CARTOON II. THE CHARGE TO PETER. IT is one of the greatest charms of language, felt even by those who do not reflect on such things, that so many of its familiar forms refer to states of society long gone by, or to simple rustic occupations which the mass of interests and images crowded before the mind in an advanced era, conceal from the observation, at least, of the more refined. But the beauty and the force of such modes of expression are no doubt best appreciated by those who have looked into the histories of early times-of ages of simplicity and comparative innocence, when the greatest among mankind conferred, by their personal participation, a dignity on the simplest employments of daily life. |