Translated us by men of nous.
Lastly, all words in u are long,
And so we end our classic song.
And not our song only, but our work—the companion of our solitude—the object of our cares—for which alone we live, for which we consumed our midnight oil; and not only that, but also burnt a great deal of daylight.—Our work, we say, is ended—and such as it is we commit it to the world. Horace says Carm. Lib. iii, Ode XXX. (an ode which by some strange association of ideas, is always connected in our mind with the visionary image of a jug of ale,) “Exegi monumentum ære perennius,” I have perfected a work more durable than brass. Whether our production is characterized by the durability of that metal or not, is a question which we leave to the decision of posterity; we cannot, however, help thinking that, considering the boldness of our attempt, it possesses figuratively at least, something in common with the substance in question—and we would fain hope that that something does not consist in hardness.
And now farewell to the reader—farewell, “a word that must be and hath been”—said a great many times when once would have been quite sufficient. We need not, therefore, repeat it; nor need we say how much we hope that we have amused, instructed him, and so forth; that being as much an understood thing to put at the end of a book, as “Love to papa, mamma, brothers and sisters,” in a holiday letter.
Nothing, then, remains for us now to do, but to kick up our hat and cry
“ALL OVER.”
FINIS.
[LIST OF ETCHINGS.]
| [1.] | Vocative case (schoolmaster spatting a boy) to face page | 22 |
| [2.] | Schoolmaster beating a drum, and boys singing in chorus | 52 |
| [3.] | Ingenuas pugni didicisse fideliter artes (fight) | 64 |
| [4.] | Prometheus Vinctus (vagabond in the stocks) | 72 |
| [5.] | Smelling a Pig (boys at supper in the bed room) | 74 |
| [6.] | Domestic Oratory (small boy spouting in a chair) | 135 |
| [7.] | Heu miserande Puer (boy tossed in a blanket) | 144 |
| [8.] | Patres conscripti | 152 |