The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell Part 107

and on some Scriptural ill.u.s.trations by Mr. Sawin.

Now, in the first place, I was writing under an a.s.sumed character, and must talk as the person would whose mouthpiece I made myself. Will any one familiar with the New England countryman venture to tell me that he does _not_ speak of sacred things familiarly? that Biblical allusions (allusions, that is, to the single book with whose language, from his church-going habits, he is intimate) are _not_ frequent on his lips? If so, he cannot have pursued his studies of the character on so many long-ago muster-fields and at so many cattle-shows as I. But I scorn any such line of defence, and will confess at once that one of the things I am proud of in my countrymen is (I am not speaking now of such persons as I have a.s.sumed Mr. Sawin to be) that they do not put their Maker away far from them, or interpret the fear of G.o.d into being afraid of Him.

The Talmudists had conceived a deep truth when they said, that 'all things were in the power of G.o.d, save the fear of G.o.d;' and when people stand in great dread of an invisible power, I suspect they mistake quite another personage for the Deity. I might justify myself for the pa.s.sages criticised by many parallel ones from Scripture, but I need not. The Reverend Homer Wilbur's note-books supply me with three apposite quotations. The first is from a Father of the Roman Church, the second from a Father of the Anglican, and the third from a Father of Modern English poetry. The Puritan divines would furnish me with many more such. St. Bernard says, _Sapiens nummularius est Deus: nummum fictum non recipiet_; 'A cunning money-changer is G.o.d: he will take in no base coin.' Latimer says, 'You shall perceive that G.o.d, by this example, shaketh us by the noses and taketh us by the ears.' Familiar enough, both of them, one would say! But I should think Mr. Biglow had verily stolen the last of the two maligned pa.s.sages from Dryden's 'Don Sebastian,' where I find

'And beg of Heaven to charge the bill on me!'

And there I leave the matter, being willing to believe that the Saint, the Martyr, and even the Poet, were as careful of G.o.d's honor as my critics are ever likely to be.

II. GLOSSARY TO THE BIGLOW PAPERS

Act'lly, _actually_.

Air, _are_.

Airth, _earth_.

Airy, _area_.

Aree, _area_.

Arter, _after_.

Ax, _ask_.

Beller, _bellow_.

Bellowses, _lungs_.

Ben, _been_.

Bile, _boil_.

Bimeby, _by and by_.

Blurt out, _to speak bluntly_.

Bust, _burst_.

Buster, _a roistering blade_; used also as a general superlative.

Caird, _carried_.

Cairn, _carrying_.

Caleb, _a turncoat_.

Cal'late, _calculate_.

Ca.s.s, _a person with two lives_.

Close, _clothes_.

c.o.c.kerel, _a young c.o.c.k_.

c.o.c.ktail, _a kind of drink_; also, _an ornament peculiar to soldiers_.

Convention, _a place where people are imposed on; a juggler's show_.

c.o.o.ns, _a cant term for a now defunct party_; derived, perhaps, from the fact of their being commonly _up a tree_.

Cornwallis, _a sort of muster in masquerade_; supposed to have had its origin soon after the Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. It took the place of the old Guy Fawkes procession.

Crooked stick, _a perverse, froward person_.

Cunnle, _a colonel_.

Cus, _a curse_; also, _a pitiful fellow_.

Darsn't, used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural number, for _dare not, dares not_, and _dared not_.

Deacon off, _to give the cue to_; derived from a custom, once universal, but now extinct, in our New England Congregational churches.

An important part of the office of deacon was to read aloud the hymns _given out_ by the minister, one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read.

Demmercrat, leadin', _one in favor of extending slavery; a free-trade lecturer maintained in the custom-house_.

Desput, _desperate_.

D[=o]', _don't_.

Doos, _does_.

Doughface, _a contented lick-spittle_; a common variety of Northern politician.

Dror, _draw_.

Du, _do_.

Dunno, dno, _do not_ or _does not know_.

Dut, _dirt_.

Eend, _end_.

Ef, _if_.

Emptins, _yeast_.

Env'y, _envoy_.

Everlasting, an intensive, without reference to duration.

Ev'y, _every_.

Ez, _as_.

Fence, on the; said of one who halts between two opinions; a trimmer.

Fer, _for_.

Ferfle, ferful, _fearful_; also an intensive.

Fin', _find_.

Fish-skin, used in New England to clarify coffee.

Fix, _a difficulty, a nonplus_.

Foller, folly, _to follow_.

Forrerd, _forward_.

Frum, _from_.

Fur, _for_ Furder, _farther_.

Furrer, _furrow_. Metaphorically, _to draw a straight furrow_ is to live uprightly or decorously.

Fust, _first_.

Gin, _gave_.

Git, _get_.

Gret, _great_.

Grit, _spirit, energy, pluck_.

Grout, _to sulk_.

Grouty, _crabbed, surly_.

Gum, _to impose on_.

Gump, _a foolish fellow, a dullard_.

Gut, _got_.

Hed, _had_.

Heern, _heard_.

h.e.l.lum, _helm_.

Hendy, _handy_.

Het, _heated_.

Hev, _have_.

Hez, _has_.

Holl, _whole_.

Holt, _hold_.