Irving, Washington / 2008-05-25 00:00:00
1819-20
THE SKETCH BOOK
ROSCOE
by Washington Irving
ROSCOE
- In the service of mankind to be
A guardian god below; still to employ
The mind's brave ardor in heroic aims,
Such as may raise us o'er the grovelling herd,
And make us shine for ever- that is life.
THOMSON.
ONE of the first places to which a stranger is taken in Liverpool is
the Athenaeum. It is established on a liberal and judicious plan; it
contains a good library, and spacious reading-room, and is the great
literary resort of the place. Go there at what hour you may, you are
sure to find it filled with grave-looking personages, deeply
absorbed in the study of newspapers.
As I was once visiting this haunt of the learned, my attention was
attracted to a person just entering the room. He was advanced in life,
tall, and of a form that might once have been commanding, but it was a
little bowed by time- perhaps by care. He had a noble Roman style of
countenance; a head that would have pleased a painter; and though some
slight furrows on his brow showed that wasting thought had been busy
there, yet his eye still beamed with the fire of a poetic soul.
There was something in his whole appearance that indicated a being
of a different order from the bustling race around him.
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