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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7597.txt b/7597.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8a2b82 --- /dev/null +++ b/7597.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1532 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Caxtons, by Bulwer-Lytton, Part 12 +#26 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +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: The Caxtons, Part 12 + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: February 2005 [EBook #7597] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 7, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAXTONS, BY LYTTON, PART 12 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Pat Castevens +and David Widger + + + + + +PART XII. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +The Hegira is completed,--we have all taken roost in the old Tower. My +father's books have arrived by the wagon, and have settled themselves +quietly in their new abode,--filling up the apartment dedicated to their +owner, including the bed chamber and two lobbies. The duck also has +arrived, under wing of Mrs. Primmins, and has reconciled herself to the +old stewpond, by the side of which my father has found a walk that +compensates for the peach-wall, especially as he has made acquaintance +with sundry respectable carps, who permit him to feed them after he has +fed the duck,--a privilege of which (since, if any one else approaches, +the carps are off in an instant) my father is naturally vain. All +privileges are valuable in proportion to the exclusiveness of their +enjoyment. + +Now, from the moment the first carp had eaten the bread my father threw +to it, Mr. Caxton had mentally resolved that a race so confiding should +never be sacrificed to Ceres and Primmins. But all the fishes on my +uncle's property were under the special care of that Proteus Bolt; and +Bolt was not a man likely to suffer the carps to earn their bread +without contributing their full share to the wants of the community. +But, like master, like man! Bolt was an aristocrat fit to be hung a la +lanterne. He out-Rolanded Roland in the respect he entertained for +sounding names and old families; and by that bait my father caught him +with such skill that you might see that if Austin Caxton had been an +angler of fishes, he could have filled his basket full any day, shine or +rain. + +"You observe, Bolt," said my father, beginning artfully, "that those +fishes, dull as you may think them; are creatures capable of a +syllogism; and if they saw that, in proportion to their civility to me, +they were depopulated by you, they would put two and two together, and +renounce my acquaintance." + +"Is that what you call being silly Jems, sir?" said Bolt. "Faith! there +is many a good Christian not half so wise." + +"Man," answered my father, thoughtfully, "is an animal less +syllogistical or more silly-Jemical, than many creatures popularly +esteemed his inferiors. Yes, let but one of those Cyprinidae, with his +fine sense of logic, see that if his fellow-fishes eat bread, they, are +suddenly jerked out of their element and vanish forever, and though you +broke a quartern loaf into crumbs, he would snap his tail at you with +enlightened contempt. If," said my father, soliloquizing, "I had been +as syllogistic as those scaly logicians, I should never have swallowed +that hook which--Hum! there--least said soonest mended. But, Mr. Bolt, +to return to the Cyprinidae." + +"What's the hard name you call them 'ere carp, yer honor?" asked Bolt. + +"Cyprinidae,--a family of the section Malacoptergii Abdominales," +replied Mr. Caxton; "their teeth are generally confined to the +Pharyngeans, and their branehiostegous rays are but few,--marks of +distinction from fishes vulgar and voracious." + +"Sir," said Bolt, glancing to the stewpond, "if I had known they had +been a family of such importance, I am sure I should have treated them +with more respect." + +"They are a very old family, Bolt, and have been settled in England +since the fourteenth century. A younger branch of the family has +established itself in a pond in the gardens of Peterhoff (the celebrated +palace of Peter the Great, Bolt,--an emperor highly respected by my +brother, for he killed a great many people very gloriously in battle, +besides those whom he sabred for his own private amusement); and there +is an officer or servant of the Imperial household, whose task it is to +summon those Russian Cyprinidae to dinner, by ringing a bell, shortly +after which, you may see the emperor and empress, with all their waiting +ladies and gentlemen, coming down in their carriages to see the +Cyprinidae eat in state. So you perceive, Bolt, that it would be a +republican, Jacobinical proceeding to stew members of a family so +intimately associated with royalty." + +"Dear me, sir," said Bolt, "I am very glad you told me. I ought to have +known they were genteel fish, they are so mighty shy,--as all your real +quality are." + +My father smiled, and rubbed his hands gently,--he had carried his +point; and henceforth the Cyprinidae of the section Malacoptergii +Abdominales were as sacred in Bolt's eyes as cats and ichneumons were in +those of a priest in Thebes. + +My poor father, with what true and unostentatious philosophy thou didst +accommodate thyself to the greatest change thy quiet, harmless life had +known since it had passed out of the brief, burning cycle of the +passions! Lost was the home endeared to thee by so many noiseless +victories of the mind, so many mute histories of the heart; for only the +scholar knoweth how deep a charm lies in monotony, in the old +associations, the old ways and habitual clockwork of peaceful time. Yet +the home may be replaced,--thy heart built its home round itself +everywhere,--and the old Tower might supply the loss of the brick house, +and the walk by the stewpond become as dear as the haunts by the sunny +peach-wall. But what shall replace to thee the bright dream of thine +innocent ambition,--that angel-wing which had glittered across thy +manhood, in the hour between its noon and its setting What replace to +thee the Magnum Opus--the Great Book!--fair and broad-spreading tree, +lone amidst the sameness of the landscape, now plucked up by the roots? +The oxygen was subtracted from the air of thy life. For be it known to +you, O my compassionate readers, that with the death of the Anti- +Publisher Society the blood-streams of the Great Book stood still, its +pulse was arrested, its full heart beat no more. Three thousand copies +of the first seven sheets in quarto, with sundry unfinished plates, +anatomical, architectural, and graphic, depicting various developments +of the human skull (that temple of Human Error), from the Hottentot to +the Greek; sketches of ancient buildings, Cyclopean and Pelasgic; +Pyramids and Pur-tors, all signs of races whose handwriting was on their +walls; landscapes to display the influence of Nature upon the customs, +creeds, and philosophy of men,--here showing how the broad Chaldean +wastes led to the contemplation of the stars; and illustrations of the +Zodiac, in elucidation of the mysteries of symbol-worship; fantastic +vagaries of earth fresh from the Deluge, tending to impress on early +superstition the awful sense of the rude powers of Nature; views of the +rocky defiles of Laconia,--Sparta, neighbored by the "silent Amyclae," +explaining, as it were, geographically the iron customs of the warrior +colony (arch-Tories, amidst the shift and roar of Hellenic democracies), +contrasted by the seas and coasts and creeks of Athens and Ionia, +tempting to adventure, commerce, and change. Yea, my father, in his +suggestions to the artist of those few imperfect plates, had thrown as +much light on the infancy of earth and its tribes as by the "shining +words" that flowed from his calm, starry knowledge! Plates and copies, +all rested now in peace and dust, "housed with darkness and with death," +on the sepulchral shelves of the lobby to which they were consigned,-- +rays intercepted, world incompleted. The Prometheus was bound, and the +fire he had stolen from heaven lay imbedded in the flints of his rock. +For so costly was the mould in which Uncle Jack and the Anti-Publisher +Society had contrived to cast this exposition of Human Error that every +bookseller shied at its very sight, as an owl blinks at daylight, or +human error at truth. In vain Squills and I, before we left London, had +carried a gigantic specimen of the Magnum Opus into the back parlors of +firms the most opulent and adventurous. Publisher after publisher +started, as if we had held a blunderbuss to his ear. All Paternoster +Row uttered a "Lord deliver us!" Human Error found no man so +egregiously its victim as to complete those two quartos, with the +prospect of two others, at his own expense. Now, I had earnestly hoped +that my father, for the sake of mankind, would be persuaded to risk some +portion--and that, I own, not a small one--of his remaining capital on +the conclusion of an undertaking so elaborately begun. But there my +father was obdurate. No big words about mankind, and the advantage to +unborn generations, could stir him an inch. "Stuff!" said Mr. Caxton, +peevishly. "A man's duties to mankind and posterity begin with his own +son; and having wasted half your patrimony, I will not take another huge +slice out of the poor remainder to gratify my vanity, for that is the +plain truth of it. Man must atone for sin by expiation. By the book I +have sinned, and the book must expiate it. Pile the sheets up in the +lobby, so that at least one man may be wiser and humbler by the sight of +Human Error every time he walks by so stupendous a monument of it." + +Verily, I know not how my father could bear to look at those dumb +fragments of himself,--strata of the Caxtonian conformation lying layer +upon layer, as if packed up and disposed for the inquisitive genius of +some moral Murchison or Mantell. But for my part, I never glanced at +their repose in the dark lobby without thinking, "Courage, Pisistratus! +courage! There's something worth living for; work hard, grow rich, and +the Great Book shall come out at last!" + +Meanwhile, I wandered over the country and made acquaintance with the +farmers and with Trevanion's steward,--an able man and a great +agriculturist,--and I learned from them a better notion of the nature of +my uncle's domains. Those domains covered an immense acreage, which, +save a small farm, was of no value at present. But land of the same +sort had been lately redeemed by a simple kind of draining, now well +known in Cumberland; and, with capital, Roland's barren moors might +become a noble property. But capital, where was that to come from? +Nature gives us all, except the means to turn her into marketable +account. As old Plautus saith so wittily, "Day, night, water, sun, and +moon, are to be had gratis; for everything else--down with your dust!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Nothing has been heard of Uncle Jack. Before we left the brick house +the Captain gave him an invitation to the Tower,--more, I suspect, out +of compliment to my mother than from the unbidden impulse of his own +inclinations. But Mr. Tibbets politely declined it. During his stay at +the brick house he had received and written a vast number of letters,-- +some of those he received, indeed, were left at the village post-office, +under the alphabetical addresses of A. B. or X. Y.; for no misfortune +ever paralyzed the energies of Uncle Jack. In the winter of adversity +he vanished, it is true; but even in vanishing, he vegetated still. He +resembled those algae, termed the Prolococcus nivales, which give a +rose-color to the Polar snows that conceal them, and flourish +unsuspected amidst the general dissolution of Nature. Uncle Jack, then, +was as lively and sanguine as ever; though he began to let fall vague +hints of intentions to abandon the general cause of his fellow- +creatures, and to set up business henceforth purely on his own account, +--wherewith my father, to the great shock of my belief in his +philanthropy, expressed himself much pleased. And I strongly suspect +that when Uncle Jack wrapped himself up in his new double Saxony and +went off at last, he carried with him something more than my father's +good wishes in aid of his conversion to egotistical philosophy. + +"That man will do yet," said my father, as the last glimpse was caught +of Uncle Jack standing up on the stage-coach box, beside the driver, +partly to wave his hand to us as we stood at the gate, and partly to +array himself more commodiously in a box-coat with six capes, which the +coachman had lent him. + +"Do you think so, sir?" said I, doubtfully. "May I ask why?" + +Mr. Caxton.--"On the cat principle,--that he tumbles so lightly. You +may throw him down from St. Paul's, and the next time you see him he +will be scrambling atop of the Monument." + +Pisistratus.--"But a cat the most vicarious is limited to nine lives; +and Uncle Jack must be now far gone in his eighth." + +Ms. Caxton (not heeding that answer, for he has got his hand in his +waistcoat).--"The earth, according to Apuleius, in his 'Treatise on the +Philosophy of Plato,' was produced from right-angled triangles; but fire +and air from the scalene triangle,--the angles of which, I need not say, +are very different from those of a right-angled triangle. Now I think +there are people in the world of whom one can only judge rightly +according to those mathematical principles applied to their original +construction: for if air or fire predominates in our natures, we are +scalene triangles; if earth, right-angled. Now, as air is so notably +manifested in Jack's conformation, he is, nolens volens, produced in +conformity with his preponderating element. He is a scalene triangle, +and must be judged, accordingly, upon irregular, lop-sided principles; +whereas you and I, common-place mortals, are produced, like the earth, +which is our preponderating element, with our triangles all right- +angled, comfortable and complete,--for which blessing let us thank +Providence, and be charitable to those who are necessarily windy and +gaseous, from that unlucky scalene triangle upon which they have had the +misfortune to be constructed, and which, you perceive, is quite at +variance with the mathematical constitution of the earth!" + +Pisistratus.--"Sir, I am very happy to hear so simple, easy, and +intelligible an explanation of Uncle Jack's peculiarities; and I only +hope that, for the future, the sides of his scalene triangle may never +be produced to our rectangular conformations." + +Mr. Caxton (descending from his stilts with an air as mildly reproachful +as if I had been cavilling at the virtues of Socrates).--"You don't do +your uncle justice, Pisistratus,--he is a very clever man; and I am sure +that, in spite of his scalene misfortune, he would be an honest one,-- +that is [added Mr. Caxton, correcting himself], not romantically or +heroically honest, but holiest as men go,--if he could but keep his head +long enough above water; but, you see, when the best man in the world is +engaged in the process of sinking, he catches hold of whatever comes in +his way, and drowns the very friend who is swimming to save him." + +Pisistratus.--"Perfectly true, sir; but Uncle Jack makes it his business +to be always sinking!" + +Mr. Caxton (with naivete).--"And how could it be otherwise, when he has +been carrying all his fellow-creatures in his breeches' pockets? Now he +has got rid of that dead weight, I should not be surprised if he swam +like a cork." + +Pisistratus (who, since the "Capitalist," has become a strong Anti- +Jackian). "But if, sir, you really think Uncle Jack's love for his +fellow-creatures is genuine, that is surely not the worst part of him." + +Mr. Caxton.--"O literal ratiocinator, and dull to the true logic of +Attic irony! can't you comprehend that an affection may be genuine as +felt by the man, yet its nature be spurious in relation to others? A +man may generally believe he loves his fellow-creatures when he roasts +them like Torquemada, or guillotines them like St. Just! Happily Jack's +scalene triangle, being more produced from air than from fire, does not +give to his philanthropy the inflammatory character which distinguishes +the benevolence of inquisitors and revolutionists. The philanthropy, +therefore, takes a more flatulent and innocent form, and expends its +strength in mounting paper balloons, out of which Jack pitches himself, +with all the fellow-creatures he can coax into sailing with him. No +doubt Uncle Jack's philanthropy is sincere when he cuts the string and +soars up out of sight; but the sincerity will not much mend their +bruises when himself and fellow-creatures come tumbling down neck and +heels. It must be a very wide heart that can take in all mankind,--and +of a very strong fibre to bear so much stretching. Such hearts there +are, Heaven be thanked! and all praise to them. Jack's is not of that +quality. He is a scalene triangle. He is not a circle! And yet, if he +would but let it rest, it is a good heart,--a very good heart [continued +my father, warming into a tenderness quite infantine, all things +considered]. Poor Jack! that was prettily said of him--'That if he were +a dog, and he had no home but a dog kennel, he would turn out to give me +the best of the straw!' Poor brother Jack!" + +So the discussion was dropped; and in the mean while, Uncle Jack, like +the short-faced gentleman in the "Spectator," "distinguished himself by +a profound silence." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Blanche has contrived to associate herself, if not with my more active +diversions,--in running over the country and making friends with the +farmers,--still in all my more leisurely and domestic pursuits. There +is about her a silent charm that it is very hard to define; but it seems +to arise from a kind of innate sympathy with the moods and humors of +those she loves. If one is gay, there is a cheerful ring in her silver +laugh that seems gladness itself; if one is sad, and creeps away into a +corner to bury one's head in one's hand and muse, by and by, and just at +the right moment, when one has mused one's fill, and the heart wants +something to refresh and restore it, one feels two innocent arms round +one's neck, looks up, and lo! Blanche's soft eyes, full of wistful, +compassionate kindness, though she has the tact not to question; it is +enough for her to sorrow with your sorrow,--she cares not to know more. +A strange child,--fearless, and yet seemingly fond of things that +inspire children with fear; fond of tales of fay, sprite, and ghost, +which Mrs. Primmins draws fresh and new from her memory as a conjurer +draws pancakes hot and hot from a hat. And yet so sure is Blanche of +her own innocence that they never trouble her dreams in her lone little +room, full of caliginous corners and nooks, with the winds moaning round +the desolate ruins, and the casements rattling hoarse in the dungeon- +like wall. She would have no dread to walk through the ghostly keep in +the dark, or cross the church-yard what time,-- + + "By the moon's doubtful and malignant light,"-- + +the gravestones look so spectral, and the shade from the yew-trees lies +so still on the sward. When the brows of Roland are gloomiest, and the +compression of his lips makes sorrow look sternest, be sure that Blanche +is couched at his feet, waiting the moment when, with some heavy sigh, +the muscles relax, and she is sure of the smile if she climbs to his +knee. It is pretty to chance on her gliding up broken turret-stairs, or +standing hushed in the recess of shattered casements; and you wonder +what thoughts of vague awe and solemn pleasure can be at work under that +still, little brow. + +She has a quick comprehension of all that is taught to her; she already +tasks to the full my mother's educational arts. My father has had to +rummage his library for books to feed (or extinguish) her desire for +"further information," and has promised lessons in French and Italian-- +at some golden time in the shadowy "By and by"--which are received so +gratefully that one might think Blanche mistook "Telema que" and +"Novelle Morali" for baby-houses and dolls. Heaven send her through +French and Italian with better success than attended Mr. Caxton's +lessons in Greek to Pisistratus! She has an ear for music which my +mother, who is no bad judge, declares to be exquisite. Luckily there is +an old Italian, settled in a town ten miles off, who is said to be an +excellent music-master, and who comes the round of the neighboring +squirearchy twice a week. I have taught her to draw,--an accomplishment +in which I am not without skill,--and she has already taken a sketch +from nature, which, barring the perspective, is not so amiss; indeed, +she has caught the notion of "idealizing" (which promises future +originality) from her own natural instincts, and given to the old witch- +elm, that hangs over the stream, just the bough that it wanted to dip +into the water and soften off the hard lines. My only fear is that +Blanche should become too dreamy and thoughtful. + +Poor child, she has no one to play with! So I look out, and get her a +dog, frisky and young, who abhors sedentary occupations,--a spaniel, +small, and coal-black, with ears sweeping the ground. I baptize him +"Juba," in honor of Addison's "Cato," and in consideration of his sable +curls and Mauritanian complexion. Blanche does not seem so eerie and +elf-like while gliding through the ruins when Juba barks by her side and +scares the birds from the ivy. + +One day I had been pacing to and fro the hall, which was deserted; and +the sight of the armor and portraits--dumb evidences of the active and +adventurous lives of the old inhabitants, which seemed to reprove my own +inactive obscurity--had set me off on one of those Pegasean hobbies on +which youth mounts to the skies,--delivering maidens on rocks, and +killing Gorgons and monsters,--when Juba bounded in, and Blanche came +after him, her straw hat in her hand. + +Blanche. "I thought you were here, Sisty: may I stay?" + +Pisistratus.--"Why, my dear child, the day is so fine that instead of +losing it indoors, you ought to be running in the fields with Juba." + +Juba.--"Bow-wow." + +Blanche.--"Will you come too? If Sisty stays in, Blanche does not care +for the butterflies!" + +Pisistratus, seeing that the thread of his day-dreams is broken, +consents with an air of resignation. Just as they gain the door, +Blanche pauses, and looks as if there were something on her mind. + +Pisistratus--"What now, Blanche? Why are you making knots in that +ribbon, and writing invisible characters on the floor with the point of +that busy little foot?" + +Blanche (mysteriously).--"I have found a new room, Sisty. Do you think +we may look into it?" + +Pisistratus--"Certainly; unless any Bluebeard of your acquaintance told +you not. Where is it?" + +Blanche.--"Upstairs, to the left." + +Pisistratus.--"That little old door, going down two stone steps, which +is always kept locked?" + +Blanche.--"Yes; it is not locked to-day. The door was ajar, and I +peeped in; but I would not do more till I came and asked you if you +thought it would not be wrong." + +Pisistratus.--"Very good in you, my discreet little cousin. I have no +doubt it is a ghost-trap; however, with Juba's protection, I think we +might venture together." + +Pisistratus, Blanche, and Juba ascend the stairs, and turn off down a +dark passage to the left, away from the rooms in use. We reach the +arch-pointed door of oak planks nailed roughly together, we push it +open, and perceive that a small stair winds down from the room,--it is +just over Roland's chamber. + +The room has a damp smell, and has probably been left open to be aired; +for the wind comes through the unbarred casement, and a billet barns on +the Hearth. The place has that attractive, fascinating air which +belongs to a lumber-room,--than which I know nothing that so captivates +the interest and fancy of young people. What treasures, to them, often +lie hid in those quaint odds and ends which the elder generations have +discarded as rubbish! All children are by nature antiquarians and +relic-hunters. Still, there is an order and precision with which the +articles in that room are stowed away that belies the true notion of +lumber,--none of the mildew and dust which give such mournful interest +to things abandoned to decay. + +In one corner are piled up cases and military-looking trunks of +outlandish aspect, with R. D. C. in brass nails on their sides. From +these we turn with involuntary respect and call off Juba, who has wedged +himself behind in pursuit of some imaginary mouse. But in the other +corner is what seems to me a child's cradle,--not an English one, +evidently; it is of wood, seemingly Spanish rosewood, with a railwork at +the back, of twisted columns; and I should scarcely have known it to be +a cradle but for the fairy-like quilt and the tiny pillows, which +proclaimed its uses. + +On the wall above the cradle were arranged sundry little articles that +had, perhaps, once made the joy of a child's heart,--broken toys with +the paint rubbed off, a tin sword and trumpet, and a few tattered books, +mostly in Spanish; by their shape and look, doubtless children's books. +Near these stood, on the floor, a picture with its face to the wall. +Juba had chased the mouse, that his fancy still insisted on creating, +behind this picture, and as he abruptly drew back, the picture fell into +the hands I stretched forth to receive it. I turned the face to the +light, and was surprised to see merely an old family portrait; it was +that of a gentleman in the flowered vest mid stiff ruff which referred +the date of his existence to the reign of Elizabeth,--a man with a bold +and noble countenance. On the corner was placed a faded coat of arms, +beneath which was inscribed, "Herbert De Caxton, Eq: Aur: AEtat: 35." + +On the back of the canvas I observed, as I now replaced the picture +against the wall, a label in Roland's handwriting, though in a younger +and more running hand than he now wrote. The words were these "The best +and bravest of our line, He charged by Sidney's side on the field of +Zutphen; he fought in Drake's ship against the armament of Spain. If +ever I have a--" The rest of the label seemed to have been torn off. + +I turned away, and felt a remorseful shame that I had so far gratified +my curiosity,--if by so harsh a name the powerful interest that had +absorbed me must be called. I looked round for Blanche; she had +retreated from my side to the door, and, with her hands before her eyes, +was weeping. As I stole towards her, my glance fell on a book that lay +on a chair near the casement and beside those relics of an infancy once +pure and serene. By the old-fashioned silver clasps I recognized +Roland's Bible. I felt as if I had been almost guilty of profanation in +my thoughtless intrusion. I drew away Blanche, and we descended the +stairs noiselessly; and not till we were on our favorite spot, amidst a +heap of ruins on the feudal justice-hill, did I seek to kiss away her +tears and ask the cause. + +"My poor brother!" sobbed Blanche, "they must have been his,--and we +shall never, never see him again!--and poor papa's Bible, which he reads +when he is very, very sad! I did not weep enough when my brother died. +I know better what death is now! Poor papa! poor papa! Don't die, too, +Sisty!" + +There was no running after butterflies that morning; and it was long +before I could soothe Blanche. Indeed, she bore the traces of dejection +in her soft looks for many, many days; and she often asked me, +sighingly, "Don't you think it was very wrong in me to take you there?" +Poor little Blanche, true daughter of Eve, she would not let me bear my +due share of the blame; she would have it all, in Adam's primitive way +of justice,--"The woman tempted me, and I did eat." And since then +Blanche has seemed more fond than ever of Roland, and comparatively +deserts me to nestle close to him, and closer, till he looks up and +says, "My child, you are pale; go and run after the butterflies;" and +she says now to him, not to me, "Come too!" drawing him out into the +sunshine with a hand that will not loose its hold. + +Of all Roland's line, this Herbert de Caxton was "the best and bravest!" +yet he had never named that ancestor to me,--never put any forefather in +comparison with the dubious and mythical Sir William. I now remembered +once that, in going over the pedigree, I had been struck by the name of +Herbert,--the only Herbert in the scroll,--and had asked, "What of him, +uncle?" and Roland had muttered something inaudible, and turned away. +And I remembered also that in Roland's room there was the mark on the +wall where a picture of that size had once hung. The picture had been +removed thence before we first came, but must have hung there for years +to have left that mark on the wall,--perhaps suspended by Bolt during +Roland's long Continental absence. "If ever I have a--" What were the +missing words? Alas! did they not relate to the son,--missed forever, +evidently not forgotten still? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +My uncle sat on one side the fireplace, my mother on the other; and I, +at a small table between them, prepared to note down the results of +their conference; for they had met in high council, to assess their +joint fortunes,--determine what should be brought into the common stock +and set apart for the Civil List, and what should be laid aside as a +Sinking Fund. Now my mother, true woman as she was, had a womanly love +of show in her own quiet way,--of making "a genteel figure" in the eyes +of the neighborhood; of seeing that sixpence not only went as far as +sixpence ought to go, but that, in the going, it should emit a mild but +imposing splendor,--not, indeed, a gaudy flash, a startling Borealian +coruscation, which is scarcely within the modest and placid +idiosyncracies of sixpence,--but a gleam of gentle and benign light, +just to show where a sixpence had been, and allow you time to say +"Behold!" before + + "The jaws of darkness did devour it up." + +Thus, as I once before took occasion to apprise the reader, we had +always held a very respectable position in the neighborhood round our +square brick house; been as sociable as my father's habits would permit; +given our little tea-parties, and our occasional dinners, and, without +attempting to vie with our richer associates, there had always been so +exquisite a neatness, so notable a housekeeping, so thoughtful a +disposition, in short, of all the properties indigenous to a well-spent +sixpence, in my mother's management, that there was not an old maid +within seven miles of us who did not pronounce our tea-parties to be +perfect; and the great Mrs. Rollick, who gave forty guineas a year to a +professed cook and housekeeper, used regularly, whenever we dined at +Rollick Hall, to call across the table to my mother (who therewith +blushed up to her ears) to apologize for the strawberry jelly. It is +true that when, on returning home, my mother adverted to that flattering +and delicate compliment, in a tone that revealed the self-conceit of the +human heart, my father--whether to sober his Kitty's vanity into a +proper and Christian mortification of spirit, or from that strange +shrewd ness which belonged to him--would remark that Mrs. Rollick was of +a querulous nature; that the compliment was meant, not to please my +mother, but to spite the professed cook and housekeeper, to whom the +butler would be sure to repeat the invidious apology. + +In settling at the Tower, and assuming the head of its establishment, my +mother was naturally anxious that, poor battered invalid though the +Tower was, it should still put its best leg foremost. Sundry cards, +despite the thinness of the neighborhood, had been left at the door; +various invitations, which my uncle had hitherto declined, had greeted +his occupation of the ancestral ruin, and had become more numerous since +the news of our arrival had gone abroad; so that my mother saw before +her a very suitable field for her hospitable accomplishments,--a +reasonable ground for her ambition that the Tower should hold up its +head as became a Tower that held the head of the family. + +But not to wrong thee, O dear mother! as thou sittest there, opposite +the grim Captain, so fair and so neat,--with thine apron as white, and +thy hair as trim and as sheen, and thy morning cap, with its ribbons of +blue, as coquettishly arranged as if thou hadst a fear that the least +negligence on thy part might lose thee the heart of thine Austin,--not +to wrong thee by setting down to frivolous motives alone thy feminine +visions of the social amenities of life, I know that thine heart, in its +provident tenderness, was quite as much interested as ever thy vanities +could be, in the hospitable thoughts on which thou wert intent. For, +first and foremost, it was the wish of thy soul that thine Austin might, +as little as possible, be reminded of the change in his fortunes,--might +miss as little as possible those interruptions to his abstracted +scholarly moods at which, it is true, he used to fret and to pshaw and +to cry Papa! but which nevertheless always did him good, and freshened +up the stream of his thoughts. And, next, it was the conviction of +thine understanding that a little society and boon companionship, and +the proud pleasure of showing his ruins and presiding at the hall of his +forefathers, would take Roland out of those gloomy reveries into which +he still fell at times. And, thirdly, for us young people, ought not +Blanche to find companions in children of her own sex and age? Already +in those large black eyes there was something melancholy and brooding, +as there is in the eyes of all children who live only with their elders. +And for Pisistratus, with his altered prospects, and the one great +gnawing memory at his heart,--which he tried to conceal from himself, +but which a mother (and a mother who had loved) saw at a glance,--what +could be better than such union and interchange with the world around +us, small though that world might be, as woman, sweet binder and blender +of all social links, might artfully effect? So that thou didst not go, +like the awful Florentine,-- + + "Sopra for vanita che par persona,"-- + +"over thin shadows that mocked the substance of real forms," but rather +it was the real forms that appeared as shadows, or vanita. + +What a digression! Can I never tell my story in a plain, +straightforward way? Certainly I was born under Cancer, and all my +movements are circumlocutory, sideways, and crab-like. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"I think, Roland," said my mother, "that the establishment is settled,-- +Bolt, who is equal to three men at least; Primmins, cook and +housekeeper; Molly, a good, stirring girl, and willing (though I've had +some difficulty in persuading her to submit not to be called Anna +Maria). Their wages are but a small item, my clear Roland." + +"Hem!" said Roland; "since we can't do with fewer servants at less +wages, I suppose we must call it small." + +"It is so," said my mother, with mild positiveness. "And indeed, what +with the game and fish, and the garden and poultry-yard, and your own +mutton, our housekeeping will be next to nothing," + +"Hem!" again said the thrifty Roland, with a slight inflection of the +beetle brows. "It may be next to nothing, ma'am,--sister,--just as a +butcher's shop may be next to Northumberland House; but there is a vast +deal between nothing and that next neighbor you have given it." + +This speech was so like one of my father's--so naive an imitation of +that subtle reasoner's use of the rhetorical figure called Antanaclasis +(or repetition of the same words in a different sense)--that I laughed +and my mother smiled. But she smiled reverently, not thinking of the +Antanaclasis, as, laying her hand on Roland's arm, she replied in the +yet more formidable figure of speech called Epiphonema (or exclamation), +"Yet, with all your economy, you would have had us--" + +"Tut!" cried my uncle, parrying the Epiphonema with a masterly +Aposiopesis (or breaking off); "tut! if you had done what I wished, I +should have had more pleasure for my money!" + +My poor mother's rhetorical armory supplied no weapon to meet that +artful Aposiopesis; so she dropped the rhetoric altogether, and went on +with that "unadorned eloquence" natural to her, as to other great +financial reformers: "Well, Roland, but I am a good housewife, I assure +you, and--Don't scold; but that you never do;--I mean, don't look as if +you would like to scold. The fact is, that even after setting aside +L100 a year for our little parties--" + +"Little parties!--a hundred a year!" cried the Captain, aghast. + +My mother pursued her way remorselessly,--"which we can well afford; and +without counting your half-pay, which you must keep for pocket-money and +your wardrobe and Blanche's,--I calculate that we can allow Pisistratus +L150 a year, which, with the scholarship he is to get, will keep him at +Cambridge" (at that, seeing the scholarship was as yet amidst the +Pleasures of Hope, I shook my head doubtfully), "and," continued my +mother, not heeding that sign of dissent, "we shall still have something +to lay by." + +The Captain's face assumed a ludicrous expression of compassion and +horror; he evidently thought my mother's misfortunes had turned her +head. + +His tormentor continued. + +"For," said my mother, with a pretty calculating shake of her head, and +a movement of the right forefinger towards the five fingers of the left +hand, "L370,--the interest of Austin's fortune,--and L50 that we may +reckon for the rent of our house, make L420 a year. Add your L330 a +year from the farm, sheep-walk, and cottages that you let, and the total +is L750. Now, with all we get for nothing for our housekeeping, as I +said before, we can do very well with L500 a year, and indeed make a +handsome figure. So, after allowing Sisty L150, we still have L100 to +lay by for Blanche." + +"Stop, stop, stop!" cried the Captain in great agitation; "who told you +that I had L330 a year?" + +"Why, Bolt,--don't be angry with him." + +"Bolt is a blockhead. From L330 a year take L200, and the remainder is +all my income, besides my half-pay." + +My mother opened her eyes, and so did I. + +"To that L130 add, if you please, L130 of your own. All that you have +over, my dear sister, is yours or Austin's, or your boy's; but not a +shilling can go to give luxuries to a miserly, battered old soldier. Do +you understand me?" + +"No, Roland," said my mother; "I don't understand you at all. Does not +your property bring in L330 a year?" + +"Yes, but it has a debt of L200 a year on it," said the Captain, +gloomily and reluctantly. + +"Oh, Roland!" cried my mother tenderly, and approaching so near that, +had my father been in the room, I am sure she would have been bold +enough to kiss the stern Captain, though I never saw him look sterner +and less kissable. "Oh, Roland!" cried my mother, concluding that +famous Epiphonema which my uncle's Aposiopesis had before nipped in the +bud, "and yet you would have made us, who are twice as rich, rob you of +this little all!" + +"Ah!" said Roland, trying to smile, "but I should have had my own way +then, and starved you shockingly. No talk then of 'little parties' and +such like. But you must not now turn the tables against me, nor bring +your L420 a year as a set-off to my L130." + +"Why," said my mother generously, "you forget the money's worth that you +contribute,--all that your grounds supply, and all that we save by it. +I am sure that that's worth a yearly L300 at the least." + +"Madam,--sister," said the Captain, "I'm sure you don't want to hurt my +feelings. All I have to say is, that if you add to what I bring an +equal sum,--to keep up the poor old ruin,--it is the utmost that I can +allow, and the rest is not more than Pisistratus can spend." + +So saying, the Captain rose, bowed, and before either of us could stop +him, hobbled out of the room. + +"Dear me, Sisty!" said my mother, wringing her hands; "I have certainly +displeased him. How could I guess he had so large a debt on the +property?" + +"Did not he pay his son's debts? Is not that the reason that--" + +"Ah!" interrupted my mother, almost crying, "and it was that which +ruffled him; and I not to guess it! What shall I do?" + +"Set to work at a new calculation, dear mother, and let him have his own +way." + +"But then," said my mother, "your uncle will mope himself to death, and +your father will have no relaxation, while you see that he has lost his +former object in his books. And Blanche--and you too. If we were only +to contribute what dear Roland does, I do not see how, with L260 a year, +we could ever bring our neighbors round us! I wonder what Austin would +say! I have half a mind--No, I'll go and look over the week-books with +Primmins." + +My mother went her way sorrowfully, and I was left alone. + +Then I looked on the stately old hall, grand in its forlorn decay. And +the dreams I had begun to cherish at my heart swept over me, and hurried +me along, far, far away into the golden land whither Hope beckons youth. +To restore my father's fortunes; re-weave the links of that broken +ambition which had knit his genius with the world; rebuild those fallen +walls; cultivate those barren moors; revive the ancient name; glad the +old soldier's age; and be to both the brothers what Roland had lost,--a +son: these were my dreams; and when I woke from them, to! they had left +behind an intense purpose, a resolute object. Dream, O youth! dream +manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Letter From Pisistratus Caxton TO Albert Trevanion, Esq., M.P. + +(The confession of a youth who in the Old World finds himself one too +many.) + + My Dear Mr. Trevanion,--I thank you cordially, and so we do all, + for your reply to my letter informing you of the villanous traps + through which we have passed,--not indeed with whole skins, but + still whole in life and limb,--which, considering that the traps + were three, and the teeth sharp, was more than we could reasonably + expect. We have taken to the wastes, like wise foxes as we are, + and I do not think a bait can be found that will again snare the + fox paternal. As for the fox filial it is different, and I am + about to prove to you that he is burning to redeem the family + disgrace. Ah! my dear Mr. Trevanion, if you are busy with "blue- + books" when this letter reaches you, stop here, and put it aside + for some rare moment of leisure. I am about to open my heart to + you, and ask you, who know the world so well, to aid me in an + escape from those flammantia maenia wherewith I find that world + begirt and enclosed. For look you, sir, you and my father were + right when you both agreed that the mere book-life was not meant + for me. And yet what is not book-life, to a young man who would + make his way through the ordinary and conventional paths to + fortune? All the professions are so book-lined, book-hemmed, book- + choked, that wherever these strong hands of mine stretch towards + action, they find themselves met by octavo ramparts, flanked with + quarto crenellations. For first, this college life, opening to + scholarships, and ending, perchance, as you political economists + would desire, in Malthusian fellowships,--premiums for celibacy,-- + consider what manner of thing it is! + + Three years, book upon book,--a great Dead Sea before one; three + years long, and all the apples that grow on the shore full of the + ashes of pica and primer! Those three years ended, the fellowship, + it may be, won,--still books, books, if the whole world does not + close at the college gates. Do I, from scholar, effloresce into + literary man, author by profession? Books, books! Do I go into + the law? Books, books! Ars longa, vita brevis, which, + paraphrased, means that it is slow work before one fags one's way + to a brief! Do I turn doctor? Why, what but books can kill time + until, at the age of forty, a lucky chance may permit me to kill + something else? The Church (for which, indeed, I don't profess to + be good enough),--that is book-life par excellence, whether, + inglorious and poor, I wander through long lines of divines and + Fathers; or, ambitious of bishoprics, I amend the corruptions, not + of the human heart, but of a Greek text, and through defiles of + scholiasts and commentators win my way to the See. In short, + barring the noble profession of arms,--which you know, after all, + is not precisely the road to fortune,--can you tell me any means by + which one may escape these eternal books, this mental clockwork and + corporeal lethargy? Where can this passion for life that runs riot + through my veins find its vent? Where can these stalwart limbs and + this broad chest grow of value and worth in this hot-bed of + cerebral inflammation and dyspeptic intellect? I know what is in + me; I know I have the qualities that should go with stalwart limbs + and broad chest. I have some plain common-sense, some promptitude + and keenness, some pleasure in hardy danger, some fortitude in + bearing pain,--qualities for which I bless Heaven, for they are + qualities good and useful in private life. But in the forum of + men, in the market of fortune, are they not flocci, nauci, nihili? + + In a word, dear sir and friend, in this crowded Old World there is + not the same room that our bold forefathers found for men to walk + about and jostle their neighbors. No; they must sit down like boys + at the form, and work out their tasks, with rounded shoulders and + aching fingers. There has been a pastoral age, and a hunting age, + and a fighting age; now we have arrived at the age sedentary. Men + who sit longest carry all before them,--puny, delicate fellows, + with hands just strong enough to wield a pen, eyes so bleared by + the midnight lamp that they see no joy in that buxom sun (which + draws me forth into the fields, as life draws the living), and + digestive organs worn and macerated by the relentless flagellation + of the brain. Certainly, if this is to be the Reign of Mind, it is + idle to repine, and kick against the pricks; but is it true that + all these qualities of action that are within me are to go for + nothing? If I were rich and happy in mind and circumstance, well + and good; I should shoot, hunt, farm, travel, enjoy life, and snap + my fingers at ambition. If I were so poor and so humbly bred that + I could turn gamekeeper or whipper in, as pauper gentlemen + virtually did of old, well and good too; I should exhaust this + troublesome vitality of mine by nightly battles with poachers, and + leaps over double dikes and stone walls. If I were so depressed of + spirit that I could live without remorse on my father's small + means, and exclaim, with Claudian, "The earth gives me feasts that + cost nothing," well and good too; it were a life to suit a + vegetable, or a very minor poet. But as it is,--here I open + another leaf of my heart to you! To say that, being poor, I want + to make a fortune, is to say that I am an Englishman. To attach + ourselves to a thing positive, belongs to our practical race. Even + in our dreams, if we build castles in the air, they are not Castles + of Indolence,--indeed they have very little of the castle about + them, and look much more like Hoare's Bank, on the east side of + Temple Bar! I desire, then, to make a fortune. But I differ from + my countrymen, first, by desiring only what you rich men would call + but a small fortune; secondly, in wishing that I may not spend my + whole life in that fortune-making. Just see, now, how I am placed. + + Under ordinary circumstances, I must begin by taking from my father + a large slice of an income that will ill spare paring. According + to my calculation, my parents and my uncle want all they have got, + and the subtraction of the yearly sum on which Pisistratus is to + live till he can live by his own labors, would be so much taken + from the decent comforts of his kindred. If I return to Cambridge, + with all economy, I must thus narrow still more the res angusta + domi; and when Cambridge is over, and I am turned loose upon the + world,--failing, as is likely enough, of the support of a + fellowship,--how many years must I work, or rather, alas! not work, + at the Bar (which, after all, seems my best calling) before I can + in my turn provide for those who, till then, rob themselves for me; + till I have arrived at middle life, and they are old and worn out; + till the chink of the golden bowl sounds but hollow at the ebbing + well? I would wish that, if I can make money, those I love best + may enjoy it while enjoyment is yet left to them; that my father + shall see "The History of Human Error" complete, bound in russia on + his shelves; that my mother shall have the innocent pleasures that + content her, before age steals the light from her happy smile; that + before Roland's hair is snow-white (alas! the snows there thicken + fast), he shall lean on my arm while we settle together where the + ruin shall be repaired or where left to the owls, and where the + dreary bleak waste around shall laugh with the gleam of corn. For + you know the nature of this Cumberland soil,--you, who possess much + of it, and have won so many fair acres from the wild; you know that + my uncle's land, now (save a single farm) scarce worth a shilling + an acre, needs but capital to become an estate more lucrative than + ever his ancestors owned. You know that, for you have applied your + capital to the same kind of land, and in doing so, what blessings-- + which you scarcely think of in your London library--you have + effected, what mouths you feed, what hands you employ! I have + calculated that my uncle's moors, which now scarce maintain two or + three shepherds, could, manured by money, maintain two hundred + families by their labor. All this is worth trying for; therefore + Pisistratus wants to make money. Not so much,--he does not require + millions; a few spare thousand pounds would go a long way, and with + a modest capital to begin with, Roland should become a true + squire,--a real landowner, not the mere lord of a desert. Now + then, dear sir, advise me how I may, with such qualities as I + possess, arrive at that capital--ay, and before it is too late--so + that money-making may not last till my grave. + + Turning in despair from this civilized world of ours, I have cast + my eyes to a world far older,--and yet more to a world in its giant + childhood. India here, Australia there,--what say you, sir, you + who will see dispassionately those things that float before my eyes + through a golden haze, looming large in the distance? Such is my + confidence in your judgment that you have but to say, "Fool, give + up thine El Dorados and stay at home; stick to the books and the + desk; annihilate that redundance of animal life that is in thee; + grow a mental machine: thy physical gifts are of no avail to thee; + take thy place among the slaves of the Lamp,"--and I will obey + without a murmur. But if I am right; if I have in me attributes + that here find no market; if my repinings are but the instincts of + nature that, out of this decrepit civilization, desire vent for + growth in the young stir of some more rude and vigorous social + system,--then give me, I pray, that advice which may clothe my idea + in some practical and tangible embodiments. Have I made myself + understood? + + We take no newspaper here, but occasionally one finds its way from + the parsonage; and I have lately rejoiced at a paragraph that spoke + of your speedy entrance into the Administration as a thing certain. + I write to you before you are a minister, and you see what I seek + is not in the way of official patronage. A niche in an office,-- + oh, to me that were worse than all! Yet I did labor hard with you, + but,--that was different. I write to you thus frankly, knowing + your warm, noble heart, and as if you were my father. Allow me to + add my humble but earnest congratulations on Miss Trevanion's + approaching marriage with one worthy, if not of her, at least of + her station. I do so as becomes one whom you have allowed to + retain the right to pray for the happiness of you and yours. My + dear Mr. Trevanion, this is a long letter, and I dare not even read + it over, lest, if I do, I should not send it. Take it with all its + faults, and judge of it with that kindness with which you have + judged ever, + + Your grateful and devoted servant, + + Pisistratus Caxton. + +Letter From Albert Trevanion, Esq., M. P., To Pisistratus Caxton. + + Library of the House of Commons, Tuesday Night. + + My Dear Pisistratus,-- ----- is up; we are in for it for two mortal + hours! I take flight to the library, and devote those hours to + you. Don't be conceited, but that picture of yourself which you + have placed before me has struck me with all the force of an + original. The state of mind which you describe so vividly must be + a very common one in our era of civilization, yet I have never + before seen it made so prominent and life-like. You have been in + my thoughts all day. Yes, how many young men must there be like + you, in this Old World, able, intelligent, active, and persevering + enough, yet not adapted for success in any of our conventional + professions,--"mute, inglorious Raleighs." Your letter, young + artist, is an illustration of the philosophy of colonizing. I + comprehend better, after reading it, the old Greek colonization,-- + the sending out, not only the paupers, the refuse of an over- + populated state, but a large proportion of a better class, fellows + full of pith and sap and exuberant vitality, like yourself, + blending, in those wise cleruchioe, a certain portion of the + aristocratic with the more democratic element; not turning a rabble + loose upon a new soil, but planting in the foreign allotments all + the rudiments of a harmonious state, analogous to that in the + mother country; not only getting rid of hungry, craving mouths, but + furnishing vent for a waste surplus of intelligence and courage, + which at home is really not needed, and more often comes to ill + than to good,--here only menaces our artificial embankments, but + there, carried off in an aqueduct, might give life to a desert. + + For my part, in my ideal of colonization I should like that each + exportation of human beings had, as of old, its leaders and + chiefs,--not so appointed from the mere quality of rank (often, + indeed, taken from the humbler classes), but still men to whom a + certain degree of education should give promptitude, quickness, + adaptability; men in whom their followers can confide. The Greeks + understood that. Nay, as the colony makes progress, as its + principal town rises into the dignity of a capital,--a polls that + needs a polity,--I sometimes think it might be wise to go still + further, and not only transplant to it a high standard of + civilization, but draw it more closely into connection with the + parent state, and render the passage of spare intellect, education, + and civility, to and fro, more facile, by drafting off thither the + spare scions of royalty itself. I know that many of my more + "liberal" friends would pooh-pooh this notion; but I am sure that + the colony altogether, when arrived to a state that would bear the + importation, would thrive all the better for it. And when the day + shall come (as to all healthful colonies it must come sooner or + later) in which the settlement has grown an independent state, we + may thereby have laid the seeds of a constitution and a + civilization similar to our own, with self-developed forms of + monarchy and aristocracy, though of a simpler growth than old + societies accept, and not left a strange, motley chaos of + struggling democracy,-an uncouth, livid giant, at which the + Frankenstein may well tremble, not because it is a giant, but + because it is a giant half completed. (1) Depend on it, the New + World will be friendly or hostile to the Old, not in proportion to + the kinship of race, but in proportion to the similarity of manners + and institutions,--a mighty truth to which we colonizers have been + blind. + + Passing from these more distant speculations to this positive + present before us, you see already, from what I have said, that I + sympathize with your aspirations; that I construe them as you would + have me: looking to your nature and to your objects, I give you my + advice in a word,--Emigrate! + + My advice is, however, founded on one hypothesis; namely, that you + are perfectly sincere,--you will be contented with a rough life, + and with a moderate fortune at the end of your probation. Don't + dream of emigrating if you want to make a million, or the tenth of + a million. Don't dream of emigrating unless you can enjoy its + hardships,--to bear them is not enough! + + Australia is the land for you, as you seem to surmise. Australia + is the land for two classes of emigrants: first, the man who has + nothing but his wits, and plenty of them; secondly, the man who has + a small capital, and who is contented to spend ten years in + trebling it. I assume that you belong to the latter class. Take + out L3,000, and before you are thirty years old you may return with + L10,000 or L12,000. If that satisfies you, think seriously of + Australia. By coach, tomorrow, I will send you down all the best + books and reports on the subject; and I will get you what detailed + information I can from the Colonial Office. Having read these, and + thought over them dispassionately, spend some months yet among the + sheep-walks of Cumberland; learn all you can from all the shepherds + you can find,--from Thyrsis to Menalcas. Do more,--fit yourself in + every way for a life in the Bush, where the philosophy of the + division of labor is not yet arrived at. Learn to turn your hand + to everything. Be something of a smith, something of a carpenter, + --do the best you can with the fewest tools; make yourself an + excellent shot; break in all the wild horses and ponies you can + borrow and beg. Even if you want to do none of these things when + in your settlement, the having learned to do them will fit you for + many other things not now foreseen. De-fine-gentlemanize yourself + from the crown of your head to the sole of your foot, and become + the greater aristocrat for so doing; for he is more than an + aristocrat, he is a king, who suffices in all things for himself,-- + who is his own master, because he wants no valetaille. I think + Seneca has expressed that thought before me; and I would quote the + passage, but the book, I fear, is not in the library of the House + of Commons. But now (cheers, by Jove! I suppose ---- is down. Ah! + it is so; and C--- is up, and that cheer followed a sharp hit at me. + How I wish I were your age, and going to Australia with you!)--But + now--to resume my suspended period--but now to the important + point,--capital. You must take that, unless you go as a shepherd, + and then good-by to the idea of L10,000 in ten years. So, you see, + it appears at the first blush that you must still come to your + father; but, you will say, with this difference, that you borrow + the capital with every chance of repaying it instead of frittering + away the income year after year till you are eight and thirty or + forty at least. Still, Pisistratus, you don't, in this, gain your + object at a leap; and my dear old friend ought not to lose his son + and his money too. You say you write to me as to your own father. + You know I hate, professions; and if you did not mean what you say, + you have offended me mortally. As a father, then, I take a + father's rights, and speak plainly. A friend of mine, Mr. Bolding, + a clergyman, has a son,--a wild fellow, who is likely to get into + all sorts of scrapes in England, but with plenty of good in him + notwithstanding, frank, bold, not wanting in talent, but rather in + prudence, easily tempted and led away into extravagance. He would + make a capital colonist (no such temptations in the Bush!) if tied + to a youth like you. Now I propose, with your leave, that his + father shall advance him L1,500, which shall not, however, be + placed in his hands, but in yours, as head partner in the firm. + You, on your side, shall advance the same sum of L1,500, which you + shall borrow from me for three years without interest. At the end + of that time interest shall commence; and the capital, with the + interest on the said first three years, shall be repaid to me, or + my executors, on your return. After you have been a year or two in + the Bush, and felt your way, and learned your business, you may + then safely borrow L1,500 more from your father; and, in the mean + while, you and your partner will have had together the full sum of + L3,000 to commence with. You see in this proposal I make you no + gift, and I run no risk even by your death. If you die insolvent, + I will promise to come on your father, poor fellow; for small joy + and small care will he have then in what may be left of his + fortune. There--I have said all; and I will never forgive you if + you reject an aid that will serve you so much and cost me so + little. + + I accept your congratulations on Fanny's engagement with Lord + Castleton. When you return from Australia you will still be a + young man, she (though about your own years) almost a middle-aged + woman, with her head full of pomps and vanities. All girls have a + short period of girlhood in common; but when they enter womanhood, + the woman becomes the woman of her class. As for me, and the + office assigned to me by report, you know what I said when we + parted, and--But here J--- comes, and tells me that "I am expected + to speak, and answer N---, who is just up, brimful of malice,"--the + House crowded, and hungering for personalities. So I, the man of + the Old World, gird up my loins, and leave you, with a sigh, to the + fresh youth of the New + + "Ne tibi sit duros acuisse in prcelia dentes." + + Yours affectionately, + + Albert Trevanion. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +So, reader, thou art now at the secret of my heart. + +Wonder not that I, a bookman's son, and at certain periods of my life a +bookman myself, though of lowly grade in that venerable class,--wonder +not that I should thus, in that transition stage between youth and +manhood, have turned impatiently from books. Most students, at one time +or other in their existence, have felt the imperious demand of that +restless principle in man's nature which calls upon each son of Adam to +contribute his share to the vast treasury of human deeds. And though +great scholars are not necessarily, nor usually, men of action, yet the +men of action whom History presents to our survey have rarely been +without a certain degree of scholarly nurture. For the ideas which +books quicken, books cannot always satisfy. And though the royal pupil +of Aristotle slept with Homer under his pillow, it was not that he might +dream of composing epics, but of conquering new Ilions in the East. +Many a man, how little soever resembling Alexander, may still have the +conqueror's aim in an object that action only can achieve, and the book +under his pillow may be the strongest antidote to his repose. And how +the stern Destinies that shall govern the man weave their first delicate +tissues amidst the earliest associations of the child! Those idle tales +with which the old credulous nurse had beguiled my infancy,--tales of +wonder, knight-errantry, and adventure,--had left behind them seeds long +latent, seeds that might never have sprung up above the soil, but that +my boyhood was so early put under the burning-glass, and in the quick +forcing house, of the London world. There, even amidst books and study, +lively observation and petulant ambition broke forth from the lush +foliage of romance,--that fruitless leafiness of poetic youth! And +there passion, which is a revolution in all the elements of individual +man, had called anew state of being, turbulent and eager, out of the old +habits and conventional forms it had buried,--ashes that speak where the +fire has been. Far from me, as from any mind of some manliness, be the +attempt to create interest by dwelling at length on the struggles +against a rash and misplaced attachment, which it was my duty to +overcome; but all such love, as I have before implied, is a terrible +unsettler,-- + + "Where once such fairies dance, no grass doth ever grow." + +To re-enter boyhood, go with meek docility through its disciplined +routine--how hard had I found that return, amidst the cloistered +monotony of college! My love for my father, and my submission to his +wish, had indeed given some animation to objects otherwise distasteful; +but now that my return to the University must be attended with positive +privation to those at home, the idea became utterly hateful and +repugnant. Under pretence that I found myself, on trial, not yet +sufficiently prepared to do credit to my father's name, I had easily +obtained leave to lose the ensuing college term and pursue my studies at +home. This gave me time to prepare my plans and bring round -----. How +shall I ever bring round to my adventurous views those whom I propose to +desert? Hard it is to get on in the world,--very hard; but the most +painful step in the way is that which starts from the threshold of a +beloved home. + +How--ah, how indeed! "No, Blanche, you cannot join me to-day; I am +going out for many hours. So it will be late before I can be home." + +Home,--the word chokes me! Juba slinks back to his young mistress, +disconsolate; Blanche gazes at me ruefully from our favorite hill-top, +and the flowers she has been gathering fall unheeded from her basket. I +hear my mother's voice singing low as she sits at work by her open +casement. How,--ah, how indeed! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAXTONS, BY LYTTON, PART 12 *** + +********** This file should be named 7597.txt or 7597.zip ********** + +This eBook was produced by Pat Castevens +and David Widger + +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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