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Literary Lapses
·
Stephen Leacock
115
Precisely
similar
in
thought,
though
different
in
form,
is
the
more
modern
presentation
found
in
Huxley's
Physiology:
"Whether
after
the
moment
of
death
the
ventricles
of
the
heart
can
be
again
set
in
movement
by
the
artificial
stimulus
of
oxygen,
is
a
question
to
which
we
must
impose
a
decided
negative."
How
much
simpler,
and
yet
how
far
superior
to
Grey's
elaborate
phraseology!
Huxley
has
here
seized
the
central
point
of
the
poet's
thought,
and
expressed
it
with
the
dignity
and
precision
of
exact
science.
I
cannot
refrain,
even
at
the
risk
of
needless
iteration,
from
quoting
a
further
example.
It
is
taken
from
the
poet
Burns.
The
original
dialect
being
written
in
inverted
hiccoughs,
is
rather
difficult
to
reproduce.
It
describes
the
scene
attendant
upon
the
return
of
a
cottage
labourer
to
his
home
on
Saturday
night:
"The
cheerfu'
supper
done,
wi'
serious
face
They
round
the
ingle
form
in
a
circle
wide;
The
sire
turns
o'er,
wi'
patriarchal
grace,
The
big
ha'
Bible,
ance
his
father's
pride:
His
bonnet
rev'rently
is
laid
aside,
His
lyart
haffets
wearing
thin
an'
bare:
Those
strains
that
once
did
sweet
in
Zion
glide,
He
wales
a
portion
wi'
judeecious
care."
Now
I
find
almost
the
same
scene
described
in
more
apt
phraseology
in
the
police
news
of
the
Dumfries
Chronicle
(October
3,
1909),
thus:
"It
appears
that
the
prisoner
had
returned
to
his
domicile
at
the
usual
hour,
and,
after
partaking
of
a
hearty
meal,
had
seated
himself
on
his
oaken
settle,
for
the
ostensible
purpose
of
reading
the
Bible.
It
was
while
so
occupied
that
his
arrest
was
effected."
With
the
trifling
exception
that
Burns
omits
all
mention
of
the
arrest,
for
which,
however,
the
whole
tenor
of
the
poem
gives
ample
warrant,
the
two
accounts
are
almost
identical.
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