BUBBLES BY AN OLD MAN.
BUBBLES
FROM THE
BRUNNENS OF NASSAU,
BUBBLE, (bobbel, Dutch,)
Anything which wants solidity and firmness.
Johnson’s Dictionary.
THE THIRD EDITION.
PARIS,
BAUDRY’S EUROPEAN LIBRARY,
RUE DU COQ, NEAR THE LOUVRE.
SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS;THEOPHILE BARROIS, JUN., RUE RICHELIEU; LIBRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS,RUE NEUVE-SAINT-AUGUSTIN; AND FRENCH AND ENGLISH LIBRARY,RUE VIVIENNE.
1834.
PRINTED BY J. SMITH, 16, RUE MONTMORENCY.
PREFACE.
The writer of this trifling Volume was suddenly sentenced, in thecold evening of his life, to drink the mineral waters of one of thebubbling springs, or brunnens, of Nassau. In his own opinion, hisconstitution was not worth so troublesome a repair; but, being outvoted,he bowed and departed.
On reaching the point of his destination, he found not onlywater-bibbing—bathing—and ambulation to be the orders of theday, but it was moreover insisted upon, that the mind was to berelaxed inversely as the body was to be strengthened. During thissevere regimen, he was driven to amuse himself in his old age byblowing, as he toddled about, a few literary Bubbles. His hastysketches of whatever chanced for the moment to please either hiseyes, or his mind, were only made—because he had nothing elsein the whole world to do; and he now offers them to that vast andhighly respectable class of people who read from exactly the self-samemotive.
The critic must, of course, declare this production to be vain—empty—light—hollow—superficial ...... butit is the natureof Bubbles to be so.
And these are of them.”
Macbeth, Act I., Scene 3.
BUBBLES.
THE VOYAGE.
By the time I reached the Custom-house Stairs, the paddles ofthe Rotterdam steam-boat were actually in motion, and I hadscarcely hurried across a plank, when I heard it fall splash into themuddy water which separated me farther and farther from thewharf. Still later than myself, passengers were now seen chasingthe vessel in boats, and there was a confusion on deck, which Igladly availed myself of, by securing, close to the helmsman, a corner,where, muffled in the ample folds of an old boat-cloak, I felt Imight quietly enjoy an incognito; for, as the sole object of my expeditionwas to do myself as much good and as little harm as p