Nature hath neither shell
Nor kernel;
Whole every where, at each point thou canst learn all.
Only examine thine own heart.
Whether thou shell or kernel art.”[98]
Now if any Transatlantic Philistine can crack the shell of this German nut, and extract an eatable kernel, he must possess a manducator pretty considerably stronger than that with which Sampson cracked the skulls of the ancient Philistines in the Holy Land—the jaw-bone of an ass.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The following is a rough attempt at a free translation of the above celebrated passage in Horace.
Behind the gilded coach pale Care ascends,