My father-Premature decay-The easy-chair-A few questions-So you told me-A difficult language-They can it Haik-Misused opportunities-Saul-Want of candour-Don't weep-Heaven forgive me-Dated from Paris-I wish he were here-A father's reminiscences-Farewell to vanities.
MY father,as I have already informed the reader,had been endowed by nature with great corporeal strength;indeed,I have been assured that,at the period of his prime,his figure had denoted the possession of almost Herculean powers.The strongest forms,however,do not always endure the longest,the very excess of the noble and generous juices which they contain being the cause of their premature decay.But,be that as it may,the health of my father,some few years after his retirement from the service to the quiet of domestic life,underwent a considerable change;his constitution appeared to be breaking up;and he was subject to severe attacks from various disorders,with which,till then,he had been utterly unacquainted.He was,however,wont to rally,more or less,after his illnesses,and might still occasionally be seen taking his walk,with his cane in his hand,and accompanied by his dog,who sympathised entirely with him,pining as he pined,improving as he improved,and never leaving the house save in his company;and in this manner matters went on for a considerable time,no very great apprehension with respect to my father's state being raised either in my mother's breast or my own.But,about six months after the period at which I have arrived in my last chapter,it came to pass that my father experienced a severer attack than on any previous occasion.
He had the best medical advice;but it was easy to see,from the looks of his doctors,that they entertained but slight hopes of his recovery.His sufferings were great,yet he invariably bore them with unshaken fortitude.There was one thing remarkable connected with his illness;notwithstanding its severity,it never confined him to his bed.He was wont to sit in his little parlour,in his easy-chair,dressed in a faded regimental coat,his dog at his feet,who would occasionally lift his head from the hearth-rug on which he lay,and look his master wistfully in the face.And thus my father spent the greater part of his time,sometimes in prayer,sometimes in meditation,and sometimes in reading the Scriptures.
I frequently sat with him,though,as I entertained a great awe for my father,I used to feel rather ill at ease,when,as sometimes happened,I found myself alone with him.
'I wish to ask you a few questions,'said he to me one day,after my mother had left the room.
'I will answer anything you may please to ask me,my dear father.'
'What have you been about lately?'
'I have been occupied as usual,attending at the office at the appointed hours.'
'And what do you there?'
'Whatever I am ordered.'
'And nothing else?'
'Oh yes!sometimes I read a book.'
'Connected with your profession?'
'Not always;I have been lately reading Armenian-'
'What's that?'
'The language of a people whose country is a region on the other side of Asia Minor.'
'Well!'
'A region abounding with mountains.'
'Well!'
'Amongst which is Mount Ararat.'
'Well!'
'Upon which,as the Bible informs us,the ark rested.'
'Well!'
'It is the language of the people of those regions-'
'So you told me.'
'And I have been reading the Bible in their language.'
'Well!'
'Or rather,I should say,in the ancient language of these people;from which I am told the modem Armenian differs considerably.'
'Well!'
'As much as the Italian from the Latin.'
'Well!'
'So I have been reading the Bible in ancient Armenian.'
'You told me so before.'
'I found it a highly difficult language.'
'Yes.'
'Differing widely from the languages in general with which I am acquainted.'
'Yes.'
'Exhibiting,however,some features in common with them.'
'Yes.'
'And sometimes agreeing remarkably in words with a certain strange wild speech with which I became acquainted-'
'Irish?'
'No,father,not Irish-with which I became acquainted by the greatest chance in the world.'
'Yes.'
'But of which I need say nothing farther at present,and which Ishould not have mentioned but for that fact.'
'Well!'
'Which I consider remarkable.'
'Yes.'
'The Armenian is copious.'
'Is it?'
'With an alphabet of thirty-nine letters,but it is harsh and guttural.'
'Yes.'
'Like the language of most mountainous people-the Armenians call it Haik.'
'Do they?'
'And themselves,Haik,also;they are a remarkable people,and,though their original habitation is the Mountain of Ararat,they are to be found,like the Jews,all over the world.'
'Well!'
'Well,father,that's all I can tell you about the Haiks,or Armenians.'
'And what does it all amount to?'
'Very little,father;indeed,there is very little known about the Armenians;their early history,in particular,is involved in considerable mystery.'
'And,if you knew all that it was possible to know about them,to what would it amount?to what earthly purpose could you turn it?
have you acquired any knowledge of your profession?'
'Very little,father.'
'Very little!Have you acquired all in your power?'
'I can't say that I have,father.'
'And yet it was your duty to have done so.But I see how it is,you have shamefully misused your opportunities;you are like one who,sent into the field to labour,passes his time in flinging stones at the birds of heaven.'
'I would scorn to fling a stone at a bird,father.'
'You know what I mean,and all too well,and this attempt to evade deserved reproof by feigned simplicity is quite in character with your general behaviour.I have ever observed about you a want of frankness,which has distressed me;you never speak of what you are about,your hopes,or your projects,but cover yourself with mystery.I never knew till the present moment that you were acquainted with Armenian.'