of his patrons, he was advanced to some places of no inconsiderable profit and honour. One morning, while he was at breakfast, word was brought him, that a man in a very shabby habit requested the honour of speaking to him. Mr. Locke, whom no advancement could raise above the practice of good manners, immediately ordered him to be admitted, and found, to his great astonishment, his old friend reduced, by a life of cunning and extravagance, to the greatest poverty and distress, and come to implore his assistance, and solicit his forgiveness. Mr. Locke looked at him for some time very stedfastly, without speaking one word; at length, taking out a fifty pound note, he presented it to him, with the following remarkable declaration: "Though I sincerely forgive your behaviour to me, yet I must never put it in your power to injure me a second time.-Take this trifle, which I give, not as a mark of my former friendship, but as a relief to your present wants, and consign to the service of your necessities, without recollecting how little you deserve it.-No reply. -It is impossible to regain my good opinion; for know, friendship once injured, is for ever lost." ۴۸ قصه لطیفه دولتمند دولتمندي خود را صاحب ذوق و از ارباب شوق می پنداشت با آنکه از علم موسیقی بهره نمیداشت باری بساط نشاط بگسترانید و ارباب رقص و سماع را بهم طلبید یکی از سازندگان را دید که طنبوره در بغل و زخمه در انگشت خاموش استاده است پرسید که چرا نمی نوازي مطرب خوش طبع بود از روی طیبت گفت کارم خوشی طبع است و شیوه ام نشاط اهل مجمع و درکتاب استراحت ممتنع دولت مند گفت ترا براي سرائيدن طلبیده ام نه برای راحت کشیدن ۴۹ قصد دریدن مستر و ارتین از زبان شیرین بیان چنین تقریر نموده که مستر دریدن در شعر گوئی و انشا پردازي عديم المثل بود و طبع رسا داشت و در علم موسیقی نظیرش ناپدید خیالات تازه در اشعار دلکش بکار می برد و مضامین رنگین و معانی دلنشین و عبارت سليس و استعارت نفیس انشا میکرد * XLVIII. A BON MOT. A GENTLEMAN, well known in the lottery world, having become possessed of property, nobody knows how, had lately a concert at his house, as he wishes to be thought a man of taste, though he knows nothing of music. Looking over one of the performers, who had his violin under his arm,"Why don't you play?" said he. "Sir," said the musician, pointing with his bow to the book, here are so many bars of rest."—" Rest! my friend; what do you mean by rest? I pay you to play, not to rest!" XLIX. ANECDOTE CONCERNING MR. DRYDEN's ode. DRYDEN'S Ode on the Power of Music is the most unrivalled of his compositions. Lord Bolingbroke, happening to pay a morning visit to Dryden, whom he always respected, found him in an unusual agitation of spirits, even to a trembling. On inquiring the cause, " I have been up all night," "I replied the old bard: "my musical friends made me promise to write them an ode for their feast of St. Cecilia. I have been so struck with the subject which occurred to me, that I could not leave it till I had completed it. Here it is, finished at one sitting." And immediately he shewed him the ode, which places the British lyric poetry above that of any other nation. روزی لارد بالین بروك بعزم دیدارش رفت خاطرش مضطرب یافت گفت باعث نگرانی و موجب پریشانی چیست جواب داد مخلص با مترنمان اقرار کرده ام و پیمانی برده که غزلی نوانشا کنم تا در بزم نشاط حضرت سی سیلا بالحان خوش بسرایند و با نغمه دلکش بخوانند امشب تمام شب در فکرش بودم و ذکرش می نمودم الحمد لله سعيم مشکور افتاد و فکرم بار نهاد این بگفت و غزل طبع زاد را انشاد کرد . * لارد بر جودت طبع و رسائی ذهنش آفرین نمود و بر بلندی فکر و پاکیزگی سخنش تحسین فرمود هنوز غزل سرایان انگلستان غزلش را برآهنگ بربط میسرایند الحق سجرکاری کرده است و گوی سبقت از میدان برده کسی را چه یارا که بر حرفش انگشت فهد یا دیگر برا برو تفضین دهد قصه ملك ميں حکایت در ملک چین اخبار نویسی از قدیم الایام مقرر است در پیشین زمان واقعه نویسی بود باری سلطان تت سنة سوانح نگار را گفت که درین مدت وقایعی که نكاشته بملاحظه حضور بگذران وقایع نویس از آنجا که از نیک و بد حوادث روزگار چاره نداشت و سر مو در ثبت آن تعللل نمى وريد ويك يك می ملك نکاشت در گذرانیدن وقایع اهمال می ورزید از روي فراست دریافت و گفت باعت چیست که در ملاحظه آن تكاسل مینمائي گفت بندگان فرمان در خدمتی که بر همت انها مقصور است تهارنی ر را نمیدارند و جد وجهد بسیارد راداي This anecdote, as true as it is curious, was imparted by Lord Bolingbroke to Pope; by Pope to Mr. Gilbert West, and by him to the ingenious friend who communicated it to me. The rapidity, and yet the perspicuity of the thoughts, the glow and expressiveness of the images, those certain marks of the first sketch of a master, conspire to corroborate the truth of the fact. L. A CHINESE ANECDOTE. IN China there has existed from time immemorial, an Historical Tribunal, instituted in order to perpetuate the virtues and vices of the reigning monarch. One day the emperor Taitsong ordered this tribunal to produce the history of his reign. "You know," answered the president, “ that we give an exact detail of the virtues and vices of our sovereigns; and we are no longer at liberty to record the truth, if our registers be subject to your inspection."-" What!" replied the emperor, you transmit my history to posterity, and do you assume the liberty to acquaint it with my faults ?"—" It is inconsistent with my character," rejoined the president, " and with the dignity of my place ever to disguise the truth. I am bound to record the whole. If you are guilty even of the slightest fault, I shall sensibly feel it; but I must not forget my duty; I cannot be silent. And such 66 66 |