Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 27

Stanza XVI. "_All's Well_," the usual cry of a watchman, not the name of a song.

"Pigtail" was a kind of chewing tobacco much used by sailors. It was twisted in hard rolls.

_The Definition of a Gentleman_

(Volume IV, page 170)

There is nothing in _Journeys Through Bookland_ that will better repay thought, especially for the boys, than this extract from the writings of the great Cardinal Newman. It affords, however, a host of little tests of character that everyone can apply to himself; for "gentleman," here, is used in its generic sense and applies with equal force to both s.e.xes.

It is not to be read hastily and then laid aside, for no one can get its full meaning from a single perusal. Every word is a chapter, every sentence a volume. Read properly, each sentence must carry with it a personal application, which can be seen as the reader asks, "Is this what I am?"

Am I then, one who never gives pain?

Am I mainly occupied in removing the obstacles that hinder the action of my friends and acquaintances? Am I the easy chair that gives them bodily comfort, the good fire that dispels the cold and makes them comfortable and free to act?

Do I try always to make everyone at ease and at home?

Am I

--tender toward the bashful?

--gentle toward those who are cold and reserved?

--merciful to those whose actions draw ridicule upon themselves?

In conversation, do I recollect those to whom I am speaking, avoid irritating them, keep myself in the background, talk little myself and listen attentively to them?

If I can put to myself each of the tests Cardinal Newman offers in these few pages and can feel myself ring true under each, then may I hope to call myself a gentleman.

_Adventures in Lilliput_

(Volume V, page 8)

In _Gulliver's Travels_ Swift has given us a wonderful work in constructive imagination. As has been said elsewhere, the imagination works with the ideas which are present in the mind. It creates nothing, but it may enlarge, diminish or recombine ideas with an infinity of form. In _Adventures in Lilliput_ Swift has used largely the reducing power of his imagination. If he has been accurate, he has reduced everything in the same proportion. An interesting study of this phase of the story may be made by means of questions, which may be answered by reading the text, or by reasoning from the facts given.

In the following exercise, questions and comments are combined in such a way as to a.s.sist a boy or girl to verify or disprove the accuracy of Swift's work. A similar exercise, to ill.u.s.trate the opposite extreme, may be based upon _Adventures in Brobdingnag_ (page 54). It is hoped, too, that the questions may suggest a method for interpreting other selections.

When Gulliver awoke and found himself bound (page 10), he felt something alive moving on his body. Bending his eyes downward as much as he could he saw it was a human creature not six inches high. We are at liberty to suppose that Gulliver was a man of ordinary height, that is to say, not six feet high. If the Lilliputian was "not six inches high," what was the ratio of height between Gulliver and his miniature captors? If, then, Gulliver is twelve times the size of one of his captors, we have a standard of comparison.

How long a bow would a man use? How long would be the arrow that fitted that bow? How long would the bows and arrows of the Lilliputians be?

Would an arrow that size, fired with the force a Lilliputian could give, "p.r.i.c.k like a needle," and if there were many of them would they set a man "a-groaning with grief and pain"?

If a man were lying flat on his back could he turn his eyes down so as to see a pencil, not six inches high, placed upright on his breast? When a man's face was turned two inches to the left, how much of the ground would be concealed from his sight by his shoulder?

How far can a man shoot an arrow? How far could a Lilliputian shoot an arrow? Would an arrow the size of a Lilliputian's falling from the height to which he could shoot it pierce the skin of a man?

How long were the spears of the Lilliputians? Is it reasonable to suppose that a leather jerkin would be proof against their spears? How tall was the page that held up the train of the "princ.i.p.al person."

(page 12)?

How many times the height of a Lilliputian was the body of Gulliver as he lay on the ground? How many rounds would there be in one of the ladders on which they climbed? "Above one hundred inhabitants" mounted the ladders and walked toward Gulliver's mouth. They carried baskets filled with meat. Would the quant.i.ty of meat be too large for Gulliver to eat? Would the shoulders, legs and loins of a sheep one-twelfth the height of an ordinary one be "smaller than the wings of a lark"? Would loaves of bread the "bigness of musket b.a.l.l.s" be one-twelfth the size of ordinary loaves?

In the case of two vessels of the same proportions, but of different heights, do the capacities vary according to the heights, or according to the cubes of the heights? If one of our hogsheads contain from one hundred to one hundred and forty gallons, how much should a Lilliputian hogshead contain to be in proportion?

Is it a fact that being one-twelfth the height of a man a Lilliputian should have one-twelfth of a man's strength? If a man is reduced to one-twelfth of his height what should his weight be?

When they wished to move Gulliver, five hundred carpenters and engineers were set to work to prepare a frame of wood, which was raised three inches from the ground, was about seven feet long, four feet wide, and moved upon twenty-two wheels. What was the diameter of the wheels that would raise the body three inches from the ground? Would it be an easy matter to move wheels of that size when they bear a weight such as Gulliver's must have been?

Knowing what we know of the Lilliputians could nine hundred of them using pulleys with cords "the bigness of pack-thread" lift Gulliver upon the engine in less than three hours?

Does Swift keep the correct proportions when he says that Gulliver's bullets are about the size of the heads of the Lilliputians? Would "an hundred and fifty of their beds sewn together make up the breadth and length" of a bed large enough for Gulliver?

How large would a Lilliputian horse be? Does it seem wonderful that Gulliver's hat could be brought from the seash.o.r.e with "only five horses"?

It is unnecessary to carry the questioning any further. Anyone who reads the stories will find an infinity of questions suggesting themselves to him, and he will doubtless get no little pleasure and profit from attempting to answer them. As will be seen, some of the questions are not simple. If Swift has been wise he has not reduced everything arbitrarily on a horizontal scale to one-twelfth of its apparent size, capacity, weight, or strength, but has properly apportioned all. The reader may find that he will be called upon for some nice discrimination, before he can judge correctly as to the accuracy with which Swift has used his scale of reduction.

_The Heart of Bruce_

(Volume V, page 316)

1. What is meant by "frost lay h.o.a.r"? "h.o.a.r" means "white" or "gray."

(It was early in the morning before the sun had melted the frost.)

2. What kind of armour did they wear? What kind of "ships" rode in the bay? (Remember this happened about six hundred years ago.)

3. What caused the foam that was swept away? Why did they gaze back in silence?

4. Why does the poet call them _purple_ hues, and why does he say they decayed? (Recall the lines: "'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, and clothes the mountain in its azure hue." Did you ever notice the purple on distant hills? What causes it?)

5. What is the "battle-van"? (The front rank.)

6. What is a "freit"? (A superst.i.tious notion or an omen as to right or wrong. Lord Douglas felt a superst.i.tious dread, a chill of foreboding.)

7. What did Robert say on his dying day?

8. What did Robert want his followers to do with his heart?

9. Who dreamed this dream? What was a Pilgrim? (A pilgrim is a wanderer.

We think first of the Puritan fathers when we speak of Pilgrims, but the Pilgrim who appeared to Lord Douglas was a palmer who showed by his garb and his olive branch that he had been to the Holy Land.) See picture, page 319.

10. What kind of a Cross did Saint Andrew bear? Who was Saint Andrew?

(Saint Andrew was one of the twelve apostles, and is believed to have suffered martyrdom on a cross shaped something like the letter X, that is, one made of two beams of equal length crossing in the middle at an angle.)

11. What is a "belted brand"? (A sword fastened to a belt.)

12. What was "Galilee"? What was the "Holy Mount" and why was it so called?