Beholde I shewe you a mystery.  We shall not all slepe:  but we shall all be chaunged | and that in a moment | and in the twinclinge of an eye | at the sounde of the last trompe.  For the trompe shall blowe, and the deed shall ryse incorruptible and we shalbe chaunged.  For this corruptible must put on incorruptibilite:  and this mortall must put on immortalite.  When this corruptible hath put on incorruptibilite | and this mortall hath put on immortalite:  than shalbe brought to pass the saying that is written, ’Deeth is consumed in to victory.’  Deeth, where is thy stynge?  Hell, where is thy victory?

The Authorised Version:—­

Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleepe, but wee shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinckling of an eye, at the last trumpe, (for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed).  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortall must put on immortalitie.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortall shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written, ’Death is swallowed up in victory.’  O Death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?]

[Footnote 2:  I E O :  I O E
                     I O :  E OU A
           ’As musing slow, I hail (’as m_u_sing sl_o_w I ha_i_l)
           Thy genial loved return.’ (Th_y_ g_e_nial l_o_ved ret_u_rn.’)
               COLLINS, “Ode to Evening.”]

LECTURE VIII.

ON THE LINEAGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE (I)

Wednesday, October 22

You may think it strange, Gentlemen, that of a course of ten lectures which aim to treat English Literature as an affair of practice, I should propose to spend two in discussing our literary lineage:  a man’s lineage and geniture being reckoned, as a rule, among the things he cannot be reasonably asked to amend.  But since of high breeding is begotten (as most of us believe) a disposition to high thoughts, high deeds; since to have it and be modestly conscious of it is to carry within us a faithful monitor persuading us to whatsoever in conduct is gentle, honourable, of good repute, and so silently dissuading us from base thoughts, low ends, ignoble gains; seeing, moreover, that a man will often do more to match his father’s virtue than he would to improve himself; I shall endeavour, in this and my next lecture, to scour that spur of ancestry and present it to you as so bright and sharp an incentive that you, who read English Literature and practise writing here in Cambridge, shall not pass out from her insensible of the dignity of your studies, or without pride or remorse according as you have interpreted in practice the motto, Noblesse oblige.

          ’Tis wisdom, and that high,
     For men to use their fortune reverently
     Even in youth.