It seemed as the sight of his elbow-chair Embodied each lurking shade of care; 'What a thankless life is this we lead!' He murmur'd, as murmurs the broken reed, That whispers low at the river's side, To the wind that is ravaging far and wide. But bless me! where am I? I ought to compare A Doctor Despondent to something less fair. 'Tis strange what a walk a man's fancy will take To find out a figure, for simile's sake. But he said, in a very sad tone indeed, 'What a thankless life is this we lead;[17] The good Samaritan's part is mine-- Like him I administer 'oil and wine;'[18] But those who see me depart to-day, Will think me an incubus, passing away: Oh!--speaking of incubi--would not a wife Make something less bitter this dose of a life? She would clean out my phials, and make out my bills, And would do to experiment on with my pills: { I'll consider----' he said, as he shut the door, { And put on the hat that he always wore, { In his haste precipitate, 'hind side before.
He hurried on foot to the car-dépôt; The engine was puffing, in haste to go. He seated himself on the hindmost seat, And he lean'd back his head, and he put out his feet, And he looked a peculiar look with his eye, And the man who sat opposite, wondered why; And he wondered more, when he heard him say That _steam_ locomotion had had its day; But what he was thinking, or what he could mean, That man did not know: it remains to be seen.
[14] For parallel passages, naturally to be expected in distinguished authors treating of similar subjects, I give a general reference to _all_ great poets, _passim_.
[15] '_Quam viram aut heroa?_' may the reader ask; wherefore, for his benefit, we will declare, that the original of our hero was a Scottish physician, whom we heard at a 'public,' describing a miraculous visit to a 'weird woman.' After finishing his story, and a generous glass of whiskey-toddy, he went his way upon a sorry gray mare, whose acquaintance, I am confident, would have been cut by Rosinante, or Hudibras's famed Bucephalus, if she had solicited a passing recognition. The only change in the _circumstantia_, is his translation to another locality, and making the object of his pilgrimage one more immediately interesting here.