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diff --git a/9222-h/9222-h.htm b/9222-h/9222-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..834059f --- /dev/null +++ b/9222-h/9222-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1110 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Select Party, by Nathaniel Hawthorne</title> + +<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Select Party, by Nathaniel Hawthorne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: A Select Party</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 6, 2003 [eBook #9222]<br /> +[Most recently updated: November 9, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Widger and Al Haines</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY ***</div> + +<h1>A Select Party</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Nathaniel Hawthorne</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p> +The man of fancy made an entertainment at one of his castles in the air, and +invited a select number of distinguished personages to favor him with their +presence. The mansion, though less splendid than many that have been situated +in the same region, was nevertheless of a magnificence such as is seldom +witnessed by those acquainted only with terrestrial architecture. Its strong +foundations and massive walls were quarried out of a ledge of heavy and sombre +clouds which had hung brooding over the earth, apparently as dense and +ponderous as its own granite, throughout a whole autumnal day. Perceiving that +the general effect was gloomy,—so that the airy castle looked like a +feudal fortress, or a monastery of the Middle Ages, or a state prison of our +own times, rather than the home of pleasure and repose which he intended it to +be,—the owner, regardless of expense, resolved to gild the exterior from +top to bottom. Fortunately, there was just then a flood of evening sunshine in +the air. This being gathered up and poured abundantly upon the roof and walls, +imbued them with a kind of solemn cheerfulness; while the cupolas and pinnacles +were made to glitter with the purest gold, and all the hundred windows gleamed +with a glad light, as if the edifice itself were rejoicing in its heart. +</p> + +<p> +And now, if the people of the lower world chanced to be looking upward out of +the turmoil of their petty perplexities, they probably mistook the castle in +the air for a heap of sunset clouds, to which the magic of light and shade had +imparted the aspect of a fantastically constructed mansion. To such beholders +it was unreal, because they lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy +to pass within its portal, they would have recognized the truth, that the +dominions which the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities become a +thousand times more real than the earth whereon they stamp their feet, saying, +“This is solid and substantial; this may be called a fact.” +</p> + +<p> +At the appointed hour, the host stood in his great saloon to receive the +company. It was a vast and noble room, the vaulted ceiling of which was +supported by double rows of gigantic pillars that had been hewn entire out of +masses of variegated clouds. So brilliantly were they polished, and so +exquisitely wrought by the sculptor’s skill, as to resemble the finest +specimens of emerald, porphyry, opal, and chrysolite, thus producing a delicate +richness of effect which their immense size rendered not incompatible with +grandeur. To each of these pillars a meteor was suspended. Thousands of these +ethereal lustres are continually wandering about the firmament, burning out to +waste, yet capable of imparting a useful radiance to any person who has the art +of converting them to domestic purposes. As managed in the saloon, they are far +more economical than ordinary lamplight. Such, however, was the intensity of +their blaze that it had been found expedient to cover each meteor with a globe +of evening mist, thereby muffling the too potent glow and soothing it into a +mild and comfortable splendor. It was like the brilliancy of a powerful yet +chastened imagination,—a light which seemed to hide whatever was unworthy +to be noticed and give effect to every beautiful and noble attribute. The +guests, therefore, as they advanced up the centre of the saloon, appeared to +better advantage than ever before in their lives. +</p> + +<p> +The first that entered, with old-fashioned punctuality, was a venerable figure +in the costume of bygone days, with his white hair flowing down over his +shoulders and a reverend beard upon his breast. He leaned upon a staff, the +tremulous stroke of which, as he set it carefully upon the floor, re-echoed +through the saloon at every footstep. Recognizing at once this celebrated +personage, whom it had cost him a vast deal of trouble and research to +discover, the host advanced nearly three fourths of the distance down between +the pillars to meet and welcome him. +</p> + +<p> +“Venerable sir,” said the Man of Fancy, bending to the floor, “the honor of +this visit would never be forgotten were my term of existence to be as happily +prolonged as your own.” +</p> + +<p> +The old gentleman received the compliment with gracious condescension. He then +thrust up his spectacles over his forehead and appeared to take a critical +survey of the saloon. +</p> + +<p> +“Never within my recollection,” observed he, “have I entered a more spacious +and noble hall. But are you sure that it is built of solid materials and that +the structure will be permanent?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, never fear, my venerable friend,” replied the host. “In reference to a +lifetime like your own, it is true my castle may well be called a temporary +edifice. But it will endure long enough to answer all the purposes for which it +was erected.” +</p> + +<p> +But we forget that the reader has not yet been made acquainted with the guest. +It was no other than that universally accredited character so constantly +referred to in all seasons of intense cold or heat; he that, remembers the hot +Sunday and the cold Friday; the witness of a past age whose negative +reminiscences find their way into every newspaper, yet whose antiquated and +dusky abode is so overshadowed by accumulated years and crowded back by modern +edifices that none but the Man of Fancy could have discovered it; it was, in +short, that twin brother of Time, and great-grandsire of mankind, and +hand-and-glove associate of all forgotten men and things,—the Oldest +Inhabitant. The host would willingly have drawn him into conversation, but +succeeded only in eliciting a few remarks as to the oppressive atmosphere of +this present summer evening compared with one which the guest had experienced +about fourscore years ago. The old gentleman, in fact, was a good deal overcome +by his journey among the clouds, which, to a frame so earth-incrusted by long +continuance in a lower region, was unavoidably more fatiguing than to younger +spirits. He was therefore conducted to an easy-chair, well cushioned and +stuffed with vaporous softness, and left to take a little repose. +</p> + +<p> +The Man of Fancy now discerned another guest, who stood so quietly in the +shadow of one of the pillars that he might easily have been overlooked. +</p> + +<p> +“My dear sir,” exclaimed the host, grasping him warmly by the hand, “allow me +to greet you as the hero of the evening. Pray do not take it as an empty +compliment; for, if there were not another guest in my castle, it would be +entirely pervaded with your presence.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thank you,” answered the unpretending stranger; “but, though you happened to +overlook me, I have not just arrived. I came very early; and, with your +permission, shall remain after the rest of the company have retired.” +</p> + +<p> +And who does the reader imagine was this unobtrusive guest? It was the famous +performer of acknowledged impossibilities,—a character of superhuman +capacity and virtue, and, if his enemies are to be credited, of no less +remarkable weaknesses and defects. With a generosity with which he alone sets +us an example, we will glance merely at his nobler attributes. He it is, then, +who prefers the interests of others to his own and a humble station to an +exalted one. Careless of fashion, custom, the opinions of men, and the +influence of the press, he assimilates his life to the standard of ideal +rectitude, and thus proves himself the one independent citizen of our free +country. In point of ability, many people declare him to be the only +mathematician capable of squaring the circle; the only mechanic acquainted with +the principle of perpetual motion; the only scientific philosopher who can +compel water to run up hill; the only writer of the age whose genius is equal +to the production of an epic poem; and, finally, so various are his +accomplishments, the only professor of gymnastics who has succeeded in jumping +down his own throat. With all these talents, however, he is so far from being +considered a member of good society, that it is the severest censure of any +fashionable assemblage to affirm that this remarkable individual was present. +Public orators, lecturers, and theatrical performers particularly eschew his +company. For especial reasons, we are not at liberty to disclose his name, and +shall mention only one other trait,—a most singular phenomenon in natural +philosophy,—that, when he happens to cast his eyes upon a looking-glass, +he beholds Nobody reflected there! +</p> + +<p> +Several other guests now made their appearance; and among them, chattering with +immense volubility, a brisk little gentleman of universal vogue in private +society, and not unknown in the public journals under the title of Monsieur +On-Dit. The name would seem to indicate a Frenchman; but, whatever be his +country, he is thoroughly versed in all the languages of the day, and can +express himself quite as much to the purpose in English as in any other tongue. +No sooner were the ceremonies of salutation over than this talkative little +person put his mouth to the host’s ear and whispered three secrets of state, an +important piece of commercial intelligence, and a rich item of fashionable +scandal. He then assured the Man of Fancy that he would not fail to circulate +in the society of the lower world a minute description of this magnificent +castle in the air and of the festivities at which he had the honor to be a +guest. So saying, Monsieur On-Dit made his bow and hurried from one to another +of the company, with all of whom he seemed to be acquainted and to possess some +topic of interest or amusement for every individual. Coming at last to the +Oldest Inhabitant, who was slumbering comfortably in the easy-chair, he applied +his mouth to that venerable ear. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you say?” cried the old gentleman, starting from his nap and putting +up his hand to serve the purpose of an ear-trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +Monsieur On-Dit bent forward again and repeated his communication. +</p> + +<p> +“Never within my memory,” exclaimed the Oldest Inhabitant, lifting his hands in +astonishment, “has so remarkable an incident been heard of.” +</p> + +<p> +Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of deference to +his official station, although the host was well aware that his conversation +was likely to contribute but little to the general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, +got into a corner with his acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and +began to compare notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of +wind, and other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a century past. It +rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and much-respected guest had met +with so congenial an associate. Entreating them both to make themselves +perfectly at home, he now turned to receive the Wandering Jew. This personage, +however, had latterly grown so common, by mingling in all sorts of society and +appearing at the beck of every entertainer, that he could hardly be deemed a +proper guest in a very exclusive circle. Besides, being covered with dust from +his continual wanderings along the highways of the world, he really looked out +of place in a dress party; so that the host felt relieved of an incommodity +when the restless individual in question, after a brief stay, took his +departure on a ramble towards Oregon. +</p> + +<p> +The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom the Man of +Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had invited them hither +for the sake of observing how they would compare, whether advantageously or +otherwise, with the real characters to whom his maturer life had introduced +him. They were beings of crude imagination, such as glide before a young man’s +eye and pretend to be actual inhabitants of the earth; the wise and witty with +whom he would hereafter hold intercourse; the generous and heroic friends whose +devotion would be requited with his own; the beautiful dream-woman who would +become the helpmate of his human toils and sorrows and at once the source and +partaker of his happiness. Alas! it is not good for the full-grown man to look +too closely at these old acquaintances, but rather to reverence them at a +distance through the medium of years that have gathered duskily between. There +was something laughably untrue in their pompous stride and exaggerated +sentiment; they were neither human nor tolerable likenesses of humanity, but +fantastic maskers, rendering heroism and nature alike ridiculous by the grave +absurdity of their pretensions to such attributes; and as for the peerless +dream-lady, behold! there advanced up the saloon, with a movement like a +jointed doll, a sort of wax-figure of an angel, a creature as cold as +moonshine, an artifice in petticoats, with an intellect of pretty phrases and +only the semblance of a heart, yet in all these particulars the true type of a +young man’s imaginary mistress. Hardly could the host’s punctilious courtesy +restrain a smile as he paid his respects to this unreality and met the +sentimental glance with which the Dream sought to remind him of their former +love passages. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, fair lady,” murmured he betwixt sighing and smiling; “my taste is +changed; I have learned to love what Nature makes better than my own creations +in the guise of womanhood.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, false one,” shrieked the dream-lady, pretending to faint, but dissolving +into thin air, out of which came the deplorable murmur of her voice, “your +inconstancy has annihilated me.” +</p> + +<p> +“So be it,” said the cruel Man of Fancy to himself; “and a good riddance too.” +</p> + +<p> +Together with these shadows, and from the same region, there came an uninvited +multitude of shapes which at any time during his life had tormented the Man of +Fancy in his moods of morbid melancholy or had haunted him in the delirium of +fever. The walls of his castle in the air were not dense enough to keep them +out, nor would the strongest of earthly architecture have availed to their +exclusion. Here were those forms of dim terror which had beset him at the +entrance of life, waging warfare with his hopes; here were strange uglinesses +of earlier date, such as haunt children in the night-time. He was particularly +startled by the vision of a deformed old black woman whom he imagined as +lurking in the garret of his native home, and who, when he was an infant, had +once come to his bedside and grinned at him in the crisis of a scarlet fever. +This same black shadow, with others almost as hideous, now glided among the +pillars of the magnificent saloon, grinning recognition, until the man +shuddered anew at the forgotten terrors of his childhood. It amused him, +however, to observe the black woman, with the mischievous caprice peculiar to +such beings, steal up to the chair of the Oldest Inhabitant and peep into his +half-dreamy mind. +</p> + +<p> +“Never within my memory,” muttered that venerable personage, aghast, “did I see +such a face.” +</p> + +<p> +Almost immediately after the unrealities just described, arrived a number of +guests whom incredulous readers may be inclined to rank equally among creatures +of imagination. The most noteworthy were an incorruptible Patriot; a Scholar +without pedantry; a Priest without worldly ambition; and a Beautiful Woman +without pride or coquetry; a Married Pair whose life had never been disturbed +by incongruity of feeling; a Reformer untrammelled by his theory; and a Poet +who felt no jealousy towards other votaries of the lyre. In truth, however, the +host was not one of the cynics who consider these patterns of excellence, +without the fatal flaw, such rarities in the world; and he had invited them to +his select party chiefly out of humble deference to the judgment of society, +which pronounces them almost impossible to be met with. +</p> + +<p> +“In my younger days,” observed the Oldest Inhabitant, “such characters might be +seen at the corner of every street.” +</p> + +<p> +Be that as it might, these specimens of perfection proved to be not half so +entertaining companions as people with the ordinary allowance of faults. +</p> + +<p> +But now appeared a stranger, whom the host had no sooner recognized than, with +an abundance of courtesy unlavished on any other, he hastened down the whole +length of the saloon in order to pay him emphatic honor. Yet he was a young man +in poor attire, with no insignia of rank or acknowledged eminence, nor anything +to distinguish him among the crowd except a high, white forehead, beneath which +a pair of deep-set eyes were glowing with warm light. It was such a light as +never illuminates the earth save when a great heart burns as the household fire +of a grand intellect. And who was he?—who but the Master Genius for whom +our country is looking anxiously into the mist of Time, as destined to fulfil +the great mission of creating an American literature, hewing it, as it were, +out of the unwrought granite of our intellectual quarries? From him, whether +moulded in the form of an epic poem or assuming a guise altogether new as the +spirit itself may determine, we are to receive our first great original work, +which shall do all that remains to be achieved for our glory among the nations. +How this child of a mighty destiny had been discovered by the Man of Fancy it +is of little consequence to mention. Suffice it that he dwells as yet unhonored +among men, unrecognized by those who have known him from his cradle; the noble +countenance which should be distinguished by a halo diffused around it passes +daily amid the throng of people toiling and troubling themselves about the +trifles of a moment, and none pay reverence to the worker of immortality. Nor +does it matter much to him, in his triumph over all the ages, though a +generation or two of his own times shall do themselves the wrong to disregard +him. +</p> + +<p> +By this time Monsieur On-Dit had caught up the stranger’s name and destiny and +was busily whispering the intelligence among the other guests. +</p> + +<p> +“Pshaw!” said one. “There can never be an American genius.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pish!” cried another. “We have already as good poets as any in the world. For +my part, I desire to see no better.” +</p> + +<p> +And the Oldest Inhabitant, when it was proposed to introduce him to the Master +Genius, begged to be excused, observing that a man who had been honored with +the acquaintance of Dwight, and Freneau, and Joel Barlow, might be allowed a +little austerity of taste. +</p> + +<p> +The saloon was now fast filling up by the arrival of other remarkable +characters, among whom were noticed Davy Jones, the distinguished nautical +personage, and a rude, carelessly dressed, harum-scarum sort of elderly fellow, +known by the nickname of Old Harry. The latter, however, after being shown to a +dressing-room, reappeared with his gray hair nicely combed, his clothes +brushed, a clean dicky on his neck, and altogether so changed in aspect as to +merit the more respectful appellation of Venerable Henry. Joel Doe and Richard +Roe came arm in arm, accompanied by a Man of Straw, a fictitious indorser, and +several persons who had no existence except as voters in closely contested +elections. The celebrated Seatsfield, who now entered, was at first supposed to +belong to the same brotherhood, until he made it apparent that he was a real +man of flesh and blood and had his earthly domicile in Germany. Among the +latest comers, as might reasonably be expected, arrived a guest from the far +future. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know him? do you know him?” whispered Monsieur On-Dit, who seemed to be +acquainted with everybody. “He is the representative of Posterity,—the +man of an age to come.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how came he here?” asked a figure who was evidently the prototype of the +fashion-plate in a magazine, and might be taken to represent the vanities of +the passing moment. “The fellow infringes upon our rights by coming before his +time.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you forget where we are,” answered the Man of Fancy, who overheard the +remark. “The lower earth, it is true, will be forbidden ground to him for many +long years hence; but a castle in the air is a sort of no-man’s-land, where +Posterity may make acquaintance with us on equal terms.” +</p> + +<p> +No sooner was his identity known than a throng of guests gathered about +Posterity, all expressing the most generous interest in his welfare, and many +boasting of the sacrifices which they had made, or were willing to make, in his +behalf. Some, with as much secrecy as possible, desired his judgment upon +certain copies of verses or great manuscript rolls of prose; others accosted +him with the familiarity of old friends, taking it for granted that he was +perfectly cognizant of their names and characters. At length, finding himself +thus beset, Posterity was put quite beside his patience. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen, my good friends,” cried he, breaking loose from a misty poet who +strove to hold him by the button, “I pray you to attend to your own business, +and leave me to take care of mine! I expect to owe you nothing, unless it be +certain national debts, and other encumbrances and impediments, physical and +moral, which I shall find it troublesome enough to remove from my path. As to +your verses, pray read them to your contemporaries. Your names are as strange +to me as your faces; and even were it otherwise,—let me whisper you a +secret,—the cold, icy memory which one generation may retain of another +is but a poor recompense to barter life for. Yet, if your heart is set on being +known to me, the surest, the only method is, to live truly and wisely for your +own age, whereby, if the native force be in you, you may likewise live for +posterity.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is nonsense,” murmured the Oldest Inhabitant, who, as a man of the past, +felt jealous that all notice should be withdrawn from himself to be lavished on +the future, “sheer nonsense, to waste so much thought on what only is to be.” +</p> + +<p> +To divert the minds of his guests, who were considerably abashed by this little +incident, the Man of Fancy led them through several apartments of the castle, +receiving their compliments upon the taste and varied magnificence that were +displayed in each. One of these rooms was filled with moonlight, which did not +enter through the window, but was the aggregate of all the moonshine that is +scattered around the earth on a summer night while no eyes are awake to enjoy +its beauty. Airy spirits had gathered it up, wherever they found it gleaming on +the broad bosom of a lake, or silvering the meanders of a stream, or glimmering +among the wind-stirred boughs of a wood, and had garnered it in this one +spacious hall. Along the walls, illuminated by the mild intensity of the +moonshine, stood a multitude of ideal statues, the original conceptions of the +great works of ancient or modern art, which the sculptors did but imperfectly +succeed in putting into marble; for it is not to be supposed that the pure idea +of an immortal creation ceases to exist; it is only necessary to know where +they are deposited in order to obtain possession of them.—In the alcoves +of another vast apartment was arranged a splendid library, the volumes of which +were inestimable, because they consisted, not of actual performances, but of +the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding the happy season +to achieve them. To take familiar instances, here were the untold tales of +Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims; the unwritten cantos of the Fairy Queen; the +conclusion of Coleridge’s Christabel; and the whole of Dryden’s projected epic +on the subject of King Arthur. The shelves were crowded; for it would not be +too much to affirm that every author has imagined and shaped out in his thought +more and far better works than those which actually proceeded from his pen. And +here, likewise, where the unrealized conceptions of youthful poets who died of +the very strength of their own genius before the world had caught one inspired +murmur from their lips. +</p> + +<p> +When the peculiarities of the library and statue-gallery were explained to the +Oldest Inhabitant, he appeared infinitely perplexed, and exclaimed, with more +energy than usual, that he had never heard of such a thing within his memory, +and, moreover, did not at all understand how it could be. +</p> + +<p> +“But my brain, I think,” said the good old gentleman, “is getting not so clear +as it used to be. You young folks, I suppose, can see your way through these +strange matters. For my part, I give it up.” +</p> + +<p> +“And so do I,” muttered the Old Harry. “It is enough to puzzle the—Ahem!” +</p> + +<p> +Making as little reply as possible to these observations, the Man of Fancy +preceded the company to another noble saloon, the pillars of which were solid +golden sunbeams taken out of the sky in the first hour in the morning. Thus, as +they retained all their living lustre, the room was filled with the most +cheerful radiance imaginable, yet not too dazzling to be borne with comfort and +delight. The windows were beautifully adorned with curtains made of the +many-colored clouds of sunrise, all imbued with virgin light, and hanging in +magnificent festoons from the ceiling to the floor. Moreover, there were +fragments of rainbows scattered through the room; so that the guests, +astonished at one another, reciprocally saw their heads made glorious by the +seven primary hues; or, if they chose,—as who would not?—they could +grasp a rainbow in the air and convert it to their own apparel and adornment. +But the morning light and scattered rainbows were only a type and symbol of the +real wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to magic, yet perfectly +natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy are neglected in the lower +world had been carefully gathered up and deposited in the saloon of morning +sunshine. As may well be conceived, therefore, there was material enough to +supply, not merely a joyous evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as +many people as that spacious apartment could contain. The company seemed to +renew their youth; while that pattern and proverbial standard of innocence, the +Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among them, communicating his own unwrinkled +gayety to all who had the good fortune to witness his gambols. +</p> + +<p> +“My honored friends,” said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed themselves +awhile, “I am now to request your presence in the banqueting-hall, where a +slight collation is awaiting you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, well said!” ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been invited for no +other reason than that he was pretty constantly in the habit of dining with +Duke Humphrey. “I was beginning to wonder whether a castle in the air were +provided with a kitchen.” +</p> + +<p> +It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were diverted +from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting with so much +apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well as liquid delights of +the festive board. They thronged eagerly in the rear of the host, who now +ushered them into a lofty and extensive hall, from end to end of which was +arranged a table, glittering all over with innumerable dishes and +drinking-vessels of gold. It is an uncertain point whether these rich articles +of plate were made for the occasion out of molten sunbeams, or recovered from +the wrecks of Spanish galleons that had lain for ages at the bottom of the sea. +The upper end of the table was overshadowed by a canopy, beneath which was +placed a chair of elaborate magnificence, which the host himself declined to +occupy, and besought his guests to assign it to the worthiest among them. As a +suitable homage to his incalculable antiquity and eminent distinction, the post +of honor was at first tendered to the Oldest Inhabitant. He, however, eschewed +it, and requested the favor of a bowl of gruel at a side table, where he could +refresh himself with a quiet nap. There was some little hesitation as to the +next candidate, until Posterity took the Master Genius of our country by the +hand and led him to the chair of state beneath the princely canopy. When once +they beheld him in his true place, the company acknowledged the justice of the +selection by a long thunder-roll of vehement applause. +</p> + +<p> +Then was served up a banquet, combining, if not all the delicacies of the +season, yet all the rarities which careful purveyors had met with in the flesh, +fish, and vegetable markets of the land of Nowhere. The bill of fare being +unfortunately lost, we can only mention a phoenix, roasted in its own flames, +cold potted birds of paradise, ice-creams from the Milky-Way, and whip +syllabubs and flummery from the Paradise of Fools, whereof there was a very +great consumption. As for drinkables, the temperance people contented +themselves with water as usual; but it was the water of the Fountain of Youth; +the ladies sipped Nepenthe; the lovelorn, the careworn, and the sorrow-stricken +were supplied with brimming goblets of Lethe; and it was shrewdly conjectured +that a certain golden vase, from which only the more distinguished guests were +invited to partake, contained nectar that had been mellowing ever since the +days of classical mythology. The cloth being removed, the company, as usual, +grew eloquent over their liquor and delivered themselves of a succession of +brilliant speeches,—the task of reporting which we resign to the more +adequate ability of Counsellor Gill, whose indispensable co-operation the Man +of Fancy had taken the precaution to secure. +</p> + +<p> +When the festivity of the banquet was at its most ethereal point, the Clerk of +the Weather was observed to steal from the table and thrust his head between +the purple and golden curtains of one of the windows. +</p> + +<p> +“My fellow-guests,” he remarked aloud, after carefully noting the signs of the +night, “I advise such of you as live at a distance to be going as soon as +possible; for a thunder-storm is certainly at hand.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mercy on me!” cried Mother Carey, who had left her brood of chickens and come +hither in gossamer drapery, with pink silk stockings. “How shall I ever get +home?” +</p> + +<p> +All now was confusion and hasty departure, with but little superfluous +leave-taking. The Oldest Inhabitant, however, true to the rule of those long +past days in which his courtesy had been studied, paused on the threshold of +the meteor-lighted hall to express his vast satisfaction at the entertainment. +</p> + +<p> +“Never, within my memory,” observed the gracious old gentleman, “has it been my +good fortune to spend a pleasanter evening or in more select society.” +</p> + +<p> +The wind here took his breath away, whirled his three-cornered hat into +infinite space, and drowned what further compliments it had been his purpose to +bestow. Many of the company had bespoken will-o’-the-wisps to convoy them home; +and the host, in his general beneficence, had engaged the Man in the Moon, with +an immense horn-lantern, to be the guide of such desolate spinsters as could do +no better for themselves. But a blast of the rising tempest blew out all their +lights in the twinkling of an eye. How, in the darkness that ensued, the guests +contrived to get back to earth, or whether the greater part of them contrived +to get back at all, or are still wandering among clouds, mists, and puffs of +tempestuous wind, bruised by the beams and rafters of the overthrown castle in +the air, and deluded by all sorts of unrealities, are points that concern +themselves much more than the writer or the public. People should think of +these matters before they trust themselves on a pleasure-party into the realm +of Nowhere. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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