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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/7632.txt b/7632.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5394d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/7632.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2576 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Disowned, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, V2 +#60 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 Disowned, Volume 2. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7632] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 4, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V2 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +He who would know mankind must be at home with all men. + STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +We left Clarence safely deposited in his little lodgings. Whether +from the heat of his apartment or the restlessness a migration of beds +produces in certain constitutions, his slumbers on the first night of +his arrival were disturbed and brief. He rose early and descended to +the parlour; Mr. de Warens, the nobly appellatived foot-boy, was +laying the breakfast-cloth. From three painted shelves which +constituted the library of "Copperas Bower," as its owners gracefully +called their habitation, Clarence took down a book very prettily +bound; it was "Poems by a Nobleman." No sooner had he read two pages +than he did exactly what the reader would have done, and restored the +volume respectfully to its place. He then drew his chair towards the +window, and wistfully eyed sundry ancient nursery maids, who were +leading their infant charges to the "fresh fields and pastures new" of +what is now the Regent's Park. + +In about an hour Mrs. Copperas descended, and mutual compliments were +exchanged; to her succeeded Mr. Copperas, who was well scolded for his +laziness: and to them, Master Adolphus Copperas, who was also +chidingly termed a naughty darling for the same offence. Now then +Mrs. Copperas prepared the tea, which she did in the approved method +adopted by all ladies to whom economy is dearer than renown, namely, +the least possible quantity of the soi-disant Chinese plant was first +sprinkled by the least possible quantity of hot water; after this +mixture had become as black and as bitter as it could possibly be +without any adjunct from the apothecary's skill, it was suddenly +drenched with a copious diffusion, and as suddenly poured forth--weak, +washy, and abominable,--into four cups, severally appertaining unto +the four partakers of the matutinal nectar. + +Then the conversation began to flow. Mrs. Copperas was a fine lady, +and a sentimentalist,--very observant of the little niceties of phrase +and manner. Mr. Copperas was a stock-jobber and a wit,--loved a good +hit in each capacity; was very round, very short, and very much like a +John Dory; and saw in the features and mind of the little Copperas the +exact representative of himself. + +"Adolphus, my love," said Mrs. Copperas, "mind what I told you, and +sit upright. Mr. Linden, will you allow me to cut you a leetle piece +of this roll?" + +"Thank you," said Clarence, "I will trouble you rather for the whole +of it." + +Conceive Mrs. Copperas's dismay! From that moment she saw herself +eaten out of house and home; besides, as she afterwards observed to +her friend Miss Barbara York, the "vulgarity of such an amazing +appetite!" + +"Any commands in the city, Mr. Linden?" asked the husband; "a coach +will pass by our door in a few minutes,--must be on 'Change in half an +hour. Come, my love, another cup of tea; make haste; I have scarcely +a moment to take my fare for the inside, before coachee takes his for +the outside. Ha! ha! ha! Mr. Linden." + +"Lord, Mr. Copperas," said his helpmate, "how can you be so silly? +setting such an example to your son, too; never mind him, Adolphus, my +love; fie, child! a'n't you ashamed of yourself? never put the spoon +in your cup till you have done tea: I must really send you to school +to learn manners. We have a very pretty little collection of books +here, Mr. Linden, if you would like to read an hour or two after +breakfast,--child, take your hands out of your pockets,--all the best +English classics I believe,--'Telemachus,' and Young's 'Night +Thoughts,' and 'Joseph Andrews,' and the 'Spectator,' and Pope's +Iliad, and Creech's Lucretius; but you will look over them yourself! +This is Liberty Hall, as well as Copperas Bower, Mr. Linden!" + +"Well, my love," said the stock-jobber, "I believe I must be off. +Here Tom, Tom (Mr. de Warens had just entered the room with some more +hot water, to weaken still further "the poor remains of what was once +"--the tea!), Tom, just run out and stop the coach; it will be by in +five minutes." + +"Have not I prayed and besought you, many and many a time, Mr. +Copperas," said the lady, rebukingly, "not to call De Warens by his +Christian name? Don't you know that all people in genteel life, who +only keep one servant, invariably call him by his surname, as if he +were the butler, you know?" + +"Now, that is too good, my love," said Copperas. "I will call poor +Tom by any surname you please, but I really can't pass him off for a +butler! Ha--ha--ha--you must excuse me there, my love!" + +"And pray, why not, Mr. Copperas? I have known many a butler bungle +more at a cork than he does; and pray tell me who did you ever see +wait better at dinner?" + +"He wait at dinner, my love! it is not he who waits." + +"Who then, Mr. Copperas?" + +"Why we, my love; it's we who wait for dinner; but that's the cook's +fault, not his." + +"Pshaw! Mr. Copperas; Adolphus, my love, sit upright, darling." + +Here De Warens cried from the bottom of the stairs,--"Measter, the +coach be coming up." + +"There won't be room for it to turn then," said the facetious Mr. +Copperas, looking round the apartment as if he took the words +literally. + +"What coach is it, boy?" + +Now that was not the age in which coaches scoured the city every half +hour, and Mr. Copperas knew the name of the coach as well as he knew +his own. + +"It be the Swallow coach, sir." + +"Oh, very well: then since I have swallowed in the roll, I will now +roll in the Swallow--ha--ha--ha! Good-by, Mr. Linden." + +No sooner had the witty stock-jobber left the room than Mrs. Copperas +seemed to expand into a new existence. "My husband, sir," said she, +apologetically, "is so odd, but he's an excellent sterling character; +and that, you know, Mr. Linden, tells more in the bosom of a family +than all the shining qualities which captivate the imagination. I am +sure, Mr. Linden, that the moralist is right in admonishing us to +prefer the gold to the tinsel. I have now been married some years, +and every year seems happier than the last; but then, Mr. Linden, it +is such a pleasure to contemplate the growing graces of the sweet +pledge of our mutual love.--Adolphus, my dear, keep your feet still, +and take your hands out of your pockets!" + +A short pause ensued. + +"We see a great deal of company," said Mrs. Copperas, pompously, "and +of the very best description. Sometimes we are favoured by the +society of the great Mr. Talbot, a gentleman of immense fortune and +quite the courtier: he is, it is true, a little eccentric in his +dress: but then he was a celebrated beau in his young days. He is our +next neighbour; you can see his house out of the window, just across +the garden--there! We have also, sometimes, our humble board graced +by a very elegant friend of mine, Miss Barbara York, a lady of very +high connections, her first cousin was a lord mayor.--Adolphus, my +dear, what are you about? Well, Mr. Linden, you will find your +retreat quite undisturbed; I must go about the household affairs; not +that I do anything more than superintend, you know, sir; but I think +no lady should be above consulting her husband's interests; that's +what I call true old English conjugal affection. Come, Adolphus, my +dear." + +And Clarence was now alone. "I fear," thought he, "that I shall get +on very indifferently with these people. But it will not do for me to +be misanthropical, and (as Dr. Latinas was wont to say) the great +merit of philosophy, when we cannot command circumstances, is to +reconcile us to them." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A retired beau is one of the most instructive spectacles in the world. + STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +It was quite true that Mrs. Copperas saw a great deal of company, for +at a certain charge, upon certain days, any individual might have the +honour of sharing her family repast; and many, of various callings, +though chiefly in commercial life, met at her miscellaneous board. +Clarence must, indeed, have been difficult to please, or obtuse of +observation, if, in the variety of her guests, he had not found +something either to interest or amuse him. Heavens! what a motley +group were accustomed, twice in the week, to assemble there! the +little dining-parlour seemed a human oven; and it must be owned that +Clarence was no slight magnet of attraction to the female part of the +guests. Mrs. Copperas's bosom friend in especial, the accomplished +Miss Barbara York, darted the most tender glances on the handsome +young stranger; but whether or not a nose remarkably prominent and +long prevented the glances from taking full effect, it is certain that +Clarence seldom repaid them with that affectionate ardour which Miss +Barbara York had ventured to anticipate. The only persons indeed for +whom he felt any sympathetic attraction were of the same sex as +himself. The one was Mr. Talbot, the old gentleman whom Mrs. Copperas +had described as the perfect courtier; the other, a young artist of +the name of Warner. Talbot, to Clarence's great astonishment (for +Mrs. Copperas's eulogy had prepared him for something eminently +displeasing) was a man of birth, fortune, and manners peculiarly +graceful and attractive. It is true, however, that, despite of his +vicinity, and Mrs. Copperas's urgent solicitations, he very seldom +honoured her with his company, and he always cautiously sent over his +servant in the morning to inquire the names and number of her expected +guests; nor was he ever known to share the plenteous board of the +stock-jobber's lady whenever any other partaker of its dainties save +Clarence and the young artist were present. The latter, the old +gentleman really liked; and as for one truly well born and well bred +there is no vulgarity except in the mind, the slender means, obscure +birth, and struggling profession of Warner were circumstances which, +as they increased the merit of a gentle manner and a fine mind, spoke +rather in his favour than the reverse. Mr. Talbot was greatly struck +by Clarence Linden's conversation and appearance; and indeed there was +in Talbot's tastes so strong a bias to aristocratic externals that +Clarence's air alone would have been sufficient to win the good graces +of a man who had, perhaps, more than most courtiers of his time, +cultivated the arts of manner and the secrets of address. + +"You will call upon me soon?" said he to Clarence, when, after dining +one day with the Copperases and their inmate, he rose to return home. +And Clarence, delighted with the urbanity and liveliness of his new +acquaintance, readily promised that he would. + +Accordingly the next day Clarence called upon Mr. Talbot. The house, +as Mrs. Copperas had before said, adjoined her own, and was only +separated from it by a garden. It was a dull mansion of brick, which +had disdained the frippery of paint and whitewashing, and had indeed +been built many years previously to the erection of the modern +habitations which surrounded it. It was, therefore, as a consequence +of this priority of birth, more sombre than the rest, and had a +peculiarly forlorn and solitary look. As Clarence approached the +door, he was struck with the size of the house; it was of very +considerable extent, and in the more favourable situations of London, +would have passed for a very desirable and spacious tenement. An old +man, whose accurate precision of dress bespoke the tastes of the +master, opened the door, and after ushering Clarence through two long, +and, to his surprise, almost splendidly furnished rooms, led him into +a third, where, seated at a small writing-table, he found Mr. Talbot. +That person, one whom Clarence then little thought would hereafter +exercise no small influence over his fate, was of a figure and +countenance well worthy the notice of a description. + +His own hair, quite white, was carefully and artificially curled, and +gave a Grecian cast to features whose original delicacy, and exact +though small proportions, not even age could destroy. His eyes were +large, black, and sparkled with almost youthful vivacity; and his +mouth, which was the best feature he possessed, developed teeth white +and even as rows of ivory. Though small and somewhat too slender in +the proportions of his figure, nothing could exceed the ease and the +grace of his motions and air; and his dress, though singularly rich in +its materials, eccentric in its fashion, and from its evident study, +unseemly to his years, served nevertheless to render rather venerable +than ridiculous a mien which could almost have carried off any +absurdity, and which the fashion of the garb peculiarly became. The +tout ensemble was certainly that of a man who was still vain of his +exterior, and conscious of its effect; and it was as certainly +impossible to converse with Mr. Talbot for five minutes without +merging every less respectful impression in the magical fascination of +his manner. + +"I thank you, Mr. Linden," said Talbot, rising, "for your accepting so +readily an old man's invitation. If I have felt pleasure in +discovering that we were to be neighbours, you may judge what that +pleasure is to-day at finding you my visitor." + +Clarence, who, to do him justice, was always ready at returning a fine +speech, replied in a similar strain, and the conversation flowed on +agreeably enough. There was more than a moderate collection of books +in the room, and this circumstance led Clarence to allude to literary +subjects; these Mr. Talbot took up with avidity, and touched with a +light but graceful criticism upon many of the then modern and some of +the older writers. He seemed delighted to find himself understood and +appreciated by Clarence, and every moment of Linden's visit served to +ripen their acquaintance into intimacy. At length they talked upon +Copperas Bower and its inmates. + +"You will find your host and hostess," said the gentleman, "certainly +of a different order from the persons with whom it is easy to see you +have associated; but, at your happy age, a year or two may be very +well thrown away upon observing the manners and customs of those whom, +in later life, you may often be called upon to conciliate or perhaps +to control. That man will never be a perfect gentleman who lives only +with gentlemen. To be a man of the world, we must view that world in +every grade and in every perspective. In short, the most practical +art of wisdom is that which extracts from things the very quality they +least appear to possess; and the actor in the world, like the actor on +the stage, should find 'a basket-hilted sword very convenient to carry +milk in.' [See the witty inventory of a player's goods in the +"Tatler."] As for me, I have survived my relations and friends. I +cannot keep late hours, nor adhere to the unhealthy customs of good +society; nor do I think that, to a man of my age and habits, any +remuneration would adequately repay the sacrifice of health or +comfort. I am, therefore, well content to sink into a hermitage in an +obscure corner of this great town, and only occasionally to revive my +'past remembrances of higher state,' by admitting a few old +acquaintances to drink my bachelor's tea and talk over the news of the +day. Hence, you see, Mr. Linden, I pick up two or three novel +anecdotes of state and scandal, and maintain my importance at Copperas +Bower by retailing them second-hand. Now that you are one of the +inmates of that abode, I shall be more frequently its guest. By the +by, I will let you into a secret: know that I am somewhat a lover of +the marvellous, and like to indulge a little embellishing exaggeration +in any place where there is no chance of finding me out. Mind, +therefore, my dear Mr. Linden, that you take no ungenerous advantage +of this confession; but suffer me, now and then, to tell my stories my +own way, even when you think truth would require me to tell them in +another." + +"Certainly," said Clarence, laughing; "let us make an agreement: you +shall tell your stories as you please, if you will grant me the same +liberty in paying my compliments; and if I laugh aloud at the stories, +you shall promise me not to laugh aloud at the compliments." + +"It is a bond," said Talbot; "and a very fit exchange of service it +is. It will be a problem in human nature to see who has the best of +it: you shall pay your court by flattering the people present, and I +mine by abusing those absent. Now, in spite of your youth and curling +locks, I will wager that I succeed the best; for in vanity there is so +great a mixture of envy that no compliment is like a judicious abuse: +to enchant your acquaintance, ridicule his friends." + +"Ah, sir," said Clarence, "this opinion of yours is, I trust, a little +in the French school, where brilliancy is more studied than truth, and +where an ill opinion of our species always has the merit of passing +for profound." + +Talbot smiled, and shook his head. "My dear young friend," said he, +"it is quite right that you, who are coming into the world, should +think well of it; and it is also quite right that I, who am going out +of it, should console myself by trying to despise it. However, let me +tell you, my young friend, that he whose opinion of mankind is not too +elevated will always be the most benevolent, because the most +indulgent, to those errors incidental to human imperfection to place +our nature in too flattering a view is only to court disappointment, +and end in misanthropy. The man who sets out with expecting to find +all his fellow-creatures heroes of virtue will conclude by condemning +them as monsters of vice; and, on the contrary, the least exacting +judge of actions will be the most lenient. If God, in His own +perfection, did not see so many frailties in us, think you He would be +so gracious to our virtues?" + +"And yet," said Clarence, "we remark every day examples of the highest +excellence." + +"Yes," replied Talbot, "of the highest but not of the most constant +excellence. He knows very little of the human heart who imagines we +cannot do a good action; but, alas! he knows still less of it who +supposes we can be always doing good actions. In exactly the same +ratio we see every day the greatest crimes are committed; but we find +no wretch so depraved as to be always committing crimes. Man cannot +be perfect even in guilt." + +In this manner Talbot and his young visitor conversed, till Clarence, +after a stay of unwarrantable length, rose to depart. + +"Well," said Talbot, "if we now rightly understand each other, we +shall be the best friends in the world. As we shall expect great +things from each other sometimes, we will have no scruple in exacting +a heroic sacrifice every now and then; for instance, I will ask you to +punish yourself by an occasional tete-a-tete with an ancient +gentleman; and, as we can also by the same reasoning pardon great +faults in each other, if they are not often committed, so I will +forgive you, with all my heart, whenever you refuse my invitations, if +you do not refuse them often. And now farewell till we meet again." + +It seemed singular and almost unnatural to Linden that a man like +Talbot, of birth, fortune, and great fastidiousness of taste and +temper, should have formed any sort of acquaintance, however slight +and distant, with the facetious stock-jobber and his wife; but the +fact is easily explained by a reference to the vanity which we shall +see hereafter made the ruling passion of Talbot's nature. This +vanity, which branching forth into a thousand eccentricities, +displayed itself in the singularity of his dress, the studied yet +graceful warmth of his manner, his attention to the minutiae of life, +his desire, craving and insatiate, to receive from every one, however +insignificant, his obolus of admiration,--this vanity, once flattered +by the obsequious homage it obtained from the wonder and reverence of +the Copperases, reconciled his taste to the disgust it so frequently +and necessarily conceived; and, having in great measure resigned his +former acquaintance and wholly outlived his friends, he was contented +to purchase the applause which had become to him a necessary of life +at the humble market more immediately at his command. + +There is no dilemma in which Vanity cannot find an expedient to +develop its form, no stream of circumstances in which its buoyant and +light nature will not rise to float upon the surface. And its +ingenuity is as fertile as that of the player who (his wardrobe +allowing him no other method of playing the fop) could still exhibit +the prevalent passion for distinction by wearing stockings of +different colours. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Who dares + Interpret then my life for me as 't were + One of the undistinguishable many? + COLERIDGE: Wallenstein. + +The first time Clarence had observed the young artist, he had taken a +deep interest in his appearance. Pale, thin, undersized, and slightly +deformed, the sanctifying mind still shed over the humble frame a +spell more powerful than beauty. Absent in manner, melancholy in air, +and never conversing except upon subjects on which his imagination was +excited, there was yet a gentleness about him which could not fail to +conciliate and prepossess; nor did Clarence omit any opportunity to +soften his reserve, and wind himself into his more intimate +acquaintance. Warner, the only support of an aged and infirm +grandmother (who had survived her immediate children), was distantly +related to Mrs. Copperas; and that lady extended to him, with +ostentatious benevolence, her favour and support. It is true that she +did not impoverish the young Adolphus to enrich her kinsman, but she +allowed him a seat at her hospitable board, whenever it was not +otherwise filled; and all that she demanded in return was a picture of +herself, another of Mr. Copperas, a third of Master Adolphus, a fourth +of the black cat, and from time to time sundry other lesser +productions of his genius, of which, through the agency of Mr. Brown, +she secretly disposed at a price that sufficiently remunerated her for +whatever havoc the slender appetite of the young painter was able to +effect. + +By this arrangement, Clarence had many opportunities of gaining that +intimacy with Warner which had become to him an object; and though the +painter, constitutionally diffident and shy, was at first averse to, +and even awed by, the ease, boldness, fluent speech, and confident +address of a man much younger than himself, yet at last he could not +resist the being decoyed into familiarity; and the youthful pair +gradually advanced from companionship into friendship. There was a +striking contrast between the two: Clarence was bold and frank, Warner +close and timid. Both had superior abilities; but the abilities of +Clarence were for action, those of Warner for art: both were +ambitious; but the ambition of Clarence was that of circumstances +rather than character. Compelled to carve his own fortunes without +sympathy or aid, he braced his mind to the effort, though naturally +too gay for the austerity, and too genial for the selfishness of +ambition. But the very essence of Warner's nature was the feverish +desire of fame: it poured through his veins like lava; it preyed as a +worm upon his cheek; it corroded his natural sleep; it blackened the +colour of his thoughts; it shut out, as with an impenetrable wall, the +wholesome energies and enjoyments and objects of living men; and, +taking from him all the vividness of the present, all the tenderness +of the past, constrained his heart to dwell forever and forever amidst +the dim and shadowy chimeras of a future he was fated never to enjoy. + +But these differences of character, so far from disturbing, rather +cemented their friendship; and while Warner (notwithstanding his +advantage of age) paid involuntary deference to the stronger character +of Clarence, he, in his turn, derived that species of pleasure by +which he was most gratified, from the affectionate and unenvious +interest Clarence took in his speculations of future distinction, and +the unwearying admiration with which he would sit by his side, and +watch the colours start from the canvas, beneath the real though +uncultured genius of the youthful painter. + +Hitherto, Warner had bounded his attempts to some of the lesser +efforts of the art; he had now yielded to the urgent enthusiasm of his +nature, and conceived the plan of an historical picture. Oh! what +sleepless nights, what struggles of the teeming fancy with the dense +brain, what labours of the untiring thought wearing and intense as +disease itself, did it cost the ambitious artist to work out in the +stillness of his soul, and from its confused and conflicting images, +the design of this long meditated and idolized performance! But when +it was designed; when shape upon shape grew and swelled, and glowed +from the darkness of previous thought upon the painter's mind; when, +shutting his eyes in the very credulity of delight, the whole work +arose before him, glossy with its fresh hues, bright, completed, +faultless, arrayed as it were, and decked out for immortality,--oh! +then what a full and gushing moment of rapture broke like a released +stream upon his soul! What a recompense for wasted years, health, and +hope! What a coronal to the visions and transports of Genius: brief, +it is true, but how steeped in the very halo of a light that might +well be deemed the glory of heaven! + +But the vision fades, the gorgeous shapes sweep on into darkness, and, +waking from his revery, the artist sees before him only the dull walls +of his narrow chamber; the canvas stretched a blank upon its frame; +the works, maimed, crude, unfinished, of an inexperienced hand, lying +idly around; and feels himself--himself, but one moment before the +creator of a world of wonders, the master spirit of shapes glorious +and majestical beyond the shapes of men-dashed down from his momentary +height, and despoiled both of his sorcery and his throne. + +It was just in such a moment that Warner, starting up, saw Linden (who +had silently entered his room) standing motionless before him. + +"Oh, Linden!" said the artist, "I have had so superb a dream,--a dream +which, though I have before snatched some such vision by fits and +glimpses, I never beheld so realized, so perfect as now; and--but you +shall see, you shall judge for yourself; I will sketch out the design +for you;" and, with a piece of chalk and a rapid hand, Warner conveyed +to Linden the outline of his conception. His young friend was eager +in his praise and his predictions of renown, and Warner listened to +him with a fondness which spread over his pale cheek a richer flush +than lover ever caught from the whispers of his beloved. + +"Yes," said he, as he rose, and his sunken and small eye flashed out +with a feverish brightness, "yes, if my hand does not fail my thought, +it shall rival even--" Here the young painter stopped short, abashed +at that indiscretion of enthusiasm about to utter to another the +hoarded vanities hitherto locked in his heart of hearts as a sealed +secret, almost from himself. + +"But come," said Clarence, affectionately, "your hand is feverish and +dry, and of late you have seemed more languid than you were wont,-- +come, Warner, you want exercise: it is a beautiful evening, and you +shall explain your picture still further to me as we walk." + +Accustomed to yield to Clarence, Warner mechanically and abstractedly +obeyed; they walked out into the open streets. + +"Look around us," said Warner, pausing, "look among this toiling and +busy and sordid mass of beings who claim with us the fellowship of +clay. The poor labour; the rich feast: the only distinction between +them is that of the insect and the brute; like them they fulfil the +same end and share the same oblivion; they die, a new race springs up, +and the very grass upon their graves fades not so soon as their +memory. Who that is conscious of a higher nature would not pine and +fret himself away to be confounded with these? Who would not burn and +sicken and parch with a delirious longing to divorce himself from so +vile a herd? What have their petty pleasures and their mean aims to +atone for the abasement of grinding down our spirits to their level? +Is not the distinction from their blended and common name a sufficient +recompense for all that ambition suffers or foregoes? Oh, for one +brief hour (I ask no more) of living honour, one feeling of conscious, +unfearing certainty that Fame has conquered Death! and then for this +humble and impotent clay, this drag on the spirit which it does not +assist but fetter, this wretched machine of pains and aches, and +feverish throbbings, and vexed inquietudes, why, let the worms consume +it, and the grave hide--for Fame there is no grave." + +At that moment one of those unfortunate women who earn their polluted +sustenance by becoming the hypocrites of passions abruptly accosted +them. + +"Miserable wretch!" said Warner, loathingly, as he pushed her aside; +but Clarence, with a kindlier feeling, noticed that her haggard cheek +was wet with tears, and that her frame, weak and trembling, could +scarcely support itself; he, therefore, with that promptitude of +charity which gives ere it discriminates put some pecuniary assistance +in her hand and joined his comrade. + +"You would not have spoken so tauntingly to the poor girl had you +remarked her distress," said Clarence. + +"And why," said Warner, mournfully, "why be so cruel as to prolong, +even for a few hours, an existence which mercy would only seek to +bring nearer to the tomb? That unfortunate is but one of the herd, +one of the victims to pleasures which debase by their progress and +ruin by their end. Yet perhaps she is not worse than the usual +followers of love,--of love, that passion the most worshipped, yet the +least divine,--selfish and exacting,--drawing its aliment from +destruction, and its very nature from tears." + +"Nay," said Clarence, "you confound the two loves, the Eros and the +Anteros; gods whom my good tutor was wont so sedulously to +distinguish: you surely do not inveigh thus against all love?" + +"I cry you mercy," said Warner, with something of sarcasm in his +pensiveness of tone. "We must not dispute; so I will hold my peace: +but make love all you will; what are the false smiles of a lip which a +few years can blight as an autumn leaf? what the homage of a heart as +feeble and mortal as your own? Why, I, with a few strokes of a little +hair and an idle mixture of worthless colours, will create a beauty in +whose mouth there shall be no hollowness, in whose lip there shall be +no fading; there, in your admiration, you shall have no need of +flattery and no fear of falsehood; you shall not be stung with +jealousy nor maddened with treachery; nor watch with a breaking heart +over the waning bloom, and departing health, till the grave open, and +your perishable paradise is not. No: the mimic work is mightier than +the original, for it outlasts it; your love cannot wither it, or your +desertion destroy; your very death, as the being who called it into +life, only stamps it with a holier value." + +"And so then," said Clarence, "you would seriously relinquish, for the +mute copy of the mere features, those affections which no painting can +express?" + +"Ay," said the painter, with an energy unusual to his quiet manner, +and slightly wandering in his answer from Clarence's remark, "ay, one +serves not two mistresses: mine is the glory of my art. Oh! what are +the cold shapes of this tame earth, where the footsteps of the gods +have vanished, and left no trace, the blemished forms, the debased +brows, and the jarring features, to the glorious and gorgeous images +which I can conjure up at my will? Away with human beauties, to him +whose nights are haunted with the forms of angels and wanderers from +the stars, the spirits of all things lovely and exalted in the +universe: the universe as it was; when to fountain, and stream, and +hill, and to every tree which the summer clothed, was allotted the +vigil of a Nymph! when through glade, and by waterfall, at glossy +noontide, or under the silver stars, the forms of Godhead and Spirit +were seen to walk; when the sculptor modelled his mighty work from the +beauty and strength of Heaven, and the poet lay in the shade to dream +of the Naiad and the Faun, and the Olympian dwellers whom he walked in +rapture to behold; and the painter, not as now, shaping from shadow +and in solitude the dim glories of his heart, caught at once his +inspiration from the glow of earth and its living wanderers, and, lo, +the canvas breathed! Oh! what are the dull realities and the abortive +offspring of this altered and humbled world--the world of meaner and +dwarfish men--to him whose realms are peopled with visions like +these?" + +And the artist, whose ardour, long excited and pent within, had at +last thus audibly, and to Clarence's astonishment, burst forth, +paused, as if to recall himself from his wandering enthusiasm. Such +moments of excitement were indeed rare with him, except when utterly +alone, and even then, were almost invariably followed by that +depression of spirit by which all over-wrought susceptibility is +succeeded. A change came over his face, like that of a cloud when the +sunbeam which gilded leaves it; and, with a slight sigh and a subdued +tone, he resumed,-- + +"So, my friend, you see what our art can do even for the humblest +professor, when I, a poor, friendless, patronless artist, can thus +indulge myself by forgetting the present. But I have not yet +explained to you the attitude of my principal figure;" and Warner +proceeded once more to detail the particulars of his intended picture. +It must be confessed that he had chosen a fine though an arduous +subject: it was the Trial of Charles the First; and as the painter, +with the enthusiasm of his profession and the eloquence peculiar to +himself, dwelt upon the various expressions of the various forms which +that extraordinary judgment-court afforded, no wonder that Clarence +forgot, with the artist himself, the disadvantages Warner had to +encounter in the inexperience of an unregulated taste and an imperfect +professional education. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + All manners take a tincture from our own, + Or come discoloured through our passions shown.--POPE. + +What! give up liberty, property, and, as the Gazeteer says, lie down +to be saddled with wooden shoes?--Vicar of Wakefield. + +There was something in the melancholy and reflective character of +Warner resembling that of Mordaunt; had they lived in these days +perhaps both the artist and the philosopher had been poets. But (with +regard to the latter) at that time poetry was not the customary vent +for deep thought or passionate feeling. Gray, it is true, though +unjustly condemned as artificial and meretricious in his style, had +infused into the scanty works which he has bequeathed to immortality a +pathos and a richness foreign to the literature of the age; and, +subsequently, Goldsmith, in the affecting yet somewhat enervate +simplicity of his verse, had obtained for Poetry a brief respite from +a school at once declamatory and powerless, and led her forth for a +"Sunshine Holiday" into the village green and under the hawthorn +shade. But, though the softer and meeker feelings had struggled into +a partial and occasional vent, those which partook more of passion and +of thought, the deep, the wild, the fervid, were still without "the +music of a voice." For the after century it was reserved to restore +what we may be permitted to call the spirit of our national +literature; to forsake the clinquant of the French mimickers of +classic gold; to exchange a thrice-adulterated Hippocrene for the pure +well of Shakspeare and of Nature; to clothe philosophy in the gorgeous +and solemn majesty of appropriate music; and to invest passion with a +language as burning as its thought and rapid as its impulse. At that +time reflection found its natural channel in metaphysical inquiry or +political speculation; both valuable, perhaps, but neither profound. +It was a bold, and a free, and an inquisitive age, but not one in +which thought ran over its set and stationary banks, and watered even +the common flowers of verse: not one in which Lucretius could have +embodied the dreams of Epicurus; Shakspeare lavished the mines of a +superhuman wisdom upon his fairy palaces and enchanted isles; or the +Beautifier [Wordsworth] of this common earth have called forth + + "The motion of the spirit that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought;" + +or Disappointment and Satiety have hallowed their human griefs by a +pathos wrought from whatever is magnificent and grand and lovely in +the unknown universe; or the speculations of a great but visionary +mind [Shelley] have raised, upon subtlety and doubt, a vast and +irregular pile of verse, full of dim-lighted cells, and winding +galleries, in which what treasures lie concealed! That was an age in +which poetry took one path and contemplation another; those who were +addicted to the latter pursued it in its orthodox roads; and many, +whom Nature, perhaps intended for poets, the wizard Custom converted +into speculators or critics. + +It was this which gave to Algernon's studies their peculiar hue; +while, on the other hand, the taste for the fine arts which then +universally prevailed, directed to the creations of painting, rather +than those of poetry, more really congenial to his powers, the intense +imagination and passion for glory which marked and pervaded the +character of the artist. + +But as we have seen that that passion for glory made the great +characteristic difference between Clarence and Warner, so also did +that passion terminate any resemblance which Warner bore to Algernon +Mordaunt. With the former a rank and unwholesome plant, it grew up to +the exclusion of all else; with the latter, subdued and regulated, it +sheltered, not withered, the virtues by which it was surrounded. With +Warner, ambition was a passionate desire to separate himself by fame +from the herd of other men; with Mordaunt, to bind himself by charity +yet closer to his kind: with the one, it produced a disgust to his +species; with the other, a pity and a love: with the one, power was +the badge of distinction; with the other, the means to bless! But our +story lingers. + +It was now the custom of Warner to spend the whole day at his work, +and wander out with Clarence, when the evening darkened, to snatch a +brief respite of exercise and air. Often, along the lighted and +populous streets, would the two young and unfriended competitors for +this world's high places roam with the various crowd, moralizing as +they went or holding dim conjecture upon their destinies to be. And +often would they linger beneath the portico of some house where, +"haunted with great resort," Pleasure and Pomp held their nightly +revels, to listen to the music that, through the open windows, stole +over the rare exotics with which wealth mimics the southern scents, +and floated, mellowing by distance, along the unworthy streets; and +while they stood together, silent and each feeding upon separate +thoughts, the artist's pale lip would curl with scorn, as he heard the +laugh and the sounds of a frivolous and hollow mirth ring from the +crowd within, and startle the air from the silver spell which music +had laid upon it. "These," would he say to Clarence, "these are the +dupes of the same fever as ourselves: like us, they strive and toil +and vex their little lives for a distinction from their race. +Ambition comes to them, as to all: but they throw for a different +prize than we do; theirs is the honour of a day, ours is immortality; +yet they take the same labour and are consumed by the same care. And, +fools that they are, with their gilded names and their gaudy +trappings, they would shrink in disdain from that comparison with us +which we, with a juster fastidiousness, blush at this moment to +acknowledge." + +From these scenes they would rove on, and, both delighting in +contrast, enter some squalid and obscure quarter of the city. There, +one night, quiet observers of their kind, they paused beside a group +congregated together by some common cause of obscene merriment or +unholy fellowship--a group on which low vice had set her sordid and +hideous stamp--to gaze and draw strange humours or a motley moral from +that depth and ferment of human nature into whose sink the thousand +streams of civilization had poured their dregs and offal. + +"You survey these," said the painter, marking each with the curious +eye of his profession: "they are a base horde, it is true; but they +have their thirst of fame, their aspirations even in the abyss of +crime or the loathsomeness of famished want. Down in yon cellar, +where a farthing rushlight glimmers upon haggard cheeks, distorted +with the idiotcy of drink; there, in that foul attic, from whose +casement you see the beggar's rags hang to dry, or rather to crumble +in the reeking and filthy air; farther on, within those walls which, +black and heavy as the hearts they hide, close our miserable +prospect,--there, even there, in the mildewed dungeon, in the felon's +cell, on the very scaffold's self, Ambition hugs her own hope or +scowls upon her own despair. Yes! the inmates of those walls had +their perilous game of honour, their 'hazard of the die,' in which +vice was triumph and infamy success. We do but share their passion, +though we direct it to a better object." + +Pausing for a moment, as his thoughts flowed into a somewhat different +channel of his character, Warner continued, "We have now caught a +glimpse of the two great divisions of mankind; they who riot in +palaces, and they who make mirth hideous in rags and hovels: own that +it is but a poor survey in either. Can we be contemptible with these +or loathsome with those? Or rather have we not a nobler spark within +us, which we have but to fan into a flame that shall burn forever, +when these miserable meteors sink into the corruption from which they +rise?" + +"But," observed Clarence, "these are the two extremes; the pinnacle of +civilization, too worn and bare for any more noble and vigorous fruit, +and the base upon which the cloud descends in rain and storm. Look to +the central portion of society; there the soil is more genial, and its +produce more rich." + +"Is it so, in truth?" answered Warner; "pardon me, I believe not: the +middling classes are as human as the rest. There is the region, the +heart, of Avarice,--systematized, spreading, rotting, the very fungus +and leprosy of social states; suspicion, craft, hypocrisy, servility +to the great, oppression to the low, the waxlike mimicry of courtly +vices, the hardness of flint to humble woes; thought, feeling, the +faculties and impulses of man, all ulcered into one great canker, +Gain,--these make the general character of the middling class, the +unleavened mass of that mediocrity which it has been the wisdom of the +shallow to applaud. Pah! we too are of this class, this potter's +earth, this paltry mixture of mud and stone; but we, my friend, we +will knead gold into our clay." + +"But look," said Clarence, pointing to the group before them, "look, +yon wretched mother, whose voice an instant ago uttered the coarsest +accents of maudlin and intoxicated prostitution, is now fostering her +infant, with a fondness stamped upon her worn cheek and hollow eye, +which might shame the nice maternity of nobles; and there, too, yon +wretch whom, in the reckless effrontery of hardened abandonment, we +ourselves heard a few minutes since boast of his dexterity in theft, +and openly exhibit its token,--look, he is now, with a Samaritan's own +charity, giving the very goods for which his miserable life was risked +to that attenuated and starving stripling! No, Warner, no! even this +mass is not unleavened. The vilest infamy is not too deep for the +Seraph Virtue to descend and illumine its abyss!" + +"Out on the weak fools!" said the artist, bitterly: "it would be +something, if they could be consistent even in crime!" and, placing +his arm in Linden's, he drew him away. + +As the picture grew beneath the painter's hand, Clarence was much +struck with the outline and expression of countenance given to the +regicide Bradshaw. + +"They are but an imperfect copy of the living original from whom I +have borrowed them," said Warner, in answer to Clarence's remark upon +the sternness of the features. "But that original--a relation of +mine, is coming here to-day: you shall see him." + +While Warner was yet speaking, the person in question entered. His +were, indeed, the form and face worthy to be seized by the painter. +The peculiarity of his character made him affect a plainness of dress +unusual to the day, and approaching to the simplicity, but not the +neatness, of Quakerism. His hair--then, with all the better ranks, a +principal object of cultivation--was wild, dishevelled, and, in wiry +flakes of the sablest hue, rose abruptly from a forehead on which +either thought or passion had written its annals with an iron pen; the +lower part of the brow, which overhung the eye, was singularly sharp +and prominent; while the lines, or rather furrows, traced under the +eyes and nostrils, spoke somewhat of exhaustion and internal fatigue. +But this expression was contrasted and contradicted by the firmly +compressed lip; the lighted, steady, stern eye; the resolute and even +stubborn front, joined to proportions strikingly athletic and a +stature of uncommon height. + +"Well, Wolfe," said the young painter to the person we have described, +"it is indeed a kindness to give me a second sitting." + +"Tusk, boy!" answered Wolfe, "all men have their vain points, and I +own that I am not ill pleased that these rugged features should be +assigned, even in fancy, to one of the noblest of those men who judged +the mightiest cause in which a country was ever plaintiff, a tyrant +criminal, and a world witness!" While Wolfe was yet speaking his +countenance, so naturally harsh, took a yet sterner aspect, and the +artist, by a happy touch, succeeded in transferring it to the canvas. + +"But, after all," continued Wolfe, "it shames me to lend aid to an art +frivolous in itself, and almost culpable in times when Freedom wants +the head to design, and perhaps the hand to execute, far other and +nobler works than the blazoning of her past deeds upon perishable +canvas." + +A momentary anger at the slight put upon his art crossed the pale brow +of the artist; but he remembered the character of the man and +continued his work in silence. "You consider then, sir, that these +are times in which liberty is attacked?" said Clarence. + +"Attacked!" repeated Wolfe,--" attacked!" and then suddenly sinking +his voice into a sort of sneer, "why, since the event which this +painting is designed to commemorate, I know not if we have ever had +one solitary gleam of liberty break along the great chaos of jarring +prejudice and barbarous law which we term forsooth a glorious +constitution. Liberty attacked! no, boy; but it is a time when +liberty may be gained." + +Perfectly unacquainted with the excited politics of the day, or the +growing and mighty spirit which then stirred through the minds of men, +Clarence remained silent; but his evident attention flattered the +fierce republican, and he proceeded. + +"Ay," he said slowly, and as if drinking in a deep and stern joy from +his conviction in the truth of the words he uttered,--"ay, I have +wandered over the face of the earth, and I have warmed my soul at the +fires which lay hidden under its quiet surface; I have been in the +city and the desert,--the herded and banded crimes of the Old World, +and the scattered but bold hearts which are found among the savannahs +of the New; and in either I have beheld that seed sown which, from a +mustard grain, too scanty for a bird's beak, shall grow up to be a +shelter and a home for the whole family of man. I have looked upon +the thrones of kings, and lo, the anointed ones were in purple and +festive pomp; and I looked beneath the thrones, and I saw Want and +Hunger, and despairing Wrath gnawing the foundations away. I have +stood in the streets of that great city where Mirth seems to hold an +eternal jubilee, and beheld the noble riot while the peasant starved; +and the priest built altars to Mammon, piled from the earnings of +groaning Labour and cemented with blood and tears. But I looked +farther, and saw, in the rear, chains sharpened into swords, misery +ripening into justice, and famine darkening into revenge; and I +laughed as I beheld, for I knew that the day of the oppressed was at +hand." + +Somewhat awed by the prophetic tone, though revolted by what seemed to +him the novelty and the fierceness of the sentiments of the +republican, Clarence, after a brief pause, said,-- + +"And what of our own country?" + +Wolfe's brow darkened. "The oppression here," said he, "has not been +so weighty, therefore the reaction will be less strong; the parties +are more blended, therefore their separation will be more arduous; the +extortion is less strained, therefore the endurance will be more meek; +but, soon or late, the struggle must come: bloody will it be, if the +strife be even; gentle and lasting, if the people predominate." + +"And if the rulers be the strongest?" said Clarence. + +"The struggle will be renewed," replied Wolfe, doggedly. + +"You still attend those oratorical meetings, cousin, I think?" said +Warner. + +"I do," said Wolfe; "and if you are not so utterly absorbed in your +vain and idle art as to be indifferent to all things nobler, you will +learn yourself to take interest in what concerns--I will not say your +country, but mankind. For you, young man" (and the republican turned +to Clarence), "I would fain hope that life has not already been +diverted from the greatest of human objects; if so, come to-morrow +night to our assembly, and learn from worthier lips than mine the +precepts and the hopes for which good men live or die." + +"I will come at all events to listen, if not to learn," said Clarence, +eagerly, for his curiosity was excited. And the republican, having +now fulfilled the end of his visit, rose and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Bound to suffer persecution + And martyrdom with resolution, + T'oppose himself against the hate + And vengeance of the incensed state.--Hudibras. + +Born of respectable though not wealthy parents, John Wolfe was one of +those fiery and daring spirits which, previous to some mighty +revolution, Fate seems to scatter over various parts of the earth, +even those removed from the predestined explosion,--heralds of the +events in which they are fitted though not fated to be actors. The +period at which he is presented to the reader was one considerably +prior to that French Revolution so much debated and so little +understood. But some such event, though not foreseen by the common, +had been already foreboded by the more enlightened, eye; and Wolfe, +from a protracted residence in France among the most discontented of +its freer spirits, had brought hope to that burning enthusiasm which +had long made the pervading passion of his existence. + +Bold to ferocity, generous in devotion to folly in self-sacrifice, +unflinching in his tenets to a degree which rendered their ardour +ineffectual to all times, because utterly inapplicable to the present, +Wolfe was one of those zealots whose very virtues have the semblance +of vice, and whose very capacities for danger become harmless from the +rashness of their excess. + +It was not among the philosophers and reasoners of France that Wolfe +had drawn strength to his opinions: whatever such companions might +have done to his tenets, they would at least have moderated his +actions. The philosopher may aid or expedite a change; but never does +the philosopher in any age or of any sect countenance a crime. But of +philosophers Wolfe knew little, and probably despised them for their +temperance: it was among fanatics--ignorant, but imaginative--that he +had strengthened the love without comprehending the nature of +republicanism. Like Lucian's painter, whose flattery portrayed the +one-eyed prince in profile, he viewed only that side of the question +in which there was no defect, and gave beauty to the whole by +concealing the half. Thus, though on his return to England herding +with the common class of his reforming brethren, Wolfe possessed many +peculiarities and distinctions of character which, in rendering him +strikingly adapted to the purpose of the novelist, must serve as a +caution to the reader not to judge of the class by the individual. + +With a class of Republicans in England there was a strong tendency to +support their cause by reasoning. With Wolfe, whose mind was little +wedded to logic, all was the offspring of turbulent feelings, which, +in rejecting argument, substituted declamation for syllogism. This +effected a powerful and irreconcilable distinction between Wolfe and +the better part of his comrades; for the habits of cool reasoning, +whether true or false, are little likely to bias the mind towards +those crimes to which Wolfe's unregulated emotions might possibly urge +him, and give to the characters to which they are a sort of common +denominator something of method and much of similarity. But the +feelings--those orators which allow no calculation and baffle the +tameness of comparison--rendered Wolfe alone, unique, eccentric in +opinion or action, whether of vice or virtue. + +Private ties frequently moderate the ardour of our public enthusiasm. +Wolfe had none. His nearest relation was Warner, and it may readily +be supposed that with the pensive and contemplative artist he had very +little in common. He had never married, nor had ever seemed to wander +from his stern and sterile path, in the most transient pursuit of the +pleasures of sense. Inflexibly honest, rigidly austere,--in his moral +character his bitterest enemies could detect no flaw,--poor, even to +indigence, he had invariably refused all overtures of the government; +thrice imprisoned and heavily fined for his doctrines, no fear of a +future, no remembrance of the past punishment could ever silence his +bitter eloquence or moderate the passion of his distempered zeal; +kindly, though rude, his scanty means were ever shared by the less +honest and disinterested followers of his faith; and he had been known +for days to deprive himself of food, and for nights of shelter, for +the purpose of yielding food and shelter to another. + +Such was the man doomed to forsake, through a long and wasted life, +every substantial blessing, in pursuit of a shadowy good; with the +warmest benevolence in his heart, to relinquish private affections, +and to brood even to madness over public offences; to sacrifice +everything in a generous though erring devotion for that freedom whose +cause, instead of promoting, he was calculated to retard; and, while +he believed himself the martyr of a high and uncompromising virtue, to +close his career with the greatest of human crimes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Faith, methinks his humour is good, and his purse will buy good +company.--The Parson's Wedding. + +When Clarence returned home, after the conversation recorded in our +last chapter, he found a note from Talbot, inviting him to meet some +friends of the latter at supper that evening. It was the first time +Clarence had been asked, and he looked forward with some curiosity and +impatience to the hour appointed in the note. + +It is impossible to convey any idea of the jealous rancour felt by Mr. +and Mrs. Copperas on hearing of this distinction,--a distinction which +"the perfect courtier" had never once bestowed upon themselves. + +Mrs. Copperas tossed her head, too indignant for words; and the stock- +jobber, in the bitterness of his soul, affirmed, with a meaning air, +"that he dared say, after all, that the old gentleman was not so rich +as he gave out." + +On entering Talbot's drawing-room, Clarence found about seven or eight +people assembled; their names, in proclaiming the nature of the party, +indicated that the aim of the host was to combine aristocracy and +talent. The literary acquirements and worldly tact of Talbot, joined +to the adventitious circumstances of birth and fortune, enabled him to +effect this object, so desirable in polished society, far better than +we generally find it effected now. The conversation of these guests +was light and various. The last bon mot of Chesterfield, the last +sarcasm of Horace Walpole, Goldsmith's "Traveller," Shenstone's +"Pastorals," and the attempt of Mrs. Montagu to bring Shakspeare into +fashion,--in all these subjects the graceful wit and exquisite taste +of Talbot shone pre-eminent; and he had almost succeeded in convincing +a profound critic that Gray was a poet more likely to live than Mason, +when the servant announced supper. + +That was the age of suppers! Happy age! Meal of ease and mirth; when +Wine and Night lit the lamp of Wit! Oh, what precious things were +said and looked at those banquets of the soul! There epicurism was in +the lip as well as the palate, and one had humour for a hors d'oeuvre +and repartee for an entremet. At dinner there is something too +pompous, too formal, for the true ease of Table Talk. One's +intellectual appetite, like the physical, is coarse but dull. At +dinner one is fit only for eating; after dinner only for politics. +But supper was a glorious relic of the ancients. The bustle of the +day had thoroughly wound up the spirit, and every stroke upon the +dial-plate of wit was true to the genius of the hour. The wallet of +diurnal anecdote was full, and craved unloading. The great meal--that +vulgar first love of the appetite--was over, and one now only +flattered it into coquetting with another. The mind, disengaged and +free, was no longer absorbed in a cutlet or burdened with a joint. +The gourmand carried the nicety of his physical perception to his +moral, and applauded a bon mot instead of a bonne bouche. + +Then, too, one had no necessity to keep a reserve of thought for the +after evening; supper was the final consummation, the glorious funeral +pyre of day. One could be merry till bedtime without an interregnum. +Nay, if in the ardour of convivialism one did,--I merely hint at the +possibility of such an event,--if one did exceed the narrow limits of +strict ebriety, and open the heart with a ruby key, one had nothing to +dread from the cold, or, what is worse, the warm looks of ladies in +the drawing-room; no fear that an imprudent word, in the amatory +fondness of the fermented blood, might expose one to matrimony and +settlements. There was no tame, trite medium of propriety and +suppressed confidence, no bridge from board to bed, over which a false +step (and your wine-cup is a marvellous corrupter of ambulatory +rectitude) might precipitate into an irrecoverable abyss of perilous +communication or unwholesome truth. One's pillow became at once the +legitimate and natural bourne to "the overheated brain;" and the +generous rashness of the coenatorial reveller was not damped by +untimeous caution or ignoble calculation. + +But "we have changed all that now." Sobriety has become the successor +of suppers; the great ocean of moral encroachment has not left us one +little island of refuge. Miserable supper-lovers that we are, like +the native Indians of America, a scattered and daily disappearing +race, we wander among strange customs, and behold the innovating and +invading Dinner spread gradually over the very space of time in which +the majesty of Supper once reigned undisputed and supreme! + + O, ye heavens, be kind, + And feel, thou earth, for this afflicted race.--WORDSWORTH. + +As he was sitting down to the table, Clarence's notice was arrested by +a somewhat suspicious and unpleasing occurrence. The supper room was +on the ground floor, and, owing to the heat of the weather, one of the +windows, facing the small garden, was left open. Through this window +Clarence distinctly saw the face of a man look into the room for one +instant, with a prying and curious gaze, and then as instantly +disappear. As no one else seemed to remark this incident, and the +general attention was somewhat noisily engrossed by the subject of +conversation, Clarence thought it not worth while to mention a +circumstance for which the impertinence of any neighbouring servant or +drunken passer-by might easily account. An apprehension, however, of +a more unpleasant nature shot across him, as his eye fell upon the +costly plate which Talbot rather ostentatiously displayed, and then +glanced to the single and aged servant, who was, besides his master, +the only male inmate of the house. Nor could he help saying to +Talbot, in the course of the evening, that he wondered he was not +afraid of hoarding so many articles of value in a house at once so +lonely and ill guarded. + +"Ill guarded!" said Talbot, rather affronted, "why, I and my servant +always sleep here!" + +To this Clarence thought it neither prudent nor well-bred to offer +further remark. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Meetings or public calls he never missed, + To dictate often, always to assist. + . . . . . + To his experience and his native sense, + He joined a bold, imperious eloquence; + The grave, stern look of men informed and wise, + A full command of feature, heart and eyes, + An awe-compelling frown, and fear-inspiring size.--CRABBE. + +The next evening Clarence, mindful of Wolfe's invitation, inquired +from Warner (who repaid the contempt of the republican for the +painter's calling by a similar feeling for the zealot's) the direction +of the oratorical meeting, and repaired there alone. It was the most +celebrated club (of that description) of the day, and well worth +attending, as a gratification to the curiosity, if not an improvement +to the mind. + +On entering, he found himself in a long room, tolerably well lighted, +and still better filled. The sleepy countenances of the audience, the +whispered conversation carried on at scattered intervals, the listless +attitudes of some, the frequent yawns of others, the eagerness with +which attention was attracted to the opening door, when it admitted +some new object of interest, the desperate resolution with which some +of the more energetic turned themselves towards the orator, and then, +with a faint shake of the head, turned themselves again hopelessly +away,--were all signs that denoted that no very eloquent declaimer was +in possession of the "house." It was, indeed, a singularly dull, +monotonous voice which, arising from the upper end of the room, +dragged itself on towards the middle, and expired with a sighing sound +before it reached the end. The face of the speaker suited his vocal +powers; it was small, mean, and of a round stupidity, without anything +even in fault that could possibly command attention or even the +excitement of disapprobation: the very garments of the orator seemed +dull and heavy, and, like the Melancholy of Milton, had a "leaden +look." Now and then some words, more emphatic than others,--stones +breaking, as it were with a momentary splash, the stagnation of the +heavy stream,--produced from three very quiet, unhappy-looking persons +seated next to the speaker, his immediate friends, three single +isolated "hears!" + + "The force of friendship could no further go." + +At last, the orator having spoken through, suddenly stopped; the whole +meeting seemed as if a weight had been taken from it; there was a +general buzz of awakened energy, each stretched his limbs, and +resettled himself in his place,-- + + "And turning to his neighbour said, + 'Rejoice!'" + +A pause ensued, the chairman looked round, the eyes of the meeting +followed those of the president, with a universal and palpable +impatience, towards an obscure corner of the room: the pause deepened +for one moment, and then was broken; a voice cried "Wolfe!" and at +that signal the whole room shook with the name. The place which +Clarence had taken did not allow him to see the object of these cries, +till he rose from his situation, and, passing two rows of benches, +stood forth in the middle space of the room; then, from one to one +went round the general roar of applause; feet stamped, hands clapped, +umbrellas set their sharp points to the ground, and walking-sticks +thumped themselves out of shape in the universal clamour. Tall, +gaunt, and erect, the speaker possessed, even in the mere proportions +of his frame, that physical power which never fails, in a popular +assembly, to gain attention to mediocrity and to throw dignity over +faults. He looked very slowly round the room, remaining perfectly +still and motionless, till the clamour of applause had entirely +subsided, and every ear, Clarence's no less eagerly than the rest, was +strained, and thirsting to catch the first syllables of his voice. + +It was then with a low, very deep, and somewhat hoarse tone, that he +began; and it was not till he had spoken for several minutes that the +iron expression of his face altered, that the drooping hand was +raised, and that the suppressed, yet powerful, voice began to expand +and vary in its volume. He had then entered upon a new department of +his subject. The question was connected with the English +constitution, and Wolfe was now preparing to put forth, in long and +blackened array, the alleged evils of an aristocratical form of +government. Then it was as if the bile and bitterness of years were +poured forth in a terrible and stormy wrath,--then his action became +vehement, and his eye flashed forth unutterable fire: his voice, +solemn, swelling, and increasing with each tone in its height and +depth, filled, as with something palpable and perceptible, the shaking +walls. The listeners,--a various and unconnected group, bound by no +tie of faith or of party, many attracted by curiosity, many by the +hope of ridicule, some abhorring the tenets expressed, and nearly all +disapproving their principles or doubting their wisdom,--the +listeners, certainly not a group previously formed or moulded into +enthusiasm, became rapt and earnest; their very breath forsook them. + +Linden had never before that night heard a public speaker; but he was +of a thoughtful and rather calculating mind, and his early habits of +decision, and the premature cultivation of his intellect, rendered him +little susceptible, in general, to the impressions of the vulgar: +nevertheless, in spite of himself, he was hurried away by the stream, +and found that the force and rapidity of the speaker did not allow him +even time for the dissent and disapprobation which his republican +maxims and fiery denunciations perpetually excited in a mind +aristocratic both by creed and education. At length after a +peroration of impetuous and magnificent invective, the orator ceased. + +In the midst of the applause that followed, Clarence left the +assembly; he could not endure the thought that any duller or more +commonplace speaker should fritter away the spell which yet bound and +engrossed his spirit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +At the bottom of the staircase was a small door, which gave way before +Nigel, as he precipitated himself upon the scene of action, a cocked +pistol in one hand, etc.--Fortunes of Nigel. + +The night, though not utterly dark, was rendered capricious and dim by +alternate wind and rain; and Clarence was delayed in his return +homeward by seeking occasional shelter from the rapid and heavy +showers which hurried by. It was during one of the temporary +cessations of the rain that he reached Copperas Bower; and, while he +was searching in his pockets for the key which was to admit him, he +observed two men loitering about his neighbour's house. The light was +not sufficient to give him more than a scattered and imperfect view of +their motions. Somewhat alarmed, he stood for several moments at the +door, watching them as well as he was able; nor did he enter the house +till the loiterers had left their suspicious position, and, walking +onwards, were hid entirely from him by the distance and darkness. + +"It really is a dangerous thing for Talbot," thought Clarence, as he +ascended to his apartment, "to keep so many valuables, and only one +servant, and that one as old as himself too. However, as I am by no +means sleepy, and my room is by no means cool, I may as well open my +window, and see if those idle fellows make their re-appearance." +Suiting the action to the thought, Clarence opened his little +casement, and leaned wistfully out. + +He had no light in his room, for none was ever left for him. This +circumstance, however, of course enabled him the better to penetrate +the dimness and haze of the night; and, by the help of the fluttering +lamps, he was enabled to take a general though not minute survey of +the scene below. + +I think I have before said that there was a garden between Talbot's +house and Copperas Bower; this was bounded by a wall, which confined +Talbot's peculiar territory of garden, and this wall, describing a +parallelogram, faced also the road. It contained two entrances,--one +the principal adytus, in the shape of a comely iron gate, the other a +wooden door, which, being a private pass, fronted the intermediate +garden before mentioned and was exactly opposite to Clarence's window. + +Linden had been more than ten minutes at his post, and had just begun +to think his suspicions without foundation and his vigil in vain, when +he observed the same figures he had seen before advance slowly from +the distance and pause by the front gate of Talbot's mansion. + +Alarmed and anxious, he redoubled his attention; he stretched himself, +as far as his safety would permit, out of the window; the lamps, +agitated by the wind, which swept by in occasional gusts, refused to +grant to his straining sight more than an inaccurate and unsatisfying +survey. Presently, a blast, more violent than ordinary, suspended as +it were the falling columns of rain and left Clarence in almost total +darkness; it rolled away, and the momentary calm which ensued enabled +him to see that one of the men was stooping by the gate, and the other +standing apparently on the watch at a little distance. Another gust +shook the lamps and again obscured his view; and when it had passed +onward in its rapid course, the men had left the gate, and were in the +garden beneath his window. They crept cautiously, but swiftly, along +the opposite wall, till they came to the small door we have before +mentioned; here they halted, and one of them appeared to occupy +himself in opening the door. Now, then, fear was changed into +certainty, and it seemed without doubt that the men, having found some +difficulty or danger in forcing the stronger or more public entrance, +had changed their quarter of attack. No more time was to be lost; +Clarence shouted aloud, but the high wind probably prevented the sound +reaching the ears of the burglars, or at least rendered it dubious and +confused. The next moment, and before Clarence could repeat his +alarm, they had opened the door, and were within the neighbouring +garden, beyond his view. Very young men, unless their experience has +outstripped their youth, seldom have much presence of mind; that +quality, which is the opposite to surprise, comes to us in those years +when nothing seems to us strange or unexpected. But a much older man +than Clarence might have well been at a loss to know what conduct to +adopt in the situation in which our hero was placed. The visits of +the watchman to that (then) obscure and ill-inhabited neighborhood +were more regulated by his indolence than his duty; and Clarence knew +that it would be in vain to listen for his cry or tarry for his +assistance. He himself was utterly unarmed, but the stock-jobber had +a pair of horse-pistols, and as this recollection flashed upon him, +the pause of deliberation ceased. + +With a swift step he descended the first flight of stairs, and pausing +at the chamber door of the faithful couple, knocked upon its panels +with a loud and hasty summons. The second repetition of the noise +produced the sentence, uttered in a very trembling voice, of "Who's +there?" + +"It is I, Clarence Linden," replied our hero; "lose no time in opening +the door." + +This answer seemed to reassure the valorous stock-jobber. He slowly +undid the bolt, and turned the key. + +"In Heaven's name, what do you want, Mr. Linden?" said he. + +"Ay," cried a sharp voice from the more internal recesses of the +chamber, "what do you want, sir, disturbing us in the bosom of our +family and at the dead of night?" + +With a rapid voice, Clarence repeated what he had seen, and requested +the broker to accompany him to Talbot's house, or at least to lend him +his pistols. + +"He shall do no such thing," cried Mrs. Copperas. "Come here, Mr. C., +and shut the door directly." + +"Stop, my love," said the stock-jobber, "stop a moment." + +"For God's sake," cried Clarence, "make no delay; the poor old man may +be murdered by this time." + +"It's no business of mine," said the stock-jobber. "If Adolphus had +not broken the rattle I would not have minded the trouble of springing +it; but you are very much mistaken if you think I am going to leave my +warm bed in order to have my throat cut." + +"Then give me your pistols," cried Clarence; "I will go alone." + +"I shall commit no such folly," said the stock-jobber; "if you are +murdered, I may have to answer it to your friends and pay for your +burial. Besides, you owe us for your lodgings: go to your bed, young +man, as I shall to mine." And, so saying, Mr. Copperas proceeded to +close the door. + +But enraged at the brutality of the man and excited by the urgency of +the case, Clarence did not allow him so peaceable a retreat. With a +strong and fierce grasp, he seized the astonished Copperas by the +throat, and shaking him violently, forced his own entrance into the +sacred nuptial chamber. + +"By Heaven," cried Linden, in a savage and stern tone, for his blood +was up. "I will twist your coward's throat, and save the murderer his +labour, if you do not instantly give me up your pistols." + +The stock-jobber was panic-stricken. "Take them," he cried, in the +extremest terror; "there they are on the chimney-piece close by." + +"Are they primed and loaded?" said Linden, not relaxing his gripe. + +"Yes, yes!" said the stock-jobber, "loose my throat, or you will choke +me!" and at that instant, Clarence felt himself clasped by the +invading hands of Mrs. Copperas. + +"Call off your wife," said he, "or I will choke you!" and he tightened +his hold, "and tell her to give me the pistols." + +The next moment Mrs. Copperas extended the debated weapons towards +Clarence. He seized them, flung the poor stock-jobber against the +bedpost, hurried down stairs, opened the back door, which led into the +garden, flew across the intervening space, arrived at the door, and +entering Talbot's garden, paused to consider what was the next step to +be taken. + +A person equally brave as Clarence, but more cautious, would not have +left the house without alarming Mr. de Warens, even in spite of the +failure with his master; but Linden only thought of the pressure of +time and the necessity of expedition, and he would have been a very +unworthy hero of romance had he felt fear for two antagonists, with a +brace of pistols at his command and a high and good action in view. + +After a brief but decisive halt, he proceeded rapidly round the house, +in order to ascertain at which part the ruffians had admitted +themselves, should they (as indeed there was little doubt) have +already effected their entrance. + +He found the shutters of one of the principal rooms on the ground- +floor had been opened, and through the aperture he caught the glimpse +of a moving light, which was suddenly obscured. As he was about to +enter, the light again flashed out: he drew back just in time, +carefully screened himself behind the shutter, and, through one of the +chinks, observed what passed within. Opposite to the window was a +door which conducted to the hall and principal staircase; this door +was open, and in the hall at the foot of the stairs Clarence saw two +men; one carried a dark lantern, from which the light proceeded, and +some tools, of the nature of which Clarence was naturally ignorant: +this was a middle-sized muscular man, dressed in the rudest garb of an +ordinary labourer; the other was much taller and younger, and his +dress was of a rather less ignoble fashion. + +"Hist! hist!" said the taller one, in a low tone, "did you not hear a +noise, Ben?" + +"Not a pin fall; but stow your whids, man!" + +This was all that Clarence heard in a connected form; but as the +wretches paused, in evident doubt how to proceed, he caught two or +three detached words, which his ingenuity readily formed into +sentences. "No, no! sleeps to the left--old man above--plate chest; +we must have the blunt too. Come, track up the dancers, and douse the +glim." And at the last words the light was extinguished, and +Clarence's quick and thirsting ear just caught their first steps on +the stairs; they died away, and all was hushed. + +It had several times occurred to Clarence to rush from his hiding- +place, and fire at the ruffians, and perhaps that measure would have +been the wisest he could have taken; but Clarence had never discharged +a pistol in his life, and he felt, therefore, that his aim must be +uncertain enough to render a favourable position and a short distance +essential requisites. Both these were, at present, denied to him; and +although he saw no weapons about the persons of the villains, yet he +imagined they would not have ventured on so dangerous an expedition +without firearms; and if he failed, as would have been most probable, +in his two shots, he concluded that, though the alarm would be given, +his own fate would be inevitable. + +If this was reasoning upon false premises, for housebreakers seldom or +never carry loaded firearms, and never stay for revenge, when their +safety demands escape, Clarence may be forgiven for not knowing the +customs of housebreakers, and for not making the very best of an +extremely novel and dangerous situation. + +No sooner did he find himself in total darkness than he bitterly +reproached himself for his late backwardness, and, inwardly resolving +not again to miss any opportunity which presented itself, he entered +the window, groped along the room into the hall, and found his way +very slowly and after much circumlocution to the staircase. + +He had just gained the summit, when a loud cry broke upon the +stillness: it came from a distance, and was instantly hushed; but he +caught at brief intervals, the sound of angry and threatening voices. +Clarence bent down anxiously, in the hope that some solitary ray would +escape through the crevice of the door within which the robbers were +engaged. But though the sounds came from the same floor as that on +which he now trod, they seemed far and remote, and not a gleam of +light broke the darkness. + +He continued, however, to feel his way in the direction from which the +sounds proceeded, and soon found himself in a narrow gallery; the +voices seemed more loud and near, as he advanced; at last he +distinctly heard the words-- + +"Will you not confess where it is placed?" + +"Indeed, indeed," replied an eager and earnest voice, which Clarence +recognized as Talbot's, "this is all the money I have in the house,-- +the plate is above,--my servant has the key,--take it,--take all,--but +save his life and mine." + +"None of your gammon," said another and rougher voice than that of the +first speaker: "we know you have more blunt than this,--a paltry sum +of fifty pounds, indeed!" + +"Hold!" cried the other ruffian, "here is a picture set with diamonds, +that will do, Ben. Let go the old man." + +Clarence was now just at hand, and probably from a sudden change in +the position of the dark lantern within, a light abruptly broke from +beneath the door and streamed along the passage. + +"No, no, no!" cried the old man, in a loud yet tremulous voice,--"no, +not that, anything else, but I will defend that with my life." + +"Ben, my lad," said the ruffian, "twist the old fool's neck we have no +more time to lose." + +At that very moment the door was flung violently open, and Clarence +Linden stood within three paces of the reprobates and their prey. The +taller villain had a miniature in his hand, and the old man clung to +his legs with a convulsive but impotent clasp; the other fellow had +already his gripe upon Talbot's neck, and his right hand grasped a +long case-knife. + +With a fierce and flashing eye, and a cheek deadly pale with internal +and resolute excitement, Clarence confronted the robbers. + +"Thank Heaven," cried he, "I am not too late!" And advancing yet +another step towards the shorter ruffian, who struck mute with the +suddenness of the apparition, still retained his grasp of the old man, +he fired his pistol, with a steady and close aim; the ball penetrated +the wretch's brain, and without sound or sigh, he fell down dead, at +the very feet of his just destroyer. The remaining robber had already +meditated, and a second more sufficed to accomplish, his escape. He +sprang towards the door: the ball whizzed beside him, but touched him +not. With a safe and swift step, long inured to darkness, he fled +along the passage; and Linden, satisfied with the vengeance he had +taken upon his comrade, did not harass him with an unavailing pursuit. + +Clarence turned to assist Talbot. The old man was stretched upon the +floor insensible, but his hand grasped the miniature which the +plunderer had dropped in his flight and terror, and his white and +ashen lip was pressed convulsively upon the recovered treasure. + +Linden raised and placed him on his bed, and while employed in +attempting to revive him, the ancient domestic, alarmed by the report +of the pistol, came, poker in hand, to his assistance. By little and +little they recovered the object of their attention. His eyes rolled +wildly round the room, and he muttered,--"Off, off! ye shall not rob +me of my only relic of her,--where is it?--have you got it?--the +picture, the picture!" + +"It is here, sir, it is here," said the old servant; "it is in your +own hand." + +Talbot's eye fell upon it; he gazed at it for some moments, pressed it +to his lips, and then, sitting erect and looking wildly round, he +seemed to awaken to the sense of his late danger and his present +deliverance. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Ah, fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed, + Or the death they bear, + The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove + With the wings of care! + In the battle, in the darkness, in the need, + Shall mine cling to thee! + Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, + It may bring to thee!--SHELLEY. + +LETTER FROM ALGERNON MORDAUNT TO ISABEL ST. LEGER. + +You told me not to write to you. You know how long, but not how +uselessly I have obeyed you. Did you think, Isabel, that my love was +of that worldly and common order which requires a perpetual aliment to +support it? Did you think that, if you forbade the stream to flow +visibly, its sources would be exhausted, and its channel dried up? +This may be the passion of others; it is not mine. Months have passed +since we parted, and since then you have not seen me; this letter is +the first token you have received from a remembrance which cannot die. +But do you think that I have not watched and tended upon you, and +gladdened my eyes with gazing on your beauty when you have not dreamed +that I was by? Ah, Isabel, your heart should have told you of it; +mine would, had you been so near me! + +You receive no letters from me, it is true: think you that my hand and +heart are therefore idle? No. I write to you a thousand burning +lines: I pour out my soul to you; I tell you of all I suffer; my +thoughts, my actions, my very dreams, are all traced upon the paper. +I send them not to you, but I read them over and over, and when I come +to your name, I pause and shut my eyes, and then "Fancy has her +power," and lo! "you are by my side!" + +Isabel, our love has not been a holiday and joyous sentiment; but I +feel a solemn and unalterable conviction that our union is ordained. + +Others have many objects to distract and occupy the thoughts which are +once forbidden a single direction, but we have none. At least, to me +you are everything. Pleasure, splendour, ambition, all are merged +into one great and eternal thought, and that is you! + +Others have told me, and I believed them, that I was hard and cold and +stern: so perhaps I was before I knew you, but now I am weaker and +softer than a child. There is a stone which is of all the hardest and +the chillest, but when once set on fire it is unquenchable. You smile +at my image, perhaps, and I should smile if I saw it in the writing of +another; for all that I have ridiculed in romance as exaggerated seems +now to me too cool and too commonplace for reality. + +But this is not what I meant to write to you; you are ill, dearest and +noblest Isabel, you are ill! I am the cause, and you conceal it from +me; and you would rather pine away and die than suffer me to lose one +of those worldly advantages which are in my eyes but as dust in the +balance,--it is in vain to deny it. I heard from others of your +impaired health; I have witnessed it myself. Do you remember last +night, when you were in the room with your relations, and they made +you sing,--a song too which you used to sing to me, and when you came +to the second stanza your voice failed you, and you burst into tears, +and they, instead of soothing, reproached and chid you, and you +answered not, but wept on? Isabel, do you remember that a sound was +heard at the window and a groan? Even they were startled, but they +thought it was the wind, for the night was dark and stormy, and they +saw not that it was I: yes, my devoted, my generous love, it was I who +gazed upon you, and from whose heart that voice of anguish was wrung; +and I saw your cheek was pale and thin, and that the canker at the +core had preyed upon the blossom. + +Think you, after this, that I could keep silence or obey your request? +No, dearest, no! Is not my happiness your object? I have the vanity +to believe so; and am I not the best judge how that happiness is to be +secured? I tell you, I say it calmly, coldly, dispassionately,--not +from the imagination, not even from the heart, but solely from the +reason,--that I can bear everything rather than the loss of you; and +that if the evil of my love scathe and destroy you, I shall consider +and curse myself as your murderer! Save me from this extreme of +misery, my--yes, my Isabel! I shall be at the copse where we have so +often met before, to-morrow, at noon. You will meet me; and if I +cannot convince you, I will not ask you to be persuaded. A. M. + +And Isabel read this letter, and placed it at her heart, and felt less +miserable than she had done for months; for, though she wept, there +was sweetness in the tears which the assurance of his love and the +tenderness of his remonstrance had called forth. She met him: how +could she refuse? and the struggle was past. Though not "convinced" +she was "persuaded;" for her heart, which refused his reasonings, +melted at his reproaches and his grief. But she would not consent to +unite her fate with him at once, for the evils of that step to his +interests were immediate and near; she was only persuaded to permit +their correspondence and occasional meetings, in which, however +imprudent they might be for herself, the disadvantages to her lover +were distant and remote. It was of him only that she thought; for him +she trembled; for him she was the coward and the woman; for herself +she had no fears, and no forethought. + +And Algernon was worthy of this devoted love, and returned it as it +was given. Man's love, in general, is a selfish and exacting +sentiment: it demands every sacrifice and refuses all. But the nature +of Mordaunt was essentially high and disinterested, and his honour, +like his love, was not that of the world: it was the ethereal and +spotless honour of a lofty and generous mind, the honour which custom +can neither give nor take away; and, however impatiently he bore the +deferring of a union, in which he deemed that he was the only +sufferer, he would not have uttered a sigh or urged a prayer for that +union, could it, in the minutest or remotest degree, have injured or +degraded her. + +These are the hearts and natures which make life beautiful; these are +the shrines which sanctify love; these are the diviner spirits for +whom there is kindred and commune with everything exalted and holy in +heaven and earth. For them Nature unfolds her hoarded poetry and her +hidden spells; for their steps are the lonely mountains, and the still +woods have a murmur for their ears; for them there is strange music in +the wave, and in the whispers of the light leaves, and rapture in the +voices of the birds: their souls drink, and are saturated with the +mysteries of the Universal Spirit, which the philosophy of old times +believed to be God Himself. They look upon the sky with a gifted +vision, and its dove-like quiet descends and overshadows their hearts; +the Moon and the Night are to them wells of Castalian inspiration and +golden dreams; and it was one of them who, gazing upon the Evening +Star, felt in the inmost sanctuary of his soul its mysterious +harmonies with his most worshipped hope, his most passionate desire, +and dedicated it to--LOVE. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Maria. Here's the brave old man's love, +Bianca. That loves the young man. + The Woman's Prize; or, The Tamer Tamed. + +"No, my dear Clarence, you have placed confidence in me, and it is now +my duty to return it; you have told me your history and origin, and I +will inform you of mine, but not yet. At present we will talk of you. +You have conferred upon me what our universal love of life makes us +regard as the greatest of human obligations; and though I can bear a +large burden of gratitude, yet I must throw off an atom or two in +using my little power in your behalf. Nor is this all: your history +has also given you another tie upon my heart, and, in granting you a +legitimate title to my good offices, removes any scruple you might +otherwise have had in accepting them." + +"I have just received this letter from Lord ----, the minister for +foreign affairs: you will see that he has appointed you to the office +of attache at ----. You will also oblige me by looking over this +other letter at your earliest convenience; the trifling sum which it +contains will be repeated every quarter; it will do very well for an +attache: when you are an ambassador, why, we must equip you by a +mortgage on Scarsdale; and now, my dear Clarence, tell me all about +the Copperases." + +I need not say who was the speaker of the above sentences: sentences +apparently of a very agreeable nature; nevertheless, Clarence seemed +to think otherwise, for the tears gushed into his eyes, and he was +unable for several moments to reply. + +"Come, my young friend," said Talbot, kindly; "I have no near +relations among whom I can choose a son I like better than you, nor +you any at present from whom you might select a more desirable father: +consequently, you must let me look upon you as my own flesh and blood; +and, as I intend to be a very strict and peremptory father, I expect +the most silent and scrupulous obedience to my commands. My first +parental order to you is to put up those papers, and to say nothing +more about them; for I have a great deal to talk to you about upon +other subjects." + +And by these and similar kind-hearted and delicate remonstrances, the +old man gained his point. From that moment Clarence looked upon him +with the grateful and venerating love of a son; and I question very +much, if Talbot had really been the father of our hero, whether he +would have liked so handsome a successor half so well. + +The day after this arrangement, Clarence paid his debt to the +Copperases and removed to Talbot's house. With this event commenced a +new era in his existence: he was no longer an outcast and a wanderer; +out of alien ties he had wrought the link of a close and even paternal +friendship; life, brilliant in its prospects and elevated in its +ascent, opened flatteringly before him; and the fortune and courage +which had so well provided for the present were the best omens and +auguries for the future. + +One evening, when the opening autumn had made its approaches felt, and +Linden and his new parent were seated alone by a blazing fire, and had +come to a full pause in their conversation, Talbot, shading his face +with the friendly pages of the "Whitehall Evening Paper," as if to +protect it from the heat, said,-- + +"I told you, the other day, that I would give you, at some early +opportunity, a brief sketch of my life. This confidence is due to you +in return for yours; and since you will soon leave me, and I am an old +man, whose life no prudent calculation can fix, I may as well choose +the present time to favour you with my confessions." + +Clarence expressed and looked his interest, and the old man thus +commenced,-- + +THE HISTORY OF A VAIN MAN. + +I was the favourite of my parents, for I was quick at my lessons, and +my father said I inherited my genius from him; and comely in my +person, and my mother said that my good looks came from her. So the +honest pair saw in their eldest son the union of their own +attractions, and thought they were making much of themselves when they +lavished their caresses upon me. They had another son, poor Arthur,-- +I think I see him now! He was a shy, quiet, subdued boy, of a very +plain personal appearance. My father and mother were vain, showy, +ambitious people of the world, and they were as ashamed of my brother +as they were proud of myself. However, he afterwards entered the army +and distinguished himself highly. He died in battle, leaving an only +daughter, who married, as you know, a nobleman of high rank. Her +subsequent fate it is now needless to relate. + +Petted and pampered from my childhood, I grew up with a profound +belief in my own excellences, and a feverish and irritating desire to +impress every one who came in my way with the same idea. There is a +sentence in Sir William Temple, which I have often thought of with a +painful conviction of its truth: "A restlessness in men's minds to be +something they are not, and to have something they have not, is the +root of all immorality." [And of all good.--AUTHOR.] At school, I +was confessedly the cleverest boy in my remove; and, what I valued +equally as much, I was the best cricketer of the best eleven. Here, +then, you will say my vanity was satisfied,--no such thing! There was +a boy who shared my room, and was next me in the school; we were, +therefore, always thrown together. He was a great stupid, lubberly +cub, equally ridiculed by the masters and disliked by the boys. Will +you believe that this individual was the express and almost sole +object of my envy? He was more than my rival, he was my superior; and +I hated him with all the unleavened bitterness of my soul. + +I have said he was my superior: it was in one thing. He could balance +a stick, nay, a cricket-bat, a poker, upon his chin, and I could not; +you laugh, and so can I now, but it was no subject of laughter to me +then. This circumstance, trifling as it may appear to you, poisoned +my enjoyment. The boy saw my envy, for I could not conceal it; and as +all fools are malicious, and most fools ostentatious, he took a +particular pride and pleasure in displaying his dexterity and showing +off my discontent. You can form no idea of the extent to which this +petty insolence vexed and disquieted me. Even in my sleep, the clumsy +and grinning features of this tormenting imp haunted me like a +spectre: my visions were nothing but chins and cricket-bats; walking- +sticks, sustaining themselves upon human excrescences, and pokers +dancing a hornpipe upon the tip of a nose. I assure you that I have +spent hours in secret seclusion, practising to rival my hated comrade, +and my face--see how one vanity quarrels with another--was little +better than a mass of bruises and discolorations. + +I actually became so uncomfortable as to write home, and request to +leave the school. I was then about sixteen, and my indulgent father, +in granting my desire, told me that I was too old and too advanced in +my learning to go to any other academic establishment than the +University. The day before I left the school, I gave, as was usually +the custom, a breakfast to all my friends; the circumstance of my +tormentor's sharing my room obliged me to invite him among the rest. +However, I was in high spirits, and being a universal favourite with +my schoolfellows, I succeeded in what was always to me an object of +social ambition, and set the table in a roar; yet, when our festival +was nearly expired, and I began to allude more particularly to my +approaching departure, my vanity was far more gratified, for my +feelings were far more touched, by observing the regret and receiving +the good wishes of all my companions. I still recall that hour as one +of the proudest and happiest of my life; but it had its immediate +reverse. My evil demon put it into my tormentor's head to give me one +last parting pang of jealousy. A large umbrella happened accidentally +to be in my room; Crompton--such was my schoolfellow's name--saw and +seized it. "Look here, Talbot," said he, with his taunting and +hideous sneer, "you can't do this;" and placing the point of the +umbrella upon his forehead, just above the eyebrow, he performed +various antics round the room. + +At that moment I was standing by the fireplace, and conversing with +two boys upon whom, above all others, I wished to leave a favourable +impression. My foolish soreness on this one subject had been often +remarked; and, as I turned in abrupt and awkward discomposure from the +exhibition, I observed my two schoolfellows smile and exchange looks. +I am not naturally passionate, and even at that age I had in ordinary +cases great self-command; but this observation, and the cause which +led to it, threw me off my guard. Whenever we are utterly under the +command of one feeling, we cannot be said to have our reason: at that +instant I literally believe I was beside myself. What! in the very +flush of the last triumph that that scene would ever afford me; amidst +the last regrets of my early friends, to whom I fondly hoped to +bequeath a long and brilliant remembrance, to be thus bearded by a +contemptible rival, and triumphed over by a pitiful yet insulting +superiority; to close my condolences with laughter; to have the final +solemnity of my career thus terminating in mockery; and ridicule +substituted as an ultimate reminiscence in the place of an admiring +regret; all this, too, to be effected by one so long hated, one whom I +was the only being forbidden the comparative happiness of despising? +I could not brook it; the insult, the insulter, were too revolting. +As the unhappy buffoon approached me, thrusting his distorted face +towards mine, I seized and pushed him aside, with a brief curse and a +violent hand. The sharp point of the umbrella slipped; my action gave +it impetus and weight; it penetrated his eye, and--spare me, spare me +the rest. [This instance of vanity, and indeed the whole of Talbot's +history, is literally from facts.] + +The old man bent down, and paused for a few moments before he resumed. + +Crompton lost his eye, but my punishment was as severe as his. People +who are very vain are usually equally susceptible, and they who feel +one thing acutely will so feel another. For years, ay, for many years +afterwards, the recollection of my folly goaded me with the bitterest +and most unceasing remorse. Had I committed murder, my conscience +could scarce have afflicted me more severely. I did not regain my +self-esteem till I had somewhat repaired the injury I had done. Long +after that time Crompton was in prison, in great and overwhelming +distress. I impoverished myself to release him; I sustained him and +his family till fortune rendered my assistance no longer necessary; +and no triumphs were ever more sweet to me than the sacrifice I was +forced to submit to, in order to restore him to prosperity. + +It is natural to hope that this accident had at least the effect of +curing me of my fault; but it requires philosophy in yourself, or your +advisers, to render remorse of future avail. How could I amend my +fault, when I was not even aware of it? Smarting under the effects, I +investigated not the cause, and I attributed to irascibility and +vindictiveness what had a deeper and more dangerous origin. + +At college, in spite of all my advantages of birth, fortune, health, +and intellectual acquirements, I had many things besides the one enemy +of remorse to corrode my tranquillity of mind. I was sure to find +some one to excel me in something, and this was enough to embitter my +peace. Our living Goldsmith is my favourite poet, and I perhaps +insensibly venerate the genius the more because I find something +congenial in the infirmities of the man. I can fully credit the +anecdotes recorded of him. I, too, could once have been jealous of a +puppet handling a spontoon; I, too, could once have been miserable if +two ladies at the theatre were more the objects of attention than +myself! You, Clarence, will not despise me for this confession; those +who knew me less would. Fools! there is no man so great as not to +have some littleness more predominant than all his greatness. Our +virtues are the dupes, and often only the playthings, of our follies! +smile, but it is mournfully, in looking back to that day. Though +rich, high-born, and good-looking, I possessed not one of these three +qualities in that eminence which could alone satisfy my love of +superiority and desire of effect. I knew this somewhat humiliating +truth, for, though vain, I was not conceited. Vanity, indeed, is the +very antidote to conceit; for while the former makes us all nerve to +the opinion of others, the latter is perfectly satisfied with its +opinion of itself. + +I knew this truth, and as Pope, if he could not be the greatest of +poets, resolved to be the most correct, so I strove, since I could not +be the handsomest, the wealthiest, and the noblest of my +contemporaries, to excel them, at least, in the grace and +consummateness of manner; and in this after incredible pains, after +diligent apprenticeship in the world and intense study in the closet, +I at last flattered myself that I had succeeded. Of all success, +while we are yet in the flush of youth and its capacities of +enjoyment, I can imagine none more intoxicating or gratifying than the +success of society, and I had certainly some years of its triumph and +eclat. I was courted, followed, flattered, and sought by the most +envied and fastidious circles in England and even in Paris; for +society, so indifferent to those who disdain it, overwhelms with its +gratitude--profuse though brief--those who devote themselves to its +amusement. The victim to sameness and ennui, it offers, like the +pallid and luxurious Roman, a reward for a new pleasure: and as long +as our industry or talent can afford the pleasure, the reward is ours. +At that time, then, I reaped the full harvest of my exertions: the +disappointment and vexation were of later date. + +I now come to the great era of my life,--Love. Among my acquaintance +was Lady Mary Walden, a widow of high birth, and noble though not +powerful connections. She lived about twenty miles from London in a +beautiful retreat; and, though not rich, her jointure, rendered ample +by economy, enabled her to indulge her love of society. Her house was +always as full as its size would permit, and I was among the most +welcome of its visitors. She had an only daughter: even now, through +the dim mists of years, that beautiful and fairy form rises still and +shining before me, undimmed by sorrow, unfaded by time. Caroline +Walden was the object of general admiration, and her mother, who +attributed the avidity with which her invitations were accepted by all +the wits and fine gentlemen of the day to the charms of her own +conversation, little suspected the face and wit of her daughter to be +the magnet of attraction. I had no idea at that time of marriage, +still less could I have entertained such a notion, unless the step had +greatly exalted my rank and prospects. + +The poor and powerless Caroline Walden was therefore the last person +for whom I had what the jargon of mothers term "serious intentions." +However, I was struck with her exceeding loveliness and amused by the +vivacity of her manners; moreover, my vanity was excited by the hope +of distancing all my competitors for the smiles of the young beauty. +Accordingly I laid myself out to please, and neglected none of those +subtle and almost secret attentions which, of all flatteries, are the +most delicate and successful; and I succeeded. Caroline loved me with +all the earnestness and devotion which characterize the love of woman. +It never occurred to her that I was only trifling with those +affections which it seemed so ardently my intention to win. She knew +that my fortune was large enough to dispense with the necessity of +fortune with my wife, and in birth she would have equalled men of +greater pretensions to myself; added to this, long adulation had made +her sensible though not vain of her attractions, and she listened with +a credulous ear to the insinuated flatteries I was so well accustomed +to instil. + +Never shall I forget--no, though I double my present years--the shock, +the wildness of despair with which she first detected the selfishness +of my homage; with which she saw that I had only mocked her trusting +simplicity; and that while she had been lavishing the richest +treasures of her heart before the burning altars of Love, my idol had +been Vanity and my offerings deceit. She tore herself from the +profanation of my grasp; she shrouded herself from my presence. All +interviews with me were rejected; all my letters returned to me +unopened; and though, in the repentance of my heart, I entreated, I +urged her to accept vows that were no longer insincere, her pride +became her punishment, as well as my own. In a moment of bitter and +desperate feeling; she accepted the offers of another, and made the +marriage bond a fatal and irrevocable barrier to our reconciliation +and union. + +Oh, how I now cursed my infatuation! how passionately I recalled the +past! how coldly I turned from the hollow and false world, to whose +service I had sacrificed my happiness, to muse and madden over the +prospects I had destroyed and the loving and noble heart I had +rejected! Alas! after all, what is so ungrateful as that world for +which we renounce so much? Its votaries resemble the Gymnosophists of +old, and while they profess to make their chief end pleasure, we can +only learn that they expose themselves to every torture and every +pain! + +Lord Merton, the man whom Caroline now called husband, was among the +wealthiest and most dissipated of his order; and two years after our +separation I met once more with the victim of my unworthiness, blazing +in "the full front" of courtly splendour, the leader of its gayeties +and the cynosure of her followers. Intimate with the same society, we +were perpetually cast together, and Caroline was proud of displaying +the indifference towards me, which, if she felt not, she had at least +learnt artfully to assume. This indifference was her ruin. The +depths of my evil passion were again sounded and aroused, and I +resolved yet to humble the pride and conquer the coldness which galled +to the very quick the morbid acuteness of my self-love. I again +attached myself to her train; I bowed myself to the very dust before +her. What to me were her chilling reply and disdainful civilities?--- +only still stronger excitements to persevere. + +I spare you and myself the gradual progress of my schemes. A woman +may recover her first passion, it is true; but then she must replace +it with another. That other was denied to Caroline: she had not even +children to engross her thoughts and to occupy her affections; and the +gay world, which to many becomes an object, was to her only an escape. + +Clarence, my triumph came! Lady Walden (who had never known our +secret) invited me to her house: Caroline was there. In the same spot +where we had so often stood before, and in which her earliest +affections were insensibly breathed away, in that same spot I drew +from her colourless and trembling lips the confession of her weakness, +the restored and pervading power of my remembrance. + +But Caroline was a proud and virtuous woman: even while her heart +betrayed her, her mind resisted; and in the very avowal of her +unconquered attachment, she renounced and discarded me forever. I was +not an ungenerous though a vain man; but my generosity was wayward, +tainted, and imperfect. I could have borne the separation; I could +have severed myself from her; I could have flown to the uttermost +parts of the earth; I could have hoarded there my secret yet +unextinguished love, and never disturbed her quiet by a murmur: but +then the fiat of separation must have come from me! My vanity could +not bear that her lips should reject me, that my part was not to be +the nobility of sacrifice, but the submission of resignation. +However, my better feelings were aroused, and though I could not +stifle I concealed my selfish repinings. We parted: she returned to +town; I buried myself in the country; and, amidst the literary studies +to which, though by fits and starts, I was passionately devoted, I +endeavoured to forget my ominous and guilty love. + +But I was then too closely bound to the world not to be perpetually +reminded of its events. My retreat was thronged with occasional +migrators from London; my books were mingled with the news and scandal +of the day. All spoke to me of Lady Merton; not as I loved to picture +her to myself, pale and sorrowful, and brooding over my image; but +gay, dissipated, the dispenser of smiles, the prototype of joy. I +contrasted this account of her with the melancholy and gloom of my own +feelings, and I resented her seeming happiness as an insult to myself. + +In this angry and fretful mood I returned to London. My empire was +soon resumed; and now, Linden, comes the most sickening part of my +confessions. Vanity is a growing and insatiable disease: what seems +to its desires as wealth to-day, to-morrow it rejects as poverty. I +was at first contented to know that I was beloved; by degrees, slow, +yet sure, I desired that others should know it also. I longed to +display my power over the celebrated and courted Lady Merton; and to +put the last crown to my reputation and importance. The envy of +others is the food of our own self-love. Oh, you know not, you dream +not, of the galling mortifications to which a proud woman, whose love +commands her pride, is subjected! I imposed upon Caroline the most +humiliating, the most painful trials; I would allow her to see none +but those I pleased; to go to no place where I withheld my consent; +and I hesitated not to exert and testify my power over her affections, +in proportion to the publicity of the opportunity. + +Yet, with all this littleness, would you believe that I loved Caroline +with the most ardent and engrossing passion? I have paused behind +her, in order to kiss the ground she trod on; I have stayed whole +nights beneath her window, to catch one glimpse of her passing form, +even though I had spent hours of the daytime in her society; and, +though my love burned and consumed me like a fire, I would not breathe +a single wish against her innocence, or take advantage of my power to +accomplish what I knew from her virtue and pride no atonement could +possibly repay. Such are the inconsistencies of the heart, and such, +while they prevent our perfection, redeem us from the utterness of +vice! Never, even in my wildest days, was I blind to the glory of +virtue, yet never, till my latest years, have I enjoyed the faculty to +avail myself of my perception. I resembled the mole, which by Boyle +is supposed to possess the idea of light, but to be unable to +comprehend the objects on which it shines. + +Among the varieties of my prevailing sin, was a weakness common enough +to worldly men. While I ostentatiously played off the love I had +excited I could not bear to show the love I felt. In our country, and +perhaps, though in a less degree, in all other highly artificial +states, enthusiasm or even feeling of any kind is ridiculous; and I +could not endure the thought that my treasured and secret affections +should be dragged from their retreat to be cavilled and carped at by-- + + "Every beardless, vain comparative." + +This weakness brought on the catastrophe of my love; for, mark me, +Clarence, it is through our weaknesses that our vices are punished! +One night I went to a masquerade; and, while I was sitting in a remote +corner, three of my acquaintances, whom I recognized, though they knew +it not, approached and rallied me upon my romantic attachment to Lady +Merton. One of them was a woman of a malicious and sarcastic wit; the +other two were men whom I disliked, because their pretensions +interfered with mine; they were diners-out and anecdote-mongers. +Stung to the quick by their sarcasms and laughter, I replied in a +train of mingled arrogance and jest; at last I spoke slightingly of +the person in question; and these profane and false lips dared not +only to disown the faintest love to that being who was more to me than +all on earth, but even to speak of herself with ridicule and her +affection with disdain. + +In the midst of this, I turned and beheld, within hearing, a figure +which I knew upon the moment. O Heaven! the burning shame and agony +of that glance! It raised its mask--I saw that blanched cheek, and +that trembling lip! I knew that the iron had indeed entered into her +soul. + +Clarence, I never beheld her again alive. Within a week from that +time she was a corpse. She had borne much, suffered much, and +murmured not; but this shock pressed too hard, came too home, and from +the hand of him for whom she would have sacrificed all! I stood by +her in death; I beheld my work; and I turned away, a wanderer and a +pilgrim upon the face of the earth. Verily, I have had my reward. + +The old man paused, in great emotion; and Clarence, who could offer +him no consolation, did not break the silence. In a few minutes +Talbot continued-- + +From that time the smile of woman was nothing to me: I seemed to grow +old in a single day. Life lost to me all its objects. A dreary and +desert blank stretched itself before me: the sounds of creation had +only in my ears one voice; the past, the future, one image. I left my +country for twenty years, and lived an idle and hopeless man in the +various courts of the Continent. + +At the age of fifty I returned to England; the wounds of the past had +not disappeared, but they were scarred over; and I longed, like the +rest of my species, to have an object in view. At that age, if we +have seen much of mankind and possess the talents to profit by our +knowledge, we must be one of two sects,--a politician or a +philosopher. My time was not yet arrived for the latter, so I +resolved to become the former; but this was denied me, for my vanity +had assumed a different shape. It is true that I cared no longer for +the reputation women can bestow; but I was eager for the applause of +men, and I did not like the long labour necessary to attain it. I +wished to make a short road to my object, and I eagerly followed every +turn but the right one, in the hopes of its leading me sooner to my +goal. + +The great characteristic of a vain man in contradistinction to an +ambitious man, his eternal obstacle to a high and honourable fame, is +this: he requires for any expenditure of trouble too speedy a reward; +he cannot wait for years, and climb, step by step, to a lofty object; +whatever he attempts, he must seize at a single grasp. Added to this, +he is incapable of an exclusive attention to one end; the universality +of his cravings is not contented, unless it devours all; and thus he +is perpetually doomed to fritter away his energies by grasping at the +trifling baubles within his reach, and in gathering the worthless +fruit which a single sun can mature. + +This, then, was my fault, and the cause of my failure. I could not +give myself up to finance, nor puzzle through the intricacies of +commerce: even the common parliamentary drudgeries of constant +attendance and late hours were insupportable to me; and so after two +or three "splendid orations," as my friends termed them, I was +satisfied with the puffs of the pamphleteers and closed my political +career. I was now, then, the wit and the conversationalist. With my +fluency of speech and variety of information, these were easy +distinctions; and the popularity of a dinner-table or the approbation +of a literary coterie consoled me for the more public and more durable +applause I had resigned. + +But even this gratification did not last long. I fell ill; and the +friends who gathered round the wit fled from the valetudinarian. This +disgusted me, and when I was sufficiently recovered I again returned +to the Continent. But I had a fit of misanthropy and solitude upon +me, and so it was not to courts and cities, the scenes of former +gayeties, that I repaired; on the contrary, I hired a house by one of +the most sequestered of the Swiss lakes, and, avoiding the living, I +surrendered myself without interruption or control to commune with the +dead. I surrounded myself with books and pored with a curious and +searching eye into those works which treat particularly upon "man." +My passions were over, my love of pleasure and society was dried up, +and I had now no longer the obstacles which forbid us to be wise; I +unlearned the precepts my manhood had acquired, and in my old age I +commenced philosopher; Religion lent me her aid, and by her holy lamp +my studies were conned and my hermitage illumined. + +There are certain characters which in the world are evil, and in +seclusion are good: Rousseau, whom I knew well, is one of them. These +persons are of a morbid sensitiveness, which is perpetually galled by +collision with others. In short, they are under the dominion of +VANITY; and that vanity, never satisfied and always restless in the +various competitions of society, produces "envy, hatred, malice, and +all uncharitableness!" but, in solitude, the good and benevolent +dispositions with which our self-love no longer interferes have room +to expand and ripen without being cramped by opposing interests: this +will account for many seeming discrepancies in character. There are +also some men in whom old age supplies the place of solitude, and +Rousseau's antagonist and mental antipodes, Voltaire, is of this +order. The pert, the malignant, the arrogant, the lampooning author +in his youth and manhood, has become in his old age the mild, the +benevolent, and the venerable philosopher. Nothing is more absurd +than to receive the characters of great men so implicitly upon the +word of a biographer; and nothing can be less surprising than our +eternal disputes upon individuals: for no man throughout life is the +same being, and each season of our existence contradicts the +characteristics of the last. + +And now in my solitude and my old age, a new spirit entered within me: +the game in which I had engaged so vehemently was over for me; and I +joined to my experience as a player my coolness as a spectator; I no +longer struggled with my species, and I began insensibly to love them. +I established schools and founded charities; and, in secret but active +services to mankind, I employed my exertions and lavished my desires. + +From this amendment I date the peace of mind and elasticity which I +now enjoy; and in my later years the happiness which I pursued in my +youth and maturity so hotly, yet so ineffectually, has flown +unsolicited to my breast. + +About five years ago I came again to England, with the intention of +breathing my last in the country which gave me birth. I retired to my +family home; I endeavoured to divert myself in agricultural +improvements, and my rental was consumed in speculation. This did not +please me long: I sought society,--society in Yorkshire! You may +imagine the result: I was out of my element; the mere distance from +the metropolis, from all genial companionship, sickened me with a +vague feeling of desertion and solitude; for the first time in my life +I felt my age and my celibacy. Once more I returned to town, a +complaint attacked my lungs, the physicians recommended the air of +this neighbourhood, and I chose the residence I now inhabit. Without +being exactly in London, I can command its advantages, and obtain +society as a recreation without buying it by restraint. I am not fond +of new faces nor any longer covetous of show; my old servant therefore +contented me: for the future, I shall, however, to satisfy your fears, +remove to a safer habitation, and obtain a more numerous guard. It +is, at all events, a happiness to me that Fate, in casting me here and +exposing me to something of danger, has raised up in you a friend for +my old age, and selected from this great universe of strangers one +being to convince my heart that it has not outlived affection. My +tale is done; may you profit by its moral! + +When Talbot said that our characters were undergoing a perpetual +change he should have made this reservation,--the one ruling passion +remains to the last; it may be modified, but it never departs; and it +is these modifications which do, for the most part, shape out the +channels of our change; or as Helvetius has beautifully expressed it, +"we resemble those vessels which the waves still carry towards the +south, when the north wind has ceased to blow;" but in our old age, +this passion, having little to feed on, becomes sometimes dormant and +inert, and then our good qualities rise, as it were from an incubus, +and have their sway. + +Yet these cases are not common, and Talbot was a remarkable instance, +for he was a remarkable man. His mind had not slept while the age +advanced, and thus it had swelled as it were from the bondage of its +earlier passions and prejudices. But little did he think, in the +blindness of self-delusion,--though it was so obvious to Clarence, +that he could have smiled if he had not rather inclined to weep at the +frailties of human nature,--little did he think that the vanity which +had cost him so much remained "a monarch still," undeposed alike by +his philosophy, his religion, or his remorse; and that, debarred by +circumstances from all wider and more dangerous fields, it still +lavished itself upon trifles unworthy of his powers and puerilities +dishonouring his age. Folly is a courtesan whom we ourselves seek, +whose favours we solicit at an enormous price, and who, like Lais, +finds philosophers at her door scarcely less frequently than the rest +of mankind! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V2 *** + +****** This file should be named 7632.txt or 7632.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +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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