Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida

Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida

One grows to love the Roman fountains as sea-born men the sea. Go where you will there is the water; whether it foams by Trevi, where the green moss grows in it like ocean weed about the feet of the ocean god, or whether it rushes reddened by the evening light, from the mouth of an old lion that once saw Cleopatra; whether it leaps high in air, trying to reach the gold cross on St. Peter's or pours its triple cascade over the Pauline granite; whether it spouts out of a great barrel in a wall in old Trastevere, or throws up into the air a gossamer as fine as Arachne's web in a green garden way where the lizards run, or in a crowded corner where the fruit-sellers sit against the wall;in all its shapes one grows to love the water that fills Rome with an unchanging melody all through the year. And indeed I do believe all things and all traditions. History is like that old stag that Charles of France found out hunting in the woods once, with the bronze collar round its neck on which was written, "Csar mihi hoc donavit." How one's fancy loves to linger about that old stag, and what a crowd of mighty shades come thronging at the very thought of him! How wonderful it is to think ofthat quiet grey beast leading his lovely[Pg 2] life under the shadows of the woods, with his hinds and their fawns about him, whilst Csar after Csar fell and generation on generation passed away and perished! But the sciolist taps you on the arm. "Deer average fifty years of life; it was some mere court trick of coursehow easy to have such a collar made!" Well, what have we gained? The stag was better than the sciolist. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 22019
Author: Ouida, 1839-1908
Release Date: Jul 8, 2007
Format: eBook
Language: English