Dream Land and Ghost Land: Visits and Wanderings There in the Nineteenth Century

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Partridge and Oakey, 1852 - Dreams - 232 pages

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Page 36 - And with them the Being Beauteous Who unto my youth was given, More than all things else to love me, And is now a saint in heaven. With a slow and noiseless footstep Comes that messenger divine, Takes the vacant chair beside me, Lays her gentle hand in mine. And she sits and gazes at me With those deep and tender eyes, Like the stars, so still and saint-like, Looking downward from the skies.
Page 33 - WHEN the hours of Day are numbered, And the voices of the Night Wake the better soul, that slumbered, To a holy, calm delight ; Ere the evening lamps are lighted, And, like phantoms grim and tall, Shadows from the fitful fire-light Dance upon the parlour wall ; Then the forms of the departed Enter at the open door ; The beloved, the true-hearted, Come to visit me once more...
Page 42 - Thursday night, she, thinking she saw a light in her chamber, after she was in bed, knocked for her maid, who presently came to her ; and she asked, ' Why she left a candle burning in her chamber ?' The maid said, she ' left none, and there was none but what she had brought with her at that time.
Page 197 - Dead, — till the scent of the morning air summons us to our still Home; and dreamy Night becomes awake and Day? Where now is Alexander of Macedon : does the steel Host, that yelled in fierce battleshouts at Issus and Arbela, remain behind him ; or have they all vanished utterly, even as perturbed Goblins must?
Page 192 - Even the doctrine of departed spirits returning to visit the scenes and beings which were dear to them during the body's existence, though it has been debased by the absurd superstitions of the vulgar, in itself is awfully solemn and sublime. However lightly it may be ridiculed, yet the attention involuntarily yielded to it whenever it is made the subject of serious discussion...
Page 108 - ... of birds. There are many superstitions of the vulgar owing to the same source. For anglers, in spring, it is always unlucky to see single magpies, — but two may be always regarded as a favourable omen; and the reason is, that in cold and stormy weather one magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the young ones ; but when two go out together, it is only when the weather is warm and mild, and favourable for fishing.
Page 63 - But the work could not be finished at this time ; wherefore the same evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and after a few words on each side, it quietly vanished, and neither doth appear since, nor ever will more to any man's disturbance.
Page 127 - They then whispered among themselves ; — ' You see that he is gone mad ;' — for he preserved all this time the most serious and solemn manner. ' Do you not see that he is joking ? and you know that, in the character of his jokes, there is always much of the marvellous.'
Page 102 - Their hollow eyes rolled fearfully in their large sockets, their mouths opened from ear to ear, and helmets of hanging flesh covered their hideous heads. The horses dragged along their own skins in the kennels, which overflowed with blood on both sides.
Page 82 - He then went close to the place, and said sternly, ' Thou deaf and dumb devil, why dost thou fright these children that cannot answer for themselves ? Come to me, in my study, that am a man.

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