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It was

agitated; when I heard a faint voice call her name. from a poor sailor who had been ill all the voyage, and had excited the sympathy of every one on board. When the weather was fine, his messmates had spread a mattress for him on deck in the shade, but of late his illness had so increased, that he had taken to 46 his hammock, and only breathed a wish that he might see his wife before he died. He had been helped on deck as we came up the river, and was now leaning against the shrouds 47, with a countenance so wasted, so pale, so ghastly, that it was no wonder even the eye of affection did not recognise him 48. But at the sound of his voice, her eye darted on his features; it read, at once, a whole volume of sorrow; she clasped her hands, uttered a faint shriek, and stood wringing them in silent agony.

All now was hurry and bustle. The meetings of acquaintances the greetings of friends the consultations of men of business. I alone was solitary and idle. I had no friend to meet, no cheering to receive. I stepped upon the land of my forefathers but felt that I was a stranger in the land.

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ONE of the first places to which a stranger is taken3 in Liverpool, is the Athenæum. It is established on a liberal and

46) to take to intransitiv

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to betake one's self, to have recourse to sich begeben, seine Zuflucht nehmen.

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47) shroud (nordischen Urspr., ags. scrûd, alto. skrûd Kleid) Bedeckung, Leichentuch, im Plural the ropes extending from the masts to the sides of the ship, to protect the masts from the action of the winds Wandtaue, Wand.

48) even the eye etc. Unbezeichneter substantivischer Nebensatz; gebräuchlicher ist die Anknüpfung mit that.

1) deutsch: Schutzengel.

2) James Thomson (1700-1748), der Dichter der Jahreszeiten Seasons, des Castle of Indolenee und der Dramen Sophonisba, Agamemnon, Edward and Eleonora, Tancred and Sigismunda, Coriolanus. 3) to take führen.

judicious plan; it contains a good library, and spacious readingroom, and is the great literary resort of the place. Go there at what hour you may, you are sure to find it filled with gravelooking personages, deeply absorbed in the study of news

papers.

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As I was once visiting this haunt of the learned, my attention was attracted to a person just entering the room. He was advanced in life, tall, and of a form that might once have been commanding, but it was a little bowed by time perhaps by care. He had a noble Roman style of countenance, a head that would have pleased a painter; and though some slight furrows on his brow showed that wasting thought had been busy there, yet his eye still beamed with the fire of a poetic soul. There was something in his whole appearance that indicated a being of a different order from the bustling race around him.

I inquired his name, and was informed that it was Roscoe. I drew back with an involuntary feeling of veneration. This, then, was an author of celebrity; this was one of those men, whose voices have gone forth to the ends of the earth; with whose minds I had communed even in the solitudes of America. Accustomed, as we are in my country, to know European writers only by their works, we cannot conceive of them, as of other men, engrossed 10 by trivial or sordid pursuits, and jostling with the crowd of common minds in the dusty paths of life. They pass before our imaginations like superior beings radiant with the emanations of their own genius, and surrounded by a halo 11 of literary glory.

4) literary resórt (das o lautet wie in for, das s hat den weichen Laut) allgemeiner wissenschaftlicher Vereinigungspunkt.

5) to absorb mit scharf. s.

6) haunt (spr. au dtsch. a) Aufenthaltsort, oft besuchter Ort, Versammlungsort; vergl. franz. hanter: nach Diez ein erst von den Normannen eingebrachtes, auf das franz. Gebiet beschränktes Wort: altn. heimta (von heim nach hause). Gesichtsbildung.

7) style of countenance

=

8) then (deutsch dann und denn) ursprüngl. temporal, dann conclusiv (ergo, igitur, franz. donc) = also.

9) to conceive of sich denken, sich einen Begriff machen von. 10) to engròss (aus en u. gross, franz. engrossir)

=

=

to take the

whole of, to absorb absorbieren, ganz in Anspruch nehmen. 11) halo (lat. halos Hof um Sonne od. Mond v. gr. aλws Tenne, die rund zu sein pflegte) a red circle round the sun or moon, dann the bright ring round the head of a holy person in a painting, different from a glory or circle of rays, dtsch. Heiligenschein.

To find, therefore, the elegant historian of the Medici mingling among the busy sons of traffic, at first shocked my poetical ideas; but it is from the very circumstances and situation in which he has been placed, that Mr. Roscoe derives his highest claims to admiration. It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles. Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it 12 would rear legitimate dulness to maturity; and to glory in the vigour and luxuriance of her chance productions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some may perish among the stony places of the world, and some be choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and then strike root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, and spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vegetation 13.

13

Such has been the case with Mr. Roscoe. Born in a place apparently ungenial to the growth of literary talent; in the very market-place of trade; without fortune, family connections, or patronage; self-prompted, self-sustained, and almost self-taught, he has conquered every obstacle, achieved his way to eminence, and, having become one of the ornaments of the nation, has turned the whole force of his talents and influence to advance and embellish his native town.

Indeed, it is this last trait in his character which has given him the greatest interest in my eyes, and induced me particularly to point him out to my countrymen. Eminent as are his literary merits, he is but one among the many distinguished authors of this intellectual nation. They, however, in general, live but for their own fame, or their own pleasures. Their private history 14 presents no lesson to the world, or, perhaps, a humiliating one of human frailty and inconsistency. At best 15, they are prone to steal away from the bustle and commonplace 16 of busy existence; to indulge in the selfishness of let

12) it bezieht sich auf art.

13) vergl. zu der ganzen Stelle das Gleichniss vom Säemann, Matth. 13, 3-9; Marc. 4, 3-9; Lucas 8, 4-16.

14) their privāte history

Privatleben.

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15) at best im besten Falle.

16) common-place hier: Gewöhnlichkeit, Gemeinheit. Irving, The Sketch Book.

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tered ease 17 and to revel in scenes of mental, but exclusive 18 enjoyment.

Mr. Roscoe, on the contrary, has claimed none of the accorded privileges of talent. He has shut himself up in no garden of thought, nor elysium of fancy; but has gone forth into the highways and thoroughfares of life; he has planted bowers by the way-side, for the refreshment of the pilgrim and the sojourner, and has opened pure fountains, where the labouring man may turn aside from the dust and heat of the day, and drink of the living streams of knowledge. There is a ,,daily beauty in his life 19," on which mankind may meditate and grow better. It exhibits no lofty and almost useless, because inimitable, example of excellence; but presents a picture of active, yet simple and imitable virtues, which are within every man's reach, but which not many exercise, or this world would be a paradise.

But his private life is peculiarly worthy the attention of the citizens of our young and busy country, where literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity; and must depend for their culture, not on the exclusive devotion of time and wealth; nor the quickening rays of titled patronage; but on hours and seasons snatched from the pursuit of worldly interests by intelligent and publicspirited individuals 20.

He has shown how much may be done for a place in hours of leisure by one master spirit 21, and how completely it 22 can give its own impress to sorrounding objects. Like his own Lorenzo de' Medici 23, on whom he seems to have fixed his eye as on a pure model of antiquity, he has interwoven the history of his life with the history of his native town, and has made the foundations of its fame the monuments of his virtues. Wherever

17) lettered ease

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litterarische Musse.

18) Das s hat den scharfen Laut in den Adjectiven auf sive u. ose. 19) Othello V, I: He hath a daily beauty in his life; Worte Jagos in Bezug auf Cassio.

20) deutsch besser activ: Stunden und Zeiten, welche geistig begabte und patriotische Männer sich von der Betreibung weltlicher Interessen abstehlen.

21) master spirit

hervorragender Geist.

22) it bezieht sich auf master spirit; deutsch besser durch das Pronomen demonstrat. dieser zu übersetzen.

28) William Roscoe (1753-1831), bekannt durch s.,,Life of Lorenzo de' Medici called the Magnificent" und ,,Life and Pontificate of Leo X", s. Gedicht,,Wrongs of Africa" und eine Abhandlung über denselben Gegenstand, die Mad. Necker ins Französische übersetzte.

you 24 go in Liverpool, you perceive traces of his footsteps in all that is elegant and liberal 25. He found the tide of wealth flowing merely in the channels of traffic; he has diverted from it invigorating rills to refresh the gardens of literature. By his own example and constant exertions 26, he has effected that union of commerce and the intellectual pursuits, so eloquently recommended in one of his latest writings 27; and has practically proved how beautifully they may be brought to harmonize with, and to benefit each other 28. The noble 29 institutions for literary and scientific purposes, which reflect such credit on Liverpool, and are giving such an impulse to the public mind, have mostly been originated, and have all been effectually promoted, by Mr. Roscoe; and when we consider the rapidly increasing opulence and magnitude of that town, which promises to vie in commercial importance with the metropolis, it will be perceived that, in awakening an ambition of mental improvement 30 among its inhabitants, he has effected a great benefit to the cause of British literature.

31

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In America, we know Mr. Roscóe only as the author in Liverpool he is spoken of 81 as the banker; and I was told of his having been unfortunate in business. I could not pity him, I heard some rich men do. I considered him far above the reach of my pity. Those who live only for the world, and in the world, may be cast down by the frowns of adversity 82: but

24) man.

32

25) liberal (v. lat. liberalis einem Freigeborenen zustehend, anständig) edel und uneigennützig.

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26) Das x in exertion ist wie engl. gz zu sprechen.

27) Address on the opening of the Liverpool Institution. (Note of W. Irving.)

28) Die sich an das Zeitwort harmonize anschliessende Präposition with ist auf den Objectscasus each other bezogen, welcher zugleich das Object des Zeitworts benefit ausmacht; vergl. Mätzner, Engl. Gramm. II, p. 523, 4.

29

etwa: hochsinnig.

30) ambition of entsprechend dem latein. genet. obiectiv., dtsch. Ehrgeiz, eifriges Streben nach geistiger Ausbildung.

31) he is spoken of man spricht von ihm. Ueber diesen der älteren Sprache fremden Gebrauch, welcher gestattet, das mit einer Präposition an das Verb geknüpfte Object zum Subject des Passiv zu machen, wobei die Präposition nach dem Zeitwort als Bestimmung desselben, und gleichsam zu einer Einheit mit demselben verschmolzen, eintritt, vergl. Mätzner, Engl. Gramm. II, p. 65, 3.

32) frowns (zu franz. se refrogner, se renfrogner die Stirn runzeln, vielleicht mit ital. frignare weinen, den Mund verziehen für flignare vom deutsch. fiennen; jedenfalls mit Anlehnung an das latein. frons Stirn) of adversity Groll des Missgeschicks.

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