Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

292 A Plea for Gas Lamps.
spontaneity of the planets, coming out along
the firmament one after another, as the need
arises. But the lamplighters took to their heels
every evening, and ran with a good heart. It
was pretty to see man thus emulating the
punctuality of heaven's orbs ; and though per-
fection was not absolutely reached, and now
and then an individual may have been knocked
on the head by the ladder of the flying function-
ary, yet peoiDle commended his zeal in a proverb,
and taught their children to say, " God bless the
lamplighter ! " And since his passage was a
piece of the day's programme, the children were
well pleased to repeat the benediction, not, of
course, in so many words, which would have
been improper, but in some chaste circumlocu-
tion, suitable for infant lips.
God bless him, indeed ! For the term of his
twilight diligence is near at hand ; and for not
much longer shall we watch him speeding up
the street and, at measured intervals, knocking