Moreover--and
"_Put a pin in that spot, young man_," as Dr "Yark" used to
say--when there came a turn in the tide of the affairs of Micawber, he
took it at the flood, and it led on to fortune. He became a
hardworking settler, a pioneer--a respected early citizen and
magistrate in this bright young Commonwealth of ours, my masters!
And, by the way, and strictly between you and me, I have a shrewd
suspicion that Uriah Heep wasn't the only cad in David Copperfield.
Brutus, the originator of the saying, took the tide at the flood, and
it led him and his friends on to death, or--well, perhaps, under the
circumstances, it was all the same to Brutus and his old mate,
Cassius.
And this, my masters, brings me home,
Bush-born bard, to Ancient Rome.
And there's little difference in the climate, or the men--save in the
little matter of ironmongery--and no difference at all in the women.
We'll pass over the accident that happened to Caesar. Such accidents
had happened to great and little Caesars hundreds of times before, and
have happened many times since, and will happen until the end of time,
both in "sport" (in plays) and in earnest:
Cassius:....How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown?
Brutus: How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,
That now at Pompey's basis lies along
No worthier than the dust!
Shakespeare hadn't Australia and George Rignold in his mind's eye when
he wrote that.
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