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 Third Edition

Digital Systems Design Using

VHDL

Charles H. Roth, Jr. | Lizy Kurian John

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 DIGITAL SYSTEMS DESIGN
USING VHDL®

Third Edition

Charles H. Roth, Jr.

The University of Texas
at Austin

Lizy Kurian John

The University of Texas
at Austin

Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Digital Systems Design Using VHDL®, © 2018, 2008 Cengage Learning®
Third Edition
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright
Charles H. Roth, Jr. and Lizy Kurian John
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Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 CONTENTS

Preface vii
About the Authors xii
Chapter 1 Review of Logic Design Fundamentals 1
1.1 Combinational Logic 1
1.2 Boolean Algebra and Algebraic Simplification 3
1.3 Karnaugh Maps 7
1.4 Designing With NAND and NOR Gates 10
1.5 Hazards in Combinational Circuits 12
1.6 Flip-Flops and Latches 16
1.7 Mealy Sequential Circuit Design 18
1.8 Moore Sequential Circuit Design 25
1.9 Equivalent States and Reduction of State Tables 28
1.10 Sequential Circuit Timing 30
1.11 Tristate Logic and Busses 31
Problems 34

Chapter 2 Introduction to VHDL 39

2.1 Computer-Aided Design 39
2.2 Hardware Description Languages 42
2.3 VHDL Description of Combinational Circuits 44
2.4 VHDL Modules 47
2.5 Sequential Statements and VHDL Processes 54
2.6 Modeling Flip-Flops Using VHDL Processes 55
2.7 Processes Using Wait Statements 59
2.8 Two Types of VHDL Delays: Transport and Inertial Delays 62
2.9 Compilation, Simulation, and Synthesis of VHDL Code 63
2.10 VHDL Data Types and Operators 67
2.11 Simple Synthesis Examples 69
2.12 VHDL Models for Multiplexers 72
2.13 VHDL Libraries 75
2.14 Modeling Registers and Counters Using VHDL Processes 79
2.15 Behavioral and Structural VHDL 85
2.16 Variables, Signals, and Constants 94
iii
Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
iv Contents

2.17 Arrays 97
2.18 Loops in VHDL 101
2.19 Assert and Report Statements 102
2.20 Tips for Debugging VHDL Code 106
Problems 114

Chapter 3 Introduction to Programmable Logic Devices 128

3.1 Brief Overview of Programmable Logic Devices 128
3.2 Simple Programmable Logic Devices 131
3.3 Complex Programmable Logic Devices 146
3.4 Field Programmable Gate Arrays 150
3.5 Programmable SoCs (PSOC) 174
Problems 176

Chapter 4 Design Examples 184

4.1 BCD to Seven-Segment Display Decoder 185
4.2 A BCD Adder 186
4.3 32-Bit Adders 188
4.4 Traffic Light Controller 198
4.5 State Graphs for Control Circuits 201
4.6 Scoreboard and Controller 203
4.7 Synchronization and Debouncing 206
4.8 Add-and-Shift Multiplier 208
4.9 Array Multiplier 213
4.10 A Signed Integer/Fraction Multiplier 216
4.11 Keypad Scanner 228
4.12 Binary Dividers 235
Problems 244

Chapter 5 SM Charts and Microprogramming 256

5.1 State Machine Charts 256
5.2 Derivation of SM Charts 261
5.3 Realization of SM Charts 271
5.4 Implementation of the Dice Game 274
5.5 Microprogramming 278
5.6 Linked State Machines 295
Problems 297

Chapter 6 Designing with Field Programmable Gate

Arrays 308
6.1 Implementing Functions in FPGAs 308
6.2 Implementing Functions Using Shannon’s Decomposition 314

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Contents v

6.3 Carry Chains in FPGAs 319

6.4 Cascade Chains in FPGAs 320
6.5 Examples of Logic Blocks in Commercial FPGAs 322
6.6 Dedicated Memory in FPGAs 324
6.7 Dedicated Multipliers in FPGAs 330
6.8 Cost of Programmability 331
6.9 FPGAs and One-Hot State Assignment 333
6.10 FPGA Capacity: Maximum Gates versus Usable Gates 335
6.11 Design Translation (Synthesis) 336
6.12 Mapping, Placement, and Routing 346
Problems 351

Chapter 7 Floating-Point Arithmetic 361

7.1 Representation of Floating-Point Numbers 361
7.2 Floating-Point Multiplication 370
7.3 Floating-Point Addition 378
7.4 Other Floating-Point Operations 385
Problems 386

Chapter 8 Additional Topics in VHDL 391

8.1 VHDL Functions 391
8.2 VHDL Procedures 394
8.3 VHDL Predefined Function Called NOW 397
8.4 Attributes 398
8.5 Creating Overloaded Operators 402
8.6 Multivalued Logic and Signal Resolution 403
8.7 The IEEE 9-Valued Logic System 408
8.8 SRAM Model Using IEEE 1164 412
8.9 Model for SRAM Read/Write System 414
8.10 Generics 417
8.11 Named Association 418
8.12 Generate Statements 419
8.13 Files and TEXTIO 421
Problems 425

Chapter 9 Design of RISC Microprocessors 433

9.1 The RISC Philosophy 433
9.2 The MIPS ISA 436
9.3 MIPS Instruction Encoding 441
9.4 Implementation of a MIPS Subset 445
9.5 VHDL Model of the MIPS Subset 451
9.6 Design of an ARM Processor 465
9.7 ARM Instruction Encoding 475

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
vi Contents

9.8 Implementation of a Subset of ARM Instructions 483

9.9 VHDL Model of the ARM Subset 491
Problems 509

Chapter 10 Verification of Digital Systems 515

10.1 Importance of Verification 515
10.2 Verification Terminology 519
10.3 Functional Verification 521
10.4 Timing Verification 526
10.5 Static Timing Analysis for Circuits with No Skew 528
10.6 Static Timing Analysis for Circuits with Clock Skew 535
10.7 Glitches in Sequential Circuits 539
10.8 Clock Gating 540
10.9 Clock Distribution Circuitry 544
Problems 546

Chapter 11 Hardware Testing and Design for

Testability 554
11.1 Faults and Fault Models 555
11.2 Testing Combinational Logic 556
11.3 Testing Sequential Logic 560
11.4 Scan Testing 564
11.5 Boundary Scan 566
11.6 Memory Testing 577
11.7 Built-In Self-Test 579
Problems 589

Chapter 12 Additional Design Examples (Online)

Appendix A 596
VHDL Language Summary

Appendix B 604
IEEE Standard Libraries

Appendix C 606
TEXTIO Package

Appendix D 608
Projects

References 618
Index 622

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 PREFACE

This textbook is intended for a senior-level course in digital systems design. The book covers
both basic principles of digital system design and the use of a hardware description language,
VHDL, in the design process. After basic principles have been covered, students are encour-
aged to practice design by going through the design process. For this reason, many digital
system design examples, ranging in complexity from a simple binary adder to a microproces-
sor, are included in the text.
Students using this textbook should have completed a course in the fundamentals of logic
design, including both combinational and sequential circuits. Although no previous knowl-
edge of VHDL is assumed, students should have programming experience using a modern
higher-level language such as C. A course in assembly language programming and basic
computer organization is also very helpful, especially for Chapter 9.
This book is the result of many years of teaching a senior course in digital systems design
at the University of Texas at Austin. Throughout the years, the technology for hardware
implementation of digital systems has kept changing, but many of the same design principles
are still applicable. In the early years of the course, we handwired modules consisting of
discrete transistors to implement our designs. Then integrated circuits were introduced,
and we were able to implement our designs using breadboards and TTL logic. Now we are
able to use FPGAs and CPLDs to realize very complex designs. We originally used our own
hardware description language together with a simulator running on a mainframe computer.
When VHDL was adopted as an IEEE standard and became widely used in industry, we
switched to VHDL. The widespread availability of high-quality commercial CAD tools now
enables us to synthesize complex designs directly from the VHDL code.
All of the VHDL code in this textbook has been tested using the Modelsim simula-
tor. The Modelsim software is available in a student edition, and we recommend its use in
conjunction with this text. The companion website that accompanies this text provides a
link for downloading the Modelsim student edition and an introductory tutorial to help
students get started using the software. Students can access these materials by visiting
https://login.cengage.com.

Structure
Because students typically take their first course in logic design two years before this course,
most students need a review of the basics. For this reason, Chapter 1 includes a review of
logic design fundamentals. Most students can review this material on their own, so it is unnec-
essary to devote much lecture time to this chapter.

vii
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viii Preface

Chapter 2 starts with an overview of modern design flow. It also summarizes various
technologies for implementation of digital designs. Then, it introduces the basics of VHDL,
and this hardware description language is used throughout the rest of the book. Additional
features of VHDL are introduced on an as-needed basis, and more advanced features are
covered in Chapter 8. From the start, we relate the constructs of VHDL to the corresponding
hardware. Some textbooks teach VHDL as a programming language and devote many pages
to teaching the language syntax. Instead, our emphasis is on how to use VHDL in the digital
design process. The language is very complex, so we do not attempt to cover all its features.
We emphasize the basic features that are necessary for digital design and omit some of the
less-used features. Use of standard IEEE VHDL libraries is introduced in this chapter and
only IEEE standard libraries are used throughout the test. Chapter 2 also provides coding tips
and strategies on how to write VHDL code that can lead to the intended hardware quickly.
VHDL is very useful in teaching top-down design. We can design a system at a high level
and express the algorithms in VHDL. We can then simulate and debug the designs at this
level before proceeding with the detailed logic design. However, no design is complete until
it has actually been implemented in hardware and the hardware has been tested. For this
reason, we recommend that the course include some lab exercises in which designs are imple-
mented in hardware. We introduce simple programmable logic devices (PLDs) in Chapter 3
so that real hardware can be used early in the course if desired. Chapter 3 starts with an
overview of programmable logic devices and presents simple programmable logic devices
first, followed by an introduction to complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) and
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). There are many products in the market, and it
is useful for students to learn about commercial products. However, it is more important for
them to understand the basic principles in the construction of these programmable devices.
Hence we present the material in a generalized fashion, with references to specific products
as examples. The material in this chapter also serves as an introduction to the more detailed
treatment of FPGAs in Chapter 6.
Chapter 4 presents a variety of design examples, including both arithmetic and non-
arithmetic examples. Simple examples such as a BCD to 7-segment display decoder to more
complex examples such as game scoreboards, keypad scanners, and binary dividers are pre-
sented. The chapter presents common techniques used for computer arithmetic, including
carry look-ahead addition and binary multiplication and division. Use of a state machine for
sequencing the operations in a digital system is an important concept presented in this chap-
ter. Synthesizable VHDL code is presented for the various designs. A variety of examples are
presented so that instructors can select their favorite designs for teaching.
Use of sequential machine charts (SM charts) as an alternative to state graphs is covered
in Chapter 5. We show how to write VHDL code based on SM charts and how to realize hard-
ware to implement the SM charts. Then, the technique of microprogramming is presented.
Transformation of SM charts for different types of microprogramming is discussed. Then, we
show how the use of linked state machines facilitates the decomposition of complex systems
into simpler ones. The design of a dice-game simulator is used to illustrate these techniques.
Chapter 6 presents issues related to implementing digital systems in Field Programmable
Gate Arrays. A few simple designs are first hand-mapped into FPGA building blocks to illus-
trate the mapping process. Shannon’s expansion for decomposition of functions with several
variables into smaller functions is presented. Features of modern FPGAs like carry chains,
cascade chains, dedicated memory, dedicated multipliers, etc., are then presented. Instead
of describing all features in a selected commercial product, the features are described in a
general fashion. Once students understand the fundamental general principles, they will be
able to understand and use any commercial product they have to work with. This chapter
also introduces the processes and algorithms in the software design flow. Synthesis, mapping,

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Preface ix

placement, and routing processes are briefly described. Optimizations during synthesis are
illustrated.
Basic techniques for floating-point arithmetic are described in Chapter 7. We present a
simple floating-point format with 2’s complement numbers and then the IEEE standard float-
ing-point formats. A floating-point multiplier example is presented starting with development
of the basic algorithm, then simulating the system using VHDL, and finally synthesizing and
implementing the system using an FPGA. Some instructors may prefer to cover Chapters 8
and 9 before teaching Chapter 7. Chapter 7 can be omitted without loss of any continuity.
By the time students reach Chapter 8, they should be thoroughly familiar with the basics
of VHDL. At this point we introduce some of the more advanced features of VHDL and
illustrate their use. The use of multi-valued logic, including the IEEE-1164 standard logic, is
one of the important topics covered. A memory model with tri-state output busses illustrates
the use of the multi-valued logic.
Chapter 9 presents the design of a microprocessor, starting from the description of the
instruction set architecture (ISA). The processor is an early RISC processor, the MIPS
R2000. The important instructions in the MIPS ISA are described and a subset is then imple-
mented. The design of the various components of the processor, such as the instruction mem-
ory module, data memory module, and register file are illustrated module by module. These
components are then integrated together, and a complete processor design is presented.
The model can be tested with a test bench, or it can be synthesized and implemented on an
FPGA. In order to test the design on an FPGA, one will need to write input-output mod-
ules for the design. This example requires understanding of the basics of assembly language
programming and computer organization. After presenting the MIPS design, the chapter
progresses to a design with the ARM ISA. A simplified introduction to the ARM ISA is first
presented, followed by an implementation of a subset of the ISA. This is a significant addition
to the previous MIPS design. The coverage is augmented with relevant example questions,
solutions, and exercise problems on the ARM ISA.
Chapter 10 is a new chapter, presenting new material on verification, a concept central to
the design of complex systems. A good understanding of timing in sequential circuits and the
principles of synchronous design is essential to the digital system design process. Functional
verification is introduced, explaining jargon in verification, validation, emulation, and distinc-
tion with testing. Self-testing test benches are explained. Concept of coverage is introduced.
Timing verification is presented with static timing analysis of circuits. Clock skew, clock
gating, power gating, and asynchronous design are introduced.
The important topics of hardware testing and design for testability are covered in
Chapter 11. This chapter introduces the basic techniques for testing combinational and
sequential logic. Then scan design and boundary-scan techniques, which facilitate the testing
of digital systems, are described. The chapter concludes with a discussion of built-in self-test
(BIST). VHDL code for a boundary-scan example and for a BIST example is included. The
topics in this chapter play an important role in digital system design, and we recommend that
they be included in any course on this subject. Chapter 11 can be covered any time after the
completion of Chapter 8.
Chapter 12, available only online via https://login.cengage.com, presents three complete
design examples that illustrate the use of VHDL synthesis tools. First, a wristwatch design
shows the progress of a design from a textual description to a state diagram and then a
VHDL model. This example illustrates modular design. The test bench for the wristwatch
illustrates the use of multiple procedure calls to facilitate the testing. The second example
describes the use of VHDL to model RAM memories. The third example, a serial communi-
cations receiver-transmitter, should easily be understood by any student who has completed
the material through Chapter 8.

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
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x Preface

New to the Third Edition

For instructors who used the second edition of this text, here is a mapping to help understand
the changes in the third edition. The IEEE numeric-bit library is used first until multi-valued
logic is introduced in Chapter 8. The multi-valued IEEE numeric-std library is used thereafter.
All code has been converted to use IEEE standard libraries instead of the BITLIB library.

Chapter 1 Logic hazard description is improved. More detailed examples on static haz-
ards are added. Students are introduced to memristors. The sequential circuit
timing section is kept to an introductory level because more elaborate static
timing analysis is presented in a new chapter on verification, Chapter 10.
Chapter 2 Coding examples to improve test bench creation are introduced in Chapter 2.
Coding tips and strategies for synthesizable code are presented. Multiple
debugging examples are presented towards the end of the chapter.
Chapter 3 Information on commercial chips updated to reflect state of the art. Added
introduction to programmable System on a Chip (SoC).
Chapter 4 General introduction to parallel prefix adders with details of Kogge Stone
adder. New exercise problems including those on Kogge Stone and Brent-
Kung adders.
Chapter 5 Added historical perspective on microprogramming. New example problems
and new exercise problems.
Chapter 6 Information on commercial chips updated to reflect state of the art. Xilinx
Kintex chips described. New problems added to make use of the new types
of FPGA architectures.
Chapter 7 Several new example problems on IEEE floating point standards illustrated
in detail. Rounding modes in IEEE standard and Microsoft Excel illustrated
with examples. Several new exercise problems.
Chapter 8 Functions and procedures from the prior edition’s Chapter 2 moved to here.
Many sections from old Chapter 8 are still here. A memory model previously
in old Chapter 9 presented as example of multi-valued logic design in new
Chapter 8.
New examples on functions and procedures added. VHDL function NOW is
introduced. New exercise questions on Kogge-Stone and Brent-Kung adder
to utilize advanced VHDL features such as generate are added.
Chapter 9 This chapter covers ARM processor design. A simplified introduction to the
ARM ISA is first presented followed by an implementation of a subset of
the ISA. This is a significant addition to the MIPS design that was previously
presented. Several example questions and solutions on the ARM ISA are
presented. Several exercise problems are added.
Chapter 10 This is a new chapter on verification. It covers functional verification as
introduced, explaining terminology in verification, validation, emulation,
and distinction with testing. Self-checking test benches are explained. Con-
cept of coverage is introduced. Timing verification is presented with static
timing analysis of circuits. Clock skew, clock gating, power gating, and asyn-
chronous design are briefly presented. Exercise problems cover functional
and timing verification.

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 Preface xi

Chapter 11 The prior edition’s Chapter 10 on testing is modified and retained as

Chapter 11. Memory testing is introduced. Several new problems added.
Tests such as the popular March 14 tests are introduced in the chapter and
new exercise problems are included.
Chapter 12 This chapter will be available only electronically. The wristwatch design,
the memory timing models, and the UART design will be available to
interested instructors and students. This chapter may be accessed at
https://login.cengage.com.

Instructor Resources
A detailed Instructor’s Solutions Manual containing solutions to all the exercises from the
text, VHDL code used in the book, and Lecture Note PowerPoint slides are available via a
secure, password-protected Instructor Resource Center at https://login.cengage.com.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the many individuals who have contributed their time and effort
to the development of this textbook. Over many years we have received valuable feedback
from the students in our digital systems design courses. We would especially like to thank
the faculty members who reviewed the previous edition and offered many suggestions for its
improvement. These faculty include:
Lee Belfore, Old Dominion University
Gang Feng, University of Wisconsin, Platteville
K. Gopalan, Purdue University, Calumet
Miriam Leeser, Northeastern University
Melissa C. Smith, Clemson University
Aaron Striegel, University of Notre Dame
Don Thomas, Carnegie Mellon University
We also wish to acknowledge Dr. Nur Touba’s comments on various parts of the book.
Dr. Earl Swartzlander provided comments on the parallel prefix adder section.
We thank ARM Limited for providing the permission to include an example design
based on the ARM ISA in Chapter 9. Special thanks go to Ian Burgess at Mentor Graphics
for his work on the ModelSim code. We also take this opportunity to express our gratitude
to the student assistants who helped with the word processing, VHDL code testing, and
illustrations: Arif Mondal, Kevin Johns, Jae-Min Jo, Di Xie, Poulami Das, and Kangjoo Lee,
who helped on this version, and Roger Chen, William Earle, Manish Kapadia, Matt Morgan,
Elizabeth Norris, and Raman Suri, who helped on the previous edition.
We wish to acknowledge and thank our Global Engineering team at Cengage Learning for
their dedication to this new book: Timothy Anderson, Product Director; Ashley Kaupert, Asso-
ciate Media Content Developer; Jana Lewis, Content Project Manager; Kristin Stine, Market-
ing Manager; Elizabeth Brown and Brittany Burden, Learning Solutions Specialists; Alexander
Sham, Product Assistant; and Rose Kernan of RPK Editorial Services, Inc. They have skillfully
guided every aspect of this text’s development and production to successful completion.
Charles. H. Roth, Jr.
Lizy K. John

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Charles H. Roth, Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering

at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been on the UT faculty since 1961.
He received his BSEE degree from the University of Minnesota, his MSEE and
EE degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his PhD degree
in EE from Stanford University. His teaching and research interests included
logic design, digital systems design, switching theory, microprocessor systems, and
computer- aided design. He developed a self-paced course in logic design, which
formed the basis of his textbook, Fundamentals of Logic Design. He is also the
author of Digital Systems Design Using VHDL, two other textbooks, and several
software packages. He is the author or co-author of more than 50 technical papers
and reports. Six PhD students and 80 MS students have received their degrees
under his supervision. He received several teaching awards including the 1974 Gen-
eral Dynamics Award for Outstanding Engineering Teaching.
Lizy Kurian John is the B.N. Gafford Professor in the Electrical and Computer
Engineering at University of Texas at Austin. She received her PhD in Computer
Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include
computer architecture, performance evaluation, workload characterization, digital
systems design, FPGAs, rapid prototyping, and reconfigurable architectures. She is
the recipient of many awards including the NSF CAREER award, UT Austin Engi-
neering Foundation Faculty Award, Halliburton, Brown, and Root Engineering
Foundation Young Faculty Award 2001, University of Texas Alumni Association
(Texas Exes) Teaching Award 2004, the Pennsylvania State University Outstand-
ing Engineering Alumnus 2011, etc. She has co-authored a book on Digital Systems
Design using VHDL (Cengage Publishers, 2007), a book on Digital Systems Design
using Verilog (Cengage Publishers, 2014) and has edited four books including a
book on Computer Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking. In the past, she has
served as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transac-
tions on VLSI and IEEE Micro. She holds 10 U.S. patents and is an IEEE Fellow
(Class of 2009).

xii
Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
 CHAPTER

REVIEW OF LOGIC DESIGN 1

FUNDAMENTALS

This chapter reviews many of the logic design topics normally taught in a first course in logic
design. First, combinational logic and then sequential logic are reviewed. Combinational
logic has no memory, so the present output depends only on the present input. Sequential
logic has memory, so the present output depends not only on the present input but also on
the past sequence of inputs. Various types of flip-flops and their state tables are presented.
Example designs for Mealy and Moore sequential circuits are illustrated, followed by tech-
niques to reduce the number of states in sequential designs. Circuit timing and synchronous
design are particularly important, since a good understanding of timing issues is essential to
the successful design of digital systems. A detailed treatment of sequential circuit timing is
presented in Chapter 10 in a section on timing verification. For more details on any of the
topics discussed in this chapter, the reader should refer to a standard logic design textbook
such as Roth and Kinney, Fundamentals of Logic Design, 7th Edition (Cengage Learning,
2014). Some of the review examples that follow are referenced in later chapters of this text.

1.1 Combinational Logic

Some of the basic gates used in logic circuits are shown in Figure 1-1. Unless otherwise speci-
fied, all the variables used to represent logic signals are two-valued, and the two values are
designated 0 and 1. Normally positive logic is used, for which a low voltage corresponds to a
logic 0 and a high voltage corresponds to a logic 1. When negative logic is used, a low voltage
corresponds to a logic 1 and a high voltage corresponds to a logic 0.
For the AND gate of Figure 1-1, the output C 5 1 if and only if the input A 5 1 and
the input B 5 1. Use a raised dot or simply write the variables side by side to indicate the
AND operation; thus C 5 A AND B 5 A # B 5 AB. For the OR gate, the output C 5 1 if
and only if the input A 5 1 or the input B 5 1 (inclusive OR). Use 1 to indicate the OR
operation; thus C 5 A OR B 5 A 1 B. The NOT gate, or inverter, forms the complement
of the input; that is, if A 5 1, C 5 0, and if A 5 0, C 5 1. Use a prime 1 r 2 to indicate the

FIGURE 1-1: Basic Gates A

C A
C
B B
AND: C = A B OR: C = A + B

C A
A C
B
NOT: C = A9 Exclusive OR: C = A % B

1
Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
2 Chapter 1 Review of Logic Design Fundamentals

complement (NOT) operation, so C 5 NOT A 5 Ar. The exclusive-OR (XOR) gate has an
output C 5 1 if A 5 1 and B 5 0 or if A 5 0 and B 5 1. The symbol ! represents exclusive
OR, so write

C 5 A XOR B 5 ABr 1 ArB 5 A ! B (1-1)

The behavior of a combinational logic circuit can be specified by a truth table that gives the
circuit outputs for each combination of input values. As an example, consider the full adder of
Figure 1-2, which adds two binary digits (X and Y) and a carry 1 Cin 2 to give a sum (Sum) and a
carry out 1 Cout 2 . The truth table specifies the adder outputs as a function of the adder inputs.
For example, when the inputs are X 5 0, Y 5 0, and Cin 5 1, adding the three inputs gives
0 1 0 1 1 5 01, so the sum is 1 and the carry out is 0. When the inputs are 011, 0 1 1 1 1 5 10,
so Sum 5 0 and Cout 5 1. When the inputs are X 5 Y 5 Cin 5 1, 1 1 1 1 1 5 11, so
Sum 5 1 and Cout 5 1.

FIGURE 1-2: Full Adder X Y Cin Cout Sum

0 0 0 0 0
X Cout 0 0 1 0 1
Full 0 1 0 0 1
Y 0 1 1 1 0
Adder
Cin Sum 1 0 0 0 1
1 0 1 1 0
1 1 0 1 0
1 1 1 1 1
(a) Full adder module (b) Truth table

Derive algebraic expressions for Sum and Cout from the truth table. From the table,
Sum 5 1 when X 5 0, Y 5 0, and Cin 5 1. The term XrYrCin equals 1 only for this com-
bination of inputs. The term XrYCin r 5 1 only when X 5 0, Y 5 1, and Cin 5 0. The term
XYrCinr is 1 only for the input combination X 5 1, Y 5 0, and Cin 5 0. The term XYCin is 1
only when X 5 Y 5 Cin 5 1. Therefore, Sum is formed by ORing these four terms together:

r 1 XYrCinr 1 XYCin
Sum 5 XrYrCin 1 XrYCin (1-2)

Each of the terms in this sum of products (SOP) expression is 1 for exactly one combina-
tion of input values. In a similar manner, Cout is formed by ORing four terms together:

r 1 XYCin
Cout 5 XrYCin 1 XYrCin 1 XYCin (1-3)

Each term in Equations (1-2) and (1-3) is referred to as a minterm, and these equations
are referred to as minterm expansions. These minterm expansions can also be written in
m-notation or decimal notation as follows:

Sum 5 m1 1 m2 1 m4 1 m7 5 Sm 1 1, 2, 4, 7 2

Cout 5 m3 1 m5 1 m6 1 m7 5 Sm 1 3, 5, 6, 7 2

The decimal numbers designate the rows of the truth table for which the corresponding func-
tion is 1. Thus Sum 5 1 in rows 001, 010, 100, and 111 (rows 1, 2, 4, 7).

Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
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 POINTS OF VIEW

BY

AGNES REPPLIER

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1891
 Copyright, 1891,
By AGNES REPPLIER.

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 CONTENTS.
PAGE
A Plea for Humor 1
English Love-Songs 30
Books that have Hindered Me 64
Literary Shibboleths 78
Fiction in the Pulpit 105
Pleasure: a Heresy 136
Esoteric Economy 166
Scanderbeg 189
English Railway Fiction 209

* * * * *
“Scanderbeg” is reprinted from “The Catholic World” by permission of
the publishers.
POINTS OF VIEW.
 A PLEA FOR HUMOR.
More than half a dozen years have passed since Mr. Andrew
Lang, startled for once out of his customary light-heartedness, asked
himself, and his readers, and the ghost of Charles Dickens—all three
powerless to answer—whether the dismal seriousness of the present
day was going to last forever; or whether, when the great wave of
earnestness had rippled over our heads, we would pluck up heart to
be merry and, if needs be, foolish once again. Not that mirth and
folly are in any degree synonymous, as of old; for the merry fool, too
scarce, alas, even in the times when Jacke of Dover hunted for him
in the highways, has since then grown to be rarer than a phœnix. He
has carried his cap and bells, and jests and laughter, elsewhere, and
has left us to the mercies of the serious fool, who is by no means so
seductive a companion. If the Cocquecigruës are in possession of
the land, and if they are tenants exceedingly hard to evict, it is
because of the connivance and encouragement they receive from
those to whom we innocently turn for help: from the poets, and
novelists, and men of letters, whose plain duty it is to brighten and
make glad our days.
“It is obvious,” sighs Mr. Birrell dejectedly, “that many people
appear to like a drab-colored world, hung around with dusky shreds
of philosophy;” but it is more obvious still that, whether they like it
or not, the drapings grow a trifle dingier every year, and that no one
seems to have the courage to tack up something gay. What is much
worse, even those bits of wanton color which have rested
generations of weary eyes are being rapidly obscured by sombre and
intricate scroll-work, warranted to oppress and fatigue. The great
masterpieces of humor, which have kept men young by laughter, are
being tried in the courts of an orthodox morality, and found
lamentably wanting; or else, by way of giving them another chance,
they are being subjected to the peine forte et dure of modern
analysis, and are revealing hideous and melancholy meanings in the
process. I have always believed that Hudibras owes its chilly
treatment at the hands of critics—with the single and most genial
exception of Sainte-Beuve—to the absolute impossibility of twisting it
into something serious. Strive as we may, we cannot put a new
construction on those vigorous old jokes, and to be simply and
barefacedly amusing is no longer considered a sufficient raison
d’être. It is the most significant token of our ever-increasing “sense
of moral responsibility in literature” that we should be always trying
to graft our own conscientious purposes upon those authors who,
happily for themselves, lived and died before virtue, colliding
desperately with cakes and ale, had imposed such depressing
obligations.
“Don Quixote,” says Mr. Shorthouse with unctuous gravity, “will
come in time to be recognized as one of the saddest books ever
written;” and, if the critics keep on expounding it much longer, I
truly fear it will. It may be urged that Cervantes himself was low
enough to think it exceedingly funny; but then one advantage of our
new and keener insight into literature is to prove to us how
indifferently great authors understood their own masterpieces.
Shakespeare, we are told, knew comparatively little about Hamlet,
and he is to be congratulated on his limitations. Defoe would hardly
recognize Robinson Crusoe as “a picture of civilization,” having
innocently supposed it to be quite the reverse; and he would be as
amazed as we are to learn from Mr. Frederic Harrison that his book
contains “more psychology, more political economy, and more
anthropology than are to be found in many elaborate treatises on
these especial subjects,”—blighting words which I would not even
venture to quote if I thought that any boy would chance to read
them, and so have one of the pleasures of his young life destroyed.
As for Don Quixote, which its author persisted in regarding with such
misplaced levity, it has passed through many bewildering
vicissitudes. It has figured bravely as a satire on the Duke of Lerma,
on Charles V., on Philip II., on Ignatius Loyola,—Cervantes was the
most devout of Catholics,—and on the Inquisition, which,
fortunately, did not think so. In fact, there is little or nothing which it
has not meant in its time; and now, having attained that deep
spiritual inwardness which we have been recently told is lacking in
poor Goldsmith, we are requested by Mr. Shorthouse to refrain from
all brutal laughter, but, with a shadowy smile and a profound
seriousness, to attune ourselves to the proper state of receptivity.
Old-fashioned, coarse-minded people may perhaps ask, “But if we
are not to laugh at Don Quixote, at whom are we, please, to
laugh?”—a question which I, for one, would hardly dare to answer.
Only, after reading the following curious sentence, extracted from a
lately published volume of criticism, I confess to finding myself in a
state of mental perplexity, utterly alien to mirth. “How much
happier,” its author sternly reminds us, “was poor Don Quixote in his
energetic career, in his earnest redress of wrong, and in his ultimate
triumph over self, than he could have been in the gnawing reproach
and spiritual stigma which a yielding to weakness never failingly
entails!” Beyond this point it would be hard to go. Were these things
really spoken of the “ingenious gentleman” of La Mancha, or of John
Howard, or George Peabody, or perhaps Elizabeth Fry,—or is there
no longer such a thing as a recognized absurdity in the world?
Another gloomy indication of the departure of humor from our
midst is the tendency of philosophical writers to prove by analysis
that, if they are not familiar with the thing itself, they at least know
of what it should consist. Mr. Shorthouse’s depressing views about
Don Quixote are merely introduced as illustrating a very scholarly
and comfortless paper on the subtle qualities of mirth. No one could
deal more gracefully and less humorously with his topic than does
Mr. Shorthouse, and we are compelled to pause every now and then
and reassure ourselves as to the subject matter of his eloquence.
Professor Everett has more recently and more cheerfully defined for
us the Philosophy of the Comic, in a way which, if it does not add to
our gayety, cannot be accused of plunging us deliberately into
gloom. He thinks, indeed,—and small wonder,—that there is “a
genuine difficulty in distinguishing between the comic and the
tragic,” and that what we need is some formula which shall
accurately interpret the precise qualities of each; and he is disposed
to illustrate his theory by dwelling on the tragic side of Falstaff,
which is, of all injuries, the grimmest and hardest to forgive. Falstaff
is now the forlorn hope of those who love to laugh, and when he is
taken away from us, as soon, alas! he will be, and sleeps with Don
Quixote in the “dull cold marble” of an orthodox sobriety, how shall
we make merry our souls? Mr. George Radford, who enriched the
first volume of “Obiter Dicta” with such a loving study of the fat-
witted old knight, tells us reassuringly that by laughter man is
distinguished from the beasts, though the cares and sorrows of life
have all but deprived him of this elevating grace, and degraded him
into a brutal solemnity. Then comes along a rare genius like Falstaff,
who restores the power of laughter, and transforms the stolid brute
once more into a man, and who accordingly has the highest claim to
our grateful and affectionate regard. That there are those who
persist in looking upon him as a selfish and worthless fellow is, from
Mr. Radford’s point of view, a sorrowful instance of human
thanklessness and perversity. But this I take to be the enamored and
exaggerated language of a too faithful partisan. Morally speaking,
Falstaff has not a leg to stand upon, and there is a tragic element
lurking always amid the fun. But, seen in the broad sunlight of his
transcendent humor, this shadow is as the half-pennyworth of bread
to his own noble ocean of sack, and why should we be forever trying
to force it into prominence? When Charlotte Brontë advised her
friend, Ellen Nussey, to read none of Shakespeare’s comedies, she
was not beguiled for a moment into regarding them as serious and
melancholy lessons of life; but with uncompromising directness put
them down as mere improper plays, the amusing qualities of which
were insufficient to excuse their coarseness, and which were
manifestly unfit for the “gentle Ellen’s” eyes.
In fact, humor would at all times have been the poorest excuse
to offer to Miss Brontë for any form of moral dereliction, for it was
the one quality she lacked herself, and failed to tolerate in others.
Sam Weller was apparently as obnoxious to her as was Falstaff, for
she would not even consent to meet Dickens, when she was being
lionized in London society,—a degree of abstemiousness on her part
which it is disheartening to contemplate. It does not seem too much
to say that every shortcoming in Charlotte Brontë’s admirable work,
every limitation of her splendid genius, arose primarily from her
want of humor. Her severities of judgment—and who more severe
than she?—were due to the same melancholy cause; for humor is
the kindliest thing alive. Compare the harshness with which she
handles her hapless curates, and the comparative crudity of her
treatment, with the surpassing lightness of Miss Austen’s touch as
she rounds and completes her immortal clerical portraits. Miss
Brontë tells us, in one of her letters, that she regarded all curates as
“highly uninteresting, narrow, and unattractive specimens of the
coarser sex,” just as she found all the Belgian school-girls “cold,
selfish, animal, and inferior.” But to Miss Austen’s keen and friendly
eye the narrowest of clergymen was not wholly uninteresting, the
most inferior of school-girls not without some claim to our
consideration; even the coarseness of the male sex was far from
vexing her maidenly serenity, probably because she was
unacquainted with the Rochester type. Mr. Elton is certainly narrow,
Mary Bennet extremely inferior; but their authoress only laughs at
them softly, with a quiet tolerance, and a good-natured sense of
amusement at their follies. It was little wonder that Charlotte Brontë,
who had at all times the courage of her convictions, could not, and
would not, read Jane Austen’s novels. “They have not got story
enough for me,” she boldly affirmed. “I don’t want my blood curdled,
but I like to have it stirred. Miss Austen strikes me as milk-and-
watery, and, to say truth, as dull.” Of course she did! How was a
woman, whose ideas of after-dinner conversation are embodied in
the amazing language of Baroness Ingram and her titled friends, to
appreciate the delicious, sleepy small talk, in “Sense and Sensibility,”
about the respective heights of the respective grandchildren? It is to
Miss Brontë’s abiding lack of humor that we owe such stately
caricatures as Blanche Ingram, and all the high-born, ill-bred
company who gather in Thornfield Hall, like a group fresh from
Madame Tussaud’s ingenious workshop, and against whose waxen
unreality Jane Eyre and Rochester, alive to their very finger-tips,
contrast like twin sparks of fire. It was her lack of humor, too, which
beguiled her into asserting that the forty “wicked, sophistical, and
immoral French novels,” which found their way down to lonely
Haworth, gave her “a thorough idea of France and Paris,”—alas, poor
misjudged France!—and which made her think Thackeray very nearly
as wicked, sophistical, and immoral as the French novels. Even her
dislike for children was probably due to the same irremediable
misfortune; for the humors of children are the only redeeming points
amid their general naughtiness, and vexing misbehavior. Mr.
Swinburne, guiltless himself of any jocose tendencies, has made the
unique discovery that Charlotte Brontë strongly resembles
Cervantes, and that Paul Emanuel is a modern counterpart of Don
Quixote; and well it is for our poet that the irascible little professor
never heard him hint at such a similarity. Surely, to use one of Mr.
Swinburne’s own incomparable expressions, the parallel is no better
than a “subsimious absurdity.”
On the other hand, we are told that Miss Austen owed her lively
sense of humor to her habit of dissociating the follies of mankind
from any rigid standard of right and wrong; which means, I suppose,
that she never dreamed she had a mission. Nowadays, indeed, no
writer is without one. We cannot even read a paper upon gypsies,
and not become aware that its author is deeply imbued with a sense
of his personal responsibility for these agreeable rascals, whom he
insists upon our taking seriously,—as if we wanted to have anything
to do with them on such terms! “Since the time of Carlyle,” says Mr.
Bagehot, “earnestness has been a favorite virtue in literature;” but
Carlyle, though sharing largely in that profound melancholy which he
declared to be the basis of every English soul, and though he was
unfortunate enough to think Pickwick sad trash, had nevertheless a
grim and eloquent humor of his own. With him, at least, earnestness
never degenerated into dullness; and while dullness may be, as he
unhesitatingly affirmed, the first requisite for a great and free
people, yet a too heavy percentage of this valuable quality is fatal to
the sprightly grace of literature. “In our times,” said an old
Scotchwoman, “there’s fully mony modern principles,” and the first
of these seems to be the substitution of a serious and critical
discernment for the light-hearted sympathy of former days. Our
grandfathers cried a little and laughed a good deal over their books,
without the smallest sense of anxiety or responsibility in the matter;
but we are called on repeatedly to face problems which we would
rather let alone, to dive dismally into motives, to trace subtle
connections, to analyze uncomfortable sensations, and to exercise in
all cases a discreet and conscientious severity, when what we really
want and need is half an hour’s amusement. There is no stronger
proof of the great change that has swept over mankind than the
sight of a nation which used to chuckle over “Tom Jones” absorbing
a few years ago countless editions of “Robert Elsmere.” What is
droller still is that the people who read “Robert Elsmere” would think
it wrong to enjoy “Tom Jones,” and that the people who enjoyed
“Tom Jones” would have thought it wrong to read “Robert Elsmere;”
and that the people who, wishing to be on the safe side of virtue,
think it wrong to read either, are scorned greatly as lacking true
moral discrimination.
Now he would be a brave man who would undertake to defend
the utterly indefensible literature of the past. Where it was most
humorous it was also most coarse, wanton, and cruel; but, in
banishing these objectionable qualities, we have effectually contrived
to rid ourselves of the humor as well, and with it we have lost one of
the safest instincts of our souls. Any book which serves to lower the
sum of human gayety is a moral delinquent; and instead of coddling
it into universal notice, and growing owlish in its gloom, we should
put it briskly aside in favor of brighter and pleasanter things. When
Father Faber said that there was no greater help to a religious life
than a keen sense of the ridiculous, he startled a number of pious
people, yet what a luminous and cordial message it was to help us
on our way! Mr. Birrell has recorded the extraordinary delight with
which he came across some after-dinner sally of the Rev. Henry
Martyn’s; for the very thought of that ardent and fiery spirit relaxing
into pleasantries over the nuts and wine made him appear like an
actual fellow-being of our own. It is with the same feeling
intensified, as I have already noted, that we read some of the letters
of the early fathers,—those grave and hallowed figures seen through
a mist of centuries,—and find them jesting at one another in the
gayest and least sacerdotal manner imaginable. “Who could tell a
story with more wit, who could joke so pleasantly?” sighs St.
Gregory of Nazienzen of his friend St. Basil, remembering doubtless
with a heavy heart the shafts of good-humored raillery that had
brightened their lifelong intercourse. With what kindly and loving
zest does Gregory, himself the most austere of men, mock at Basil’s
asceticism,—at those “sad and hungry banquets” of which he was
invited to partake, those “ungarden-like gardens, void of pot-herbs,”
in which he was expected to dig! With what delightful alacrity does
Basil vindicate his reputation for humor by making a most excellent
joke in court, for the benefit of a brutal magistrate who fiercely
threatened to tear out his liver! “Your intention is a benevolent one,”
said the saint, who had been for years a confirmed invalid. “Where it
is now located, it has given me nothing but trouble.” Surely, as we
read such an anecdote as this, we share in the curious sensation
experienced by little Tom Tulliver, when, by dint of Maggie’s repeated
questions, he began slowly to understand that the Romans had once
been real men, who were happy enough to speak their own
language without any previous introduction to the Eton grammar. In
like manner, when we come to realize that the fathers of the
primitive Church enjoyed their quips and cranks and jests as much
as do Mr. Trollope’s jolly deans or vicars, we feel we have at last
grasped the secret of their identity, and we appreciate the force of
Father Faber’s appeal to the frank spirit of a wholesome mirth.
Perhaps one reason for the scanty tolerance that humor receives
at the hands of the disaffected is because of the rather selfish way in
which the initiated enjoy their fun; for there is always a secret
irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join. Mr. George
Saintsbury is plainly of this way of thinking, and, being blessed
beyond his fellows with a love for all that is jovial, he speaks from
out of the richness of his experience. “Those who have a sense of
humor,” he says, “instead of being quietly and humbly thankful, are
perhaps a little too apt to celebrate their joy in the face of the
afflicted ones who have it not; and the afflicted ones only follow a
general law in protesting that it is a very worthless thing, if not a
complete humbug.” This spirit of exclusiveness on the one side and
of irascibility on the other may be greatly deplored, but who is there
among us, I wonder, wholly innocent of blame? Mr. Saintsbury
himself confesses to a silent chuckle of delight when he thinks of the
dimly veiled censoriousness with which Peacock’s inimitable humor
has been received by one half of the reading world. In other words,
his enjoyment of the Rev. Drs. Folliott and Opimian is sensibly
increased by the reflection that a great many worthy people, even
among his own acquaintances, are, by some mysterious law of their
being, debarred from any share in his pleasure. Yet surely we need
not be so niggardly in this matter. There is wit enough in those two
reverend gentlemen to go all around the living earth, and leave
plenty for generations now unborn. Each might say with Juliet,—
“The more I give to thee,
The more I have;”

for wit is as infinite as love, and a deal more lasting in its qualities.
When Peacock describes a country gentleman’s range of ideas as
“nearly commensurate with that of the great king Nebuchadnezzar
when he was turned out to grass,” he affords us a happy illustration
of the eternal fitness of humor, for there can hardly come a time
when such an apt comparison will fail to point its meaning.
Mr. Birrell is quite as selfish in his felicity as Mr. Saintsbury, and
perfectly frank in acknowledging it. He dwells rapturously over
certain well-loved pages of “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Mansfield
Park,” and then deliberately adds, “When an admirer of Miss Austen
reads these familiar passages, the smile of satisfaction, betraying the
deep inward peace they never fail to beget, widens, like ‘a circle in
the water,’ as he remembers (and he is always careful to remember)
how his dearest friend, who has been so successful in life, can no
more read Miss Austen than he can read the Moabitish Stone.” The
same peculiarity is noticeable in the more ardent lovers of Charles
Lamb. They seem to want him all to themselves, look askance upon
any fellow-being who ventures to assert a modest preference for
their idol, and brighten visibly when some ponderous critic declares
the Letters to be sad stuff, and not worth half the exasperating
nonsense talked about them. Yet Lamb flung his good things to the
winds with characteristic prodigality, little recking by whom or in
what spirit they were received. How many witticisms, I wonder, were
roared into the deaf ears of old Thomas Westwood, who heard them
not, alas, but who laughed all the same, out of pure sociability, and
with a pleasant sense that something funny had been said! And
what of that ill-fated pun which Lamb, in a moment of deplorable
abstraction, let fall at a funeral, to the surprise and consternation of
the mourners? Surely a man who could joke at a funeral never
meant his pleasantries to be hoarded up for the benefit of an
initiated few, but would gladly see them the property of all living
men; ay, and of all dead men, too, were such a distribution possible.
“Damn the age! I will write for antiquity!” he exclaimed, with not
unnatural heat, when the “Gypsy’s Malison” was rejected by the
ingenious editors of the “Gem,” on the ground that it would “shock
all mothers;” and even this expression, uttered with pardonable
irritation, manifests no solicitude for a narrow and esoteric audience.
“Wit is useful for everything, but sufficient for nothing,” says
Amiel, who probably felt he needed some excuse for burying so
much of his Gallic sprightliness in Teutonic gloom; and dullness, it
must be admitted, has the distinct advantage of being useful for
everybody, and sufficient for nearly everybody as well. Nothing, we
are told, is more rational than ennui; and Mr. Bagehot,
contemplating the “grave files of speechless men” who have always
represented the English land, exults more openly and energetically
even than Carlyle in the saving dullness, the superb impenetrability,
which stamps the Englishman, as it stamped the Roman, with the
sign-manual of patient strength. Stupidity, he reminds us, is not folly,
and moreover it often insures a valuable consistency. “‘What I says
is this here, as I was a-saying yesterday,’ is the average Englishman’s
notion of historical eloquence and habitual discretion.” But Mr.
Bagehot could well afford to trifle thus coyly with dullness, because
he knew it only theoretically and as a dispassionate observer. His
own roof-tree is free from the blighting presence; his own pages are
guiltless of the leaden touch. It has been well said that an ordinary
mortal might live for a twelvemonth like a gentleman on Hazlitt’s
ideas; but he might, if he were clever, shine all his life long with the
reflected splendor of Mr. Bagehot’s wit, and be thought to give forth
a very respectable illumination. There is a telling quality in every
stroke; a pitiless dexterity that drives the weapon, like a fairy’s
arrow, straight to some vital point. When we read that “of all
pursuits ever invented by man for separating the faculty of argument
from the capacity of belief, the art of debating is probably the most
effective,” we feel that an unwelcome statement has been expressed
with Mephistophelian coolness; and remembering that these words
were uttered before Mr. Gladstone had attained his parliamentary
preëminence, we have but another proof of the imperishable
accuracy of wit. Only say a clever thing, and mankind will go on
forever furnishing living illustrations of its truth. It was Thurlow who
originally remarked that “companies have neither bodies to kick nor
souls to lose,” and the jest fits in so aptly with our every-day humors
and experiences that I have heard men attribute it casually to their
friends, thinking, perhaps, that it must have been born in these
times of giant corporations, of city railroads, and of trusts. What a
gap between Queen Victoria and Queen Bess, what a thorough and
far-reaching change in everything that goes to make up the life and
habits of men; and yet Shakespeare’s fine strokes of humor have
become so fitted to our common speech that the very
unconsciousness with which we apply them proves how they tally
with our modern emotions and opportunities. Lesser lights burn
quite as steadily. Pope and Goldsmith reappear on the lips of people
whose knowledge of the “Essay on Man” is of the very haziest
character, and whose acquaintance with “She Stoops to Conquer” is
confined exclusively to Mr. Abbey’s graceful illustrations. Not very
long ago I heard a bright school-girl, when reproached for wet feet
or some such youthful indiscretion, excuse herself gayly on the plea
that she was “bullying Nature;” and, knowing that the child was but
modestly addicted to her books, I wondered how many of Dr.
Holmes’s trenchant sayings have become a heritage in our
households, detached often from their original kinship, and seeming
like the rightful property of every one who utters them. It is an
amusing, barefaced, witless sort of robbery, yet surely not without
its compensations; for it must be a pleasant thing to reflect in old
age that the general murkiness of life has been lit up here and there
by sparks struck from one’s youthful fire, and that these sparks,
though they wander occasionally masterless as will-o’-the-wisps, are
destined never to go out.
Are destined never to go out! In its vitality lies the supreme
excellence of humor. Whatever has “wit enough to keep it sweet”
defies corruption and outlasts all time; but the wit must be of that
outward and visible order which needs no introduction or
demonstration at our hands. It is an old trick with dull novelists to
describe their characters as being exceptionally brilliant people, and
to trust that we will take their word for it, and ask no further proof.
Every one remembers how Lord Beaconsfield would tell us that a
cardinal could “sparkle with anecdote and blaze with repartee;” and
how utterly destitute of sparkle or blaze were the specimens of his
eminence’s conversation with which we were subsequently favored.
Those “lively dinners” in “Endymion” and “Lothair,” at which we were
assured the brightest minds in England loved to gather, became
mere Barmecide feasts when reported to us without a single
amusing remark; such waifs and strays of conversation as reached
our ears being of the dreariest and most fatuous description. It is
not so with the real masters of their craft. Mr. Peacock does not stop
to explain to us that Dr. Folliott is witty. The reverend gentleman
opens his mouth and acquaints us with the fact himself. There is no
need for George Eliot to expatiate on Mrs. Poyser’s humor. Five
minutes of that lady’s society is amply sufficient for the revelation.
We do not even hear Mr. Poyser and the rest of the family enlarging
delightedly on the subject, as do all of Lawyer Putney’s friends, in
Mr. Howells’s story, “Annie Kilburn;” and yet even the united
testimony of Hatboro’ fails to clear up our lingering doubts
concerning Mr. Putney’s wit. The dull people of that soporific town
are really and truly and realistically dull. There is no mistaking them.
The stamp of veracity is upon every brow. They pay morning calls,
and we listen to their conversation with a dreamy impression that
we have heard it all many times before, and that the ghosts of our
own morning calls are revisiting us, not in the glimpses of the moon,
but in Mr. Howells’s decorous and quiet pages. That curious
conviction that we have formerly passed through a precisely similar
experience is strong upon us as we read, and it is the most emphatic
testimony to the novelist’s peculiar skill. But there is none of this
instantaneous acquiescence in Mr. Putney’s wit; for although he does
make one very nice little joke, it is hardly enough to flavor all his
conversation, which is for the most part rather unwholesome than
humorous. The only way to elucidate him is to suppose that Mr.
Howells, in sardonic mood, wishes to show us that if a man be
discreet enough to take to hard drinking in his youth, before his
general emptiness is ascertained, his friends invariably credit him
with a host of shining qualities which, we are given to understand,
lie balked and frustrated by his one unfortunate weakness. How
many of us know these exceptionally brilliant lawyers, doctors,
politicians, and journalists, who bear a charmed reputation, based
exclusively upon their inebriety, and who take good care not to
imperil it by too long a relapse into the mortifying self-revelations of
soberness! And what wrong has been done to the honored name of
humor by these pretentious rascals! We do not love Falstaff because
he is drunk; we do not admire Becky Sharp because she is wicked.
Drunkenness and wickedness are things easy of imitation; yet all the
sack in Christendom could not beget us another Falstaff,—though
Seithenyn ap Seithyn comes very near to the incomparable model,—
and all the wickedness in the world could not fashion us a second
Becky Sharp. There are too many dull topers and stupid sinners
among mankind to admit of any uncertainty on those points.
 Bishop Burnet, in describing Lord Halifax, tells us, with thinly
veiled disapprobation, that he was “a man of fine and ready wit, full
of life, and very pleasant, but much turned to satire. His imagination
was too hard for his judgment, and a severe jest took more with him
than all arguments whatever.” Yet this was the first statesman of his
age, and one whose clear and tranquil vision penetrated so far
beyond the turbulent, troubled times he lived in, that men looked
askance upon a power they but dimly understood. The sturdy
“Trimmer,” who would be bullied neither by king nor commons, who
would “speak his mind and not be hanged as long as there was law
in England,” must have turned with infinite relief from the horrible
medley of plots and counterplots, from the ugly images of Oates and
Dangerfield, from the scaffolds of Stafford and Russell and Sidney,
from the Bloody Circuit and the massacre of Glencoe, from the false
smiles of princes and the howling arrogance of the mob, to any jest,
however “severe,” which would restore to him his cold and fastidious
serenity, and keep his judgment and his good temper unimpaired.
“Ridicule is the test of truth,” said Hazlitt, and it is a test which
Halifax remorselessly applied, and which would not be without its
uses to the Trimmer of to-day, in whom this adjusting sense is
lamentably lacking. For humor distorts nothing, and only false gods
are laughed off their earthly pedestals. What monstrous absurdities
and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments,
and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of
a laugh! What healthy exultation, what genial warmth, what loyal
brotherhood of mirth, attends the friendly sound! Yet in labeling our
life and literature, as the Danes labeled their Royal Theatre in
Copenhagen, “Not for amusement merely,” we have pushed one step
further, and the legend too often stands, “Not for amusement at all.”
Life is no laughing matter, we are told, which is true; and, what is
still more dismal to contemplate, books are no laughing matters,
either. Only now and then some gay, defiant rebel, like Mr.
Saintsbury, flaunts the old flag, hums a bar of “Blue Bonnets over
the Border,” and ruffles the quiet waters of our souls by hinting that
this age of Apollinaris and of lectures is at fault, and that it has
produced nothing which can vie as literature with the products of the
ages of wine and song.
 ENGLISH LOVE-SONGS.
In a fair and far-off country, hidden to none, though visited by
few, dwell a little band of lovely ladies, to whose youth and radiance
the poets have added the crowning gift of immortality. There they
live, with faint alluring smiles that never fade; and at their head is
Helen of Troy, white-bosomed, azure-eyed, to whom men forgave all
things for her beauty’s sake. There, too, is Lesbia, fair and false,
laughing at a broken heart, but holding close and tenderly the dead
sparrow
“That, living, never strayed from her sweet breast.”

She kisses its ruffled wings and weeps, she who had no tears to
spare when Catullus sung and sued. And there is Myrto, beloved by
Theocritus, her naked feet gleaming like pearls, a bunch of Coan
rushes pressed in her rosy fingers; and the nameless girl who held in
check Anacreon’s wandering heart with the magic of dimples, and
parted lips, and thin purple floating garments. With these are later
beauties: Fiammetta the ruddy-haired, whom death snatched from
Boccaccio’s arms, and the gentle Catarina, raising those heavy-lidded
eyes that Camoens loved and lost; Petrarch’s Laura, robed in pale
green spotted with violets, one golden curl escaping wantonly
beneath her veil; the fair blue-stocking, Leonora d’Este, pale as a
rain-washed rose, her dress in sweet disorder; and Beatrice, with the
stillness of eternity in her brooding eyes. If we listen, we hear the
shrill laughter of Mignonne, a child of fifteen summers, mocking at
Ronsard’s wooing; or we catch the gentler murmur of Highland
Mary’s song. She blushes a little, the low-born lass, and sinks her
graceful head, as though abashed by the fame her peasant lover
brought her. Barefooted, yellow-haired, she passes swiftly by; and
with her, hand in hand, walks Scotland’s queen, sad Jane Beaufort,
“the fairest younge floure” that ever won the heart of royal captive
and suffered the martyrdom of love. England sends to that far land
Stella, with eyes like stars, and a veil of gossamer hiding her delicate
beauty, and Celia, and false Lucasta, and Castara, tantalizingly
discreet, in whose dimples Cupid is fain to linger sighing, exiled,
poor frozen god, from the
“Chaste nunnery of her breasts.”

Sacharissa, too, stands near, with a shade of listlessness in her

sweet eyes, as though she wearied a little of Master Waller’s courtly
strains. A withered rose droops from her white fingers, preaching its
mute sermon, and preaching it all in vain; for rose and lady live
forever, linked to each other’s fame. And by her side, casting her
fragile loveliness in the shade, is one of different mould, a
sumptuous, smiling woman, on whom Sacharissa’s blue eyes fall
with a soft disdain. We know this indolent beauty by the brave
vibration of her tempestuous silken robe, by the ruby carcanet that
clasps her throat, the rainbow ribbon around her slender waist, the
jewels wedged knuckle-deep on every tapering finger, and even—oh,
vanity of vanities!—on one small rosy thumb. We know her by the
scented beads upon her arm, and by the sweet and subtle odors of
storax and spikenard and galbanum that breathe softly forth from
her brocaded bodice, and from her hair’s dark meshes caught in a
golden net. It is she to whom the glow-worms lent their eyes, and
the elves their wings, and the stars their shooting fires, as she
wandered through the dewy woods to meet her lover’s steps. It is
Herrick’s Julia whom we see so clearly through the mist of centuries,
that cannot veil nor dim the brightness of her presence.
To ask how many of these fair dames have gone through the
formality of living, and how many exist only by the might of a poet’s
breath, is but a thankless question. All share alike in that true being
which may not be blown out like the flame of a taper; in that true
entity which Cæsar and Hamlet hold in common, and which reveals
them side by side. Mr. Gosse, for example, assures us that Julia
really walked the earth, and even gives us some details of her
mundane pilgrimage; other critics smile, and shake their heads, and
doubt. It matters not; she lives, and she will continue to live when
we who dispute the matter lie voiceless in our graves. The essence
of her personality lingers on every page where Herrick sings of her.
His verse is heavy with her spicy perfumes, glittering with her many-
colored jewels, lustrous with the shimmer of her silken petticoats.
Her very shadow, he sighs, distills sweet odors on the air, and draws
him after her, faint with their amorous languor. How lavish she is
with her charms, this woman who neither thinks nor suffers; who
prays, indeed, sometimes, with great serenity, and dips her snowy
finger in the font of blessed water, but whose spiritual humors pale
before the calm vigor of her earthly nature! How kindly, how
tranquil, how unmoved, she is; listening with the same slow smile to
her lover’s fantastic word-play, to the fervid conceits with which he
beguiles the summer idleness, and to the frank and sudden passion
with which he conjures her, “dearest of thousands,” to close his eyes
when death shall summon him, to shed some true tears above the
sod, to clasp forever the book in which he writes her name! How
gently she would have fulfilled these last sad duties had the
discriminating fates called her to his bier; how fragrant the sighs she
would have wafted in that darkened chamber; how sincere the
temperate sorrow for a remediable loss! And then, out into the
glowing sunlight, where life is sweet, and the world exults, and the
warm blood tingles in our veins, and, underneath the scattered
primrose blossoms, the frozen dead lie forgotten in their graves.
What gives to the old love-songs their peculiar felicity, their
undecaying brightness, is this constant sounding of a personal note;
this artless candor with which we are taken by the hand and led
straight into the lady’s presence, are bidden to admire her beauty
and her wit, are freely reminded of her faults and her caprices, and
are taught, with many a sigh and tear, and laughter bubbling
throughout all, what a delicious and unprofitable pastime is the love-
making of a poet.
 “I lose but what was never mine,”

sings Carew with gay philosophy, contemplating the perfidious

withdrawal of Celia’s kindness; and after worshiping hotly at her
shrine, and calling on all the winds of heaven to witness his desires,
he accepts his defeat with undimmed brow, and with melodious
frankness returns the false one her disdain:—

“No tears, Celia, now shall win

My resolved heart to return;
I have searched thy soul within,
And find naught but pride and scorn.
I have learned thy arts, and now
Can disdain as much as thou.”

From which heroic altitude we see him presently descending to

protest with smiling lips that love shall part with his arrows and the
doves of Venus with their pretty wings, that the sun shall fade and
the stars fall blinking from the skies, that heaven shall lose its
delights and hell its torments, that the very fish shall burn in the cool
waters of the ocean, if he forsakes or neglects his Celia’s embraces.
It was Carew, indeed, who first sounded these “courtly amorous
strains” throughout the English land; who first taught his fellow-
poets that to sing of love was not the occasional pastime, but the
serious occupation of their lives. Yet what an easy, indolent suitor he
is! What lazy raptures over Celia’s eyes and lips! What finely poised
compliments, delicate as rose leaves, and well fitted for the
inconstant beauty who listened, with faint blushes and transient
interest, to the song! “He loved wine and roses,” says Mr. Gosse,
“and fair florid women, to whom he could indite joyous or pensive
poems about their comeliness, adoring it while it lasted, regretting it
when it faded. He has not the same intimate love of detail as
Herrick; we miss in his poetry those realistic touches that give such
wonderful freshness to the verses of the younger poet; but the habit
of the two men’s minds was very similar. Both were pagans, and
given up to an innocent hedonism; neither was concerned with
much beyond the eternal commonplaces of bodily existence, the
attraction of beauty, the mutability of life, the brevity and sweetness
of enjoyment.”
These things are quite enough, however, to make exceedingly
good poets, Mrs. Browning to the contrary, notwithstanding. “I never
mistook pleasure for the final cause of poetry, nor leisure for the
hour of the poet,” wrote the authoress of “Aurora Leigh,” and we
quail before the deadly earnestness of the avowal. But pleasure and
leisure between them have begotten work far more complete and
artistic than anything Mrs. Browning ever gave to an admiring world.
Pleasure and leisure are responsible for “L’Allegro” and “Il
Penseroso,” for “Kubla Khan” and “The Eve of St. Agnes,” for “Tam
O’Shanter,” and “A Dream of Fair Women,” and “The Bells.” There is
so much talk about Herrick’s paganism that it has become one of the
things we credit without inquiry; shrugging our shoulders over
Corinna and her May blossoms, and passing by that devout prayer of
thanksgiving for the simple blessings of life, for the loaf and the cup,
the winter hearthstone and the summer sun. There is such a widely
diffused belief in the necessity for a serious and urgent motive in art
that we have grown to think less of the outward construction of a
poem than of the dominant impulse which evoked it. Mrs. Browning,
with all her noble idealism and her profound sense of responsibility,
was most depressingly indifferent about form, and was quite a law
to herself in the matter of rhymes. Carew, whose avowed object was
to flatter Celia and Celia’s fair rivals, proved himself “enamored of
perfection,” and wrought with infinite care and delicacy upon his
fragile little verses. If he only played at love-making, he was serious
enough as a poet; and, amid the careless exuberance of his time, he
came to be regarded, like Flaubert some generations later, as a
veritable martyr to style. He brought forth his lyrical children,
complained Sir John Suckling, with trouble and pain, instead of with
that light-hearted spontaneity which distinguished his
contemporaries, and which made their poetry so deliciously easy to
write, and so generally unprofitable to read. Suckling himself, and
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