THE 828 D57ch CHILDREN'S BOWER; OR, WHAT YOU LIKE. BY KENELM HENRY DIGBY. Sæpe sub exiguo munere magna latent. IN TWO VOLUMES, VOL. II. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1858. THE CHILDREN'S BOWER, &c. CHAPTER XI. ANY things are best told by music-let the admission be received as it may, and it would be easy, of course, to ridicule it as only a proper avowal of individual incapacity. Words, however happily chosen and skilfully combined, prove really very often but a poor substitute for a simple melody. They frequently seem to invest every thing, I know not how, with a certain cold, and almost repulsive air; they seem often actually to spoil our previous conception of the subject, obliging us to behold only a part of it, and that too, perhaps, even exclusively on its defective side. If we would convey an idea of much that passes in the Children's Bower, I think we can only hope to succeed after the book has been laid down, when some one else will come to our assistance, not even perhaps intentionally, with one of those sweet English songs which bring tears into the eye, and call back infinite memories. A real bona fide arbour, facing the south-west, its walls composed of twisted oak stems, with moss and heath between them; its front opening upon a gravel walk between flower VOL. II. B |