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diff --git a/old/5319-8.txt b/old/5319-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12e04c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/5319-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2290 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan Papers, by Kenneth Grahame + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pagan Papers + +Author: Kenneth Grahame + +Posting Date: March 20, 2014 [EBook #5319] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: June 30, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by William McClain + + + + + + + + + +Pagan Papers was first published in 1893 and the text is in the public +domain. This is a reprint of the first American edition of 1898. The +transcription was done by William McClain <info@sattre-press.com>, +2002. + +A printed version of this book is available from Sattre Press, +http://pagan_papers.sattre-press.com/. It includes a glossary of +French and Latin phrases. + + + + +PAGAN PAPERS + +by Kenneth Grahame + + + +The Romance of the Road + +Among the many places of magic visited by Pantagruel and his company +during the progress of their famous voyage, few surpass that island +whose roads did literally "go" to places -- "ou les chemins +cheminent, comme animaulx": and would-be travellers, having inquired +of the road as to its destination, and received satisfactory reply, +"se guindans" (as the old book hath it -- hoisting themselves up on) +"au chemin opportun, sans aultrement se poiner ou fatiguer, se +trouvoyent au lieu destiné." + +The best example I know of an approach to this excellent sort of +vitality in roads is the Ridgeway of the North Berkshire Downs. Join +it at Streatley, the point where it crosses the Thames; at once it +strikes you out and away from the habitable world in a splendid, +purposeful manner, running along the highest ridge of the Downs a +broad green ribbon of turf, with but a shade of difference from the +neighbouring grass, yet distinct for all that. No villages nor +homesteads tempt it aside or modify its course for a yard; should you +lose the track where it is blent with the bordering turf or merged in +and obliterated by criss-cross paths, you have only to walk straight +on, taking heed of no alternative to right or left; and in a minute +'tis with you again -- arisen out of the earth as it were. Or, if +still not quite assured, lift you your eyes, and there it runs over +the brow of the fronting hill. Where a railway crosses it, it +disappears indeed -- hiding Alpheus-like, from the ignominy of rubble +and brick-work; but a little way on it takes up the running again with +the same quiet persistence. Out on that almost trackless expanse of +billowy Downs such a track is in some sort humanly companionable: it +really seems to lead you by the hand. + +The "Rudge" is of course an exceptional instance; but indeed this +pleasant personality in roads is not entirely fanciful. It exists as a +characteristic of the old country road, evolved out of the primitive +prehistoric track, developing according to the needs of the land it +passes through and serves: with a language, accordingly, and a meaning +of its own. Its special services are often told clearly enough; but +much else too of the quiet story of the country-side: something of the +old tale whereof you learn so little from the printed page. Each is +instinct, perhaps, with a separate suggestion. Some are martial and +historic, and by your side the hurrying feet of the dead raise a +ghostly dust. The name of yon town -- with its Roman or Saxon suffix +to British root -- hints at much. Many a strong man, wanting his vates +sacer, passed silently to Hades for that suffix to obtain. The little +rise up yonder on the Downs that breaks their straight green line +against the sky showed another sight when the sea of battle surged and +beat on its trampled sides; and the Roman, sore beset, may have gazed +down this very road for relief, praying for night or the succouring +legion. This child that swings on a gate and peeps at you from under +her sun-bonnet -- so may some girl-ancestress of hers have watched +with beating heart the Wessex levies hurry along to clash with the +heathen and break them on the down where the ash trees grew. And +yonder, where the road swings round under gloomy overgrowth of +drooping boughs -- is that gleam of water or glitter of lurking +spears? + +Some sing you pastorals, fluting low in the hot sun between dusty +hedges overlooked by contented cows; past farmsteads where man and +beast, living in frank fellowship, learn pleasant and serviceable +lessons each of the other; over the full-fed river, lipping the +meadow-sweet, and thence on either side through leagues of hay. Or +through bending corn they chant the mystical wonderful song of the +reaper when the harvest is white to the sickle. But most of them, +avoiding classification, keep each his several tender significance; as +with one I know, not so far from town, which woos you from the valley +by gentle ascent between nut-laden hedges, and ever by some touch of +keen fragrance in the air, by some mystery of added softness under +foot -- ever a promise of something to come, unguessed, delighting. +Till suddenly you are among the pines, their keen scent strikes you +through and through, their needles carpet the ground, and in their +swaying tops moans the unappeasable wind -- sad, ceaseless, as the cry +of a warped humanity. Some paces more, and the promise is fulfilled, +the hints and whisperings become fruition: the ground breaks steeply +away, and you look over a great inland sea of fields, homesteads, +rolling woodland, and -- bounding all, blent with the horizon, a +greyness, a gleam -- the English Channel. A road of promises, of +hinted surprises, following each other with the inevitable sequence in +a melody. + +But we are now in another and stricter sense an island of chemins qui +cheminent: dominated, indeed, by them. By these the traveller, +veritably se guindans, may reach his destination "sans se poiner ou +se fatiguer" (with large qualifications); but sans very much else +whereof he were none the worse. The gain seems so obvious that you +forget to miss all that lay between the springing stride of the early +start and the pleasant weariness of the end approached, when the limbs +lag a little as the lights of your destination begin to glimmer +through the dusk. All that lay between! "A Day's Ride a Life's +Romance" was the excellent title of an unsuccessful book; and indeed +the journey should march with the day, beginning and ending with its +sun, to be the complete thing, the golden round, required of it. This +makes that mind and body fare together, hand in hand, sharing the +hope, the action, the fruition; finding equal sweetness in the languor +of aching limbs at eve and in the first god-like intoxication of +motion with braced muscle in the sun. For walk or ride take the mind +over greater distances than a throbbing whirl with stiffening joints +and cramped limbs through a dozen counties. Surely you seem to cover +vaster spaces with Lavengro, footing it with gipsies or driving his +tinker's cart across lonely commons, than with many a globe-trotter or +steam-yachtsman with diary or log? And even that dividing line -- +strictly marked and rarely overstepped -- between the man who bicycles +and the man who walks, is less due to a prudent regard for personal +safety of the one part than to an essential difference in minds. + +There is a certain supernal, a deific, state of mind which may indeed +be experienced in a minor degree, by any one, in the siesta part of a +Turkish bath. But this particular golden glow of the faculties is only +felt at its fulness after severe and prolonged exertion in the open +air. "A man ought to be seen by the gods," says Marcus Aurelius, +"neither dissatisfied with anything, nor complaining." Though this +does not sound at first hearing an excessive demand to make of +humanity, yet the gods, I fancy, look long and often for such a sight +in these unblest days of hurry. If ever seen at all, 'tis when after +many a mile in sun and wind -- maybe rain -- you reach at last, with +the folding star, your destined rustic inn. There, in its homely, +comfortable strangeness, after unnumbered chops with country ale, the +hard facts of life begin to swim in a golden mist. You are isled from +accustomed cares and worries -- you are set in a peculiar nook of +rest. Then old failures seem partial successes, then old loves come +back in their fairest form, but this time with never a shadow of +regret, then old jokes renew their youth and flavour. You ask nothing +of the gods above, nothing of men below -- not even their company. +To-morrow you shall begin life again: shall write your book, make your +fortune, do anything; meanwhile you sit, and the jolly world swings +round, and you seem to hear it circle to the music of the spheres. +What pipe was ever thus beatifying in effect? You are aching all over, +and enjoying it; and the scent of the limes drifts in through the +window. This is undoubtedly the best and greatest country in the +world; and none but good fellows abide in it. + + Laud we the Gods, + And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils + From our blest altars. + +The Romance of the Rail + +In these iron days of the dominance of steam, the crowning wrong that +is wrought us of furnace and piston-rod lies in their annihilation of +the steadfast mystery of the horizon, so that the imagination no +longer begins to work at the point where vision ceases. In happier +times, three hundred years ago, the seafarers from Bristol City looked +out from the prows of their vessels in the grey of the morning, and +wot not rightly whether the land they saw might be Jerusalem or +Madagascar, or if it were not North and South America. "And there be +certaine flitting islands," says one, "which have been oftentimes +seene, and when men approached near them they vanished." "It may be +that the gulfs will wash us down," said Ulysses (thinking of what +Americans call the "getting-off place"); "it may be we shall touch +the Happy Isles." And so on, and so on; each with his special hope or +"wild surmise." There was always a chance of touching the Happy +Isles. And in that first fair world whose men and manners we knew +through story-books, before experience taught us far other, the Prince +mounts his horse one fine morning, and rides all day, and sleeps in a +forest; and next morning, lo! a new country: and he rides by fields +and granges never visited before, through faces strange to him, to +where an unknown King steps down to welcome the mysterious stranger. +And he marries the Princess, and dwells content for many a year; till +one day he thinks "I will look upon my father's face again, though +the leagues be long to my own land." And he rides all day, and sleeps +in a forest; and next morning he is made welcome at home, where his +name has become a dim memory. Which is all as it should be; for, +annihilate time and space as you may, a man's stride remains the true +standard of distance; an eternal and unalterable scale. The severe +horizon, too, repels the thoughts as you gaze to the infinite +considerations that lie about, within touch and hail; and the night +cometh, when no man can work. + +To all these natural bounds and limitations it is good to get back now +and again, from a life assisted and smooth by artificialities. Where +iron has superseded muscle, the kindly life-blood is apt to throb dull +as the measured beat of the steam-engine. But the getting back to them +is now a matter of effort, of set purpose, a stepping aside out of our +ordinary course; they are no longer unsought influences towards the +making of character. So perhaps the time of them has gone by, here in +this second generation of steam. Pereunt et imputantur; they pass +away, and are scored against not us but our guilty fathers. For +ourselves, our peculiar slate is probably filling fast. The romance of +the steam-engine is yet to be captured and expressed -- not fully nor +worthily, perhaps, until it too is a vanished regret; though Emerson +for one will not have it so, and maintains and justifies its right to +immediate recognition as poetic material. "For as it is dislocation +and detachment from the life of God that makes things ugly, the poet, +who re-attaches things to Nature and the whole -- re-attaching even +artificial things and violations of Nature to Nature by a deeper +insight -- disposes very easily of the most disagreeable facts"; so +that he looks upon "the factory village and the railway" and "sees +them fall within the great Order not less than the bee-hive or the +spider's geometrical web." The poet, however, seems hard to convince +hereof. Emerson will have it that "Nature loves the gliding train of +cars"; "instead of which" the poet still goes about the country +singing purling brooks. Painters have been more flexible and liberal. +Turner saw and did his best to seize the spirit of the thing, its +kinship with the elements, and to blend furnace-glare and rush of iron +with the storm-shower, the wind and the thwart-flashing sun-rays, and +to make the whole a single expression of irresoluble force. And even +in a certain work by another and a very different painter -- though I +willingly acquit Mr Frith of any deliberate romantic intention -- you +shall find the element of romance in the vestiges of the old order +still lingering in the first transition period: the coach-shaped +railway carriages with luggage piled and corded on top, the red-coated +guard, the little engine tethered well ahead as if between traces. To +those bred within sight of the sea, steamers will always partake in +somewhat of the "beauty and mystery of the ships"; above all, if +their happy childhood have lain among the gleaming lochs and sinuous +firths of the Western Highlands, where, twice a week maybe, the +strange visitant crept by headland and bay, a piece of the busy, +mysterious outer world. For myself, I probably stand alone in owning +to a sentimental weakness for the night-piercing whistle -- +judiciously remote, as some men love the skirl of the pipes. In the +days when streets were less wearily familiar than now, or ever the +golden cord was quite loosed that led back to relinquished fields and +wider skies, I have lain awake on stifling summer nights, thinking of +luckier friends by moor and stream, and listening for the whistles +from certain railway stations, veritable "horns of Elf-land, faintly +blowing." Then, a ghostly passenger, I have taken my seat in a +phantom train, and sped up, up, through the map, rehearsing the +journey bit by bit: through the furnace-lit Midlands, and on till the +grey glimmer of dawn showed stone walls in place of hedges, and masses +looming up on either side; till the bright sun shone upon brown +leaping streams and purple heather, and the clear, sharp northern air +streamed in through the windows. Return, indeed, was bitter; +Endymion-like, "my first touch of the earth went nigh to kill": but +it was only to hurry northwards again on the wings of imagination, +from dust and heat to the dear mountain air. "We are only the +children who might have been," murmured Lamb's dream babes to him; +and for the sake of those dream-journeys, the journeys that might have +been, I still hail with a certain affection the call of the engine in +the night: even as I love sometimes to turn the enchanted pages of the +railway a b c, and pass from one to the other name reminiscent or +suggestive of joy and freedom, Devonian maybe, or savouring of Wessex, +or bearing me away to some sequestered reach of the quiet Thames. + +Non Libri Sed Liberi + +It will never be clear to the lay mind why the book-buyer buys books. +That it is not to read them is certain: the closest inspection always +fails to find him thus engaged. He will talk about them -- all night +if you let him -- wave his hand to them, shake his fist at them, shed +tears over them (in the small hours of the morning); but he will not +read them. Yet it would be rash to infer that he buys his books +without a remote intention of ever reading them. Most book lovers +start with the honest resolution that some day they will "shut down +on" this fatal practice. Then they purpose to themselves to enter +into their charmed circle, and close the gates of Paradise behind +them. Then will they read out of nothing but first editions; every day +shall be a debauch in large paper and tall copies; and crushed morocco +shall be familiar to their touch as buckram. Meanwhile, though, books +continue to flaunt their venal charms; it would be cowardice to shun +the fray. In fine, one buys and continues to buy; and the promised +Sabbath never comes. + +The process of the purchase is always much the same, therein +resembling the familiar but inferior passion of love. There is the +first sight of the Object, accompanied of a catching of the breath, a +trembling in the limbs, loss of appetite, ungovernable desire, and a +habit of melancholy in secret places. But once possessed, once toyed +with amorously for an hour or two, the Object (as in the inferior +passion aforesaid) takes its destined place on the shelf -- where it +stays. And this saith the scoffer, is all; but even he does not fail +to remark with a certain awe that the owner goeth thereafter as one +possessing a happy secret and radiating an inner glow. Moreover, he is +insufferably conceited, and his conceit waxeth as his coat, now +condemned to a fresh term of servitude, groweth shabbier. And shabby +though his coat may be, yet will he never stoop to renew its pristine +youth and gloss by the price of any book. No man -- no human, +masculine, natural man -- ever sells a book. Men have been known in +moments of thoughtlessness, or compelled by temporary necessity, to +rob, to equivocate, to do murder, to commit what they should not, to +"wince and relent and refrain" from what they should: these things, +howbeit regrettable, are common to humanity, and may happen to any of +us. But amateur bookselling is foul and unnatural; and it is +noteworthy that our language, so capable of particularity, contains no +distinctive name for the crime. Fortunately it is hardly known to +exist: the face of the public being set against it as a flint -- and +the trade giving such wretched prices. + +In book-buying you not infrequently condone an extravagance by the +reflection that this particular purchase will be a good investment, +sordidly considered: that you are not squandering income but sinking +capital. But you know all the time that you are lying. Once possessed, +books develop a personality: they take on a touch of warm human life +that links them in a manner with our kith and kin. Non angli sed +Angeli was the comment of a missionary (old style) on the small human +duodecimos exposed for sale in the Roman market-place; and many a +buyer, when some fair-haired little chattel passed into his +possession, must have felt that here was something vendible no more. +So of these you may well affirm Non libri sed liberi; children now, +adopted into the circle, they shall be trafficked in never again. + +There is one exception which has sadly to be made -- one class of men, +of whom I would fain, if possible, have avoided mention, who are +strangers to any such scruples. These be Executors -- a word to be +strongly accented on the penultimate; for, indeed, they are the common +headsmen of collections, and most of all do whet their bloody edge for +harmless books. Hoary, famous old collections, budding young +collections, fair virgin collections of a single author -- all go down +before the executor's remorseless axe. He careth not and he spareth +not. "The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy," and it +is chiefly by the hand of the executor that she doth love to scatter +it. May oblivion be his portion for ever! + +Of a truth, the foes of the book-lover are not few. One of the most +insidious, because he cometh at first in friendly, helpful guise, is +the bookbinder. Not in that he bindeth books -- for the fair binding +is the final crown and flower of painful achievement -- but because he +bindeth not: because the weary weeks lapse by and turn to months, and +the months to years, and still the binder bindeth not: and the heart +grows sick with hope deferred. Each morn the maiden binds her hair, +each spring the honeysuckle binds the cottage-porch, each autumn the +harvester binds his sheaves, each winter the iron frost binds lake and +stream, and still the bookbinder he bindeth not. Then a secret voice +whispereth: "Arise, be a man, and slay him! Take him grossly, full of +bread, with all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; At gaming, +swearing, or about some act That hath no relish of salvation in it!" +But when the deed is done, and the floor strewn with fragments of +binder -- still the books remain unbound. You have made all that +horrid mess for nothing, and the weary path has to be trodden over +again. As a general rule, the man in the habit of murdering +bookbinders, though he performs a distinct service to society, only +wastes his own time and takes no personal advantage. + +And even supposing that after many days your books return to you in +leathern surcoats bravely tricked with gold, you have scarce yet +weathered the Cape and sailed into halcyon seas. For these books -- +well, you kept them many weeks before binding them, that the +oleaginous printer's-ink might fully dry before the necessary +hammering; you forbore to open the pages, that the autocratic binder +might refold the sheets if he pleased; and now that all is over -- +consummatum est -- still you cannot properly enjoy the harvest of a +quiet mind. For these purple emperors are not to be read in bed, nor +during meals, nor on the grass with a pipe on Sundays; and these brief +periods are all the whirling times allow you for solid serious +reading. Still, after all, you have them; you can at least pulverise +your friends with the sight; and what have they to show against them? +Probably some miserable score or so of half-bindings, such as lead you +scornfully to quote the hackneyed couplet concerning the poor Indian +whose untutored mind clothes him before but leaves him bare behind. +Let us thank the gods that such things are: that to some of us they +give not poverty nor riches but a few good books in whole bindings. +Dowered with these and (if it be vouchsafed) a cup of Burgundy that is +sound even if it be not old, we can leave to others the foaming grape +of Eastern France that was vintaged in '74, and with it the whole +range of shilling shockers, -- the Barmecidal feast of the purposeful +novelist -- yea, even the countless series that tell of Eminent Women +and Successful Men. + +Loafing + +When the golden Summer has rounded languidly to his close, when Autumn +has been carried forth in russet winding-sheet, then all good fellows +who look upon holidays as a chief end of life return from moor and +stream and begin to take stock of gains and losses. And the wisest, +realising that the time of action is over while that of reminiscence +has begun, realise too that the one is pregnant with greater pleasures +than the other -- that action, indeed, is only the means to an end of +reflection and appreciation. Wisest of all, the Loafer stands apart +supreme. For he, of one mind with the philosopher as to the end, goes +straight to it at once; and his happy summer has accordingly been +spent in those subjective pleasures of the mind whereof the others, +the men of muscle and peeled faces, are only just beginning to taste. + +And yet though he may a little despise (or rather pity) them, the +Loafer does not dislike nor altogether shun them. Far from it: they +are very necessary to him. For "Suave mari magno" is the motto of +your true Loafer; and it is chiefly by keeping ever in view the +struggles and the clamorous jostlings of the unenlightened making +holiday that he is able to realise the bliss of his own condition and +maintain his self-satisfaction at boiling-point. And so is he never +very far away from the track beaten by the hurrying Philistine hoof, +but hovers more or less on the edge of it, where, the sole fixed star +amidst whirling constellations, he may watch the mad world "glance, +and nod, and hurry by." + +There are many such centres of contemplation along the West Coast of +Scotland. Few places are better loafing-ground than a pier, with its +tranquil "lucid interval" between steamers, the ever recurrent throb +of paddle-wheel, the rush and foam of beaten water among the piles, +splash of ropes and rumble of gangways, and all the attendant hurry +and scurry of the human morrice. Here, tanquam in speculo, the Loafer +as he lounges may, by attorney as it were, touch gently every stop in +the great organ of the emotions of mortality. Rapture of meeting, +departing woe, love at first sight, disdain, laughter, indifference -- +he may experience them all, but attenuated and as if he saw them in a +dream; as if, indeed, he were Heine's god in dream on a mountain-side. +Let the drowsy deity awake and all these puppets, emanations of his +dream, will vanish into the nothing whence they came. And these +emotions may be renewed each morning; if a fair one sail to-day, be +sure that one as fair will land to-morrow. The supply is +inexhaustible. + +But in the South perhaps the happiest loafing-ground is the gift of +Father Thames; for there again the contrast of violent action, with +its blisters, perspiration, and the like, throws into fine relief the +bliss of "quietism." I know one little village in the upper reaches +where loafing may be pushed to high perfection. Here the early hours +of the morning are vexed by the voices of boaters making their way +down the little street to the river. The most of them go staggering +under hampers, bundles of waterproofs, and so forth. Their voices are +clamant of feats to be accomplished: they will row, they will punt, +they will paddle, till they weary out the sun. All this the Loafer +hears through the open door of his cottage, where in his shirt-sleeves +he is dallying with his bacon, as a gentleman should. He is the only +one who has had a comfortable breakfast -- and he knows it. Later he +will issue forth and stroll down in their track to the bridge. The +last of these Argonauts is pulling lustily forth; the river is dotted +with evanishing blazers. Upon all these lunatics a pitiless Phoebus +shines triumphant. The Loafer sees the last of them off the stage, +turns his back on it, and seeks the shady side of the street. + +A holy calm possesses the village now; the foreign element has passed +away with shouting and waving of banners, and its natural life of +somnolency is in evidence at last. And first, as a true Loafer should, +let him respectfully greet each several village dog. Arcades ambo -- +loafers likewise -- they lie there in the warm dust, each outside his +own door, ready to return the smallest courtesy. Their own lords and +masters are not given to the exchange of compliments nor to greetings +in the market-place. The dog is generally the better gentleman, and he +is aware of it; and he duly appreciates the loafer, who is not too +proud to pause a moment, change the news, and pass the time of day. He +will mark his sense of this attention by rising from his dust-divan +and accompanying his caller some steps on his way. But he will stop +short of his neighbour's dust-patch; for the morning is really too hot +for a shindy. So, by easy stages (the street is not a long one: six +dogs will see it out), the Loafer quits the village; and now the world +is before him. Shall he sit on a gate and smoke? or lie on the grass +and smoke? or smoke aimlessly and at large along the road? Such a +choice of happiness is distracting; but perhaps the last course is the +best -- as needing the least mental effort of selection. Hardly, +however, has he fairly started his first daydream when the snappish +"ting" of a bellkin recalls him to realities. By comes the +bicyclist: dusty, sweating, a piteous thing to look upon. But the +irritation of the strepitant metal has jarred the Loafer's always +exquisite nerves: he is fain to climb a gate and make his way towards +solitude and the breezy downs. + +Up here all vestiges of a sordid humanity disappear. The Loafer is +alone with the south-west wind and the blue sky. Only a carolling of +larks and a tinkling from distant flocks break the brooding noonday +stillness; above, the wind-hover hangs motionless, a black dot on the +blue. Prone on his back on the springy turf, gazing up into the sky, +his fleshy integument seems to drop away, and the spirit ranges at +will among the tranquil clouds. This way Nirvana nearest lies. Earth +no longer obtrudes herself; possibly somewhere a thousand miles or so +below him the thing still "spins like a fretful midge." The Loafer +knows not nor cares. His is now an astral body, and through golden +spaces of imagination his soul is winging her untrammelled flight. And +there he really might remain for ever, but that his vagrom spirit is +called back to earth by a gentle but resistless, very human summons, +-- a gradual, consuming, Pantagruelian, god-like, thirst: a thirst to +thank Heaven on. So, with a sigh half of regret, half of anticipation, +he bends his solitary steps towards the nearest inn. Tobacco for one +is good; to commune with oneself and be still is truest wisdom; but +beer is a thing of deity -- beer is divine. + +Later the Loafer may decently make some concession to popular taste by +strolling down to the river and getting out his boat. With one paddle +out he will drift down the stream: just brushing the flowering rush +and the meadow-sweet and taking in as peculiar gifts the varied sweets +of even. The loosestrife is his, and the arrow-head: his the distant +moan of the weir; his are the glories, amber and scarlet and silver, +of the sunset-haunted surface. By-and-by the boaters will pass him +homeward-bound. All are blistered and sore: his withers are unwrung. +Most are too tired and hungry to see the sunset glories; no corporeal +pangs clog his ćsthesis -- his perceptive faculty. Some have +quarrelled in the day and are no longer on speaking terms; he is at +peace with himself and with the whole world. Of all that lay them down +in the little village that night, his sleep will be the surest and the +sweetest. For not even the blacksmith himself will have better claim +to have earned a night's repose. + +Cheap Knowledge + +When at times it happens to me that I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, +and to find the fair apple of life dust and ashes at the core -- just +because, perhaps, I can't afford Melampus Brown's last volume of poems +in large paper, but must perforce condescend upon the two-and-sixpenny +edition for the million -- then I bring myself to a right temper by +recalling to memory a sight which now and again in old days would +touch the heart of me to a happier pulsation. In the long, dark winter +evenings, outside some shop window whose gaslight flared brightest +into the chilly street, I would see some lad -- sometimes even a girl +-- book in hand, heedless of cold and wet, of aching limbs and +straining eyes, careless of jostling passers-by, of rattle and turmoil +behind them and about, their happy spirits far in an enchanted world: +till the ruthless shopman turned out the gas and brought them rudely +back to the bitter reality of cramped legs and numbed fingers. "My +brother!" or "My sister!" I would cry inwardly, feeling the link +that bound us together. They possessed, for the hour, the two gifts +most precious to the student -- light and solitude: the true solitude +of the roaring street. + +Somehow this vision rarely greets me now. Probably the Free Libraries +have supplanted the flickering shop lights; and every lad and lass can +enter and call for Miss Braddon and batten thereon "in luxury's +sofa-lap of leather"; and of course this boon is appreciated and +profited by, and we shall see the divine results in a year or two. And +yet sometimes, like the dear old Baron in the "Red Lamp," "I +wonder?" + +For myself, public libraries possess a special horror, as of lonely +wastes and dragon-haunted fens. The stillness and the heavy air, the +feeling of restriction and surveillance, the mute presence of these +other readers, "all silent and all damned," combine to set up a +nervous irritation fatal to quiet study. Had I to choose, I would +prefer the windy street. And possibly others have found that the +removal of checks and obstacles makes the path which leads to the +divine mountain-tops less tempting, now that it is less rugged. So +full of human nature are we all -- still -- despite the Radical +missionaries that labour in the vineyard. Before the National Gallery +was extended and rearranged, there was a little "St Catherine" by +Pinturicchio that possessed my undivided affections. In those days she +hung near the floor, so that those who would worship must grovel; and +little I grudged it. Whenever I found myself near Trafalgar Square +with five minutes to spare I used to turn in and sit on the floor +before the object of my love, till gently but firmly replaced on my +legs by the attendant. She hangs on the line now, in the grand new +room; but I never go to see her. Somehow she is not my "St +Catherine" of old. Doubtless Free Libraries affect many students in +the same way: on the same principle as that now generally accepted -- +that it is the restrictions placed on vice by our social code which +make its pursuit so peculiarly agreeable. + +But even when the element of human nature has been fully allowed for, +it remains a question whether the type of mind that a generation or +two of Free Libraries will evolve is or is not the one that the world +most desiderates; and whether the spare reading and consequent fertile +thinking necessitated by the old, or gas-lamp, style is not productive +of sounder results. The cloyed and congested mind resulting from the +free run of these grocers' shops to omnivorous appetites (and all +young readers are omnivorous) bids fair to produce a race of literary +resurrection-men: a result from which we may well pray to be spared. +Of all forms of lettered effusiveness that which exploits the original +work of others and professes to supply us with right opinions +thereanent is the least wanted. And whether he take to literary +expression by pen or only wag the tongue of him, the grocer's boy of +letters is sure to prove a prodigious bore. The Free Library, if it be +fulfilling the programme of its advocates, is breeding such as he by +scores. + +But after all there is balm in Gilead; and much joy and consolation +may be drawn from the sorrowful official reports, by which it would +appear that the patrons of these libraries are confining their +reading, with a charming unanimity, exclusively to novels. And indeed +they cannot do better; there is no more blessed thing on earth than a +good novel, not the least merit of which is that it induces a state of +passive, unconscious enjoyment, and never frenzies the reader to go +out and put the world right. Next to fairy tales -- the original +world-fiction -- our modern novels may be ranked as our most precious +possessions; and so it has come to pass that I shall now cheerfully +pay my five shillings, or ten shillings, or whatever it may shortly +be, in the pound towards the Free Library: convinced at last that the +money is not wasted in training exponents of the subjectivity of this +writer and the objectivity of that, nor in developing fresh imitators +of dead discredited styles, but is righteously devoted to the support +of wholesome, honest, unpretending novel-reading. + +The Rural Pan + +An April Essay + +Through shady Throgmorton Street and about the vale of Cheapside the +restless Mercury is flitting, with furtive eye and voice a little +hoarse from bidding in the market. Further west, down classic +Piccadilly, moves the young Apollo, the lord of the unerring (satin) +bow; and nothing meaner than a frock-coat shall in these latter years +float round his perfect limbs. But remote in other haunts than these +the rural Pan is hiding, and piping the low, sweet strain that reaches +only the ears of a chosen few. And now that the year wearily turns and +stretches herself before the perfect waking, the god emboldened begins +to blow a clearer note. + +When the waking comes at last, and Summer is abroad, these deities +will abroad too, each as his several attributes move him. Who is this +that flieth up the reaches of the Thames in steam-launch hired for the +day? Mercury is out -- some dozen or fifteen strong. The flower-gemmed +banks crumble and slide down under the wash of his rampant screw; his +wake is marked by a line of lobster-claws, gold-necked bottles, and +fragments of veal-pie. Resplendent in blazer, he may even be seen to +embrace the slim-waisted nymph, haunter of green (room) shades, in the +full gaze of the shocked and scandalised sun. Apollo meantime +reposeth, passively beautiful, on the lawn of the Guards' Club at +Maidenhead. Here, O Apollo, are haunts meet for thee. A deity +subjectively inclined, he is neither objective nor, it must be said +for him, at all objectionable, like them of Mercury. + +Meanwhile, nor launches nor lawns tempt him that pursueth the rural +Pan. In the hushed recesses of Hurley backwater where the canoe may be +paddled almost under the tumbling comb of the weir, he is to be looked +for; there the god pipes with freest abandonment. Or under the great +shadow of Streatley Hill, "annihilating all that's made to a green +thought in a green shade"; or better yet, pushing an explorer's prow +up the remote untravelled Thame, till Dorchester's stately roof broods +over the quiet fields. In solitudes such as these Pan sits and +dabbles, and all the air is full of the music of his piping. +Southwards, again, on the pleasant Surrey downs there is shouting and +jostling; dust that is drouthy and language that is sultry. Thither +comes the young Apollo, calmly confident as ever; and he meeteth +certain Mercuries of the baser sort, who do him obeisance, call him +captain and lord, and then proceed to skin him from head to foot as +thoroughly as the god himself flayed Marsyas in days of yore, at a +certain Spring Meeting in Phrygia: a good instance of Time's revenges. +And yet Apollo returns to town and swears he has had a grand day. He +does so every year. Out of hearing of all the clamour, the rural Pan +may be found stretched on Ranmore Common, loitering under Abinger +pines, or prone by the secluded stream of the sinuous Mole, abounding +in friendly greetings for his foster-brothers the dab-chick and +water-rat. + +For a holiday, Mercury loveth the Pullman Express, and a short hour +with a society paper; anon, brown boots on the pier, and the pleasant +combination of Métropole and Monopole. Apollo for his part will urge +the horses of the Sun: and, if he leaveth the society weekly to +Mercury, yet he loveth well the Magazine. From which omphalos or hub +of the universe he will direct his shining team even to the far +Hesperides of Richmond or of Windsor. Both iron road and level highway +are shunned by the rural Pan, who chooses rather to foot it along the +sheep track on the limitless downs or the thwart-leading footpath +through copse and spinney, not without pleasant fellowship with +feather and fir. Nor does it follow from all this that the god is +unsocial. Albeit shy of the company of his more showy brother-deities, +he loveth the more unpretentious humankind, especially them that are +adscripti glebć, addicted to the kindly soil and to the working +thereof: perfect in no way, only simple, cheery sinners. For he is +only half a god after all, and the red earth in him is strong. When +the pelting storm drives the wayfarers to the sheltering inn, among +the little group on bench and settle Pan has been known to appear at +times, in homely guise of hedger-and-ditcher or weather-beaten +shepherd from the downs. Strange lore and quaint fancy he will then +impart, in the musical Wessex or Mercian he has learned to speak so +naturally; though it may not be till many a mile away that you begin +to suspect that you have unwittingly talked with him who chased the +flying Syrinx in Arcady and turned the tide of fight at Marathon. + +Yes: to-day the iron horse has searched the country through -- east +and west, north and south -- bringing with it Commercialism, whose god +is Jerry, and who studs the hills with stucco and garrotes the streams +with the girder. Bringing, too, into every nook and corner fashion and +chatter, the tailor-made gown and the eyeglass. Happily a great part +is still spared -- how great these others fortunately do not know -- +in which the rural Pan and his following may hide their heads for yet +a little longer, until the growing tyranny has invaded the last +common, spinney, and sheep-down, and driven the kindly god, the +well-wisher to man -- whither? + +Marginalia + +American Hunt, in his suggestive "Talks about Art," demands that the +child shall be encouraged -- or rather permitted, for the natural +child needs little encouragement -- to draw when- and whereon-soever +he can; for, says he, the child's scribbling on the margin of his +school-books is really worth more to him than all he gets out of them, +and indeed, "to him the margin is the best part of all books, and he +finds in it the soothing influence of a clear sky in a landscape." +Doubtless Sir Benjamin Backbite, though his was not an artist soul, +had some dim feeling of this mighty truth when he spoke of that new +quarto of his, in which "a neat rivulet of text shall meander through +a meadow of margin": boldly granting the margin to be of superior +importance to the print. This metaphor is pleasantly expanded in +Burton's "Bookhunter": wherein you read of certain folios with +"their majestic stream of central print overflowing into rivulets of +marginal notes, sedgy with citations." But the good Doctor leaves the +main stream for a backwater of error in inferring that the chief use +of margins is to be a parading-ground for notes and citations. As if +they had not absolute value in themselves, nor served a finer end! In +truth, Hunt's child was vastly the wiser man. + +For myself, my own early margins chiefly served to note, cite, and +illustrate the habits of crocodiles. Along the lower or "tail" edge, +the saurian, splendidly serrated as to his back, arose out of old +Nile; up one side negroes, swart as sucked lead-pencil could limn +them, let fall their nerveless spears; up the other, monkeys, +gibbering with terror, swarmed hastily up palm-trees -- a plant to the +untutored hand of easier outline than (say) your British oak. +Meanwhile, all over the unregarded text Balbus slew Caius on the most +inadequate provocation, or Hannibal pursued his victorious career, +while Roman generals delivered ornate set speeches prior to receiving +the usual satisfactory licking. Fabius, Hasdrubal -- all alike were +pallid shades with faint, thin voices powerless to pierce the +distance. The margins of Cocytus doubtless knew them: mine were +dedicated to the more attractive flesh and blood of animal life, the +varied phases of the tropic forest. Or, in more practical mood, I +would stoop to render certain facts recorded in the text. To these +digressions I probably owe what little education I possess. For +example, there was one sentence in our Roman history: "By this single +battle of Magnesia, Antiochus the Great lost all his conquests in Asia +Minor." Serious historians really should not thus forget themselves. +'Twas so easy, by a touch of the pen, to transform "battle" into +"bottle"; for "conquests" one could substitute a word for which +not even Macaulay's school-boy were at a loss; and the result, +depicted with rude vigour in his margin, fixed the name of at least +one ancient fight on the illustrator's memory. But this plodding and +material art had small charm for me: to whom the happy margin was a +"clear sky" ever through which I could sail away at will to more +gracious worlds. I was duly qualified by a painfully acquired +ignorance of dead languages cautiously to approach my own; and 'twas +no better. Along Milton's margins the Gryphon must needs pursue the +Arimaspian -- what a chance, that Arimaspian, for the imaginative +pencil! And so it has come about that, while Milton periods are mostly +effaced from memory by the sponge of Time, I can still see that +vengeful Gryphon, cousin-german to the gentle beast that danced the +Lobster Quadrille by a certain shore. + +It is by no means insisted upon that the chief end and use of margins +is for pictorial illustration, nor yet for furtive games of oughts and +crosses, nor (in the case of hymn-books) for amorous missives scrawled +against the canticle for the day, to be passed over into an adjacent +pew: as used, alas! to happen in days when one was young and godless, +and went to church. Nor, again, are the margins of certain poets +entrusted to man for the composing thereon of infinitely superior +rhymes on the subjects themselves have maltreated: a depraved habit, +akin to scalping. What has never been properly recognised is the +absolute value of the margin itself -- a value frequently superior to +its enclosure. In poetry the popular taste demands its margin, and +takes care to get it in "the little verses wot they puts inside the +crackers." The special popularity, indeed, of lyric as opposed to +epic verse is due to this habit of feeling. A good example maybe found +in the work of Mr Swinburne: the latter is the better poetry, the +earlier remains the more popular -- because of its eloquence of +margin. Mr Tupper might long ago have sat with laureate brow but for +his neglect of this first principle. The song of Sigurd, our one epic +of the century, is pitiably unmargined, and so has never won the full +meed of glory it deserves; while the ingenious gentleman who wrote +"Beowulf," our other English epic, grasped the great fact from the +first, so that his work is much the more popular of the two. The moral +is evident. An authority on practical book-making has stated that +"margin is a matter to be studied"; also that "to place the print +in the centre of the paper is wrong in principle, and to be +deprecated." Now, if it be "wrong in principle," let us push that +principle to its legitimate conclusion, and "deprecate" the placing +of print on any part of the paper at all. Without actually suggesting +this course to any of our living bards, when, I may ask -- when shall +that true poet arise who, disdaining the trivialities of text, shall +give the world a book of verse consisting entirely of margin? How we +shall shove and jostle for large paper copies! + +The Eternal Whither + +There was once an old cashier in some ancient City establishment, +whose practice was to spend his yearly holiday in relieving some +turnpike-man at his post, and performing all the duties appertaining +thereunto. This was vulgarly taken to be an instance of mere +mill-horse enslavement to his groove -- the reception of payments; and +it was spoken of both in mockery of all mill-horses and for the due +admonishment of others. And yet that clerk had discovered for himself +an unique method of seeing Life at its best, the flowing, hurrying, +travelling, marketing Life of the Highway; the life of bagman and +cart, of tinker, and pig-dealer, and all cheery creatures that drink +and chaffer together in the sun. He belonged, above all, to the scanty +class of clear-seeing persons who know both what they are good for and +what they really want. To know what you would like to do is one thing; +to go out boldly and do it is another -- and a rarer; and the sterile +fields about Hell-Gate are strewn with the corpses of those who would +an if they could. + +To be sure, being bent on the relaxation most congenial to one's soul, +it is possible to push one's disregard for convention too far: as is +seen in the case of another, though of an earlier generation, in the +same establishment. In his office there was the customary +"attendance-book," wherein the clerks were expected to sign each +day. Here his name one morning ceases abruptly from appearing; he +signs, indeed, no more. Instead of signature you find, a little later, +writ in careful commercial hand, this entry: "Mr --- did not attend +at his office to-day, having been hanged at eight o'clock in the +morning for horse-stealing." Through the faded ink of this record do +you not seem to catch, across the gulf of years, some waft of the +jolly humanity which breathed in this prince among clerks? A formal +precisian, doubtless, during business hours; but with just this honest +love of horseflesh lurking deep down there in him -- unsuspected, +sweetening the whole lump. Can you not behold him, freed from his +desk, turning to pursue his natural bent, as a city-bred dog still +striveth to bury his bone deep in the hearth-rug? For no filthy lucre, +you may be sure, but from sheer love of the pursuit itself! All the +same, he erred; erred, if not in taste, at least in judgment: for we +cannot entirely acquit him of blame for letting himself be caught. + +In these tame and tedious days of the policeman rampant, our +melancholy selves are debarred from many a sport, joyous and debonair, +whereof our happier fathers were free. Book-stealing, to be sure, +remains to us; but every one is not a collector; and, besides, 'tis a +diversion you can follow with equal success all the year round. Still, +the instance may haply be pregnant with suggestion to many who wearily +ask each year, what new place or pursuit exhausted earth still keeps +for the holiday-maker. 'Tis a sad but sober fact, that the most of men +lead flat and virtuous lives, departing annually with their family to +some flat and virtuous place, there to disport themselves in a manner +that is decent, orderly, wholly uninteresting, vacant of every buxom +stimulus. To such as these a suggestion, in all friendliness: why not +try crime? We shall not attempt to specify the particular branch -- +for every one must himself seek out and find the path his nature best +fits him to follow; but the general charm of the prospect must be +evident to all. The freshness and novelty of secrecy, the artistic +satisfaction in doing the act of self-expression as well as it can +possibly be done; the experience of being not the hunter, but the +hunted, not the sportsman, but the game; the delight of comparing and +discussing crimes with your mates over a quiet pipe on your return to +town; these new pleasures -- these and their like -- would furnish +just that gentle stimulant, that peaceful sense of change so necessary +to the tired worker. And then the fact, that you would naturally have +to select and plan out your particular line of diversion without +advice or assistance, has its own advantage. For the moment a man +takes to dinning in your ears that you ought, you really ought, to go +to Norway, you at once begin to hate Norway with a hate that ever will +be; and to have Newlyn, Cromer, or Dawlish, Carinthia or the Austrian +Tyrol jammed down your throat, is enough to initiate the discovery +that your own individual weakness is a joyous and persistent liking +for manslaughter. + +Some few seem to be born without much innate tendency to crime. After +all, it is mostly a matter of heredity; these unfortunates are less +culpable than their neglectful ancestors; and it is a fault that none +need really blush for in the present. For such as they there still +remains the example of the turnpike-loving clerk, with all its golden +possibilities. Denied the great delight of driving a locomotive, or a +fire-engine -- whirled along in a glorious nimbus of smoke-pant, +spark-shower, and hoarse warning roar -- what bliss to the palefaced +quilldriver to command a penny steamboat between London Bridge and +Chelsea! to drive a four-horsed Jersey-car to Kew at sixpence a head! +Though turnpikes be things of the past, there are still tolls to be +taken on many a pleasant reach of Thames. What happiness in quiet +moments to tend the lock-keeper's flower-beds -- perhaps make love to +his daughter; anon in busier times to let the old gates swing, work +the groaning winches, and hear the water lap and suck and gurgle as it +slowly sinks or rises with its swaying freight; to dangle legs over +the side and greet old acquaintances here and there among the +parti-coloured wayfarers passing up or down; while tobacco palleth not +on the longest day, and beer is ever within easy reach. The iron +tetter that scurfs the face of our island has killed out the pleasant +life of the road; but many of its best conditions still linger round +these old toll gates, free from dust and clatter, on the silent liquid +Highway to the West. + +These for the weaker brethren: but for him who is conscious of the +Gift, the path is plain. + +Deus Terminus + +The practical Roman, stern constructor of roads and codes, when he +needs must worship, loved a deity practical as himself; and in his +parcelling of the known world into plots, saying unto this man, Bide +here, and to that, Sit you down there, he could scarce fail to evolve +the god Terminus: visible witness of possession and dominion, type of +solid facts not to be quibbled away. We Romans of this latter day -- +so hailed by others, or complacently christened by ourselves -- are +Roman in nothing more than in this; and, as much in the less tangible +realms of thought as in our solid acres, we are fain to set up the +statue which shall proclaim that so much country is explored, marked +out, allotted, and done with; that such and such ramblings and +excursions are practicable and permissible, and all else is exploded, +illegal, or absurd. And in this way we are left with naught but a +vague lingering tradition of the happier days before the advent of the +ruthless deity. + +The sylvan glories of yonder stretch of woodland renew themselves each +autumn, regal as ever. It is only the old enchantment that is gone; +banished by the matter-of-fact deity, who has stolidly settled exactly +where Lord A.'s shooting ends and Squire B.'s begins. Once, no such +petty limitations fettered the mind. A step into the woodland was a +step over the border -- the margin of the material; and then, good-bye +to the modern world of the land-agent and the "Field" advertisement! +A chiming of little bells over your head, and lo! the peregrine, with +eyes like jewels, fluttered through the trees, her jesses catching in +the boughs. 'Twas the favourite of the Princess, the windows of whose +father's castle already gleamed through the trees, where honours and +favours awaited the adventurous. The white doe sprang away through the +thicket, her snowy flank stained with blood; she made for the +enchanted cot, and for entrance you too had the pass-word. Did you +fail on her traces, nor fox nor mole was too busy to spare a moment +for friendly advice or information. Little hands were stretched to +trip you, fairy gibe and mockery pelted you from every rabbit-hole; +and O what Dryads you have kissed among the leaves, in that brief +blissful moment ere they hardened into tree! 'Tis pity, indeed, that +this sort of thing should have been made to share the suspicion +attaching to the poacher; that the stony stare of the boundary god +should confront you at the end of every green ride and rabbit-run; +while the very rabbits themselves are too disgusted with the altered +circumstances to tarry a moment for so much as to exchange the time of +day. + +Truly this age is born, like Falstaff, with a white head and something +a round belly: and will none of your jigs and fantasies. The golden +era of princesses is past. For your really virtuous 'prentices there +still remain a merchant's daughter or two, and a bottle of port o' +Sundays on the Clapham mahogany. For the rest of us, one or two decent +clubs, and plenty of nice roomy lunatic asylums. "Go spin, you jade, +go spin!" is the one greeting for Imagination. And yet -- what a lip +the slut has! What an ankle! Go to: there's nobody looking; let us +lock the door, pull down the blinds, and write us a merry ballad. + +'Tis ungracious, perhaps, to regret what is gone for ever, when so +much is given in return. A humour we have, that is entirely new; and +allotments that shall win back Astrća. Our Labor Program stands for +evidence that the Board School, at least, has done enduring work; and +the useless race of poets is fast dying out. Though we no longer +conjecture what song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed +when he hid himself among women, yet many a prize (of guineas galore) +awaits the competitor who will stoop, week by week, to more practical +research. "Le monde marche," as Renan hath it, "vers une sorte +d'americanisme.... Peut-ętre la vulgarité générale sera-t-elle un jour +la condition du bonheur des élus. Nous n'avons pas le droit d'etre +fort difficiles." We will be very facile, then, since needs must; +remembering the good old proverb that "scornful dogs eat dirty +puddings." But, ere we show Terminus the door, at least let us fling +one stone at the shrieking sulphureous houses of damnation erected as +temples in his honour, and dignified with his name! There, 'mid +clangour, dirt, and pestilence of crowding humanity, the very spirit +of worry and unrest sits embodied. The old Roman was not such a bad +fellow. His deity of demarcation at least breathed open air, and knew +the kindly touch of sun and wind. His simple rites were performed amid +flowers and under blue sky, by sunny roads or tranquil waters; and on +this particular altar the sacrifice was ordained to be free from any +stain of gore. Our hour of sacrifice, alas, has not yet come. When it +does -- ( et haud procul absit!) -- let the offering be no bloodless +one, but let (for choice) a fat and succulent stationmaster smoke and +crackle on the altar of expiation! + +Of Smoking + +Concerning Cigarette Smoking: It hath been well observed by a certain +philosopher that this is a practice commendable enough, and pleasant +to indulge in, "when you're not smoking"; wherein the whole +criticism of the cigarette is found, in a little room. Of the same +manner of thinking was one that I knew, who kept by him an ample case +bulging with cigarettes, to smoke while he was filling his pipe. Toys +they be verily, nugć, and shadows of the substance. Serviceable, +nevertheless, as shadows sometimes be when the substance is +temporarily unattainable; as between the acts of a play, in the park, +or while dressing for dinner: that such moments may not be entirely +wasted. That cigarette, however, which is so prompt to appear after +dinner I would reprehend and ban and totally abolish: as enemy to that +diviner thing before which it should pale its ineffectual fires in +shame -- to wit, good drink, "la dive bouteille"; except indeed when +the liquor be bad, as is sometimes known to happen. Then it may serve +in some sort as a sorry consolation. But to leave these airy +substitutes, and come to smoking. + +It hath been ofttimes debated whether the morning pipe be the sweeter, +or that first pipe of the evening which "Hesperus, who bringeth all +good things," brings to the weary with home and rest. The first is +smoked on a clearer palate, and comes to unjaded senses like the kiss +of one's first love; but lacks that feeling of perfect fruition, of +merit recompensed and the goal and the garland won, which clings to +the vesper bowl. Whence it comes that the majority give the palm to +the latter. To which I intend no slight when I find the incense that +arises at matins sweeter even than that of evensong. For, although +with most of us who are labourers in the vineyard, toilers and +swinkers, the morning pipe is smoked in hurry and fear and a sense of +alarums and excursions and fleeting trains, yet with all this there +are certain halcyon periods sure to arrive -- Sundays, holidays, and +the like -- the whole joy and peace of which are summed up in that one +beatific pipe after breakfast, smoked in a careless majesty like that +of the gods "when they lie beside their nectar, and the clouds are +lightly curled." Then only can we be said really to smoke. And so +this particular pipe of the day always carries with it festal +reminiscences: memories of holidays past, hopes for holidays to come; +a suggestion of sunny lawns and flannels and the ungirt loin; a sense +withal of something free and stately, as of "faint march-music in the +air," or the old Roman cry of "Liberty, freedom, and +enfranchisement." + +If there be any fly in the pipe-smoker's ointment, it may be said to +lurk in the matter of "rings." Only the exceptionally gifted smoker +can recline in his chair and emit at will the perfect smoke-ring, in +consummate eddying succession. He of the meaner sort must be content +if, at rare heaven-sent intervals -- while thinking, perhaps, of +nothing less -- there escape from his lips the unpremeditated flawless +circle. Then "deus fio" he is moved to cry, at that breathless +moment when his creation hangs solid and complete, ere the particles +break away and blend with the baser atmosphere. Nay, some will deny to +any of us terrene smokers the gift of fullest achievement: for what +saith the poet of the century? "On the earth the broken arcs: in the +heaven the perfect round!" + +It was well observed by a certain character in one of Wilkie Collins's +novels (if an imperfect memory serveth me rightly) that women will +take pleasure in scents derived from animal emanations, clarified +fats, and the like; yet do illogically abhor the "clean, dry, +vegetable smell" of tobacco. Herein the true base of the feminine +objection is reached; being, as usual, inherent want of logic rather +than any distaste, in the absolute, for the thing in question. +Thinking that they ought to dislike, they do painfully cast about for +reasons to justify their dislike, when none really exist. As a +specimen of their so-called arguments, I remember how a certain fair +one triumphantly pointed out to me that my dog, though loving me well, +could yet never be brought to like the smell of tobacco. To whom I, +who respected my dog (as Ben saith of Master Shakespeare) on this side +idolatry as much as anything, was yet fain to point out -- more in +sorrow than in anger -- that a dog, being an animal who delights to +pass his whole day, from early morn to dewy eve, in shoving his nose +into every carrion beastliness that he can come across, could hardly +be considered arbiter elegantiarum in the matter of smells. But indeed +I did wrong to take such foolish quibbling seriously; nor would I have +done so, if she hadn't dragged my poor innocent dog into the +discussion. + +Of Smoking in Bed: There be who consider this a depravity -- an +instance of that excess in the practice of a virtue which passes into +vice -- and couple it with dram-drinking: who yet fail to justify +themselves by argument. For if bed be by common consent the greatest +bliss, the divinest spot, on earth, "ille terrarum qui prćter omnes +angulus ridet"; and if tobacco be the true Herb of Grace, and a joy +and healing balm, and respite and nepenthe, -- if all this be +admitted, why are two things, super-excellent separately, noxious in +conjunction? And is not the Bed Smoker rather an epicure in pleasure +-- self indulgent perhaps, but still the triumphant creator of a new +"blend," reminding one of a certain traveller's account of an +intoxicant patronised in the South Sea Islands, which combines the +blissful effect of getting drunk and remaining sober to enjoy it? Yet +I shall not insist too much on this point, but would only ask -- so +long as the smoker be unwedded -- for some tolerance in the matter and +a little logic in the discussion thereof. + +Concerning Cigars: That there be large sums given for these is within +common knowledge. 1 d., 2 d., nay even 4 d., is not too great a price, +if a man will have of the finest leaf, reckless of expense. In this +sort of smoking, however, I find more of vainglory and ostentation +than solid satisfaction; and its votaries would seem to display less a +calm, healthy affection for tobacco than (as Sir T. Browne hath it) a +"passionate prodigality." And, besides grievous wasting of the +pocket, atmospheric changes, varyings in the crops, and the like, +cause uncertainty to cling about each individual weed, so that man is +always more or less at the mercy of Nature and the elements -- an +unsatisfactory and undignified position in these latter days of the +Triumphant Democracy. But worst and fatallest of all, to every +cigar-smoker it is certain to happen that once in his life, by some +happy combination of time, place, temperament, and Nature -- by some +starry influence, maybe, or freak of the gods in mocking sport -- +once, and once only, he will taste the aroma of the perfect leaf at +just the perfect point -- the ideal cigar. Henceforth his life is +saddened; as one kissed by a goddess in a dream, he goes thereafter, +as one might say, in a sort of love-sickness. Seeking he scarce knows +what, his existence becomes a dissatisfied yearning; the world is +spoiled for him, its joys are tasteless: so he wanders, +vision-haunted, down dreary days to some miserable end. + +Yet, if one will walk this path and take the risks, the thing may be +done at comparatively small expense. To such I would commend the Roman +motto, slightly altered -- Alieni appetens, sui avarus. There be +always good fellows, with good cigars for their friends. Nay, too, the +boxes of these lie open; an the good cigar belongs rather to him that +can appreciate it aright than to the capitalist who, owing to a false +social system, happens to be its temporary guardian and trustee. Again +there is a saying -- bred first, I think, among the schoolmen at +Oxford -- that it is the duty of a son to live up to his father's +income. Should any young man have found this task too hard for him, +after the most strenuous and single-minded efforts, at least he can +resolutely smoke his father's cigars. In the path of duty complete +success is not always to be looked for; but an approving conscience, +the sure reward of honest endeavour, is within reach of all. + +An Autumn Encounter + +For yet another mile or two the hot dusty road runs through level +fields, till it reaches yonder shoulder of the downs, already golden +three-parts up with ripening corn. Thitherwards lies my inevitable +way; and now that home is almost in sight it seems hard that the last +part of the long day's sweltering and delightful tramp must needs be +haunted by that hateful speck, black on the effulgence of the slope. +Did I not know he was only a scarecrow, the thing might be in a way +companionable: a pleasant suggestive surmise, piquing curiosity, +gilding this last weary stage with some magic of expectancy. But I +passed close by him on my way out. Early as I was, he was already up +and doing, eager to introduce himself. He leered after me as I swung +down the road, -- mimicked my gait, as it seemed, in a most +uncalled-for way; and when I looked back, he was blowing derisive +kisses of farewell with his empty sleeve. + +I had succeeded, however, in shaking off the recollection between the +morning's start and now; so it was annoying that he should force +himself on me, just when there was no getting rid of him. At this +distance, however, he might be anything. An indeterminate blot, it +seems to waver, to falter, to come and vanish again in the quivering, +heated air. Even so, in the old time, leaning on that familiar gate -- +are the tell-tale inwoven initials still decipherable? -- I used to +watch Her pacing demurely towards me through the corn. It was +ridiculous, it was fatuous, under all the circumstances it was +monstrous, and yet{...}! We were both under twenty, so She was She, +and I was I, and there were only we three the wide world over, she and +I and the unbetraying gate. Porta eburnea! False visions alone sped +through you, though Cupid was wont to light on your topmost bar, and +preen his glowing plumes. And to think that I should see her once +more, coming down the path as if not a day had passed, hesitating as +of old, and then -- but surely her ankles seem -- Confound that +scarecrow!... + +His sex is by this time painfully evident; also his condition in life, +which is as of one looking back on better days. And now he is upon a +new tack. Though here on the level it is still sultry and airless, an +evening breeze is playing briskly along the slope where he stands, and +one sleeve saws the air violently; the other is pointed stiffly +heavenwards. It is all plain enough, my poor friend! The sins of the +world are a heavy burden and a grievous unto you. You have a mission, +you must testify; it will forth, in season and out of season. For man, +he wakes and sleeps and sins betimes: but crows sin steadily, without +any cessation. And this unhappy state of things is your own particular +business. Even at this distance I seem to hear you rasping it: +"Salvation, damnation, damnation, salvation!" And the jolly earth +smiles in the perfect evenglow, and the corn ripples and laughs all +round you, and one young rook (only fledged this year, too!), after an +excellent simulation of prostrate, heart-broken penitence, soars +joyously away, to make love to his neighbour's wife. "Salvation, +damnation, damn -- " A shifty wriggle of the road, and he is +transformed once more. Flung back in an ecstasy of laughter, holding +his lean sides, his whole form writhes with the chuckle and gurgle of +merriment. Ho, ho! what a joke it was! How I took you all in! Even the +rooks! What a joke is everything, to be sure! + +Truly, I shall be glad to get quit of this heartless mummer. +Fortunately I shall soon be past him. And now, behold! the old dog +waxes amorous. Mincing, mowing, empty sleeve on hollow breast, he +would fain pose as the most irresistible old hypocrite that ever paced +a metropolitan kerb. "Love, you young dogs," he seems to croak, +"Love is the one thing worth living for! Enjoy your present, rooks +and all, as I do!" Why, indeed, should he alone be insensible to the +golden influence of the hour? More than one supple waist (alas! for +universal masculine frailty!) has been circled by that tattered sleeve +in days gone by; a throbbing heart once beat where sodden straw now +fails to give a manly curve to the chest. Why should the coat survive, +and not a particle of the passion that inspired it long ago? + +At last I confront him, face to face: and the villain grins +recognition, completely unabashed. Nay, he cocks his eye with a +significant glance under the slouch of his shapeless hat, and his arm +points persistently and with intelligence up the road. My good fellow, +I know the way to the Dog and Duck as well as you do: I was going +there anyhow, without your officious interference -- and the beer, as +you justly remark, is unimpeachable. But was this really all you've +been trying to say to me, this last half-hour? Well, well! + +The White Poppy + +A riot of scarlet on gold, the red poppy of our native fields tosses +heavy tresses with gipsy abandon; her sister of the sea-shore is +golden, a yellow blossom that loves the keen salt savour of the spray. +Of another hue is the poppy of history, of romance, of the muse. White +as the stark death-shroud, pallid as the cheeks of that queen of a +silent land whose temples she languorously crowns, ghost-like beside +her fuller-blooded kin, she droops dream-laden, Papaver somniferum, +the poppy of the magic juice of oblivion. In the royal plenitude of +summer, the scarlet blooms will sometimes seem but a red cry from +earth in memory of the many dews of battle that have drenched these +acres in years gone by, for little end but that these same "bubbles +of blood" might glow to-day; the yellow flower does but hint of the +gold that has dashed a thousand wrecks at her feet around these +shores: for happier suggestion we must turn to her of the pallid +petals, our white Lady of Consolation. Fitting hue to typify the +crowning blessing of forgetfulness! Too often the sable robes of night +dissemble sleeplessness, remorse, regret, self-questioning. Let black, +then, rather stand for hideous memory: white for blessed blank +oblivion, happiest gift of the gods! For who, indeed, can say that the +record of his life is not crowded with failure and mistake, stained +with its petty cruelties of youth, its meannesses and follies of later +years, all which storm and clamour incessantly at the gates of memory, +refusing to be shut out? Leave us alone, O gods, to remember our +felicities, our successes: only aid us, ye who recall no gifts, aptly +and discreetly to forget. + +Discreetly, we say; for it is a tactful forgetfulness that makes for +happiness. In the minor matter, for instance, of small money +obligations, that shortness of memory which the school of Professors +Panurge and Falstaff rashly praises, may often betray into some +unfortunate allusion or reference to the subject which shall pain the +delicate feelings of the obliger; or, if he be of coarser clay, shall +lead him in his anger to express himself with unseemliness, and +thereby to do violence to his mental tranquillity, in which alone, as +Marcus Aurelius teacheth, lieth the perfection of moral character. +This is to be a stumbling-block and an offence against the brethren. +It is better to keep just memory enough to avoid such hidden rocks and +shoals; in which thing Mr Swiveller is our great exemplar, whose +mental map of London was a chart wherein every creditor was carefully +"buoyed." + +The wise man prays, we are told, for a good digestion: let us add to +the prayer -- and a bad memory. Truly we are sometimes tempted to +think that we are the only ones cursed with this corroding canker. Our +friends, we can swear, have all, without exception, atrocious +memories; why is ours alone so hideously vital? Yet this isolation +must be imaginary; for even as we engage in this selfish moan for help +in our own petty case, we are moved to add a word for certain others +who, meaning no ill, unthinkingly go about to add to humanity's +already heavy load of suffering. How much needless misery is caused in +this world by the reckless "recollections" of dramatic and other +celebrities? You gods, in lending ear to our prayer, remember too, +above all other sorts and conditions of men, these our poor erring +brothers and sisters, the sometime sommités of Mummerdom! + +Moments there are, it is true, when this traitor spirit tricks you: +when some subtle scent, some broken notes of an old song, nay, even +some touch of a fresher air on your cheeks at night -- a breath of +"le vent qui vient ŕ travers la montagne" -- have power to ravish, +to catch you back to the blissful days when you trod the one authentic +Paradise. Moments only, alas! Then the evil crowd rushes in again, +howls in the sacred grove, tramples down and defiles the happy garden; +and once more you cry to Our Lady of Sleep, crowned of the white +poppy. And you envy your dog who, for full discharge of a present +benefaction having wagged you a hearty, expressive tail, will then +pursue it gently round the hearth-rug till, in restful coil, he +reaches it at last, and oblivion with it; every one of his half-dozen +diurnal sleeps being in truth a royal amnesty. + +But whose the hand that shall reach us the herb of healing? Perdita +blesses every guest at the shearing with a handful of blossom; but +this gift is not to be asked of her whose best wish to her friends is +"grace and remembrance." The fair Ophelia, rather: nay, for as a +nursling she hugs her grief, and for her the memory of the past is a +"sorrow's crown of sorrow." What flowers are these her pale hand +offers? "There's pansies, that's for thoughts!" For me rather, O +dear Ophelia, the white poppy of forgetfulness. + +A Bohemian in Exile + +A Reminiscence + +When, many years ago now, the once potent and extensive kingdom of +Bohemia gradually dissolved and passed away, not a few historians were +found to chronicle its past glories; and some have gone on to tell the +fate of this or that once powerful chieftain who either donned the +swallow-tail and conformed or, proudly self-exiled, sought some quiet +retreat and died as he had lived, a Bohemian. But these were of the +princes of the land. To the people, the villeins, the common rank and +file, does no interest attach? Did they waste and pine, anćmic, in +thin, strange, unwonted air? Or sit at the table of the scornful and +learn, with Dante, how salt was alien bread? It is of one of those +faithful commons I would speak, narrating only "the short and simple +annals of the poor." + +It is to be noted that the kingdom aforesaid was not so much a kingdom +as a United States -- a collection of self-ruling guilds, +municipalities, or republics, bound together by a common method of +viewing life. "There once was a king of Bohemia" -- but that was a +long time ago, and even Corporal Trim was not certain in whose reign +it was. These small free States, then, broke up gradually, from +various causes and with varying speed; and I think ours was one of the +last to go. + +With us, as with many others, it was a case of lost leaders. "Just +for a handful of silver he left us"; though it was not exactly that, +but rather that, having got the handful of silver, they wanted a wider +horizon to fling it about under than Bloomsbury afforded. + + So they left us for their pleasure; and in due time, one by one -- + +But I will not be morose about them; they had honestly earned their +success, and we all honestly rejoiced at it, and do so still. + +When old Pan was dead and Apollo's bow broken, there were many +faithful pagans who would worship at no new shrines, but went out to +the hills and caves, truer to the old gods in their discrowned +desolation than in their pomp and power. Even so were we left behind, +a remnant of the faithful. We had never expected to become great in +art or song; it was the life itself that we loved; that was our end -- +not, as with them, the means to an end. + + We aimed at no glory, no lovers of glory we; + Give us the glory of going on and still to be. + +Unfortunately, going on was no longer possible; the old order had +changed, and we could only patch up our broken lives as best might be. + +Fothergill said that he, for one, would have no more of it. The past +was dead, and he wasn't going to try to revive it. Henceforth he, too, +would be dead to Bloomsbury. Our forefathers, speaking of a man's +death, said "he changed his life." This is how Fothergill changed +his life and died to Bloomsbury. One morning he made his way to the +Whitechapel Road, and there he bought a barrow. The Whitechapel +barrows are of all sizes, from the barrow wheeled about by a boy with +half a dozen heads of cabbages to barrows drawn by a tall pony, such +as on Sundays take the members of a club to Epping Forest. They are +all precisely the same in plan and construction, only in the larger +sizes the handles develop or evolve into shafts; and they are equally +suitable, according to size, for the vending of whelks, for a +hot-potato can, a piano organ, or for the conveyance of a cheery and +numerous party to the Derby. Fothergill bought a medium sized +"developed" one, and also a donkey to fit; he had it painted white, +picked out with green -- the barrow, not the donkey -- and when his +arrangements were complete, stabled the whole for the night in +Bloomsbury. The following morning, before the early red had quite +faded from the sky, the exodus took place, those of us who were left +being assembled to drink a parting whisky-and-milk in sad and solemn +silence. Fothergill turned down Oxford Street, sitting on the shaft +with a short clay in his mouth, and disappeared from our sight, +heading west at a leisurely pace. So he passed out of our lives by way +of the Bayswater Road. + +They must have wandered far and seen many things, he and his donkey, +from the fitful fragments of news that now and again reached us. It +seems that eventually, his style of living being economical, he was +enabled to put down his donkey and barrow, and set up a cart and a +mare -- no fashionable gipsy-cart, a sort of houseboat on wheels, but +a light and serviceable cart, with a moveable tilt, constructed on his +own designs. This allowed him to take along with him a few canvases +and other artists' materials; soda-water, whisky, and such like +necessaries; and even to ask a friend from town for a day or two, if +he wanted to. + +He was in this state of comparative luxury when at last, by the merest +accident, I foregathered with him once more. I had pulled up to +Streatley one afternoon, and, leaving my boat, had gone for a long +ramble on the glorious North Berkshire Downs to stretch my legs before +dinner. Somewhere over on Cuckhamsley Hill, by the side of the +Ridgeway, remote from the habitable world, I found him, smoking his +vesper pipe on the shaft of his cart, the mare cropping the short +grass beside him. He greeted me without surprise or effusion, as if we +had only parted yesterday, and without a hint of an allusion to past +times, but drifted quietly into rambling talk of his last three years, +and, without ever telling his story right out, left a strange +picturesque impression of a nomadic life which struck one as separated +by fifty years from modern conventional existence. The old road-life +still lingered on in places, it seemed, once one got well away from +the railway: there were two Englands existing together, the one +fringing the great iron highways wherever they might go -- the England +under the eyes of most of us. The other, unguessed at by many, in +whatever places were still vacant of shriek and rattle, drowsed on as +of old: the England of heath and common and windy sheep down, of +by-lanes and village-greens -- the England of Parson Adams and +Lavengro. The spell of the free untrammelled life came over me as I +listened, till I was fain to accept of his hospitality and a +horse-blanket for the night, oblivious of civilised comforts down at +the Bull. On the downs where Alfred fought we lay and smoked, gazing +up at the quiet stars that had shone on many a Dane lying stark and +still a thousand years ago; and in the silence of the lone tract that +enfolded us we seemed nearer to those old times than to these I had +left that afternoon, in the now hushed and sleeping valley of the +Thames. + +When the news reached me, some time later, that Fothergill's aunt had +died and left him her house near town and the little all she had +possessed, I heard it with misgivings, not to say forebodings. For the +house had been his grandfather's, and he had spent much of his boyhood +there; it had been a dream of his early days to possess it in some +happy future, and I knew he could never bear to sell or let it. On the +other hand, can you stall the wild ass of the desert? And will not the +caged eagle mope and pine? + +However, possession was entered into, and all seemed to go well for +the time. The cart was honourably installed in the coach-house, the +mare turned out to grass. Fothergill lived idly and happily, to all +seeming, with "a book of verses underneath the bough," and a bottle +of old claret for the friend who might chance to drop in. But as the +year wore on small signs began to appear that he who had always +"rather hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak" was beginning to +feel himself caged, though his bars were gilded. + +I was talking one day to his coachman (he now kept three +men-servants), and he told me that of a Sunday morning when the +household had gone to church and everything was quiet, Mr Fothergill +would go into the coach-house and light his pipe, and sit on the step +of the brougham (he had a brougham now), and gaze at the old cart, and +smoke and say nothing; and smoke and say nothing again. He didn't like +it, the coachman confessed; and to me it seemed ominous. + +One morning late in March, at the end of a long hard winter, I was +wakened by a flood of sunshine. The early air came warm and soft +through the open window; the first magic suggestion of spring was +abroad, with its whispered hints of daffodils and budding hawthorns; +and one's blood danced to imagined pipings of Pan from happy fields +far distant. At once I thought of Fothergill, and, with a certain +foreboding of ill, made my way down to Holly Lodge as soon as +possible. It was with no surprise at all that I heard that the master +was missing. In the very first of the morning, it seemed, or ever the +earliest under-housemaid had begun to set man-traps on the stairs and +along the passages, he must have quietly left the house. The servants +were cheerful enough, nevertheless, and thought the master must only +have "gone for a nice long walk," and so on, after the manner of +their kind. Without a word I turned my steps to the coach-house. Sure +enough, the old cart was missing; the mare was gone from the paddock. +It was no good my saying anything; pursuit of this wild haunter of +tracks and by-paths would have been futile indeed. So I kept my own +counsel. Fothergill never returned to Holly Lodge, and has been more +secret and evasive since his last flight, rarely venturing on old +camping grounds near home, like to a bird scared by the fowler's gun. + +Once indeed, since then, while engaged in pursuit of the shy quarry +known as the Early Perp., late Dec., E. Eng., and the like, specimens +of which I was tracking down in the west, I hit upon him by accident; +hearing in an old village rumours concerning a strange man in a cart +who neither carried samples nor pushed the brewing interest by other +means than average personal consumption -- tales already beginning to +be distorted into material for the myth of the future. I found him +friendly as ever, equally ready to spin his yarns. As the evening wore +on, I ventured upon an allusion to past times and Holly Lodge; but his +air of puzzled politeness convinced me that the whole thing had passed +out of his mind, as a slight but disagreeable incident in the even +tenor of his nomadic existence. + +After all, his gains may have outbalanced his losses. Had he cared, he +might, with his conversational gifts, have been a social success; +certainly, I think, an artistic one. He had great powers, had any +impulse been present to urge him to execution and achievement. But he +was for none of these things. Contemplative, receptive, with a keen +sense of certain sub-tones and side aspects of life unseen by most, he +doubtless chose wisely to enjoy life his own way, and to gather from +the fleeting days what bliss they had to give, nor spend them in +toiling for a harvest to be reaped when he was dust. + + Some for the glories of this life, and some + Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come: + Ah, take the cash and let the credit go, + Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum. + +Justifiable Homicide + +This is a remedial age, an age of keys for all manner of locks; so he +cannot be said to ask too much who seeks for exact information as to +how a young man ought, in justice to himself and to society, to deal +with his relations. During his minority he has lain entirely at their +mercy: has been their butt, their martyr, their drudge, their corpus +vile. Possessing all the sinews of war, this stiff-necked tribe has +consistently refused to "part": even for the provision of those +luxuries so much more necessary than necessities. Its members have +crammed their victim full of precepts, rules of conduct, moral maxims, +and most miscellaneous counsel: all which he intuitively suspected at +the time, and has ascertained by subsequent experience, to be utterly +worthless. Now, when their hour has come, when the tocsin has sounded +at last, and the Gaul is at the gate, they still appear to think that +the old condition of things is to go on; unconscious, apparently, of +atonement due, of retribution to be exacted, of wrongs to be avenged +and of insults to be wiped away! + +Over the north-west frontier, where the writ of the English Raj runs +not, the artless Afghan is happy in a code that fully provides for +relatives who neglect or misunderstand their obligations. An Afghan it +was who found himself compelled to reprove an uncle with an +unfortunate habit of squandering the family estate. An excellent +relative, this uncle, in all other respects. As a liar, he had few +equals; he robbed with taste and discretion; and his murders were all +imbued with true artistic feeling. He might have lived to a green old +age of spotless respectability but for his one little failing. As it +was, justice had to be done, ruat cćlum: and so it came about that one +day the nephew issued forth to correct him with a matchlock. The +innocent old man was cultivating his paternal acres; so the nephew was +able, unperceived, to get a steady sight on him. His finger was on the +trigger, when suddenly there slipped into his mind the divine precept: +"Allah is merciful!" He lowered his piece, and remained for a little +plunged in thought; meanwhile the unconscious uncle hoed his paddy. +Then with a happy smile he took aim once more, for there also occurred +to him the precept equally divine: "But Allah is also just." With an +easy conscience he let fly, and behold! there was an uncle the more in +Paradise. + +It was probably some little affair of a similar quality that +constrained a recruit in a regiment stationed at Peshawur to apply for +leave of absence: in order to attend to family matters of importance. +The Colonel knew it was small use refusing the leave, as in that case +his recruit would promptly desert; so he could only ask, how long was +the transaction like to take? It was told him, after consideration, +that, allowing for all possible difficulties and delays, a month would +meet the necessities of the case; and on that understanding he allowed +his man to depart. At the end of the month he reappeared on duty, a +subdued but mellow cheer shining through his wonted impassiveness. His +Colonel ventured to inquire of him, in a general way, if the business +in question were satisfactorily concluded. And he replied: "I got him +from behind a rock." + +There are practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of such +methods at home. We must be content to envy, without imitating, these +free and happy sons of the hills. And yet a few of the old school are +left us still: averse from change, mistrustful of progress, sticking +steadily to the good old-fashioned dagger and bowl. I had a friend who +disposed of a relative every spring. Uncles were his special line -- +(he had suffered much from their tribe, having been early left an +orphan) -- though he had dabbled in aunts, and in his hot youth, when +he was getting his hand in, he had even dallied with a grand-parent or +two. But it was in uncles he excelled. He possessed (at the beginning +of his career) a large number of these connections, and pursuit of +them, from the mere sordid point of view of Ł s. d., proved lucrative. +But he always protested (and I believed him) that gain with him was a +secondary consideration. It would hardly be in the public interest to +disclose his modus operandi. I shall only remark that he was one of +the first to realise the security and immunity afforded the artist by +the conditions of modern London. Hence it happened that he usually +practised in town, but spent his vacations at the country houses of +such relations as were still spared him, where he was always the life +and soul of the place. Unfortunately he is no longer with us, to +assist in the revision of this article: nor was it permitted me to +soothe his last moments. The presiding Sheriff was one of those +new-fangled officials who insist on the exclusion of the public, and +he declined to admit me either in the capacity of a personal +connection or, though I tried my hardest, as the representative of +"The National Observer." It only remains to be said of my much-tried +and still lamented friend, that he left few relatives to mourn his +untimely end. + +But our reluctant feet must needs keep step with the imperious march +of Time, and my poor friend's Art (as himself in later years would +sorrowfully admit) is now almost as extinct as the glass-staining of +old, or "Robbia's craft so apt and strange"; while our thin-blooded +youth, too nice for the joyous old methods, are content to find +sweetest revenge in severely dropping their relations. This is indeed +a most effective position: it exasperates, while it is unassailable. +And yet there remains a higher course, a nobler task. Not mere +forgiveness: it is simple duty to forgive -- even one's guardians. No +young man of earnest aspirations will be content to stop there. Nay: +lead them on, these lost ones, by the hand; conduct them "generously +and gently, and with linking of the arm"; educate them, eradicate +their false ideals, dispel their foolish prejudices; be to their +faults a little blind and to their virtues very kind: in fine, realise +that you have a mission -- that these wretches are not here for +nothing. The task will seem hard at first; but only those who have +tried can know how much may be done by assiduous and kindly effort +towards the chastening -- ay! the final redemption even! -- of the +most hopeless and pig-headed of uncles. + +The Fairy Wicket + +From digging in the sandy, over-triturated soil of times historical, +all dotted with date and number and sign, how exquisite the relief in +turning to the dear days outside history -- yet not so very far off +neither for us nurslings of the northern sun -- when kindly beasts +would loiter to give counsel by the wayside, and a fortunate encounter +with one of the Good People was a surer path to Fortune and the Bride +than the best-worn stool that ever proved step-ladder to aspiring +youth. For then the Fairy Wicket stood everywhere ajar -- everywhere +and to each and all. "Open, open, green hill!" -- you needed no more +recondite sesame than that: and, whoever you were, you might have a +glimpse of the elfin dancers in the hall that is litten within by +neither sun nor moon; or catch at the white horse's bridle as the +Fairy Prince rode through. It has been closed now this many a year +(the fairies, always strong in the field, are excellent +wicket-keepers); and if it open at all, 'tis but for a moment's +mockery of the material generation that so deliberately turned its +back on the gap into Elf-Land -- that first stage to the Beyond. + +It was a wanton trick, though, that these folk of malice used to play +on a small school-boy, new kicked out of his nest into the draughty, +uncomfortable outer world, his unfledged skin still craving the +feathers whereinto he was wont to nestle. The barrack-like school, the +arid, cheerless class-rooms, drove him to Nature for redress; and, +under an alien sky, he would go forth and wander along the iron road +by impassive fields, so like yet so unlike those hitherto a part of +him and responding to his every mood. And to him, thus loitering with +overladen heart, there would come suddenly a touch of warmth, of +strange surprise. The turn of the road just ahead -- that, sure, is +not all unfamiliar? That row of elms -- it cannot entirely be accident +that they range just so? And, if not accident, then round the bend +will come the old duck-pond, the shoulder of the barn will top it, a +few yards on will be the gate -- it swings-to with its familiar click +-- the dogs race down the avenue -- and then -- and then! It is all +wildly fanciful; and yet, though knowing not Tertullian, a "credo +quia impossibile" is on his tongue as he quickens his pace -- for +what else can he do? A step, and the spell is shattered -- all is +cruel and alien once more; while every copse and hedge-row seems +a-tinkle with faint elfish laughter. The Fairies have had their joke: +they have opened the wicket one of their own hand's-breadths, and shut +it in their victim's face. When next that victim catches a fairy, he +purposes to tie up the brat in sight of his own green hill, and set +him to draw up a practical scheme for Village Councils. + +One of the many women I ever really loved, fair in the fearless old +fashion, was used to sing, in the blithe, unfettered accent of the +people: "I'd like to be a fairy, And dance upon my toes, I'd like to +be a fairy, And wear short close!" And in later life it is to her sex +that the wee (but very wise) folk sometimes delegate their power of +torment. Such understudies are found to play the part exceeding well; +and many a time the infatuated youth believes he sees in the depth of +one sole pair of eyes -- blue, brown, or green (the fairy colour) -- +the authentic fairy wicket standing ajar: many a time must he hear the +quaint old formula, "I'm sure, if I've ever done anything to lead you +to think," etc (runs it not so?), ere he shall realise that here is +the gate upon no magic pleasance but on a cheap suburban villa, +banging behind the wrathful rate-collector or hurled open to speed the +pallid householder to the Registrar's Office. In still grosser +habitations, too, they lurk, do the People of Mischief, ready to +frolic out on the unsuspecting one: as in the case, which still haunts +my memory, of a certain bottle of an historic Château-Yquem, hued like +Venetian glass, odorous as a garden in June. Forth from out the faint +perfume of this haunted drink there danced a bevy from Old France, +clad in the fashion of Louis-Quinze, peach-coloured knots of ribbon +bedizening apple-green velvets, as they moved in stately wise among +the roses of the old garden, to the quaint music -- Rameau, was it? -- +of a fairy cornemuse, while fairy Watteaus, Fragonards, Lancrets, sat +and painted them. Alas! too shallow the bottle, too brief the brawls: +not to be recalled by any quantity of Green Chartreuse. + +Aboard the Galley + +He was cruising in the Southern Seas (was the Ulysses who told me this +tale), when there bore down upon him a marvellous strange fleet, whose +like he had not before seen. For each little craft was a corpse, +stiffly "marlined," or bound about with tarred rope, as mariners do +use to treat plug tobacco: also ballasted, and with a fair mast and +sail stepped through his midriff. These self-sufficing ships knew no +divided authority: no pilot ever took the helm from the captain's +hands; no mutines lay in bilboes, no passengers complained of the +provisions. In a certain island to windward (the native pilot +explained) it was the practice, when a man died, to bury him for the +time being in dry, desiccating sand, till a chief should pass from his +people, when the waiting bodies were brought out and, caulked and +rigged secumdum artem, were launched with the first fair breeze, the +admiral at their head, on their voyage to the Blessed Islands. And if +a chief should die, and the sand should hold no store of corpses for +his escort, this simple practical folk would solve the little +difficulty by knocking some dozen or twenty stout fellows on the head, +that the notable might voyage like a gentleman. Whence this gallant +little company, running before the breeze, stark, happy, and extinct, +all bound for the Isles of Light! 'Twas a sight to shame us sitters at +home, who believe in those Islands, most of us, even as they, yet are +content to trundle City-wards or to Margate, so long as the sorry +breath is in us; and, breathless at last, to Bow or Kensal Green; +without one effort, dead or alive, to reach the far-shining +Hesperides. + +"Dans la galčre, capitane, nous étions quatre-vingt rameurs!" sang +the oarsmen in the ballad; and they, though indeed they toiled on the +galley-bench, were free and happy pirates, members of an honoured and +liberal profession. But all we -- pirates, parsons, stockbrokers, +whatever our calling -- are but galley-slaves of the basest sort, +fettered to the oar each for his little spell. A common misery links +us all, like the chain that runs the length of the thwarts. Can +nothing make it worth our while not to quarrel with our fellows? The +menace of the storms is for each one and for all: the master's whip +has a fine impartiality. Crack! the lash that scored my comrade's back +has flicked my withers too; yet neither of us was shirking -- it was +that grinning ruffian in front. Well: to-morrow, God willing, the +evasion shall be ours, while he writhes howling. But why do we never +once combine -- seize on the ship, fling our masters into the sea, and +steer for some pleasant isle far down under the Line, beyond the +still-vexed Bermoothes? When ho for feasting! Hey for tobacco and +free-quarters! But no: the days pass, and are reckoned up, and done +with; and ever more pressing cares engage. Those fellows on the +leeward benches are having an easier time than we poor dogs on the +weather side? Then, let us abuse, pelt, vilify then: let us steal +their grub, and have at them generally for a set of shirking, +malingering brutes! What matter that to-morrow they may be to +windward, we to lee? We never can look ahead. And they know this well, +the gods our masters, pliers of the whip. And mayhap we like them none +the worse for it. + +Indeed, there is a traitor sort among ourselves, that spins facile +phrases in the honour of these whipmasters of ours -- as "omnes eodem +cogimur," and the rest; which is all very pretty and mighty +consoling. The fact is, the poets are the only people who score by the +present arrangement; which it is therefore their interest to maintain. +While we are doing all the work, these incorrigible skulkers lounge +about and make ribald remarks; they write Greek tragedies on Fate, on +the sublimity of Suffering, on the Petty Span, and so on; and act in a +generally offensive way. And we are even weak enough to buy their +books; offer them drinks, peerages, and things; and say what +superlative fellows they are! But when the long-looked-for combination +comes, and we poor devils have risen and abolished fate, destiny, the +Olympian Council, early baldness, and the like, these poets will +really have to go. + +And when every rhymester has walked the plank, shall we still put up +with our relations? True members of the "stupid party," who never +believe in us, who know (and never forget) the follies of our +adolescence; who are always wanting us not to do things; who are +lavish of advice, yet angered by the faintest suggestion of a small +advance in cash: shall the idle singers perish and these endure? No: +as soon as the last poet has splashed over the side, to the sharks +with our relations! + +The old barkey is lightening famously: who shall be next to go? The +Sportsman of intolerable yarns: who slays twice over -- first, his +game, and then the miserable being he button-holes for the tedious +recital. Shall we suffer him longer? Who else? Who is that cowering +under the bulwarks yonder? The man who thinks he can imitate the +Scottish accent! Splash! And the next one? What a crowd is here! How +they block the hatchways, lumber the deck, and get between you and the +purser's room -- these fadmongers, teetotallers, missionaries of +divers isms! Overboard with them, and hey for the Fortunate Isles! +Then for tobacco in a hammock 'twixt the palms! Then for wine cooled +in a brooklet losing itself in silver sands! Then for -- but O these +bilboes on our ankles, how mercilessly they grip! The vertical sun +blisters the bare back: faint echoes of Olympian laughter seem to +flicker like Northern Lights across the stark and pitiless sky. One +earnest effort would do it, my brothers! A little modesty, a short +sinking of private differences; and then we should all be free and +equal gentlemen of fortune, and I would be your Captain! "Who? you? +you would make a pretty Captain!" Better than you, you scurvy, +skulking, little galley-slave! "Galley-slave yourself, and be --- +Pull together, boys, and lie low! Here's the Master coming with his +whip!" + +The Lost Centaur + +It is somewhere set down (or does the legend only exist in the great +volume of ought-to-be-writ?) that the young Achilles, nurtured from +babyhood by the wise and kindly Cheiron, accustomed to reverence an +ideal of human skill and wisdom blent with all that was best and +noblest of animal instinct, strength and swiftness, found poor +humanity sadly to miss, when at last the was sent forth among his +pottering little two-legged peers. Himself alone he had hitherto +fancied to be the maimed one, the incomplete; he looked to find the +lords of earth even such as these Centaurs; wise and magnanimous atop: +below, shod with the lightning, winged with the wind, terrible in the +potentiality of the armed heel. Instead of which -- ! How fallen was +his first fair hope of the world! And even when reconciled at last to +the dynasty of the forked radish, after he had seen its quality tested +round the clangorous walls of Troy -- some touch of an imperial +disdain ever lingered in his mind for these feeble folk who could +contentedly hail him -- him, who had known Cheiron! -- as hero and +lord! + +Achilles has passed, with the Centaurs and Troy; but the feeling +lingers. + +Of strange and divers strands is twisted the mysterious cord that, +reaching back "through spaces out of space and timeless time," +somewhere joins us to the Brute; a twine of mingled yarn, not utterly +base. As we grow from our animal infancy, and the threads snap one by +one at each gallant wing-stroke of a soul poising for flight into +Empyrean, we are yet conscious of a loss for every gain, we have some +forlorn sense of a vanished heritage. Willing enough are we to "let +the ape and tiger die"; but the pleasant cousins dissembled in hide +and fur and feather are not all tigers and apes: which last vile folk, +indeed, exist for us only in picture-books, and chiefly offend by +always carrying the Sunday School ensign of a Moral at their tails. +Others -- happily of less didactic dispositions -- there be; and it is +to these unaffected, careless companions that the sensible child is +wont to devote himself; leaving severely alone the stiff, tame +creatures claiming to be of closer kin. And yet these playmates, while +cheerfully admitting him of their fellowship, make him feel his +inferiority at every point. Vainly, his snub nose projected +earthwards, he essays to sniff it with the terrier who (as becomes the +nobler animal) is leading in the chase; and he is ready to weep as he +realises his loss. And the rest of the Free Company, -- the pony, the +cows, the great cart-horses, -- are ever shaming him by their +unboastful exercise of some enviable and unattainable attribute. Even +the friendly pig, who (did but parents permit) should eat of his bread +and drink of his cup, and be unto him as a brother, -- which among all +these unhappy bifurcations, so cheery, so unambitious, so purely +contented, so apt to be the guide, philosopher, and friend of boyhood +as he? What wonder that at times, when the neophyte in life begins to +realise that all these desirable accomplishments have had to be +surrendered one by one in the process of developing a Mind, the course +of fitting out a Lord of Creation, he is wont -- not knowing the +extent of the kingdom to which he is heir -- to feel a little +discontented? + +Ere now this ill-humour, taking root in a nature wherein the animal is +already ascendant, has led by downward paths to the Goat-Foot, in whom +the submerged human system peeps out but fitfully, at exalted moments. +He, the peevish and irascible, shy of trodden ways and pretty +domesticities, is linked to us by little but his love of melody; but +for which saving grace, the hair would soon creep up from thigh to +horn of him. At times he will still do us a friendly turn: will lend a +helping hand to poor little Psyche, wilfully seeking her own +salvation; will stand shoulder to shoulder with us on Marathon plain. +But in the main his sympathies are first for the beast: to which his +horns are never horrific, but, with his hairy pelt, ever natural and +familiar, and his voice (with its talk of help and healing) not harsh +nor dissonant, but voice of very brother as well as very god. + +And this declension -- for declension it is, though we achieve all the +confidences of Melampus, and even master with him the pleasant argot +of the woods -- may still be ours if we suffer what lives in us of our +primal cousins to draw us down. On the other hand, let soul inform and +irradiate body as it may, the threads are utterly shorn asunder never: +nor is man, the complete, the self-contained, permitted to cut himself +wholly adrift from these his poor relations. The mute and stunted +human embryo that gazes appealingly from out the depths of their eyes +must ever remind him of a kinship once (possibly) closer. Nay, at +times, it must even seem to whelm him in reproach. As thus: "Was it +really necessary, after all, that we two should part company so early? +May you not have taken a wrong turning somewhere, in your long race +after your so-called progress, after the perfection of this be-lauded +species of yours? A turning whose due avoidance might perhaps have +resulted in no such lamentable cleavage as is here, but in some +perfect embodiment of the dual nature: as who should say a being with +the nobilities of both of us, the basenesses of neither? So might you, +more fortunately guided, have been led at last up the green sides of +Pelion, to the ancestral, the primeval, Centaur still waiting majestic +on the summit!" It is even so. Perhaps this thing might once have +been, O cousin outcast and estranged! But the opportunity was long +since lost. Henceforth, two ways for us for ever! + +Orion + +The moonless night has a touch of frost, and is steely-clear. High and +dominant amidst the Populations of the Sky, the restless and the +steadfast alike, hangs the great Plough, lit with a hard radiance as +of the polished and shining share. And yonder, low on the horizon, but +half resurgent as yet, crouches the magnificent hunter: watchful, +seemingly, and expectant: with some hint of menace in his port. + +Yet should his game be up, you would think by now. Many a century has +passed since the plough first sped a conqueror east and west, clearing +forest and draining fen; policing the valleys with barbed-wires and +Sunday schools, with the chains that are forged of peace, the irking +fetters of plenty: driving also the whole lot of us, these to sweat at +its tail, those to plod with the patient team, but all to march in a +great chain-gang, the convicts of peace and order and law: while the +happy nomad, with his woodlands, his wild cattle, his pleasing +nuptialities, has long since disappeared, dropping only in his flight +some store of flint-heads, a legacy of confusion. Truly, we Children +of the Plough, but for yon tremendous Monitor in the sky, were in +right case to forget that the Hunter is still a quantity to reckon +withal. Where, then, does he hide, the Shaker of the Spear? Why, here, +my brother, and here; deep in the breasts of each and all of us! And +for this drop of primal quicksilver in the blood what poppy or +mandragora shall purge it hence away? + +Of pulpiteers and parents it is called Original Sin: a term wherewith +they brand whatever frisks and butts with rude goatish horns against +accepted maxims and trim theories of education. In the abstract, of +course, this fitful stirring of the old yeast is no more sin than a +natural craving for a seat on a high stool, for the inscription -- now +horizontal, and now vertical -- of figures, is sin. But the deskmen +command a temporary majority: for the short while they shall hold the +cards they have the right to call the game. And so -- since we must +bow to the storm -- let the one thing be labelled Sin, and the other +Salvation -- for a season: ourselves forgetting never that it is all a +matter of nomenclature. What we have now first to note is that this +original Waft from the Garden asserts itself most vigorously in the +Child. This it is that thrusts the small boy out under the naked +heavens, to enact a sorry and shivering Crusoe on an islet in the +duck-pond. This it is that sends the little girl footing it after the +gipsy's van, oblivious of lessons, puddings, the embrace maternal, the +paternal smack; hearing naught save the faint, far bugle-summons to +the pre-historic little savage that thrills and answers in the +tingling blood of her; seeing only a troop of dusky, dull-eyed guides +along that shining highway to the dim land east o' the sun and west o' +the moon: where freedom is, and you can wander and breathe, and at +night tame street lamps there are none -- only the hunter's fires, and +the eyes of lions, and the mysterious stars. In later years it is +stifled and gagged -- buried deep, a green turf at the head of it, and +on its heart a stone; but it lives, it breathes, it lurks, it will up +and out when 'tis looked for least. That stockbroker, some brief +summers gone, who was missed from his wonted place one settling-day! a +goodly portly man, i' faith: and had a villa and a steam launch at +Surbiton: and was versed in the esoteric humours of the House. Who +could have thought that the Hunter lay hid in him? Yet, after many +weeks, they found him in a wild nook of Hampshire. Ragged, sun-burnt, +the nocturnal haystack calling aloud from his frayed and +weather-stained duds, his trousers tucked, he was tickling trout with +godless native urchins; and when they would have won him to himself +with honied whispers of American Rails, he answered but with babble of +green fields. He is back in his wonted corner now: quite cured, +apparently, and tractable. And yet -- let the sun shine too wantonly +in Throgmorton Street, let an errant zephyr, quick with the warm +South, fan but his cheek too wooingly on his way to the station; and +will he not once more snap his chain and away? Ay, truly: and next +time he will not be caught. + +Deans have danced to the same wild piping, though their chapters have +hushed the matter up. Even Duchesses (they say) have "come tripping +doon the stair," rapt by the climbing passion from their +strawberry-leaved surroundings into starlit spaces. Nay, ourselves, +too -- the douce, respectable mediocrities that we are -- which of us +but might recall some fearful outbreak whose details are mercifully +unknown to the household that calls us breadwinner and chief? What +marvel that up yonder the Hunter smiles? When he knows that every one +in his ken, the tinker with the statesman, has caught his bugle blast +and gone forth on its irresistible appeal! + +Not that they are so easily followed as of yore, those flying echoes +of the horn! Joints are stiffer, maybe; certainly the desolate suburbs +creep ever farther into the retreating fields; and when you reach the +windy moorland, lo! it is all staked out into building-lots. Mud is +muddier now than heretofore; and ruts are ruttier. And what friendless +old beast comes limping down the dreary lane? He seems sorely shrunk +and shoulder-shotten; but by the something of divinity in his look, +still more than by the wings despondent along his mighty sides, 'tis +ever the old Pegasus -- not yet the knacker's own. "Hard times I've +been having," he murmurs, as you rub his nose. "These fellows have +really no seat except for a park hack. As for this laurel, we were +wont to await it trembling: and in taking it we were afraid. Your +English way of hunting it down with yelpings and hallooings -- well, I +may be out of date, but we wouldn't have stood that sort of thing on +Helicon." So he hobbles down the road. Good night, old fellow! Out of +date? Well, it may be so. And alas! the blame is ours. + +But for the Hunter -- there he rises -- couchant no more. Nay, flung +full stretch on the blue, he blazes, he dominates, he appals! Will his +turn, then, really come at last? After some Armageddon of cataclysmal +ruin, all levelling, whelming the County Councillor with the +Music-hall artiste, obliterating the very furrows of the Plough, shall +the skin-clad nomad string his bow once more, and once more loose the +whistling shaft? Wildly incredible it seems. And yet -- look up! Look +up and behold him confident, erect, majestic -- there on the threshold +of the sky! + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan Papers, by Kenneth Grahame + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 5319-8.txt or 5319-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/1/5319/ + +Produced by William McClain + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/5319-8.zip b/old/5319-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..adebc79 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/5319-8.zip diff --git a/old/5319.txt b/old/5319.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00df93c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/5319.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2290 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan Papers, by Kenneth Grahame + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pagan Papers + +Author: Kenneth Grahame + +Posting Date: March 20, 2014 [EBook #5319] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: June 30, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by William McClain + + + + + + + + + +Pagan Papers was first published in 1893 and the text is in the public +domain. This is a reprint of the first American edition of 1898. The +transcription was done by William McClain <info@sattre-press.com>, +2002. + +A printed version of this book is available from Sattre Press, +http://pagan_papers.sattre-press.com/. It includes a glossary of +French and Latin phrases. + + + + +PAGAN PAPERS + +by Kenneth Grahame + + + +The Romance of the Road + +Among the many places of magic visited by Pantagruel and his company +during the progress of their famous voyage, few surpass that island +whose roads did literally "go" to places -- "ou les chemins +cheminent, comme animaulx": and would-be travellers, having inquired +of the road as to its destination, and received satisfactory reply, +"se guindans" (as the old book hath it -- hoisting themselves up on) +"au chemin opportun, sans aultrement se poiner ou fatiguer, se +trouvoyent au lieu destine." + +The best example I know of an approach to this excellent sort of +vitality in roads is the Ridgeway of the North Berkshire Downs. Join +it at Streatley, the point where it crosses the Thames; at once it +strikes you out and away from the habitable world in a splendid, +purposeful manner, running along the highest ridge of the Downs a +broad green ribbon of turf, with but a shade of difference from the +neighbouring grass, yet distinct for all that. No villages nor +homesteads tempt it aside or modify its course for a yard; should you +lose the track where it is blent with the bordering turf or merged in +and obliterated by criss-cross paths, you have only to walk straight +on, taking heed of no alternative to right or left; and in a minute +'tis with you again -- arisen out of the earth as it were. Or, if +still not quite assured, lift you your eyes, and there it runs over +the brow of the fronting hill. Where a railway crosses it, it +disappears indeed -- hiding Alpheus-like, from the ignominy of rubble +and brick-work; but a little way on it takes up the running again with +the same quiet persistence. Out on that almost trackless expanse of +billowy Downs such a track is in some sort humanly companionable: it +really seems to lead you by the hand. + +The "Rudge" is of course an exceptional instance; but indeed this +pleasant personality in roads is not entirely fanciful. It exists as a +characteristic of the old country road, evolved out of the primitive +prehistoric track, developing according to the needs of the land it +passes through and serves: with a language, accordingly, and a meaning +of its own. Its special services are often told clearly enough; but +much else too of the quiet story of the country-side: something of the +old tale whereof you learn so little from the printed page. Each is +instinct, perhaps, with a separate suggestion. Some are martial and +historic, and by your side the hurrying feet of the dead raise a +ghostly dust. The name of yon town -- with its Roman or Saxon suffix +to British root -- hints at much. Many a strong man, wanting his vates +sacer, passed silently to Hades for that suffix to obtain. The little +rise up yonder on the Downs that breaks their straight green line +against the sky showed another sight when the sea of battle surged and +beat on its trampled sides; and the Roman, sore beset, may have gazed +down this very road for relief, praying for night or the succouring +legion. This child that swings on a gate and peeps at you from under +her sun-bonnet -- so may some girl-ancestress of hers have watched +with beating heart the Wessex levies hurry along to clash with the +heathen and break them on the down where the ash trees grew. And +yonder, where the road swings round under gloomy overgrowth of +drooping boughs -- is that gleam of water or glitter of lurking +spears? + +Some sing you pastorals, fluting low in the hot sun between dusty +hedges overlooked by contented cows; past farmsteads where man and +beast, living in frank fellowship, learn pleasant and serviceable +lessons each of the other; over the full-fed river, lipping the +meadow-sweet, and thence on either side through leagues of hay. Or +through bending corn they chant the mystical wonderful song of the +reaper when the harvest is white to the sickle. But most of them, +avoiding classification, keep each his several tender significance; as +with one I know, not so far from town, which woos you from the valley +by gentle ascent between nut-laden hedges, and ever by some touch of +keen fragrance in the air, by some mystery of added softness under +foot -- ever a promise of something to come, unguessed, delighting. +Till suddenly you are among the pines, their keen scent strikes you +through and through, their needles carpet the ground, and in their +swaying tops moans the unappeasable wind -- sad, ceaseless, as the cry +of a warped humanity. Some paces more, and the promise is fulfilled, +the hints and whisperings become fruition: the ground breaks steeply +away, and you look over a great inland sea of fields, homesteads, +rolling woodland, and -- bounding all, blent with the horizon, a +greyness, a gleam -- the English Channel. A road of promises, of +hinted surprises, following each other with the inevitable sequence in +a melody. + +But we are now in another and stricter sense an island of chemins qui +cheminent: dominated, indeed, by them. By these the traveller, +veritably se guindans, may reach his destination "sans se poiner ou +se fatiguer" (with large qualifications); but sans very much else +whereof he were none the worse. The gain seems so obvious that you +forget to miss all that lay between the springing stride of the early +start and the pleasant weariness of the end approached, when the limbs +lag a little as the lights of your destination begin to glimmer +through the dusk. All that lay between! "A Day's Ride a Life's +Romance" was the excellent title of an unsuccessful book; and indeed +the journey should march with the day, beginning and ending with its +sun, to be the complete thing, the golden round, required of it. This +makes that mind and body fare together, hand in hand, sharing the +hope, the action, the fruition; finding equal sweetness in the languor +of aching limbs at eve and in the first god-like intoxication of +motion with braced muscle in the sun. For walk or ride take the mind +over greater distances than a throbbing whirl with stiffening joints +and cramped limbs through a dozen counties. Surely you seem to cover +vaster spaces with Lavengro, footing it with gipsies or driving his +tinker's cart across lonely commons, than with many a globe-trotter or +steam-yachtsman with diary or log? And even that dividing line -- +strictly marked and rarely overstepped -- between the man who bicycles +and the man who walks, is less due to a prudent regard for personal +safety of the one part than to an essential difference in minds. + +There is a certain supernal, a deific, state of mind which may indeed +be experienced in a minor degree, by any one, in the siesta part of a +Turkish bath. But this particular golden glow of the faculties is only +felt at its fulness after severe and prolonged exertion in the open +air. "A man ought to be seen by the gods," says Marcus Aurelius, +"neither dissatisfied with anything, nor complaining." Though this +does not sound at first hearing an excessive demand to make of +humanity, yet the gods, I fancy, look long and often for such a sight +in these unblest days of hurry. If ever seen at all, 'tis when after +many a mile in sun and wind -- maybe rain -- you reach at last, with +the folding star, your destined rustic inn. There, in its homely, +comfortable strangeness, after unnumbered chops with country ale, the +hard facts of life begin to swim in a golden mist. You are isled from +accustomed cares and worries -- you are set in a peculiar nook of +rest. Then old failures seem partial successes, then old loves come +back in their fairest form, but this time with never a shadow of +regret, then old jokes renew their youth and flavour. You ask nothing +of the gods above, nothing of men below -- not even their company. +To-morrow you shall begin life again: shall write your book, make your +fortune, do anything; meanwhile you sit, and the jolly world swings +round, and you seem to hear it circle to the music of the spheres. +What pipe was ever thus beatifying in effect? You are aching all over, +and enjoying it; and the scent of the limes drifts in through the +window. This is undoubtedly the best and greatest country in the +world; and none but good fellows abide in it. + + Laud we the Gods, + And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils + From our blest altars. + +The Romance of the Rail + +In these iron days of the dominance of steam, the crowning wrong that +is wrought us of furnace and piston-rod lies in their annihilation of +the steadfast mystery of the horizon, so that the imagination no +longer begins to work at the point where vision ceases. In happier +times, three hundred years ago, the seafarers from Bristol City looked +out from the prows of their vessels in the grey of the morning, and +wot not rightly whether the land they saw might be Jerusalem or +Madagascar, or if it were not North and South America. "And there be +certaine flitting islands," says one, "which have been oftentimes +seene, and when men approached near them they vanished." "It may be +that the gulfs will wash us down," said Ulysses (thinking of what +Americans call the "getting-off place"); "it may be we shall touch +the Happy Isles." And so on, and so on; each with his special hope or +"wild surmise." There was always a chance of touching the Happy +Isles. And in that first fair world whose men and manners we knew +through story-books, before experience taught us far other, the Prince +mounts his horse one fine morning, and rides all day, and sleeps in a +forest; and next morning, lo! a new country: and he rides by fields +and granges never visited before, through faces strange to him, to +where an unknown King steps down to welcome the mysterious stranger. +And he marries the Princess, and dwells content for many a year; till +one day he thinks "I will look upon my father's face again, though +the leagues be long to my own land." And he rides all day, and sleeps +in a forest; and next morning he is made welcome at home, where his +name has become a dim memory. Which is all as it should be; for, +annihilate time and space as you may, a man's stride remains the true +standard of distance; an eternal and unalterable scale. The severe +horizon, too, repels the thoughts as you gaze to the infinite +considerations that lie about, within touch and hail; and the night +cometh, when no man can work. + +To all these natural bounds and limitations it is good to get back now +and again, from a life assisted and smooth by artificialities. Where +iron has superseded muscle, the kindly life-blood is apt to throb dull +as the measured beat of the steam-engine. But the getting back to them +is now a matter of effort, of set purpose, a stepping aside out of our +ordinary course; they are no longer unsought influences towards the +making of character. So perhaps the time of them has gone by, here in +this second generation of steam. Pereunt et imputantur; they pass +away, and are scored against not us but our guilty fathers. For +ourselves, our peculiar slate is probably filling fast. The romance of +the steam-engine is yet to be captured and expressed -- not fully nor +worthily, perhaps, until it too is a vanished regret; though Emerson +for one will not have it so, and maintains and justifies its right to +immediate recognition as poetic material. "For as it is dislocation +and detachment from the life of God that makes things ugly, the poet, +who re-attaches things to Nature and the whole -- re-attaching even +artificial things and violations of Nature to Nature by a deeper +insight -- disposes very easily of the most disagreeable facts"; so +that he looks upon "the factory village and the railway" and "sees +them fall within the great Order not less than the bee-hive or the +spider's geometrical web." The poet, however, seems hard to convince +hereof. Emerson will have it that "Nature loves the gliding train of +cars"; "instead of which" the poet still goes about the country +singing purling brooks. Painters have been more flexible and liberal. +Turner saw and did his best to seize the spirit of the thing, its +kinship with the elements, and to blend furnace-glare and rush of iron +with the storm-shower, the wind and the thwart-flashing sun-rays, and +to make the whole a single expression of irresoluble force. And even +in a certain work by another and a very different painter -- though I +willingly acquit Mr Frith of any deliberate romantic intention -- you +shall find the element of romance in the vestiges of the old order +still lingering in the first transition period: the coach-shaped +railway carriages with luggage piled and corded on top, the red-coated +guard, the little engine tethered well ahead as if between traces. To +those bred within sight of the sea, steamers will always partake in +somewhat of the "beauty and mystery of the ships"; above all, if +their happy childhood have lain among the gleaming lochs and sinuous +firths of the Western Highlands, where, twice a week maybe, the +strange visitant crept by headland and bay, a piece of the busy, +mysterious outer world. For myself, I probably stand alone in owning +to a sentimental weakness for the night-piercing whistle -- +judiciously remote, as some men love the skirl of the pipes. In the +days when streets were less wearily familiar than now, or ever the +golden cord was quite loosed that led back to relinquished fields and +wider skies, I have lain awake on stifling summer nights, thinking of +luckier friends by moor and stream, and listening for the whistles +from certain railway stations, veritable "horns of Elf-land, faintly +blowing." Then, a ghostly passenger, I have taken my seat in a +phantom train, and sped up, up, through the map, rehearsing the +journey bit by bit: through the furnace-lit Midlands, and on till the +grey glimmer of dawn showed stone walls in place of hedges, and masses +looming up on either side; till the bright sun shone upon brown +leaping streams and purple heather, and the clear, sharp northern air +streamed in through the windows. Return, indeed, was bitter; +Endymion-like, "my first touch of the earth went nigh to kill": but +it was only to hurry northwards again on the wings of imagination, +from dust and heat to the dear mountain air. "We are only the +children who might have been," murmured Lamb's dream babes to him; +and for the sake of those dream-journeys, the journeys that might have +been, I still hail with a certain affection the call of the engine in +the night: even as I love sometimes to turn the enchanted pages of the +railway a b c, and pass from one to the other name reminiscent or +suggestive of joy and freedom, Devonian maybe, or savouring of Wessex, +or bearing me away to some sequestered reach of the quiet Thames. + +Non Libri Sed Liberi + +It will never be clear to the lay mind why the book-buyer buys books. +That it is not to read them is certain: the closest inspection always +fails to find him thus engaged. He will talk about them -- all night +if you let him -- wave his hand to them, shake his fist at them, shed +tears over them (in the small hours of the morning); but he will not +read them. Yet it would be rash to infer that he buys his books +without a remote intention of ever reading them. Most book lovers +start with the honest resolution that some day they will "shut down +on" this fatal practice. Then they purpose to themselves to enter +into their charmed circle, and close the gates of Paradise behind +them. Then will they read out of nothing but first editions; every day +shall be a debauch in large paper and tall copies; and crushed morocco +shall be familiar to their touch as buckram. Meanwhile, though, books +continue to flaunt their venal charms; it would be cowardice to shun +the fray. In fine, one buys and continues to buy; and the promised +Sabbath never comes. + +The process of the purchase is always much the same, therein +resembling the familiar but inferior passion of love. There is the +first sight of the Object, accompanied of a catching of the breath, a +trembling in the limbs, loss of appetite, ungovernable desire, and a +habit of melancholy in secret places. But once possessed, once toyed +with amorously for an hour or two, the Object (as in the inferior +passion aforesaid) takes its destined place on the shelf -- where it +stays. And this saith the scoffer, is all; but even he does not fail +to remark with a certain awe that the owner goeth thereafter as one +possessing a happy secret and radiating an inner glow. Moreover, he is +insufferably conceited, and his conceit waxeth as his coat, now +condemned to a fresh term of servitude, groweth shabbier. And shabby +though his coat may be, yet will he never stoop to renew its pristine +youth and gloss by the price of any book. No man -- no human, +masculine, natural man -- ever sells a book. Men have been known in +moments of thoughtlessness, or compelled by temporary necessity, to +rob, to equivocate, to do murder, to commit what they should not, to +"wince and relent and refrain" from what they should: these things, +howbeit regrettable, are common to humanity, and may happen to any of +us. But amateur bookselling is foul and unnatural; and it is +noteworthy that our language, so capable of particularity, contains no +distinctive name for the crime. Fortunately it is hardly known to +exist: the face of the public being set against it as a flint -- and +the trade giving such wretched prices. + +In book-buying you not infrequently condone an extravagance by the +reflection that this particular purchase will be a good investment, +sordidly considered: that you are not squandering income but sinking +capital. But you know all the time that you are lying. Once possessed, +books develop a personality: they take on a touch of warm human life +that links them in a manner with our kith and kin. Non angli sed +Angeli was the comment of a missionary (old style) on the small human +duodecimos exposed for sale in the Roman market-place; and many a +buyer, when some fair-haired little chattel passed into his +possession, must have felt that here was something vendible no more. +So of these you may well affirm Non libri sed liberi; children now, +adopted into the circle, they shall be trafficked in never again. + +There is one exception which has sadly to be made -- one class of men, +of whom I would fain, if possible, have avoided mention, who are +strangers to any such scruples. These be Executors -- a word to be +strongly accented on the penultimate; for, indeed, they are the common +headsmen of collections, and most of all do whet their bloody edge for +harmless books. Hoary, famous old collections, budding young +collections, fair virgin collections of a single author -- all go down +before the executor's remorseless axe. He careth not and he spareth +not. "The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy," and it +is chiefly by the hand of the executor that she doth love to scatter +it. May oblivion be his portion for ever! + +Of a truth, the foes of the book-lover are not few. One of the most +insidious, because he cometh at first in friendly, helpful guise, is +the bookbinder. Not in that he bindeth books -- for the fair binding +is the final crown and flower of painful achievement -- but because he +bindeth not: because the weary weeks lapse by and turn to months, and +the months to years, and still the binder bindeth not: and the heart +grows sick with hope deferred. Each morn the maiden binds her hair, +each spring the honeysuckle binds the cottage-porch, each autumn the +harvester binds his sheaves, each winter the iron frost binds lake and +stream, and still the bookbinder he bindeth not. Then a secret voice +whispereth: "Arise, be a man, and slay him! Take him grossly, full of +bread, with all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; At gaming, +swearing, or about some act That hath no relish of salvation in it!" +But when the deed is done, and the floor strewn with fragments of +binder -- still the books remain unbound. You have made all that +horrid mess for nothing, and the weary path has to be trodden over +again. As a general rule, the man in the habit of murdering +bookbinders, though he performs a distinct service to society, only +wastes his own time and takes no personal advantage. + +And even supposing that after many days your books return to you in +leathern surcoats bravely tricked with gold, you have scarce yet +weathered the Cape and sailed into halcyon seas. For these books -- +well, you kept them many weeks before binding them, that the +oleaginous printer's-ink might fully dry before the necessary +hammering; you forbore to open the pages, that the autocratic binder +might refold the sheets if he pleased; and now that all is over -- +consummatum est -- still you cannot properly enjoy the harvest of a +quiet mind. For these purple emperors are not to be read in bed, nor +during meals, nor on the grass with a pipe on Sundays; and these brief +periods are all the whirling times allow you for solid serious +reading. Still, after all, you have them; you can at least pulverise +your friends with the sight; and what have they to show against them? +Probably some miserable score or so of half-bindings, such as lead you +scornfully to quote the hackneyed couplet concerning the poor Indian +whose untutored mind clothes him before but leaves him bare behind. +Let us thank the gods that such things are: that to some of us they +give not poverty nor riches but a few good books in whole bindings. +Dowered with these and (if it be vouchsafed) a cup of Burgundy that is +sound even if it be not old, we can leave to others the foaming grape +of Eastern France that was vintaged in '74, and with it the whole +range of shilling shockers, -- the Barmecidal feast of the purposeful +novelist -- yea, even the countless series that tell of Eminent Women +and Successful Men. + +Loafing + +When the golden Summer has rounded languidly to his close, when Autumn +has been carried forth in russet winding-sheet, then all good fellows +who look upon holidays as a chief end of life return from moor and +stream and begin to take stock of gains and losses. And the wisest, +realising that the time of action is over while that of reminiscence +has begun, realise too that the one is pregnant with greater pleasures +than the other -- that action, indeed, is only the means to an end of +reflection and appreciation. Wisest of all, the Loafer stands apart +supreme. For he, of one mind with the philosopher as to the end, goes +straight to it at once; and his happy summer has accordingly been +spent in those subjective pleasures of the mind whereof the others, +the men of muscle and peeled faces, are only just beginning to taste. + +And yet though he may a little despise (or rather pity) them, the +Loafer does not dislike nor altogether shun them. Far from it: they +are very necessary to him. For "Suave mari magno" is the motto of +your true Loafer; and it is chiefly by keeping ever in view the +struggles and the clamorous jostlings of the unenlightened making +holiday that he is able to realise the bliss of his own condition and +maintain his self-satisfaction at boiling-point. And so is he never +very far away from the track beaten by the hurrying Philistine hoof, +but hovers more or less on the edge of it, where, the sole fixed star +amidst whirling constellations, he may watch the mad world "glance, +and nod, and hurry by." + +There are many such centres of contemplation along the West Coast of +Scotland. Few places are better loafing-ground than a pier, with its +tranquil "lucid interval" between steamers, the ever recurrent throb +of paddle-wheel, the rush and foam of beaten water among the piles, +splash of ropes and rumble of gangways, and all the attendant hurry +and scurry of the human morrice. Here, tanquam in speculo, the Loafer +as he lounges may, by attorney as it were, touch gently every stop in +the great organ of the emotions of mortality. Rapture of meeting, +departing woe, love at first sight, disdain, laughter, indifference -- +he may experience them all, but attenuated and as if he saw them in a +dream; as if, indeed, he were Heine's god in dream on a mountain-side. +Let the drowsy deity awake and all these puppets, emanations of his +dream, will vanish into the nothing whence they came. And these +emotions may be renewed each morning; if a fair one sail to-day, be +sure that one as fair will land to-morrow. The supply is +inexhaustible. + +But in the South perhaps the happiest loafing-ground is the gift of +Father Thames; for there again the contrast of violent action, with +its blisters, perspiration, and the like, throws into fine relief the +bliss of "quietism." I know one little village in the upper reaches +where loafing may be pushed to high perfection. Here the early hours +of the morning are vexed by the voices of boaters making their way +down the little street to the river. The most of them go staggering +under hampers, bundles of waterproofs, and so forth. Their voices are +clamant of feats to be accomplished: they will row, they will punt, +they will paddle, till they weary out the sun. All this the Loafer +hears through the open door of his cottage, where in his shirt-sleeves +he is dallying with his bacon, as a gentleman should. He is the only +one who has had a comfortable breakfast -- and he knows it. Later he +will issue forth and stroll down in their track to the bridge. The +last of these Argonauts is pulling lustily forth; the river is dotted +with evanishing blazers. Upon all these lunatics a pitiless Phoebus +shines triumphant. The Loafer sees the last of them off the stage, +turns his back on it, and seeks the shady side of the street. + +A holy calm possesses the village now; the foreign element has passed +away with shouting and waving of banners, and its natural life of +somnolency is in evidence at last. And first, as a true Loafer should, +let him respectfully greet each several village dog. Arcades ambo -- +loafers likewise -- they lie there in the warm dust, each outside his +own door, ready to return the smallest courtesy. Their own lords and +masters are not given to the exchange of compliments nor to greetings +in the market-place. The dog is generally the better gentleman, and he +is aware of it; and he duly appreciates the loafer, who is not too +proud to pause a moment, change the news, and pass the time of day. He +will mark his sense of this attention by rising from his dust-divan +and accompanying his caller some steps on his way. But he will stop +short of his neighbour's dust-patch; for the morning is really too hot +for a shindy. So, by easy stages (the street is not a long one: six +dogs will see it out), the Loafer quits the village; and now the world +is before him. Shall he sit on a gate and smoke? or lie on the grass +and smoke? or smoke aimlessly and at large along the road? Such a +choice of happiness is distracting; but perhaps the last course is the +best -- as needing the least mental effort of selection. Hardly, +however, has he fairly started his first daydream when the snappish +"ting" of a bellkin recalls him to realities. By comes the +bicyclist: dusty, sweating, a piteous thing to look upon. But the +irritation of the strepitant metal has jarred the Loafer's always +exquisite nerves: he is fain to climb a gate and make his way towards +solitude and the breezy downs. + +Up here all vestiges of a sordid humanity disappear. The Loafer is +alone with the south-west wind and the blue sky. Only a carolling of +larks and a tinkling from distant flocks break the brooding noonday +stillness; above, the wind-hover hangs motionless, a black dot on the +blue. Prone on his back on the springy turf, gazing up into the sky, +his fleshy integument seems to drop away, and the spirit ranges at +will among the tranquil clouds. This way Nirvana nearest lies. Earth +no longer obtrudes herself; possibly somewhere a thousand miles or so +below him the thing still "spins like a fretful midge." The Loafer +knows not nor cares. His is now an astral body, and through golden +spaces of imagination his soul is winging her untrammelled flight. And +there he really might remain for ever, but that his vagrom spirit is +called back to earth by a gentle but resistless, very human summons, +-- a gradual, consuming, Pantagruelian, god-like, thirst: a thirst to +thank Heaven on. So, with a sigh half of regret, half of anticipation, +he bends his solitary steps towards the nearest inn. Tobacco for one +is good; to commune with oneself and be still is truest wisdom; but +beer is a thing of deity -- beer is divine. + +Later the Loafer may decently make some concession to popular taste by +strolling down to the river and getting out his boat. With one paddle +out he will drift down the stream: just brushing the flowering rush +and the meadow-sweet and taking in as peculiar gifts the varied sweets +of even. The loosestrife is his, and the arrow-head: his the distant +moan of the weir; his are the glories, amber and scarlet and silver, +of the sunset-haunted surface. By-and-by the boaters will pass him +homeward-bound. All are blistered and sore: his withers are unwrung. +Most are too tired and hungry to see the sunset glories; no corporeal +pangs clog his aesthesis -- his perceptive faculty. Some have +quarrelled in the day and are no longer on speaking terms; he is at +peace with himself and with the whole world. Of all that lay them down +in the little village that night, his sleep will be the surest and the +sweetest. For not even the blacksmith himself will have better claim +to have earned a night's repose. + +Cheap Knowledge + +When at times it happens to me that I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, +and to find the fair apple of life dust and ashes at the core -- just +because, perhaps, I can't afford Melampus Brown's last volume of poems +in large paper, but must perforce condescend upon the two-and-sixpenny +edition for the million -- then I bring myself to a right temper by +recalling to memory a sight which now and again in old days would +touch the heart of me to a happier pulsation. In the long, dark winter +evenings, outside some shop window whose gaslight flared brightest +into the chilly street, I would see some lad -- sometimes even a girl +-- book in hand, heedless of cold and wet, of aching limbs and +straining eyes, careless of jostling passers-by, of rattle and turmoil +behind them and about, their happy spirits far in an enchanted world: +till the ruthless shopman turned out the gas and brought them rudely +back to the bitter reality of cramped legs and numbed fingers. "My +brother!" or "My sister!" I would cry inwardly, feeling the link +that bound us together. They possessed, for the hour, the two gifts +most precious to the student -- light and solitude: the true solitude +of the roaring street. + +Somehow this vision rarely greets me now. Probably the Free Libraries +have supplanted the flickering shop lights; and every lad and lass can +enter and call for Miss Braddon and batten thereon "in luxury's +sofa-lap of leather"; and of course this boon is appreciated and +profited by, and we shall see the divine results in a year or two. And +yet sometimes, like the dear old Baron in the "Red Lamp," "I +wonder?" + +For myself, public libraries possess a special horror, as of lonely +wastes and dragon-haunted fens. The stillness and the heavy air, the +feeling of restriction and surveillance, the mute presence of these +other readers, "all silent and all damned," combine to set up a +nervous irritation fatal to quiet study. Had I to choose, I would +prefer the windy street. And possibly others have found that the +removal of checks and obstacles makes the path which leads to the +divine mountain-tops less tempting, now that it is less rugged. So +full of human nature are we all -- still -- despite the Radical +missionaries that labour in the vineyard. Before the National Gallery +was extended and rearranged, there was a little "St Catherine" by +Pinturicchio that possessed my undivided affections. In those days she +hung near the floor, so that those who would worship must grovel; and +little I grudged it. Whenever I found myself near Trafalgar Square +with five minutes to spare I used to turn in and sit on the floor +before the object of my love, till gently but firmly replaced on my +legs by the attendant. She hangs on the line now, in the grand new +room; but I never go to see her. Somehow she is not my "St +Catherine" of old. Doubtless Free Libraries affect many students in +the same way: on the same principle as that now generally accepted -- +that it is the restrictions placed on vice by our social code which +make its pursuit so peculiarly agreeable. + +But even when the element of human nature has been fully allowed for, +it remains a question whether the type of mind that a generation or +two of Free Libraries will evolve is or is not the one that the world +most desiderates; and whether the spare reading and consequent fertile +thinking necessitated by the old, or gas-lamp, style is not productive +of sounder results. The cloyed and congested mind resulting from the +free run of these grocers' shops to omnivorous appetites (and all +young readers are omnivorous) bids fair to produce a race of literary +resurrection-men: a result from which we may well pray to be spared. +Of all forms of lettered effusiveness that which exploits the original +work of others and professes to supply us with right opinions +thereanent is the least wanted. And whether he take to literary +expression by pen or only wag the tongue of him, the grocer's boy of +letters is sure to prove a prodigious bore. The Free Library, if it be +fulfilling the programme of its advocates, is breeding such as he by +scores. + +But after all there is balm in Gilead; and much joy and consolation +may be drawn from the sorrowful official reports, by which it would +appear that the patrons of these libraries are confining their +reading, with a charming unanimity, exclusively to novels. And indeed +they cannot do better; there is no more blessed thing on earth than a +good novel, not the least merit of which is that it induces a state of +passive, unconscious enjoyment, and never frenzies the reader to go +out and put the world right. Next to fairy tales -- the original +world-fiction -- our modern novels may be ranked as our most precious +possessions; and so it has come to pass that I shall now cheerfully +pay my five shillings, or ten shillings, or whatever it may shortly +be, in the pound towards the Free Library: convinced at last that the +money is not wasted in training exponents of the subjectivity of this +writer and the objectivity of that, nor in developing fresh imitators +of dead discredited styles, but is righteously devoted to the support +of wholesome, honest, unpretending novel-reading. + +The Rural Pan + +An April Essay + +Through shady Throgmorton Street and about the vale of Cheapside the +restless Mercury is flitting, with furtive eye and voice a little +hoarse from bidding in the market. Further west, down classic +Piccadilly, moves the young Apollo, the lord of the unerring (satin) +bow; and nothing meaner than a frock-coat shall in these latter years +float round his perfect limbs. But remote in other haunts than these +the rural Pan is hiding, and piping the low, sweet strain that reaches +only the ears of a chosen few. And now that the year wearily turns and +stretches herself before the perfect waking, the god emboldened begins +to blow a clearer note. + +When the waking comes at last, and Summer is abroad, these deities +will abroad too, each as his several attributes move him. Who is this +that flieth up the reaches of the Thames in steam-launch hired for the +day? Mercury is out -- some dozen or fifteen strong. The flower-gemmed +banks crumble and slide down under the wash of his rampant screw; his +wake is marked by a line of lobster-claws, gold-necked bottles, and +fragments of veal-pie. Resplendent in blazer, he may even be seen to +embrace the slim-waisted nymph, haunter of green (room) shades, in the +full gaze of the shocked and scandalised sun. Apollo meantime +reposeth, passively beautiful, on the lawn of the Guards' Club at +Maidenhead. Here, O Apollo, are haunts meet for thee. A deity +subjectively inclined, he is neither objective nor, it must be said +for him, at all objectionable, like them of Mercury. + +Meanwhile, nor launches nor lawns tempt him that pursueth the rural +Pan. In the hushed recesses of Hurley backwater where the canoe may be +paddled almost under the tumbling comb of the weir, he is to be looked +for; there the god pipes with freest abandonment. Or under the great +shadow of Streatley Hill, "annihilating all that's made to a green +thought in a green shade"; or better yet, pushing an explorer's prow +up the remote untravelled Thame, till Dorchester's stately roof broods +over the quiet fields. In solitudes such as these Pan sits and +dabbles, and all the air is full of the music of his piping. +Southwards, again, on the pleasant Surrey downs there is shouting and +jostling; dust that is drouthy and language that is sultry. Thither +comes the young Apollo, calmly confident as ever; and he meeteth +certain Mercuries of the baser sort, who do him obeisance, call him +captain and lord, and then proceed to skin him from head to foot as +thoroughly as the god himself flayed Marsyas in days of yore, at a +certain Spring Meeting in Phrygia: a good instance of Time's revenges. +And yet Apollo returns to town and swears he has had a grand day. He +does so every year. Out of hearing of all the clamour, the rural Pan +may be found stretched on Ranmore Common, loitering under Abinger +pines, or prone by the secluded stream of the sinuous Mole, abounding +in friendly greetings for his foster-brothers the dab-chick and +water-rat. + +For a holiday, Mercury loveth the Pullman Express, and a short hour +with a society paper; anon, brown boots on the pier, and the pleasant +combination of Metropole and Monopole. Apollo for his part will urge +the horses of the Sun: and, if he leaveth the society weekly to +Mercury, yet he loveth well the Magazine. From which omphalos or hub +of the universe he will direct his shining team even to the far +Hesperides of Richmond or of Windsor. Both iron road and level highway +are shunned by the rural Pan, who chooses rather to foot it along the +sheep track on the limitless downs or the thwart-leading footpath +through copse and spinney, not without pleasant fellowship with +feather and fir. Nor does it follow from all this that the god is +unsocial. Albeit shy of the company of his more showy brother-deities, +he loveth the more unpretentious humankind, especially them that are +adscripti glebae, addicted to the kindly soil and to the working +thereof: perfect in no way, only simple, cheery sinners. For he is +only half a god after all, and the red earth in him is strong. When +the pelting storm drives the wayfarers to the sheltering inn, among +the little group on bench and settle Pan has been known to appear at +times, in homely guise of hedger-and-ditcher or weather-beaten +shepherd from the downs. Strange lore and quaint fancy he will then +impart, in the musical Wessex or Mercian he has learned to speak so +naturally; though it may not be till many a mile away that you begin +to suspect that you have unwittingly talked with him who chased the +flying Syrinx in Arcady and turned the tide of fight at Marathon. + +Yes: to-day the iron horse has searched the country through -- east +and west, north and south -- bringing with it Commercialism, whose god +is Jerry, and who studs the hills with stucco and garrotes the streams +with the girder. Bringing, too, into every nook and corner fashion and +chatter, the tailor-made gown and the eyeglass. Happily a great part +is still spared -- how great these others fortunately do not know -- +in which the rural Pan and his following may hide their heads for yet +a little longer, until the growing tyranny has invaded the last +common, spinney, and sheep-down, and driven the kindly god, the +well-wisher to man -- whither? + +Marginalia + +American Hunt, in his suggestive "Talks about Art," demands that the +child shall be encouraged -- or rather permitted, for the natural +child needs little encouragement -- to draw when- and whereon-soever +he can; for, says he, the child's scribbling on the margin of his +school-books is really worth more to him than all he gets out of them, +and indeed, "to him the margin is the best part of all books, and he +finds in it the soothing influence of a clear sky in a landscape." +Doubtless Sir Benjamin Backbite, though his was not an artist soul, +had some dim feeling of this mighty truth when he spoke of that new +quarto of his, in which "a neat rivulet of text shall meander through +a meadow of margin": boldly granting the margin to be of superior +importance to the print. This metaphor is pleasantly expanded in +Burton's "Bookhunter": wherein you read of certain folios with +"their majestic stream of central print overflowing into rivulets of +marginal notes, sedgy with citations." But the good Doctor leaves the +main stream for a backwater of error in inferring that the chief use +of margins is to be a parading-ground for notes and citations. As if +they had not absolute value in themselves, nor served a finer end! In +truth, Hunt's child was vastly the wiser man. + +For myself, my own early margins chiefly served to note, cite, and +illustrate the habits of crocodiles. Along the lower or "tail" edge, +the saurian, splendidly serrated as to his back, arose out of old +Nile; up one side negroes, swart as sucked lead-pencil could limn +them, let fall their nerveless spears; up the other, monkeys, +gibbering with terror, swarmed hastily up palm-trees -- a plant to the +untutored hand of easier outline than (say) your British oak. +Meanwhile, all over the unregarded text Balbus slew Caius on the most +inadequate provocation, or Hannibal pursued his victorious career, +while Roman generals delivered ornate set speeches prior to receiving +the usual satisfactory licking. Fabius, Hasdrubal -- all alike were +pallid shades with faint, thin voices powerless to pierce the +distance. The margins of Cocytus doubtless knew them: mine were +dedicated to the more attractive flesh and blood of animal life, the +varied phases of the tropic forest. Or, in more practical mood, I +would stoop to render certain facts recorded in the text. To these +digressions I probably owe what little education I possess. For +example, there was one sentence in our Roman history: "By this single +battle of Magnesia, Antiochus the Great lost all his conquests in Asia +Minor." Serious historians really should not thus forget themselves. +'Twas so easy, by a touch of the pen, to transform "battle" into +"bottle"; for "conquests" one could substitute a word for which +not even Macaulay's school-boy were at a loss; and the result, +depicted with rude vigour in his margin, fixed the name of at least +one ancient fight on the illustrator's memory. But this plodding and +material art had small charm for me: to whom the happy margin was a +"clear sky" ever through which I could sail away at will to more +gracious worlds. I was duly qualified by a painfully acquired +ignorance of dead languages cautiously to approach my own; and 'twas +no better. Along Milton's margins the Gryphon must needs pursue the +Arimaspian -- what a chance, that Arimaspian, for the imaginative +pencil! And so it has come about that, while Milton periods are mostly +effaced from memory by the sponge of Time, I can still see that +vengeful Gryphon, cousin-german to the gentle beast that danced the +Lobster Quadrille by a certain shore. + +It is by no means insisted upon that the chief end and use of margins +is for pictorial illustration, nor yet for furtive games of oughts and +crosses, nor (in the case of hymn-books) for amorous missives scrawled +against the canticle for the day, to be passed over into an adjacent +pew: as used, alas! to happen in days when one was young and godless, +and went to church. Nor, again, are the margins of certain poets +entrusted to man for the composing thereon of infinitely superior +rhymes on the subjects themselves have maltreated: a depraved habit, +akin to scalping. What has never been properly recognised is the +absolute value of the margin itself -- a value frequently superior to +its enclosure. In poetry the popular taste demands its margin, and +takes care to get it in "the little verses wot they puts inside the +crackers." The special popularity, indeed, of lyric as opposed to +epic verse is due to this habit of feeling. A good example maybe found +in the work of Mr Swinburne: the latter is the better poetry, the +earlier remains the more popular -- because of its eloquence of +margin. Mr Tupper might long ago have sat with laureate brow but for +his neglect of this first principle. The song of Sigurd, our one epic +of the century, is pitiably unmargined, and so has never won the full +meed of glory it deserves; while the ingenious gentleman who wrote +"Beowulf," our other English epic, grasped the great fact from the +first, so that his work is much the more popular of the two. The moral +is evident. An authority on practical book-making has stated that +"margin is a matter to be studied"; also that "to place the print +in the centre of the paper is wrong in principle, and to be +deprecated." Now, if it be "wrong in principle," let us push that +principle to its legitimate conclusion, and "deprecate" the placing +of print on any part of the paper at all. Without actually suggesting +this course to any of our living bards, when, I may ask -- when shall +that true poet arise who, disdaining the trivialities of text, shall +give the world a book of verse consisting entirely of margin? How we +shall shove and jostle for large paper copies! + +The Eternal Whither + +There was once an old cashier in some ancient City establishment, +whose practice was to spend his yearly holiday in relieving some +turnpike-man at his post, and performing all the duties appertaining +thereunto. This was vulgarly taken to be an instance of mere +mill-horse enslavement to his groove -- the reception of payments; and +it was spoken of both in mockery of all mill-horses and for the due +admonishment of others. And yet that clerk had discovered for himself +an unique method of seeing Life at its best, the flowing, hurrying, +travelling, marketing Life of the Highway; the life of bagman and +cart, of tinker, and pig-dealer, and all cheery creatures that drink +and chaffer together in the sun. He belonged, above all, to the scanty +class of clear-seeing persons who know both what they are good for and +what they really want. To know what you would like to do is one thing; +to go out boldly and do it is another -- and a rarer; and the sterile +fields about Hell-Gate are strewn with the corpses of those who would +an if they could. + +To be sure, being bent on the relaxation most congenial to one's soul, +it is possible to push one's disregard for convention too far: as is +seen in the case of another, though of an earlier generation, in the +same establishment. In his office there was the customary +"attendance-book," wherein the clerks were expected to sign each +day. Here his name one morning ceases abruptly from appearing; he +signs, indeed, no more. Instead of signature you find, a little later, +writ in careful commercial hand, this entry: "Mr --- did not attend +at his office to-day, having been hanged at eight o'clock in the +morning for horse-stealing." Through the faded ink of this record do +you not seem to catch, across the gulf of years, some waft of the +jolly humanity which breathed in this prince among clerks? A formal +precisian, doubtless, during business hours; but with just this honest +love of horseflesh lurking deep down there in him -- unsuspected, +sweetening the whole lump. Can you not behold him, freed from his +desk, turning to pursue his natural bent, as a city-bred dog still +striveth to bury his bone deep in the hearth-rug? For no filthy lucre, +you may be sure, but from sheer love of the pursuit itself! All the +same, he erred; erred, if not in taste, at least in judgment: for we +cannot entirely acquit him of blame for letting himself be caught. + +In these tame and tedious days of the policeman rampant, our +melancholy selves are debarred from many a sport, joyous and debonair, +whereof our happier fathers were free. Book-stealing, to be sure, +remains to us; but every one is not a collector; and, besides, 'tis a +diversion you can follow with equal success all the year round. Still, +the instance may haply be pregnant with suggestion to many who wearily +ask each year, what new place or pursuit exhausted earth still keeps +for the holiday-maker. 'Tis a sad but sober fact, that the most of men +lead flat and virtuous lives, departing annually with their family to +some flat and virtuous place, there to disport themselves in a manner +that is decent, orderly, wholly uninteresting, vacant of every buxom +stimulus. To such as these a suggestion, in all friendliness: why not +try crime? We shall not attempt to specify the particular branch -- +for every one must himself seek out and find the path his nature best +fits him to follow; but the general charm of the prospect must be +evident to all. The freshness and novelty of secrecy, the artistic +satisfaction in doing the act of self-expression as well as it can +possibly be done; the experience of being not the hunter, but the +hunted, not the sportsman, but the game; the delight of comparing and +discussing crimes with your mates over a quiet pipe on your return to +town; these new pleasures -- these and their like -- would furnish +just that gentle stimulant, that peaceful sense of change so necessary +to the tired worker. And then the fact, that you would naturally have +to select and plan out your particular line of diversion without +advice or assistance, has its own advantage. For the moment a man +takes to dinning in your ears that you ought, you really ought, to go +to Norway, you at once begin to hate Norway with a hate that ever will +be; and to have Newlyn, Cromer, or Dawlish, Carinthia or the Austrian +Tyrol jammed down your throat, is enough to initiate the discovery +that your own individual weakness is a joyous and persistent liking +for manslaughter. + +Some few seem to be born without much innate tendency to crime. After +all, it is mostly a matter of heredity; these unfortunates are less +culpable than their neglectful ancestors; and it is a fault that none +need really blush for in the present. For such as they there still +remains the example of the turnpike-loving clerk, with all its golden +possibilities. Denied the great delight of driving a locomotive, or a +fire-engine -- whirled along in a glorious nimbus of smoke-pant, +spark-shower, and hoarse warning roar -- what bliss to the palefaced +quilldriver to command a penny steamboat between London Bridge and +Chelsea! to drive a four-horsed Jersey-car to Kew at sixpence a head! +Though turnpikes be things of the past, there are still tolls to be +taken on many a pleasant reach of Thames. What happiness in quiet +moments to tend the lock-keeper's flower-beds -- perhaps make love to +his daughter; anon in busier times to let the old gates swing, work +the groaning winches, and hear the water lap and suck and gurgle as it +slowly sinks or rises with its swaying freight; to dangle legs over +the side and greet old acquaintances here and there among the +parti-coloured wayfarers passing up or down; while tobacco palleth not +on the longest day, and beer is ever within easy reach. The iron +tetter that scurfs the face of our island has killed out the pleasant +life of the road; but many of its best conditions still linger round +these old toll gates, free from dust and clatter, on the silent liquid +Highway to the West. + +These for the weaker brethren: but for him who is conscious of the +Gift, the path is plain. + +Deus Terminus + +The practical Roman, stern constructor of roads and codes, when he +needs must worship, loved a deity practical as himself; and in his +parcelling of the known world into plots, saying unto this man, Bide +here, and to that, Sit you down there, he could scarce fail to evolve +the god Terminus: visible witness of possession and dominion, type of +solid facts not to be quibbled away. We Romans of this latter day -- +so hailed by others, or complacently christened by ourselves -- are +Roman in nothing more than in this; and, as much in the less tangible +realms of thought as in our solid acres, we are fain to set up the +statue which shall proclaim that so much country is explored, marked +out, allotted, and done with; that such and such ramblings and +excursions are practicable and permissible, and all else is exploded, +illegal, or absurd. And in this way we are left with naught but a +vague lingering tradition of the happier days before the advent of the +ruthless deity. + +The sylvan glories of yonder stretch of woodland renew themselves each +autumn, regal as ever. It is only the old enchantment that is gone; +banished by the matter-of-fact deity, who has stolidly settled exactly +where Lord A.'s shooting ends and Squire B.'s begins. Once, no such +petty limitations fettered the mind. A step into the woodland was a +step over the border -- the margin of the material; and then, good-bye +to the modern world of the land-agent and the "Field" advertisement! +A chiming of little bells over your head, and lo! the peregrine, with +eyes like jewels, fluttered through the trees, her jesses catching in +the boughs. 'Twas the favourite of the Princess, the windows of whose +father's castle already gleamed through the trees, where honours and +favours awaited the adventurous. The white doe sprang away through the +thicket, her snowy flank stained with blood; she made for the +enchanted cot, and for entrance you too had the pass-word. Did you +fail on her traces, nor fox nor mole was too busy to spare a moment +for friendly advice or information. Little hands were stretched to +trip you, fairy gibe and mockery pelted you from every rabbit-hole; +and O what Dryads you have kissed among the leaves, in that brief +blissful moment ere they hardened into tree! 'Tis pity, indeed, that +this sort of thing should have been made to share the suspicion +attaching to the poacher; that the stony stare of the boundary god +should confront you at the end of every green ride and rabbit-run; +while the very rabbits themselves are too disgusted with the altered +circumstances to tarry a moment for so much as to exchange the time of +day. + +Truly this age is born, like Falstaff, with a white head and something +a round belly: and will none of your jigs and fantasies. The golden +era of princesses is past. For your really virtuous 'prentices there +still remain a merchant's daughter or two, and a bottle of port o' +Sundays on the Clapham mahogany. For the rest of us, one or two decent +clubs, and plenty of nice roomy lunatic asylums. "Go spin, you jade, +go spin!" is the one greeting for Imagination. And yet -- what a lip +the slut has! What an ankle! Go to: there's nobody looking; let us +lock the door, pull down the blinds, and write us a merry ballad. + +'Tis ungracious, perhaps, to regret what is gone for ever, when so +much is given in return. A humour we have, that is entirely new; and +allotments that shall win back Astraea. Our Labor Program stands for +evidence that the Board School, at least, has done enduring work; and +the useless race of poets is fast dying out. Though we no longer +conjecture what song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed +when he hid himself among women, yet many a prize (of guineas galore) +awaits the competitor who will stoop, week by week, to more practical +research. "Le monde marche," as Renan hath it, "vers une sorte +d'americanisme.... Peut-etre la vulgarite generale sera-t-elle un jour +la condition du bonheur des elus. Nous n'avons pas le droit d'etre +fort difficiles." We will be very facile, then, since needs must; +remembering the good old proverb that "scornful dogs eat dirty +puddings." But, ere we show Terminus the door, at least let us fling +one stone at the shrieking sulphureous houses of damnation erected as +temples in his honour, and dignified with his name! There, 'mid +clangour, dirt, and pestilence of crowding humanity, the very spirit +of worry and unrest sits embodied. The old Roman was not such a bad +fellow. His deity of demarcation at least breathed open air, and knew +the kindly touch of sun and wind. His simple rites were performed amid +flowers and under blue sky, by sunny roads or tranquil waters; and on +this particular altar the sacrifice was ordained to be free from any +stain of gore. Our hour of sacrifice, alas, has not yet come. When it +does -- ( et haud procul absit!) -- let the offering be no bloodless +one, but let (for choice) a fat and succulent stationmaster smoke and +crackle on the altar of expiation! + +Of Smoking + +Concerning Cigarette Smoking: It hath been well observed by a certain +philosopher that this is a practice commendable enough, and pleasant +to indulge in, "when you're not smoking"; wherein the whole +criticism of the cigarette is found, in a little room. Of the same +manner of thinking was one that I knew, who kept by him an ample case +bulging with cigarettes, to smoke while he was filling his pipe. Toys +they be verily, nugae, and shadows of the substance. Serviceable, +nevertheless, as shadows sometimes be when the substance is +temporarily unattainable; as between the acts of a play, in the park, +or while dressing for dinner: that such moments may not be entirely +wasted. That cigarette, however, which is so prompt to appear after +dinner I would reprehend and ban and totally abolish: as enemy to that +diviner thing before which it should pale its ineffectual fires in +shame -- to wit, good drink, "la dive bouteille"; except indeed when +the liquor be bad, as is sometimes known to happen. Then it may serve +in some sort as a sorry consolation. But to leave these airy +substitutes, and come to smoking. + +It hath been ofttimes debated whether the morning pipe be the sweeter, +or that first pipe of the evening which "Hesperus, who bringeth all +good things," brings to the weary with home and rest. The first is +smoked on a clearer palate, and comes to unjaded senses like the kiss +of one's first love; but lacks that feeling of perfect fruition, of +merit recompensed and the goal and the garland won, which clings to +the vesper bowl. Whence it comes that the majority give the palm to +the latter. To which I intend no slight when I find the incense that +arises at matins sweeter even than that of evensong. For, although +with most of us who are labourers in the vineyard, toilers and +swinkers, the morning pipe is smoked in hurry and fear and a sense of +alarums and excursions and fleeting trains, yet with all this there +are certain halcyon periods sure to arrive -- Sundays, holidays, and +the like -- the whole joy and peace of which are summed up in that one +beatific pipe after breakfast, smoked in a careless majesty like that +of the gods "when they lie beside their nectar, and the clouds are +lightly curled." Then only can we be said really to smoke. And so +this particular pipe of the day always carries with it festal +reminiscences: memories of holidays past, hopes for holidays to come; +a suggestion of sunny lawns and flannels and the ungirt loin; a sense +withal of something free and stately, as of "faint march-music in the +air," or the old Roman cry of "Liberty, freedom, and +enfranchisement." + +If there be any fly in the pipe-smoker's ointment, it may be said to +lurk in the matter of "rings." Only the exceptionally gifted smoker +can recline in his chair and emit at will the perfect smoke-ring, in +consummate eddying succession. He of the meaner sort must be content +if, at rare heaven-sent intervals -- while thinking, perhaps, of +nothing less -- there escape from his lips the unpremeditated flawless +circle. Then "deus fio" he is moved to cry, at that breathless +moment when his creation hangs solid and complete, ere the particles +break away and blend with the baser atmosphere. Nay, some will deny to +any of us terrene smokers the gift of fullest achievement: for what +saith the poet of the century? "On the earth the broken arcs: in the +heaven the perfect round!" + +It was well observed by a certain character in one of Wilkie Collins's +novels (if an imperfect memory serveth me rightly) that women will +take pleasure in scents derived from animal emanations, clarified +fats, and the like; yet do illogically abhor the "clean, dry, +vegetable smell" of tobacco. Herein the true base of the feminine +objection is reached; being, as usual, inherent want of logic rather +than any distaste, in the absolute, for the thing in question. +Thinking that they ought to dislike, they do painfully cast about for +reasons to justify their dislike, when none really exist. As a +specimen of their so-called arguments, I remember how a certain fair +one triumphantly pointed out to me that my dog, though loving me well, +could yet never be brought to like the smell of tobacco. To whom I, +who respected my dog (as Ben saith of Master Shakespeare) on this side +idolatry as much as anything, was yet fain to point out -- more in +sorrow than in anger -- that a dog, being an animal who delights to +pass his whole day, from early morn to dewy eve, in shoving his nose +into every carrion beastliness that he can come across, could hardly +be considered arbiter elegantiarum in the matter of smells. But indeed +I did wrong to take such foolish quibbling seriously; nor would I have +done so, if she hadn't dragged my poor innocent dog into the +discussion. + +Of Smoking in Bed: There be who consider this a depravity -- an +instance of that excess in the practice of a virtue which passes into +vice -- and couple it with dram-drinking: who yet fail to justify +themselves by argument. For if bed be by common consent the greatest +bliss, the divinest spot, on earth, "ille terrarum qui praeter omnes +angulus ridet"; and if tobacco be the true Herb of Grace, and a joy +and healing balm, and respite and nepenthe, -- if all this be +admitted, why are two things, super-excellent separately, noxious in +conjunction? And is not the Bed Smoker rather an epicure in pleasure +-- self indulgent perhaps, but still the triumphant creator of a new +"blend," reminding one of a certain traveller's account of an +intoxicant patronised in the South Sea Islands, which combines the +blissful effect of getting drunk and remaining sober to enjoy it? Yet +I shall not insist too much on this point, but would only ask -- so +long as the smoker be unwedded -- for some tolerance in the matter and +a little logic in the discussion thereof. + +Concerning Cigars: That there be large sums given for these is within +common knowledge. 1 d., 2 d., nay even 4 d., is not too great a price, +if a man will have of the finest leaf, reckless of expense. In this +sort of smoking, however, I find more of vainglory and ostentation +than solid satisfaction; and its votaries would seem to display less a +calm, healthy affection for tobacco than (as Sir T. Browne hath it) a +"passionate prodigality." And, besides grievous wasting of the +pocket, atmospheric changes, varyings in the crops, and the like, +cause uncertainty to cling about each individual weed, so that man is +always more or less at the mercy of Nature and the elements -- an +unsatisfactory and undignified position in these latter days of the +Triumphant Democracy. But worst and fatallest of all, to every +cigar-smoker it is certain to happen that once in his life, by some +happy combination of time, place, temperament, and Nature -- by some +starry influence, maybe, or freak of the gods in mocking sport -- +once, and once only, he will taste the aroma of the perfect leaf at +just the perfect point -- the ideal cigar. Henceforth his life is +saddened; as one kissed by a goddess in a dream, he goes thereafter, +as one might say, in a sort of love-sickness. Seeking he scarce knows +what, his existence becomes a dissatisfied yearning; the world is +spoiled for him, its joys are tasteless: so he wanders, +vision-haunted, down dreary days to some miserable end. + +Yet, if one will walk this path and take the risks, the thing may be +done at comparatively small expense. To such I would commend the Roman +motto, slightly altered -- Alieni appetens, sui avarus. There be +always good fellows, with good cigars for their friends. Nay, too, the +boxes of these lie open; an the good cigar belongs rather to him that +can appreciate it aright than to the capitalist who, owing to a false +social system, happens to be its temporary guardian and trustee. Again +there is a saying -- bred first, I think, among the schoolmen at +Oxford -- that it is the duty of a son to live up to his father's +income. Should any young man have found this task too hard for him, +after the most strenuous and single-minded efforts, at least he can +resolutely smoke his father's cigars. In the path of duty complete +success is not always to be looked for; but an approving conscience, +the sure reward of honest endeavour, is within reach of all. + +An Autumn Encounter + +For yet another mile or two the hot dusty road runs through level +fields, till it reaches yonder shoulder of the downs, already golden +three-parts up with ripening corn. Thitherwards lies my inevitable +way; and now that home is almost in sight it seems hard that the last +part of the long day's sweltering and delightful tramp must needs be +haunted by that hateful speck, black on the effulgence of the slope. +Did I not know he was only a scarecrow, the thing might be in a way +companionable: a pleasant suggestive surmise, piquing curiosity, +gilding this last weary stage with some magic of expectancy. But I +passed close by him on my way out. Early as I was, he was already up +and doing, eager to introduce himself. He leered after me as I swung +down the road, -- mimicked my gait, as it seemed, in a most +uncalled-for way; and when I looked back, he was blowing derisive +kisses of farewell with his empty sleeve. + +I had succeeded, however, in shaking off the recollection between the +morning's start and now; so it was annoying that he should force +himself on me, just when there was no getting rid of him. At this +distance, however, he might be anything. An indeterminate blot, it +seems to waver, to falter, to come and vanish again in the quivering, +heated air. Even so, in the old time, leaning on that familiar gate -- +are the tell-tale inwoven initials still decipherable? -- I used to +watch Her pacing demurely towards me through the corn. It was +ridiculous, it was fatuous, under all the circumstances it was +monstrous, and yet{...}! We were both under twenty, so She was She, +and I was I, and there were only we three the wide world over, she and +I and the unbetraying gate. Porta eburnea! False visions alone sped +through you, though Cupid was wont to light on your topmost bar, and +preen his glowing plumes. And to think that I should see her once +more, coming down the path as if not a day had passed, hesitating as +of old, and then -- but surely her ankles seem -- Confound that +scarecrow!... + +His sex is by this time painfully evident; also his condition in life, +which is as of one looking back on better days. And now he is upon a +new tack. Though here on the level it is still sultry and airless, an +evening breeze is playing briskly along the slope where he stands, and +one sleeve saws the air violently; the other is pointed stiffly +heavenwards. It is all plain enough, my poor friend! The sins of the +world are a heavy burden and a grievous unto you. You have a mission, +you must testify; it will forth, in season and out of season. For man, +he wakes and sleeps and sins betimes: but crows sin steadily, without +any cessation. And this unhappy state of things is your own particular +business. Even at this distance I seem to hear you rasping it: +"Salvation, damnation, damnation, salvation!" And the jolly earth +smiles in the perfect evenglow, and the corn ripples and laughs all +round you, and one young rook (only fledged this year, too!), after an +excellent simulation of prostrate, heart-broken penitence, soars +joyously away, to make love to his neighbour's wife. "Salvation, +damnation, damn -- " A shifty wriggle of the road, and he is +transformed once more. Flung back in an ecstasy of laughter, holding +his lean sides, his whole form writhes with the chuckle and gurgle of +merriment. Ho, ho! what a joke it was! How I took you all in! Even the +rooks! What a joke is everything, to be sure! + +Truly, I shall be glad to get quit of this heartless mummer. +Fortunately I shall soon be past him. And now, behold! the old dog +waxes amorous. Mincing, mowing, empty sleeve on hollow breast, he +would fain pose as the most irresistible old hypocrite that ever paced +a metropolitan kerb. "Love, you young dogs," he seems to croak, +"Love is the one thing worth living for! Enjoy your present, rooks +and all, as I do!" Why, indeed, should he alone be insensible to the +golden influence of the hour? More than one supple waist (alas! for +universal masculine frailty!) has been circled by that tattered sleeve +in days gone by; a throbbing heart once beat where sodden straw now +fails to give a manly curve to the chest. Why should the coat survive, +and not a particle of the passion that inspired it long ago? + +At last I confront him, face to face: and the villain grins +recognition, completely unabashed. Nay, he cocks his eye with a +significant glance under the slouch of his shapeless hat, and his arm +points persistently and with intelligence up the road. My good fellow, +I know the way to the Dog and Duck as well as you do: I was going +there anyhow, without your officious interference -- and the beer, as +you justly remark, is unimpeachable. But was this really all you've +been trying to say to me, this last half-hour? Well, well! + +The White Poppy + +A riot of scarlet on gold, the red poppy of our native fields tosses +heavy tresses with gipsy abandon; her sister of the sea-shore is +golden, a yellow blossom that loves the keen salt savour of the spray. +Of another hue is the poppy of history, of romance, of the muse. White +as the stark death-shroud, pallid as the cheeks of that queen of a +silent land whose temples she languorously crowns, ghost-like beside +her fuller-blooded kin, she droops dream-laden, Papaver somniferum, +the poppy of the magic juice of oblivion. In the royal plenitude of +summer, the scarlet blooms will sometimes seem but a red cry from +earth in memory of the many dews of battle that have drenched these +acres in years gone by, for little end but that these same "bubbles +of blood" might glow to-day; the yellow flower does but hint of the +gold that has dashed a thousand wrecks at her feet around these +shores: for happier suggestion we must turn to her of the pallid +petals, our white Lady of Consolation. Fitting hue to typify the +crowning blessing of forgetfulness! Too often the sable robes of night +dissemble sleeplessness, remorse, regret, self-questioning. Let black, +then, rather stand for hideous memory: white for blessed blank +oblivion, happiest gift of the gods! For who, indeed, can say that the +record of his life is not crowded with failure and mistake, stained +with its petty cruelties of youth, its meannesses and follies of later +years, all which storm and clamour incessantly at the gates of memory, +refusing to be shut out? Leave us alone, O gods, to remember our +felicities, our successes: only aid us, ye who recall no gifts, aptly +and discreetly to forget. + +Discreetly, we say; for it is a tactful forgetfulness that makes for +happiness. In the minor matter, for instance, of small money +obligations, that shortness of memory which the school of Professors +Panurge and Falstaff rashly praises, may often betray into some +unfortunate allusion or reference to the subject which shall pain the +delicate feelings of the obliger; or, if he be of coarser clay, shall +lead him in his anger to express himself with unseemliness, and +thereby to do violence to his mental tranquillity, in which alone, as +Marcus Aurelius teacheth, lieth the perfection of moral character. +This is to be a stumbling-block and an offence against the brethren. +It is better to keep just memory enough to avoid such hidden rocks and +shoals; in which thing Mr Swiveller is our great exemplar, whose +mental map of London was a chart wherein every creditor was carefully +"buoyed." + +The wise man prays, we are told, for a good digestion: let us add to +the prayer -- and a bad memory. Truly we are sometimes tempted to +think that we are the only ones cursed with this corroding canker. Our +friends, we can swear, have all, without exception, atrocious +memories; why is ours alone so hideously vital? Yet this isolation +must be imaginary; for even as we engage in this selfish moan for help +in our own petty case, we are moved to add a word for certain others +who, meaning no ill, unthinkingly go about to add to humanity's +already heavy load of suffering. How much needless misery is caused in +this world by the reckless "recollections" of dramatic and other +celebrities? You gods, in lending ear to our prayer, remember too, +above all other sorts and conditions of men, these our poor erring +brothers and sisters, the sometime sommites of Mummerdom! + +Moments there are, it is true, when this traitor spirit tricks you: +when some subtle scent, some broken notes of an old song, nay, even +some touch of a fresher air on your cheeks at night -- a breath of +"le vent qui vient a travers la montagne" -- have power to ravish, +to catch you back to the blissful days when you trod the one authentic +Paradise. Moments only, alas! Then the evil crowd rushes in again, +howls in the sacred grove, tramples down and defiles the happy garden; +and once more you cry to Our Lady of Sleep, crowned of the white +poppy. And you envy your dog who, for full discharge of a present +benefaction having wagged you a hearty, expressive tail, will then +pursue it gently round the hearth-rug till, in restful coil, he +reaches it at last, and oblivion with it; every one of his half-dozen +diurnal sleeps being in truth a royal amnesty. + +But whose the hand that shall reach us the herb of healing? Perdita +blesses every guest at the shearing with a handful of blossom; but +this gift is not to be asked of her whose best wish to her friends is +"grace and remembrance." The fair Ophelia, rather: nay, for as a +nursling she hugs her grief, and for her the memory of the past is a +"sorrow's crown of sorrow." What flowers are these her pale hand +offers? "There's pansies, that's for thoughts!" For me rather, O +dear Ophelia, the white poppy of forgetfulness. + +A Bohemian in Exile + +A Reminiscence + +When, many years ago now, the once potent and extensive kingdom of +Bohemia gradually dissolved and passed away, not a few historians were +found to chronicle its past glories; and some have gone on to tell the +fate of this or that once powerful chieftain who either donned the +swallow-tail and conformed or, proudly self-exiled, sought some quiet +retreat and died as he had lived, a Bohemian. But these were of the +princes of the land. To the people, the villeins, the common rank and +file, does no interest attach? Did they waste and pine, anaemic, in +thin, strange, unwonted air? Or sit at the table of the scornful and +learn, with Dante, how salt was alien bread? It is of one of those +faithful commons I would speak, narrating only "the short and simple +annals of the poor." + +It is to be noted that the kingdom aforesaid was not so much a kingdom +as a United States -- a collection of self-ruling guilds, +municipalities, or republics, bound together by a common method of +viewing life. "There once was a king of Bohemia" -- but that was a +long time ago, and even Corporal Trim was not certain in whose reign +it was. These small free States, then, broke up gradually, from +various causes and with varying speed; and I think ours was one of the +last to go. + +With us, as with many others, it was a case of lost leaders. "Just +for a handful of silver he left us"; though it was not exactly that, +but rather that, having got the handful of silver, they wanted a wider +horizon to fling it about under than Bloomsbury afforded. + + So they left us for their pleasure; and in due time, one by one -- + +But I will not be morose about them; they had honestly earned their +success, and we all honestly rejoiced at it, and do so still. + +When old Pan was dead and Apollo's bow broken, there were many +faithful pagans who would worship at no new shrines, but went out to +the hills and caves, truer to the old gods in their discrowned +desolation than in their pomp and power. Even so were we left behind, +a remnant of the faithful. We had never expected to become great in +art or song; it was the life itself that we loved; that was our end -- +not, as with them, the means to an end. + + We aimed at no glory, no lovers of glory we; + Give us the glory of going on and still to be. + +Unfortunately, going on was no longer possible; the old order had +changed, and we could only patch up our broken lives as best might be. + +Fothergill said that he, for one, would have no more of it. The past +was dead, and he wasn't going to try to revive it. Henceforth he, too, +would be dead to Bloomsbury. Our forefathers, speaking of a man's +death, said "he changed his life." This is how Fothergill changed +his life and died to Bloomsbury. One morning he made his way to the +Whitechapel Road, and there he bought a barrow. The Whitechapel +barrows are of all sizes, from the barrow wheeled about by a boy with +half a dozen heads of cabbages to barrows drawn by a tall pony, such +as on Sundays take the members of a club to Epping Forest. They are +all precisely the same in plan and construction, only in the larger +sizes the handles develop or evolve into shafts; and they are equally +suitable, according to size, for the vending of whelks, for a +hot-potato can, a piano organ, or for the conveyance of a cheery and +numerous party to the Derby. Fothergill bought a medium sized +"developed" one, and also a donkey to fit; he had it painted white, +picked out with green -- the barrow, not the donkey -- and when his +arrangements were complete, stabled the whole for the night in +Bloomsbury. The following morning, before the early red had quite +faded from the sky, the exodus took place, those of us who were left +being assembled to drink a parting whisky-and-milk in sad and solemn +silence. Fothergill turned down Oxford Street, sitting on the shaft +with a short clay in his mouth, and disappeared from our sight, +heading west at a leisurely pace. So he passed out of our lives by way +of the Bayswater Road. + +They must have wandered far and seen many things, he and his donkey, +from the fitful fragments of news that now and again reached us. It +seems that eventually, his style of living being economical, he was +enabled to put down his donkey and barrow, and set up a cart and a +mare -- no fashionable gipsy-cart, a sort of houseboat on wheels, but +a light and serviceable cart, with a moveable tilt, constructed on his +own designs. This allowed him to take along with him a few canvases +and other artists' materials; soda-water, whisky, and such like +necessaries; and even to ask a friend from town for a day or two, if +he wanted to. + +He was in this state of comparative luxury when at last, by the merest +accident, I foregathered with him once more. I had pulled up to +Streatley one afternoon, and, leaving my boat, had gone for a long +ramble on the glorious North Berkshire Downs to stretch my legs before +dinner. Somewhere over on Cuckhamsley Hill, by the side of the +Ridgeway, remote from the habitable world, I found him, smoking his +vesper pipe on the shaft of his cart, the mare cropping the short +grass beside him. He greeted me without surprise or effusion, as if we +had only parted yesterday, and without a hint of an allusion to past +times, but drifted quietly into rambling talk of his last three years, +and, without ever telling his story right out, left a strange +picturesque impression of a nomadic life which struck one as separated +by fifty years from modern conventional existence. The old road-life +still lingered on in places, it seemed, once one got well away from +the railway: there were two Englands existing together, the one +fringing the great iron highways wherever they might go -- the England +under the eyes of most of us. The other, unguessed at by many, in +whatever places were still vacant of shriek and rattle, drowsed on as +of old: the England of heath and common and windy sheep down, of +by-lanes and village-greens -- the England of Parson Adams and +Lavengro. The spell of the free untrammelled life came over me as I +listened, till I was fain to accept of his hospitality and a +horse-blanket for the night, oblivious of civilised comforts down at +the Bull. On the downs where Alfred fought we lay and smoked, gazing +up at the quiet stars that had shone on many a Dane lying stark and +still a thousand years ago; and in the silence of the lone tract that +enfolded us we seemed nearer to those old times than to these I had +left that afternoon, in the now hushed and sleeping valley of the +Thames. + +When the news reached me, some time later, that Fothergill's aunt had +died and left him her house near town and the little all she had +possessed, I heard it with misgivings, not to say forebodings. For the +house had been his grandfather's, and he had spent much of his boyhood +there; it had been a dream of his early days to possess it in some +happy future, and I knew he could never bear to sell or let it. On the +other hand, can you stall the wild ass of the desert? And will not the +caged eagle mope and pine? + +However, possession was entered into, and all seemed to go well for +the time. The cart was honourably installed in the coach-house, the +mare turned out to grass. Fothergill lived idly and happily, to all +seeming, with "a book of verses underneath the bough," and a bottle +of old claret for the friend who might chance to drop in. But as the +year wore on small signs began to appear that he who had always +"rather hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak" was beginning to +feel himself caged, though his bars were gilded. + +I was talking one day to his coachman (he now kept three +men-servants), and he told me that of a Sunday morning when the +household had gone to church and everything was quiet, Mr Fothergill +would go into the coach-house and light his pipe, and sit on the step +of the brougham (he had a brougham now), and gaze at the old cart, and +smoke and say nothing; and smoke and say nothing again. He didn't like +it, the coachman confessed; and to me it seemed ominous. + +One morning late in March, at the end of a long hard winter, I was +wakened by a flood of sunshine. The early air came warm and soft +through the open window; the first magic suggestion of spring was +abroad, with its whispered hints of daffodils and budding hawthorns; +and one's blood danced to imagined pipings of Pan from happy fields +far distant. At once I thought of Fothergill, and, with a certain +foreboding of ill, made my way down to Holly Lodge as soon as +possible. It was with no surprise at all that I heard that the master +was missing. In the very first of the morning, it seemed, or ever the +earliest under-housemaid had begun to set man-traps on the stairs and +along the passages, he must have quietly left the house. The servants +were cheerful enough, nevertheless, and thought the master must only +have "gone for a nice long walk," and so on, after the manner of +their kind. Without a word I turned my steps to the coach-house. Sure +enough, the old cart was missing; the mare was gone from the paddock. +It was no good my saying anything; pursuit of this wild haunter of +tracks and by-paths would have been futile indeed. So I kept my own +counsel. Fothergill never returned to Holly Lodge, and has been more +secret and evasive since his last flight, rarely venturing on old +camping grounds near home, like to a bird scared by the fowler's gun. + +Once indeed, since then, while engaged in pursuit of the shy quarry +known as the Early Perp., late Dec., E. Eng., and the like, specimens +of which I was tracking down in the west, I hit upon him by accident; +hearing in an old village rumours concerning a strange man in a cart +who neither carried samples nor pushed the brewing interest by other +means than average personal consumption -- tales already beginning to +be distorted into material for the myth of the future. I found him +friendly as ever, equally ready to spin his yarns. As the evening wore +on, I ventured upon an allusion to past times and Holly Lodge; but his +air of puzzled politeness convinced me that the whole thing had passed +out of his mind, as a slight but disagreeable incident in the even +tenor of his nomadic existence. + +After all, his gains may have outbalanced his losses. Had he cared, he +might, with his conversational gifts, have been a social success; +certainly, I think, an artistic one. He had great powers, had any +impulse been present to urge him to execution and achievement. But he +was for none of these things. Contemplative, receptive, with a keen +sense of certain sub-tones and side aspects of life unseen by most, he +doubtless chose wisely to enjoy life his own way, and to gather from +the fleeting days what bliss they had to give, nor spend them in +toiling for a harvest to be reaped when he was dust. + + Some for the glories of this life, and some + Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come: + Ah, take the cash and let the credit go, + Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum. + +Justifiable Homicide + +This is a remedial age, an age of keys for all manner of locks; so he +cannot be said to ask too much who seeks for exact information as to +how a young man ought, in justice to himself and to society, to deal +with his relations. During his minority he has lain entirely at their +mercy: has been their butt, their martyr, their drudge, their corpus +vile. Possessing all the sinews of war, this stiff-necked tribe has +consistently refused to "part": even for the provision of those +luxuries so much more necessary than necessities. Its members have +crammed their victim full of precepts, rules of conduct, moral maxims, +and most miscellaneous counsel: all which he intuitively suspected at +the time, and has ascertained by subsequent experience, to be utterly +worthless. Now, when their hour has come, when the tocsin has sounded +at last, and the Gaul is at the gate, they still appear to think that +the old condition of things is to go on; unconscious, apparently, of +atonement due, of retribution to be exacted, of wrongs to be avenged +and of insults to be wiped away! + +Over the north-west frontier, where the writ of the English Raj runs +not, the artless Afghan is happy in a code that fully provides for +relatives who neglect or misunderstand their obligations. An Afghan it +was who found himself compelled to reprove an uncle with an +unfortunate habit of squandering the family estate. An excellent +relative, this uncle, in all other respects. As a liar, he had few +equals; he robbed with taste and discretion; and his murders were all +imbued with true artistic feeling. He might have lived to a green old +age of spotless respectability but for his one little failing. As it +was, justice had to be done, ruat caelum: and so it came about that one +day the nephew issued forth to correct him with a matchlock. The +innocent old man was cultivating his paternal acres; so the nephew was +able, unperceived, to get a steady sight on him. His finger was on the +trigger, when suddenly there slipped into his mind the divine precept: +"Allah is merciful!" He lowered his piece, and remained for a little +plunged in thought; meanwhile the unconscious uncle hoed his paddy. +Then with a happy smile he took aim once more, for there also occurred +to him the precept equally divine: "But Allah is also just." With an +easy conscience he let fly, and behold! there was an uncle the more in +Paradise. + +It was probably some little affair of a similar quality that +constrained a recruit in a regiment stationed at Peshawur to apply for +leave of absence: in order to attend to family matters of importance. +The Colonel knew it was small use refusing the leave, as in that case +his recruit would promptly desert; so he could only ask, how long was +the transaction like to take? It was told him, after consideration, +that, allowing for all possible difficulties and delays, a month would +meet the necessities of the case; and on that understanding he allowed +his man to depart. At the end of the month he reappeared on duty, a +subdued but mellow cheer shining through his wonted impassiveness. His +Colonel ventured to inquire of him, in a general way, if the business +in question were satisfactorily concluded. And he replied: "I got him +from behind a rock." + +There are practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of such +methods at home. We must be content to envy, without imitating, these +free and happy sons of the hills. And yet a few of the old school are +left us still: averse from change, mistrustful of progress, sticking +steadily to the good old-fashioned dagger and bowl. I had a friend who +disposed of a relative every spring. Uncles were his special line -- +(he had suffered much from their tribe, having been early left an +orphan) -- though he had dabbled in aunts, and in his hot youth, when +he was getting his hand in, he had even dallied with a grand-parent or +two. But it was in uncles he excelled. He possessed (at the beginning +of his career) a large number of these connections, and pursuit of +them, from the mere sordid point of view of L s. d., proved lucrative. +But he always protested (and I believed him) that gain with him was a +secondary consideration. It would hardly be in the public interest to +disclose his modus operandi. I shall only remark that he was one of +the first to realise the security and immunity afforded the artist by +the conditions of modern London. Hence it happened that he usually +practised in town, but spent his vacations at the country houses of +such relations as were still spared him, where he was always the life +and soul of the place. Unfortunately he is no longer with us, to +assist in the revision of this article: nor was it permitted me to +soothe his last moments. The presiding Sheriff was one of those +new-fangled officials who insist on the exclusion of the public, and +he declined to admit me either in the capacity of a personal +connection or, though I tried my hardest, as the representative of +"The National Observer." It only remains to be said of my much-tried +and still lamented friend, that he left few relatives to mourn his +untimely end. + +But our reluctant feet must needs keep step with the imperious march +of Time, and my poor friend's Art (as himself in later years would +sorrowfully admit) is now almost as extinct as the glass-staining of +old, or "Robbia's craft so apt and strange"; while our thin-blooded +youth, too nice for the joyous old methods, are content to find +sweetest revenge in severely dropping their relations. This is indeed +a most effective position: it exasperates, while it is unassailable. +And yet there remains a higher course, a nobler task. Not mere +forgiveness: it is simple duty to forgive -- even one's guardians. No +young man of earnest aspirations will be content to stop there. Nay: +lead them on, these lost ones, by the hand; conduct them "generously +and gently, and with linking of the arm"; educate them, eradicate +their false ideals, dispel their foolish prejudices; be to their +faults a little blind and to their virtues very kind: in fine, realise +that you have a mission -- that these wretches are not here for +nothing. The task will seem hard at first; but only those who have +tried can know how much may be done by assiduous and kindly effort +towards the chastening -- ay! the final redemption even! -- of the +most hopeless and pig-headed of uncles. + +The Fairy Wicket + +From digging in the sandy, over-triturated soil of times historical, +all dotted with date and number and sign, how exquisite the relief in +turning to the dear days outside history -- yet not so very far off +neither for us nurslings of the northern sun -- when kindly beasts +would loiter to give counsel by the wayside, and a fortunate encounter +with one of the Good People was a surer path to Fortune and the Bride +than the best-worn stool that ever proved step-ladder to aspiring +youth. For then the Fairy Wicket stood everywhere ajar -- everywhere +and to each and all. "Open, open, green hill!" -- you needed no more +recondite sesame than that: and, whoever you were, you might have a +glimpse of the elfin dancers in the hall that is litten within by +neither sun nor moon; or catch at the white horse's bridle as the +Fairy Prince rode through. It has been closed now this many a year +(the fairies, always strong in the field, are excellent +wicket-keepers); and if it open at all, 'tis but for a moment's +mockery of the material generation that so deliberately turned its +back on the gap into Elf-Land -- that first stage to the Beyond. + +It was a wanton trick, though, that these folk of malice used to play +on a small school-boy, new kicked out of his nest into the draughty, +uncomfortable outer world, his unfledged skin still craving the +feathers whereinto he was wont to nestle. The barrack-like school, the +arid, cheerless class-rooms, drove him to Nature for redress; and, +under an alien sky, he would go forth and wander along the iron road +by impassive fields, so like yet so unlike those hitherto a part of +him and responding to his every mood. And to him, thus loitering with +overladen heart, there would come suddenly a touch of warmth, of +strange surprise. The turn of the road just ahead -- that, sure, is +not all unfamiliar? That row of elms -- it cannot entirely be accident +that they range just so? And, if not accident, then round the bend +will come the old duck-pond, the shoulder of the barn will top it, a +few yards on will be the gate -- it swings-to with its familiar click +-- the dogs race down the avenue -- and then -- and then! It is all +wildly fanciful; and yet, though knowing not Tertullian, a "credo +quia impossibile" is on his tongue as he quickens his pace -- for +what else can he do? A step, and the spell is shattered -- all is +cruel and alien once more; while every copse and hedge-row seems +a-tinkle with faint elfish laughter. The Fairies have had their joke: +they have opened the wicket one of their own hand's-breadths, and shut +it in their victim's face. When next that victim catches a fairy, he +purposes to tie up the brat in sight of his own green hill, and set +him to draw up a practical scheme for Village Councils. + +One of the many women I ever really loved, fair in the fearless old +fashion, was used to sing, in the blithe, unfettered accent of the +people: "I'd like to be a fairy, And dance upon my toes, I'd like to +be a fairy, And wear short close!" And in later life it is to her sex +that the wee (but very wise) folk sometimes delegate their power of +torment. Such understudies are found to play the part exceeding well; +and many a time the infatuated youth believes he sees in the depth of +one sole pair of eyes -- blue, brown, or green (the fairy colour) -- +the authentic fairy wicket standing ajar: many a time must he hear the +quaint old formula, "I'm sure, if I've ever done anything to lead you +to think," etc (runs it not so?), ere he shall realise that here is +the gate upon no magic pleasance but on a cheap suburban villa, +banging behind the wrathful rate-collector or hurled open to speed the +pallid householder to the Registrar's Office. In still grosser +habitations, too, they lurk, do the People of Mischief, ready to +frolic out on the unsuspecting one: as in the case, which still haunts +my memory, of a certain bottle of an historic Chateau-Yquem, hued like +Venetian glass, odorous as a garden in June. Forth from out the faint +perfume of this haunted drink there danced a bevy from Old France, +clad in the fashion of Louis-Quinze, peach-coloured knots of ribbon +bedizening apple-green velvets, as they moved in stately wise among +the roses of the old garden, to the quaint music -- Rameau, was it? -- +of a fairy cornemuse, while fairy Watteaus, Fragonards, Lancrets, sat +and painted them. Alas! too shallow the bottle, too brief the brawls: +not to be recalled by any quantity of Green Chartreuse. + +Aboard the Galley + +He was cruising in the Southern Seas (was the Ulysses who told me this +tale), when there bore down upon him a marvellous strange fleet, whose +like he had not before seen. For each little craft was a corpse, +stiffly "marlined," or bound about with tarred rope, as mariners do +use to treat plug tobacco: also ballasted, and with a fair mast and +sail stepped through his midriff. These self-sufficing ships knew no +divided authority: no pilot ever took the helm from the captain's +hands; no mutines lay in bilboes, no passengers complained of the +provisions. In a certain island to windward (the native pilot +explained) it was the practice, when a man died, to bury him for the +time being in dry, desiccating sand, till a chief should pass from his +people, when the waiting bodies were brought out and, caulked and +rigged secumdum artem, were launched with the first fair breeze, the +admiral at their head, on their voyage to the Blessed Islands. And if +a chief should die, and the sand should hold no store of corpses for +his escort, this simple practical folk would solve the little +difficulty by knocking some dozen or twenty stout fellows on the head, +that the notable might voyage like a gentleman. Whence this gallant +little company, running before the breeze, stark, happy, and extinct, +all bound for the Isles of Light! 'Twas a sight to shame us sitters at +home, who believe in those Islands, most of us, even as they, yet are +content to trundle City-wards or to Margate, so long as the sorry +breath is in us; and, breathless at last, to Bow or Kensal Green; +without one effort, dead or alive, to reach the far-shining +Hesperides. + +"Dans la galere, capitane, nous etions quatre-vingt rameurs!" sang +the oarsmen in the ballad; and they, though indeed they toiled on the +galley-bench, were free and happy pirates, members of an honoured and +liberal profession. But all we -- pirates, parsons, stockbrokers, +whatever our calling -- are but galley-slaves of the basest sort, +fettered to the oar each for his little spell. A common misery links +us all, like the chain that runs the length of the thwarts. Can +nothing make it worth our while not to quarrel with our fellows? The +menace of the storms is for each one and for all: the master's whip +has a fine impartiality. Crack! the lash that scored my comrade's back +has flicked my withers too; yet neither of us was shirking -- it was +that grinning ruffian in front. Well: to-morrow, God willing, the +evasion shall be ours, while he writhes howling. But why do we never +once combine -- seize on the ship, fling our masters into the sea, and +steer for some pleasant isle far down under the Line, beyond the +still-vexed Bermoothes? When ho for feasting! Hey for tobacco and +free-quarters! But no: the days pass, and are reckoned up, and done +with; and ever more pressing cares engage. Those fellows on the +leeward benches are having an easier time than we poor dogs on the +weather side? Then, let us abuse, pelt, vilify then: let us steal +their grub, and have at them generally for a set of shirking, +malingering brutes! What matter that to-morrow they may be to +windward, we to lee? We never can look ahead. And they know this well, +the gods our masters, pliers of the whip. And mayhap we like them none +the worse for it. + +Indeed, there is a traitor sort among ourselves, that spins facile +phrases in the honour of these whipmasters of ours -- as "omnes eodem +cogimur," and the rest; which is all very pretty and mighty +consoling. The fact is, the poets are the only people who score by the +present arrangement; which it is therefore their interest to maintain. +While we are doing all the work, these incorrigible skulkers lounge +about and make ribald remarks; they write Greek tragedies on Fate, on +the sublimity of Suffering, on the Petty Span, and so on; and act in a +generally offensive way. And we are even weak enough to buy their +books; offer them drinks, peerages, and things; and say what +superlative fellows they are! But when the long-looked-for combination +comes, and we poor devils have risen and abolished fate, destiny, the +Olympian Council, early baldness, and the like, these poets will +really have to go. + +And when every rhymester has walked the plank, shall we still put up +with our relations? True members of the "stupid party," who never +believe in us, who know (and never forget) the follies of our +adolescence; who are always wanting us not to do things; who are +lavish of advice, yet angered by the faintest suggestion of a small +advance in cash: shall the idle singers perish and these endure? No: +as soon as the last poet has splashed over the side, to the sharks +with our relations! + +The old barkey is lightening famously: who shall be next to go? The +Sportsman of intolerable yarns: who slays twice over -- first, his +game, and then the miserable being he button-holes for the tedious +recital. Shall we suffer him longer? Who else? Who is that cowering +under the bulwarks yonder? The man who thinks he can imitate the +Scottish accent! Splash! And the next one? What a crowd is here! How +they block the hatchways, lumber the deck, and get between you and the +purser's room -- these fadmongers, teetotallers, missionaries of +divers isms! Overboard with them, and hey for the Fortunate Isles! +Then for tobacco in a hammock 'twixt the palms! Then for wine cooled +in a brooklet losing itself in silver sands! Then for -- but O these +bilboes on our ankles, how mercilessly they grip! The vertical sun +blisters the bare back: faint echoes of Olympian laughter seem to +flicker like Northern Lights across the stark and pitiless sky. One +earnest effort would do it, my brothers! A little modesty, a short +sinking of private differences; and then we should all be free and +equal gentlemen of fortune, and I would be your Captain! "Who? you? +you would make a pretty Captain!" Better than you, you scurvy, +skulking, little galley-slave! "Galley-slave yourself, and be --- +Pull together, boys, and lie low! Here's the Master coming with his +whip!" + +The Lost Centaur + +It is somewhere set down (or does the legend only exist in the great +volume of ought-to-be-writ?) that the young Achilles, nurtured from +babyhood by the wise and kindly Cheiron, accustomed to reverence an +ideal of human skill and wisdom blent with all that was best and +noblest of animal instinct, strength and swiftness, found poor +humanity sadly to miss, when at last the was sent forth among his +pottering little two-legged peers. Himself alone he had hitherto +fancied to be the maimed one, the incomplete; he looked to find the +lords of earth even such as these Centaurs; wise and magnanimous atop: +below, shod with the lightning, winged with the wind, terrible in the +potentiality of the armed heel. Instead of which -- ! How fallen was +his first fair hope of the world! And even when reconciled at last to +the dynasty of the forked radish, after he had seen its quality tested +round the clangorous walls of Troy -- some touch of an imperial +disdain ever lingered in his mind for these feeble folk who could +contentedly hail him -- him, who had known Cheiron! -- as hero and +lord! + +Achilles has passed, with the Centaurs and Troy; but the feeling +lingers. + +Of strange and divers strands is twisted the mysterious cord that, +reaching back "through spaces out of space and timeless time," +somewhere joins us to the Brute; a twine of mingled yarn, not utterly +base. As we grow from our animal infancy, and the threads snap one by +one at each gallant wing-stroke of a soul poising for flight into +Empyrean, we are yet conscious of a loss for every gain, we have some +forlorn sense of a vanished heritage. Willing enough are we to "let +the ape and tiger die"; but the pleasant cousins dissembled in hide +and fur and feather are not all tigers and apes: which last vile folk, +indeed, exist for us only in picture-books, and chiefly offend by +always carrying the Sunday School ensign of a Moral at their tails. +Others -- happily of less didactic dispositions -- there be; and it is +to these unaffected, careless companions that the sensible child is +wont to devote himself; leaving severely alone the stiff, tame +creatures claiming to be of closer kin. And yet these playmates, while +cheerfully admitting him of their fellowship, make him feel his +inferiority at every point. Vainly, his snub nose projected +earthwards, he essays to sniff it with the terrier who (as becomes the +nobler animal) is leading in the chase; and he is ready to weep as he +realises his loss. And the rest of the Free Company, -- the pony, the +cows, the great cart-horses, -- are ever shaming him by their +unboastful exercise of some enviable and unattainable attribute. Even +the friendly pig, who (did but parents permit) should eat of his bread +and drink of his cup, and be unto him as a brother, -- which among all +these unhappy bifurcations, so cheery, so unambitious, so purely +contented, so apt to be the guide, philosopher, and friend of boyhood +as he? What wonder that at times, when the neophyte in life begins to +realise that all these desirable accomplishments have had to be +surrendered one by one in the process of developing a Mind, the course +of fitting out a Lord of Creation, he is wont -- not knowing the +extent of the kingdom to which he is heir -- to feel a little +discontented? + +Ere now this ill-humour, taking root in a nature wherein the animal is +already ascendant, has led by downward paths to the Goat-Foot, in whom +the submerged human system peeps out but fitfully, at exalted moments. +He, the peevish and irascible, shy of trodden ways and pretty +domesticities, is linked to us by little but his love of melody; but +for which saving grace, the hair would soon creep up from thigh to +horn of him. At times he will still do us a friendly turn: will lend a +helping hand to poor little Psyche, wilfully seeking her own +salvation; will stand shoulder to shoulder with us on Marathon plain. +But in the main his sympathies are first for the beast: to which his +horns are never horrific, but, with his hairy pelt, ever natural and +familiar, and his voice (with its talk of help and healing) not harsh +nor dissonant, but voice of very brother as well as very god. + +And this declension -- for declension it is, though we achieve all the +confidences of Melampus, and even master with him the pleasant argot +of the woods -- may still be ours if we suffer what lives in us of our +primal cousins to draw us down. On the other hand, let soul inform and +irradiate body as it may, the threads are utterly shorn asunder never: +nor is man, the complete, the self-contained, permitted to cut himself +wholly adrift from these his poor relations. The mute and stunted +human embryo that gazes appealingly from out the depths of their eyes +must ever remind him of a kinship once (possibly) closer. Nay, at +times, it must even seem to whelm him in reproach. As thus: "Was it +really necessary, after all, that we two should part company so early? +May you not have taken a wrong turning somewhere, in your long race +after your so-called progress, after the perfection of this be-lauded +species of yours? A turning whose due avoidance might perhaps have +resulted in no such lamentable cleavage as is here, but in some +perfect embodiment of the dual nature: as who should say a being with +the nobilities of both of us, the basenesses of neither? So might you, +more fortunately guided, have been led at last up the green sides of +Pelion, to the ancestral, the primeval, Centaur still waiting majestic +on the summit!" It is even so. Perhaps this thing might once have +been, O cousin outcast and estranged! But the opportunity was long +since lost. Henceforth, two ways for us for ever! + +Orion + +The moonless night has a touch of frost, and is steely-clear. High and +dominant amidst the Populations of the Sky, the restless and the +steadfast alike, hangs the great Plough, lit with a hard radiance as +of the polished and shining share. And yonder, low on the horizon, but +half resurgent as yet, crouches the magnificent hunter: watchful, +seemingly, and expectant: with some hint of menace in his port. + +Yet should his game be up, you would think by now. Many a century has +passed since the plough first sped a conqueror east and west, clearing +forest and draining fen; policing the valleys with barbed-wires and +Sunday schools, with the chains that are forged of peace, the irking +fetters of plenty: driving also the whole lot of us, these to sweat at +its tail, those to plod with the patient team, but all to march in a +great chain-gang, the convicts of peace and order and law: while the +happy nomad, with his woodlands, his wild cattle, his pleasing +nuptialities, has long since disappeared, dropping only in his flight +some store of flint-heads, a legacy of confusion. Truly, we Children +of the Plough, but for yon tremendous Monitor in the sky, were in +right case to forget that the Hunter is still a quantity to reckon +withal. Where, then, does he hide, the Shaker of the Spear? Why, here, +my brother, and here; deep in the breasts of each and all of us! And +for this drop of primal quicksilver in the blood what poppy or +mandragora shall purge it hence away? + +Of pulpiteers and parents it is called Original Sin: a term wherewith +they brand whatever frisks and butts with rude goatish horns against +accepted maxims and trim theories of education. In the abstract, of +course, this fitful stirring of the old yeast is no more sin than a +natural craving for a seat on a high stool, for the inscription -- now +horizontal, and now vertical -- of figures, is sin. But the deskmen +command a temporary majority: for the short while they shall hold the +cards they have the right to call the game. And so -- since we must +bow to the storm -- let the one thing be labelled Sin, and the other +Salvation -- for a season: ourselves forgetting never that it is all a +matter of nomenclature. What we have now first to note is that this +original Waft from the Garden asserts itself most vigorously in the +Child. This it is that thrusts the small boy out under the naked +heavens, to enact a sorry and shivering Crusoe on an islet in the +duck-pond. This it is that sends the little girl footing it after the +gipsy's van, oblivious of lessons, puddings, the embrace maternal, the +paternal smack; hearing naught save the faint, far bugle-summons to +the pre-historic little savage that thrills and answers in the +tingling blood of her; seeing only a troop of dusky, dull-eyed guides +along that shining highway to the dim land east o' the sun and west o' +the moon: where freedom is, and you can wander and breathe, and at +night tame street lamps there are none -- only the hunter's fires, and +the eyes of lions, and the mysterious stars. In later years it is +stifled and gagged -- buried deep, a green turf at the head of it, and +on its heart a stone; but it lives, it breathes, it lurks, it will up +and out when 'tis looked for least. That stockbroker, some brief +summers gone, who was missed from his wonted place one settling-day! a +goodly portly man, i' faith: and had a villa and a steam launch at +Surbiton: and was versed in the esoteric humours of the House. Who +could have thought that the Hunter lay hid in him? Yet, after many +weeks, they found him in a wild nook of Hampshire. Ragged, sun-burnt, +the nocturnal haystack calling aloud from his frayed and +weather-stained duds, his trousers tucked, he was tickling trout with +godless native urchins; and when they would have won him to himself +with honied whispers of American Rails, he answered but with babble of +green fields. He is back in his wonted corner now: quite cured, +apparently, and tractable. And yet -- let the sun shine too wantonly +in Throgmorton Street, let an errant zephyr, quick with the warm +South, fan but his cheek too wooingly on his way to the station; and +will he not once more snap his chain and away? Ay, truly: and next +time he will not be caught. + +Deans have danced to the same wild piping, though their chapters have +hushed the matter up. Even Duchesses (they say) have "come tripping +doon the stair," rapt by the climbing passion from their +strawberry-leaved surroundings into starlit spaces. Nay, ourselves, +too -- the douce, respectable mediocrities that we are -- which of us +but might recall some fearful outbreak whose details are mercifully +unknown to the household that calls us breadwinner and chief? What +marvel that up yonder the Hunter smiles? When he knows that every one +in his ken, the tinker with the statesman, has caught his bugle blast +and gone forth on its irresistible appeal! + +Not that they are so easily followed as of yore, those flying echoes +of the horn! Joints are stiffer, maybe; certainly the desolate suburbs +creep ever farther into the retreating fields; and when you reach the +windy moorland, lo! it is all staked out into building-lots. Mud is +muddier now than heretofore; and ruts are ruttier. And what friendless +old beast comes limping down the dreary lane? He seems sorely shrunk +and shoulder-shotten; but by the something of divinity in his look, +still more than by the wings despondent along his mighty sides, 'tis +ever the old Pegasus -- not yet the knacker's own. "Hard times I've +been having," he murmurs, as you rub his nose. "These fellows have +really no seat except for a park hack. As for this laurel, we were +wont to await it trembling: and in taking it we were afraid. Your +English way of hunting it down with yelpings and hallooings -- well, I +may be out of date, but we wouldn't have stood that sort of thing on +Helicon." So he hobbles down the road. Good night, old fellow! Out of +date? Well, it may be so. And alas! the blame is ours. + +But for the Hunter -- there he rises -- couchant no more. Nay, flung +full stretch on the blue, he blazes, he dominates, he appals! Will his +turn, then, really come at last? After some Armageddon of cataclysmal +ruin, all levelling, whelming the County Councillor with the +Music-hall artiste, obliterating the very furrows of the Plough, shall +the skin-clad nomad string his bow once more, and once more loose the +whistling shaft? Wildly incredible it seems. And yet -- look up! Look +up and behold him confident, erect, majestic -- there on the threshold +of the sky! + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan Papers, by Kenneth Grahame + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 5319.txt or 5319.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/1/5319/ + +Produced by William McClain + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pagan Papers + +Author: Kenneth Grahame + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5319] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 30, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PAGAN PAPERS *** + + + + +Pagan Papers was first published in 1893 and the text is in the public +domain. This is a reprint of the first American edition of 1898. The +transcription was done by William McClain <info@sattre-press.com>, +2002. + +A printed version of this book is available from Sattre Press, +http://pagan_papers.sattre-press.com/. It includes a glossary of +French and Latin phrases. + + +PAGAN PAPERS +by Kenneth Grahame + + +The Romance of the Road + +Among the many places of magic visited by Pantagruel and his company +during the progress of their famous voyage, few surpass that island +whose roads did literally ``go'' to places -- ``ou les chemins +cheminent, comme animaulx'': and would-be travellers, having inquired +of the road as to its destination, and received satisfactory reply, +``se guindans'' (as the old book hath it -- hoisting themselves up on) +``au chemin opportun, sans aultrement se poiner ou fatiguer, se +trouvoyent au lieu destiné.'' + +The best example I know of an approach to this excellent sort of +vitality in roads is the Ridgeway of the North Berkshire Downs. Join +it at Streatley, the point where it crosses the Thames; at once it +strikes you out and away from the habitable world in a splendid, +purposeful manner, running along the highest ridge of the Downs a +broad green ribbon of turf, with but a shade of difference from the +neighbouring grass, yet distinct for all that. No villages nor +homesteads tempt it aside or modify its course for a yard; should you +lose the track where it is blent with the bordering turf or merged in +and obliterated by criss-cross paths, you have only to walk straight +on, taking heed of no alternative to right or left; and in a minute +'tis with you again -- arisen out of the earth as it were. Or, if +still not quite assured, lift you your eyes, and there it runs over +the brow of the fronting hill. Where a railway crosses it, it +disappears indeed -- hiding Alpheus-like, from the ignominy of rubble +and brick-work; but a little way on it takes up the running again with +the same quiet persistence. Out on that almost trackless expanse of +billowy Downs such a track is in some sort humanly companionable: it +really seems to lead you by the hand. + +The ``Rudge'' is of course an exceptional instance; but indeed this +pleasant personality in roads is not entirely fanciful. It exists as a +characteristic of the old country road, evolved out of the primitive +prehistoric track, developing according to the needs of the land it +passes through and serves: with a language, accordingly, and a meaning +of its own. Its special services are often told clearly enough; but +much else too of the quiet story of the country-side: something of the +old tale whereof you learn so little from the printed page. Each is +instinct, perhaps, with a separate suggestion. Some are martial and +historic, and by your side the hurrying feet of the dead raise a +ghostly dust. The name of yon town -- with its Roman or Saxon suffix +to British root -- hints at much. Many a strong man, wanting his vates +sacer, passed silently to Hades for that suffix to obtain. The little +rise up yonder on the Downs that breaks their straight green line +against the sky showed another sight when the sea of battle surged and +beat on its trampled sides; and the Roman, sore beset, may have gazed +down this very road for relief, praying for night or the succouring +legion. This child that swings on a gate and peeps at you from under +her sun-bonnet -- so may some girl-ancestress of hers have watched +with beating heart the Wessex levies hurry along to clash with the +heathen and break them on the down where the ash trees grew. And +yonder, where the road swings round under gloomy overgrowth of +drooping boughs -- is that gleam of water or glitter of lurking +spears? + +Some sing you pastorals, fluting low in the hot sun between dusty +hedges overlooked by contented cows; past farmsteads where man and +beast, living in frank fellowship, learn pleasant and serviceable +lessons each of the other; over the full-fed river, lipping the +meadow-sweet, and thence on either side through leagues of hay. Or +through bending corn they chant the mystical wonderful song of the +reaper when the harvest is white to the sickle. But most of them, +avoiding classification, keep each his several tender significance; as +with one I know, not so far from town, which woos you from the valley +by gentle ascent between nut-laden hedges, and ever by some touch of +keen fragrance in the air, by some mystery of added softness under +foot -- ever a promise of something to come, unguessed, delighting. +Till suddenly you are among the pines, their keen scent strikes you +through and through, their needles carpet the ground, and in their +swaying tops moans the unappeasable wind -- sad, ceaseless, as the cry +of a warped humanity. Some paces more, and the promise is fulfilled, +the hints and whisperings become fruition: the ground breaks steeply +away, and you look over a great inland sea of fields, homesteads, +rolling woodland, and -- bounding all, blent with the horizon, a +greyness, a gleam -- the English Channel. A road of promises, of +hinted surprises, following each other with the inevitable sequence in +a melody. + +But we are now in another and stricter sense an island of chemins qui +cheminent: dominated, indeed, by them. By these the traveller, +veritably se guindans, may reach his destination ``sans se poiner ou +se fatiguer'' (with large qualifications); but sans very much else +whereof he were none the worse. The gain seems so obvious that you +forget to miss all that lay between the springing stride of the early +start and the pleasant weariness of the end approached, when the limbs +lag a little as the lights of your destination begin to glimmer +through the dusk. All that lay between! ``A Day's Ride a Life's +Romance'' was the excellent title of an unsuccessful book; and indeed +the journey should march with the day, beginning and ending with its +sun, to be the complete thing, the golden round, required of it. This +makes that mind and body fare together, hand in hand, sharing the +hope, the action, the fruition; finding equal sweetness in the languor +of aching limbs at eve and in the first god-like intoxication of +motion with braced muscle in the sun. For walk or ride take the mind +over greater distances than a throbbing whirl with stiffening joints +and cramped limbs through a dozen counties. Surely you seem to cover +vaster spaces with Lavengro, footing it with gipsies or driving his +tinker's cart across lonely commons, than with many a globe-trotter or +steam-yachtsman with diary or log? And even that dividing line -- +strictly marked and rarely overstepped -- between the man who bicycles +and the man who walks, is less due to a prudent regard for personal +safety of the one part than to an essential difference in minds. + +There is a certain supernal, a deific, state of mind which may indeed +be experienced in a minor degree, by any one, in the siesta part of a +Turkish bath. But this particular golden glow of the faculties is only +felt at its fulness after severe and prolonged exertion in the open +air. ``A man ought to be seen by the gods,'' says Marcus Aurelius, +``neither dissatisfied with anything, nor complaining.'' Though this +does not sound at first hearing an excessive demand to make of +humanity, yet the gods, I fancy, look long and often for such a sight +in these unblest days of hurry. If ever seen at all, 'tis when after +many a mile in sun and wind -- maybe rain -- you reach at last, with +the folding star, your destined rustic inn. There, in its homely, +comfortable strangeness, after unnumbered chops with country ale, the +hard facts of life begin to swim in a golden mist. You are isled from +accustomed cares and worries -- you are set in a peculiar nook of +rest. Then old failures seem partial successes, then old loves come +back in their fairest form, but this time with never a shadow of +regret, then old jokes renew their youth and flavour. You ask nothing +of the gods above, nothing of men below -- not even their company. +To-morrow you shall begin life again: shall write your book, make your +fortune, do anything; meanwhile you sit, and the jolly world swings +round, and you seem to hear it circle to the music of the spheres. +What pipe was ever thus beatifying in effect? You are aching all over, +and enjoying it; and the scent of the limes drifts in through the +window. This is undoubtedly the best and greatest country in the +world; and none but good fellows abide in it. + + Laud we the Gods, + And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils + From our blest altars. + +The Romance of the Rail + +In these iron days of the dominance of steam, the crowning wrong that +is wrought us of furnace and piston-rod lies in their annihilation of +the steadfast mystery of the horizon, so that the imagination no +longer begins to work at the point where vision ceases. In happier +times, three hundred years ago, the seafarers from Bristol City looked +out from the prows of their vessels in the grey of the morning, and +wot not rightly whether the land they saw might be Jerusalem or +Madagascar, or if it were not North and South America. ``And there be +certaine flitting islands,'' says one, ``which have been oftentimes +seene, and when men approached near them they vanished.'' ``It may be +that the gulfs will wash us down,'' said Ulysses (thinking of what +Americans call the ``getting-off place''); ``it may be we shall touch +the Happy Isles.'' And so on, and so on; each with his special hope or +``wild surmise.'' There was always a chance of touching the Happy +Isles. And in that first fair world whose men and manners we knew +through story-books, before experience taught us far other, the Prince +mounts his horse one fine morning, and rides all day, and sleeps in a +forest; and next morning, lo! a new country: and he rides by fields +and granges never visited before, through faces strange to him, to +where an unknown King steps down to welcome the mysterious stranger. +And he marries the Princess, and dwells content for many a year; till +one day he thinks ``I will look upon my father's face again, though +the leagues be long to my own land.'' And he rides all day, and sleeps +in a forest; and next morning he is made welcome at home, where his +name has become a dim memory. Which is all as it should be; for, +annihilate time and space as you may, a man's stride remains the true +standard of distance; an eternal and unalterable scale. The severe +horizon, too, repels the thoughts as you gaze to the infinite +considerations that lie about, within touch and hail; and the night +cometh, when no man can work. + +To all these natural bounds and limitations it is good to get back now +and again, from a life assisted and smooth by artificialities. Where +iron has superseded muscle, the kindly life-blood is apt to throb dull +as the measured beat of the steam-engine. But the getting back to them +is now a matter of effort, of set purpose, a stepping aside out of our +ordinary course; they are no longer unsought influences towards the +making of character. So perhaps the time of them has gone by, here in +this second generation of steam. Pereunt et imputantur; they pass +away, and are scored against not us but our guilty fathers. For +ourselves, our peculiar slate is probably filling fast. The romance of +the steam-engine is yet to be captured and expressed -- not fully nor +worthily, perhaps, until it too is a vanished regret; though Emerson +for one will not have it so, and maintains and justifies its right to +immediate recognition as poetic material. ``For as it is dislocation +and detachment from the life of God that makes things ugly, the poet, +who re-attaches things to Nature and the whole -- re-attaching even +artificial things and violations of Nature to Nature by a deeper +insight -- disposes very easily of the most disagreeable facts''; so +that he looks upon ``the factory village and the railway'' and ``sees +them fall within the great Order not less than the bee-hive or the +spider's geometrical web.'' The poet, however, seems hard to convince +hereof. Emerson will have it that ``Nature loves the gliding train of +cars''; ``instead of which'' the poet still goes about the country +singing purling brooks. Painters have been more flexible and liberal. +Turner saw and did his best to seize the spirit of the thing, its +kinship with the elements, and to blend furnace-glare and rush of iron +with the storm-shower, the wind and the thwart-flashing sun-rays, and +to make the whole a single expression of irresoluble force. And even +in a certain work by another and a very different painter -- though I +willingly acquit Mr Frith of any deliberate romantic intention -- you +shall find the element of romance in the vestiges of the old order +still lingering in the first transition period: the coach-shaped +railway carriages with luggage piled and corded on top, the red-coated +guard, the little engine tethered well ahead as if between traces. To +those bred within sight of the sea, steamers will always partake in +somewhat of the ``beauty and mystery of the ships''; above all, if +their happy childhood have lain among the gleaming lochs and sinuous +firths of the Western Highlands, where, twice a week maybe, the +strange visitant crept by headland and bay, a piece of the busy, +mysterious outer world. For myself, I probably stand alone in owning +to a sentimental weakness for the night-piercing whistle -- +judiciously remote, as some men love the skirl of the pipes. In the +days when streets were less wearily familiar than now, or ever the +golden cord was quite loosed that led back to relinquished fields and +wider skies, I have lain awake on stifling summer nights, thinking of +luckier friends by moor and stream, and listening for the whistles +from certain railway stations, veritable ``horns of Elf-land, faintly +blowing.'' Then, a ghostly passenger, I have taken my seat in a +phantom train, and sped up, up, through the map, rehearsing the +journey bit by bit: through the furnace-lit Midlands, and on till the +grey glimmer of dawn showed stone walls in place of hedges, and masses +looming up on either side; till the bright sun shone upon brown +leaping streams and purple heather, and the clear, sharp northern air +streamed in through the windows. Return, indeed, was bitter; +Endymion-like, ``my first touch of the earth went nigh to kill'': but +it was only to hurry northwards again on the wings of imagination, +from dust and heat to the dear mountain air. ``We are only the +children who might have been,'' murmured Lamb's dream babes to him; +and for the sake of those dream-journeys, the journeys that might have +been, I still hail with a certain affection the call of the engine in +the night: even as I love sometimes to turn the enchanted pages of the +railway a b c, and pass from one to the other name reminiscent or +suggestive of joy and freedom, Devonian maybe, or savouring of Wessex, +or bearing me away to some sequestered reach of the quiet Thames. + +Non Libri Sed Liberi + +It will never be clear to the lay mind why the book-buyer buys books. +That it is not to read them is certain: the closest inspection always +fails to find him thus engaged. He will talk about them -- all night +if you let him -- wave his hand to them, shake his fist at them, shed +tears over them (in the small hours of the morning); but he will not +read them. Yet it would be rash to infer that he buys his books +without a remote intention of ever reading them. Most book lovers +start with the honest resolution that some day they will ``shut down +on'' this fatal practice. Then they purpose to themselves to enter +into their charmed circle, and close the gates of Paradise behind +them. Then will they read out of nothing but first editions; every day +shall be a debauch in large paper and tall copies; and crushed morocco +shall be familiar to their touch as buckram. Meanwhile, though, books +continue to flaunt their venal charms; it would be cowardice to shun +the fray. In fine, one buys and continues to buy; and the promised +Sabbath never comes. + +The process of the purchase is always much the same, therein +resembling the familiar but inferior passion of love. There is the +first sight of the Object, accompanied of a catching of the breath, a +trembling in the limbs, loss of appetite, ungovernable desire, and a +habit of melancholy in secret places. But once possessed, once toyed +with amorously for an hour or two, the Object (as in the inferior +passion aforesaid) takes its destined place on the shelf -- where it +stays. And this saith the scoffer, is all; but even he does not fail +to remark with a certain awe that the owner goeth thereafter as one +possessing a happy secret and radiating an inner glow. Moreover, he is +insufferably conceited, and his conceit waxeth as his coat, now +condemned to a fresh term of servitude, groweth shabbier. And shabby +though his coat may be, yet will he never stoop to renew its pristine +youth and gloss by the price of any book. No man -- no human, +masculine, natural man -- ever sells a book. Men have been known in +moments of thoughtlessness, or compelled by temporary necessity, to +rob, to equivocate, to do murder, to commit what they should not, to +``wince and relent and refrain'' from what they should: these things, +howbeit regrettable, are common to humanity, and may happen to any of +us. But amateur bookselling is foul and unnatural; and it is +noteworthy that our language, so capable of particularity, contains no +distinctive name for the crime. Fortunately it is hardly known to +exist: the face of the public being set against it as a flint -- and +the trade giving such wretched prices. + +In book-buying you not infrequently condone an extravagance by the +reflection that this particular purchase will be a good investment, +sordidly considered: that you are not squandering income but sinking +capital. But you know all the time that you are lying. Once possessed, +books develop a personality: they take on a touch of warm human life +that links them in a manner with our kith and kin. Non angli sed +Angeli was the comment of a missionary (old style) on the small human +duodecimos exposed for sale in the Roman market-place; and many a +buyer, when some fair-haired little chattel passed into his +possession, must have felt that here was something vendible no more. +So of these you may well affirm Non libri sed liberi; children now, +adopted into the circle, they shall be trafficked in never again. + +There is one exception which has sadly to be made -- one class of men, +of whom I would fain, if possible, have avoided mention, who are +strangers to any such scruples. These be Executors -- a word to be +strongly accented on the penultimate; for, indeed, they are the common +headsmen of collections, and most of all do whet their bloody edge for +harmless books. Hoary, famous old collections, budding young +collections, fair virgin collections of a single author -- all go down +before the executor's remorseless axe. He careth not and he spareth +not. ``The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy,'' and it +is chiefly by the hand of the executor that she doth love to scatter +it. May oblivion be his portion for ever! + +Of a truth, the foes of the book-lover are not few. One of the most +insidious, because he cometh at first in friendly, helpful guise, is +the bookbinder. Not in that he bindeth books -- for the fair binding +is the final crown and flower of painful achievement -- but because he +bindeth not: because the weary weeks lapse by and turn to months, and +the months to years, and still the binder bindeth not: and the heart +grows sick with hope deferred. Each morn the maiden binds her hair, +each spring the honeysuckle binds the cottage-porch, each autumn the +harvester binds his sheaves, each winter the iron frost binds lake and +stream, and still the bookbinder he bindeth not. Then a secret voice +whispereth: ``Arise, be a man, and slay him! Take him grossly, full of +bread, with all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; At gaming, +swearing, or about some act That hath no relish of salvation in it!'' +But when the deed is done, and the floor strewn with fragments of +binder -- still the books remain unbound. You have made all that +horrid mess for nothing, and the weary path has to be trodden over +again. As a general rule, the man in the habit of murdering +bookbinders, though he performs a distinct service to society, only +wastes his own time and takes no personal advantage. + +And even supposing that after many days your books return to you in +leathern surcoats bravely tricked with gold, you have scarce yet +weathered the Cape and sailed into halcyon seas. For these books -- +well, you kept them many weeks before binding them, that the +oleaginous printer's-ink might fully dry before the necessary +hammering; you forbore to open the pages, that the autocratic binder +might refold the sheets if he pleased; and now that all is over -- +consummatum est -- still you cannot properly enjoy the harvest of a +quiet mind. For these purple emperors are not to be read in bed, nor +during meals, nor on the grass with a pipe on Sundays; and these brief +periods are all the whirling times allow you for solid serious +reading. Still, after all, you have them; you can at least pulverise +your friends with the sight; and what have they to show against them? +Probably some miserable score or so of half-bindings, such as lead you +scornfully to quote the hackneyed couplet concerning the poor Indian +whose untutored mind clothes him before but leaves him bare behind. +Let us thank the gods that such things are: that to some of us they +give not poverty nor riches but a few good books in whole bindings. +Dowered with these and (if it be vouchsafed) a cup of Burgundy that is +sound even if it be not old, we can leave to others the foaming grape +of Eastern France that was vintaged in '74, and with it the whole +range of shilling shockers, -- the Barmecidal feast of the purposeful +novelist -- yea, even the countless series that tell of Eminent Women +and Successful Men. + +Loafing + +When the golden Summer has rounded languidly to his close, when Autumn +has been carried forth in russet winding-sheet, then all good fellows +who look upon holidays as a chief end of life return from moor and +stream and begin to take stock of gains and losses. And the wisest, +realising that the time of action is over while that of reminiscence +has begun, realise too that the one is pregnant with greater pleasures +than the other -- that action, indeed, is only the means to an end of +reflection and appreciation. Wisest of all, the Loafer stands apart +supreme. For he, of one mind with the philosopher as to the end, goes +straight to it at once; and his happy summer has accordingly been +spent in those subjective pleasures of the mind whereof the others, +the men of muscle and peeled faces, are only just beginning to taste. + +And yet though he may a little despise (or rather pity) them, the +Loafer does not dislike nor altogether shun them. Far from it: they +are very necessary to him. For ``Suave mari magno'' is the motto of +your true Loafer; and it is chiefly by keeping ever in view the +struggles and the clamorous jostlings of the unenlightened making +holiday that he is able to realise the bliss of his own condition and +maintain his self-satisfaction at boiling-point. And so is he never +very far away from the track beaten by the hurrying Philistine hoof, +but hovers more or less on the edge of it, where, the sole fixed star +amidst whirling constellations, he may watch the mad world ``glance, +and nod, and hurry by.'' + +There are many such centres of contemplation along the West Coast of +Scotland. Few places are better loafing-ground than a pier, with its +tranquil ``lucid interval'' between steamers, the ever recurrent throb +of paddle-wheel, the rush and foam of beaten water among the piles, +splash of ropes and rumble of gangways, and all the attendant hurry +and scurry of the human morrice. Here, tanquam in speculo, the Loafer +as he lounges may, by attorney as it were, touch gently every stop in +the great organ of the emotions of mortality. Rapture of meeting, +departing woe, love at first sight, disdain, laughter, indifference -- +he may experience them all, but attenuated and as if he saw them in a +dream; as if, indeed, he were Heine's god in dream on a mountain-side. +Let the drowsy deity awake and all these puppets, emanations of his +dream, will vanish into the nothing whence they came. And these +emotions may be renewed each morning; if a fair one sail to-day, be +sure that one as fair will land to-morrow. The supply is +inexhaustible. + +But in the South perhaps the happiest loafing-ground is the gift of +Father Thames; for there again the contrast of violent action, with +its blisters, perspiration, and the like, throws into fine relief the +bliss of ``quietism.'' I know one little village in the upper reaches +where loafing may be pushed to high perfection. Here the early hours +of the morning are vexed by the voices of boaters making their way +down the little street to the river. The most of them go staggering +under hampers, bundles of waterproofs, and so forth. Their voices are +clamant of feats to be accomplished: they will row, they will punt, +they will paddle, till they weary out the sun. All this the Loafer +hears through the open door of his cottage, where in his shirt-sleeves +he is dallying with his bacon, as a gentleman should. He is the only +one who has had a comfortable breakfast -- and he knows it. Later he +will issue forth and stroll down in their track to the bridge. The +last of these Argonauts is pulling lustily forth; the river is dotted +with evanishing blazers. Upon all these lunatics a pitiless Phoebus +shines triumphant. The Loafer sees the last of them off the stage, +turns his back on it, and seeks the shady side of the street. + +A holy calm possesses the village now; the foreign element has passed +away with shouting and waving of banners, and its natural life of +somnolency is in evidence at last. And first, as a true Loafer should, +let him respectfully greet each several village dog. Arcades ambo -- +loafers likewise -- they lie there in the warm dust, each outside his +own door, ready to return the smallest courtesy. Their own lords and +masters are not given to the exchange of compliments nor to greetings +in the market-place. The dog is generally the better gentleman, and he +is aware of it; and he duly appreciates the loafer, who is not too +proud to pause a moment, change the news, and pass the time of day. He +will mark his sense of this attention by rising from his dust-divan +and accompanying his caller some steps on his way. But he will stop +short of his neighbour's dust-patch; for the morning is really too hot +for a shindy. So, by easy stages (the street is not a long one: six +dogs will see it out), the Loafer quits the village; and now the world +is before him. Shall he sit on a gate and smoke? or lie on the grass +and smoke? or smoke aimlessly and at large along the road? Such a +choice of happiness is distracting; but perhaps the last course is the +best -- as needing the least mental effort of selection. Hardly, +however, has he fairly started his first daydream when the snappish +``ting'' of a bellkin recalls him to realities. By comes the +bicyclist: dusty, sweating, a piteous thing to look upon. But the +irritation of the strepitant metal has jarred the Loafer's always +exquisite nerves: he is fain to climb a gate and make his way towards +solitude and the breezy downs. + +Up here all vestiges of a sordid humanity disappear. The Loafer is +alone with the south-west wind and the blue sky. Only a carolling of +larks and a tinkling from distant flocks break the brooding noonday +stillness; above, the wind-hover hangs motionless, a black dot on the +blue. Prone on his back on the springy turf, gazing up into the sky, +his fleshy integument seems to drop away, and the spirit ranges at +will among the tranquil clouds. This way Nirvana nearest lies. Earth +no longer obtrudes herself; possibly somewhere a thousand miles or so +below him the thing still ``spins like a fretful midge.'' The Loafer +knows not nor cares. His is now an astral body, and through golden +spaces of imagination his soul is winging her untrammelled flight. And +there he really might remain for ever, but that his vagrom spirit is +called back to earth by a gentle but resistless, very human summons, +-- a gradual, consuming, Pantagruelian, god-like, thirst: a thirst to +thank Heaven on. So, with a sigh half of regret, half of anticipation, +he bends his solitary steps towards the nearest inn. Tobacco for one +is good; to commune with oneself and be still is truest wisdom; but +beer is a thing of deity -- beer is divine. + +Later the Loafer may decently make some concession to popular taste by +strolling down to the river and getting out his boat. With one paddle +out he will drift down the stream: just brushing the flowering rush +and the meadow-sweet and taking in as peculiar gifts the varied sweets +of even. The loosestrife is his, and the arrow-head: his the distant +moan of the weir; his are the glories, amber and scarlet and silver, +of the sunset-haunted surface. By-and-by the boaters will pass him +homeward-bound. All are blistered and sore: his withers are unwrung. +Most are too tired and hungry to see the sunset glories; no corporeal +pangs clog his ćsthesis -- his perceptive faculty. Some have +quarrelled in the day and are no longer on speaking terms; he is at +peace with himself and with the whole world. Of all that lay them down +in the little village that night, his sleep will be the surest and the +sweetest. For not even the blacksmith himself will have better claim +to have earned a night's repose. + +Cheap Knowledge + +When at times it happens to me that I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, +and to find the fair apple of life dust and ashes at the core -- just +because, perhaps, I can't afford Melampus Brown's last volume of poems +in large paper, but must perforce condescend upon the two-and-sixpenny +edition for the million -- then I bring myself to a right temper by +recalling to memory a sight which now and again in old days would +touch the heart of me to a happier pulsation. In the long, dark winter +evenings, outside some shop window whose gaslight flared brightest +into the chilly street, I would see some lad -- sometimes even a girl +-- book in hand, heedless of cold and wet, of aching limbs and +straining eyes, careless of jostling passers-by, of rattle and turmoil +behind them and about, their happy spirits far in an enchanted world: +till the ruthless shopman turned out the gas and brought them rudely +back to the bitter reality of cramped legs and numbed fingers. ``My +brother!'' or ``My sister!'' I would cry inwardly, feeling the link +that bound us together. They possessed, for the hour, the two gifts +most precious to the student -- light and solitude: the true solitude +of the roaring street. + +Somehow this vision rarely greets me now. Probably the Free Libraries +have supplanted the flickering shop lights; and every lad and lass can +enter and call for Miss Braddon and batten thereon ``in luxury's +sofa-lap of leather''; and of course this boon is appreciated and +profited by, and we shall see the divine results in a year or two. And +yet sometimes, like the dear old Baron in the ``Red Lamp,'' ``I +wonder?'' + +For myself, public libraries possess a special horror, as of lonely +wastes and dragon-haunted fens. The stillness and the heavy air, the +feeling of restriction and surveillance, the mute presence of these +other readers, ``all silent and all damned,'' combine to set up a +nervous irritation fatal to quiet study. Had I to choose, I would +prefer the windy street. And possibly others have found that the +removal of checks and obstacles makes the path which leads to the +divine mountain-tops less tempting, now that it is less rugged. So +full of human nature are we all -- still -- despite the Radical +missionaries that labour in the vineyard. Before the National Gallery +was extended and rearranged, there was a little ``St Catherine'' by +Pinturicchio that possessed my undivided affections. In those days she +hung near the floor, so that those who would worship must grovel; and +little I grudged it. Whenever I found myself near Trafalgar Square +with five minutes to spare I used to turn in and sit on the floor +before the object of my love, till gently but firmly replaced on my +legs by the attendant. She hangs on the line now, in the grand new +room; but I never go to see her. Somehow she is not my ``St +Catherine'' of old. Doubtless Free Libraries affect many students in +the same way: on the same principle as that now generally accepted -- +that it is the restrictions placed on vice by our social code which +make its pursuit so peculiarly agreeable. + +But even when the element of human nature has been fully allowed for, +it remains a question whether the type of mind that a generation or +two of Free Libraries will evolve is or is not the one that the world +most desiderates; and whether the spare reading and consequent fertile +thinking necessitated by the old, or gas-lamp, style is not productive +of sounder results. The cloyed and congested mind resulting from the +free run of these grocers' shops to omnivorous appetites (and all +young readers are omnivorous) bids fair to produce a race of literary +resurrection-men: a result from which we may well pray to be spared. +Of all forms of lettered effusiveness that which exploits the original +work of others and professes to supply us with right opinions +thereanent is the least wanted. And whether he take to literary +expression by pen or only wag the tongue of him, the grocer's boy of +letters is sure to prove a prodigious bore. The Free Library, if it be +fulfilling the programme of its advocates, is breeding such as he by +scores. + +But after all there is balm in Gilead; and much joy and consolation +may be drawn from the sorrowful official reports, by which it would +appear that the patrons of these libraries are confining their +reading, with a charming unanimity, exclusively to novels. And indeed +they cannot do better; there is no more blessed thing on earth than a +good novel, not the least merit of which is that it induces a state of +passive, unconscious enjoyment, and never frenzies the reader to go +out and put the world right. Next to fairy tales -- the original +world-fiction -- our modern novels may be ranked as our most precious +possessions; and so it has come to pass that I shall now cheerfully +pay my five shillings, or ten shillings, or whatever it may shortly +be, in the pound towards the Free Library: convinced at last that the +money is not wasted in training exponents of the subjectivity of this +writer and the objectivity of that, nor in developing fresh imitators +of dead discredited styles, but is righteously devoted to the support +of wholesome, honest, unpretending novel-reading. + +The Rural Pan + +An April Essay + +Through shady Throgmorton Street and about the vale of Cheapside the +restless Mercury is flitting, with furtive eye and voice a little +hoarse from bidding in the market. Further west, down classic +Piccadilly, moves the young Apollo, the lord of the unerring (satin) +bow; and nothing meaner than a frock-coat shall in these latter years +float round his perfect limbs. But remote in other haunts than these +the rural Pan is hiding, and piping the low, sweet strain that reaches +only the ears of a chosen few. And now that the year wearily turns and +stretches herself before the perfect waking, the god emboldened begins +to blow a clearer note. + +When the waking comes at last, and Summer is abroad, these deities +will abroad too, each as his several attributes move him. Who is this +that flieth up the reaches of the Thames in steam-launch hired for the +day? Mercury is out -- some dozen or fifteen strong. The flower-gemmed +banks crumble and slide down under the wash of his rampant screw; his +wake is marked by a line of lobster-claws, gold-necked bottles, and +fragments of veal-pie. Resplendent in blazer, he may even be seen to +embrace the slim-waisted nymph, haunter of green (room) shades, in the +full gaze of the shocked and scandalised sun. Apollo meantime +reposeth, passively beautiful, on the lawn of the Guards' Club at +Maidenhead. Here, O Apollo, are haunts meet for thee. A deity +subjectively inclined, he is neither objective nor, it must be said +for him, at all objectionable, like them of Mercury. + +Meanwhile, nor launches nor lawns tempt him that pursueth the rural +Pan. In the hushed recesses of Hurley backwater where the canoe may be +paddled almost under the tumbling comb of the weir, he is to be looked +for; there the god pipes with freest abandonment. Or under the great +shadow of Streatley Hill, ``annihilating all that's made to a green +thought in a green shade''; or better yet, pushing an explorer's prow +up the remote untravelled Thame, till Dorchester's stately roof broods +over the quiet fields. In solitudes such as these Pan sits and +dabbles, and all the air is full of the music of his piping. +Southwards, again, on the pleasant Surrey downs there is shouting and +jostling; dust that is drouthy and language that is sultry. Thither +comes the young Apollo, calmly confident as ever; and he meeteth +certain Mercuries of the baser sort, who do him obeisance, call him +captain and lord, and then proceed to skin him from head to foot as +thoroughly as the god himself flayed Marsyas in days of yore, at a +certain Spring Meeting in Phrygia: a good instance of Time's revenges. +And yet Apollo returns to town and swears he has had a grand day. He +does so every year. Out of hearing of all the clamour, the rural Pan +may be found stretched on Ranmore Common, loitering under Abinger +pines, or prone by the secluded stream of the sinuous Mole, abounding +in friendly greetings for his foster-brothers the dab-chick and +water-rat. + +For a holiday, Mercury loveth the Pullman Express, and a short hour +with a society paper; anon, brown boots on the pier, and the pleasant +combination of Métropole and Monopole. Apollo for his part will urge +the horses of the Sun: and, if he leaveth the society weekly to +Mercury, yet he loveth well the Magazine. From which omphalos or hub +of the universe he will direct his shining team even to the far +Hesperides of Richmond or of Windsor. Both iron road and level highway +are shunned by the rural Pan, who chooses rather to foot it along the +sheep track on the limitless downs or the thwart-leading footpath +through copse and spinney, not without pleasant fellowship with +feather and fir. Nor does it follow from all this that the god is +unsocial. Albeit shy of the company of his more showy brother-deities, +he loveth the more unpretentious humankind, especially them that are +adscripti glebć, addicted to the kindly soil and to the working +thereof: perfect in no way, only simple, cheery sinners. For he is +only half a god after all, and the red earth in him is strong. When +the pelting storm drives the wayfarers to the sheltering inn, among +the little group on bench and settle Pan has been known to appear at +times, in homely guise of hedger-and-ditcher or weather-beaten +shepherd from the downs. Strange lore and quaint fancy he will then +impart, in the musical Wessex or Mercian he has learned to speak so +naturally; though it may not be till many a mile away that you begin +to suspect that you have unwittingly talked with him who chased the +flying Syrinx in Arcady and turned the tide of fight at Marathon. + +Yes: to-day the iron horse has searched the country through -- east +and west, north and south -- bringing with it Commercialism, whose god +is Jerry, and who studs the hills with stucco and garrotes the streams +with the girder. Bringing, too, into every nook and corner fashion and +chatter, the tailor-made gown and the eyeglass. Happily a great part +is still spared -- how great these others fortunately do not know -- +in which the rural Pan and his following may hide their heads for yet +a little longer, until the growing tyranny has invaded the last +common, spinney, and sheep-down, and driven the kindly god, the +well-wisher to man -- whither? + +Marginalia + +American Hunt, in his suggestive ``Talks about Art,'' demands that the +child shall be encouraged -- or rather permitted, for the natural +child needs little encouragement -- to draw when- and whereon-soever +he can; for, says he, the child's scribbling on the margin of his +school-books is really worth more to him than all he gets out of them, +and indeed, ``to him the margin is the best part of all books, and he +finds in it the soothing influence of a clear sky in a landscape.'' +Doubtless Sir Benjamin Backbite, though his was not an artist soul, +had some dim feeling of this mighty truth when he spoke of that new +quarto of his, in which ``a neat rivulet of text shall meander through +a meadow of margin'': boldly granting the margin to be of superior +importance to the print. This metaphor is pleasantly expanded in +Burton's ``Bookhunter'': wherein you read of certain folios with +``their majestic stream of central print overflowing into rivulets of +marginal notes, sedgy with citations.'' But the good Doctor leaves the +main stream for a backwater of error in inferring that the chief use +of margins is to be a parading-ground for notes and citations. As if +they had not absolute value in themselves, nor served a finer end! In +truth, Hunt's child was vastly the wiser man. + +For myself, my own early margins chiefly served to note, cite, and +illustrate the habits of crocodiles. Along the lower or ``tail'' edge, +the saurian, splendidly serrated as to his back, arose out of old +Nile; up one side negroes, swart as sucked lead-pencil could limn +them, let fall their nerveless spears; up the other, monkeys, +gibbering with terror, swarmed hastily up palm-trees -- a plant to the +untutored hand of easier outline than (say) your British oak. +Meanwhile, all over the unregarded text Balbus slew Caius on the most +inadequate provocation, or Hannibal pursued his victorious career, +while Roman generals delivered ornate set speeches prior to receiving +the usual satisfactory licking. Fabius, Hasdrubal -- all alike were +pallid shades with faint, thin voices powerless to pierce the +distance. The margins of Cocytus doubtless knew them: mine were +dedicated to the more attractive flesh and blood of animal life, the +varied phases of the tropic forest. Or, in more practical mood, I +would stoop to render certain facts recorded in the text. To these +digressions I probably owe what little education I possess. For +example, there was one sentence in our Roman history: ``By this single +battle of Magnesia, Antiochus the Great lost all his conquests in Asia +Minor.'' Serious historians really should not thus forget themselves. +'Twas so easy, by a touch of the pen, to transform ``battle'' into +``bottle''; for ``conquests'' one could substitute a word for which +not even Macaulay's school-boy were at a loss; and the result, +depicted with rude vigour in his margin, fixed the name of at least +one ancient fight on the illustrator's memory. But this plodding and +material art had small charm for me: to whom the happy margin was a +``clear sky'' ever through which I could sail away at will to more +gracious worlds. I was duly qualified by a painfully acquired +ignorance of dead languages cautiously to approach my own; and 'twas +no better. Along Milton's margins the Gryphon must needs pursue the +Arimaspian -- what a chance, that Arimaspian, for the imaginative +pencil! And so it has come about that, while Milton periods are mostly +effaced from memory by the sponge of Time, I can still see that +vengeful Gryphon, cousin-german to the gentle beast that danced the +Lobster Quadrille by a certain shore. + +It is by no means insisted upon that the chief end and use of margins +is for pictorial illustration, nor yet for furtive games of oughts and +crosses, nor (in the case of hymn-books) for amorous missives scrawled +against the canticle for the day, to be passed over into an adjacent +pew: as used, alas! to happen in days when one was young and godless, +and went to church. Nor, again, are the margins of certain poets +entrusted to man for the composing thereon of infinitely superior +rhymes on the subjects themselves have maltreated: a depraved habit, +akin to scalping. What has never been properly recognised is the +absolute value of the margin itself -- a value frequently superior to +its enclosure. In poetry the popular taste demands its margin, and +takes care to get it in ``the little verses wot they puts inside the +crackers.'' The special popularity, indeed, of lyric as opposed to +epic verse is due to this habit of feeling. A good example maybe found +in the work of Mr Swinburne: the latter is the better poetry, the +earlier remains the more popular -- because of its eloquence of +margin. Mr Tupper might long ago have sat with laureate brow but for +his neglect of this first principle. The song of Sigurd, our one epic +of the century, is pitiably unmargined, and so has never won the full +meed of glory it deserves; while the ingenious gentleman who wrote +``Beowulf,'' our other English epic, grasped the great fact from the +first, so that his work is much the more popular of the two. The moral +is evident. An authority on practical book-making has stated that +``margin is a matter to be studied''; also that ``to place the print +in the centre of the paper is wrong in principle, and to be +deprecated.'' Now, if it be ``wrong in principle,'' let us push that +principle to its legitimate conclusion, and ``deprecate'' the placing +of print on any part of the paper at all. Without actually suggesting +this course to any of our living bards, when, I may ask -- when shall +that true poet arise who, disdaining the trivialities of text, shall +give the world a book of verse consisting entirely of margin? How we +shall shove and jostle for large paper copies! + +The Eternal Whither + +There was once an old cashier in some ancient City establishment, +whose practice was to spend his yearly holiday in relieving some +turnpike-man at his post, and performing all the duties appertaining +thereunto. This was vulgarly taken to be an instance of mere +mill-horse enslavement to his groove -- the reception of payments; and +it was spoken of both in mockery of all mill-horses and for the due +admonishment of others. And yet that clerk had discovered for himself +an unique method of seeing Life at its best, the flowing, hurrying, +travelling, marketing Life of the Highway; the life of bagman and +cart, of tinker, and pig-dealer, and all cheery creatures that drink +and chaffer together in the sun. He belonged, above all, to the scanty +class of clear-seeing persons who know both what they are good for and +what they really want. To know what you would like to do is one thing; +to go out boldly and do it is another -- and a rarer; and the sterile +fields about Hell-Gate are strewn with the corpses of those who would +an if they could. + +To be sure, being bent on the relaxation most congenial to one's soul, +it is possible to push one's disregard for convention too far: as is +seen in the case of another, though of an earlier generation, in the +same establishment. In his office there was the customary +``attendance-book,'' wherein the clerks were expected to sign each +day. Here his name one morning ceases abruptly from appearing; he +signs, indeed, no more. Instead of signature you find, a little later, +writ in careful commercial hand, this entry: ``Mr --- did not attend +at his office to-day, having been hanged at eight o'clock in the +morning for horse-stealing.'' Through the faded ink of this record do +you not seem to catch, across the gulf of years, some waft of the +jolly humanity which breathed in this prince among clerks? A formal +precisian, doubtless, during business hours; but with just this honest +love of horseflesh lurking deep down there in him -- unsuspected, +sweetening the whole lump. Can you not behold him, freed from his +desk, turning to pursue his natural bent, as a city-bred dog still +striveth to bury his bone deep in the hearth-rug? For no filthy lucre, +you may be sure, but from sheer love of the pursuit itself! All the +same, he erred; erred, if not in taste, at least in judgment: for we +cannot entirely acquit him of blame for letting himself be caught. + +In these tame and tedious days of the policeman rampant, our +melancholy selves are debarred from many a sport, joyous and debonair, +whereof our happier fathers were free. Book-stealing, to be sure, +remains to us; but every one is not a collector; and, besides, 'tis a +diversion you can follow with equal success all the year round. Still, +the instance may haply be pregnant with suggestion to many who wearily +ask each year, what new place or pursuit exhausted earth still keeps +for the holiday-maker. 'Tis a sad but sober fact, that the most of men +lead flat and virtuous lives, departing annually with their family to +some flat and virtuous place, there to disport themselves in a manner +that is decent, orderly, wholly uninteresting, vacant of every buxom +stimulus. To such as these a suggestion, in all friendliness: why not +try crime? We shall not attempt to specify the particular branch -- +for every one must himself seek out and find the path his nature best +fits him to follow; but the general charm of the prospect must be +evident to all. The freshness and novelty of secrecy, the artistic +satisfaction in doing the act of self-expression as well as it can +possibly be done; the experience of being not the hunter, but the +hunted, not the sportsman, but the game; the delight of comparing and +discussing crimes with your mates over a quiet pipe on your return to +town; these new pleasures -- these and their like -- would furnish +just that gentle stimulant, that peaceful sense of change so necessary +to the tired worker. And then the fact, that you would naturally have +to select and plan out your particular line of diversion without +advice or assistance, has its own advantage. For the moment a man +takes to dinning in your ears that you ought, you really ought, to go +to Norway, you at once begin to hate Norway with a hate that ever will +be; and to have Newlyn, Cromer, or Dawlish, Carinthia or the Austrian +Tyrol jammed down your throat, is enough to initiate the discovery +that your own individual weakness is a joyous and persistent liking +for manslaughter. + +Some few seem to be born without much innate tendency to crime. After +all, it is mostly a matter of heredity; these unfortunates are less +culpable than their neglectful ancestors; and it is a fault that none +need really blush for in the present. For such as they there still +remains the example of the turnpike-loving clerk, with all its golden +possibilities. Denied the great delight of driving a locomotive, or a +fire-engine -- whirled along in a glorious nimbus of smoke-pant, +spark-shower, and hoarse warning roar -- what bliss to the palefaced +quilldriver to command a penny steamboat between London Bridge and +Chelsea! to drive a four-horsed Jersey-car to Kew at sixpence a head! +Though turnpikes be things of the past, there are still tolls to be +taken on many a pleasant reach of Thames. What happiness in quiet +moments to tend the lock-keeper's flower-beds -- perhaps make love to +his daughter; anon in busier times to let the old gates swing, work +the groaning winches, and hear the water lap and suck and gurgle as it +slowly sinks or rises with its swaying freight; to dangle legs over +the side and greet old acquaintances here and there among the +parti-coloured wayfarers passing up or down; while tobacco palleth not +on the longest day, and beer is ever within easy reach. The iron +tetter that scurfs the face of our island has killed out the pleasant +life of the road; but many of its best conditions still linger round +these old toll gates, free from dust and clatter, on the silent liquid +Highway to the West. + +These for the weaker brethren: but for him who is conscious of the +Gift, the path is plain. + +Deus Terminus + +The practical Roman, stern constructor of roads and codes, when he +needs must worship, loved a deity practical as himself; and in his +parcelling of the known world into plots, saying unto this man, Bide +here, and to that, Sit you down there, he could scarce fail to evolve +the god Terminus: visible witness of possession and dominion, type of +solid facts not to be quibbled away. We Romans of this latter day -- +so hailed by others, or complacently christened by ourselves -- are +Roman in nothing more than in this; and, as much in the less tangible +realms of thought as in our solid acres, we are fain to set up the +statue which shall proclaim that so much country is explored, marked +out, allotted, and done with; that such and such ramblings and +excursions are practicable and permissible, and all else is exploded, +illegal, or absurd. And in this way we are left with naught but a +vague lingering tradition of the happier days before the advent of the +ruthless deity. + +The sylvan glories of yonder stretch of woodland renew themselves each +autumn, regal as ever. It is only the old enchantment that is gone; +banished by the matter-of-fact deity, who has stolidly settled exactly +where Lord A.'s shooting ends and Squire B.'s begins. Once, no such +petty limitations fettered the mind. A step into the woodland was a +step over the border -- the margin of the material; and then, good-bye +to the modern world of the land-agent and the ``Field'' advertisement! +A chiming of little bells over your head, and lo! the peregrine, with +eyes like jewels, fluttered through the trees, her jesses catching in +the boughs. 'Twas the favourite of the Princess, the windows of whose +father's castle already gleamed through the trees, where honours and +favours awaited the adventurous. The white doe sprang away through the +thicket, her snowy flank stained with blood; she made for the +enchanted cot, and for entrance you too had the pass-word. Did you +fail on her traces, nor fox nor mole was too busy to spare a moment +for friendly advice or information. Little hands were stretched to +trip you, fairy gibe and mockery pelted you from every rabbit-hole; +and O what Dryads you have kissed among the leaves, in that brief +blissful moment ere they hardened into tree! 'Tis pity, indeed, that +this sort of thing should have been made to share the suspicion +attaching to the poacher; that the stony stare of the boundary god +should confront you at the end of every green ride and rabbit-run; +while the very rabbits themselves are too disgusted with the altered +circumstances to tarry a moment for so much as to exchange the time of +day. + +Truly this age is born, like Falstaff, with a white head and something +a round belly: and will none of your jigs and fantasies. The golden +era of princesses is past. For your really virtuous 'prentices there +still remain a merchant's daughter or two, and a bottle of port o' +Sundays on the Clapham mahogany. For the rest of us, one or two decent +clubs, and plenty of nice roomy lunatic asylums. ``Go spin, you jade, +go spin!'' is the one greeting for Imagination. And yet -- what a lip +the slut has! What an ankle! Go to: there's nobody looking; let us +lock the door, pull down the blinds, and write us a merry ballad. + +'Tis ungracious, perhaps, to regret what is gone for ever, when so +much is given in return. A humour we have, that is entirely new; and +allotments that shall win back Astrća. Our Labor Program stands for +evidence that the Board School, at least, has done enduring work; and +the useless race of poets is fast dying out. Though we no longer +conjecture what song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed +when he hid himself among women, yet many a prize (of guineas galore) +awaits the competitor who will stoop, week by week, to more practical +research. ``Le monde marche,'' as Renan hath it, ``vers une sorte +d'americanisme.... Peut-ętre la vulgarité générale sera-t-elle un jour +la condition du bonheur des élus. Nous n'avons pas le droit d'etre +fort difficiles.'' We will be very facile, then, since needs must; +remembering the good old proverb that ``scornful dogs eat dirty +puddings.'' But, ere we show Terminus the door, at least let us fling +one stone at the shrieking sulphureous houses of damnation erected as +temples in his honour, and dignified with his name! There, 'mid +clangour, dirt, and pestilence of crowding humanity, the very spirit +of worry and unrest sits embodied. The old Roman was not such a bad +fellow. His deity of demarcation at least breathed open air, and knew +the kindly touch of sun and wind. His simple rites were performed amid +flowers and under blue sky, by sunny roads or tranquil waters; and on +this particular altar the sacrifice was ordained to be free from any +stain of gore. Our hour of sacrifice, alas, has not yet come. When it +does -- ( et haud procul absit!) -- let the offering be no bloodless +one, but let (for choice) a fat and succulent stationmaster smoke and +crackle on the altar of expiation! + +Of Smoking + +Concerning Cigarette Smoking: It hath been well observed by a certain +philosopher that this is a practice commendable enough, and pleasant +to indulge in, ``when you're not smoking''; wherein the whole +criticism of the cigarette is found, in a little room. Of the same +manner of thinking was one that I knew, who kept by him an ample case +bulging with cigarettes, to smoke while he was filling his pipe. Toys +they be verily, nugć, and shadows of the substance. Serviceable, +nevertheless, as shadows sometimes be when the substance is +temporarily unattainable; as between the acts of a play, in the park, +or while dressing for dinner: that such moments may not be entirely +wasted. That cigarette, however, which is so prompt to appear after +dinner I would reprehend and ban and totally abolish: as enemy to that +diviner thing before which it should pale its ineffectual fires in +shame -- to wit, good drink, ``la dive bouteille''; except indeed when +the liquor be bad, as is sometimes known to happen. Then it may serve +in some sort as a sorry consolation. But to leave these airy +substitutes, and come to smoking. + +It hath been ofttimes debated whether the morning pipe be the sweeter, +or that first pipe of the evening which ``Hesperus, who bringeth all +good things,'' brings to the weary with home and rest. The first is +smoked on a clearer palate, and comes to unjaded senses like the kiss +of one's first love; but lacks that feeling of perfect fruition, of +merit recompensed and the goal and the garland won, which clings to +the vesper bowl. Whence it comes that the majority give the palm to +the latter. To which I intend no slight when I find the incense that +arises at matins sweeter even than that of evensong. For, although +with most of us who are labourers in the vineyard, toilers and +swinkers, the morning pipe is smoked in hurry and fear and a sense of +alarums and excursions and fleeting trains, yet with all this there +are certain halcyon periods sure to arrive -- Sundays, holidays, and +the like -- the whole joy and peace of which are summed up in that one +beatific pipe after breakfast, smoked in a careless majesty like that +of the gods ``when they lie beside their nectar, and the clouds are +lightly curled.'' Then only can we be said really to smoke. And so +this particular pipe of the day always carries with it festal +reminiscences: memories of holidays past, hopes for holidays to come; +a suggestion of sunny lawns and flannels and the ungirt loin; a sense +withal of something free and stately, as of ``faint march-music in the +air,'' or the old Roman cry of ``Liberty, freedom, and +enfranchisement.'' + +If there be any fly in the pipe-smoker's ointment, it may be said to +lurk in the matter of ``rings.'' Only the exceptionally gifted smoker +can recline in his chair and emit at will the perfect smoke-ring, in +consummate eddying succession. He of the meaner sort must be content +if, at rare heaven-sent intervals -- while thinking, perhaps, of +nothing less -- there escape from his lips the unpremeditated flawless +circle. Then ``deus fio'' he is moved to cry, at that breathless +moment when his creation hangs solid and complete, ere the particles +break away and blend with the baser atmosphere. Nay, some will deny to +any of us terrene smokers the gift of fullest achievement: for what +saith the poet of the century? ``On the earth the broken arcs: in the +heaven the perfect round!'' + +It was well observed by a certain character in one of Wilkie Collins's +novels (if an imperfect memory serveth me rightly) that women will +take pleasure in scents derived from animal emanations, clarified +fats, and the like; yet do illogically abhor the ``clean, dry, +vegetable smell'' of tobacco. Herein the true base of the feminine +objection is reached; being, as usual, inherent want of logic rather +than any distaste, in the absolute, for the thing in question. +Thinking that they ought to dislike, they do painfully cast about for +reasons to justify their dislike, when none really exist. As a +specimen of their so-called arguments, I remember how a certain fair +one triumphantly pointed out to me that my dog, though loving me well, +could yet never be brought to like the smell of tobacco. To whom I, +who respected my dog (as Ben saith of Master Shakespeare) on this side +idolatry as much as anything, was yet fain to point out -- more in +sorrow than in anger -- that a dog, being an animal who delights to +pass his whole day, from early morn to dewy eve, in shoving his nose +into every carrion beastliness that he can come across, could hardly +be considered arbiter elegantiarum in the matter of smells. But indeed +I did wrong to take such foolish quibbling seriously; nor would I have +done so, if she hadn't dragged my poor innocent dog into the +discussion. + +Of Smoking in Bed: There be who consider this a depravity -- an +instance of that excess in the practice of a virtue which passes into +vice -- and couple it with dram-drinking: who yet fail to justify +themselves by argument. For if bed be by common consent the greatest +bliss, the divinest spot, on earth, ``ille terrarum qui prćter omnes +angulus ridet''; and if tobacco be the true Herb of Grace, and a joy +and healing balm, and respite and nepenthe, -- if all this be +admitted, why are two things, super-excellent separately, noxious in +conjunction? And is not the Bed Smoker rather an epicure in pleasure +-- self indulgent perhaps, but still the triumphant creator of a new +``blend,'' reminding one of a certain traveller's account of an +intoxicant patronised in the South Sea Islands, which combines the +blissful effect of getting drunk and remaining sober to enjoy it? Yet +I shall not insist too much on this point, but would only ask -- so +long as the smoker be unwedded -- for some tolerance in the matter and +a little logic in the discussion thereof. + +Concerning Cigars: That there be large sums given for these is within +common knowledge. 1 d., 2 d., nay even 4 d., is not too great a price, +if a man will have of the finest leaf, reckless of expense. In this +sort of smoking, however, I find more of vainglory and ostentation +than solid satisfaction; and its votaries would seem to display less a +calm, healthy affection for tobacco than (as Sir T. Browne hath it) a +``passionate prodigality.'' And, besides grievous wasting of the +pocket, atmospheric changes, varyings in the crops, and the like, +cause uncertainty to cling about each individual weed, so that man is +always more or less at the mercy of Nature and the elements -- an +unsatisfactory and undignified position in these latter days of the +Triumphant Democracy. But worst and fatallest of all, to every +cigar-smoker it is certain to happen that once in his life, by some +happy combination of time, place, temperament, and Nature -- by some +starry influence, maybe, or freak of the gods in mocking sport -- +once, and once only, he will taste the aroma of the perfect leaf at +just the perfect point -- the ideal cigar. Henceforth his life is +saddened; as one kissed by a goddess in a dream, he goes thereafter, +as one might say, in a sort of love-sickness. Seeking he scarce knows +what, his existence becomes a dissatisfied yearning; the world is +spoiled for him, its joys are tasteless: so he wanders, +vision-haunted, down dreary days to some miserable end. + +Yet, if one will walk this path and take the risks, the thing may be +done at comparatively small expense. To such I would commend the Roman +motto, slightly altered -- Alieni appetens, sui avarus. There be +always good fellows, with good cigars for their friends. Nay, too, the +boxes of these lie open; an the good cigar belongs rather to him that +can appreciate it aright than to the capitalist who, owing to a false +social system, happens to be its temporary guardian and trustee. Again +there is a saying -- bred first, I think, among the schoolmen at +Oxford -- that it is the duty of a son to live up to his father's +income. Should any young man have found this task too hard for him, +after the most strenuous and single-minded efforts, at least he can +resolutely smoke his father's cigars. In the path of duty complete +success is not always to be looked for; but an approving conscience, +the sure reward of honest endeavour, is within reach of all. + +An Autumn Encounter + +For yet another mile or two the hot dusty road runs through level +fields, till it reaches yonder shoulder of the downs, already golden +three-parts up with ripening corn. Thitherwards lies my inevitable +way; and now that home is almost in sight it seems hard that the last +part of the long day's sweltering and delightful tramp must needs be +haunted by that hateful speck, black on the effulgence of the slope. +Did I not know he was only a scarecrow, the thing might be in a way +companionable: a pleasant suggestive surmise, piquing curiosity, +gilding this last weary stage with some magic of expectancy. But I +passed close by him on my way out. Early as I was, he was already up +and doing, eager to introduce himself. He leered after me as I swung +down the road, -- mimicked my gait, as it seemed, in a most +uncalled-for way; and when I looked back, he was blowing derisive +kisses of farewell with his empty sleeve. + +I had succeeded, however, in shaking off the recollection between the +morning's start and now; so it was annoying that he should force +himself on me, just when there was no getting rid of him. At this +distance, however, he might be anything. An indeterminate blot, it +seems to waver, to falter, to come and vanish again in the quivering, +heated air. Even so, in the old time, leaning on that familiar gate -- +are the tell-tale inwoven initials still decipherable? -- I used to +watch Her pacing demurely towards me through the corn. It was +ridiculous, it was fatuous, under all the circumstances it was +monstrous, and yet{...}! We were both under twenty, so She was She, +and I was I, and there were only we three the wide world over, she and +I and the unbetraying gate. Porta eburnea! False visions alone sped +through you, though Cupid was wont to light on your topmost bar, and +preen his glowing plumes. And to think that I should see her once +more, coming down the path as if not a day had passed, hesitating as +of old, and then -- but surely her ankles seem -- Confound that +scarecrow!... + +His sex is by this time painfully evident; also his condition in life, +which is as of one looking back on better days. And now he is upon a +new tack. Though here on the level it is still sultry and airless, an +evening breeze is playing briskly along the slope where he stands, and +one sleeve saws the air violently; the other is pointed stiffly +heavenwards. It is all plain enough, my poor friend! The sins of the +world are a heavy burden and a grievous unto you. You have a mission, +you must testify; it will forth, in season and out of season. For man, +he wakes and sleeps and sins betimes: but crows sin steadily, without +any cessation. And this unhappy state of things is your own particular +business. Even at this distance I seem to hear you rasping it: +``Salvation, damnation, damnation, salvation!'' And the jolly earth +smiles in the perfect evenglow, and the corn ripples and laughs all +round you, and one young rook (only fledged this year, too!), after an +excellent simulation of prostrate, heart-broken penitence, soars +joyously away, to make love to his neighbour's wife. ``Salvation, +damnation, damn -- '' A shifty wriggle of the road, and he is +transformed once more. Flung back in an ecstasy of laughter, holding +his lean sides, his whole form writhes with the chuckle and gurgle of +merriment. Ho, ho! what a joke it was! How I took you all in! Even the +rooks! What a joke is everything, to be sure! + +Truly, I shall be glad to get quit of this heartless mummer. +Fortunately I shall soon be past him. And now, behold! the old dog +waxes amorous. Mincing, mowing, empty sleeve on hollow breast, he +would fain pose as the most irresistible old hypocrite that ever paced +a metropolitan kerb. ``Love, you young dogs,'' he seems to croak, +``Love is the one thing worth living for! Enjoy your present, rooks +and all, as I do!'' Why, indeed, should he alone be insensible to the +golden influence of the hour? More than one supple waist (alas! for +universal masculine frailty!) has been circled by that tattered sleeve +in days gone by; a throbbing heart once beat where sodden straw now +fails to give a manly curve to the chest. Why should the coat survive, +and not a particle of the passion that inspired it long ago? + +At last I confront him, face to face: and the villain grins +recognition, completely unabashed. Nay, he cocks his eye with a +significant glance under the slouch of his shapeless hat, and his arm +points persistently and with intelligence up the road. My good fellow, +I know the way to the Dog and Duck as well as you do: I was going +there anyhow, without your officious interference -- and the beer, as +you justly remark, is unimpeachable. But was this really all you've +been trying to say to me, this last half-hour? Well, well! + +The White Poppy + +A riot of scarlet on gold, the red poppy of our native fields tosses +heavy tresses with gipsy abandon; her sister of the sea-shore is +golden, a yellow blossom that loves the keen salt savour of the spray. +Of another hue is the poppy of history, of romance, of the muse. White +as the stark death-shroud, pallid as the cheeks of that queen of a +silent land whose temples she languorously crowns, ghost-like beside +her fuller-blooded kin, she droops dream-laden, Papaver somniferum, +the poppy of the magic juice of oblivion. In the royal plenitude of +summer, the scarlet blooms will sometimes seem but a red cry from +earth in memory of the many dews of battle that have drenched these +acres in years gone by, for little end but that these same ``bubbles +of blood'' might glow to-day; the yellow flower does but hint of the +gold that has dashed a thousand wrecks at her feet around these +shores: for happier suggestion we must turn to her of the pallid +petals, our white Lady of Consolation. Fitting hue to typify the +crowning blessing of forgetfulness! Too often the sable robes of night +dissemble sleeplessness, remorse, regret, self-questioning. Let black, +then, rather stand for hideous memory: white for blessed blank +oblivion, happiest gift of the gods! For who, indeed, can say that the +record of his life is not crowded with failure and mistake, stained +with its petty cruelties of youth, its meannesses and follies of later +years, all which storm and clamour incessantly at the gates of memory, +refusing to be shut out? Leave us alone, O gods, to remember our +felicities, our successes: only aid us, ye who recall no gifts, aptly +and discreetly to forget. + +Discreetly, we say; for it is a tactful forgetfulness that makes for +happiness. In the minor matter, for instance, of small money +obligations, that shortness of memory which the school of Professors +Panurge and Falstaff rashly praises, may often betray into some +unfortunate allusion or reference to the subject which shall pain the +delicate feelings of the obliger; or, if he be of coarser clay, shall +lead him in his anger to express himself with unseemliness, and +thereby to do violence to his mental tranquillity, in which alone, as +Marcus Aurelius teacheth, lieth the perfection of moral character. +This is to be a stumbling-block and an offence against the brethren. +It is better to keep just memory enough to avoid such hidden rocks and +shoals; in which thing Mr Swiveller is our great exemplar, whose +mental map of London was a chart wherein every creditor was carefully +``buoyed.'' + +The wise man prays, we are told, for a good digestion: let us add to +the prayer -- and a bad memory. Truly we are sometimes tempted to +think that we are the only ones cursed with this corroding canker. Our +friends, we can swear, have all, without exception, atrocious +memories; why is ours alone so hideously vital? Yet this isolation +must be imaginary; for even as we engage in this selfish moan for help +in our own petty case, we are moved to add a word for certain others +who, meaning no ill, unthinkingly go about to add to humanity's +already heavy load of suffering. How much needless misery is caused in +this world by the reckless ``recollections'' of dramatic and other +celebrities? You gods, in lending ear to our prayer, remember too, +above all other sorts and conditions of men, these our poor erring +brothers and sisters, the sometime sommités of Mummerdom! + +Moments there are, it is true, when this traitor spirit tricks you: +when some subtle scent, some broken notes of an old song, nay, even +some touch of a fresher air on your cheeks at night -- a breath of +``le vent qui vient ŕ travers la montagne'' -- have power to ravish, +to catch you back to the blissful days when you trod the one authentic +Paradise. Moments only, alas! Then the evil crowd rushes in again, +howls in the sacred grove, tramples down and defiles the happy garden; +and once more you cry to Our Lady of Sleep, crowned of the white +poppy. And you envy your dog who, for full discharge of a present +benefaction having wagged you a hearty, expressive tail, will then +pursue it gently round the hearth-rug till, in restful coil, he +reaches it at last, and oblivion with it; every one of his half-dozen +diurnal sleeps being in truth a royal amnesty. + +But whose the hand that shall reach us the herb of healing? Perdita +blesses every guest at the shearing with a handful of blossom; but +this gift is not to be asked of her whose best wish to her friends is +``grace and remembrance.'' The fair Ophelia, rather: nay, for as a +nursling she hugs her grief, and for her the memory of the past is a +``sorrow's crown of sorrow.'' What flowers are these her pale hand +offers? ``There's pansies, that's for thoughts!'' For me rather, O +dear Ophelia, the white poppy of forgetfulness. + +A Bohemian in Exile + +A Reminiscence + +When, many years ago now, the once potent and extensive kingdom of +Bohemia gradually dissolved and passed away, not a few historians were +found to chronicle its past glories; and some have gone on to tell the +fate of this or that once powerful chieftain who either donned the +swallow-tail and conformed or, proudly self-exiled, sought some quiet +retreat and died as he had lived, a Bohemian. But these were of the +princes of the land. To the people, the villeins, the common rank and +file, does no interest attach? Did they waste and pine, anćmic, in +thin, strange, unwonted air? Or sit at the table of the scornful and +learn, with Dante, how salt was alien bread? It is of one of those +faithful commons I would speak, narrating only ``the short and simple +annals of the poor.'' + +It is to be noted that the kingdom aforesaid was not so much a kingdom +as a United States -- a collection of self-ruling guilds, +municipalities, or republics, bound together by a common method of +viewing life. ``There once was a king of Bohemia'' -- but that was a +long time ago, and even Corporal Trim was not certain in whose reign +it was. These small free States, then, broke up gradually, from +various causes and with varying speed; and I think ours was one of the +last to go. + +With us, as with many others, it was a case of lost leaders. ``Just +for a handful of silver he left us''; though it was not exactly that, +but rather that, having got the handful of silver, they wanted a wider +horizon to fling it about under than Bloomsbury afforded. + + So they left us for their pleasure; and in due time, one by one -- + +But I will not be morose about them; they had honestly earned their +success, and we all honestly rejoiced at it, and do so still. + +When old Pan was dead and Apollo's bow broken, there were many +faithful pagans who would worship at no new shrines, but went out to +the hills and caves, truer to the old gods in their discrowned +desolation than in their pomp and power. Even so were we left behind, +a remnant of the faithful. We had never expected to become great in +art or song; it was the life itself that we loved; that was our end -- +not, as with them, the means to an end. + + We aimed at no glory, no lovers of glory we; + Give us the glory of going on and still to be. + +Unfortunately, going on was no longer possible; the old order had +changed, and we could only patch up our broken lives as best might be. + +Fothergill said that he, for one, would have no more of it. The past +was dead, and he wasn't going to try to revive it. Henceforth he, too, +would be dead to Bloomsbury. Our forefathers, speaking of a man's +death, said ``he changed his life.'' This is how Fothergill changed +his life and died to Bloomsbury. One morning he made his way to the +Whitechapel Road, and there he bought a barrow. The Whitechapel +barrows are of all sizes, from the barrow wheeled about by a boy with +half a dozen heads of cabbages to barrows drawn by a tall pony, such +as on Sundays take the members of a club to Epping Forest. They are +all precisely the same in plan and construction, only in the larger +sizes the handles develop or evolve into shafts; and they are equally +suitable, according to size, for the vending of whelks, for a +hot-potato can, a piano organ, or for the conveyance of a cheery and +numerous party to the Derby. Fothergill bought a medium sized +``developed'' one, and also a donkey to fit; he had it painted white, +picked out with green -- the barrow, not the donkey -- and when his +arrangements were complete, stabled the whole for the night in +Bloomsbury. The following morning, before the early red had quite +faded from the sky, the exodus took place, those of us who were left +being assembled to drink a parting whisky-and-milk in sad and solemn +silence. Fothergill turned down Oxford Street, sitting on the shaft +with a short clay in his mouth, and disappeared from our sight, +heading west at a leisurely pace. So he passed out of our lives by way +of the Bayswater Road. + +They must have wandered far and seen many things, he and his donkey, +from the fitful fragments of news that now and again reached us. It +seems that eventually, his style of living being economical, he was +enabled to put down his donkey and barrow, and set up a cart and a +mare -- no fashionable gipsy-cart, a sort of houseboat on wheels, but +a light and serviceable cart, with a moveable tilt, constructed on his +own designs. This allowed him to take along with him a few canvases +and other artists' materials; soda-water, whisky, and such like +necessaries; and even to ask a friend from town for a day or two, if +he wanted to. + +He was in this state of comparative luxury when at last, by the merest +accident, I foregathered with him once more. I had pulled up to +Streatley one afternoon, and, leaving my boat, had gone for a long +ramble on the glorious North Berkshire Downs to stretch my legs before +dinner. Somewhere over on Cuckhamsley Hill, by the side of the +Ridgeway, remote from the habitable world, I found him, smoking his +vesper pipe on the shaft of his cart, the mare cropping the short +grass beside him. He greeted me without surprise or effusion, as if we +had only parted yesterday, and without a hint of an allusion to past +times, but drifted quietly into rambling talk of his last three years, +and, without ever telling his story right out, left a strange +picturesque impression of a nomadic life which struck one as separated +by fifty years from modern conventional existence. The old road-life +still lingered on in places, it seemed, once one got well away from +the railway: there were two Englands existing together, the one +fringing the great iron highways wherever they might go -- the England +under the eyes of most of us. The other, unguessed at by many, in +whatever places were still vacant of shriek and rattle, drowsed on as +of old: the England of heath and common and windy sheep down, of +by-lanes and village-greens -- the England of Parson Adams and +Lavengro. The spell of the free untrammelled life came over me as I +listened, till I was fain to accept of his hospitality and a +horse-blanket for the night, oblivious of civilised comforts down at +the Bull. On the downs where Alfred fought we lay and smoked, gazing +up at the quiet stars that had shone on many a Dane lying stark and +still a thousand years ago; and in the silence of the lone tract that +enfolded us we seemed nearer to those old times than to these I had +left that afternoon, in the now hushed and sleeping valley of the +Thames. + +When the news reached me, some time later, that Fothergill's aunt had +died and left him her house near town and the little all she had +possessed, I heard it with misgivings, not to say forebodings. For the +house had been his grandfather's, and he had spent much of his boyhood +there; it had been a dream of his early days to possess it in some +happy future, and I knew he could never bear to sell or let it. On the +other hand, can you stall the wild ass of the desert? And will not the +caged eagle mope and pine? + +However, possession was entered into, and all seemed to go well for +the time. The cart was honourably installed in the coach-house, the +mare turned out to grass. Fothergill lived idly and happily, to all +seeming, with ``a book of verses underneath the bough,'' and a bottle +of old claret for the friend who might chance to drop in. But as the +year wore on small signs began to appear that he who had always +``rather hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak'' was beginning to +feel himself caged, though his bars were gilded. + +I was talking one day to his coachman (he now kept three +men-servants), and he told me that of a Sunday morning when the +household had gone to church and everything was quiet, Mr Fothergill +would go into the coach-house and light his pipe, and sit on the step +of the brougham (he had a brougham now), and gaze at the old cart, and +smoke and say nothing; and smoke and say nothing again. He didn't like +it, the coachman confessed; and to me it seemed ominous. + +One morning late in March, at the end of a long hard winter, I was +wakened by a flood of sunshine. The early air came warm and soft +through the open window; the first magic suggestion of spring was +abroad, with its whispered hints of daffodils and budding hawthorns; +and one's blood danced to imagined pipings of Pan from happy fields +far distant. At once I thought of Fothergill, and, with a certain +foreboding of ill, made my way down to Holly Lodge as soon as +possible. It was with no surprise at all that I heard that the master +was missing. In the very first of the morning, it seemed, or ever the +earliest under-housemaid had begun to set man-traps on the stairs and +along the passages, he must have quietly left the house. The servants +were cheerful enough, nevertheless, and thought the master must only +have ``gone for a nice long walk,'' and so on, after the manner of +their kind. Without a word I turned my steps to the coach-house. Sure +enough, the old cart was missing; the mare was gone from the paddock. +It was no good my saying anything; pursuit of this wild haunter of +tracks and by-paths would have been futile indeed. So I kept my own +counsel. Fothergill never returned to Holly Lodge, and has been more +secret and evasive since his last flight, rarely venturing on old +camping grounds near home, like to a bird scared by the fowler's gun. + +Once indeed, since then, while engaged in pursuit of the shy quarry +known as the Early Perp., late Dec., E. Eng., and the like, specimens +of which I was tracking down in the west, I hit upon him by accident; +hearing in an old village rumours concerning a strange man in a cart +who neither carried samples nor pushed the brewing interest by other +means than average personal consumption -- tales already beginning to +be distorted into material for the myth of the future. I found him +friendly as ever, equally ready to spin his yarns. As the evening wore +on, I ventured upon an allusion to past times and Holly Lodge; but his +air of puzzled politeness convinced me that the whole thing had passed +out of his mind, as a slight but disagreeable incident in the even +tenor of his nomadic existence. + +After all, his gains may have outbalanced his losses. Had he cared, he +might, with his conversational gifts, have been a social success; +certainly, I think, an artistic one. He had great powers, had any +impulse been present to urge him to execution and achievement. But he +was for none of these things. Contemplative, receptive, with a keen +sense of certain sub-tones and side aspects of life unseen by most, he +doubtless chose wisely to enjoy life his own way, and to gather from +the fleeting days what bliss they had to give, nor spend them in +toiling for a harvest to be reaped when he was dust. + + Some for the glories of this life, and some + Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come: + Ah, take the cash and let the credit go, + Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum. + +Justifiable Homicide + +This is a remedial age, an age of keys for all manner of locks; so he +cannot be said to ask too much who seeks for exact information as to +how a young man ought, in justice to himself and to society, to deal +with his relations. During his minority he has lain entirely at their +mercy: has been their butt, their martyr, their drudge, their corpus +vile. Possessing all the sinews of war, this stiff-necked tribe has +consistently refused to ``part'': even for the provision of those +luxuries so much more necessary than necessities. Its members have +crammed their victim full of precepts, rules of conduct, moral maxims, +and most miscellaneous counsel: all which he intuitively suspected at +the time, and has ascertained by subsequent experience, to be utterly +worthless. Now, when their hour has come, when the tocsin has sounded +at last, and the Gaul is at the gate, they still appear to think that +the old condition of things is to go on; unconscious, apparently, of +atonement due, of retribution to be exacted, of wrongs to be avenged +and of insults to be wiped away! + +Over the north-west frontier, where the writ of the English Raj runs +not, the artless Afghan is happy in a code that fully provides for +relatives who neglect or misunderstand their obligations. An Afghan it +was who found himself compelled to reprove an uncle with an +unfortunate habit of squandering the family estate. An excellent +relative, this uncle, in all other respects. As a liar, he had few +equals; he robbed with taste and discretion; and his murders were all +imbued with true artistic feeling. He might have lived to a green old +age of spotless respectability but for his one little failing. As it +was, justice had to be done, ruat cćlum: and so it came about that one +day the nephew issued forth to correct him with a matchlock. The +innocent old man was cultivating his paternal acres; so the nephew was +able, unperceived, to get a steady sight on him. His finger was on the +trigger, when suddenly there slipped into his mind the divine precept: +``Allah is merciful!'' He lowered his piece, and remained for a little +plunged in thought; meanwhile the unconscious uncle hoed his paddy. +Then with a happy smile he took aim once more, for there also occurred +to him the precept equally divine: ``But Allah is also just.'' With an +easy conscience he let fly, and behold! there was an uncle the more in +Paradise. + +It was probably some little affair of a similar quality that +constrained a recruit in a regiment stationed at Peshawur to apply for +leave of absence: in order to attend to family matters of importance. +The Colonel knew it was small use refusing the leave, as in that case +his recruit would promptly desert; so he could only ask, how long was +the transaction like to take? It was told him, after consideration, +that, allowing for all possible difficulties and delays, a month would +meet the necessities of the case; and on that understanding he allowed +his man to depart. At the end of the month he reappeared on duty, a +subdued but mellow cheer shining through his wonted impassiveness. His +Colonel ventured to inquire of him, in a general way, if the business +in question were satisfactorily concluded. And he replied: ``I got him +from behind a rock.'' + +There are practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of such +methods at home. We must be content to envy, without imitating, these +free and happy sons of the hills. And yet a few of the old school are +left us still: averse from change, mistrustful of progress, sticking +steadily to the good old-fashioned dagger and bowl. I had a friend who +disposed of a relative every spring. Uncles were his special line -- +(he had suffered much from their tribe, having been early left an +orphan) -- though he had dabbled in aunts, and in his hot youth, when +he was getting his hand in, he had even dallied with a grand-parent or +two. But it was in uncles he excelled. He possessed (at the beginning +of his career) a large number of these connections, and pursuit of +them, from the mere sordid point of view of Ł s. d., proved lucrative. +But he always protested (and I believed him) that gain with him was a +secondary consideration. It would hardly be in the public interest to +disclose his modus operandi. I shall only remark that he was one of +the first to realise the security and immunity afforded the artist by +the conditions of modern London. Hence it happened that he usually +practised in town, but spent his vacations at the country houses of +such relations as were still spared him, where he was always the life +and soul of the place. Unfortunately he is no longer with us, to +assist in the revision of this article: nor was it permitted me to +soothe his last moments. The presiding Sheriff was one of those +new-fangled officials who insist on the exclusion of the public, and +he declined to admit me either in the capacity of a personal +connection or, though I tried my hardest, as the representative of +``The National Observer.'' It only remains to be said of my much-tried +and still lamented friend, that he left few relatives to mourn his +untimely end. + +But our reluctant feet must needs keep step with the imperious march +of Time, and my poor friend's Art (as himself in later years would +sorrowfully admit) is now almost as extinct as the glass-staining of +old, or ``Robbia's craft so apt and strange''; while our thin-blooded +youth, too nice for the joyous old methods, are content to find +sweetest revenge in severely dropping their relations. This is indeed +a most effective position: it exasperates, while it is unassailable. +And yet there remains a higher course, a nobler task. Not mere +forgiveness: it is simple duty to forgive -- even one's guardians. No +young man of earnest aspirations will be content to stop there. Nay: +lead them on, these lost ones, by the hand; conduct them ``generously +and gently, and with linking of the arm''; educate them, eradicate +their false ideals, dispel their foolish prejudices; be to their +faults a little blind and to their virtues very kind: in fine, realise +that you have a mission -- that these wretches are not here for +nothing. The task will seem hard at first; but only those who have +tried can know how much may be done by assiduous and kindly effort +towards the chastening -- ay! the final redemption even! -- of the +most hopeless and pig-headed of uncles. + +The Fairy Wicket + +From digging in the sandy, over-triturated soil of times historical, +all dotted with date and number and sign, how exquisite the relief in +turning to the dear days outside history -- yet not so very far off +neither for us nurslings of the northern sun -- when kindly beasts +would loiter to give counsel by the wayside, and a fortunate encounter +with one of the Good People was a surer path to Fortune and the Bride +than the best-worn stool that ever proved step-ladder to aspiring +youth. For then the Fairy Wicket stood everywhere ajar -- everywhere +and to each and all. ``Open, open, green hill!'' -- you needed no more +recondite sesame than that: and, whoever you were, you might have a +glimpse of the elfin dancers in the hall that is litten within by +neither sun nor moon; or catch at the white horse's bridle as the +Fairy Prince rode through. It has been closed now this many a year +(the fairies, always strong in the field, are excellent +wicket-keepers); and if it open at all, 'tis but for a moment's +mockery of the material generation that so deliberately turned its +back on the gap into Elf-Land -- that first stage to the Beyond. + +It was a wanton trick, though, that these folk of malice used to play +on a small school-boy, new kicked out of his nest into the draughty, +uncomfortable outer world, his unfledged skin still craving the +feathers whereinto he was wont to nestle. The barrack-like school, the +arid, cheerless class-rooms, drove him to Nature for redress; and, +under an alien sky, he would go forth and wander along the iron road +by impassive fields, so like yet so unlike those hitherto a part of +him and responding to his every mood. And to him, thus loitering with +overladen heart, there would come suddenly a touch of warmth, of +strange surprise. The turn of the road just ahead -- that, sure, is +not all unfamiliar? That row of elms -- it cannot entirely be accident +that they range just so? And, if not accident, then round the bend +will come the old duck-pond, the shoulder of the barn will top it, a +few yards on will be the gate -- it swings-to with its familiar click +-- the dogs race down the avenue -- and then -- and then! It is all +wildly fanciful; and yet, though knowing not Tertullian, a ``credo +quia impossibile'' is on his tongue as he quickens his pace -- for +what else can he do? A step, and the spell is shattered -- all is +cruel and alien once more; while every copse and hedge-row seems +a-tinkle with faint elfish laughter. The Fairies have had their joke: +they have opened the wicket one of their own hand's-breadths, and shut +it in their victim's face. When next that victim catches a fairy, he +purposes to tie up the brat in sight of his own green hill, and set +him to draw up a practical scheme for Village Councils. + +One of the many women I ever really loved, fair in the fearless old +fashion, was used to sing, in the blithe, unfettered accent of the +people: ``I'd like to be a fairy, And dance upon my toes, I'd like to +be a fairy, And wear short close!'' And in later life it is to her sex +that the wee (but very wise) folk sometimes delegate their power of +torment. Such understudies are found to play the part exceeding well; +and many a time the infatuated youth believes he sees in the depth of +one sole pair of eyes -- blue, brown, or green (the fairy colour) -- +the authentic fairy wicket standing ajar: many a time must he hear the +quaint old formula, ``I'm sure, if I've ever done anything to lead you +to think,'' etc (runs it not so?), ere he shall realise that here is +the gate upon no magic pleasance but on a cheap suburban villa, +banging behind the wrathful rate-collector or hurled open to speed the +pallid householder to the Registrar's Office. In still grosser +habitations, too, they lurk, do the People of Mischief, ready to +frolic out on the unsuspecting one: as in the case, which still haunts +my memory, of a certain bottle of an historic Château-Yquem, hued like +Venetian glass, odorous as a garden in June. Forth from out the faint +perfume of this haunted drink there danced a bevy from Old France, +clad in the fashion of Louis-Quinze, peach-coloured knots of ribbon +bedizening apple-green velvets, as they moved in stately wise among +the roses of the old garden, to the quaint music -- Rameau, was it? -- +of a fairy cornemuse, while fairy Watteaus, Fragonards, Lancrets, sat +and painted them. Alas! too shallow the bottle, too brief the brawls: +not to be recalled by any quantity of Green Chartreuse. + +Aboard the Galley + +He was cruising in the Southern Seas (was the Ulysses who told me this +tale), when there bore down upon him a marvellous strange fleet, whose +like he had not before seen. For each little craft was a corpse, +stiffly ``marlined,'' or bound about with tarred rope, as mariners do +use to treat plug tobacco: also ballasted, and with a fair mast and +sail stepped through his midriff. These self-sufficing ships knew no +divided authority: no pilot ever took the helm from the captain's +hands; no mutines lay in bilboes, no passengers complained of the +provisions. In a certain island to windward (the native pilot +explained) it was the practice, when a man died, to bury him for the +time being in dry, desiccating sand, till a chief should pass from his +people, when the waiting bodies were brought out and, caulked and +rigged secumdum artem, were launched with the first fair breeze, the +admiral at their head, on their voyage to the Blessed Islands. And if +a chief should die, and the sand should hold no store of corpses for +his escort, this simple practical folk would solve the little +difficulty by knocking some dozen or twenty stout fellows on the head, +that the notable might voyage like a gentleman. Whence this gallant +little company, running before the breeze, stark, happy, and extinct, +all bound for the Isles of Light! 'Twas a sight to shame us sitters at +home, who believe in those Islands, most of us, even as they, yet are +content to trundle City-wards or to Margate, so long as the sorry +breath is in us; and, breathless at last, to Bow or Kensal Green; +without one effort, dead or alive, to reach the far-shining +Hesperides. + +``Dans la galčre, capitane, nous étions quatre-vingt rameurs!'' sang +the oarsmen in the ballad; and they, though indeed they toiled on the +galley-bench, were free and happy pirates, members of an honoured and +liberal profession. But all we -- pirates, parsons, stockbrokers, +whatever our calling -- are but galley-slaves of the basest sort, +fettered to the oar each for his little spell. A common misery links +us all, like the chain that runs the length of the thwarts. Can +nothing make it worth our while not to quarrel with our fellows? The +menace of the storms is for each one and for all: the master's whip +has a fine impartiality. Crack! the lash that scored my comrade's back +has flicked my withers too; yet neither of us was shirking -- it was +that grinning ruffian in front. Well: to-morrow, God willing, the +evasion shall be ours, while he writhes howling. But why do we never +once combine -- seize on the ship, fling our masters into the sea, and +steer for some pleasant isle far down under the Line, beyond the +still-vexed Bermoothes? When ho for feasting! Hey for tobacco and +free-quarters! But no: the days pass, and are reckoned up, and done +with; and ever more pressing cares engage. Those fellows on the +leeward benches are having an easier time than we poor dogs on the +weather side? Then, let us abuse, pelt, vilify then: let us steal +their grub, and have at them generally for a set of shirking, +malingering brutes! What matter that to-morrow they may be to +windward, we to lee? We never can look ahead. And they know this well, +the gods our masters, pliers of the whip. And mayhap we like them none +the worse for it. + +Indeed, there is a traitor sort among ourselves, that spins facile +phrases in the honour of these whipmasters of ours -- as ``omnes eodem +cogimur,'' and the rest; which is all very pretty and mighty +consoling. The fact is, the poets are the only people who score by the +present arrangement; which it is therefore their interest to maintain. +While we are doing all the work, these incorrigible skulkers lounge +about and make ribald remarks; they write Greek tragedies on Fate, on +the sublimity of Suffering, on the Petty Span, and so on; and act in a +generally offensive way. And we are even weak enough to buy their +books; offer them drinks, peerages, and things; and say what +superlative fellows they are! But when the long-looked-for combination +comes, and we poor devils have risen and abolished fate, destiny, the +Olympian Council, early baldness, and the like, these poets will +really have to go. + +And when every rhymester has walked the plank, shall we still put up +with our relations? True members of the ``stupid party,'' who never +believe in us, who know (and never forget) the follies of our +adolescence; who are always wanting us not to do things; who are +lavish of advice, yet angered by the faintest suggestion of a small +advance in cash: shall the idle singers perish and these endure? No: +as soon as the last poet has splashed over the side, to the sharks +with our relations! + +The old barkey is lightening famously: who shall be next to go? The +Sportsman of intolerable yarns: who slays twice over -- first, his +game, and then the miserable being he button-holes for the tedious +recital. Shall we suffer him longer? Who else? Who is that cowering +under the bulwarks yonder? The man who thinks he can imitate the +Scottish accent! Splash! And the next one? What a crowd is here! How +they block the hatchways, lumber the deck, and get between you and the +purser's room -- these fadmongers, teetotallers, missionaries of +divers isms! Overboard with them, and hey for the Fortunate Isles! +Then for tobacco in a hammock 'twixt the palms! Then for wine cooled +in a brooklet losing itself in silver sands! Then for -- but O these +bilboes on our ankles, how mercilessly they grip! The vertical sun +blisters the bare back: faint echoes of Olympian laughter seem to +flicker like Northern Lights across the stark and pitiless sky. One +earnest effort would do it, my brothers! A little modesty, a short +sinking of private differences; and then we should all be free and +equal gentlemen of fortune, and I would be your Captain! ``Who? you? +you would make a pretty Captain!'' Better than you, you scurvy, +skulking, little galley-slave! ``Galley-slave yourself, and be --- +Pull together, boys, and lie low! Here's the Master coming with his +whip!'' + +The Lost Centaur + +It is somewhere set down (or does the legend only exist in the great +volume of ought-to-be-writ?) that the young Achilles, nurtured from +babyhood by the wise and kindly Cheiron, accustomed to reverence an +ideal of human skill and wisdom blent with all that was best and +noblest of animal instinct, strength and swiftness, found poor +humanity sadly to miss, when at last the was sent forth among his +pottering little two-legged peers. Himself alone he had hitherto +fancied to be the maimed one, the incomplete; he looked to find the +lords of earth even such as these Centaurs; wise and magnanimous atop: +below, shod with the lightning, winged with the wind, terrible in the +potentiality of the armed heel. Instead of which -- ! How fallen was +his first fair hope of the world! And even when reconciled at last to +the dynasty of the forked radish, after he had seen its quality tested +round the clangorous walls of Troy -- some touch of an imperial +disdain ever lingered in his mind for these feeble folk who could +contentedly hail him -- him, who had known Cheiron! -- as hero and +lord! + +Achilles has passed, with the Centaurs and Troy; but the feeling +lingers. + +Of strange and divers strands is twisted the mysterious cord that, +reaching back ``through spaces out of space and timeless time,'' +somewhere joins us to the Brute; a twine of mingled yarn, not utterly +base. As we grow from our animal infancy, and the threads snap one by +one at each gallant wing-stroke of a soul poising for flight into +Empyrean, we are yet conscious of a loss for every gain, we have some +forlorn sense of a vanished heritage. Willing enough are we to ``let +the ape and tiger die''; but the pleasant cousins dissembled in hide +and fur and feather are not all tigers and apes: which last vile folk, +indeed, exist for us only in picture-books, and chiefly offend by +always carrying the Sunday School ensign of a Moral at their tails. +Others -- happily of less didactic dispositions -- there be; and it is +to these unaffected, careless companions that the sensible child is +wont to devote himself; leaving severely alone the stiff, tame +creatures claiming to be of closer kin. And yet these playmates, while +cheerfully admitting him of their fellowship, make him feel his +inferiority at every point. Vainly, his snub nose projected +earthwards, he essays to sniff it with the terrier who (as becomes the +nobler animal) is leading in the chase; and he is ready to weep as he +realises his loss. And the rest of the Free Company, -- the pony, the +cows, the great cart-horses, -- are ever shaming him by their +unboastful exercise of some enviable and unattainable attribute. Even +the friendly pig, who (did but parents permit) should eat of his bread +and drink of his cup, and be unto him as a brother, -- which among all +these unhappy bifurcations, so cheery, so unambitious, so purely +contented, so apt to be the guide, philosopher, and friend of boyhood +as he? What wonder that at times, when the neophyte in life begins to +realise that all these desirable accomplishments have had to be +surrendered one by one in the process of developing a Mind, the course +of fitting out a Lord of Creation, he is wont -- not knowing the +extent of the kingdom to which he is heir -- to feel a little +discontented? + +Ere now this ill-humour, taking root in a nature wherein the animal is +already ascendant, has led by downward paths to the Goat-Foot, in whom +the submerged human system peeps out but fitfully, at exalted moments. +He, the peevish and irascible, shy of trodden ways and pretty +domesticities, is linked to us by little but his love of melody; but +for which saving grace, the hair would soon creep up from thigh to +horn of him. At times he will still do us a friendly turn: will lend a +helping hand to poor little Psyche, wilfully seeking her own +salvation; will stand shoulder to shoulder with us on Marathon plain. +But in the main his sympathies are first for the beast: to which his +horns are never horrific, but, with his hairy pelt, ever natural and +familiar, and his voice (with its talk of help and healing) not harsh +nor dissonant, but voice of very brother as well as very god. + +And this declension -- for declension it is, though we achieve all the +confidences of Melampus, and even master with him the pleasant argot +of the woods -- may still be ours if we suffer what lives in us of our +primal cousins to draw us down. On the other hand, let soul inform and +irradiate body as it may, the threads are utterly shorn asunder never: +nor is man, the complete, the self-contained, permitted to cut himself +wholly adrift from these his poor relations. The mute and stunted +human embryo that gazes appealingly from out the depths of their eyes +must ever remind him of a kinship once (possibly) closer. Nay, at +times, it must even seem to whelm him in reproach. As thus: ``Was it +really necessary, after all, that we two should part company so early? +May you not have taken a wrong turning somewhere, in your long race +after your so-called progress, after the perfection of this be-lauded +species of yours? A turning whose due avoidance might perhaps have +resulted in no such lamentable cleavage as is here, but in some +perfect embodiment of the dual nature: as who should say a being with +the nobilities of both of us, the basenesses of neither? So might you, +more fortunately guided, have been led at last up the green sides of +Pelion, to the ancestral, the primeval, Centaur still waiting majestic +on the summit!'' It is even so. Perhaps this thing might once have +been, O cousin outcast and estranged! But the opportunity was long +since lost. Henceforth, two ways for us for ever! + +Orion + +The moonless night has a touch of frost, and is steely-clear. High and +dominant amidst the Populations of the Sky, the restless and the +steadfast alike, hangs the great Plough, lit with a hard radiance as +of the polished and shining share. And yonder, low on the horizon, but +half resurgent as yet, crouches the magnificent hunter: watchful, +seemingly, and expectant: with some hint of menace in his port. + +Yet should his game be up, you would think by now. Many a century has +passed since the plough first sped a conqueror east and west, clearing +forest and draining fen; policing the valleys with barbed-wires and +Sunday schools, with the chains that are forged of peace, the irking +fetters of plenty: driving also the whole lot of us, these to sweat at +its tail, those to plod with the patient team, but all to march in a +great chain-gang, the convicts of peace and order and law: while the +happy nomad, with his woodlands, his wild cattle, his pleasing +nuptialities, has long since disappeared, dropping only in his flight +some store of flint-heads, a legacy of confusion. Truly, we Children +of the Plough, but for yon tremendous Monitor in the sky, were in +right case to forget that the Hunter is still a quantity to reckon +withal. Where, then, does he hide, the Shaker of the Spear? Why, here, +my brother, and here; deep in the breasts of each and all of us! And +for this drop of primal quicksilver in the blood what poppy or +mandragora shall purge it hence away? + +Of pulpiteers and parents it is called Original Sin: a term wherewith +they brand whatever frisks and butts with rude goatish horns against +accepted maxims and trim theories of education. In the abstract, of +course, this fitful stirring of the old yeast is no more sin than a +natural craving for a seat on a high stool, for the inscription -- now +horizontal, and now vertical -- of figures, is sin. But the deskmen +command a temporary majority: for the short while they shall hold the +cards they have the right to call the game. And so -- since we must +bow to the storm -- let the one thing be labelled Sin, and the other +Salvation -- for a season: ourselves forgetting never that it is all a +matter of nomenclature. What we have now first to note is that this +original Waft from the Garden asserts itself most vigorously in the +Child. This it is that thrusts the small boy out under the naked +heavens, to enact a sorry and shivering Crusoe on an islet in the +duck-pond. This it is that sends the little girl footing it after the +gipsy's van, oblivious of lessons, puddings, the embrace maternal, the +paternal smack; hearing naught save the faint, far bugle-summons to +the pre-historic little savage that thrills and answers in the +tingling blood of her; seeing only a troop of dusky, dull-eyed guides +along that shining highway to the dim land east o' the sun and west o' +the moon: where freedom is, and you can wander and breathe, and at +night tame street lamps there are none -- only the hunter's fires, and +the eyes of lions, and the mysterious stars. In later years it is +stifled and gagged -- buried deep, a green turf at the head of it, and +on its heart a stone; but it lives, it breathes, it lurks, it will up +and out when 'tis looked for least. That stockbroker, some brief +summers gone, who was missed from his wonted place one settling-day! a +goodly portly man, i' faith: and had a villa and a steam launch at +Surbiton: and was versed in the esoteric humours of the House. Who +could have thought that the Hunter lay hid in him? Yet, after many +weeks, they found him in a wild nook of Hampshire. Ragged, sun-burnt, +the nocturnal haystack calling aloud from his frayed and +weather-stained duds, his trousers tucked, he was tickling trout with +godless native urchins; and when they would have won him to himself +with honied whispers of American Rails, he answered but with babble of +green fields. He is back in his wonted corner now: quite cured, +apparently, and tractable. And yet -- let the sun shine too wantonly +in Throgmorton Street, let an errant zephyr, quick with the warm +South, fan but his cheek too wooingly on his way to the station; and +will he not once more snap his chain and away? Ay, truly: and next +time he will not be caught. + +Deans have danced to the same wild piping, though their chapters have +hushed the matter up. Even Duchesses (they say) have ``come tripping +doon the stair,'' rapt by the climbing passion from their +strawberry-leaved surroundings into starlit spaces. Nay, ourselves, +too -- the douce, respectable mediocrities that we are -- which of us +but might recall some fearful outbreak whose details are mercifully +unknown to the household that calls us breadwinner and chief? What +marvel that up yonder the Hunter smiles? When he knows that every one +in his ken, the tinker with the statesman, has caught his bugle blast +and gone forth on its irresistible appeal! + +Not that they are so easily followed as of yore, those flying echoes +of the horn! Joints are stiffer, maybe; certainly the desolate suburbs +creep ever farther into the retreating fields; and when you reach the +windy moorland, lo! it is all staked out into building-lots. Mud is +muddier now than heretofore; and ruts are ruttier. And what friendless +old beast comes limping down the dreary lane? He seems sorely shrunk +and shoulder-shotten; but by the something of divinity in his look, +still more than by the wings despondent along his mighty sides, 'tis +ever the old Pegasus -- not yet the knacker's own. ``Hard times I've +been having,'' he murmurs, as you rub his nose. ``These fellows have +really no seat except for a park hack. As for this laurel, we were +wont to await it trembling: and in taking it we were afraid. Your +English way of hunting it down with yelpings and hallooings -- well, I +may be out of date, but we wouldn't have stood that sort of thing on +Helicon.'' So he hobbles down the road. Good night, old fellow! Out of +date? Well, it may be so. And alas! the blame is ours. + +But for the Hunter -- there he rises -- couchant no more. Nay, flung +full stretch on the blue, he blazes, he dominates, he appals! Will his +turn, then, really come at last? After some Armageddon of cataclysmal +ruin, all levelling, whelming the County Councillor with the +Music-hall artiste, obliterating the very furrows of the Plough, shall +the skin-clad nomad string his bow once more, and once more loose the +whistling shaft? Wildly incredible it seems. And yet -- look up! Look +up and behold him confident, erect, majestic -- there on the threshold +of the sky! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PAGAN PAPERS *** + +This file should be named pagan10.txt or pagan10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, pagan11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, pagan10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/pagan10.zip b/old/pagan10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07906fc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pagan10.zip diff --git a/old/pagan10h.htm b/old/pagan10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0a5c09 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pagan10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2321 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> + +<html> +<head> + <TITLE>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pagan Papers by Kenneth Grahame</TITLE> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +</head> + +<body> + +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pagan Papers by Kenneth Grahame</h1> +<pre> +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pagan Papers + +Author: Kenneth Grahame + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5319] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 30, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PAGAN PAPERS *** + +</pre> +<cite>Pagan Papers</cite> was first published in 1893 and the text is +in the public domain. This is a reprint of the first American edition +of 1898. The transcription was done by <a +href="mailto:info@sattre-press.com">William McClain</a>, 2002. + +<p>A printed version of this book is available from <a +href="http://pagan_papers.sattre-press.com">Sattre Press</a>. It +includes a glossary of French and Latin phrases. + +<hr> + +<strong>The Romance of the Road</strong> + + +<p>Among the many places of magic visited by Pantagruel and +his company during the progress of their famous voyage, few surpass +that island whose roads did literally ``go'' to places -- <em> +``ou les chemins cheminent, comme animaulx''</em>: and would-be +travellers, having inquired of the road as to its destination, and +received satisfactory reply, <em> ``se guindans''</em> (as the old +book hath it -- hoisting themselves up on) <em> ``au chemin +opportun, sans aultrement se poiner ou fatiguer, se trouvoyent au lieu +destiné.''</em> + +<p>The best example I know of an approach to this excellent sort of +vitality in roads is the Ridgeway of the North Berkshire Downs. Join +it at Streatley, the point where it crosses the Thames; at once it +strikes you out and away from the habitable world in a splendid, +purposeful manner, running along the highest ridge of the Downs a +broad green ribbon of turf, with but a shade of difference from the +neighbouring grass, yet distinct for all that. No villages nor +homesteads tempt it aside or modify its course for a yard; should you +lose the track where it is blent with the bordering turf or merged in +and obliterated by criss-cross paths, you have only to walk straight +on, taking heed of no alternative to right or left; and in a minute +'tis with you again -- arisen out of the earth as it were. Or, if still +not quite assured, lift you your eyes, and there it runs over the brow +of the fronting hill. Where a railway crosses it, it disappears +indeed -- hiding Alpheus-like, from the ignominy of rubble and +brick-work; but a little way on it takes up the running again with the +same quiet persistence. Out on that almost trackless expanse of +billowy Downs such a track is in some sort humanly companionable: it +really seems to lead you by the hand. + +<p>The ``Rudge'' is of course an exceptional instance; but indeed this +pleasant personality in roads is not entirely fanciful. It exists as a +characteristic of the old country road, evolved out of the primitive +prehistoric track, developing according to the needs of the land it +passes through and serves: with a language, accordingly, and a meaning +of its own. Its special services are often told clearly enough; but +much else too of the quiet story of the country-side: something of the +old tale whereof you learn so little from the printed page. Each is +instinct, perhaps, with a separate suggestion. Some are martial and +historic, and by your side the hurrying feet of the dead raise a +ghostly dust. The name of yon town -- with its Roman or Saxon suffix to +British root -- hints at much. Many a strong man, wanting his <em> +vates sacer,</em> passed silently to Hades for that suffix to obtain. The +little rise up yonder on the Downs that breaks their straight green +line against the sky showed another sight when the sea of battle +surged and beat on its trampled sides; and the Roman, sore beset, may +have gazed down this very road for relief, praying for night or the +succouring legion. This child that swings on a gate and peeps at you +from under her sun-bonnet -- so may some girl-ancestress of hers have +watched with beating heart the Wessex levies hurry along to clash with +the heathen and break them on the down where the ash trees grew. And +yonder, where the road swings round under gloomy overgrowth of +drooping boughs -- is that gleam of water or glitter of lurking spears? + +<p>Some sing you pastorals, fluting low in the hot sun between dusty +hedges overlooked by contented cows; past farmsteads where man and +beast, living in frank fellowship, learn pleasant and serviceable +lessons each of the other; over the full-fed river, lipping the +meadow-sweet, and thence on either side through leagues of hay. Or +through bending corn they chant the mystical wonderful song of the +reaper when the harvest is white to the sickle. But most of them, +avoiding classification, keep each his several tender significance; as +with one I know, not so far from town, which woos you from the valley +by gentle ascent between nut-laden hedges, and ever by some touch of +keen fragrance in the air, by some mystery of added softness under +foot -- ever a promise of something to come, unguessed, +delighting. Till suddenly you are among the pines, their keen scent +strikes you through and through, their needles carpet the ground, and +in their swaying tops moans the unappeasable wind -- sad, ceaseless, as +the cry of a warped humanity. Some paces more, and the promise is +fulfilled, the hints and whisperings become fruition: the ground +breaks steeply away, and you look over a great inland sea of fields, +homesteads, rolling woodland, and -- bounding all, blent with the +horizon, a greyness, a gleam -- the English Channel. A road of +promises, of hinted surprises, following each other with the +inevitable sequence in a melody. + +<p>But we are now in another and stricter sense an island of <em> chemins +qui cheminent:</em> dominated, indeed, by them. By these the traveller, +veritably <em> se guindans,</em> may reach his destination <em> +``sans se poiner ou se fatiguer''</em> (with large qualifications); +but <em> sans</em> very much else whereof he were none the worse. The gain +seems so obvious that you forget to miss all that lay between the +springing stride of the early start and the pleasant weariness of the +end approached, when the limbs lag a little as the lights of your +destination begin to glimmer through the dusk. All that lay between! +``A Day's Ride a Life's Romance'' was the excellent title of an +unsuccessful book; and indeed the journey should march with the day, +beginning and ending with its sun, to be the complete thing, the +golden round, required of it. This makes that mind and body fare +together, hand in hand, sharing the hope, the action, the fruition; +finding equal sweetness in the languor of aching limbs at eve and in +the first god-like intoxication of motion with braced muscle in the +sun. For walk or ride take the mind over greater distances than a +throbbing whirl with stiffening joints and cramped limbs through a +dozen counties. Surely you seem to cover vaster spaces with Lavengro, +footing it with gipsies or driving his tinker's cart across lonely +commons, than with many a globe-trotter or steam-yachtsman with diary +or log? And even that dividing line -- strictly marked and rarely +overstepped -- between the man who bicycles and the man who walks, is +less due to a prudent regard for personal safety of the one part than +to an essential difference in minds. + +<p>There is a certain supernal, a deific, state of mind which may indeed +be experienced in a minor degree, by any one, in the siesta part of a +Turkish bath. But this particular golden glow of the faculties is only +felt at its fulness after severe and prolonged exertion in the open +air. ``A man ought to be seen by the gods,'' says Marcus Aurelius, +``neither dissatisfied with anything, nor complaining.'' Though this +does not sound at first hearing an excessive demand to make of +humanity, yet the gods, I fancy, look long and often for such a sight +in these unblest days of hurry. If ever seen at all, 'tis when after +many a mile in sun and wind -- maybe rain -- you reach at last, with the +folding star, your destined rustic inn. There, in its homely, +comfortable strangeness, after unnumbered chops with country ale, the +hard facts of life begin to swim in a golden mist. You are isled from +accustomed cares and worries -- you are set in a peculiar nook of rest. +Then old failures seem partial successes, then old loves come back in +their fairest form, but this time with never a shadow of regret, then +old jokes renew their youth and flavour. You ask nothing of the gods +above, nothing of men below -- not even their company. To-morrow you +shall begin life again: shall write your book, make your fortune, do +anything; meanwhile you sit, and the jolly world swings round, and you +seem to hear it circle to the music of the spheres. What pipe was ever +thus beatifying in effect? You are aching all over, and enjoying it; +and the scent of the limes drifts in through the window. This is +undoubtedly the best and greatest country in the world; and none but +good fellows abide in it. + +<p><blockquote> + Laud we the Gods,<br> +And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils<br> +From our blest altars.<br> +</blockquote> + + +<p><strong>The Romance of the Rail</strong> + + +<p>In these iron days of the dominance of steam, the crowning wrong that +is wrought us of furnace and piston-rod lies in their annihilation of +the steadfast mystery of the horizon, so that the imagination no longer +begins to work at the point where vision ceases. In happier times, +three hundred years ago, the seafarers from Bristol City looked out +from the prows of their vessels in the grey of the morning, and wot +not rightly whether the land they saw might be Jerusalem or +Madagascar, or if it were not North and South America. +``And there be certaine flitting islands,'' says one, +``which have been oftentimes seene, and when men +approached near them they vanished.'' ``It may be that the gulfs +will wash us down,'' said Ulysses (thinking of what Americans call the +``getting-off place''); ``it may be we shall touch the Happy +Isles.'' And so on, and so on; each with his special hope or +``wild surmise.'' There was always a chance of touching the Happy +Isles. And in that first fair world whose men and manners we knew +through story-books, before experience taught us far other, the Prince +mounts his horse one fine morning, and rides all day, and sleeps in a +forest; and next morning, lo! a new country: and he rides by fields +and granges never visited before, through faces strange to him, to +where an unknown King steps down to welcome the mysterious +stranger. And he marries the Princess, and dwells content for many a +year; till one day he thinks ``I will look upon my father's face +again, though the leagues be long to my own land.'' And he rides all +day, and sleeps in a forest; and next morning he is made welcome at +home, where his name has become a dim memory. Which is all as it +should be; for, annihilate time and space as you may, a man's stride +remains the true standard of distance; an eternal and unalterable +scale. The severe horizon, too, repels the thoughts as you gaze to the +infinite considerations that lie about, within touch and hail; and the +night cometh, when no man can work. + +<p>To all these natural bounds and limitations it is good to get back now +and again, from a life assisted and smooth by artificialities. Where +iron has superseded muscle, the kindly life-blood is apt to throb dull +as the measured beat of the steam-engine. But the getting back to them +is now a matter of effort, of set purpose, a stepping aside out of our +ordinary course; they are no longer unsought influences towards the +making of character. So perhaps the time of them has gone by, here in +this second generation of steam. <em> Pereunt et imputantur;</em> they +pass away, and are scored against not us but our guilty fathers. For +ourselves, our peculiar slate is probably filling fast. The romance +of the steam-engine is yet to be captured and expressed -- not fully +nor worthily, perhaps, until it too is a vanished regret; though +Emerson for one will not have it so, and maintains and justifies its +right to immediate recognition as poetic material. ``For as it is +dislocation and detachment from the life of God that makes things +ugly, the poet, who re-attaches things to Nature and the +whole -- re-attaching even artificial things and violations of Nature +to Nature by a deeper insight -- disposes very easily of the most +disagreeable facts''; so that he looks upon ``the factory village +and the railway'' and ``sees them fall within the great Order not +less than the bee-hive or the spider's geometrical web.'' The poet, +however, seems hard to convince hereof. Emerson will have it that +``Nature loves the gliding train of cars''; ``instead of +which'' the poet still goes about the country singing purling +brooks. Painters have been more flexible and liberal. Turner saw and +did his best to seize the spirit of the thing, its kinship with the +elements, and to blend furnace-glare and rush of iron with the +storm-shower, the wind and the thwart-flashing sun-rays, and to make +the whole a single expression of irresoluble force. And even in a +certain work by another and a very different painter -- though I +willingly acquit Mr Frith of any deliberate romantic intention -- you +shall find the element of romance in the vestiges of the old order +still lingering in the first transition period: the coach-shaped +railway carriages with luggage piled and corded on top, the red-coated +guard, the little engine tethered well ahead as if between traces. To +those bred within sight of the sea, steamers will always partake in +somewhat of the ``beauty and mystery of the ships''; above all, if +their happy childhood have lain among the gleaming lochs and sinuous +firths of the Western Highlands, where, twice a week maybe, the +strange visitant crept by headland and bay, a piece of the busy, +mysterious outer world. For myself, I probably stand alone in owning +to a sentimental weakness for the night-piercing whistle -- +judiciously remote, as some men love the skirl of the pipes. In the +days when streets were less wearily familiar than now, or ever the +golden cord was quite loosed that led back to relinquished fields and +wider skies, I have lain awake on stifling summer nights, thinking of +luckier friends by moor and stream, and listening for the whistles +from certain railway stations, veritable ``horns of Elf-land, +faintly blowing.'' Then, a ghostly passenger, I have taken my seat in a +phantom train, and sped up, up, through the map, rehearsing the +journey bit by bit: through the furnace-lit Midlands, and on till the +grey glimmer of dawn showed stone walls in place of hedges, and masses +looming up on either side; till the bright sun shone upon brown +leaping streams and purple heather, and the clear, sharp northern air +streamed in through the windows. Return, indeed, was bitter; +Endymion-like, ``my first touch of the earth went nigh to kill'': +but it was only to hurry northwards again on the wings of imagination, +from dust and heat to the dear mountain air. ``We are only the +children who might have been,'' murmured Lamb's dream babes to him; and +for the sake of those dream-journeys, the journeys that might have +been, I still hail with a certain affection the call of the engine in +the night: even as I love sometimes to turn the enchanted pages of the +railway a b c, and pass from one to the other name +reminiscent or suggestive of joy and freedom, Devonian maybe, or +savouring of Wessex, or bearing me away to some sequestered reach of +the quiet Thames. + +<p><strong>Non Libri Sed Liberi</strong> + + +<p>It will never be clear to the lay mind why the book-buyer buys books. +That it is not to read them is certain: the closest inspection always +fails to find him thus engaged. He will talk about them -- all night if +you let him -- wave his hand to them, shake his fist at them, shed +tears over them (in the small hours of the morning); but he will not +read them. Yet it would be rash to infer that he buys his books +without a remote intention of ever reading them. Most book lovers +start with the honest resolution that some day they will ``shut +down on'' this fatal practice. Then they purpose to themselves to enter +into their charmed circle, and close the gates of Paradise behind +them. Then will they read out of nothing but first editions; every day +shall be a debauch in large paper and tall copies; and crushed morocco +shall be familiar to their touch as buckram. Meanwhile, though, books +continue to flaunt their venal charms; it would be cowardice to shun +the fray. In fine, one buys and continues to buy; and the promised +Sabbath never comes. + +<p>The process of the purchase is always much the same, therein +resembling the familiar but inferior passion of love. There is the +first sight of the Object, accompanied of a catching of the breath, a +trembling in the limbs, loss of appetite, ungovernable desire, and a +habit of melancholy in secret places. But once possessed, once toyed +with amorously for an hour or two, the Object (as in the inferior +passion aforesaid) takes its destined place on the shelf -- where it +stays. And this saith the scoffer, is all; but even he does not fail +to remark with a certain awe that the owner goeth thereafter as one +possessing a happy secret and radiating an inner glow. Moreover, he is +insufferably conceited, and his conceit waxeth as his coat, now +condemned to a fresh term of servitude, groweth shabbier. And shabby +though his coat may be, yet will he never stoop to renew its pristine +youth and gloss by the price of any book. No man -- no human, +masculine, natural man -- ever sells a book. Men have been known in +moments of thoughtlessness, or compelled by temporary necessity, to +rob, to equivocate, to do murder, to commit what they should not, to +``wince and relent and refrain'' from what they should: these +things, howbeit regrettable, are common to humanity, and may happen to +any of us. But amateur bookselling is foul and unnatural; and it is +noteworthy that our language, so capable of particularity, contains no +distinctive name for the crime. Fortunately it is hardly known to +exist: the face of the public being set against it as a flint -- and +the trade giving such wretched prices. + +<p>In book-buying you not infrequently condone an extravagance by the +reflection that this particular purchase will be a good investment, +sordidly considered: that you are not squandering income but sinking +capital. But you know all the time that you are lying. Once possessed, +books develop a personality: they take on a touch of warm human life +that links them in a manner with our kith and kin. <em> Non angli sed +Angeli</em> was the comment of a missionary (old style) on the small human +duodecimos exposed for sale in the Roman market-place; and many a +buyer, when some fair-haired little chattel passed into his +possession, must have felt that here was something vendible no more. +So of these you may well affirm <em> Non libri sed liberi;</em> children +now, adopted into the circle, they shall be trafficked in never again. + +<p>There is one exception which has sadly to be made -- one class of men, +of whom I would fain, if possible, have avoided mention, who are +strangers to any such scruples. These be Executors -- a word to be +strongly accented on the penultimate; for, indeed, they are the common +headsmen of collections, and most of all do whet their bloody edge for +harmless books. Hoary, famous old collections, budding young +collections, fair virgin collections of a single author -- all go down +before the executor's remorseless axe. He careth not and he spareth +not. ``The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy,'' +and it is chiefly by the hand of the executor that she doth love to +scatter it. May oblivion be his portion for ever! + +<p>Of a truth, the foes of the book-lover are not few. One of the most +insidious, because he cometh at first in friendly, helpful guise, is +the bookbinder. Not in that he bindeth books -- for the fair binding is +the final crown and flower of painful achievement -- but because he +bindeth not: because the weary weeks lapse by and turn to months, and +the months to years, and still the binder bindeth not: and the heart +grows sick with hope deferred. Each morn the maiden binds her hair, +each spring the honeysuckle binds the cottage-porch, each autumn the +harvester binds his sheaves, each winter the iron frost binds lake and +stream, and still the bookbinder he bindeth not. Then a secret voice +whispereth: ``Arise, be a man, and slay him! Take him grossly, +full of bread, with all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; At +gaming, swearing, or about some act That hath no relish of salvation +in it!'' But when the deed is done, and the floor strewn with fragments +of binder -- still the books remain unbound. You have made all that +horrid mess for nothing, and the weary path has to be trodden over +again. As a general rule, the man in the habit of murdering +bookbinders, though he performs a distinct service to society, only +wastes his own time and takes no personal advantage. + +<p>And even supposing that after many days your books return to you in +leathern surcoats bravely tricked with gold, you have scarce yet +weathered the Cape and sailed into halcyon seas. For these +books -- well, you kept them many weeks before binding them, that the +oleaginous printer's-ink might fully dry before the necessary +hammering; you forbore to open the pages, that the autocratic binder +might refold the sheets if he pleased; and now that all is over -- <em> +consummatum est</em> -- still you cannot properly enjoy the harvest of a +quiet mind. For these purple emperors are not to be read in bed, nor +during meals, nor on the grass with a pipe on Sundays; and these brief +periods are all the whirling times allow you for solid serious +reading. Still, after all, you have them; you can at least pulverise +your friends with the sight; and what have they to show against them? +Probably some miserable score or so of half-bindings, such as lead you +scornfully to quote the hackneyed couplet concerning the poor Indian +whose untutored mind clothes him before but leaves him bare +behind. Let us thank the gods that such things are: that to some of us +they give not poverty nor riches but a few good books in whole +bindings. Dowered with these and (if it be vouchsafed) a cup of +Burgundy that is sound even if it be not old, we can leave to others +the foaming grape of Eastern France that was vintaged in '74, and with +it the whole range of shilling shockers, -- the Barmecidal feast of the +purposeful novelist -- yea, even the countless series that tell of +Eminent Women and Successful Men. + + +<p><strong>Loafing</strong> + + +<p>When the golden Summer has rounded languidly to his close, when +Autumn has been carried forth in russet winding-sheet, then all good +fellows who look upon holidays as a chief end of life return from moor +and stream and begin to take stock of gains and losses. And the +wisest, realising that the time of action is over while that of +reminiscence has begun, realise too that the one is pregnant with +greater pleasures than the other -- that action, indeed, is only the +means to an end of reflection and appreciation. Wisest of all, the +Loafer stands apart supreme. For he, of one mind with the philosopher +as to the end, goes straight to it at once; and his happy summer has +accordingly been spent in those subjective pleasures of the mind +whereof the others, the men of muscle and peeled faces, are only just +beginning to taste. + +<p>And yet though he may a little despise (or rather pity) them, the +Loafer does not dislike nor altogether shun them. Far from it: they +are very necessary to him. For <em> ``Suave mari magno''</em> is the +motto of your true Loafer; and it is chiefly by keeping ever in view +the struggles and the clamorous jostlings of the unenlightened making +holiday that he is able to realise the bliss of his own condition and +maintain his self-satisfaction at boiling-point. And so is he never +very far away from the track beaten by the hurrying Philistine hoof, +but hovers more or less on the edge of it, where, the sole fixed star +amidst whirling constellations, he may watch the mad world +``glance, and nod, and hurry by.'' + +<p>There are many such centres of contemplation along the West Coast of +Scotland. Few places are better loafing-ground than a pier, with its +tranquil ``lucid interval'' between steamers, the ever recurrent +throb of paddle-wheel, the rush and foam of beaten water among the +piles, splash of ropes and rumble of gangways, and all the attendant +hurry and scurry of the human morrice. Here, <em> tanquam in speculo,</em> +the Loafer as he lounges may, by attorney as it were, touch gently +every stop in the great organ of the emotions of mortality. Rapture of +meeting, departing woe, love at first sight, disdain, laughter, +indifference -- he may experience them all, but attenuated and as if he +saw them in a dream; as if, indeed, he were Heine's god in dream on a +mountain-side. Let the drowsy deity awake and all these puppets, +emanations of his dream, will vanish into the nothing whence they +came. And these emotions may be renewed each morning; if a fair one +sail to-day, be sure that one as fair will land to-morrow. The supply +is inexhaustible. + +<p>But in the South perhaps the happiest loafing-ground is the gift of +Father Thames; for there again the contrast of violent action, with +its blisters, perspiration, and the like, throws into fine relief the +bliss of ``quietism.'' I know one little village in the upper +reaches where loafing may be pushed to high perfection. Here the +early hours of the morning are vexed by the voices of boaters making +their way down the little street to the river. The most of them go +staggering under hampers, bundles of waterproofs, and so forth. Their +voices are clamant of feats to be accomplished: they will row, they +will punt, they will paddle, till they weary out the sun. All this the +Loafer hears through the open door of his cottage, where in his +shirt-sleeves he is dallying with his bacon, as a gentleman should. He +is the only one who has had a comfortable breakfast -- and he knows +it. Later he will issue forth and stroll down in their track to the +bridge. The last of these Argonauts is pulling lustily forth; the +river is dotted with evanishing blazers. Upon all these lunatics a +pitiless Phoebus shines triumphant. The Loafer sees the last of +them off the stage, turns his back on it, and seeks the shady side of +the street. + +<p>A holy calm possesses the village now; the foreign element has passed +away with shouting and waving of banners, and its natural life of +somnolency is in evidence at last. And first, as a true Loafer should, +let him respectfully greet each several village dog. <em> Arcades +ambo</em> -- loafers likewise -- they lie there in the warm dust, each +outside his own door, ready to return the smallest courtesy. Their own +lords and masters are not given to the exchange of compliments nor to +greetings in the market-place. The dog is generally the better +gentleman, and he is aware of it; and he duly appreciates the loafer, +who is not too proud to pause a moment, change the news, and pass the +time of day. He will mark his sense of this attention by rising from +his dust-divan and accompanying his caller some steps on his way. But +he will stop short of his neighbour's dust-patch; for the morning is +really too hot for a shindy. So, by easy stages (the street is not a +long one: six dogs will see it out), the Loafer quits the village; and +now the world is before him. Shall he sit on a gate and smoke? or lie +on the grass and smoke? or smoke aimlessly and at large along the +road? Such a choice of happiness is distracting; but perhaps the last +course is the best -- as needing the least mental effort of +selection. Hardly, however, has he fairly started his first daydream +when the snappish ``ting'' of a bellkin recalls him to +realities. By comes the bicyclist: dusty, sweating, a piteous thing to +look upon. But the irritation of the strepitant metal has jarred the +Loafer's always exquisite nerves: he is fain to climb a gate and make +his way towards solitude and the breezy downs. + +<p>Up here all vestiges of a sordid humanity disappear. The Loafer is +alone with the south-west wind and the blue sky. Only a carolling of +larks and a tinkling from distant flocks break the brooding noonday +stillness; above, the wind-hover hangs motionless, a black dot on the +blue. Prone on his back on the springy turf, gazing up into the sky, +his fleshy integument seems to drop away, and the spirit ranges at +will among the tranquil clouds. This way Nirvana nearest lies. Earth +no longer obtrudes herself; possibly somewhere a thousand miles or so +below him the thing still ``spins like a fretful midge.'' The +Loafer knows not nor cares. His is now an astral body, and through +golden spaces of imagination his soul is winging her untrammelled +flight. And there he really might remain for ever, but that his +vagrom spirit is called back to earth by a gentle but resistless, very +human summons, -- a gradual, consuming, Pantagruelian, god-like, +thirst: a thirst to thank Heaven on. So, with a sigh half of regret, +half of anticipation, he bends his solitary steps towards the nearest +inn. Tobacco for one is good; to commune with oneself and be still is +truest wisdom; but beer is a thing of deity -- beer is divine. + +<p>Later the Loafer may decently make some concession to popular taste by +strolling down to the river and getting out his boat. With one paddle +out he will drift down the stream: just brushing the flowering rush +and the meadow-sweet and taking in as peculiar gifts the varied sweets +of even. The loosestrife is his, and the arrow-head: his the distant +moan of the weir; his are the glories, amber and scarlet and silver, +of the sunset-haunted surface. By-and-by the boaters will pass him +homeward-bound. All are blistered and sore: his withers are +unwrung. Most are too tired and hungry to see the sunset glories; no +corporeal pangs clog his <em> æsthesis</em> -- his perceptive faculty. +Some have quarrelled in the day and are no longer on speaking terms; +he is at peace with himself and with the whole world. Of all that lay +them down in the little village that night, his sleep will be the +surest and the sweetest. For not even the blacksmith himself will have +better claim to have earned a night's repose. + + +<p><strong>Cheap Knowledge</strong> + + +<p>When at times it happens to me that I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, +and to find the fair apple of life dust and ashes at the core -- just +because, perhaps, I can't afford Melampus Brown's last volume of poems +in large paper, but must perforce condescend upon the two-and-sixpenny +edition for the million -- then I bring myself to a right temper by +recalling to memory a sight which now and again in old days would +touch the heart of me to a happier pulsation. In the long, dark winter +evenings, outside some shop window whose gaslight flared brightest +into the chilly street, I would see some lad -- sometimes even a +girl -- book in hand, heedless of cold and wet, of aching limbs and +straining eyes, careless of jostling passers-by, of rattle and turmoil +behind them and about, their happy spirits far in an enchanted world: +till the ruthless shopman turned out the gas and brought them rudely +back to the bitter reality of cramped legs and numbed +fingers. ``My brother!'' or ``My sister!'' I would cry +inwardly, feeling the link that bound us together. They possessed, for +the hour, the two gifts most precious to the student -- light and +solitude: the true solitude of the roaring street. + +<p>Somehow this vision rarely greets me now. Probably the Free Libraries +have supplanted the flickering shop lights; and every lad and lass can +enter and call for Miss Braddon and batten thereon ``in luxury's +sofa-lap of leather''; and of course this boon is appreciated and +profited by, and we shall see the divine results in a year or two. And +yet sometimes, like the dear old Baron in the ``Red Lamp,'' +``I wonder?'' + +<p>For myself, public libraries possess a special horror, as of lonely +wastes and dragon-haunted fens. The stillness and the heavy air, the +feeling of restriction and surveillance, the mute presence of these +other readers, ``all silent and all damned,'' combine to set up a +nervous irritation fatal to quiet study. Had I to choose, I would +prefer the windy street. And possibly others have found that the +removal of checks and obstacles makes the path which leads to the +divine mountain-tops less tempting, now that it is less rugged. So +full of human nature are we all -- still -- despite the Radical +missionaries that labour in the vineyard. Before the National Gallery +was extended and rearranged, there was a little ``St Catherine'' +by Pinturicchio that possessed my undivided affections. In those days +she hung near the floor, so that those who would worship must grovel; +and little I grudged it. Whenever I found myself near Trafalgar Square +with five minutes to spare I used to turn in and sit on the floor +before the object of my love, till gently but firmly replaced on my +legs by the attendant. She hangs on the line now, in the grand new +room; but I never go to see her. Somehow she is not my +``St Catherine'' of old. Doubtless Free Libraries affect many +students in the same way: on the same principle as that now generally +accepted -- that it is the restrictions placed on vice by our social +code which make its pursuit so peculiarly agreeable. + +<p>But even when the element of human nature has been fully allowed for, +it remains a question whether the type of mind that a generation or +two of Free Libraries will evolve is or is not the one that the world +most desiderates; and whether the spare reading and consequent fertile +thinking necessitated by the old, or gas-lamp, style is not productive +of sounder results. The cloyed and congested mind resulting from the +free run of these grocers' shops to omnivorous appetites (and all +young readers are omnivorous) bids fair to produce a race of literary +resurrection-men: a result from which we may well pray to be +spared. Of all forms of lettered effusiveness that which exploits the +original work of others and professes to supply us with right opinions +thereanent is the least wanted. And whether he take to literary +expression by pen or only wag the tongue of him, the grocer's boy of +letters is sure to prove a prodigious bore. The Free Library, if it be +fulfilling the programme of its advocates, is breeding such as he by +scores. + +<p>But after all there is balm in Gilead; and much joy and consolation +may be drawn from the sorrowful official reports, by which it would +appear that the patrons of these libraries are confining their +reading, with a charming unanimity, exclusively to novels. And indeed +they cannot do better; there is no more blessed thing on earth than a +good novel, not the least merit of which is that it induces a state of +passive, unconscious enjoyment, and never frenzies the reader to go +out and put the world right. Next to fairy tales -- the original +world-fiction -- our modern novels may be ranked as our most precious +possessions; and so it has come to pass that I shall now cheerfully +pay my five shillings, or ten shillings, or whatever it may shortly +be, in the pound towards the Free Library: convinced at last that the +money is not wasted in training exponents of the subjectivity of this +writer and the objectivity of that, nor in developing fresh imitators +of dead discredited styles, but is righteously devoted to the support +of wholesome, honest, unpretending novel-reading. + +<p><strong>The Rural Pan</strong> + +<p>An April Essay + + +<p>Through shady Throgmorton Street and about the vale of Cheapside +the restless Mercury is flitting, with furtive eye and voice a little +hoarse from bidding in the market. Further west, down classic +Piccadilly, moves the young Apollo, the lord of the unerring (satin) +bow; and nothing meaner than a frock-coat shall in these latter years +float round his perfect limbs. But remote in other haunts than these +the rural Pan is hiding, and piping the low, sweet strain that reaches +only the ears of a chosen few. And now that the year wearily turns and +stretches herself before the perfect waking, the god emboldened begins +to blow a clearer note. + +<p>When the waking comes at last, and Summer is abroad, these deities +will abroad too, each as his several attributes move him. Who is this +that flieth up the reaches of the Thames in steam-launch hired for the +day? Mercury is out -- some dozen or fifteen strong. The flower-gemmed +banks crumble and slide down under the wash of his rampant screw; his +wake is marked by a line of lobster-claws, gold-necked bottles, and +fragments of veal-pie. Resplendent in blazer, he may even be seen to +embrace the slim-waisted nymph, haunter of green (room) shades, in the +full gaze of the shocked and scandalised sun. Apollo meantime +reposeth, passively beautiful, on the lawn of the Guards' Club at +Maidenhead. Here, O Apollo, are haunts meet for thee. A deity +subjectively inclined, he is neither objective nor, it must be said +for him, at all objectionable, like them of Mercury. + +<p>Meanwhile, nor launches nor lawns tempt him that pursueth the rural +Pan. In the hushed recesses of Hurley backwater where the canoe may +be paddled almost under the tumbling comb of the weir, he is to be +looked for; there the god pipes with freest abandonment. Or under the +great shadow of Streatley Hill, ``annihilating all that's made to +a green thought in a green shade''; or better yet, pushing an +explorer's prow up the remote untravelled Thame, till Dorchester's +stately roof broods over the quiet fields. In solitudes such as these +Pan sits and dabbles, and all the air is full of the music of his +piping. Southwards, again, on the pleasant Surrey downs there is +shouting and jostling; dust that is drouthy and language that is +sultry. Thither comes the young Apollo, calmly confident as ever; and +he meeteth certain Mercuries of the baser sort, who do him obeisance, +call him captain and lord, and then proceed to skin him from head to +foot as thoroughly as the god himself flayed Marsyas in days of yore, +at a certain Spring Meeting in Phrygia: a good instance of Time's +revenges. And yet Apollo returns to town and swears he has had a grand +day. He does so every year. Out of hearing of all the clamour, the +rural Pan may be found stretched on Ranmore Common, loitering under +Abinger pines, or prone by the secluded stream of the sinuous Mole, +abounding in friendly greetings for his foster-brothers the dab-chick +and water-rat. + +<p>For a holiday, Mercury loveth the Pullman Express, and a short hour +with a society paper; anon, brown boots on the pier, and the pleasant +combination of Métropole and Monopole. Apollo for his part will +urge the horses of the Sun: and, if he leaveth the society weekly to +Mercury, yet he loveth well the Magazine. From which <em>omphalos</em> +or hub of the universe he will direct his shining team even to the far +Hesperides of Richmond or of Windsor. Both iron road and level highway +are shunned by the rural Pan, who chooses rather to foot it along the +sheep track on the limitless downs or the thwart-leading footpath +through copse and spinney, not without pleasant fellowship with +feather and fir. Nor does it follow from all this that the god is +unsocial. Albeit shy of the company of his more showy brother-deities, +he loveth the more unpretentious humankind, especially them that are +<em> adscripti glebæ,</em> addicted to the kindly soil and to the +working thereof: perfect in no way, only simple, cheery sinners. For +he is only half a god after all, and the red earth in him is +strong. When the pelting storm drives the wayfarers to the sheltering +inn, among the little group on bench and settle Pan has been known to +appear at times, in homely guise of hedger-and-ditcher or +weather-beaten shepherd from the downs. Strange lore and quaint fancy +he will then impart, in the musical Wessex or Mercian he has learned +to speak so naturally; though it may not be till many a mile away that +you begin to suspect that you have unwittingly talked with him who +chased the flying Syrinx in Arcady and turned the tide of fight at +Marathon. + +<p>Yes: to-day the iron horse has searched the country through -- east and +west, north and south -- bringing with it Commercialism, whose god is +Jerry, and who studs the hills with stucco and garrotes the streams +with the girder. Bringing, too, into every nook and corner fashion and +chatter, the tailor-made gown and the eyeglass. Happily a great part +is still spared -- how great these others fortunately do not know -- in +which the rural Pan and his following may hide their heads for yet a +little longer, until the growing tyranny has invaded the last common, +spinney, and sheep-down, and driven the kindly god, the well-wisher to +man -- whither? + +<p><strong>Marginalia</strong> + + +<p>American Hunt, in his suggestive ``Talks about Art,'' +demands that the child shall be encouraged -- or rather permitted, for +the natural child needs little encouragement -- to draw when- and +whereon-soever he can; for, says he, the child's scribbling on the +margin of his school-books is really worth more to him than all he +gets out of them, and indeed, ``to him the margin is the best +part of all books, and he finds in it the soothing influence of a +clear sky in a landscape.'' Doubtless Sir Benjamin Backbite, though his +was not an artist soul, had some dim feeling of this mighty truth when +he spoke of that new quarto of his, in which ``a neat rivulet of +text shall meander through a meadow of margin'': boldly granting the +margin to be of superior importance to the print. This metaphor is +pleasantly expanded in Burton's ``Bookhunter'': wherein you read +of certain folios with ``their majestic stream of central print +overflowing into rivulets of marginal notes, <em> sedgy with +citations.</em>'' But the good Doctor leaves the main stream for a +backwater of error in inferring that the chief use of margins is to be +a parading-ground for notes and citations. As if they had not absolute +value in themselves, nor served a finer end! In truth, Hunt's child +was vastly the wiser man. + +<p>For myself, my own early margins chiefly served to note, cite, and +illustrate the habits of crocodiles. Along the lower or ``tail'' +edge, the saurian, splendidly serrated as to his back, arose out of +old Nile; up one side negroes, swart as sucked lead-pencil could limn +them, let fall their nerveless spears; up the other, monkeys, +gibbering with terror, swarmed hastily up palm-trees -- a plant to the +untutored hand of easier outline than (say) your British +oak. Meanwhile, all over the unregarded text Balbus slew Caius on the +most inadequate provocation, or Hannibal pursued his victorious +career, while Roman generals delivered ornate set speeches prior to +receiving the usual satisfactory licking. Fabius, Hasdrubal -- all +alike were pallid shades with faint, thin voices powerless to pierce +the distance. The margins of Cocytus doubtless knew them: mine were +dedicated to the more attractive flesh and blood of animal life, the +varied phases of the tropic forest. Or, in more practical mood, I +would stoop to render certain facts recorded in the text. To these +digressions I probably owe what little education I possess. For +example, there was one sentence in our Roman history: ``By this +single battle of Magnesia, Antiochus the Great lost all his conquests +in Asia Minor.'' Serious historians really should not thus forget +themselves. 'Twas so easy, by a touch of the pen, to transform +``battle'' into ``bottle''; for ``conquests'' +one could substitute a word for which not even Macaulay's school-boy +were at a loss; and the result, depicted with rude vigour in his +margin, fixed the name of at least one ancient fight on the +illustrator's memory. But this plodding and material art had small +charm for me: to whom the happy margin was a ``clear sky'' ever +through which I could sail away at will to more gracious worlds. I was +duly qualified by a painfully acquired ignorance of dead languages +cautiously to approach my own; and 'twas no better. Along Milton's +margins the Gryphon must needs pursue the Arimaspian -- what a chance, +that Arimaspian, for the imaginative pencil! And so it has come about +that, while Milton periods are mostly effaced from memory by the +sponge of Time, I can still see that vengeful Gryphon, cousin-german +to the gentle beast that danced the Lobster Quadrille by a certain +shore. + +<p>It is by no means insisted upon that the chief end and use of margins +is for pictorial illustration, nor yet for furtive games of oughts and +crosses, nor (in the case of hymn-books) for amorous missives scrawled +against the canticle for the day, to be passed over into an adjacent +pew: as used, alas! to happen in days when one was young and godless, +and went to church. Nor, again, are the margins of certain poets +entrusted to man for the composing thereon of infinitely superior +rhymes on the subjects themselves have maltreated: a depraved habit, +akin to scalping. What has never been properly recognised is the +absolute value of the margin itself -- a value frequently superior to +its enclosure. In poetry the popular taste demands its margin, and +takes care to get it in ``the little verses wot they puts inside +the crackers.'' The special popularity, indeed, of lyric as opposed to +epic verse is due to this habit of feeling. A good example maybe found +in the work of Mr Swinburne: the latter is the better poetry, the +earlier remains the more popular -- because of its eloquence of +margin. Mr Tupper might long ago have sat with laureate brow but for +his neglect of this first principle. The song of Sigurd, our one epic +of the century, is pitiably unmargined, and so has never won the full +meed of glory it deserves; while the ingenious gentleman who wrote +``Beowulf,'' our other English epic, grasped the great fact from +the first, so that his work is much the more popular of the two. The +moral is evident. An authority on practical book-making has stated +that ``margin is a matter to be studied''; also that ``to +place the print in the centre of the paper is wrong in principle, and +to be deprecated.'' Now, if it be ``wrong in principle,'' let us +push that principle to its legitimate conclusion, and +``deprecate'' the placing of print on any part of the paper at +all. Without actually suggesting this course to any of our living +bards, when, I may ask -- when shall that true poet arise who, +disdaining the trivialities of text, shall give the world a book of +verse consisting entirely of margin? How we shall shove and jostle +for large paper copies! + +<p><strong>The Eternal Whither</strong> + + +<p>There was once an old cashier in some ancient City +establishment, whose practice was to spend his yearly holiday in +relieving some turnpike-man at his post, and performing all the duties +appertaining thereunto. This was vulgarly taken to be an instance of +mere mill-horse enslavement to his groove -- the reception of +payments; and it was spoken of both in mockery of all mill-horses and +for the due admonishment of others. And yet that clerk had discovered +for himself an unique method of seeing Life at its best, the flowing, +hurrying, travelling, marketing Life of the Highway; the life of +bagman and cart, of tinker, and pig-dealer, and all cheery creatures +that drink and chaffer together in the sun. He belonged, above all, to +the scanty class of clear-seeing persons who know both what they are +good for and what they really want. To know what you would like to do +is one thing; to go out boldly and do it is another -- and a rarer; +and the sterile fields about Hell-Gate are strewn with the corpses of +those who would an if they could. + +<p>To be sure, being bent on the relaxation most congenial to one's soul, +it is possible to push one's disregard for convention too far: as is +seen in the case of another, though of an earlier generation, in the +same establishment. In his office there was the customary +``attendance-book,'' wherein the clerks were expected to sign each +day. Here his name one morning ceases abruptly from appearing; he +signs, indeed, no more. Instead of signature you find, a little later, +writ in careful commercial hand, this entry: ``Mr --- did not +attend at his office to-day, having been hanged at eight o'clock in +the morning for horse-stealing.'' Through the faded ink of this record +do you not seem to catch, across the gulf of years, some waft of the +jolly humanity which breathed in this prince among clerks? A formal +precisian, doubtless, during business hours; but with just this honest +love of horseflesh lurking deep down there in him -- unsuspected, +sweetening the whole lump. Can you not behold him, freed from his +desk, turning to pursue his natural bent, as a city-bred dog still +striveth to bury his bone deep in the hearth-rug? For no filthy lucre, +you may be sure, but from sheer love of the pursuit itself! All the +same, he erred; erred, if not in taste, at least in judgment: for we +cannot entirely acquit him of blame for letting himself be caught. + +<p>In these tame and tedious days of the policeman rampant, our +melancholy selves are debarred from many a sport, joyous and debonair, +whereof our happier fathers were free. Book-stealing, to be sure, +remains to us; but every one is not a collector; and, besides, 'tis a +diversion you can follow with equal success all the year round. Still, +the instance may haply be pregnant with suggestion to many who wearily +ask each year, what new place or pursuit exhausted earth still keeps +for the holiday-maker. 'Tis a sad but sober fact, that the most of men +lead flat and virtuous lives, departing annually with their family to +some flat and virtuous place, there to disport themselves in a manner +that is decent, orderly, wholly uninteresting, vacant of every buxom +stimulus. To such as these a suggestion, in all friendliness: why not +try crime? We shall not attempt to specify the particular +branch -- for every one must himself seek out and find the path his +nature best fits him to follow; but the general charm of the prospect +must be evident to all. The freshness and novelty of secrecy, the +artistic satisfaction in doing the act of self-expression as well as +it can possibly be done; the experience of being not the hunter, but +the hunted, not the sportsman, but the game; the delight of comparing +and discussing crimes with your mates over a quiet pipe on your return +to town; these new pleasures -- these and their like -- would furnish +just that gentle stimulant, that peaceful sense of change so necessary +to the tired worker. And then the fact, that you would naturally have +to select and plan out your particular line of diversion without +advice or assistance, has its own advantage. For the moment a man +takes to dinning in your ears that you ought, you really ought, to go +to Norway, you at once begin to hate Norway with a hate that ever will +be; and to have Newlyn, Cromer, or Dawlish, Carinthia or the Austrian +Tyrol jammed down your throat, is enough to initiate the discovery +that your own individual weakness is a joyous and persistent liking +for manslaughter. + +<p>Some few seem to be born without much innate tendency to crime. After +all, it is mostly a matter of heredity; these unfortunates are less +culpable than their neglectful ancestors; and it is a fault that none +need really blush for in the present. For such as they there still +remains the example of the turnpike-loving clerk, with all its golden +possibilities. Denied the great delight of driving a locomotive, or a +fire-engine -- whirled along in a glorious nimbus of smoke-pant, +spark-shower, and hoarse warning roar -- what bliss to the palefaced +quilldriver to command a penny steamboat between London Bridge and +Chelsea! to drive a four-horsed Jersey-car to Kew at sixpence a head! +Though turnpikes be things of the past, there are still tolls to be +taken on many a pleasant reach of Thames. What happiness in quiet +moments to tend the lock-keeper's flower-beds -- perhaps make love to +his daughter; anon in busier times to let the old gates swing, work +the groaning winches, and hear the water lap and suck and gurgle as it +slowly sinks or rises with its swaying freight; to dangle legs over +the side and greet old acquaintances here and there among the +parti-coloured wayfarers passing up or down; while tobacco palleth not +on the longest day, and beer is ever within easy reach. The iron +tetter that scurfs the face of our island has killed out the pleasant +life of the road; but many of its best conditions still linger round +these old toll gates, free from dust and clatter, on the silent liquid +Highway to the West. + +<p>These for the weaker brethren: but for him who is conscious of the +Gift, the path is plain. + +<p><strong>Deus Terminus</strong> + + +<p>The practical Roman, stern constructor of roads and codes, when +he needs must worship, loved a deity practical as himself; and in his +parcelling of the known world into plots, saying unto this man, Bide +here, and to that, Sit you down there, he could scarce fail to evolve +the god Terminus: visible witness of possession and dominion, type of +solid facts not to be quibbled away. We Romans of this latter day -- +so hailed by others, or complacently christened by ourselves -- are +Roman in nothing more than in this; and, as much in the less tangible +realms of thought as in our solid acres, we are fain to set up the +statue which shall proclaim that so much country is explored, marked +out, allotted, and done with; that such and such ramblings and +excursions are practicable and permissible, and all else is exploded, +illegal, or absurd. And in this way we are left with naught but a +vague lingering tradition of the happier days before the advent of the +ruthless deity. + +<p>The sylvan glories of yonder stretch of woodland renew themselves each +autumn, regal as ever. It is only the old enchantment that is gone; +banished by the matter-of-fact deity, who has stolidly settled exactly +where Lord A.'s shooting ends and Squire B.'s begins. Once, no such +petty limitations fettered the mind. A step into the woodland was a +step over the border -- the margin of the material; and then, good-bye +to the modern world of the land-agent and the ``Field'' +advertisement! A chiming of little bells over your head, and lo! the +peregrine, with eyes like jewels, fluttered through the trees, her +jesses catching in the boughs. 'Twas the favourite of the Princess, +the windows of whose father's castle already gleamed through the +trees, where honours and favours awaited the adventurous. The white +doe sprang away through the thicket, her snowy flank stained with +blood; she made for the enchanted cot, and for entrance you too had +the pass-word. Did you fail on her traces, nor fox nor mole was too +busy to spare a moment for friendly advice or information. Little +hands were stretched to trip you, fairy gibe and mockery pelted you +from every rabbit-hole; and O what Dryads you have kissed among the +leaves, in that brief blissful moment ere they hardened into tree! +'Tis pity, indeed, that this sort of thing should have been made to +share the suspicion attaching to the poacher; that the stony stare of +the boundary god should confront you at the end of every green ride +and rabbit-run; while the very rabbits themselves are too disgusted +with the altered circumstances to tarry a moment for so much as to +exchange the time of day. + +<p>Truly this age is born, like Falstaff, with a white head and something +a round belly: and will none of your jigs and fantasies. The golden +era of princesses is past. For your really virtuous 'prentices there +still remain a merchant's daughter or two, and a bottle of port o' +Sundays on the Clapham mahogany. For the rest of us, one or two decent +clubs, and plenty of nice roomy lunatic asylums. ``Go spin, you +jade, go spin!'' is the one greeting for Imagination. And yet -- what a +lip the slut has! What an ankle! Go to: there's nobody looking; let us +lock the door, pull down the blinds, and write us a merry ballad. + +<p>'Tis ungracious, perhaps, to regret what is gone for ever, when so +much is given in return. A humour we have, that is entirely new; and +allotments that shall win back Astræa. Our Labor Program stands +for evidence that the Board School, at least, has done enduring work; +and the useless race of poets is fast dying out. Though we no longer +conjecture what song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed +when he hid himself among women, yet many a prize (of guineas galore) +awaits the competitor who will stoop, week by week, to more practical +research. ``Le monde marche,'' as Renan hath it, ``vers une +sorte d'americanisme.... Peut-être la vulgarité +générale sera-t-elle un jour la condition du bonheur des +élus. Nous n'avons pas le droit d'etre fort difficiles.'' We will +be very facile, then, since needs must; remembering the good old +proverb that ``scornful dogs eat dirty puddings.'' But, ere we +show Terminus the door, at least let us fling one stone at the +shrieking sulphureous houses of damnation erected as temples in his +honour, and dignified with his name! There, 'mid clangour, dirt, and +pestilence of crowding humanity, the very spirit of worry and unrest +sits embodied. The old Roman was not such a bad fellow. His deity of +demarcation at least breathed open air, and knew the kindly touch of +sun and wind. His simple rites were performed amid flowers and under +blue sky, by sunny roads or tranquil waters; and on this particular +altar the sacrifice was ordained to be free from any stain of +gore. Our hour of sacrifice, alas, has not yet come. When it +does -- (<em> et haud procul absit!</em>) -- let the offering be no +bloodless one, but let (for choice) a fat and succulent stationmaster +smoke and crackle on the altar of expiation! + + +<p><strong>Of Smoking</strong> + + +<p>Concerning Cigarette Smoking: It hath been well observed by a +certain philosopher that this is a practice commendable enough, and +pleasant to indulge in, ``when you're not smoking''; wherein the +whole criticism of the cigarette is found, in a little room. Of the +same manner of thinking was one that I knew, who kept by him an ample +case bulging with cigarettes, to smoke while he was filling his +pipe. Toys they be verily, <em> nugæ,</em> and shadows of the +substance. Serviceable, nevertheless, as shadows sometimes be when the +substance is temporarily unattainable; as between the acts of a play, +in the park, or while dressing for dinner: that such moments may not +be entirely wasted. That cigarette, however, which is so prompt to +appear after dinner I would reprehend and ban and totally abolish: as +enemy to that diviner thing before which it should pale its +ineffectual fires in shame -- to wit, good drink, <em> ``la dive +bouteille'';</em> except indeed when the liquor be bad, as is sometimes +known to happen. Then it may serve in some sort as a sorry +consolation. But to leave these airy substitutes, and come to smoking. + +<p>It hath been ofttimes debated whether the morning pipe be the sweeter, +or that first pipe of the evening which ``Hesperus, who bringeth +all good things,'' brings to the weary with home and rest. The first is +smoked on a clearer palate, and comes to unjaded senses like the kiss +of one's first love; but lacks that feeling of perfect fruition, of +merit recompensed and the goal and the garland won, which clings to +the vesper bowl. Whence it comes that the majority give the palm to +the latter. To which I intend no slight when I find the incense that +arises at matins sweeter even than that of evensong. For, although +with most of us who are labourers in the vineyard, toilers and +swinkers, the morning pipe is smoked in hurry and fear and a sense of +alarums and excursions and fleeting trains, yet with all this there +are certain halcyon periods sure to arrive -- Sundays, holidays, and +the like -- the whole joy and peace of which are summed up in that one +beatific pipe after breakfast, smoked in a careless majesty like that +of the gods ``when they lie beside their nectar, and the clouds +are lightly curled.'' Then only can we be said really to smoke. And so +this particular pipe of the day always carries with it festal +reminiscences: memories of holidays past, hopes for holidays to come; +a suggestion of sunny lawns and flannels and the ungirt loin; a sense +withal of something free and stately, as of ``faint march-music +in the air,'' or the old Roman cry of ``Liberty, freedom, and +enfranchisement.'' + +<p>If there be any fly in the pipe-smoker's ointment, it may be said to +lurk in the matter of ``rings.'' Only the exceptionally gifted +smoker can recline in his chair and emit at will the perfect +smoke-ring, in consummate eddying succession. He of the meaner sort +must be content if, at rare heaven-sent intervals -- while thinking, +perhaps, of nothing less -- there escape from his lips the +unpremeditated flawless circle. Then <em> ``deus fio''</em> he is +moved to cry, at that breathless moment when his creation hangs solid +and complete, ere the particles break away and blend with the baser +atmosphere. Nay, some will deny to any of us terrene smokers the gift +of fullest achievement: for what saith <em> the</em> poet of the century? +``On the earth the broken arcs: in the +heaven the perfect round!'' + +<p>It was well observed by a certain character in one of Wilkie Collins's +novels (if an imperfect memory serveth me rightly) that women will +take pleasure in scents derived from animal emanations, clarified +fats, and the like; yet do illogically abhor the ``clean, dry, +vegetable smell'' of tobacco. Herein the true base of the feminine +objection is reached; being, as usual, inherent want of logic rather +than any distaste, in the absolute, for the thing in +question. Thinking that they ought to dislike, they do painfully cast +about for reasons to justify their dislike, when none really exist. As +a specimen of their so-called arguments, I remember how a certain fair +one triumphantly pointed out to me that my dog, though loving me well, +could yet never be brought to like the smell of tobacco. To whom I, +who respected my dog (as Ben saith of Master Shakespeare) on this side +idolatry as much as anything, was yet fain to point out -- more in +sorrow than in anger -- that a dog, being an animal who delights to +pass his whole day, from early morn to dewy eve, in shoving his nose +into every carrion beastliness that he can come across, could hardly +be considered <em> arbiter elegantiarum</em> in the matter of smells. But +indeed I did wrong to take such foolish quibbling seriously; nor would +I have done so, if she hadn't dragged my poor innocent dog into the +discussion. + +<p>Of Smoking in Bed: There be who consider this a depravity -- an +instance of that excess in the practice of a virtue which passes into +vice -- and couple it with dram-drinking: who yet fail to justify +themselves by argument. For if bed be by common consent the greatest +bliss, the divinest spot, on earth, <em> ``ille terrarum qui +præter omnes angulus ridet'';</em> and if tobacco be the true Herb of +Grace, and a joy and healing balm, and respite and nepenthe, -- if all +this be admitted, why are two things, super-excellent separately, +noxious in conjunction? And is not the Bed Smoker rather an epicure in +pleasure -- self indulgent perhaps, but still the triumphant creator of +a new ``blend,'' reminding one of a certain traveller's account of +an intoxicant patronised in the South Sea Islands, which combines the +blissful effect of getting drunk and remaining sober to enjoy it? Yet +I shall not insist too much on this point, but would only ask -- so +long as the smoker be unwedded -- for some tolerance in the matter and +a little logic in the discussion thereof. + +<p>Concerning Cigars: That there be large sums given for these is within +common knowledge. 1<em> d.,</em> 2<em> d.,</em> nay even 4<em> d.,</em> is not too +great a price, if a man will have of the finest leaf, reckless of +expense. In this sort of smoking, however, I find more of vainglory +and ostentation than solid satisfaction; and its votaries would seem +to display less a calm, healthy affection for tobacco than (as Sir +T. Browne hath it) a ``passionate prodigality.'' And, besides +grievous wasting of the pocket, atmospheric changes, varyings in the +crops, and the like, cause uncertainty to cling about each individual +weed, so that man is always more or less at the mercy of Nature and +the elements -- an unsatisfactory and undignified position in these +latter days of the Triumphant Democracy. But worst and fatallest of +all, to every cigar-smoker it is certain to happen that once in his +life, by some happy combination of time, place, temperament, and +Nature -- by some starry influence, maybe, or freak of the gods in +mocking sport -- once, and once only, he will taste the aroma of the +perfect leaf at just the perfect point -- the ideal cigar. Henceforth +his life is saddened; as one kissed by a goddess in a dream, he goes +thereafter, as one might say, in a sort of love-sickness. Seeking he +scarce knows what, his existence becomes a dissatisfied yearning; the +world is spoiled for him, its joys are tasteless: so he wanders, +vision-haunted, down dreary days to some miserable end. + +<p>Yet, if one will walk this path and take the risks, the thing may be +done at comparatively small expense. To such I would commend the Roman +motto, slightly altered -- <em> Alieni appetens, sui avarus.</em> There be +always good fellows, with good cigars for their friends. Nay, too, the +boxes of these lie open; an the good cigar belongs rather to him that +can appreciate it aright than to the capitalist who, owing to a false +social system, happens to be its temporary guardian and trustee. Again +there is a saying -- bred first, I think, among the schoolmen at +Oxford -- that it is the duty of a son to live up to his father's +income. Should any young man have found this task too hard for him, +after the most strenuous and single-minded efforts, at least he can +resolutely smoke his father's cigars. In the path of duty complete +success is not always to be looked for; but an approving conscience, +the sure reward of honest endeavour, is within reach of all. + + +<p><strong>An Autumn Encounter</strong> + + +<p>For yet another mile or two the hot dusty road runs through +level fields, till it reaches yonder shoulder of the downs, already +golden three-parts up with ripening corn. Thitherwards lies my +inevitable way; and now that home is almost in sight it seems hard +that the last part of the long day's sweltering and delightful tramp +must needs be haunted by that hateful speck, black on the effulgence +of the slope. Did I not know he was only a scarecrow, the thing might +be in a way companionable: a pleasant suggestive surmise, piquing +curiosity, gilding this last weary stage with some magic of +expectancy. But I passed close by him on my way out. Early as I was, +he was already up and doing, eager to introduce himself. He leered +after me as I swung down the road, -- mimicked my gait, as it seemed, +in a most uncalled-for way; and when I looked back, he was blowing +derisive kisses of farewell with his empty sleeve. + +<p>I had succeeded, however, in shaking off the recollection between the +morning's start and now; so it was annoying that he should force +himself on me, just when there was no getting rid of him. At this +distance, however, he might be anything. An indeterminate blot, it +seems to waver, to falter, to come and vanish again in the quivering, +heated air. Even so, in the old time, leaning on that familiar +gate -- are the tell-tale inwoven initials still decipherable? -- I used +to watch Her pacing demurely towards me through the corn. It was +ridiculous, it was fatuous, under all the circumstances it was +monstrous, and yet{...}! We were both under twenty, so She was +She, and I was I, and there were only we three the wide world over, +she and I and the unbetraying gate. <em> Porta eburnea!</em> False visions +alone sped through you, though Cupid was wont to light on your topmost +bar, and preen his glowing plumes. And to think that I should see her +once more, coming down the path as if not a day had passed, hesitating +as of old, and then -- but surely her ankles seem -- Confound that +scarecrow!... + +<p>His sex is by this time painfully evident; also his condition in life, +which is as of one looking back on better days. And now he is upon a +new tack. Though here on the level it is still sultry and airless, an +evening breeze is playing briskly along the slope where he stands, and +one sleeve saws the air violently; the other is pointed stiffly +heavenwards. It is all plain enough, my poor friend! The sins of the +world are a heavy burden and a grievous unto you. You have a mission, +you must testify; it will forth, in season and out of season. For man, +he wakes and sleeps and sins betimes: but crows sin steadily, without +any cessation. And this unhappy state of things is your own +particular business. Even at this distance I seem to hear you rasping +it: ``Salvation, damnation, damnation, salvation!'' And the jolly +earth smiles in the perfect evenglow, and the corn ripples and laughs +all round you, and one young rook (only fledged this year, too!), +after an excellent simulation of prostrate, heart-broken penitence, +soars joyously away, to make love to his neighbour's wife. +``Salvation, damnation, damn -- '' A shifty wriggle of the road, +and he is transformed once more. Flung back in an ecstasy of laughter, +holding his lean sides, his whole form writhes with the chuckle and +gurgle of merriment. Ho, ho! what a joke it was! How I took you all +in! Even the rooks! What a joke is everything, to be sure! + +<p>Truly, I shall be glad to get quit of this heartless +mummer. Fortunately I shall soon be past him. And now, behold! the old +dog waxes amorous. Mincing, mowing, empty sleeve on hollow breast, he +would fain pose as the most irresistible old hypocrite that ever paced +a metropolitan kerb. ``Love, you young dogs,'' he seems to croak, +``Love is the one thing worth living for! Enjoy your present, +rooks and all, as I do!'' Why, indeed, should he alone be insensible +to the golden influence of the hour? More than one supple waist +(alas! for universal masculine frailty!) has been circled by that +tattered sleeve in days gone by; a throbbing heart once beat where +sodden straw now fails to give a manly curve to the chest. Why should +the coat survive, and not a particle of the passion that inspired it +long ago? + +<p>At last I confront him, face to face: and the villain grins +recognition, completely unabashed. Nay, he cocks his eye with a +significant glance under the slouch of his shapeless hat, and his arm +points persistently and with intelligence up the road. My good fellow, +I know the way to the Dog and Duck as well as you do: I was going +there anyhow, without your officious interference -- and the beer, as +you justly remark, is unimpeachable. But was this really all you've +been trying to say to me, this last half-hour? Well, well! + + +<p><strong>The White Poppy</strong> + + +<p>A riot of scarlet on gold, the red poppy of our native fields tosses +heavy tresses with gipsy <em> abandon;</em> her sister of the sea-shore is +golden, a yellow blossom that loves the keen salt savour of the +spray. Of another hue is the poppy of history, of romance, of the +muse. White as the stark death-shroud, pallid as the cheeks of that +queen of a silent land whose temples she languorously crowns, +ghost-like beside her fuller-blooded kin, she droops dream-laden, <em> +Papaver somniferum,</em> the poppy of the magic juice of oblivion. In the +royal plenitude of summer, the scarlet blooms will sometimes seem but +a red cry from earth in memory of the many dews of battle that have +drenched these acres in years gone by, for little end but that these +same ``bubbles of blood'' might glow to-day; the yellow flower +does but hint of the gold that has dashed a thousand wrecks at her +feet around these shores: for happier suggestion we must turn to her +of the pallid petals, our white Lady of Consolation. Fitting hue to +typify the crowning blessing of forgetfulness! Too often the sable +robes of night dissemble sleeplessness, remorse, regret, +self-questioning. Let black, then, rather stand for hideous memory: +white for blessed blank oblivion, happiest gift of the gods! For who, +indeed, can say that the record of his life is not crowded with +failure and mistake, stained with its petty cruelties of youth, its +meannesses and follies of later years, all which storm and clamour +incessantly at the gates of memory, refusing to be shut out? Leave us +alone, O gods, to remember our felicities, our successes: only aid us, +ye who recall no gifts, aptly and discreetly to forget. + +<p>Discreetly, we say; for it is a tactful forgetfulness that makes for +happiness. In the minor matter, for instance, of small money +obligations, that shortness of memory which the school of Professors +Panurge and Falstaff rashly praises, may often betray into some +unfortunate allusion or reference to the subject which shall pain the +delicate feelings of the obliger; or, if he be of coarser clay, shall +lead him in his anger to express himself with unseemliness, and +thereby to do violence to his mental tranquillity, in which alone, as +Marcus Aurelius teacheth, lieth the perfection of moral +character. This is to be a stumbling-block and an offence against the +brethren. It is better to keep just memory enough to avoid such hidden +rocks and shoals; in which thing Mr Swiveller is our great exemplar, +whose mental map of London was a chart wherein every creditor was +carefully ``buoyed.'' + +<p>The wise man prays, we are told, for a good digestion: let us add to +the prayer -- and a bad memory. Truly we are sometimes tempted to think +that we are the only ones cursed with this corroding canker. Our +friends, we can swear, have all, without exception, atrocious +memories; why is ours alone so hideously vital? Yet this isolation +must be imaginary; for even as we engage in this selfish moan for help +in our own petty case, we are moved to add a word for certain others +who, meaning no ill, unthinkingly go about to add to humanity's +already heavy load of suffering. How much needless misery is caused in +this world by the reckless ``recollections'' of dramatic and other +celebrities? You gods, in lending ear to our prayer, remember too, +above all other sorts and conditions of men, these our poor erring +brothers and sisters, the sometime <em> sommités</em> of Mummerdom! + +<p>Moments there are, it is true, when this traitor spirit tricks you: +when some subtle scent, some broken notes of an old song, nay, even +some touch of a fresher air on your cheeks at night -- a breath of <em> +``le vent qui vient à travers la montagne''</em> -- have power to +ravish, to catch you back to the blissful days when you trod the one +authentic Paradise. Moments only, alas! Then the evil crowd rushes in +again, howls in the sacred grove, tramples down and defiles the happy +garden; and once more you cry to Our Lady of Sleep, crowned of the +white poppy. And you envy your dog who, for full discharge of a +present benefaction having wagged you a hearty, expressive tail, will +then pursue it gently round the hearth-rug till, in restful coil, he +reaches it at last, and oblivion with it; every one of his half-dozen +diurnal sleeps being in truth a royal amnesty. + +<p>But whose the hand that shall reach us the herb of healing? Perdita +blesses every guest at the shearing with a handful of blossom; but +this gift is not to be asked of her whose best wish to her friends is +``grace and remembrance.'' The fair Ophelia, rather: nay, for as +a nursling she hugs her grief, and for her the memory of the past is a +``sorrow's crown of sorrow.'' What flowers are these her pale hand +offers? ``There's pansies, that's for thoughts!'' For me rather, O +dear Ophelia, the white poppy of forgetfulness. + + +<p><strong>A Bohemian in Exile</strong> + +<p>A Reminiscence + + +<p>When, many years ago now, the once potent and extensive kingdom of +Bohemia gradually dissolved and passed away, not a few historians were +found to chronicle its past glories; and some have gone on to tell the +fate of this or that once powerful chieftain who either donned the +swallow-tail and conformed or, proudly self-exiled, sought some quiet +retreat and died as he had lived, a Bohemian. But these were of the +princes of the land. To the people, the villeins, the common rank and +file, does no interest attach? Did they waste and pine, anæmic, in +thin, strange, unwonted air? Or sit at the table of the scornful and +learn, with Dante, how salt was alien bread? It is of one of those +faithful commons I would speak, narrating only ``the short and +simple annals of the poor.'' + +<p>It is to be noted that the kingdom aforesaid was not so much a kingdom +as a United States -- a collection of self-ruling guilds, +municipalities, or republics, bound together by a common method of +viewing life. ``There <em> once</em> was a king of Bohemia'' -- but +that was a long time ago, and even Corporal Trim was not certain in +whose reign it was. These small free States, then, broke up gradually, +from various causes and with varying speed; and I think ours was one +of the last to go. + +<p>With us, as with many others, it was a case of lost +leaders. ``Just for a handful of silver he left us''; though it +was not exactly that, but rather that, having got the handful of +silver, they wanted a wider horizon to fling it about under than +Bloomsbury afforded. + +<p><blockquote> +So they left us for their pleasure; and in due time, +one by one -- +</blockquote> + +<p>But I will not be morose about them; they had honestly earned their +success, and we all honestly rejoiced at it, and do so still. + +<p>When old Pan was dead and Apollo's bow broken, there were many +faithful pagans who would worship at no new shrines, but went out to +the hills and caves, truer to the old gods in their discrowned +desolation than in their pomp and power. Even so were we left behind, +a remnant of the faithful. We had never expected to become great in art +or song; it was the life itself that we loved; that was our end -- not, +as with them, the means to an end. + +<p><blockquote> +We aimed at no glory, no lovers of glory we;<br> +Give us the glory of going on and still to be.<br> +</blockquote> + +<p>Unfortunately, going on was no longer possible; the old order had +changed, and we could only patch up our broken lives as best might be. + +<p>Fothergill said that he, for one, would have no more of it. The past +was dead, and he wasn't going to try to revive it. Henceforth he, +too, would be dead to Bloomsbury. Our forefathers, speaking of a man's +death, said ``he changed his life.'' This is how Fothergill +changed his life and died to Bloomsbury. One morning he made his way +to the Whitechapel Road, and there he bought a barrow. The +Whitechapel barrows are of all sizes, from the barrow wheeled about by +a boy with half a dozen heads of cabbages to barrows drawn by a tall +pony, such as on Sundays take the members of a club to Epping +Forest. They are all precisely the same in plan and construction, only +in the larger sizes the handles develop or evolve into shafts; and +they are equally suitable, according to size, for the vending of +whelks, for a hot-potato can, a piano organ, or for the conveyance of +a cheery and numerous party to the Derby. Fothergill bought a medium +sized ``developed'' one, and also a donkey to fit; he had it +painted white, picked out with green -- the barrow, not the +donkey -- and when his arrangements were complete, stabled the whole +for the night in Bloomsbury. The following morning, before the early +red had quite faded from the sky, the exodus took place, those of us +who were left being assembled to drink a parting whisky-and-milk in +sad and solemn silence. Fothergill turned down Oxford Street, sitting +on the shaft with a short clay in his mouth, and disappeared from our +sight, heading west at a leisurely pace. So he passed out of our lives +by way of the Bayswater Road. + +<p>They must have wandered far and seen many things, he and his donkey, +from the fitful fragments of news that now and again reached us. It +seems that eventually, his style of living being economical, he was +enabled to put down his donkey and barrow, and set up a cart and a +mare -- no fashionable gipsy-cart, a sort of houseboat on wheels, but a +light and serviceable cart, with a moveable tilt, constructed on his +own designs. This allowed him to take along with him a few canvases +and other artists' materials; soda-water, whisky, and such like +necessaries; and even to ask a friend from town for a day or two, if +he wanted to. + +<p>He was in this state of comparative luxury when at last, by the merest +accident, I foregathered with him once more. I had pulled up to +Streatley one afternoon, and, leaving my boat, had gone for a long +ramble on the glorious North Berkshire Downs to stretch my legs before +dinner. Somewhere over on Cuckhamsley Hill, by the side of the +Ridgeway, remote from the habitable world, I found him, smoking his +vesper pipe on the shaft of his cart, the mare cropping the short +grass beside him. He greeted me without surprise or effusion, as if +we had only parted yesterday, and without a hint of an allusion to +past times, but drifted quietly into rambling talk of his last three +years, and, without ever telling his story right out, left a strange +picturesque impression of a nomadic life which struck one as separated +by fifty years from modern conventional existence. The old road-life +still lingered on in places, it seemed, once one got well away from +the railway: there were two Englands existing together, the one +fringing the great iron highways wherever they might go -- the England +under the eyes of most of us. The other, unguessed at by many, in +whatever places were still vacant of shriek and rattle, drowsed on as +of old: the England of heath and common and windy sheep down, of +by-lanes and village-greens -- the England of Parson Adams and +Lavengro. The spell of the free untrammelled life came over me as I +listened, till I was fain to accept of his hospitality and a +horse-blanket for the night, oblivious of civilised comforts down at +the Bull. On the downs where Alfred fought we lay and smoked, gazing +up at the quiet stars that had shone on many a Dane lying stark and +still a thousand years ago; and in the silence of the lone tract that +enfolded us we seemed nearer to those old times than to these I had +left that afternoon, in the now hushed and sleeping valley of the +Thames. + +<p>When the news reached me, some time later, that Fothergill's aunt had +died and left him her house near town and the little all she had +possessed, I heard it with misgivings, not to say forebodings. For +the house had been his grandfather's, and he had spent much of his +boyhood there; it had been a dream of his early days to possess it in +some happy future, and I knew he could never bear to sell or let +it. On the other hand, can you stall the wild ass of the desert? And +will not the caged eagle mope and pine? + +<p>However, possession was entered into, and all seemed to go well for +the time. The cart was honourably installed in the coach-house, the +mare turned out to grass. Fothergill lived idly and happily, to all +seeming, with ``a book of verses underneath the bough,'' and a +bottle of old claret for the friend who might chance to drop in. But +as the year wore on small signs began to appear that he who had always +``rather hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak'' was beginning +to feel himself caged, though his bars were gilded. + +<p>I was talking one day to his coachman (he now kept three +men-servants), and he told me that of a Sunday morning when the +household had gone to church and everything was quiet, Mr Fothergill +would go into the coach-house and light his pipe, and sit on the step +of the brougham (he had a brougham now), and gaze at the old cart, and +smoke and say nothing; and smoke and say nothing again. He didn't like +it, the coachman confessed; and to me it seemed ominous. + +<p>One morning late in March, at the end of a long hard winter, I was +wakened by a flood of sunshine. The early air came warm and soft +through the open window; the first magic suggestion of spring was +abroad, with its whispered hints of daffodils and budding hawthorns; +and one's blood danced to imagined pipings of Pan from happy fields +far distant. At once I thought of Fothergill, and, with a certain +foreboding of ill, made my way down to Holly Lodge as soon as +possible. It was with no surprise at all that I heard that the master +was missing. In the very first of the morning, it seemed, or ever the +earliest under-housemaid had begun to set man-traps on the stairs and +along the passages, he must have quietly left the house. The servants +were cheerful enough, nevertheless, and thought the master must only +have ``gone for a nice long walk,'' and so on, after the manner of +their kind. Without a word I turned my steps to the coach-house. Sure +enough, the old cart was missing; the mare was gone from the +paddock. It was no good my saying anything; pursuit of this wild +haunter of tracks and by-paths would have been futile indeed. So I +kept my own counsel. Fothergill never returned to Holly Lodge, and has +been more secret and evasive since his last flight, rarely venturing +on old camping grounds near home, like to a bird scared by the +fowler's gun. + +<p>Once indeed, since then, while engaged in pursuit of the shy quarry +known as the Early Perp., late Dec., E. Eng., and the like, specimens +of which I was tracking down in the west, I hit upon him by accident; +hearing in an old village rumours concerning a strange man in a cart +who neither carried samples nor pushed the brewing interest by other +means than average personal consumption -- tales already beginning to +be distorted into material for the myth of the future. I found him +friendly as ever, equally ready to spin his yarns. As the evening wore +on, I ventured upon an allusion to past times and Holly Lodge; but his +air of puzzled politeness convinced me that the whole thing had passed +out of his mind, as a slight but disagreeable incident in the even +tenor of his nomadic existence. + +<p>After all, his gains may have outbalanced his losses. Had he cared, he +might, with his conversational gifts, have been a social success; +certainly, I think, an artistic one. He had great powers, had any +impulse been present to urge him to execution and achievement. But he +was for none of these things. Contemplative, receptive, with a keen +sense of certain sub-tones and side aspects of life unseen by most, he +doubtless chose wisely to enjoy life his own way, and to gather from +the fleeting days what bliss they had to give, nor spend them in +toiling for a harvest to be reaped when he was dust. + +<p><blockquote> +Some for the glories of this life, and some<br> +Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come:<br> +Ah, take the cash and let the credit go,<br> +Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum.<br> +</blockquote> + + +<p><strong>Justifiable Homicide</strong> + + +<p>This is a remedial age, an age of keys for all manner of locks; +so he cannot be said to ask too much who seeks for exact information +as to how a young man ought, in justice to himself and to society, to +deal with his relations. During his minority he has lain entirely at +their mercy: has been their butt, their martyr, their drudge, their +<em> corpus vile.</em> Possessing all the sinews of war, this stiff-necked +tribe has consistently refused to ``part'': even for the provision +of those luxuries so much more necessary than necessities. Its members +have crammed their victim full of precepts, rules of conduct, moral +maxims, and most miscellaneous counsel: all which he intuitively +suspected at the time, and has ascertained by subsequent experience, +to be utterly worthless. Now, when their hour has come, when the +tocsin has sounded at last, and the Gaul is at the gate, they still +appear to think that the old condition of things is to go on; +unconscious, apparently, of atonement due, of retribution to be +exacted, of wrongs to be avenged and of insults to be wiped away! + +<p>Over the north-west frontier, where the writ of the English Raj runs +not, the artless Afghan is happy in a code that fully provides for +relatives who neglect or misunderstand their obligations. An Afghan it +was who found himself compelled to reprove an uncle with an +unfortunate habit of squandering the family estate. An excellent +relative, this uncle, in all other respects. As a liar, he had few +equals; he robbed with taste and discretion; and his murders were all +imbued with true artistic feeling. He might have lived to a green old +age of spotless respectability but for his one little failing. As it +was, justice had to be done, <em> ruat cælum:</em> and so it came +about that one day the nephew issued forth to correct him with a +matchlock. The innocent old man was cultivating his paternal acres; so +the nephew was able, unperceived, to get a steady sight on him. His +finger was on the trigger, when suddenly there slipped into his mind +the divine precept: ``Allah is merciful!'' He lowered his piece, +and remained for a little plunged in thought; meanwhile the +unconscious uncle hoed his paddy. Then with a happy smile he took aim +once more, for there also occurred to him the precept equally divine: +``But Allah is also just.'' With an easy conscience he let fly, +and behold! there was an uncle the more in Paradise. + +<p>It was probably some little affair of a similar quality that +constrained a recruit in a regiment stationed at Peshawur to apply for +leave of absence: in order to attend to family matters of importance. +The Colonel knew it was small use refusing the leave, as in that case +his recruit would promptly desert; so he could only ask, how long was +the transaction like to take? It was told him, after consideration, +that, allowing for all possible difficulties and delays, a month would +meet the necessities of the case; and on that understanding he allowed +his man to depart. At the end of the month he reappeared on duty, a +subdued but mellow cheer shining through his wonted impassiveness. His +Colonel ventured to inquire of him, in a general way, if the business +in question were satisfactorily concluded. And he replied: ``I +got him from behind a rock.'' + +<p>There are practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of such +methods at home. We must be content to envy, without imitating, these +free and happy sons of the hills. And yet a few of the old school are +left us still: averse from change, mistrustful of progress, sticking +steadily to the good old-fashioned dagger and bowl. I had a friend who +disposed of a relative every spring. Uncles were his special line -- +(he had suffered much from their tribe, having been early left an +orphan) -- though he had dabbled in aunts, and in his hot youth, when +he was getting his hand in, he had even dallied with a grand-parent or +two. But it was in uncles he excelled. He possessed (at the beginning +of his career) a large number of these connections, and pursuit of +them, from the mere sordid point of view of <em> £ s. d.,</em> +proved lucrative. But he always protested (and I believed him) that +gain with him was a secondary consideration. It would hardly be in the +public interest to disclose his <em> modus operandi.</em> I shall only +remark that he was one of the first to realise the security and +immunity afforded the artist by the conditions of modern London. Hence +it happened that he usually practised in town, but spent his vacations +at the country houses of such relations as were still spared him, +where he was always the life and soul of the place. Unfortunately he +is no longer with us, to assist in the revision of this article: nor +was it permitted me to soothe his last moments. The presiding Sheriff +was one of those new-fangled officials who insist on the exclusion of +the public, and he declined to admit me either in the capacity of a +personal connection or, though I tried my hardest, as the +representative of ``The National Observer.'' It only remains to +be said of my much-tried and still lamented friend, that he left few +relatives to mourn his untimely end. + +<p>But our reluctant feet must needs keep step with the imperious march +of Time, and my poor friend's Art (as himself in later years would +sorrowfully admit) is now almost as extinct as the glass-staining of +old, or ``Robbia's craft so apt and strange''; while our +thin-blooded youth, too nice for the joyous old methods, are content +to find sweetest revenge in severely dropping their relations. This is +indeed a most effective position: it exasperates, while it is +unassailable. And yet there remains a higher course, a nobler task. +Not mere forgiveness: it is simple duty to forgive -- even one's +guardians. No young man of earnest aspirations will be content to stop +there. Nay: lead them on, these lost ones, by the hand; conduct them +``generously and gently, and with linking of the arm''; educate +them, eradicate their false ideals, dispel their foolish prejudices; +be to their faults a little blind and to their virtues very kind: in +fine, realise that you have a mission -- that these wretches are not +here for nothing. The task will seem hard at first; but only those who +have tried can know how much may be done by assiduous and kindly +effort towards the chastening -- ay! the final redemption even! -- of +the most hopeless and pig-headed of uncles. + +<p><strong>The Fairy Wicket</strong> + + +<p>From digging in the sandy, over-triturated soil of times +historical, all dotted with date and number and sign, how exquisite +the relief in turning to the dear days outside history -- yet not so +very far off neither for us nurslings of the northern sun -- when +kindly beasts would loiter to give counsel by the wayside, and a +fortunate encounter with one of the Good People was a surer path to +Fortune and the Bride than the best-worn stool that ever proved +step-ladder to aspiring youth. For then the Fairy Wicket stood +everywhere ajar -- everywhere and to each and all. ``Open, open, +green hill!'' -- you needed no more recondite sesame than that: and, +whoever you were, you might have a glimpse of the elfin dancers in the +hall that is litten within by neither sun nor moon; or catch at the +white horse's bridle as the Fairy Prince rode through. It has been +closed now this many a year (the fairies, always strong in the field, +are excellent wicket-keepers); and if it open at all, 'tis but for a +moment's mockery of the material generation that so deliberately +turned its back on the gap into Elf-Land -- that first stage to the +Beyond. + +<p>It was a wanton trick, though, that these folk of malice used to play +on a small school-boy, new kicked out of his nest into the draughty, +uncomfortable outer world, his unfledged skin still craving the +feathers whereinto he was wont to nestle. The barrack-like school, the +arid, cheerless class-rooms, drove him to Nature for redress; and, +under an alien sky, he would go forth and wander along the iron road +by impassive fields, so like yet so unlike those hitherto a part of +him and responding to his every mood. And to him, thus loitering with +overladen heart, there would come suddenly a touch of warmth, of +strange surprise. The turn of the road just ahead -- that, sure, is not +all unfamiliar? That row of elms -- it cannot entirely be accident that +they range just <em> so?</em> And, if not accident, then round the bend +will come the old duck-pond, the shoulder of the barn will top it, a +few yards on will be the gate -- it swings-to with its familiar +click -- the dogs race down the avenue -- and then -- and then! It is +all wildly fanciful; and yet, though knowing not Tertullian, a <em> +``credo quia impossibile''</em> is on his tongue as he quickens his +pace -- for what else can he do? A step, and the spell is +shattered -- all is cruel and alien once more; while every copse and +hedge-row seems a-tinkle with faint elfish laughter. The Fairies have +had their joke: they have opened the wicket one of their own +hand's-breadths, and shut it in their victim's face. When next that +victim catches a fairy, he purposes to tie up the brat in sight of his +own green hill, and set him to draw up a practical scheme for Village +Councils. + +<p>One of the many women I ever really loved, fair in the fearless old +fashion, was used to sing, in the blithe, unfettered accent of the +people: ``I'd like to be a fairy, And dance upon my toes, I'd +like to be a fairy, And wear short close!'' And in later life it is to +her sex that the wee (but very wise) folk sometimes delegate their +power of torment. Such understudies are found to play the part +exceeding well; and many a time the infatuated youth believes he sees +in the depth of one sole pair of eyes -- blue, brown, or green (the +fairy colour) -- the authentic fairy wicket standing ajar: many a time +must he hear the quaint old formula, ``I'm sure, if I've ever +done anything to lead you to think,'' etc (runs it not so?), ere he +shall realise that here is the gate upon no magic pleasance but on a +cheap suburban villa, banging behind the wrathful rate-collector or +hurled open to speed the pallid householder to the Registrar's +Office. In still grosser habitations, too, they lurk, do the People of +Mischief, ready to frolic out on the unsuspecting one: as in the case, +which still haunts my memory, of a certain bottle of an historic +Château-Yquem, hued like Venetian glass, odorous as a garden in +June. Forth from out the faint perfume of this haunted drink there +danced a bevy from Old France, clad in the fashion of Louis-Quinze, +peach-coloured knots of ribbon bedizening apple-green velvets, as they +moved in stately wise among the roses of the old garden, to the quaint +music -- Rameau, was it? -- of a fairy <em> cornemuse,</em> while fairy +Watteaus, Fragonards, Lancrets, sat and painted them. Alas! too +shallow the bottle, too brief the brawls: not to be recalled by any +quantity of Green Chartreuse. + + +<p><strong>Aboard the Galley</strong> + + +<p>He was cruising in the Southern Seas (was the Ulysses who told +me this tale), when there bore down upon him a marvellous strange +fleet, whose like he had not before seen. For each little craft was a +corpse, stiffly ``marlined,'' or bound about with tarred rope, as +mariners do use to treat plug tobacco: also ballasted, and with a fair +mast and sail stepped through his midriff. These self-sufficing ships +knew no divided authority: no pilot ever took the helm from the +captain's hands; no mutines lay in bilboes, no passengers complained +of the provisions. In a certain island to windward (the native pilot +explained) it was the practice, when a man died, to bury him for the +time being in dry, desiccating sand, till a chief should pass from his +people, when the waiting bodies were brought out and, caulked and +rigged <em> secumdum artem,</em> were launched with the first fair breeze, +the admiral at their head, on their voyage to the Blessed Islands. And +if a chief should die, and the sand should hold no store of corpses +for his escort, this simple practical folk would solve the little +difficulty by knocking some dozen or twenty stout fellows on the head, +that the notable might voyage like a gentleman. Whence this gallant +little company, running before the breeze, stark, happy, and extinct, +all bound for the Isles of Light! 'Twas a sight to shame us sitters at +home, who believe in those Islands, most of us, even as they, yet are +content to trundle City-wards or to Margate, so long as the sorry +breath is in us; and, breathless at last, to Bow or Kensal Green; +without one effort, dead or alive, to reach the far-shining +Hesperides. + +<p>``Dans la galère, capitane, nous étions +quatre-vingt rameurs!'' sang the oarsmen in the ballad; and they, +though indeed they toiled on the galley-bench, were free and happy +pirates, members of an honoured and liberal profession. But all +we -- pirates, parsons, stockbrokers, whatever our calling -- are but +galley-slaves of the basest sort, fettered to the oar each for his +little spell. A common misery links us all, like the chain that runs +the length of the thwarts. Can <em> nothing</em> make it worth our while +not to quarrel with our fellows? The menace of the storms is for each +one and for all: the master's whip has a fine impartiality. Crack! +the lash that scored my comrade's back has flicked my withers too; yet +neither of us was shirking -- it was that grinning ruffian in +front. Well: to-morrow, God willing, the evasion shall be ours, while +he writhes howling. But why do we never once combine -- seize on the +ship, fling our masters into the sea, and steer for some pleasant isle +far down under the Line, beyond the still-vexed Bermoothes? When ho +for feasting! Hey for tobacco and free-quarters! But no: the days +pass, and are reckoned up, and done with; and ever more pressing cares +engage. Those fellows on the leeward benches are having an easier time +than we poor dogs on the weather side? Then, let us abuse, pelt, +vilify then: let us steal their grub, and have at them generally for a +set of shirking, malingering brutes! What matter that to-morrow they +may be to windward, we to lee? We never can look ahead. And they know +this well, the gods our masters, pliers of the whip. And mayhap we +like them none the worse for it. + +<p>Indeed, there is a traitor sort among ourselves, that spins facile +phrases in the honour of these whipmasters of ours -- as <em> +``omnes eodem cogimur,''</em> and the rest; which is all very pretty +and mighty consoling. The fact is, the poets are the only people who +score by the present arrangement; which it is therefore their interest +to maintain. While we are doing all the work, these incorrigible +skulkers lounge about and make ribald remarks; they write Greek +tragedies on Fate, on the sublimity of Suffering, on the Petty Span, +and so on; and act in a generally offensive way. And we are even weak +enough to buy their books; offer them drinks, peerages, and things; +and say what superlative fellows they are! But when the +long-looked-for combination comes, and we poor devils have risen and +abolished fate, destiny, the Olympian Council, early baldness, and the +like, these poets will really have to go. + +<p>And when every rhymester has walked the plank, shall we still put up +with our relations? True members of the ``stupid party,'' who +never believe in us, who know (and never forget) the follies of our +adolescence; who are always wanting us <em> not</em> to do things; who are +lavish of advice, yet angered by the faintest suggestion of a small +advance in cash: shall the idle singers perish and these endure? No: +as soon as the last poet has splashed over the side, to the sharks +with our relations! + +<p>The old barkey is lightening famously: who shall be next to go? The +Sportsman of intolerable yarns: who slays twice over -- first, his +game, and then the miserable being he button-holes for the tedious +recital. Shall we suffer <em> him</em> longer? Who else? Who is that +cowering under the bulwarks yonder? The man who thinks he can imitate +the Scottish accent! Splash! And the next one? What a crowd is here! +How they block the hatchways, lumber the deck, and get between you and +the purser's room -- these fadmongers, teetotallers, missionaries of +divers isms! Overboard with them, and hey for the Fortunate Isles! +Then for tobacco in a hammock 'twixt the palms! Then for wine cooled +in a brooklet losing itself in silver sands! Then for -- but O these +bilboes on our ankles, how mercilessly they grip! The vertical sun +blisters the bare back: faint echoes of Olympian laughter seem to +flicker like Northern Lights across the stark and pitiless sky. One +earnest effort would do it, my brothers! A little modesty, a short +sinking of private differences; and then we should all be free and +equal gentlemen of fortune, and I would be your Captain! ``Who? +you? you would make a pretty Captain!'' Better than you, you scurvy, +skulking, little galley-slave! ``Galley-slave yourself, and +be --- Pull together, boys, and lie low! Here's the Master coming with +his whip!'' + +<p><strong>The Lost Centaur</strong> + + +<p>It is somewhere set down (or does the legend only exist in the +great volume of ought-to-be-writ?) that the young Achilles, nurtured +from babyhood by the wise and kindly Cheiron, accustomed to reverence +an ideal of human skill and wisdom blent with all that was best and +noblest of animal instinct, strength and swiftness, found poor +humanity sadly to miss, when at last the was sent forth among his +pottering little two-legged peers. Himself alone he had hitherto +fancied to be the maimed one, the incomplete; he looked to find the +lords of earth even such as these Centaurs; wise and magnanimous atop: +below, shod with the lightning, winged with the wind, terrible in the +potentiality of the armed heel. Instead of which -- ! How fallen was +his first fair hope of the world! And even when reconciled at last to +the dynasty of the forked radish, after he had seen its quality tested +round the clangorous walls of Troy -- some touch of an imperial +disdain ever lingered in his mind for these feeble folk who could +contentedly hail him -- him, who had known Cheiron! -- as hero and +lord! + +<p>Achilles has passed, with the Centaurs and Troy; but the feeling +lingers. + +<p>Of strange and divers strands is twisted the mysterious cord that, +reaching back ``through spaces out of space and timeless time,'' +somewhere joins us to the Brute; a twine of mingled yarn, not utterly +base. As we grow from our animal infancy, and the threads snap one by +one at each gallant wing-stroke of a soul poising for flight into +Empyrean, we are yet conscious of a loss for every gain, we have some +forlorn sense of a vanished heritage. Willing enough are we to +``let the ape and tiger die''; but the pleasant cousins dissembled +in hide and fur and feather are not all tigers and apes: which last +vile folk, indeed, exist for us only in picture-books, and chiefly +offend by always carrying the Sunday School ensign of a Moral at their +tails. Others -- happily of less didactic dispositions -- there be; +and it is to these unaffected, careless companions that the sensible +child is wont to devote himself; leaving severely alone the stiff, +tame creatures claiming to be of closer kin. And yet these playmates, +while cheerfully admitting him of their fellowship, make him feel his +inferiority at every point. Vainly, his snub nose projected +earthwards, he essays to sniff it with the terrier who (as becomes the +nobler animal) is leading in the chase; and he is ready to weep as he +realises his loss. And the rest of the Free Company, -- the pony, the +cows, the great cart-horses, -- are ever shaming him by their +unboastful exercise of some enviable and unattainable attribute. Even +the friendly pig, who (did but parents permit) should eat of his bread +and drink of his cup, and be unto him as a brother, -- which among all +these unhappy bifurcations, so cheery, so unambitious, so purely +contented, so apt to be the guide, philosopher, and friend of boyhood +as he? What wonder that at times, when the neophyte in life begins to +realise that all these desirable accomplishments have had to be +surrendered one by one in the process of developing a Mind, the course +of fitting out a Lord of Creation, he is wont -- not knowing the +extent of the kingdom to which he is heir -- to feel a little +discontented? + +<p>Ere now this ill-humour, taking root in a nature wherein the animal is +already ascendant, has led by downward paths to the Goat-Foot, in whom +the submerged human system peeps out but fitfully, at exalted +moments. He, the peevish and irascible, shy of trodden ways and pretty +domesticities, is linked to us by little but his love of melody; but +for which saving grace, the hair would soon creep up from thigh to +horn of him. At times he will still do us a friendly turn: will lend a +helping hand to poor little Psyche, wilfully seeking her own +salvation; will stand shoulder to shoulder with us on Marathon +plain. But in the main his sympathies are first for the beast: to +which his horns are never horrific, but, with his hairy pelt, ever +natural and familiar, and his voice (with its talk of help and +healing) not harsh nor dissonant, but voice of very brother as well as +very god. + +<p>And this declension -- for declension it is, though we achieve all the +confidences of Melampus, and even master with him the pleasant <em> +argot</em> of the woods -- may still be ours if we suffer what lives in us +of our primal cousins to draw us down. On the other hand, let soul +inform and irradiate body as it may, the threads are utterly shorn +asunder never: nor is man, the complete, the self-contained, permitted +to cut himself wholly adrift from these his poor relations. The mute +and stunted human embryo that gazes appealingly from out the depths of +their eyes must ever remind him of a kinship once (possibly) +closer. Nay, at times, it must even seem to whelm him in reproach. As +thus: ``Was it really necessary, after all, that we two should +part company so early? May you not have taken a wrong turning +somewhere, in your long race after your so-called progress, after the +perfection of this be-lauded species of yours? A turning whose due +avoidance might perhaps have resulted in no such lamentable cleavage +as is here, but in some perfect embodiment of the dual nature: as who +should say a being with the nobilities of both of us, the basenesses +of neither? So might you, more fortunately guided, have been led at +last up the green sides of Pelion, to the ancestral, the primeval, +Centaur still waiting majestic on the summit!'' It is even so. Perhaps +this thing might once have been, O cousin outcast and estranged! But +the opportunity was long since lost. Henceforth, two ways for us for +ever! + +<p><strong>Orion</strong> + + +<p>The moonless night has a touch of frost, and is +steely-clear. High and dominant amidst the Populations of the Sky, the +restless and the steadfast alike, hangs the great Plough, lit with a +hard radiance as of the polished and shining share. And yonder, low on +the horizon, but half resurgent as yet, crouches the magnificent +hunter: watchful, seemingly, and expectant: with some hint of menace +in his port. + +<p>Yet should his game be up, you would think by now. Many a century has +passed since the plough first sped a conqueror east and west, clearing +forest and draining fen; policing the valleys with barbed-wires and +Sunday schools, with the chains that are forged of peace, the irking +fetters of plenty: driving also the whole lot of us, these to sweat at +its tail, those to plod with the patient team, but all to march in a +great chain-gang, the convicts of peace and order and law: while the +happy nomad, with his woodlands, his wild cattle, his pleasing +nuptialities, has long since disappeared, dropping only in his flight +some store of flint-heads, a legacy of confusion. Truly, we Children +of the Plough, but for yon tremendous Monitor in the sky, were in +right case to forget that the Hunter is still a quantity to reckon +withal. Where, then, does he hide, the Shaker of the Spear? Why, +here, my brother, and here; deep in the breasts of each and all of +us! And for this drop of primal quicksilver in the blood what poppy or +mandragora shall purge it hence away? + +<p>Of pulpiteers and parents it is called Original Sin: a term wherewith +they brand whatever frisks and butts with rude goatish horns against +accepted maxims and trim theories of education. In the abstract, of +course, this fitful stirring of the old yeast is no more sin than a +natural craving for a seat on a high stool, for the inscription -- now +horizontal, and now vertical -- of figures, is sin. But the deskmen +command a temporary majority: for the short while they shall hold the +cards they have the right to call the game. And so -- since we must +bow to the storm -- let the one thing be labelled Sin, and the other +Salvation -- for a season: ourselves forgetting never that it is all a +matter of nomenclature. What we have now first to note is that this +original Waft from the Garden asserts itself most vigorously in the +Child. This it is that thrusts the small boy out under the naked +heavens, to enact a sorry and shivering Crusoe on an islet in the +duck-pond. This it is that sends the little girl footing it after the +gipsy's van, oblivious of lessons, puddings, the embrace maternal, the +paternal smack; hearing naught save the faint, far bugle-summons to +the pre-historic little savage that thrills and answers in the +tingling blood of her; seeing only a troop of dusky, dull-eyed guides +along that shining highway to the dim land east o' the sun and west o' +the moon: where freedom is, and you can wander and breathe, and at +night tame street lamps there are none -- only the hunter's fires, and +the eyes of lions, and the mysterious stars. In later years it is +stifled and gagged -- buried deep, a green turf at the head of it, and +on its heart a stone; but it lives, it breathes, it lurks, it will up +and out when 'tis looked for least. That stockbroker, some brief +summers gone, who was missed from his wonted place one settling-day! a +goodly portly man, i' faith: and had a villa and a steam launch at +Surbiton: and was versed in the esoteric humours of the House. Who +could have thought that the Hunter lay hid in him? Yet, after many +weeks, they found him in a wild nook of Hampshire. Ragged, sun-burnt, +the nocturnal haystack calling aloud from his frayed and +weather-stained duds, his trousers tucked, he was tickling trout with +godless native urchins; and when they would have won him to himself +with honied whispers of American Rails, he answered but with babble of +green fields. He is back in his wonted corner now: quite cured, +apparently, and tractable. And yet -- let the sun shine too wantonly +in Throgmorton Street, let an errant zephyr, quick with the warm +South, fan but his cheek too wooingly on his way to the station; and +will he not once more snap his chain and away? Ay, truly: and next +time he will not be caught. + +<p>Deans have danced to the same wild piping, though their chapters have +hushed the matter up. Even Duchesses (they say) have ``come +tripping doon the stair,'' rapt by the climbing passion from their +strawberry-leaved surroundings into starlit spaces. Nay, ourselves, +too -- the douce, respectable mediocrities that we are -- which of us +but might recall some fearful outbreak whose details are mercifully +unknown to the household that calls us breadwinner and chief? What +marvel that up yonder the Hunter smiles? When he knows that every one +in his ken, the tinker with the statesman, has caught his bugle blast +and gone forth on its irresistible appeal! + +<p>Not that they are so easily followed as of yore, those flying echoes +of the horn! Joints are stiffer, maybe; certainly the desolate +suburbs creep ever farther into the retreating fields; and when you +reach the windy moorland, lo! it is all staked out into +building-lots. Mud is muddier now than heretofore; and ruts are +ruttier. And what friendless old beast comes limping down the dreary +lane? He seems sorely shrunk and shoulder-shotten; but by the +something of divinity in his look, still more than by the wings +despondent along his mighty sides, 'tis ever the old Pegasus -- not yet +the knacker's own. ``Hard times I've been having,'' he murmurs, as +you rub his nose. ``These fellows have really no seat except for +a park hack. As for this laurel, we were wont to await it trembling: +and in taking it we were afraid. Your English way of hunting it down +with yelpings and hallooings -- well, I may be out of date, but we +wouldn't have stood that sort of thing on Helicon.'' So he hobbles down +the road. Good night, old fellow! Out of date? Well, it may be +so. And alas! the blame is ours. + +<p>But for the Hunter -- there he rises -- couchant no more. Nay, flung +full stretch on the blue, he blazes, he dominates, he appals! Will his +turn, then, really come at last? After some Armageddon of cataclysmal +ruin, all levelling, whelming the County Councillor with the +Music-hall artiste, obliterating the very furrows of the Plough, shall +the skin-clad nomad string his bow once more, and once more loose the +whistling shaft? Wildly incredible it seems. And yet -- look up! Look +up and behold him confident, erect, majestic -- there on the threshold +of the sky! + +<hr> + +<p>A printed version of this book is available from <a +href="http://pagan_papers.sattre-press.com">Sattre Press</a>. It +includes a glossary of French and Latin phrases. + +<pre>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PAGAN PAPERS *** + +This file should be named pagan10h.htm or pagan10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, pagan11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, pagan10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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