Excerpt from The Ingoldsby Legends: Or Mirth and Marvels Watching the clear sky on a summer's evening, and the bright stars which glitter on its face, and dart their radiance around, whilst the earth smiles in their presence, we fancy that we may rejoice in such enchantments for ever; but alas! in a few brief moments darkening clouds arise, and sweep across our firmament. One by one the beaming orbs disappear, and the horizon, sparkling no longer, is enveloped in a dreary expanse of cheerless gloom. So it is in the social system. For awhile the brilliant lights of its sphere shed their halo around, and all is glowing and dazzling where they shine. The gleams of imagination and the flashes of intellect illumine the scene, and we fondly hope that the fleet pleasure will be immortal; but the glories fade away, and the shadows of death gradually wrap the whole in oblivion. The stars will shine again from the heavens, and our own and other eyes will again and again behold them; but there is no returning for the friends we have loved and lost, - there is no rekindling of the luminaries, and sometimes the meteors, of our brief existence, who have cheered its thorniest paths, and adorned its very sterility with the lustre of their gladsome influence. The feast of reason is concluded, the flow of soul is o'er. We cannot but reflect sorrowfully on the number of the distinguished ornaments of our age who have, within a few years, been taken from us, leaving no successors to fill their vacant chairs; for the hurried pursuits of Mammon seem to have absorbed the faculties of the rising generation, and produced a great change in society. The Rev. Richard Harris Barham, whose recent and premature death has made a deep gap in the society of a large circle of friends, has left a memory embalmed in genuine and permanent regret. Of him most truly might it be said, in the language of the great Roman lyrist, "Cui pudor, et justitiae soror, Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas, Quando uUum inveniet parem?" Of his features and his talents the present number of this Miscellany, to which he has contributed so many admirable emanations of his wit and genius, preserves a record, - the characteristic resemblance of a man universally esteemed, and a poetic touch of that good feeling which won for him so eviable an share of reciprocal affection and general regard. The father of Mr. Barham resided in the ancient cathedral city of Canterbury, where the subject of the present sketch was born, and in the neighbourhood of which the family had been for many years located. In person he was physically inclined to that corpulency which, in our English constitutions, is usually attributed to a contented disposition, a kindly heart, and the sunshine of good temper. Be that as it may, he unquestionably transmitted those amiable qualities the even nature, the generous sympathy, and the playful humour - to his son. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."