How observed with the smallest effort is every trick and aspect of the fire! A coal fall-
ing in, a fluttering flame, a miniature mockery of a flash of lightning, nothing escapes the
eye and the imagination. Sometimes a little flame appears at the corner of the grate like a
quivering spangle; sometimes it swells out at top into a restless brief lambency; anon it is
seen only by the light beneath the grate, or it curls aronnd one of the bars like a tongue,
or darts out with a spiral thinness and a sulphurous and continued puffing as from a reed.
The glowing coals meantime exhibit the shifting forms of hills and vales and gulfs, — of
fiery Alps, whose heat is uninhabitable even by spirit, or of black precipices, from which
swart fairies seem about to spring away on sable wings; the heat and fire are forgotten,
and walled towns appear, and figures of unknown animals, and far distant countries
scarcely to be reached by human journey; then coaches and camels, and barking dogs as
large as either, and forms that combine every shape and suggest every fancy, till at last
the ragged coals tumbling together, reduce the vision to chaos, and the huge profile of a
gaunt and grinning face seems to make a jest of all that has passed.
The entrance of a single candle dissipates at once the twilight and the sunshine, and
the ambitious dreamer is summoned to his tea!
Where the fire is duly appreciated, whether the party be large or small, young or old,
talkative or contemplative. If there is music, a good fire will be particularly grateful to
the performers, who are often seated at the farther end of the room.
This is the finished evening; this the quickener at once and calmer of tired thought;
this the spot where our better spirits await to exalt and enliven us, when the daily and
vulgar ones have discharged their duty.
Bright fires and joyous faces; and it is no easy thing for philosophy to say good-night.
But health must be enjoyed or nothing will be enjoyed, and the charm should be broken
at a reasonable hour.
Far be it, however, from a rational firesider not to make exceptions to the rule, when
friends have been long asunder, when some domestic celebration has called them to-
gether, or even when hours peculiarly congenial render it difficult to part. A single
friend, perhaps, loiters behind the rest; you are alone in the house; you have just got
upon a subject delightful to you both; the fire is of a candent brightness; the wind howls
out of doors; the rain beats; the cold is piercing! Sit down. This is a time when the
most melancholy temperament may defy the clouds and storms, and even extract from
them a pleasure that will take no substance by daylight. Even when left alone, there is
sometimes a charm in watching out the decaying fire. The world around is silent; and
for a moment the very cares of day seem to have gone with it to sleep, — then, for imag-
ination's sake, not for superstition's, are recalled the stories of the Secret World and the
midnight pranks of Fairyism. Presently the whole band of fairies, ancient and modern,
— the demons, sylphs, gnomes, sprites, elves, peris, genii, and above all, the fairies of
the fireside, the salamanders, lob-lie-by-the-fires, the lemures, larvae, come flitting between
the fancy's eyes, and the dying coals, — and Oberon gives his gentle order: —
Page 19
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
How observed with the smallest effort is every trick and aspect of the fire! A coal falling in, a fluttering flame, a miniature mockery of a flash of lightning, nothing escapes the eye and the imagination. Sometimes a little flame appears at the corner of the grate like a quivering spangle; sometimes it swells out at top into a restless brief lambency; anon it is seen only by the light beneath the grate, or it curls around one of the bars like a tongue, or darts out with a spiral thinness and a sulphurous and continued puffing as from a reed. The glowing coals meantime exhibit the shifting forms of hills and vales and gulfs, — of fiery Alps, whose heat is uninhabitable even by spirit, or of black precipices, from which swart fairies seem about to spring away on sable wings; the heat and fire are forgotten, and walled towns appear, and figures of unknown animals, and far distant countries scarcely to be reached by human journey; then coaches and camels, and barking dogs as large as either, and forms that combine every shape and suggest every fancy, till at last the ragged coals tumbling together, reduce the vision to chaos, and the huge profile of a gaunt and grinning face seems to make a jest of all that has passed.
The entrance of a single candle dissipates at once the twilight and the sunshine, and the ambitious dreamer is summoned to his tea!
Where the fire is duly appreciated, whether the party be large or small, young or old, talkative or contemplative. If there is music, a good fire will be particularly grateful to the performers, who are often seated at the farther end of the room.
This is the finished evening; this the quickener at once and calmer of tired thought; this the spot where our better spirits await to exalt and enliven us, when the daily and vulgar ones have discharged their duty.
Bright fires and joyous faces; and it is no easy thing for philosophy to say good-night. But health must be enjoyed or nothing will be enjoyed, and the charm should be broken at a reasonable hour.
Far be it, however, from a rational firesider not to make exceptions to the rule, when friends have been long asunder, when some domestic celebration has called them together, or even when hours peculiarly congenial render it difficult to part. A single friend, perhaps, loiters behind the rest; you are alone in the house; you have just got upon a subject delightful to you both; the fire is of a candent brightness; the wind howls out of doors; the rain beats; the cold is piercing! Sit down. This is a time when the most melancholy temperament may defy the clouds and storms, and even extract from them a pleasure that will take no substance by daylight. Even when left alone, there is sometimes a charm in watching out the decaying fire. The world around is silent; and for a moment the very cares of day seem to have gone with it to sleep, — then, for imagination's sake, not for superstition's, are recalled the stories of the Secret World and the midnight pranks of Fairyism. Presently the whole band of fairies, ancient and modern, — the demons, sylphs, gnomes, sprites, elves, peris, genii, and above all, the fairies of the fireside, the salamanders, lob-lie-by-the-fires, the lemures, larvae, come flitting between the fancy's eyes, and the dying coals, — and Oberon gives his gentle order: —