Evening at Home 71

Evening at Home 71

Cec._ I understand this very well. But why is she blindfolded?

 

_Pa._ To denote her impartiality—that she decides only from the merits

of the case, and not from a view of the parties.

 

_Cec._ How can she weigh anything, though, when her eyes are blinded?

 

_Pa._ Well objected. These are two inconsistent emblems; each proper in

itself, but when used together, making a contradictory action. An artist

of judgment will therefore drop one of them; and accordingly the best

modern figures of Justice have the balance and sword, without the

bandage over the eyes.

 

_Cec._ Is there not the same fault in making Cupid blindfolded, and yet

putting a bow and arrow into his hands?

 

_Pa._ There is. It is a gross absurdity, and not countenanced by the

ancient descriptions of Cupid, who is represented as the surest of all

archers.

 

_Cec._ I have a figure of _Death_ in my fable-book. I suppose that is

emblematical?

 

_Pa._ Certainly, or you could not know that it meant Death. How is it

represented?

 

_Cec._ He is nothing but bones, and he holds a scythe in one hand, and

an hour-glass in the other.

 

_Pa._ Well—how do you interpret these emblems?

 

_Cec._ I suppose he is all bones, because nothing but bones are left

after a dead body has lain long in the grave.

 

_Pa._ True. This, however, is not so properly an emblem, as the real and

visible effect of death. But the scythe?

 

_Cec._ Is not that because death mows down everything?

 

_Pa._ It is. No instrument could so properly represent the wide-wasting

sway of death, which sweeps down the race of animals like flowers

falling under the hands of the mower. It is a simile used in the

scriptures.

 

_Cec._ The hour-glass, I suppose, is to show people their time is come.

 

_Pa._ Right. In the hour-glass that Death holds, all the sand is run out

from the upper to the lower part. Have you never observed upon a

monument an old figure, with wings, and a scythe, and with his head bald

all but a single lock before?

 

_Cec._ O yes;—and I have been told it is _Time_.

 

_Pa._ Well—and what do you make of it? Why is he old?

 

_Cec._ O! because he has lasted a long while.

 

_Pa._ And why has he wings?

 

_Cec._ Because Time is swift, and flies away.

 

_Pa._ What does his scythe mean?

 

_Cec._ I suppose it is because he destroys and cuts down everything,

like Death.

 

_Pa._ True. I think, however, a weapon rather slower in operation, as a

pick-axe, would have been more suitable to the gradual action of time.

But what is his single lock of hair for?

 

_Cec._ I have been thinking, and cannot make it out.

 

_Pa._ I thought that would puzzle you. It relates to time as giving

_opportunity_ for doing anything. It is to be seized as it presents

itself, or it will escape, and cannot be recovered. Thus the proverb

says, “Take Time by the forelock.” Well—now you understand what emblems

are.

 

_Cec._ Yes, I think I do. I suppose the painted sugar-loaves over the

grocer’s shop, and the mortar over the apothecary’s, are emblems, too?

 

_Pa._ Not so properly. They are only the pictures of things which are

themselves the objects of sight, as the real sugar-loaf in the shop of

the grocer, and the real mortar in that of the apothecary. However, an

implement belonging to a particular rank or profession is commonly used

as an emblem to point out the man exercising that rank or profession.

Thus, a crown is considered as an emblem of a king; a sword, or spear,

of a soldier; an anchor, of a sailor; and the like.

 

_Cec._ I remember Captain Heartwell, when he came to see us, had the

figure of an anchor on all his buttons.

 

_Pa._ He had. That was the emblem or badge of his belonging to the navy.

 

_Cec._ But you told me that an emblem was a visible sign of an invisible

thing; yet a sea-captain is not an invisible thing.

 

_Pa._ He is not invisible as a man, but his profession is invisible.

 

_Cec._ I do not well understand that.

 

_Pa._ Profession is a _quality_, belonging equally to a number of

individuals, however different they may be in external form and

appearance. It may be added or taken away without any visible change.

Thus, if Captain Heartwell were to give up his commission, he would

appear to you the same man as before. It is plain, therefore, that what

in that case he had lost, namely, his profession, was a thing invisible.

It is one of those ideas of the understanding which I before mentioned

to you as different from a sensible idea.

 

_Cec._ I comprehend it now.

 

_Pa._ I have got here a few emblematical pictures. Suppose you try

whether you can find out their meaning.

 

_Cec._ O yes—I shall like that very well.

 

_Pa._ Here is a man standing on the summit of a steep cliff, and going

to ascend a ladder which he has planted against a cloud.

 

_Cec._ Let me see!—that must be _Ambition_, I think.

 

_Pa._ How do you explain it?

 

_Cec._ He is got very high already, but he wants to be still higher; so

he ventures up the ladder, though it is only supported by a cloud, and

hangs over a precipice.

 

_Pa._ Very right. Here is now another man, hood-winked, who is crossing

a raging torrent upon stepping-stones.

 

_Cec._ Then he will certainly fall in. I suppose he is one that runs

into danger without considering whither he is going?

 

_Pa._ Yes; and you may call him _Fool-hardiness_. Do you see this hand

coming out of a black cloud, and putting an extinguisher upon a lamp?

 

_Cec._ I do. If that lamp be the lamp of life, the hand that

extinguishes it must be _Death_.

 

_Pa._ Very just. Here is an old, half-ruined building, supported by

props; and the figure of Time is sawing through one of the props.

 

_Cec._ That must be _Old Age_, surely.

 

_Pa._ It is. The next is a man leaning upon a breaking crutch.

 

_Cec._ I don’t well know what to make of that.

 

_Pa._ It is intended for _Instability_; however, it might also stand for

_False Confidence_. Here is a man poring over a sundial with a candle in

his hand.

 

_Cec._ I am at a loss for that, too.

 

_Pa._ Consider—a sundial is only made to tell the hour by the light of

the sun.

 

_Cec._ Then this man must know nothing about it.

 

_Pa._ True; and his name is therefore _Ignorance_. Here is a

walking-stick, the lower part of which is set in the water, and it

appears crooked. What does that denote?

 

_Cec._ Is the stick really crooked?

 

_Pa._ No; but it is the property of water to give that appearance.

 

_Cec._ Then it must signify _Deception_.

 

_Pa._ It does. I dare say you will at once know this fellow who is

running as fast as his legs will carry him, and looking back at his

shadow.

 

_Cec._ He must be _Fear_ or _Terror_, I fancy.

 

_Pa._ Yes; you may call him which you please. But who is this sower,

that scatters seeds in the ground?

 

_Cec._ Let me consider. I think there is a parable in the Bible about

seed sown, and it therefore signifies something like _Instruction_.

 

_Pa._ True; but it may also represent _Hope_, for no one sows without

hoping to reap the fruit. What do you think of this candle held before a

mirror, in which its figure is exactly reflected?

 

_Cec._ I do not know what it means.

 

_Pa._ It represents _Truth_; the essence of which consists in the

fidelity with which objects are received and reflected back by our

minds. The object is here a luminous one, to show the clearness and

brightness of Truth. Here is next an upright column, the perfect

straightness of which is shown by a plumb-line hanging from its summit,

and exactly parallel to the side of the column.

 

_Cec._ I suppose that must represent _Uprightness_.