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It is satisfactory to think that this was about the last of these uncalled for literary onslaughts, as one finds, in turning over the pages of Blackwood, that in 1834 Professor Wilson in the Noctes rebukes some one for reviving "forgotten falsehoods," praises Leigh Hunt's London Journal, and adds the ecstatic words, which he also addressed later on to Lord Jeffrey, "The animosities are mortal, but the humanities live for ever."
"Can you explain to me what benefit you proposed to yourself when you played for such stakes as that?" "I hoped to win back what I had lost." "Facilis descensus Averni!" said the Duke, shaking his head. "Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis." No doubt, he thought, that as his son was at Oxford, admonitions in Latin would serve him better than in his native tongue.
Aen. 6, 127; and νυκτας τε και ημαρ in Iliad 5, 490; but the collocations dies noctesque, dies et noctes are far commoner in Cicero. But Madvig has overlooked De Or. 2, 162 eandem incu dem diem noctemque tundentibus; also three passages of Caesar: viz Bell. Gall. 7, 42, 6 and 7, 77, 11; Bell. Civ. 1, 62, 1; to which add a passage in the Bell. Hisp. 38.
The Roman gentleman's account of his childhood and of his domestic life possesses no charm for them; and even men of education would sometimes start to be reminded that his "noctes coenaeque Deum!" meant supping with his merry slaves on beans and bacon.
Again, imagine some young lady of old captivated by the sentimental title of 'The Pomegranate with its Flower, and opening on a Treatise on the Jewish Ceremonials! Let us turn to the Romans. Aulus Gellius commences his pleasant gossipping 'Noctes' with a list of the titles in fashion in his day.
If, Wilson being the same man, fortune had hemmed him in, and contracted his sphere of action, or if, as author, he had devoted himself to works of solid learning, instead of to the airy pages of "Blackwood," the sprightly humor and broad hilarity that were in him would have bubbled out in these "Letters," and the "Noctes" and the "Recreations" would have been a song unsung.
Philip and Krantz turned their faces toward the sea, and leant over the battlements in silence; after some time their reveries were disturbed by a person coming up to them with a "Buenos noctes, signor." Krantz immediately recognised the Portuguese soldier, whose conversation with him had been interrupted. "Good night, my friend! We thank Heaven that you have no longer to turn the key upon us."
In a strange land, yet surrounded by admiring friends, about to reach the coveted independence he had looked forward to so long, he sank to rest, his dust mingling with that of the great Thomas Hood, alongside of whom he was laid in Kensal Green. Mark Twain The Original of Colonel Mulberry Sellers The "Earl of Durham" Some Noctes Ambrosianæ A Joke on Murat Halstead
He took no notice of his own awkwardness, but drank his cup of tea at a single draught, ate his egg in the same expeditious manner, and went on talking of the "Noctes," and Lockhart, and Blackwood, as if eating his breakfast were rather a troublesome parenthesis in his conversation. Wilson offered to give his guest letters to Wordsworth and Southey, if he intended to return by the Lakes.
Hammond rested in his cushioned easy-chair, with his head thrown far back, and his fingers clasping a large bunch of his favorite violets, His snowy hair drifted away from a face thin and pale, but serene and happy, and in his bright blue eyes there was a humorous twinkle, and on his lips a half-smothered smile, as he listened to the witticisms of his Scotch countrymen in "Noctes Ambrosianae."
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