in utter ignorance of the art of writing.
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The silver shekel of the Hebrews has on its face the rod of Aaron with the inscription, Jeruschalaim Hakkedoucha, Jerusalem the Holy, and on the reverse a cup with the words Chekel Ischraei, money of Israel.
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The Masoretical punctuation is a kind of critique upon the Hebrew text invented by the Jewish teachers to prevent its alteration. The first original being lost, recourse was had to the Masore as an infallible method of fixing the text. The verses, words, and even letters are there counted, and all their variations recorded.
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Among the Hebrew text of the Old Testament are mingled a few passages of Chaldaic. All the characters as we have them now, are properly speaking Chaldaic.
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A version of the Psalms in 1564, by Archbishop Parker, has the following —
Who sticketh to God in stable trust
As Sion's mount he stands full just
Which moveth no whit, nor yet can reel,
But standeth for ever as stiff as steel.
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A part of the 137th Psalm runs thus: 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,' which has been thus paraphrased in a version of the Psalms,
If I forget thee ever
Then let me prosper never,
But let it cause
My tongue and jaws
To cling and cleave together.
SUMMER AND WINTER
How chang’d the scene — but now the Summer reign’d, her varied tints prevail’d throughout triumphant. Here where the beauteous rosebud sat a briar frowns — the woodbine too hath lost her suit of brilliant green — the leafless grove is silent, desolate! No songster cheers with merry note the passing hour. The hum of Bees is hus’d and all around proclaims, tht Winter is at hand — how clear.
SOUVENIRS OF YOUTH
Original Translation from the French.
“If she prove false to me, I shall die!”
“What nonsense! — people do not die for such things now-a-days.”
“You may think so, but rather than love her I would die a thousand deaths.”
“My poor boy, let me add my old experience to your young years, so that you may profit by some of the hard lessons I have received. — Stop, I must relate my debut; it has had an influence on the rest of my life.”
Without consulting the young man, who, absorbed in a profound revery, his hands thrust in his hair, which he was violently twisting, the old soldier laid down his pipe, settled himself comfortably in his arm chair, and began:
“At twenty, I wore a uniform which I was found of displaying to the ladies of the city, when they came out to see our squadron of horse manoeuver in the fields of St. Avertin. There was a certain chariot, which I remember as well as if it were now before my eyes, whose noise on the Chaussee de Grammont I never mistook, and could tell it long before my eyes saw it. Now that blessed chariot was that of Madame Amelie de B——, a young widow, fair, gay, melancholy, pious and worldly, the most pretty compound of woman, the most fascinating and the most formidable coquette that could encounter a heart like mine; for I was more like a hero in the first chapter of a romance, and could not view witching Amelie without making her my beau ideal, and indulging in romantic visions in which she held the chief place. I was happy when her eyes followed me through the midst of clouds of dust raised by our foaming squadron as they dashed along with tempest-like fury; or when admirably dispersing a crowd of bad marksmen: causing bursts of laughter, as my boyish voice gave the order to fire, and was repeated from rank to rank, and when their thousand voices awoke the echoes of the valley, through the clouds of smoke, I fancied I saw her beautiful head surrounded by a halo, brilliant as my own star.
“Our military exercises, the image of war, were only the prelude to the serious contests in which we were soon to engage. Time pressed! and I became more and more devoted to Amelie; every evening I hastened to meet