,transcribed from the ,chatto and ,windus #aiaa edition by ,david ,price1 email ccx#jgdpglaf4org ,,lay ,,morals ,and ,other ,papers ,,by ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson ,picture3 ,graphic ,a ,,new ,,edition ,,with ,a ,,preface ,,by ,,mrs4 ,,stevenson 99 99 99 99 99 ,,london ,,chatto ,,windus #aiaa 99 99 99 99 99 ,all rights reserved4 ,,preface ,,by ,,mrs4 ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson #j ,in our long voyage on the yacht ,casco1 we visited many islands2 ,i believe on every one we found the scourge of leprosy4 ,in the ,marquesas there was a regular leper settlement1 though the persons living there seemed free to wander where they wished1 fishing on the beach1 or visiting friends in the villages4 ,i remember one afternoon1 at ,anaho1 when my husband and ,i1 tired after a long quest for shells1 sat down on the sand to rest awhile1 a native man stepped out from under some cocoanut trees1 regarding us hesitatingly as though fearful of intruding4 ,my husband waved an invitation to the stranger to join us1 offering his cigarette to the man in the island fashion4 ,the cigarette was accepted and1 after a puff or two1 courteously passed back again according to native etiquette4 ,the hand that held it was the maimed hand of a leper4 ,to my consternation my husband took the cigarette and smoked it out4 ,afterwards when we were alone and ,i spoke of my horror he said1 #8,i could not mortify the man4 ,and if you think ,i liked doing it--that was another reason2 because ,i didn't want to4' ,another day1 while we were still anchored in ,anaho ,bay1 a messenger from round a distant headland came in a whale-boat with an urgent request that we go to see a young white girl who was ill with some mysterious malady4 ,we had supposed that1 with the beach-comber #8,charley the red1' we were the only white people on our side of the island4 ,though there was much wind that day and the sea ran high1 we started at once1 impelled partly by curiosity and partly by the pathetic nature of the message4 ,fortunately we took our luncheon with us1 eating it on the beach before we went up to the house where the sick girl lay4 ,our hostess1 the girl's mother1 met us with regrets that we had already lunched1 saying1 #8,i have a most excellent cook2 here he is1 now4' ,she turned1 as she spoke1 to an elderly ,chinaman who was plainly in an advanced stage of leprosy4 ,when the man was gone1 my husband asked if she had no fear of contagion4 #8,i don't believe in contagion1' was her reply4 ,but there was little doubt as to what ailed her daughter4 ,she was certainly suffering from leprosy4 ,we could only advise that the girl be taken to the ,french post at ,santa ,maria ,bay where there was a doctor4 ,on our return to the ,casco we confessed to each other with what alarm and repugnance we touched the miserable girl4 ,we talked long that evening of ,father ,damien1 his sublime heroism1 and his martyrdom which was already nearing its sad end4 ,beyond all noble qualities my husband placed courage4 ,the more he saw of leprosy1 and he saw much in the islands1 the higher rose his admiration for the simple priest of ,molokai4 #8,i must see ,molokai1' he said many times4 #8,i must somehow manage to see ,molokai4' ,in ,january #ahhi1 we arrived in ,honolulu1 settling in a pleasant cottage by the sea to rest until we were ready to return to ,england4 ,the ,casco we sent back to ,san ,francisco with the captain4 ,but the knowledge that every few days some vessel was leaving ,honolulu to cruise among islands we had not seen1 and now should never see1 was more than we could bear4 ,first we engaged passage on a missionary ship1 but changed our minds--my husband would not be allowed to smoke on board1 for one reason--and chartered the trading schooner ,equator4 ,this was thought too rough a voyage for my mother-in-law1 as indeed it would have been2 so she was sent1 somewhat protesting1 back to ,scotland4 ,my husband was still intent on seeing ,molokai4 ,after the waste of much time and red tape1 he finally received an official permission to visit the leper settlement4 ,it did not occur to him it would be necessary to get a separate official permission to leave ,molokai2 hence he was nearly left behind when the vessel sailed out4 ,he only saved himself by a prodigious leap which landed him on board the boat1 whence nothing but force could dislodge him4 ,by the doctor's orders he took gloves to wear as a precautionary measure against contagion1 but they were never worn4 ,at first he avoided shaking hands1 but when he played croquet with the young leper girls he would not listen to the ,mother ,superior's warning that he must wear gloves4 ,he thought it might remind them of their condition4 #8,what will you do if you find you have contracted leprosy8' ,i asked4 #8,do8' he replied2 #8why1 you and ,i would spend the rest of our lives in ,molokai and become humble followers of ,father ,damien4' ,as ,mr4 ,balfour says in the ,life of ,stevenson1 he was as stern with his family as he was with himself1 and as exacting4 ,he talked very little to us of the tragedy of ,molokai1 though ,i could see it lay heavy on his spirits2 but of the great work begun by ,father ,damien and carried on by his successors he spoke fully4 ,he had followed the life of the priest like a detective until there seemed nothing more to learn4 ,mother ,mary ,ann1 the ,mother ,superior1 he could never mention without deep emotion4 ,one of the first things he did on his return to ,honolulu was to send her a grand piano for the use of her girls--the girls with whom he had played croquet4 ,he also sent toys1 sewing materials1 small tools for the younger children1 and other things that ,i have forgotten4 ,after his death a letter was found among his papers1 of which ,i have only the last few lines4 #8,i cannot suppose you remember me1 but ,i won't forget you1 nor ,god won't forget you for your kindness to the blind white leper at ,molokai4' ,during my husband's absence ,i had made every preparation for our voyage on the ,equator1 so but little time was lost before we found ourselves on board1 our sails set for the south4 ,the ,equator1 which had easily lived through the great ,samoan hurricane1 made no such phenomenal runs as the ,casco1 but we could trust her1 and she had no #8tricks and ways' that we did not understand4 ,we liked the sailors1 we loved the ship and her captain1 so it was with heart-felt regret we said farewell in the harbour of ,apia after a long and perfect cruise4 ,after reading the letters that awaited us in ,apia1 we looked over the newspapers4 ,our indignation may be imagined when we read in one item that1 owing to the publication of a letter by a well-known ,honolulu missionary1 depicting ,father ,damien as a dirty old peasant who had contracted leprosy through his immoral habits1 the project to erect a monument to his memory would be abandoned4 #8,i'll not believe it1' said my husband1 #8unless ,i see it with my own eyes2 for it is too damnable for belief6' ,but see it he did1 in spite of his incredulity1 for in ,sydney1 a month or two later1 the very journal containing the letter condemnatory of ,father ,damien was among the first we chanced to open4 ,i shall never forget my husband's ferocity of indignation1 his leaping stride as he paced the room holding the offending paper at arm's-length before his eyes that burned and sparkled with a peculiar flashing light4 ,his cousin ,mr4 ,balfour1 in his ,life of ,robert ,louis ,stevenson1 says3 #8his eyes 4 4 4 when he was moved to anger or any fierce emotion seemed literally to blaze and glow with a burning light4' ,in another moment he disappeared through the doorway1 and ,i could hear him1 in his own room1 pulling his chair to the table1 and the sound of his inkstand being dragged towards him4 ,that afternoon he called us together--my son1 my daughter1 and myself--saying that he had something serious to lay before us4 ,he went over the circumstances succinctly1 and then we three had the incomparable experience of hearing its author read aloud the defence of ,father ,damien while it was still red-hot from his indignant soul4 ,as we sat1 dazed and overcome by emotion1 he pointed out to us that the subject-matter was libellous in the highest degree1 and the publication of the article might cause the loss of his entire substance4 ,without our concurrence he would not take such a risk4 ,there was no dissenting voice2 how could there be8 ,the paper was published with almost no change or revision1 though afterwards my husband said he considered this a mistake4 ,he thought he should have waited for his anger to cool1 when he might have been more impersonal and less egotistic4 ,the next day he consulted an eminent lawyer1 more from curiosity than from any other reason4 ,mr4 ,moses--,i think that was his name--was at first inclined to be jocular4 ,i remember his smiling question3 #8,have you called him a hell-hound or an atheist8 ,otherwise there is no libel4' ,but when he looked over the manuscript his countenance changed4 #8,this is a serious affair1' he said2 #8however1 no one will publish it for you4' ,in that ,mr4 ,moses was right2 no one dared publish the pamphlet4 ,but that difficulty was soon overcome4 ,my husband hired a printer by the day1 and the work was rushed through4 ,we then1 my daughter1 my son1 and myself1 were set to work helping address the pamphlets1 which were scattered far and wide4 ,father ,damien was vindicated by a stranger1 a man of another country and another religion from his own4 ,f4 ,v4 ,,de ,g4 ,s4 ,contents3 ,preface by ,mrs4 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson ,lay ,morals ,father ,damien ,the ,pentland ,rising ,i4 ,the ,causes of the ,revolt ,,ii4 ,the ,beginning ,,iii4 ,the ,march of the ,rebels ,,iv4 ,rullion ,green ,v4 ,a ,record of ,blood ,the ,day ,after ,to-morrow ,college ,papers ,i4 ,edinburgh ,students in #ahbd ,,ii4 ,the ,modern ,student ,,iii4 ,debating ,societies ,criticisms ,i4 ,lord ,lytton's 8,fables in ,song0 ,,ii4 ,salvini's ,macbeth ,,iii4 ,bagster's 8,pilgrim's ,progress0 ,sketches ,i4 ,the ,satirist ,,ii4 ,nuits ,blanches ,,iii4 ,the ,wreath of ,immortelles ,,iv4 ,nurses ,v4 ,a ,character ,the ,great ,north ,road ,i4 ,nance at the 8,green ,dragon0 ,,ii4 ,in which ,mr4 ,archer is ,installed ,,iii4 ,jonathan ,holdaway ,,iv4 ,mingling ,threads ,v4 ,life in the ,castle ,,iv4 ,the ,bad ,half-,crown ,,vii4 ,the ,bleaching-,green ,,viii4 ,the ,mail ,guard ,the ,young ,chevalier ,prologue3 ,the ,wine-,seller's ,wife ,i4 ,the ,prince ,heathercat ,i4 ,traqairs of ,montroymont ,,ii4 ,francie ,,iii4 ,the ,hill-,end of ,drumlowe ,,lay ,,morals ,the following chapters of a projected treatise on ,ethics were drafted at ,edinburgh in the spring of #ahgi4 ,they are unrevised1 and must not be taken as representing1 either as to matter or form1 their author's final thoughts2 but they contain much that is essentially characteristic of his mind4 99 99 99 99 99 ,copyright in the ,united ,states of ,america4 ,,chapter ,i ,the problem of education is twofold3 first to know1 and then to utter4 ,every one who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and profoundly than he speaks2 and the best of teachers can impart only broken images of the truth which they perceive4 ,speech which goes from one to another between two natures1 and1 what is worse1 between two experiences1 is doubly relative4 ,the speaker buries his meaning2 it is for the hearer to dig it up again2 and all speech1 written or spoken1 is in a dead language until it finds a willing and prepared hearer4 ,such1 moreover1 is the complexity of life1 that when we condescend upon details in our advice1 we may be sure we condescend on error2 and the best of education is to throw out some magnanimous hints4 ,no man was ever so poor that he could express all he has in him by words1 looks1 or actions2 his true knowledge is eternally incommunicable1 for it is a knowledge of himself2 and his best wisdom comes to him by no process of the mind1 but in a supreme self-dictation1 which keeps varying from hour to hour in its dictates with the variation of events and circumstances4 ,a few men of picked nature1 full of faith1 courage1 and contempt for others1 try earnestly to set forth as much as they can grasp of this inner law2 but the vast majority1 when they come to advise the young1 must be content to retail certain doctrines which have been already retailed to them in their own youth4 ,every generation has to educate another which it has brought upon the stage4 ,people who readily accept the responsibility of parentship1 having very different matters in their eye1 are apt to feel rueful when that responsibility falls due4 ,what are they to tell the child about life and conduct1 subjects on which they have themselves so few and such confused opinions8 ,indeed1 ,i do not know2 the least said1 perhaps1 the soonest mended2 and yet the child keeps asking1 and the parent must find some words to say in his own defence4 ,where does he find them8 and what are they when found8 ,as a matter of experience1 and in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand1 he will instil into his wide-eyed brat three bad things3 the terror of public opinion1 and1 flowing from that as a fountain1 the desire of wealth and applause4 ,besides these1 or what might be deduced as corollaries from these1 he will teach not much else of any effective value3 some dim notions of divinity1 perhaps1 and book-keeping1 and how to walk through a quadrille4 ,but1 you may tell me1 the young people are taught to be ,christians4 ,it may be want of penetration1 but ,i have not yet been able to perceive it4 ,as an honest man1 whatever we teach1 and be it good or evil1 it is not the doctrine of ,christ4 ,what he taught 7and in this he is like all other teachers worthy of the name7 was not a code of rules1 but a ruling spirit2 not truths1 but a spirit of truth2 not views1 but a view4 ,what he showed us was an attitude of mind4 ,towards the many considerations on which conduct is built1 each man stands in a certain relation4 ,he takes life on a certain principle4 ,he has a compass in his spirit which points in a certain direction4 ,it is the attitude1 the relation1 the point of the compass1 that is the whole body and gist of what he has to teach us2 in this1 the details are comprehended2 out of this the specific precepts issue1 and by this1 and this only1 can they be explained and applied4 ,and thus1 to learn aright from any teacher1 we must first of all1 like a historical artist1 think ourselves into sympathy with his position and1 in the technical phrase1 create his character4 ,a historian confronted with some ambiguous politician1 or an actor charged with a part1 have but one pre-occupation2 they must search all round and upon every side1 and grope for some central conception which is to explain and justify the most extreme details2 until that is found1 the politician is an enigma1 or perhaps a quack1 and the part a tissue of fustian sentiment and big words2 but once that is found1 all enters into a plan1 a human nature appears1 the politician or the stage-king is understood from point to point1 from end to end4 ,this is a degree of trouble which will be gladly taken by a very humble artist2 but not even the terror of eternal fire can teach a business man to bend his imagination to such athletic efforts4 ,yet without this1 all is vain2 until we understand the whole1 we shall understand none of the parts2 and otherwise we have no more than broken images and scattered words2 the meaning remains buried2 and the language in which our prophet speaks to us is a dead language in our ears4 ,take a few of ,christ's sayings and compare them with our current doctrines4 #8,ye cannot1' he says1 #8serve ,god and ,mammon4' ,cannot8 ,and our whole system is to teach us how we can6 #8,the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light4' ,are they8 ,i had been led to understand the reverse3 that the ,christian merchant1 for example1 prospered exceedingly in his affairs2 that honesty was the best policy2 that an author of repute had written a conclusive treatise #8,how to make the best of both worlds4' ,of both worlds indeed6 ,which am ,i to believe then--,christ or the author of repute8 #8,take no thought for the morrow4' ,ask the ,successful ,merchant2 interrogate your own heart2 and you will have to admit that this is not only a silly but an immoral position4 ,all we believe1 all we hope1 all we honour in ourselves or our contemporaries1 stands condemned in this one sentence1 or1 if you take the other view1 condemns the sentence as unwise and inhumane4 ,we are not then of the #8same mind that was in ,christ4' ,we disagree with ,christ4 ,either ,christ meant nothing1 or else he or we must be in the wrong4 ,well says ,thoreau1 speaking of some texts from the ,new ,testament1 and finding a strange echo of another style which the reader may recognise3 #8,let but one of these sentences be rightly read from any pulpit in the land1 and there would not be left one stone of that meeting-house upon another4' ,it may be objected that these are what are called #8hard sayings'2 and that a man1 or an education1 may be very sufficiently ,christian although it leave some of these sayings upon one side4 ,but this is a very gross delusion4 ,although truth is difficult to state1 it is both easy and agreeable to receive1 and the mind runs out to meet it ere the phrase be done4 ,the universe1 in relation to what any man can say of it1 is plain1 patent and staringly comprehensible4 ,in itself1 it is a great and travailing ocean1 unsounded1 unvoyageable1 an eternal mystery to man2 or1 let us say1 it is a monstrous and impassable mountain1 one side of which1 and a few near slopes and foothills1 we can dimly study with these mortal eyes4 ,but what any man can say of it1 even in his highest utterance1 must have relation to this little and plain corner1 which is no less visible to us than to him4 ,we are looking on the same map2 it will go hard if we cannot follow the demonstration4 ,the longest and most abstruse flight of a philosopher becomes clear and shallow1 in the flash of a moment1 when we suddenly perceive the aspect and drift of his intention4 ,the longest argument is but a finger pointed2 once we get our own finger rightly parallel1 and we see what the man meant1 whether it be a new star or an old street-lamp4 ,and briefly1 if a saying is hard to understand1 it is because we are thinking of something else4 ,but to be a true disciple is to think of the same things as our prophet1 and to think of different things in the same order4 ,to be of the same mind with another is to see all things in the same perspective2 it is not to agree in a few indifferent matters near at hand and not much debated2 it is to follow him in his farthest flights1 to see the force of his hyperboles1 to stand so exactly in the centre of his vision that whatever he may express1 your eyes will light at once on the original1 that whatever he may see to declare1 your mind will at once accept4 ,you do not belong to the school of any philosopher1 because you agree with him that theft is1 on the whole1 objectionable1 or that the sun is overhead at noon4 ,it is by the hard sayings that discipleship is tested4 ,we are all agreed about the middling and indifferent parts of knowledge and morality2 even the most soaring spirits too often take them tamely upon trust4 ,but the man1 the philosopher or the moralist1 does not stand upon these chance adhesions2 and the purpose of any system looks towards those extreme points where it steps valiantly beyond tradition and returns with some covert hint of things outside4 ,then only can you be certain that the words are not words of course1 nor mere echoes of the past2 then only are you sure that if he be indicating anything at all1 it is a star and not a street-lamp2 then only do you touch the heart of the mystery1 since it was for these that the author wrote his book4 ,now1 every now and then1 and indeed surprisingly often1 ,christ finds a word that transcends all common-place morality2 every now and then he quits the beaten track to pioneer the unexpressed1 and throws out a pregnant and magnanimous hyperbole2 for it is only by some bold poetry of thought that men can be strung up above the level of everyday conceptions to take a broader look upon experience or accept some higher principle of conduct4 ,to a man who is of the same mind that was in ,christ1 who stands at some centre not too far from his1 and looks at the world and conduct from some not dissimilar or1 at least1 not opposing attitude--or1 shortly1 to a man who is of ,christ's philosophy--every such saying should come home with a thrill of joy and corroboration2 he should feel each one below his feet as another sure foundation in the flux of time and chance2 each should be another proof that in the torrent of the years and generations1 where doctrines and great armaments and empires are swept away and swallowed1 he stands immovable1 holding by the eternal stars4 ,but alas6 at this juncture of the ages it is not so with us2 on each and every such occasion our whole fellowship of ,christians falls back in disapproving wonder and implicitly denies the saying4 ,christians6 the farce is impudently broad4 ,let us stand up in the sight of heaven and confess4 ,the ethics that we hold are those of ,benjamin ,franklin4 ,honesty is the best policy1 is perhaps a hard saying2 it is certainly one by which a wise man of these days will not too curiously direct his steps2 but ,i think it shows a glimmer of meaning to even our most dimmed intelligences2 ,i think we perceive a principle behind it2 ,i think1 without hyperbole1 we are of the same mind that was in ,benjamin ,franklin4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,but1 ,i may be told1 we teach the ten commandments1 where a world of morals lies condensed1 the very pith and epitome of all ethics and religion2 and a young man with these precepts engraved upon his mind must follow after profit with some conscience and ,christianity of method4 ,a man cannot go very far astray who neither dishonours his parents1 nor kills1 nor commits adultery1 nor steals1 nor bears false witness2 for these things1 rightly thought out1 cover a vast field of duty4 ,alas6 what is a precept8 ,it is at best an illustration2 it is case law at the best which can be learned by precept4 ,the letter is not only dead1 but killing2 the spirit which underlies1 and cannot be uttered1 alone is true and helpful4 ,this is trite to sickness2 but familiarity has a cunning disenchantment2 in a day or two she can steal all beauty from the mountain tops2 and the most startling words begin to fall dead upon the ear after several repetitions4 ,if you see a thing too often1 you no longer see it2 if you hear a thing too often1 you no longer hear it4 ,our attention requires to be surprised2 and to carry a fort by assault1 or to gain a thoughtful hearing from the ruck of mankind1 are feats of about an equal difficulty and must be tried by not dissimilar means4 ,the whole ,bible has thus lost its message for the common run of hearers2 it has become mere words of course2 and the parson may bawl himself scarlet and beat the pulpit like a thing possessed1 but his hearers will continue to nod2 they are strangely at peace1 they know all he has to say2 ring the old bell as you choose1 it is still the old bell and it cannot startle their composure4 ,and so with this byword about the letter and the spirit4 ,it is quite true1 no doubt2 but it has no meaning in the world to any man of us4 ,alas6 it has just this meaning1 and neither more nor less3 that while the spirit is true1 the letter is eternally false4 ,the shadow of a great oak lies abroad upon the ground at noon1 perfect1 clear1 and stable like the earth4 ,but let a man set himself to mark out the boundary with cords and pegs1 and were he never so nimble and never so exact1 what with the multiplicity of the leaves and the progression of the shadow as it flees before the travelling sun1 long ere he has made the circuit the whole figure will have changed4 ,life may be compared1 not to a single tree1 but to a great and complicated forest2 circumstance is more swiftly changing than a shadow1 language much more inexact than the tools of a surveyor2 from day to day the trees fall and are renewed2 the very essences are fleeting as we look2 and the whole world of leaves is swinging tempest-tossed among the winds of time4 ,look now for your shadows4 ,o man of formul1 is this a place for you8 ,have you fitted the spirit to a single case8 ,alas1 in the cycle of the ages when shall such another be proposed for the judgment of man8 ,now when the sun shines and the winds blow1 the wood is filled with an innumerable multitude of shadows1 tumultuously tossed and changing2 and at every gust the whole carpet leaps and becomes new4 ,can you or your heart say more8 ,look back now1 for a moment1 on your own brief experience of life2 and although you lived it feelingly in your own person1 and had every step of conduct burned in by pains and joys upon your memory1 tell me what definite lesson does experience hand on from youth to manhood1 or from both to age8 ,the settled tenor which first strikes the eye is but the shadow of a delusion4 ,this is gone2 that never truly was2 and you yourself are altered beyond recognition4 ,times and men and circumstances change about your changing character1 with a speed of which no earthly hurricane affords an image4 ,what was the best yesterday1 is it still the best in this changed theatre of a to-morrow8 ,will your own ,past truly guide you in your own violent and unexpected ,future8 ,and if this be questionable1 with what humble1 with what hopeless eyes1 should we not watch other men driving beside us on their unknown careers1 seeing with unlike eyes1 impelled by different gales1 doing and suffering in another sphere of things8 ,and as the authentic clue to such a labyrinth and change of scene1 do you offer me these two score words8 these five bald prohibitions8 ,for the moral precepts are no more than five2 the first four deal rather with matters of observance than of conduct2 the tenth1 ,thou shalt not covet1 stands upon another basis1 and shall be spoken of ere long4 ,the ,jews1 to whom they were first given1 in the course of years began to find these precepts insufficient2 and made an addition of no less than six hundred and fifty others6 ,they hoped to make a pocket-book of reference on morals1 which should stand to life in some such relation1 say1 as ,hoyle stands in to the scientific game of whist4 ,the comparison is just1 and condemns the design2 for those who play by rule will never be more than tolerable players2 and you and ,i would like to play our game in life to the noblest and the most divine advantage4 ,yet if the ,jews took a petty and huckstering view of conduct1 what view do we take ourselves1 who callously leave youth to go forth into the enchanted forest1 full of spells and dire chimeras1 with no guidance more complete than is afforded by these five precepts8 ,honour thy father and thy mother4 ,yes1 but does that mean to obey8 and if so1 how long and how far8 ,thou shall not kill4 ,yet the very intention and purport of the prohibition may be best fulfilled by killing4 ,thou shall not commit adultery4 ,but some of the ugliest adulteries are committed in the bed of marriage and under the sanction of religion and law4 ,thou shalt not bear false witness4 ,how8 by speech or by silence also8 or even by a smile8 ,thou shalt not steal4 ,ah1 that indeed6 ,but what is to steal8 ,to steal8 ,it is another word to be construed2 and who is to be our guide8 ,the police will give us one construction1 leaving the word only that least minimum of meaning without which society would fall in pieces2 but surely we must take some higher sense than this2 surely we hope more than a bare subsistence for mankind2 surely we wish mankind to prosper and go on from strength to strength1 and ourselves to live rightly in the eye of some more exacting potentate than a policeman4 ,the approval or the disapproval of the police must be eternally indifferent to a man who is both valorous and good4 ,there is extreme discomfort1 but no shame1 in the condemnation of the law4 ,the law represents that modicum of morality which can be squeezed out of the ruck of mankind2 but what is that to me1 who aim higher and seek to be my own more stringent judge8 ,i observe with pleasure that no brave man has ever given a rush for such considerations4 ,the ,japanese have a nobler and more sentimental feeling for this social bond into which we all are born when we come into the world1 and whose comforts and protection we all indifferently share throughout our lives3--but even to them1 no more than to our ,western saints and heroes1 does the law of the state supersede the higher law of duty4 ,without hesitation and without remorse1 they transgress the stiffest enactments rather than abstain from doing right4 ,but the accidental superior duty being thus fulfilled1 they at once return in allegiance to the common duty of all citizens2 and hasten to denounce themselves2 and value at an equal rate their just crime and their equally just submission to its punishment4 ,the evading of the police will not long satisfy an active conscience or a thoughtful head4 ,but to show you how one or the other may trouble a man1 and what a vast extent of frontier is left unridden by this invaluable eighth commandment1 let me tell you a few pages out of a young man's life4 ,he was a friend of mine2 a young man like others2 generous1 flighty1 as variable as youth itself1 but always with some high motions and on the search for higher thoughts of life4 ,i should tell you at once that he thoroughly agrees with the eighth commandment4 ,but he got hold of some unsettling works1 the ,new ,testament among others1 and this loosened his views of life and led him into many perplexities4 ,as he was the son of a man in a certain position1 and well off1 my friend had enjoyed from the first the advantages of education1 nay1 he had been kept alive through a sickly childhood by constant watchfulness1 comforts1 and change of air2 for all of which he was indebted to his father's wealth4 ,at college he met other lads more diligent than himself1 who followed the plough in summer-time to pay their college fees in winter2 and this inequality struck him with some force4 ,he was at that age of a conversible temper1 and insatiably curious in the aspects of life2 and he spent much of his time scraping acquaintance with all classes of man- and woman-kind4 ,in this way he came upon many depressed ambitions1 and many intelligences stunted for want of opportunity2 and this also struck him4 ,he began to perceive that life was a handicap upon strange1 wrong-sided principles2 and not1 as he had been told1 a fair and equal race4 ,he began to tremble that he himself had been unjustly favoured1 when he saw all the avenues of wealth1 and power1 and comfort closed against so many of his superiors and equals1 and held unwearyingly open before so idle1 so desultory1 and so dissolute a being as himself4 ,there sat a youth beside him on the college benches1 who had only one shirt to his back1 and1 at intervals sufficiently far apart1 must stay at home to have it washed4 ,it was my friend's principle to stay away as often as he dared2 for ,i fear he was no friend to learning4 ,but there was something that came home to him sharply1 in this fellow who had to give over study till his shirt was washed1 and the scores of others who had never an opportunity at all4 ,if one of these could take his place1 he thought2 and the thought tore away a bandage from his eyes4 ,he was eaten by the shame of his discoveries1 and despised himself as an unworthy favourite and a creature of the back-stairs of ,fortune4 ,he could no longer see without confusion one of these brave young fellows battling up-hill against adversity4 ,had he not filched that fellow's birthright8 ,at best was he not coldly profiting by the injustice of society1 and greedily devouring stolen goods8 ,the money1 indeed1 belonged to his father1 who had worked1 and thought1 and given up his liberty to earn it2 but by what justice could the money belong to my friend1 who had1 as yet1 done nothing but help to squander it8 ,a more sturdy honesty1 joined to a more even and impartial temperament1 would have drawn from these considerations a new force of industry1 that this equivocal position might be brought as swiftly as possible to an end1 and some good services to mankind justify the appropriation of expense4 ,it was not so with my friend1 who was only unsettled and discouraged1 and filled full of that trumpeting anger with which young men regard injustices in the first blush of youth2 although in a few years they will tamely acquiesce in their existence1 and knowingly profit by their complications4 ,yet all this while he suffered many indignant pangs4 ,and once1 when he put on his boots1 like any other unripe donkey1 to run away from home1 it was his best consolation that he was now1 at a single plunge1 to free himself from the responsibility of this wealth that was not his1 and do battle equally against his fellows in the warfare of life4 ,some time after this1 falling into ill-health1 he was sent at great expense to a more favourable climate2 and then ,i think his perplexities were thickest4 ,when he thought of all the other young men of singular promise1 upright1 good1 the prop of families1 who must remain at home to die1 and with all their possibilities be lost to life and mankind2 and how he1 by one more unmerited favour1 was chosen out from all these others to survive2 he felt as if there were no life1 no labour1 no devotion of soul and body1 that could repay and justify these partialities4 ,a religious lady1 to whom he communicated these reflections1 could see no force in them whatever4 #8,it was ,god's will1' said she4 ,but he knew it was by ,god's will that ,joan of ,arc was burnt at ,rouen1 which cleared neither ,bedford nor ,bishop ,cauchon2 and again1 by ,god's will that ,christ was crucified outside ,jerusalem1 which excused neither the rancour of the priests nor the timidity of ,pilate4 ,he knew1 moreover1 that although the possibility of this favour he was now enjoying issued from his circumstances1 its acceptance was the act of his own will2 and he had accepted it greedily1 longing for rest and sunshine4 ,and hence this allegation of ,god's providence did little to relieve his scruples4 ,i promise you he had a very troubled mind4 ,and ,i would not laugh if ,i were you1 though while he was thus making mountains out of what you think molehills1 he were still 7as perhaps he was7 contentedly practising many other things that to you seem black as hell4 ,every man is his own judge and mountain-guide through life4 ,there is an old story of a mote and a beam1 apparently not true1 but worthy perhaps of some consideration4 ,i should1 if ,i were you1 give some consideration to these scruples of his1 and if ,i were he1 ,i should do the like by yours2 for it is not unlikely that there may be something under both4 ,in the meantime you must hear how my friend acted4 ,like many invalids1 he supposed that he would die4 ,now1 should he die1 he saw no means of repaying this huge loan which1 by the hands of his father1 mankind had advanced him for his sickness4 ,in that case it would be lost money4 ,so he determined that the advance should be as small as possible2 and1 so long as he continued to doubt his recovery1 lived in an upper room1 and grudged himself all but necessaries4 ,but so soon as he began to perceive a change for the better1 he felt justified in spending more freely1 to speed and brighten his return to health1 and trusted in the future to lend a help to mankind1 as mankind1 out of its treasury1 had lent a help to him4 ,i do not say but that my friend was a little too curious and partial in his view2 nor thought too much of himself and too little of his parents2 but ,i do say that here are some scruples which tormented my friend in his youth1 and still1 perhaps1 at odd times give him a prick in the midst of his enjoyments1 and which after all have some foundation in justice1 and point1 in their confused way1 to some more honourable honesty within the reach of man4 ,and at least1 is not this an unusual gloss upon the eighth commandment8 ,and what sort of comfort1 guidance1 or illumination did that precept afford my friend throughout these contentions8 #8,thou shalt not steal4' ,with all my heart6 ,but am ,i stealing8 ,the truly quaint materialism of our view of life disables us from pursuing any transaction to an end4 ,you can make no one understand that his bargain is anything more than a bargain1 whereas in point of fact it is a link in the policy of mankind1 and either a good or an evil to the world4 ,we have a sort of blindness which prevents us from seeing anything but sovereigns4 ,if one man agrees to give another so many shillings for so many hours' work1 and then wilfully gives him a certain proportion of the price in bad money and only the remainder in good1 we can see with half an eye that this man is a thief4 ,but if the other spends a certain proportion of the hours in smoking a pipe of tobacco1 and a certain other proportion in looking at the sky1 or the clock1 or trying to recall an air1 or in meditation on his own past adventures1 and only the remainder in downright work such as he is paid to do1 is he1 because the theft is one of time and not of money1--is he any the less a thief8 ,the one gave a bad shilling1 the other an imperfect hour2 but both broke the bargain1 and each is a thief4 ,in piecework1 which is what most of us do1 the case is none the less plain for being even less material4 ,if you forge a bad knife1 you have wasted some of mankind's iron1 and then1 with unrivalled cynicism1 you pocket some of mankind's money for your trouble4 ,is there any man so blind who cannot see that this is theft8 ,again1 if you carelessly cultivate a farm1 you have been playing fast and loose with mankind's resources against hunger2 there will be less bread in consequence1 and for lack of that bread somebody will die next winter3 a grim consideration4 ,and you must not hope to shuffle out of blame because you got less money for your less quantity of bread2 for although a theft be partly punished1 it is none the less a theft for that4 ,you took the farm against competitors2 there were others ready to shoulder the responsibility and be answerable for the tale of loaves2 but it was you who took it4 ,by the act you came under a tacit bargain with mankind to cultivate that farm with your best endeavour2 you were under no superintendence1 you were on parole2 and you have broke your bargain1 and to all who look closely1 and yourself among the rest if you have moral eyesight1 you are a thief4 ,or take the case of men of letters4 ,every piece of work which is not as good as you can make it1 which you have palmed off imperfect1 meagrely thought1 niggardly in execution1 upon mankind who is your paymaster on parole and in a sense your pupil1 every hasty or slovenly or untrue performance1 should rise up against you in the court of your own heart and condemn you for a thief4 ,have you a salary8 ,if you trifle with your health1 and so render yourself less capable for duty1 and still touch1 and still greedily pocket the emolument--what are you but a thief8 ,have you double accounts8 do you by any time-honoured juggle1 deceit1 or ambiguous process1 gain more from those who deal with you than it you were bargaining and dealing face to face in front of ,god8--,what are you but a thief8 ,lastly1 if you fill an office1 or produce an article1 which1 in your heart of hearts1 you think a delusion and a fraud upon mankind1 and still draw your salary and go through the sham manuvres of this office1 or still book your profits and keep on flooding the world with these injurious goods8--though you were old1 and bald1 and the first at church1 and a baronet1 what are you but a thief8 ,these may seem hard words and mere curiosities of the intellect1 in an age when the spirit of honesty is so sparingly cultivated that all business is conducted upon lies and so-called customs of the trade1 that not a man bestows two thoughts on the utility or honourableness of his pursuit4 ,i would say less if ,i thought less4 ,but looking to my own reason and the right of things1 ,i can only avow that ,i am a thief myself1 and that ,i passionately suspect my neighbours of the same guilt4 ,where did you hear that it was easy to be honest8 ,do you find that in your ,bible8 ,easy6 ,it is easy to be an ass and follow the multitude like a blind1 besotted bull in a stampede2 and that1 ,i am well aware1 is what you and ,mrs4 ,grundy mean by being honest4 ,but it will not bear the stress of time nor the scrutiny of conscience4 ,even before the lowest of all tribunals1--before a court of law1 whose business it is1 not to keep men right1 or within a thousand miles of right1 but to withhold them from going so tragically wrong that they will pull down the whole jointed fabric of society by their misdeeds--even before a court of law1 as we begin to see in these last days1 our easy view of following at each other's tails1 alike to good and evil1 is beginning to be reproved and punished1 and declared no honesty at all1 but open theft and swindling2 and simpletons who have gone on through life with a quiet conscience may learn suddenly1 from the lips of a judge1 that the custom of the trade may be a custom of the devil4 ,you thought it was easy to be honest4 ,did you think it was easy to be just and kind and truthful8 ,did you think the whole duty of aspiring man was as simple as a horn-pipe8 and you could walk through life like a gentleman and a hero1 with no more concern than it takes to go to church or to address a circular8 ,and yet all this time you had the eighth commandment6 and1 what makes it richer1 you would not have broken it for the world6 ,the truth is1 that these commandments by themselves are of little use in private judgment4 ,if compression is what you want1 you have their whole spirit compressed into the golden rule2 and yet there expressed with more significance1 since the law is there spiritually and not materially stated4 ,and in truth1 four out of these ten commands1 from the sixth to the ninth1 are rather legal than ethical4 ,the police-court is their proper home4 ,a magistrate cannot tell whether you love your neighbour as yourself1 but he can tell more or less whether you have murdered1 or stolen1 or committed adultery1 or held up your hand and testified to that which was not2 and these things1 for rough practical tests1 are as good as can be found4 ,and perhaps1 therefore1 the best condensation of the ,jewish moral law is in the maxims of the priests1 #8neminem ldere' and #8suum cuique tribuere4' ,but all this granted1 it becomes only the more plain that they are inadequate in the sphere of personal morality2 that while they tell the magistrate roughly when to punish1 they can never direct an anxious sinner what to do4 ,only ,polonius1 or the like solemn sort of ass1 can offer us a succinct proverb by way of advice1 and not burst out blushing in our faces4 ,we grant them one and all and for all that they are worth2 it is something above and beyond that we desire4 ,christ was in general a great enemy to such a way of teaching2 we rarely find him meddling with any of these plump commands but it was to open them out1 and lift his hearers from the letter to the spirit4 ,for morals are a personal affair2 in the war of righteousness every man fights for his own hand2 all the six hundred precepts of the ,mishna cannot shake my private judgment2 my magistracy of myself is an indefeasible charge1 and my decisions absolute for the time and case4 ,the moralist is not a judge of appeal1 but an advocate who pleads at my tribunal4 ,he has to show not the law1 but that the law applies4 ,can he convince me8 then he gains the cause4 ,and thus you find ,christ giving various counsels to varying people1 and often jealously careful to avoid definite precept4 ,is he asked1 for example1 to divide a heritage8 ,he refuses3 and the best advice that he will offer is but a paraphrase of that tenth commandment which figures so strangely among the rest4 ,take heed1 and beware of covetousness4 ,if you complain that this is vague1 ,i have failed to carry you along with me in my argument4 ,for no definite precept can be more than an illustration1 though its truth were resplendent like the sun1 and it was announced from heaven by the voice of ,god4 ,and life is so intricate and changing1 that perhaps not twenty times1 or perhaps not twice in the ages1 shall we find that nice consent of circumstances to which alone it can apply4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,although the world and life have in a sense become commonplace to our experience1 it is but in an external torpor2 the true sentiment slumbers within us2 and we have but to reflect on ourselves or our surroundings to rekindle our astonishment4 ,no length of habit can blunt our first surprise4 ,of the world ,i have but little to say in this connection2 a few strokes shall suffice4 ,we inhabit a dead ember swimming wide in the blank of space1 dizzily spinning as it swims1 and lighted up from several million miles away by a more horrible hell-fire than was ever conceived by the theological imagination4 ,yet the dead ember is a green1 commodious dwelling-place2 and the reverberation of this hell-fire ripens flower and fruit and mildly warms us on summer eves upon the lawn4 ,far off on all hands other dead embers1 other flaming suns1 wheel and race in the apparent void2 the nearest is out of call1 the farthest so far that the heart sickens in the effort to conceive the distance4 ,shipwrecked seamen on the deep1 though they bestride but the truncheon of a boom1 are safe and near at home compared with mankind on its bullet4 ,even to us who have known no other1 it seems a strange1 if not an appalling1 place of residence4 ,but far stranger is the resident1 man1 a creature compact of wonders that1 after centuries of custom1 is still wonderful to himself4 ,he inhabits a body which he is continually outliving1 discarding and renewing4 ,food and sleep1 by an unknown alchemy1 restore his spirits and the freshness of his countenance4 ,hair grows on him like grass2 his eyes1 his brain1 his sinews1 thirst for action2 he joys to see and touch and hear1 to partake the sun and wind1 to sit down and intently ponder on his astonishing attributes and situation1 to rise up and run1 to perform the strange and revolting round of physical functions4 ,the sight of a flower1 the note of a bird1 will often move him deeply2 yet he looks unconcerned on the impassable distances and portentous bonfires of the universe4 ,he comprehends1 he designs1 he tames nature1 rides the sea1 ploughs1 climbs the air in a balloon1 makes vast inquiries1 begins interminable labours1 joins himself into federations and populous cities1 spends his days to deliver the ends of the earth or to benefit unborn posterity2 and yet knows himself for a piece of unsurpassed fragility and the creature of a few days4 ,his sight1 which conducts him1 which takes notice of the farthest stars1 which is miraculous in every way and a thing defying explanation or belief1 is yet lodged in a piece of jelly1 and can be extinguished with a touch4 ,his heart1 which all through life so indomitably1 so athletically labours1 is but a capsule1 and may be stopped with a pin4 ,his whole body1 for all its savage energies1 its leaping and its winged desires1 may yet be tamed and conquered by a draught of air or a sprinkling of cold dew4 ,what he calls death1 which is the seeming arrest of everything1 and the ruin and hateful transformation of the visible body1 lies in wait for him outwardly in a thousand accidents1 and grows up in secret diseases from within4 ,he is still learning to be a man when his faculties are already beginning to decline2 he has not yet understood himself or his position before he inevitably dies4 ,and yet this mad1 chimerical creature can take no thought of his last end1 lives as though he were eternal1 plunges with his vulnerable body into the shock of war1 and daily affronts death with unconcern4 ,he cannot take a step without pain or pleasure4 ,his life is a tissue of sensations1 which he distinguishes as they seem to come more directly from himself or his surroundings4 ,he is conscious of himself as a joyer or a sufferer1 as that which craves1 chooses1 and is satisfied2 conscious of his surroundings as it were of an inexhaustible purveyor1 the source of aspects1 inspirations1 wonders1 cruel knocks and transporting caresses4 ,thus he goes on his way1 stumbling among delights and agonies4 ,matter is a far-fetched theory1 and materialism is without a root in man4 ,to him everything is important in the degree to which it moves him4 ,the telegraph wires and posts1 the electricity speeding from clerk to clerk1 the clerks1 the glad or sorrowful import of the message1 and the paper on which it is finally brought to him at home1 are all equally facts1 all equally exist for man4 ,a word or a thought can wound him as acutely as a knife of steel4 ,if he thinks he is loved1 he will rise up and glory to himself1 although he be in a distant land and short of necessary bread4 ,does he think he is not loved8--he may have the woman at his beck1 and there is not a joy for him in all the world4 ,indeed1 if we are to make any account of this figment of reason1 the distinction between material and immaterial1 we shall conclude that the life of each man as an individual is immaterial1 although the continuation and prospects of mankind as a race turn upon material conditions4 ,the physical business of each man's body is transacted for him2 like a sybarite1 he has attentive valets in his own viscera2 he breathes1 he sweats1 he digests without an effort1 or so much as a consenting volition2 for the most part he even eats1 not with a wakeful consciousness1 but as it were between two thoughts4 ,his life is centred among other and more important considerations2 touch him in his honour or his love1 creatures of the imagination which attach him to mankind or to an individual man or woman2 cross him in his piety which connects his soul with heaven2 and he turns from his food1 he loathes his breath1 and with a magnanimous emotion cuts the knots of his existence and frees himself at a blow from the web of pains and pleasures4 ,it follows that man is twofold at least2 that he is not a rounded and autonomous empire2 but that in the same body with him there dwell other powers tributary but independent4 ,if ,i now behold one walking in a garden1 curiously coloured and illuminated by the sun1 digesting his food with elaborate chemistry1 breathing1 circulating blood1 directing himself by the sight of his eyes1 accommodating his body by a thousand delicate balancings to the wind and the uneven surface of the path1 and all the time1 perhaps1 with his mind engaged about ,america1 or the dog-star1 or the attributes of ,god--what am ,i to say1 or how am ,i to describe the thing ,i see8 ,is that truly a man1 in the rigorous meaning of the word8 or is it not a man and something else8 ,what1 then1 are we to count the centre-bit and axle of a being so variously compounded8 ,it is a question much debated4 ,some read his history in a certain intricacy of nerve and the success of successive digestions2 others find him an exiled piece of heaven blown upon and determined by the breath of ,god2 and both schools of theorists will scream like scalded children at a word of doubt4 ,yet either of these views1 however plausible1 is beside the question2 either may be right2 and ,i care not2 ,i ask a more particular answer1 and to a more immediate point4 ,what is the man8 ,there is ,something that was before hunger and that remains behind after a meal4 ,it may or may not be engaged in any given act or passion1 but when it is1 it changes1 heightens1 and sanctifies4 ,thus it is not engaged in lust1 where satisfaction ends the chapter2 and it is engaged in love1 where no satisfaction can blunt the edge of the desire1 and where age1 sickness1 or alienation may deface what was desirable without diminishing the sentiment4 ,this something1 which is the man1 is a permanence which abides through the vicissitudes of passion1 now overwhelmed and now triumphant1 now unconscious of itself in the immediate distress of appetite or pain1 now rising unclouded above all4 ,so1 to the man1 his own central self fades and grows clear again amid the tumult of the senses1 like a revolving ,pharos in the night4 ,it is forgotten2 it is hid1 it seems1 for ever2 and yet in the next calm hour he shall behold himself once more1 shining and unmoved among changes and storm4 ,mankind1 in the sense of the creeping mass that is born and eats1 that generates and dies1 is but the aggregate of the outer and lower sides of man4 ,this inner consciousness1 this lantern alternately obscured and shining1 to and by which the individual exists and must order his conduct1 is something special to himself and not common to the race4 ,his joys delight1 his sorrows wound him1 according as this is interested or indifferent in the affair2 according as they arise in an imperial war or in a broil conducted by the tributary chieftains of the mind4 ,he may lose all1 and this not suffer2 he may lose what is materially a trifle1 and this leap in his bosom with a cruel pang4 ,i do not speak of it to hardened theorists3 the living man knows keenly what it is ,i mean4 #8,perceive at last that thou hast in thee something better and more divine than the things which cause the various effects1 and1 as it were1 pull thee by the strings4 ,what is that now in thy mind8 is it fear1 or suspicion1 or desire1 or anything of that kind8' ,thus far ,marcus ,aurelius1 in one of the most notable passages in any book4 ,here is a question worthy to be answered4 ,what is in thy mind8 ,what is the utterance of your inmost self when1 in a quiet hour1 it can be heard intelligibly8 ,it is something beyond the compass of your thinking1 inasmuch as it is yourself2 but is it not of a higher spirit than you had dreamed betweenwhiles1 and erect above all base considerations8 ,this soul seems hardly touched with our infirmities2 we can find in it certainly no fear1 suspicion1 or desire2 we are only conscious--and that as though we read it in the eyes of some one else--of a great and unqualified readiness4 ,a readiness to what8 to pass over and look beyond the objects of desire and fear1 for something else4 ,and this something else8 this something which is apart from desire and fear1 to which all the kingdoms of the world and the immediate death of the body are alike indifferent and beside the point1 and which yet regards conduct--by what name are we to call it8 ,it may be the love of ,god2 or it may be an inherited 7and certainly well concealed7 instinct to preserve self and propagate the race2 ,i am not1 for the moment1 averse to either theory2 but it will save time to call it righteousness4 ,by so doing ,i intend no subterfuge to beg a question2 ,i am indeed ready1 and more than willing1 to accept the rigid consequence1 and lay aside1 as far as the treachery of the reason will permit1 all former meanings attached to the word righteousness4 ,what is right is that for which a man's central self is ever ready to sacrifice immediate or distant interests2 what is wrong is what the central self discards or rejects as incompatible with the fixed design of righteousness4 ,to make this admission is to lay aside all hope of definition4 ,that which is right upon this theory is intimately dictated to each man by himself1 but can never be rigorously set forth in language1 and never1 above all1 imposed upon another4 ,the conscience has1 then1 a vision like that of the eyes1 which is incommunicable1 and for the most part illuminates none but its possessor4 ,when many people perceive the same or any cognate facts1 they agree upon a word as symbol2 and hence we have such words as tree1 star1 love1 honour1 or death2 hence also we have this word right1 which1 like the others1 we all understand1 most of us understand differently1 and none can express succinctly otherwise4 ,yet even on the straitest view1 we can make some steps towards comprehension of our own superior thoughts4 ,for it is an incredible and most bewildering fact that a man1 through life1 is on variable terms with himself2 he is aware of tiffs and reconciliations2 the intimacy is at times almost suspended1 at times it is renewed again with joy4 ,as we said before1 his inner self or soul appears to him by successive revelations1 and is frequently obscured4 ,it is from a study of these alternations that we can alone hope to discover1 even dimly1 what seems right and what seems wrong to this veiled prophet of ourself4 ,all that is in the man in the larger sense1 what we call impression as well as what we call intuition1 so far as my argument looks1 we must accept4 ,it is not wrong to desire food1 or exercise1 or beautiful surroundings1 or the love of sex1 or interest which is the food of the mind4 ,all these are craved2 all these should be craved2 to none of these in itself does the soul demur2 where there comes an undeniable want1 we recognise a demand of nature4 ,yet we know that these natural demands may be superseded2 for the demands which are common to mankind make but a shadowy consideration in comparison to the demands of the individual soul4 ,food is almost the first prerequisite2 and yet a high character will go without food to the ruin and death of the body rather than gain it in a manner which the spirit disavows4 ,pascal laid aside mathematics2 ,origen doctored his body with a knife2 every day some one is thus mortifying his dearest interests and desires1 and1 in ,christ's words1 entering maim into the ,kingdom of ,heaven4 ,this is to supersede the lesser and less harmonious affections by renunciation2 and though by this ascetic path we may get to heaven1 we cannot get thither a whole and perfect man4 ,but there is another way1 to supersede them by reconciliation1 in which the soul and all the faculties and senses pursue a common route and share in one desire4 ,thus1 man is tormented by a very imperious physical desire2 it spoils his rest1 it is not to be denied2 the doctors will tell you1 not ,i1 how it is a physical need1 like the want of food or slumber4 ,in the satisfaction of this desire1 as it first appears1 the soul sparingly takes part2 nay1 it oft unsparingly regrets and disapproves the satisfaction4 ,but let the man learn to love a woman as far as he is capable of love2 and for this random affection of the body there is substituted a steady determination1 a consent of all his powers and faculties1 which supersedes1 adopts1 and commands the other4 ,the desire survives1 strengthened1 perhaps1 but taught obedience and changed in scope and character4 ,life is no longer a tale of betrayals and regrets2 for the man now lives as a whole2 his consciousness now moves on uninterrupted like a river2 through all the extremes and ups and downs of passion1 he remains approvingly conscious of himself4 ,now to me1 this seems a type of that rightness which the soul demands4 ,it demands that we shall not live alternately with our opposing tendencies in continual see-saw of passion and disgust1 but seek some path on which the tendencies shall no longer oppose1 but serve each other to a common end4 ,it demands that we shall not pursue broken ends1 but great and comprehensive purposes1 in which soul and body may unite like notes in a harmonious chord4 ,that were indeed a way of peace and pleasure1 that were indeed a heaven upon earth4 ,it does not demand1 however1 or1 to speak in measure1 it does not demand of me1 that ,i should starve my appetites for no purpose under heaven but as a purpose in itself2 or1 in a weak despair1 pluck out the eye that ,i have not yet learned to guide and enjoy with wisdom4 ,the soul demands unity of purpose1 not the dismemberment of man2 it seeks to roll up all his strength and sweetness1 all his passion and wisdom1 into one1 and make of him a perfect man exulting in perfection4 ,to conclude ascetically is to give up1 and not to solve1 the problem4 ,the ascetic and the creeping hog1 although they are at different poles1 have equally failed in life4 ,the one has sacrificed his crew2 the other brings back his seamen in a cock-boat1 and has lost the ship4 ,i believe there are not many sea-captains who would plume themselves on either result as a success4 ,but if it is righteousness thus to fuse together our divisive impulses and march with one mind through life1 there is plainly one thing more unrighteous than all others1 and one declension which is irretrievable and draws on the rest4 ,and this is to lose consciousness of oneself4 ,in the best of times1 it is but by flashes1 when our whole nature is clear1 strong and conscious1 and events conspire to leave us free1 that we enjoy communion with our soul4 ,at the worst1 we are so fallen and passive that we may say shortly we have none4 ,an arctic torpor seizes upon men4 ,although built of nerves1 and set adrift in a stimulating world1 they develop a tendency to go bodily to sleep2 consciousness becomes engrossed among the reflex and mechanical parts of life2 and soon loses both the will and power to look higher considerations in the face4 ,this is ruin2 this is the last failure in life2 this is temporal damnation1 damnation on the spot and without the form of judgment4 #8,what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose himself8' ,it is to keep a man awake1 to keep him alive to his own soul and its fixed design of righteousness1 that the better part of moral and religious education is directed2 not only that of words and doctors1 but the sharp ferule of calamity under which we are all ,god's scholars till we die4 ,if1 as teachers1 we are to say anything to the purpose1 we must say what will remind the pupil of his soul2 we must speak that soul's dialect2 we must talk of life and conduct as his soul would have him think of them4 ,if1 from some conformity between us and the pupil1 or perhaps among all men1 we do in truth speak in such a dialect and express such views1 beyond question we shall touch in him a spring2 beyond question he will recognise the dialect as one that he himself has spoken in his better hours2 beyond question he will cry1 #8,i had forgotten1 but now ,i remember2 ,i too have eyes1 and ,i had forgot to use them6 ,i too have a soul of my own1 arrogantly upright1 and to that ,i will listen and conform4' ,in short1 say to him anything that he has once thought1 or been upon the point of thinking1 or show him any view of life that he has once clearly seen1 or been upon the point of clearly seeing2 and you have done your part and may leave him to complete the education for himself4 ,now1 the view taught at the present time seems to me to want greatness2 and the dialect in which alone it can be intelligibly uttered is not the dialect of my soul4 ,it is a sort of postponement of life2 nothing quite is1 but something different is to be2 we are to keep our eyes upon the indirect from the cradle to the grave4 ,we are to regulate our conduct not by desire1 but by a politic eye upon the future2 and to value acts as they will bring us money or good opinion2 as they will bring us1 in one word1 profit4 ,we must be what is called respectable1 and offend no one by our carriage2 it will not do to make oneself conspicuous--who knows8 even in virtue8 says the ,christian parent6 ,and we must be what is called prudent and make money2 not only because it is pleasant to have money1 but because that also is a part of respectability1 and we cannot hope to be received in society without decent possessions4 ,received in society6 as if that were the kingdom of heaven6 ,there is dear ,mr4 ,so-and-so2--look at him6--so much respected--so much looked up to--quite the ,christian merchant6 ,and we must cut our conduct as strictly as possible after the pattern of ,mr4 ,so-and-so2 and lay our whole lives to make money and be strictly decent4 ,besides these holy injunctions1 which form by far the greater part of a youth's training in our ,christian homes1 there are at least two other doctrines4 ,we are to live just now as well as we can1 but scrape at last into heaven1 where we shall be good4 ,we are to worry through the week in a lay1 disreputable way1 but1 to make matters square1 live a different life on ,sunday4 ,the train of thought we have been following gives us a key to all these positions1 without stepping aside to justify them on their own ground4 ,it is because we have been disgusted fifty times with physical squalls1 and fifty times torn between conflicting impulses1 that we teach people this indirect and tactical procedure in life1 and to judge by remote consequences instead of the immediate face of things4 ,the very desire to act as our own souls would have us1 coupled with a pathetic disbelief in ourselves1 moves us to follow the example of others2 perhaps1 who knows8 they may be on the right track2 and the more our patterns are in number1 the better seems the chance2 until1 if we be acting in concert with a whole civilised nation1 there are surely a majority of chances that we must be acting right4 ,and again1 how true it is that we can never behave as we wish in this tormented sphere1 and can only aspire to different and more favourable circumstances1 in order to stand out and be ourselves wholly and rightly6 ,and yet once more1 if in the hurry and pressure of affairs and passions you tend to nod and become drowsy1 here are twenty-four hours of ,sunday set apart for you to hold counsel with your soul and look around you on the possibilities of life4 ,this is not1 of course1 all that is to be1 or even should be1 said for these doctrines4 ,only1 in the course of this chapter1 the reader and ,i have agreed upon a few catchwords1 and been looking at morals on a certain system2 it was a pity to lose an opportunity of testing the catchwords1 and seeing whether1 by this system as well as by others1 current doctrines could show any probable justification4 ,if the doctrines had come too badly out of the trial1 it would have condemned the system4 ,our sight of the world is very narrow2 the mind but a pedestrian instrument2 there's nothing new under the sun1 as ,solomon says1 except the man himself2 and though that changes the aspect of everything else1 yet he must see the same things as other people1 only from a different side4 ,and now1 having admitted so much1 let us turn to criticism4 ,if you teach a man to keep his eyes upon what others think of him1 unthinkingly to lead the life and hold the principles of the majority of his contemporaries1 you must discredit in his eyes the one authoritative voice of his own soul4 ,he may be a docile citizen2 he will never be a man4 ,it is ours1 on the other hand1 to disregard this babble and chattering of other men better and worse than we are1 and to walk straight before us by what light we have4 ,they may be right2 but so1 before heaven1 are we4 ,they may know2 but we know also1 and by that knowledge we must stand or fall4 ,there is such a thing as loyalty to a man's own better self2 and from those who have not that1 ,god help me1 how am ,i to look for loyalty to others8 ,the most dull1 the most imbecile1 at a certain moment turn round1 at a certain point will hear no further argument1 but stand unflinching by their own dumb1 irrational sense of right4 ,it is not only by steel or fire1 but through contempt and blame1 that the martyr fulfils the calling of his dear soul4 ,be glad if you are not tried by such extremities4 ,but although all the world ranged themselves in one line to tell you #8,this is wrong1' be you your own faithful vassal and the ambassador of ,god--throw down the glove and answer #8,this is right4' ,do you think you are only declaring yourself8 ,perhaps in some dim way1 like a child who delivers a message not fully understood1 you are opening wider the straits of prejudice and preparing mankind for some truer and more spiritual grasp of truth2 perhaps1 as you stand forth for your own judgment1 you are covering a thousand weak ones with your body2 perhaps1 by this declaration alone1 you have avoided the guilt of false witness against humanity and the little ones unborn4 ,it is good1 ,i believe1 to be respectable1 but much nobler to respect oneself and utter the voice of ,god4 ,god1 if there be any ,god1 speaks daily in a new language by the tongues of men2 the thoughts and habits of each fresh generation and each new-coined spirit throw another light upon the universe and contain another commentary on the printed ,bibles2 every scruple1 every true dissent1 every glimpse of something new1 is a letter of ,god's alphabet2 and though there is a grave responsibility for all who speak1 is there none for those who unrighteously keep silence and conform8 ,is not that also to conceal and cloak ,god's counsel8 ,and how should we regard the man of science who suppressed all facts that would not tally with the orthodoxy of the hour8 ,wrong8 ,you are as surely wrong as the sun rose this morning round the revolving shoulder of the world4 ,not truth1 but truthfulness1 is the good of your endeavour4 ,for when will men receive that first part and prerequisite of truth1 that1 by the order of things1 by the greatness of the universe1 by the darkness and partiality of man's experience1 by the inviolate secrecy of ,god1 kept close in ,his most open revelations1 every man is1 and to the end of the ages must be1 wrong8 ,wrong to the universe2 wrong to mankind2 wrong to ,god4 ,and yet in another sense1 and that plainer and nearer1 every man of men1 who wishes truly1 must be right4 ,he is right to himself1 and in the measure of his sagacity and candour4 ,that let him do in all sincerity and zeal1 not sparing a thought for contrary opinions2 that1 for what it is worth1 let him proclaim4 ,be not afraid2 although he be wrong1 so also is the dead1 stuffed ,dagon he insults4 ,for the voice of ,god1 whatever it is1 is not that stammering1 inept tradition which the people holds4 ,these truths survive in travesty1 swamped in a world of spiritual darkness and confusion2 and what a few comprehend and faithfully hold1 the many1 in their dead jargon1 repeat1 degrade1 and misinterpret4 ,so far of ,respectability2 what the ,covenanters used to call #8rank conformity'3 the deadliest gag and wet blanket that can be laid on men4 ,and now of ,profit4 ,and this doctrine is perhaps the more redoubtable1 because it harms all sorts of men2 not only the heroic and self-reliant1 but the obedient1 cowlike squadrons4 ,a man1 by this doctrine1 looks to consequences at the second1 or third1 or fiftieth turn4 ,he chooses his end1 and for that1 with wily turns and through a great sea of tedium1 steers this mortal bark4 ,there may be political wisdom in such a view2 but ,i am persuaded there can spring no great moral zeal4 ,to look thus obliquely upon life is the very recipe for moral slumber4 ,our intention and endeavour should be directed1 not on some vague end of money or applause1 which shall come to us by a ricochet in a month or a year1 or twenty years1 but on the act itself2 not on the approval of others1 but on the rightness of that act4 ,at every instant1 at every step in life1 the point has to be decided1 our soul has to be saved1 heaven has to be gained or lost4 ,at every step our spirits must applaud1 at every step we must set down the foot and sound the trumpet4 #8,this have ,i done1' we must say2 #8right or wrong1 this have ,i done1 in unfeigned honour of intention1 as to myself and ,god4' ,the profit of every act should be this1 that it was right for us to do it4 ,any other profit than that1 if it involved a kingdom or the woman ,i love1 ought1 if ,i were ,god's upright soldier1 to leave me untempted4 ,it is the mark of what we call a righteous decision1 that it is made directly and for its own sake4 ,the whole man1 mind and body1 having come to an agreement1 tyrannically dictates conduct4 ,there are two dispositions eternally opposed3 that in which we recognise that one thing is wrong and another right1 and that in which1 not seeing any clear distinction1 we fall back on the consideration of consequences4 ,the truth is1 by the scope of our present teaching1 nothing is thought very wrong and nothing very right1 except a few actions which have the disadvantage of being disrespectable when found out2 the more serious part of men inclining to think all things rather wrong1 the more jovial to suppose them right enough for practical purposes4 ,i will engage my head1 they do not find that view in their own hearts2 they have taken it up in a dark despair2 they are but troubled sleepers talking in their sleep4 ,the soul1 or my soul at least1 thinks very distinctly upon many points of right and wrong1 and often differs flatly with what is held out as the thought of corporate humanity in the code of society or the code of law4 ,am ,i to suppose myself a monster8 ,i have only to read books1 the ,christian ,gospels for example1 to think myself a monster no longer2 and instead ,i think the mass of people are merely speaking in their sleep4 ,it is a commonplace1 enshrined1 if ,i mistake not1 even in school copy-books1 that honour is to be sought and not fame4 ,i ask no other admission2 we are to seek honour1 upright walking with our own conscience every hour of the day1 and not fame1 the consequence1 the far-off reverberation of our footsteps4 ,the walk1 not the rumour of the walk1 is what concerns righteousness4 ,better disrespectable honour than dishonourable fame4 ,better useless or seemingly hurtful honour1 than dishonour ruling empires and filling the mouths of thousands4 ,for the man must walk by what he sees1 and leave the issue with ,god who made him and taught him by the fortune of his life4 ,you would not dishonour yourself for money2 which is at least tangible2 would you do it1 then1 for a doubtful forecast in politics1 or another person's theory in morals8 ,so intricate is the scheme of our affairs1 that no man can calculate the bearing of his own behaviour even on those immediately around him1 how much less upon the world at large or on succeeding generations6 ,to walk by external prudence and the rule of consequences would require1 not a man1 but ,god4 ,all that we know to guide us in this changing labyrinth is our soul with its fixed design of righteousness1 and a few old precepts which commend themselves to that4 ,the precepts are vague when we endeavour to apply them2 consequences are more entangled than a wisp of string1 and their confusion is unrestingly in change2 we must hold to what we know and walk by it4 ,we must walk by faith1 indeed1 and not by knowledge4 ,you do not love another because he is wealthy or wise or eminently respectable3 you love him because you love him2 that is love1 and any other only a derision and grimace4 ,it should be the same with all our actions4 ,if we were to conceive a perfect man1 it should be one who was never torn between conflicting impulses1 but who1 on the absolute consent of all his parts and faculties1 submitted in every action of his life to a self-dictation as absolute and unreasoned as that which bids him love one woman and be true to her till death4 ,but we should not conceive him as sagacious1 ascetical1 playing off his appetites against each other1 turning the wing of public respectable immorality instead of riding it directly down1 or advancing toward his end through a thousand sinister compromises and considerations4 ,the one man might be wily1 might be adroit1 might be wise1 might be respectable1 might be gloriously useful2 it is the other man who would be good4 ,the soul asks honour and not fame2 to be upright1 not to be successful2 to be good1 not prosperous2 to be essentially1 not outwardly1 respectable4 ,does your soul ask profit8 ,does it ask money8 ,does it ask the approval of the indifferent herd8 ,i believe not4 ,for my own part1 ,i want but little money1 ,i hope2 and ,i do not want to be decent at all1 but to be good4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,we have spoken of that supreme self-dictation which keeps varying from hour to hour in its dictates with the variation of events and circumstances4 ,now1 for us1 that is ultimate4 ,it may be founded on some reasonable process1 but it is not a process which we can follow or comprehend4 ,and moreover the dictation is not continuous1 or not continuous except in very lively and well-living natures2 and between-whiles we must brush along without it4 ,practice is a more intricate and desperate business than the toughest theorising2 life is an affair of cavalry1 where rapid judgment and prompt action are alone possible and right4 ,as a matter of fact1 there is no one so upright but he is influenced by the world's chatter2 and no one so headlong but he requires to consider consequences and to keep an eye on profit4 ,for the soul adopts all affections and appetites without exception1 and cares only to combine them for some common purpose which shall interest all4 ,now1 respect for the opinion of others1 the study of consequences1 and the desire of power and comfort1 are all undeniably factors in the nature of man2 and the more undeniably since we find that1 in our current doctrines1 they have swallowed up the others and are thought to conclude in themselves all the worthy parts of man4 ,these1 then1 must also be suffered to affect conduct in the practical domain1 much or little according as they are forcibly or feebly present to the mind of each4 ,now1 a man's view of the universe is mostly a view of the civilised society in which he lives4 ,other men and women are so much more grossly and so much more intimately palpable to his perceptions1 that they stand between him and all the rest2 they are larger to his eye than the sun1 he hears them more plainly than thunder1 with them1 by them1 and for them1 he must live and die4 ,and hence the laws that affect his intercourse with his fellow-men1 although merely customary and the creatures of a generation1 are more clearly and continually before his mind than those which bind him into the eternal system of things1 support him in his upright progress on this whirling ball1 or keep up the fire of his bodily life4 ,and hence it is that money stands in the first rank of considerations and so powerfully affects the choice4 ,for our society is built with money for mortar2 money is present in every joint of circumstance2 it might be named the social atmosphere1 since1 in society1 it is by that alone that men continue to live1 and only through that or chance that they can reach or affect one another4 ,money gives us food1 shelter1 and privacy2 it permits us to be clean in person1 opens for us the doors of the theatre1 gains us books for study or pleasure1 enables us to help the distresses of others1 and puts us above necessity so that we can choose the best in life4 ,if we love1 it enables us to meet and live with the loved one1 or even to prolong her health and life2 if we have scruples1 it gives us an opportunity to be honest2 if we have any bright designs1 here is what will smooth the way to their accomplishment4 ,penury is the worst slavery1 and will soon lead to death4 ,but money is only a means2 it presupposes a man to use it4 ,the rich can go where he pleases1 but perhaps please himself nowhere4 ,he can buy a library or visit the whole world1 but perhaps has neither patience to read nor intelligence to see4 ,the table may be loaded and the appetite wanting2 the purse may be full1 and the heart empty4 ,he may have gained the world and lost himself2 and with all his wealth around him1 in a great house and spacious and beautiful demesne1 he may live as blank a life as any tattered ditcher4 ,without an appetite1 without an aspiration1 void of appreciation1 bankrupt of desire and hope1 there1 in his great house1 let him sit and look upon his fingers4 ,it is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire4 ,although neither is to be despised1 it is always better policy to learn an interest than to make a thousand pounds2 for the money will soon be spent1 or perhaps you may feel no joy in spending it2 but the interest remains imperishable and ever new4 ,to become a botanist1 a geologist1 a social philosopher1 an antiquary1 or an artist1 is to enlarge one's possessions in the universe by an incalculably higher degree1 and by a far surer sort of property1 than to purchase a farm of many acres4 ,you had perhaps two thousand a year before the transaction2 perhaps you have two thousand five hundred after it4 ,that represents your gain in the one case4 ,but in the other1 you have thrown down a barrier which concealed significance and beauty4 ,the blind man has learned to see4 ,the prisoner has opened up a window in his cell and beholds enchanting prospects2 he will never again be a prisoner as he was2 he can watch clouds and changing seasons1 ships on the river1 travellers on the road1 and the stars at night2 happy prisoner6 his eyes have broken jail6 ,and again he who has learned to love an art or science has wisely laid up riches against the day of riches2 if prosperity come1 he will not enter poor into his inheritance2 he will not slumber and forget himself in the lap of money1 or spend his hours in counting idle treasures1 but be up and briskly doing2 he will have the true alchemic touch1 which is not that of ,midas1 but which transmutes dead money into living delight and satisfaction4 tre et pas avoir--to be1 not to possess--that is the problem of life4 ,to be wealthy1 a rich nature is the first requisite and money but the second4 ,to be of a quick and healthy blood1 to share in all honourable curiosities1 to be rich in admiration and free from envy1 to rejoice greatly in the good of others1 to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness--these are the gifts of fortune which money cannot buy and without which money can buy nothing4 ,for what can a man possess1 or what can he enjoy1 except himself8 ,if he enlarge his nature1 it is then that he enlarges his estates4 ,if his nature be happy and valiant1 he will enjoy the universe as if it were his park and orchard4 ,but money is not only to be spent2 it has also to be earned4 ,it is not merely a convenience or a necessary in social life2 but it is the coin in which mankind pays his wages to the individual man4 ,and from this side1 the question of money has a very different scope and application4 ,for no man can be honest who does not work4 ,service for service4 ,if the farmer buys corn1 and the labourer ploughs and reaps1 and the baker sweats in his hot bakery1 plainly you who eat must do something in your turn4 ,it is not enough to take off your hat1 or to thank ,god upon your knees for the admirable constitution of society and your own convenient situation in its upper and more ornamental stories4 ,neither is it enough to buy the loaf with a sixpence2 for then you are only changing the point of the inquiry2 and you must first have bought the sixpence4 ,service for service3 how have you bought your sixpences8 ,a man of spirit desires certainty in a thing of such a nature2 he must see to it that there is some reciprocity between him and mankind2 that he pays his expenditure in service2 that he has not a lion's share in profit and a drone's in labour2 and is not a sleeping partner and mere costly incubus on the great mercantile concern of mankind4 ,services differ so widely with different gifts1 and some are so inappreciable to external tests1 that this is not only a matter for the private conscience1 but one which even there must be leniently and trustfully considered4 ,for remember how many serve mankind who do no more than meditate2 and how many are precious to their friends for no more than a sweet and joyous temper4 ,to perform the function of a man of letters it is not necessary to write2 nay1 it is perhaps better to be a living book4 ,so long as we love we serve2 so long as we are loved by others1 ,i would almost say that we are indispensable2 and no man is useless while he has a friend4 ,the true services of life are inestimable in money1 and are never paid4 ,kind words and caresses1 high and wise thoughts1 humane designs1 tender behaviour to the weak and suffering1 and all the charities of man's existence1 are neither bought nor sold4 ,yet the dearest and readiest1 if not the most just1 criterion of a man's services1 is the wage that mankind pays him or1 briefly1 what he earns4 ,there at least there can be no ambiguity4 ,st4 ,paul is fully and freely entitled to his earnings as a tentmaker1 and ,socrates fully and freely entitled to his earnings as a sculptor1 although the true business of each was not only something different1 but something which remained unpaid4 ,a man cannot forget that he is not superintended1 and serves mankind on parole4 ,he would like1 when challenged by his own conscience1 to reply3 #8,i have done so much work1 and no less1 with my own hands and brain1 and taken so much profit1 and no more1 for my own personal delight4' ,and though ,st4 ,paul1 if he had possessed a private fortune1 would probably have scorned to waste his time in making tents1 yet of all sacrifices to public opinion none can be more easily pardoned than that by which a man1 already spiritually useful to the world1 should restrict the field of his chief usefulness to perform services more apparent1 and possess a livelihood that neither stupidity nor malice could call in question4 ,like all sacrifices to public opinion and mere external decency1 this would certainly be wrong2 for the soul should rest contented with its own approval and indissuadably pursue its own calling4 ,yet1 so grave and delicate is the question1 that a man may well hesitate before he decides it for himself2 he may well fear that he sets too high a valuation on his own endeavours after good2 he may well condescend upon a humbler duty1 where others than himself shall judge the service and proportion the wage4 ,and yet it is to this very responsibility that the rich are born4 ,they can shuffle off the duty on no other2 they are their own paymasters on parole2 and must pay themselves fair wages and no more4 ,for ,i suppose that in the course of ages1 and through reform and civil war and invasion1 mankind was pursuing some other and more general design than to set one or two ,englishmen of the nineteenth century beyond the reach of needs and duties4 ,society was scarce put together1 and defended with so much eloquence and blood1 for the convenience of two or three millionaires and a few hundred other persons of wealth and position4 ,it is plain that if mankind thus acted and suffered during all these generations1 they hoped some benefit1 some ease1 some wellbeing1 for themselves and their descendants2 that if they supported law and order1 it was to secure fair-play for all2 that if they denied themselves in the present1 they must have had some designs upon the future4 ,now1 a great hereditary fortune is a miracle of man's wisdom and mankind's forbearance2 it has not only been amassed and handed down1 it has been suffered to be amassed and handed down2 and surely in such a consideration as this1 its possessor should find only a new spur to activity and honour1 that with all this power of service he should not prove unserviceable1 and that this mass of treasure should return in benefits upon the race4 ,if he had twenty1 or thirty1 or a hundred thousand at his banker's1 or if all ,yorkshire or all ,california were his to manage or to sell1 he would still be morally penniless1 and have the world to begin like ,whittington1 until he had found some way of serving mankind4 ,his wage is physically in his own hand2 but1 in honour1 that wage must still be earned4 ,he is only steward on parole of what is called his fortune4 ,he must honourably perform his stewardship4 ,he must estimate his own services and allow himself a salary in proportion1 for that will be one among his functions4 ,and while he will then be free to spend that salary1 great or little1 on his own private pleasures1 the rest of his fortune he but holds and disposes under trust for mankind2 it is not his1 because he has not earned it2 it cannot be his1 because his services have already been paid2 but year by year it is his to distribute1 whether to help individuals whose birthright and outfit have been swallowed up in his1 or to further public works and institutions4 ,at this rate1 short of inspiration1 it seems hardly possible to be both rich and honest2 and the millionaire is under a far more continuous temptation to thieve than the labourer who gets his shilling daily for despicable toils4 ,are you surprised8 ,it is even so4 ,and you repeat it every ,sunday in your churches4 #8,it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of ,god4' ,i have heard this and similar texts ingeniously explained away and brushed from the path of the aspiring ,christian by the tender ,great-heart of the parish4 ,one excellent clergyman told us that the #8eye of a needle' meant a low1 ,oriental postern through which camels could not pass till they were unloaded--which is very likely just2 and then went on1 bravely confounding the #8kingdom of ,god' with heaven1 the future paradise1 to show that of course no rich person could expect to carry his riches beyond the grave--which1 of course1 he could not and never did4 ,various greedy sinners of the congregation drank in the comfortable doctrine with relief4 ,it was worth the while having come to church that ,sunday morning6 ,all was plain4 ,the ,bible1 as usual1 meant nothing in particular2 it was merely an obscure and figurative school-copybook2 and if a man were only respectable1 he was a man after ,god's own heart4 ,alas6 ,i fear not4 ,and though this matter of a man's services is one for his own conscience1 there are some cases in which it is difficult to restrain the mind from judging4 ,thus ,i shall be very easily persuaded that a man has earned his daily bread2 and if he has but a friend or two to whom his company is delightful at heart1 ,i am more than persuaded at once4 ,but it will be very hard to persuade me that any one has earned an income of a hundred thousand4 ,what he is to his friends1 he still would be if he were made penniless to-morrow2 for as to the courtiers of luxury and power1 ,i will neither consider them friends1 nor indeed consider them at all4 ,what he does for mankind there are most likely hundreds who would do the same1 as effectually for the race and as pleasurably to themselves1 for the merest fraction of this monstrous wage4 ,why it is paid1 ,i am1 therefore1 unable to conceive1 and as the man pays it himself1 out of funds in his detention1 ,i have a certain backwardness to think him honest4 ,at least1 we have gained a very obvious point3 that what a man spends upon himself1 he shall have earned by services to the race4 ,thence flows a principle for the outset of life1 which is a little different from that taught in the present day4 ,i am addressing the middle and the upper classes2 those who have already been fostered and prepared for life at some expense2 those who have some choice before them1 and can pick professions2 and above all1 those who are what is called independent1 and need do nothing unless pushed by honour or ambition4 ,in this particular the poor are happy2 among them1 when a lad comes to his strength1 he must take the work that offers1 and can take it with an easy conscience4 ,but in the richer classes the question is complicated by the number of opportunities and a variety of considerations4 ,here1 then1 this principle of ours comes in helpfully4 ,the young man has to seek1 not a road to wealth1 but an opportunity of service2 not money1 but honest work4 ,if he has some strong propensity1 some calling of nature1 some over-weening interest in any special field of industry1 inquiry1 or art1 he will do right to obey the impulse2 and that for two reasons3 the first external1 because there he will render the best services2 the second personal1 because a demand of his own nature is to him without appeal whenever it can be satisfied with the consent of his other faculties and appetites4 ,if he has no such elective taste1 by the very principle on which he chooses any pursuit at all he must choose the most honest and serviceable1 and not the most highly remunerated4 ,we have here an external problem1 not from or to ourself1 but flowing from the constitution of society2 and we have our own soul with its fixed design of righteousness4 ,all that can be done is to present the problem in proper terms1 and leave it to the soul of the individual4 ,now1 the problem to the poor is one of necessity3 to earn wherewithal to live1 they must find remunerative labour4 ,but the problem to the rich is one of honour3 having the wherewithal1 they must find serviceable labour4 ,each has to earn his daily bread3 the one1 because he has not yet got it to eat2 the other1 who has already eaten it1 because he has not yet earned it4 ,of course1 what is true of bread is true of luxuries and comforts1 whether for the body or the mind4 ,but the consideration of luxuries leads us to a new aspect of the whole question1 and to a second proposition no less true1 and maybe no less startling1 than the last4 ,at the present day1 we1 of the easier classes1 are in a state of surfeit and disgrace after meat4 ,plethora has filled us with indifference2 and we are covered from head to foot with the callosities of habitual opulence4 ,born into what is called a certain rank1 we live1 as the saying is1 up to our station4 ,we squander without enjoyment1 because our fathers squandered4 ,we eat of the best1 not from delicacy1 but from brazen habit4 ,we do not keenly enjoy or eagerly desire the presence of a luxury2 we are unaccustomed to its absence4 ,and not only do we squander money from habit1 but still more pitifully waste it in ostentation4 ,i can think of no more melancholy disgrace for a creature who professes either reason or pleasure for his guide1 than to spend the smallest fraction of his income upon that which he does not desire2 and to keep a carriage in which you do not wish to drive1 or a butler of whom you are afraid1 is a pathetic kind of folly4 ,money1 being a means of happiness1 should make both parties happy when it changes hands2 rightly disposed1 it should be twice blessed in its employment2 and buyer and seller should alike have their twenty shillings worth of profit out of every pound4 ,benjamin ,franklin went through life an altered man1 because he once paid too dearly for a penny whistle4 ,my concern springs usually from a deeper source1 to wit1 from having bought a whistle when ,i did not want one4 ,i find ,i regret this1 or would regret it if ,i gave myself the time1 not only on personal but on moral and philanthropical considerations4 ,for1 first1 in a world where money is wanting to buy books for eager students and food and medicine for pining children1 and where a large majority are starved in their most immediate desires1 it is surely base1 stupid1 and cruel to squander money when ,i am pushed by no appetite and enjoy no return of genuine satisfaction4 ,my philanthropy is wide enough in scope to include myself2 and when ,i have made myself happy1 ,i have at least one good argument that ,i have acted rightly2 but where that is not so1 and ,i have bought and not enjoyed1 my mouth is closed1 and ,i conceive that ,i have robbed the poor4 ,and1 second1 anything ,i buy or use which ,i do not sincerely want or cannot vividly enjoy1 disturbs the balance of supply and demand1 and contributes to remove industrious hands from the production of what is useful or pleasurable and to keep them busy upon ropes of sand and things that are a weariness to the flesh4 ,that extravagance is truly sinful1 and a very silly sin to boot1 in which we impoverish mankind and ourselves4 ,it is another question for each man's heart4 ,he knows if he can enjoy what he buys and uses2 if he cannot1 he is a dog in the manger2 nay1 it he cannot1 ,i contend he is a thief1 for nothing really belongs to a man which he cannot use4 ,proprietor is connected with propriety2 and that only is the man's which is proper to his wants and faculties4 ,a youth1 in choosing a career1 must not be alarmed by poverty4 ,want is a sore thing1 but poverty does not imply want4 ,it remains to be seen whether with half his present income1 or a third1 he cannot1 in the most generous sense1 live as fully as at present4 ,he is a fool who objects to luxuries2 but he is also a fool who does not protest against the waste of luxuries on those who do not desire and cannot enjoy them4 ,it remains to be seen1 by each man who would live a true life to himself and not a merely specious life to society1 how many luxuries he truly wants and to how many he merely submits as to a social propriety2 and all these last he will immediately forswear4 ,let him do this1 and he will be surprised to find how little money it requires to keep him in complete contentment and activity of mind and senses4 ,life at any level among the easy classes is conceived upon a principle of rivalry1 where each man and each household must ape the tastes and emulate the display of others4 ,one is delicate in eating1 another in wine1 a third in furniture or works of art or dress2 and ,i1 who care nothing for any of these refinements1 who am perhaps a plain athletic creature and love exercise1 beef1 beer1 flannel shirts and a camp bed1 am yet called upon to assimilate all these other tastes and make these foreign occasions of expenditure my own4 ,it may be cynical3 ,i am sure ,i shall be told it is selfish2 but ,i will spend my money as ,i please and for my own intimate personal gratification1 and should count myself a nincompoop indeed to lay out the colour of a halfpenny on any fancied social decency or duty4 ,i shall not wear gloves unless my hands are cold1 or unless ,i am born with a delight in them4 ,dress is my own affair1 and that of one other in the world2 that1 in fact and for an obvious reason1 of any woman who shall chance to be in love with me4 ,i shall lodge where ,i have a mind4 ,if ,i do not ask society to live with me1 they must be silent2 and even if ,i do1 they have no further right but to refuse the invitation6 ,there is a kind of idea abroad that a man must live up to his station1 that his house1 his table1 and his toilette1 shall be in a ratio of equivalence1 and equally imposing to the world4 ,if this is in the ,bible1 the passage has eluded my inquiries4 ,if it is not in the ,bible1 it is nowhere but in the heart of the fool4 ,throw aside this fancy4 ,see what you want1 and spend upon that2 distinguish what you do not care about1 and spend nothing upon that4 ,there are not many people who can differentiate wines above a certain and that not at all a high price4 ,are you sure you are one of these8 ,are you sure you prefer cigars at sixpence each to pipes at some fraction of a farthing8 ,are you sure you wish to keep a gig8 ,do you care about where you sleep1 or are you not as much at your ease in a cheap lodging as in an ,elizabethan manor-house8 ,do you enjoy fine clothes8 ,it is not possible to answer these questions without a trial2 and there is nothing more obvious to my mind1 than that a man who has not experienced some ups and downs1 and been forced to live more cheaply than in his father's house1 has still his education to begin4 ,let the experiment be made1 and he will find to his surprise that he has been eating beyond his appetite up to that hour2 that the cheap lodging1 the cheap tobacco1 the rough country clothes1 the plain table1 have not only no power to damp his spirits1 but perhaps give him as keen pleasure in the using as the dainties that he took1 betwixt sleep and waking1 in his former callous and somnambulous submission to wealth4 ,the true ,bohemian1 a creature lost to view under the imaginary ,bohemians of literature1 is exactly described by such a principle of life4 ,the ,bohemian of the novel1 who drinks more than is good for him and prefers anything to work1 and wears strange clothes1 is for the most part a respectable ,bohemian1 respectable in disrespectability1 living for the outside1 and an adventurer4 ,but the man ,i mean lives wholly to himself1 does what he wishes1 and not what is thought proper1 buys what he wants for himself1 and not what is thought proper1 works at what he believes he can do well and not what will bring him in money or favour4 ,you may be the most respectable of men1 and yet a true ,bohemian4 ,and the test is this3 a ,bohemian1 for as poor as he may be1 is always open-handed to his friends2 he knows what he can do with money and how he can do without it1 a far rarer and more useful knowledge2 he has had less1 and continued to live in some contentment2 and hence he cares not to keep more1 and shares his sovereign or his shilling with a friend4 ,the poor1 if they are generous1 are ,bohemian in virtue of their birth4 ,do you know where beggars go8 ,not to the great houses where people sit dazed among their thousands1 but to the doors of poor men who have seen the world2 and it was the widow who had only two mites1 who cast half her fortune into the treasury4 ,but a young man who elects to save on dress or on lodging1 or who in any way falls out of the level of expenditure which is common to his level in society1 falls out of society altogether4 ,i suppose the young man to have chosen his career on honourable principles2 he finds his talents and instincts can be best contented in a certain pursuit2 in a certain industry1 he is sure that he is serving mankind with a healthy and becoming service2 and he is not sure that he would be doing so1 or doing so equally well1 in any other industry within his reach4 ,then that is his true sphere in life2 not the one in which he was born to his father1 but the one which is proper to his talents and instincts4 ,and suppose he does fall out of society1 is that a cause of sorrow8 ,is your heart so dead that you prefer the recognition of many to the love of a few8 ,do you think society loves you8 ,put it to the proof4 ,decline in material expenditure1 and you will find they care no more for you than for the ,khan of ,tartary4 ,you will lose no friends4 ,if you had any1 you will keep them4 ,only those who were friends to your coat and equipage will disappear2 the smiling faces will disappear as by enchantment2 but the kind hearts will remain steadfastly kind4 ,are you so lost1 are you so dead1 are you so little sure of your own soul and your own footing upon solid fact1 that you prefer before goodness and happiness the countenance of sundry diners-out1 who will flee from you at a report of ruin1 who will drop you with insult at a shadow of disgrace1 who do not know you and do not care to know you but by sight1 and whom you in your turn neither know nor care to know in a more human manner8 ,is it not the principle of society1 openly avowed1 that friendship must not interfere with business2 which being paraphrased1 means simply that a consideration of money goes before any consideration of affection known to this cold-blooded gang1 that they have not even the honour of thieves1 and will rook their nearest and dearest as readily as a stranger8 ,i hope ,i would go as far as most to serve a friend2 but ,i declare openly ,i would not put on my hat to do a pleasure to society4 ,i may starve my appetites and control my temper for the sake of those ,i love2 but society shall take me as ,i choose to be1 or go without me4 ,neither they nor ,i will lose2 for where there is no love1 it is both laborious and unprofitable to associate4 ,but it is obvious that if it is only right for a man to spend money on that which he can truly and thoroughly enjoy1 the doctrine applies with equal force to the rich and to the poor1 to the man who has amassed many thousands as well as to the youth precariously beginning life4 ,and it may be asked1 ,is not this merely preparing misers1 who are not the best of company8 ,but the principle was this3 that which a man has not fairly earned1 and1 further1 that which he cannot fully enjoy1 does not belong to him1 but is a part of mankind's treasure which he holds as steward on parole4 ,to mankind1 then1 it must be made profitable2 and how this should be done is1 once more1 a problem which each man must solve for himself1 and about which none has a right to judge him4 ,yet there are a few considerations which are very obvious and may here be stated4 ,mankind is not only the whole in general1 but every one in particular4 ,every man or woman is one of mankind's dear possessions2 to his or her just brain1 and kind heart1 and active hands1 mankind intrusts some of its hopes for the future2 he or she is a possible well-spring of good acts and source of blessings to the race4 ,this money which you do not need1 which1 in a rigid sense1 you do not want1 may therefore be returned not only in public benefactions to the race1 but in private kindnesses4 ,your wife1 your children1 your friends stand nearest to you1 and should be helped the first4 ,there at least there can be little imposture1 for you know their necessities of your own knowledge4 ,and consider1 if all the world did as you did1 and according to their means extended help in the circle of their affections1 there would be no more crying want in times of plenty and no more cold1 mechanical charity given with a doubt and received with confusion4 ,would not this simple rule make a new world out of the old and cruel one which we inhabit8 99 99 99 99 99 ,after two more sentences the fragment breaks off4 ,,father ,,damien ,,an ,,open ,,letter ,,to ,,the ,,reverend ,,dr4 ,,hyde ,,of ,,honolulu ,,sydney1 ,february #be1 #ahij4 ,sir1--,it may probably occur to you that we have met1 and visited1 and conversed2 on my side1 with interest4 ,you may remember that you have done me several courtesies1 for which ,i was prepared to be grateful4 ,but there are duties which come before gratitude1 and offences which justly divide friends1 far more acquaintances4 ,your letter to the ,reverend ,h4 ,b4 ,gage is a document which1 in my sight1 if you had filled me with bread when ,i was starving1 if you had sat up to nurse my father when he lay a-dying1 would yet absolve me from the bonds of gratitude4 ,you know enough1 doubtless1 of the process of canonisation to be aware that1 a hundred years after the death of ,damien1 there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the devil's advocate4 ,after that noble brother of mine1 and of all frail clay1 shall have lain a century at rest1 one shall accuse1 one defend him4 ,the circumstance is unusual that the devil's advocate should be a volunteer1 should be a member of a sect immediately rival1 and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly office ere the bones are cold2 unusual1 and of a taste which ,i shall leave my readers free to qualify2 unusual1 and to me inspiring4 ,if ,i have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to arouse emotion1 you have at last furnished me with a subject4 ,for it is in the interest of all mankind1 and the cause of public decency in every quarter of the world1 not only that ,damien should be righted1 but that you and your letter should be displayed at length1 in their true colours1 to the public eye4 ,to do this properly1 ,i must begin by quoting you at large3 ,i shall then proceed to criticise your utterance from several points of view1 divine and human1 in the course of which ,i shall attempt to draw again1 and with more specification1 the character of the dead saint whom it has pleased you to vilify3 so much being done1 ,i shall say farewell to you for ever4 #8,,honolulu1 #8,august #b1 #ahhi4 #8,rev4 ,h4 ,b4 ,,gage4 #8,dear ,brother1--,in answer to your inquiries about ,father ,damien1 ,i can only reply that we who knew the man are surprised at the extravagant newspaper laudations1 as if he was a most saintly philanthropist4 ,the simple truth is1 he was a coarse1 dirty man1 head-strong and bigoted4 ,he was not sent to ,molokai1 but went there without orders2 did not stay at the leper settlement 7before he became one himself71 but circulated freely over the whole island 7less than half the island is devoted to the lepers71 and he came often to ,honolulu4 ,he had no hand in the reforms and improvements inaugurated1 which were the work of our ,board of ,health1 as occasion required and means were provided4 ,he was not a pure man in his relations with women1 and the leprosy of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness4 ,others have done much for the lepers1 our own ministers1 the government physicians1 and so forth1 but never with the ,catholic idea of meriting eternal life4--,yours1 etc41 #8,c4 ,m4 ,,hyde4' #fe ,to deal fitly with a letter so extraordinary1 ,i must draw at the outset on my private knowledge of the signatory and his sect4 ,it may offend others2 scarcely you1 who have been so busy to collect1 so bold to publish1 gossip on your rivals4 ,and this is perhaps the moment when ,i may best explain to you the character of what you are to read3 ,i conceive you as a man quite beyond and below the reticences of civility3 with what measure you mete1 with that shall it be measured you again2 with you1 at last1 ,i rejoice to feel the button off the foil and to plunge home4 ,and if in aught that ,i shall say ,i should offend others1 your colleagues1 whom ,i respect and remember with affection1 ,i can but offer them my regret2 ,i am not free1 ,i am inspired by the consideration of interests far more large2 and such pain as can be inflicted by anything from me must be indeed trifling when compared with the pain with which they read your letter4 ,it is not the hangman1 but the criminal1 that brings dishonour on the house4 ,you belong1 sir1 to a sect--,i believe my sect1 and that in which my ancestors laboured--which has enjoyed1 and partly failed to utilise1 an exceptional advantage in the islands of ,hawaii4 ,the first missionaries came2 they found the land already self-purged of its old and bloody faith2 they were embraced1 almost on their arrival1 with enthusiasm2 what troubles they supported came far more from whites than from ,hawaiians2 and to these last they stood 7in a rough figure7 in the shoes of ,god4 ,this is not the place to enter into the degree or causes of their failure1 such as it is4 ,one element alone is pertinent1 and must here be plainly dealt with4 ,in the course of their evangelical calling1 they--or too many of them--grew rich4 ,it may be news to you that the houses of missionaries are a cause of mocking on the streets of ,honolulu4 ,it will at least be news to you1 that when ,i returned your civil visit1 the driver of my cab commented on the size1 the taste1 and the comfort of your home4 ,it would have been news certainly to myself1 had any one told me that afternoon that ,i should live to drag such matter into print4 ,but you see1 sir1 how you degrade better men to your own level2 and it is needful that those who are to judge betwixt you and me1 betwixt ,damien and the devil's advocate1 should understand your letter to have been penned in a house which could raise1 and that very justly1 the envy and the comments of the passers-by4 ,i think 7to employ a phrase of yours which ,i admire7 it #8should be attributed' to you that you have never visited the scene of ,damien's life and death4 ,if you had1 and had recalled it1 and looked about your pleasant rooms1 even your pen perhaps would have been stayed4 ,your sect 7and remember1 as far as any sect avows me1 it is mine7 has not done ill in a worldly sense in the ,hawaiian ,kingdom4 ,when calamity befell their innocent parishioners1 when leprosy descended and took root in the ,eight ,islands1 a quid pro quo was to be looked for4 ,to that prosperous mission1 and to you1 as one of its adornments1 ,god had sent at last an opportunity4 ,i know ,i am touching here upon a nerve acutely sensitive4 ,i know that others of your colleagues look back on the inertia of your ,church1 and the intrusive and decisive heroism of ,damien1 with something almost to be called remorse4 ,i am sure it is so with yourself2 ,i am persuaded your letter was inspired by a certain envy1 not essentially ignoble1 and the one human trait to be espied in that performance4 ,you were thinking of the lost chance1 the past day2 of that which should have been conceived and was not2 of the service due and not rendered4 ,time was1 said the voice in your ear1 in your pleasant room1 as you sat raging and writing2 and if the words written were base beyond parallel1 the rage1 ,i am happy to repeat--it is the only compliment ,i shall pay you--the rage was almost virtuous4 ,but1 sir1 when we have failed1 and another has succeeded2 when we have stood by1 and another has stepped in2 when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions1 and a plain1 uncouth peasant steps into the battle1 under the eyes of ,god1 and succours the afflicted1 and consoles the dying1 and is himself afflicted in his turn1 and dies upon the field of honour--the battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy irritation has suggested4 ,it is a lost battle1 and lost for ever4 ,one thing remained to you in your defeat--some rags of common honour2 and these you have made haste to cast away4 ,common honour2 not the honour of having done anything right1 but the honour of not having done aught conspicuously foul2 the honour of the inert3 that was what remained to you4 ,we are not all expected to be ,damiens2 a man may conceive his duty more narrowly1 he may love his comforts better2 and none will cast a stone at him for that4 ,but will a gentleman of your reverend profession allow me an example from the fields of gallantry8 ,when two gentlemen compete for the favour of a lady1 and the one succeeds and the other is rejected1 and 7as will sometimes happen7 matter damaging to the successful rival's credit reaches the ear of the defeated1 it is held by plain men of no pretensions that his mouth is1 in the circumstance1 almost necessarily closed4 ,your ,church and ,damien's were in ,hawaii upon a rivalry to do well3 to help1 to edify1 to set divine examples4 ,you having 7in one huge instance7 failed1 and ,damien succeeded1 ,i marvel it should not have occurred to you that you were doomed to silence2 that when you had been outstripped in that high rivalry1 and sat inglorious in the midst of your wellbeing1 in your pleasant room--and ,damien1 crowned with glories and horrors1 toiled and rotted in that pigsty of his under the cliffs of ,kalawao--you1 the elect who would not1 were the last man on earth to collect and propagate gossip on the volunteer who would and did4 ,i think ,i see you--for ,i try to see you in the flesh as ,i write these sentences--,i think ,i see you leap at the word pigsty1 a hyperbolical expression at the best4 #8,he had no hand in the reforms1' he was #8a coarse1 dirty man'2 these were your own words2 and you may think it possible that ,i am come to support you with fresh evidence4 ,in a sense1 it is even so4 ,damien has been too much depicted with a conventional halo and conventional features2 so drawn by men who perhaps had not the eye to remark or the pen to express the individual2 or who perhaps were only blinded and silenced by generous admiration1 such as ,i partly envy for myself--such as you1 if your soul were enlightened1 would envy on your bended knees4 ,it is the least defect of such a method of portraiture that it makes the path easy for the devil's advocate1 and leaves for the misuse of the slanderer a considerable field of truth4 ,for the truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy4 ,the world1 in your despite1 may perhaps owe you something1 if your letter be the means of substituting once for all a credible likeness for a wax abstraction4 ,for1 if that world at all remember you1 on the day when ,damien of ,molokai shall be named ,saint1 it will be in virtue of one work3 your letter to the ,reverend ,h4 ,b4 ,gage4 ,you may ask on what authority ,i speak4 ,it was my inclement destiny to become acquainted1 not with ,damien1 but with ,dr4 ,hyde4 ,when ,i visited the lazaretto1 ,damien was already in his resting grave4 ,but such information as ,i have1 ,i gathered on the spot in conversation with those who knew him well and long3 some indeed who revered his memory2 but others who had sparred and wrangled with him1 who beheld him with no halo1 who perhaps regarded him with small respect1 and through whose unprepared and scarcely partial communications the plain1 human features of the man shone on me convincingly4 ,these gave me what knowledge ,i possess2 and ,i learnt it in that scene where it could be most completely and sensitively understood--,kalawao1 which you have never visited1 about which you have never so much as endeavoured to inform yourself2 for1 brief as your letter is1 you have found the means to stumble into that confession4 #8,less than one-half of the island1' you say1 #8is devoted to the lepers4' ,molokai--#8,molokai ahina1' the #8grey1' lofty1 and most desolate island--along all its northern side plunges a front of precipice into a sea of unusual profundity4 ,this range of cliff is1 from east to west1 the true end and frontier of the island4 ,only in one spot there projects into the ocean a certain triangular and rugged down1 grassy1 stony1 windy1 and rising in the midst into a hill with a dead crater3 the whole bearing to the cliff that overhangs it somewhat the same relation as a bracket to a wall4 ,with this hint you will now be able to pick out the leper station on a map2 you will be able to judge how much of ,molokai is thus cut off between the surf and precipice1 whether less than a half1 or less than a quarter1 or a fifth1 or a tenth--or1 say1 a twentieth2 and the next time you burst into print you will be in a position to share with us the issue of your calculations4 ,i imagine you to be one of those persons who talk with cheerfulness of that place which oxen and wain-ropes could not drag you to behold4 ,you1 who do not even know its situation on the map1 probably denounce sensational descriptions1 stretching your limbs the while in your pleasant parlour on ,beretania ,street4 ,when ,i was pulled ashore there one early morning1 there sat with me in the boat two sisters1 bidding farewell 7in humble imitation of ,damien7 to the lights and joys of human life4 ,one of these wept silently2 ,i could not withhold myself from joining her4 ,had you been there1 it is my belief that nature would have triumphed even in you2 and as the boat drew but a little nearer1 and you beheld the stairs crowded with abominable deformations of our common manhood1 and saw yourself landing in the midst of such a population as only now and then surrounds us in the horror of a nightmare--what a haggard eye you would have rolled over your reluctant shoulder towards the house on ,beretania ,street6 ,had you gone on2 had you found every fourth face a blot upon the landscape2 had you visited the hospital and seen the butt-ends of human beings lying there almost unrecognisable1 but still breathing1 still thinking1 still remembering2 you would have understood that life in the lazaretto is an ordeal from which the nerves of a man's spirit shrink1 even as his eye quails under the brightness of the sun2 you would have felt it was 7even to-day7 a pitiful place to visit and a hell to dwell in4 ,it is not the fear of possible infection4 ,that seems a little thing when compared with the pain1 the pity1 and the disgust of the visitor's surroundings1 and the atmosphere of affliction1 disease1 and physical disgrace in which he breathes4 ,i do not think ,i am a man more than usually timid2 but ,i never recall the days and nights ,i spent upon that island promontory 7eight days and seven nights71 without heartfelt thankfulness that ,i am somewhere else4 ,i find in my diary that ,i speak of my stay as a #8grinding experience'3 ,i have once jotted in the margin1 #8,harrowing is the word'2 and when the ,mokolii bore me at last towards the outer world1 ,i kept repeating to myself1 with a new conception of their pregnancy1 those simple words of the song-- #8',tis the most distressful country that ever yet was seen4' ,and observe3 that which ,i saw and suffered from was a settlement purged1 bettered1 beautified2 the new village built1 the hospital and the ,bishop-,home excellently arranged2 the sisters1 the doctor1 and the missionaries1 all indefatigable in their noble tasks4 ,it was a different place when ,damien came there and made his great renunciation1 and slept that first night under a tree amidst his rotting brethren3 alone with pestilence2 and looking forward 7with what courage1 with what pitiful sinkings of dread1 ,god only knows7 to a lifetime of dressing sores and stumps4 ,you will say1 perhaps1 ,i am too sensitive1 that sights as painful abound in cancer hospitals and are confronted daily by doctors and nurses4 ,i have long learned to admire and envy the doctors and the nurses4 ,but there is no cancer hospital so large and populous as ,kalawao and ,kalaupapa2 and in such a matter every fresh case1 like every inch of length in the pipe of an organ1 deepens the note of the impression2 for what daunts the onlooker is that monstrous sum of human suffering by which he stands surrounded4 ,lastly1 no doctor or nurse is called upon to enter once for all the doors of that gehenna2 they do not say farewell1 they need not abandon hope1 on its sad threshold2 they but go for a time to their high calling1 and can look forward as they go to relief1 to recreation1 and to rest4 ,but ,damien shut-to with his own hand the doors of his own sepulchre4 ,i shall now extract three passages from my diary at ,kalawao4 ,a4 #8,damien is dead and already somewhat ungratefully remembered in the field of his labours and sufferings4 8,he was a good man1 but very officious10 says one4 ,another tells me he had fallen 7as other priests so easily do7 into something of the ways and habits of thought of a ,kanaka2 but he had the wit to recognise the fact1 and the good sense to laugh at' over #8it4 ,a plain man it seems he was2 ,i cannot find he was a popular4' ,b4 #8,after ,ragsdale's death' ,ragsdale was a famous ,luna1 or overseer1 of the unruly settlement #8there followed a brief term of office by ,father ,damien which served only to publish the weakness of that noble man4 ,he was rough in his ways1 and he had no control4 ,authority was relaxed2 ,damien's life was threatened1 and he was soon eager to resign4' ,c4 #8,of ,damien ,i begin to have an idea4 ,he seems to have been a man of the peasant class1 certainly of the peasant type3 shrewd1 ignorant and bigoted1 yet with an open mind1 and capable of receiving and digesting a reproof if it were bluntly administered2 superbly generous in the least thing as well as in the greatest1 and as ready to give his last shirt 7although not without human grumbling7 as he had been to sacrifice his life2 essentially indiscreet and officious1 which made him a troublesome colleague2 domineering in all his ways1 which made him incurably unpopular with the ,kanakas1 but yet destitute of real authority1 so that his boys laughed at him and he must carry out his wishes by the means of bribes4 ,he learned to have a mania for doctoring2 and set up the ,kanakas against the remedies of his regular rivals3 perhaps 7if anything matter at all in the treatment of such a disease7 the worst thing that he did1 and certainly the easiest4 ,the best and worst of the man appear very plainly in his dealings with ,mr4 ,chapman's money2 he had originally laid it out' intended to lay it out #8entirely for the benefit of ,catholics1 and even so not wisely2 but after a long1 plain talk1 he admitted his error fully and revised the list4 ,the sad state of the boys' home is in part the result of his lack of control2 in part1 of his own slovenly ways and false ideas of hygiene4 ,brother officials used to call it 8,damien's ,chinatown40 8,well10 they would say1 8your ,china-town keeps growing40 ,and he would laugh with perfect good-nature1 and adhere to his errors with perfect obstinacy4 ,so much ,i have gathered of truth about this plain1 noble human brother and father of ours2 his imperfections are the traits of his face1 by which we know him for our fellow2 his martyrdom and his example nothing can lessen or annul2 and only a person here on the spot can properly appreciate their greatness4' ,i have set down these private passages1 as you perceive1 without correction2 thanks to you1 the public has them in their bluntness4 ,they are almost a list of the man's faults1 for it is rather these that ,i was seeking3 with his virtues1 with the heroic profile of his life1 ,i and the world were already sufficiently acquainted4 ,i was besides a little suspicious of ,catholic testimony2 in no ill sense1 but merely because ,damien's admirers and disciples were the least likely to be critical4 ,i know you will be more suspicious still2 and the facts set down above were one and all collected from the lips of ,protestants who had opposed the father in his life4 ,yet ,i am strangely deceived1 or they build up the image of a man1 with all his weaknesses1 essentially heroic1 and alive with rugged honesty1 generosity1 and mirth4 ,take it for what it is1 rough private jottings of the worst sides of ,damien's character1 collected from the lips of those who had laboured with and 7in your own phrase7 #8knew the man'2--though ,i question whether ,damien would have said that he knew you4 ,take it1 and observe with wonder how well you were served by your gossips1 how ill by your intelligence and sympathy2 in how many points of fact we are at one1 and how widely our appreciations vary4 ,there is something wrong here2 either with you or me4 ,it is possible1 for instance1 that you1 who seem to have so many ears in ,kalawao1 had heard of the affair of ,mr4 ,chapman's money1 and were singly struck by ,damien's intended wrong-doing4 ,i was struck with that also1 and set it fairly down2 but ,i was struck much more by the fact that he had the honesty of mind to be convinced4 ,i may here tell you that it was a long business2 that one of his colleagues sat with him late into the night1 multiplying arguments and accusations2 that the father listened as usual with #8perfect good-nature and perfect obstinacy'2 but at the last1 when he was persuaded--#8,yes1' said he1 #8,i am very much obliged to you2 you have done me a service2 it would have been a theft4' ,there are many 7not ,catholics merely7 who require their heroes and saints to be infallible2 to these the story will be painful2 not to the true lovers1 patrons1 and servants of mankind4 ,and ,i take it1 this is a type of our division2 that you are one of those who have an eye for faults and failures2 that you take a pleasure to find and publish them2 and that1 having found them1 you make haste to forget the overvailing virtues and the real success which had alone introduced them to your knowledge4 ,it is a dangerous frame of mind4 ,that you may understand how dangerous1 and into what a situation it has already brought you1 we will 7if you please7 go hand-in-hand through the different phrases of your letter1 and candidly examine each from the point of view of its truth1 its appositeness1 and its charity4 ,damien was coarse4 ,it is very possible4 ,you make us sorry for the lepers1 who had only a coarse old peasant for their friend and father4 ,but you1 who were so refined1 why were you not there1 to cheer them with the lights of culture8 ,or may ,i remind you that we have some reason to doubt if ,john the ,baptist were genteel2 and in the case of ,peter1 on whose career you doubtless dwell approvingly in the pulpit1 no doubt at all he was a #8coarse1 headstrong' fisherman6 ,yet even in our ,protestant ,bibles ,peter is called ,saint4 ,damien was dirty4 ,he was4 ,think of the poor lepers annoyed with this dirty comrade6 ,but the clean ,dr4 ,hyde was at his food in a fine house4 ,damien was headstrong4 ,i believe you are right again2 and ,i thank ,god for his strong head and heart4 ,damien was bigoted4 ,i am not fond of bigots myself1 because they are not fond of me4 ,but what is meant by bigotry1 that we should regard it as a blemish in a priest8 ,damien believed his own religion with the simplicity of a peasant or a child2 as ,i would ,i could suppose that you do4 ,for this1 ,i wonder at him some way off2 and had that been his only character1 should have avoided him in life4 ,but the point of interest in ,damien1 which has caused him to be so much talked about and made him at last the subject of your pen and mine1 was that1 in him1 his bigotry1 his intense and narrow faith1 wrought potently for good1 and strengthened him to be one of the world's heroes and exemplars4 ,damien was not sent to ,molokai1 but went there without orders4 ,is this a misreading8 or do you really mean the words for blame8 ,i have heard ,christ1 in the pulpits of our ,church1 held up for imitation on the ground that ,his sacrifice was voluntary4 ,does ,dr4 ,hyde think otherwise8 ,damien did not stay at the settlement1 etc4 ,it is true he was allowed many indulgences4 ,am ,i to understand that you blame the father for profiting by these1 or the officers for granting them8 ,in either case1 it is a mighty ,spartan standard to issue from the house on ,beretania ,street2 and ,i am convinced you will find yourself with few supporters4 ,damien had no hand in the reforms1 etc4 ,i think even you will admit that ,i have already been frank in my description of the man ,i am defending2 but before ,i take you up upon this head1 ,i will be franker still1 and tell you that perhaps nowhere in the world can a man taste a more pleasurable sense of contrast than when he passes from ,damien's #8,chinatown' at ,kalawao to the beautiful ,bishop-,home at ,kalaupapa4 ,at this point1 in my desire to make all fair for you1 ,i will break my rule and adduce ,catholic testimony4 ,here is a passage from my diary about my visit to the ,chinatown1 from which you will see how it is 7even now7 regarded by its own officials3 #8,we went round all the dormitories1 refectories1 etc4--dark and dingy enough1 with a superficial cleanliness1 which he' ,mr4 ,dutton1 the lay-brother #8did not seek to defend4 8,it is almost decent10 said he2 8the sisters will make that all right when we get them here40' ,and yet ,i gathered it was already better since ,damien was dead1 and far better than when he was there alone and had his own 7not always excellent7 way4 ,i have now come far enough to meet you on a common ground of fact2 and ,i tell you that1 to a mind not prejudiced by jealousy1 all the reforms of the lazaretto1 and even those which he most vigorously opposed1 are properly the work of ,damien4 ,they are the evidence of his success2 they are what his heroism provoked from the reluctant and the careless4 ,many were before him in the field2 ,mr4 ,meyer1 for instance1 of whose faithful work we hear too little3 there have been many since2 and some had more worldly wisdom1 though none had more devotion1 than our saint4 ,before his day1 even you will confess1 they had effected little4 ,it was his part1 by one striking act of martyrdom1 to direct all men's eyes on that distressful country4 ,at a blow1 and with the price of his life1 he made the place illustrious and public4 ,and that1 if you will consider largely1 was the one reform needful2 pregnant of all that should succeed4 ,it brought money2 it brought 7best individual addition of them all7 the sisters2 it brought supervision1 for public opinion and public interest landed with the man at ,kalawao4 ,if ever any man brought reforms1 and died to bring them1 it was he4 ,there is not a clean cup or towel in the ,bishop-,home1 but dirty ,damien washed it4 ,damien was not a pure man in his relations with women1 etc4 ,how do you know that8 ,is this the nature of the conversation in that house on ,beretania ,street which the cabman envied1 driving past8--racy details of the misconduct of the poor peasant priest1 toiling under the cliffs of ,molokai8 ,many have visited the station before me2 they seem not to have heard the rumour4 ,when ,i was there ,i heard many shocking tales1 for my informants were men speaking with the plainness of the laity2 and ,i heard plenty of complaints of ,damien4 ,why was this never mentioned8 and how came it to you in the retirement of your clerical parlour8 ,but ,i must not even seem to deceive you4 ,this scandal1 when ,i read it in your letter1 was not new to me4 ,i had heard it once before2 and ,i must tell you how4 ,there came to ,samoa a man from ,honolulu2 he1 in a public-house on the beach1 volunteered the statement that ,damien had #8contracted the disease from having connection with the female lepers'2 and ,i find a joy in telling you how the report was welcomed in a public-house4 ,a man sprang to his feet2 ,i am not at liberty to give his name1 but from what ,i heard ,i doubt if you would care to have him to dinner in ,beretania ,street4 #8,you miserable little--' 7here is a word ,i dare not print1 it would so shock your ears74 #8,you miserable little--1' he cried1 #8if the story were a thousand times true1 can't you see you are a million times a lower--for daring to repeat it8' ,i wish it could be told of you that when the report reached you in your house1 perhaps after family worship1 you had found in your soul enough holy anger to receive it with the same expressions2 ay1 even with that one which ,i dare not print2 it would not need to have been blotted away1 like ,uncle ,toby's oath1 by the tears of the recording angel2 it would have been counted to you for your brightest righteousness4 ,but you have deliberately chosen the part of the man from ,honolulu1 and you have played it with improvements of your own4 ,the man from ,honolulu--miserable1 leering creature--communicated the tale to a rude knot of beach-combing drinkers in a public-house1 where 7,i will so far agree with your temperance opinions7 man is not always at his noblest2 and the man from ,honolulu had himself been drinking--drinking1 we may charitably fancy1 to excess4 ,it was to your #8,dear ,brother1 the ,reverend ,h4 ,b4 ,gage1' that you chose to communicate the sickening story2 and the blue ribbon which adorns your portly bosom forbids me to allow you the extenuating plea that you were drunk when it was done4 ,your #8dear brother'--a brother indeed--made haste to deliver up your letter 7as a means of grace1 perhaps7 to the religious papers2 where1 after many months1 ,i found and read and wondered at it2 and whence ,i have now reproduced it for the wonder of others4 ,and you and your dear brother have1 by this cycle of operations1 built up a contrast very edifying to examine in detail4 ,the man whom you would not care to have to dinner1 on the one side2 on the other1 the ,reverend ,dr4 ,hyde and the ,reverend ,h4 ,b4 ,gage3 the ,apia bar-room1 the ,honolulu manse4 ,but ,i fear you scarce appreciate how you appear to your fellow-men2 and to bring it home to you1 ,i will suppose your story to be true4 ,i will suppose--and ,god forgive me for supposing it--that ,damien faltered and stumbled in his narrow path of duty2 ,i will suppose that1 in the horror of his isolation1 perhaps in the fever of incipient disease1 he1 who was doing so much more than he had sworn1 failed in the letter of his priestly oath--he1 who was so much a better man than either you or me1 who did what we have never dreamed of daring--he too tasted of our common frailty4 #8,o1 ,iago1 the pity of it6' ,the least tender should be moved to tears2 the most incredulous to prayer4 ,and all that you could do was to pen your letter to the ,reverend ,h4 ,b4 ,gage6 ,is it growing at all clear to you what a picture you have drawn of your own heart8 ,i will try yet once again to make it clearer4 ,you had a father3 suppose this tale were about him1 and some informant brought it to you1 proof in hand3 ,i am not making too high an estimate of your emotional nature when ,i suppose you would regret the circumstance8 that you would feel the tale of frailty the more keenly since it shamed the author of your days8 and that the last thing you would do would be to publish it in the religious press8 ,well1 the man who tried to do what ,damien did1 is my father1 and the father of the man in the ,apia bar1 and the father of all who love goodness2 and he was your father too1 if ,god had given you grace to see it4 ,,the ,,pentland ,,rising ,a ,,page ,,of ,,history #afff #8,a cloud of witnesses lyes here1 ,who for ,christ's interest did appear4' ,inscription on ,battlefield at ,rullion ,green4 ,,chapter ,i--,,the ,,causes ,,of ,,the ,,revolt #8,halt1 passenger2 take heed what thou dost see1 ,this tomb doth show for what some men did die4' ,monument1 ,greyfriars' ,churchyard1 ,edinburgh1 #affa-affh4 #he ,two hundred years ago a tragedy was enacted in ,scotland1 the memory whereof has been in great measure lost or obscured by the deep tragedies which followed it4 ,it is1 as it were1 the evening of the night of persecution--a sort of twilight1 dark indeed to us1 but light as the noonday when compared with the midnight gloom which followed4 ,this fact1 of its being the very threshold of persecution1 lends it1 however1 an additional interest4 ,the prejudices of the people against ,episcopacy were #8out of measure increased1' says ,bishop ,burnet1 #8by the new incumbents who were put in the places of the ejected preachers1 and were generally very mean and despicable in all respects4 ,they were the worst preachers ,i ever heard2 they were ignorant to a reproach2 and many of them were openly vicious4 ,they 4 4 4 were indeed the dreg and refuse of the northern parts4 ,those of them who arose above contempt or scandal were men of such violent tempers that they were as much hated as the others were despised4' #hf ,it was little to be wondered at1 from this account that the country-folk refused to go to the parish church1 and chose rather to listen to outed ministers in the fields4 ,but this was not to be allowed1 and their persecutors at last fell on the method of calling a roll of the parishioners' names every ,sabbath1 and marking a fine of twenty shillings ,scots to the name of each absenter4 ,in this way very large debts were incurred by persons altogether unable to pay4 ,besides this1 landlords were fined for their tenants' absences1 tenants for their landlords'1 masters for their servants'1 servants for their masters'1 even though they themselves were perfectly regular in their attendance4 ,and as the curates were allowed to fine with the sanction of any common soldier1 it may be imagined that often the pretexts were neither very sufficient nor well proven4 ,when the fines could not be paid at once1 ,bibles1 clothes1 and household utensils were seized upon1 or a number of soldiers1 proportionate to his wealth1 were quartered on the offender4 ,the coarse and drunken privates filled the houses with woe2 snatched the bread from the children to feed their dogs2 shocked the principles1 scorned the scruples1 and blasphemed the religion of their humble hosts2 and when they had reduced them to destitution1 sold the furniture1 and burned down the roof-tree which was consecrated to the peasants by the name of ,home4 ,for all this attention each of these soldiers received from his unwilling landlord a certain sum of money per day--three shillings sterling1 according to ,naphtali4 ,and frequently they were forced to pay quartering money for more men than were in reality #8cessed on them4' ,at that time it was no strange thing to behold a strong man begging for money to pay his fines1 and many others who were deep in arrears1 or who had attracted attention in some other way1 were forced to flee from their homes1 and take refuge from arrest and imprisonment among the wild mosses of the uplands4 #hg;a ,one example in particular we may cite3 ,john ,neilson1 the ,laird of ,corsack1 a worthy man1 was1 unfortunately for himself1 a ,nonconformist4 ,first he was fined in four hundred pounds ,scots1 and then through cessing he lost nineteen hundred and ninety-three pounds ,scots4 ,he was next obliged to leave his house and flee from place to place1 during which wanderings he lost his horse4 ,his wife and children were turned out of doors1 and then his tenants were fined till they too were almost ruined4 ,as a final stroke1 they drove away all his cattle to ,glasgow and sold them4 #hg;b ,surely it was time that something were done to alleviate so much sorrow1 to overthrow such tyranny4 ,about this time too there arrived in ,galloway a person calling himself ,captain ,andrew ,gray1 and advising the people to revolt4 ,he displayed some documents purporting to be from the northern ,covenanters1 and stating that they were prepared to join in any enterprise commenced by their southern brethren4 ,the leader of the persecutors was ,sir ,james ,turner1 an officer afterwards degraded for his share in the matter4 #8,he was naturally fierce1 but was mad when he was drunk1 and that was very often1' said ,bishop ,burnet4 #8,he was a learned man1 but had always been in armies1 and knew no other rule but to obey orders4 ,he told me he had no regard to any law1 but acted1 as he was commanded1 in a military way4' #hh ,this was the state of matters1 when an outrage was committed which gave spirit and determination to the oppressed countrymen1 lit the flame of insubordination1 and for the time at least recoiled on those who perpetrated it with redoubled force4 ,,chapter ,,ii--,,the ,,beginning ,i love no warres1 ,i love no jarres1 ,nor strife's fire4 ,may discord cease1 ,let's live in peace3 ,this ,i desire4 ,if it must be ,warre we must see 7,so fates conspire71 ,may we not feel ,the force of steel3 ,this ,i desire4 ,t4 ,,jackson1 #afea #hi ,upon ,tuesday1 ,november #acth1 #afff1 ,corporal ,george ,deanes and three other soldiers set upon an old man in the clachan of ,dalry and demanded the payment of his fines4 ,on the old man's refusing to pay1 they forced a large party of his neighbours to go with them and thresh his corn4 ,the field was a certain distance out of the clachan1 and four persons1 disguised as countrymen1 who had been out on the moors all night1 met this mournful drove of slaves1 compelled by the four soldiers to work for the ruin of their friend4 ,however1 chided to the bone by their night on the hills1 and worn out by want of food1 they proceeded to the village inn to refresh themselves4 ,suddenly some people rushed into the room where they were sitting1 and told them that the soldiers were about to roast the old man1 naked1 on his own girdle4 ,this was too much for them to stand1 and they repaired immediately to the scene of this gross outrage1 and at first merely requested that the captive should be released4 ,on the refusal of the two soldiers who were in the front room1 high words were given and taken on both sides1 and the other two rushed forth from an adjoining chamber and made at the countrymen with drawn swords4 ,one of the latter1 ,john ,m#8,lellan of ,barscob1 drew a pistol and shot the corporal in the body4 ,the pieces of tobacco-pipe with which it was loaded1 to the number of ten at least1 entered him1 and he was so much disturbed that he never appears to have recovered1 for we find long afterwards a petition to the ,privy ,council requesting a pension for him4 ,the other soldiers then laid down their arms1 the old man was rescued1 and the rebellion was commenced4 #ij ,and now we must turn to ,sir ,james ,turner's memoirs of himself2 for1 strange to say1 this extraordinary man was remarkably fond of literary composition1 and wrote1 besides the amusing account of his own adventures just mentioned1 a large number of essays and short biographies1 and a work on war1 entitled ,pallas ,armata4 ,the following are some of the shorter pieces #8,magick1' #8,friendship1' #8,imprisonment1' #8,anger1' #8,revenge1' #8,duells1' #8,cruelty1' #8,a ,defence of some of the ,ceremonies of the ,english ,liturgie--to wit--,bowing at the ,name of ,jesus1 ,the frequent repetition of the ,lord's ,prayer and ,good ,lord deliver us1 ,of the ,doxologie1 ,of ,surplesses1 ,rotchets1 ,canonnicall ,coats1' etc4 ,from what we know of his character we should expect #8,anger' and #8,cruelty' to be very full and instructive4 ,but what earthly right he had to meddle with ecclesiastical subjects it is hard to see4 ,upon the #abth of the month he had received some information concerning ,gray's proceedings1 but as it was excessively indefinite in its character1 he paid no attention to it4 ,on the evening of the #adth1 ,corporal ,deanes was brought into ,dumfries1 who affirmed stoutly that he had been shot while refusing to sign the ,covenant--a story rendered singularly unlikely by the after conduct of the rebels4 ,sir ,james instantly dispatched orders to the cessed soldiers either to come to ,dumfries or meet him on the way to ,dalry1 and commanded the thirteen or fourteen men in the town with him to come at nine next morning to his lodging for supplies4 ,on the morning of ,thursday the rebels arrived at ,dumfries with #ej horse and #aej foot4 ,neilson of ,corsack1 and ,gray1 who commanded1 with a considerable troop1 entered the town1 and surrounded ,sir ,james ,turner's lodging4 ,though it was between eight and nine o'clock1 that worthy1 being unwell1 was still in bed1 but rose at once and went to the window4 ,neilson and some others cried1 #8,you may have fair quarter4' #8,i need no quarter1' replied ,sir ,james2 #8nor can ,i be a prisoner1 seeing there is no war declared4' ,on being told1 however1 that he must either be a prisoner or die1 he came down1 and went into the street in his night-shirt4 ,here ,gray showed himself very desirous of killing him1 but he was overruled by ,corsack4 ,however1 he was taken away a prisoner1 ,captain ,gray mounting him on his own horse1 though1 as ,turner naively remarks1 #8there was good reason for it1 for he mounted himself on a farre better one of mine4' ,a large coffer containing his clothes and money1 together with all his papers1 were taken away by the rebels4 ,they robbed ,master ,chalmers1 the ,episcopalian minister of ,dumfries1 of his horse1 drank the ,king's health at the market cross1 and then left ,dumfries4 #ib ,,chapter ,,iii--,,the ,,march ,,of ,,the ,,rebels #8,stay1 passenger1 take notice what thou reads1 ,at ,edinburgh lie our bodies1 here our heads2 ,our right hands stood at ,lanark1 these we want1 ,because with them we signed the ,covenant4' ,epitaph on a ,tombstone at ,hamilton4 #ic ,on ,friday the #afth1 ,bailie ,irvine of ,dumfries came to the ,council at ,edinburgh1 and gave information concerning this #8horrid rebellion4' ,in the absence of ,rothes1 ,sharpe presided--much to the wrath of some members2 and as he imagined his own safety endangered1 his measures were most energetic4 ,dalzell was ordered away to the ,west1 the guards round the city were doubled1 officers and soldiers were forced to take the oath of allegiance1 and all lodgers were commanded to give in their names4 ,sharpe1 surrounded with all these guards and precautions1 trembled--trembled as he trembled when the avengers of blood drew him from his chariot on ,magus ,muir1--for he knew how he had sold his trust1 how he had betrayed his charge1 and he felt that against him must their chiefest hatred be directed1 against him their direst thunder-bolts be forged4 ,but even in his fear the apostate ,presbyterian was unrelenting1 unpityingly harsh2 he published in his manifesto no promise of pardon1 no inducement to submission4 ,he said1 #8,if you submit not you must die1' but never added1 #8,if you submit you may live6' #id;a ,meantime the insurgents proceeded on their way4 ,at ,carsphairn they were deserted by ,captain ,gray1 who1 doubtless in a fit of oblivion1 neglected to leave behind him the coffer containing ,sir ,james's money4 ,who he was is a mystery1 unsolved by any historian2 his papers were evidently forgeries--that1 and his final flight1 appear to indicate that he was an agent of the ,royalists1 for either the ,king or the ,duke of ,york was heard to say1 #8,that1 if he might have his wish1 he would have them all turn rebels and go to arms4' #id;b ,upon the #ahth day of the month they left ,carsphairn and marched onwards4 ,turner was always lodged by his captors at a good inn1 frequently at the best of which their halting-place could boast4 ,here many visits were paid to him by the ministers and officers of the insurgent force4 ,in his description of these interviews he displays a vein of satiric severity1 admitting any kindness that was done to him with some qualifying souvenir of former harshness1 and gloating over any injury1 mistake1 or folly1 which it was his chance to suffer or to hear4 ,he appears1 notwithstanding all this1 to have been on pretty good terms with his cruel #8phanaticks1' as the following extract sufficiently proves3 #8,most of the foot were lodged about the church or churchyard1 and order given to ring bells next morning for a sermon to be preached by ,mr4 ,welch4 ,maxwell of ,morith1 and ,major ,m#8,cullough invited me to heare 8that phanatick sermon0 7for soe they merrilie called it74 ,they said that preaching might prove an effectual meane to turne me1 which they heartilie wished4 ,i answered to them that ,i was under guards1 and that if they intended to heare that sermon1 it was probable ,i might likewise1 for it was not like my guards wold goe to church and leave me alone at my lodgeings4 ,bot to what they said of my conversion1 ,i said it wold be hard to turne a ,turner4 ,bot because ,i founde them in a merrie humour1 ,i said1 if ,i did not come to heare ,mr4 ,welch preach1 then they might fine me in fortie shillings ,scots1 which was double the suome of what ,i had exacted from the phanatics4' #ie ,this took place at ,ochiltree1 on the #bbnd day of the month4 ,the following is recounted by this personage with malicious glee1 and certainly1 if authentic1 it is a sad proof of how chaff is mixed with wheat1 and how ignorant1 almost impious1 persons were engaged in this movement2 nevertheless we give it1 for we wish to present with impartiality all the alleged facts to the reader3 #8,towards the evening ,mr4 ,robinsone and ,mr4 ,crukshank gaue me a visite2 ,i called for some ale purposelie to heare one of them blesse it4 ,it fell ,mr4 ,robinsone to seeke the blessing1 who said one of the most bombastick graces that ever ,i heard in my life4 ,he summoned ,god ,allmightie very imperiouslie to be their secondarie 7for that was his language74 8,and if10 said he1 8thou wilt not be our ,secondarie1 we will not fight for thee at all1 for it is not our cause bot thy cause2 and if thou wilt not fight for our cause and thy oune cause1 then we are not obliged to fight for it4 ,they say10 said he1 8that ,dukes1 ,earles1 and ,lords are coming with the ,king's ,general against us1 bot they shall be nothing bot a threshing to us40 ,this grace did more fullie satisfie me of the folly and injustice of their cause1 then the ale did quench my thirst4' #if;a ,frequently the rebels made a halt near some roadside alehouse1 or in some convenient park1 where ,colonel ,wallace1 who had now taken the command1 would review the horse and foot1 during which time ,turner was sent either into the alehouse or round the shoulder of the hill1 to prevent him from seeing the disorders which were likely to arise4 ,he was1 at last1 on the #beth day of the month1 between ,douglas and ,lanark1 permitted to behold their evolutions4 #8,i found their horse did consist of four hundreth and fortie1 and the foot of five hundreth and upwards4 4 4 4 ,the horsemen were armed for most part with suord and pistoll1 some onlie with suord4 ,the foot with musket1 pike1 sith 7scythe71 forke1 and suord2 and some with suords great and long4' ,he admired much the proficiency of their cavalry1 and marvelled how they had attained to it in so short a time4 #if;b ,at ,douglas1 which they had just left on the morning of this great wapinshaw1 they were charged--awful picture of depravity6--with the theft of a silver spoon and a nightgown4 ,could it be expected that while the whole country swarmed with robbers of every description1 such a rare opportunity for plunder should be lost by rogues--that among a thousand men1 even though fighting for religion1 there should not be one ,achan in the camp8 ,at ,lanark a declaration was drawn up and signed by the chief rebels4 ,in it occurs the following3 #8,the just sense whereof '--the sufferings of the country--#8made us choose1 rather to betake ourselves to the fields for self-defence1 than to stay at home1 burdened daily with the calamities of others1 and tortured with the fears of our own approaching misery4' #ig ,the whole body1 too1 swore the ,covenant1 to which ceremony the epitaph at the head of this chapter seems to refer4 ,a report that ,dalzell was approaching drove them from ,lanark to ,bathgate1 where1 on the evening of ,monday the #bfth1 the wearied army stopped4 ,but at twelve o'clock the cry1 which served them for a trumpet1 of #8,horse6 horse6' and #8,mount the prisoner6' resounded through the night-shrouded town1 and called the peasants from their well-earned rest to toil onwards in their march4 ,the wind howled fiercely over the moorland2 a close1 thick1 wetting rain descended4 ,chilled to the bone1 worn out with long fatigue1 sinking to the knees in mire1 onward they marched to destruction4 ,one by one the weary peasants fell off from their ranks to sleep1 and die in the rain-soaked moor1 or to seek some house by the wayside wherein to hide till daybreak4 ,one by one at first1 then in gradually increasing numbers1 at every shelter that was seen1 whole troops left the waning squadrons1 and rushed to hide themselves from the ferocity of the tempest4 ,to right and left nought could be descried but the broad expanse of the moor1 and the figures of their fellow-rebels1 seen dimly through the murky night1 plodding onwards through the sinking moss4 ,those who kept together--a miserable few--often halted to rest themselves1 and to allow their lagging comrades to overtake them4 ,then onward they went again1 still hoping for assistance1 reinforcement1 and supplies2 onward again1 through the wind1 and the rain1 and the darkness--onward to their defeat at ,pentland1 and their scaffold at ,edinburgh4 ,it was calculated that they lost one half of their army on that disastrous night-march4 ,next night they reached the village of ,colinton1 four miles from ,edinburgh1 where they halted for the last time4 #ih ,,chapter ,,iv--,,rullion ,,green #8,from ,covenanters with uplifted hands1 ,from ,remonstrators with associate bands1 ,good ,lord1 deliver us6' ,royalist ,rhyme1 ,,kirkton1 p4 #abg4 ,late on the fourth night of ,november1 exactly twenty-four days before ,rullion ,green1 ,richard and ,george ,chaplain1 merchants in ,haddington1 beheld four men1 clad like ,west-country ,whigamores1 standing round some object on the ground4 ,it was at the two-mile cross1 and within that distance from their homes4 ,at last1 to their horror1 they discovered that the recumbent figure was a livid corpse1 swathed in a blood-stained winding-sheet4 #ii ,many thought that this apparition was a portent of the deaths connected with the ,pentland ,rising4 ,on the morning of ,wednesday1 the #bhth of ,november #afff1 they left ,colinton and marched to ,rullion ,green4 ,there they arrived about sunset4 ,the position was a strong one4 ,on the summit of a bare1 heathery spur of the ,pentlands are two hillocks1 and between them lies a narrow band of flat marshy ground4 ,on the highest of the two mounds--that nearest the ,pentlands1 and on the left hand of the main body--was the greater part of the cavalry1 under ,major ,learmont2 on the other ,barscob and the ,galloway gentlemen2 and in the centre ,colonel ,wallace and the weak1 half-armed infantry4 ,their position was further strengthened by the depth of the valley below1 and the deep chasm-like course of the ,rullion ,burn4 ,the sun1 going down behind the ,pentlands1 cast golden lights and blue shadows on their snow-clad summits1 slanted obliquely into the rich plain before them1 bathing with rosy splendour the leafless1 snow-sprinkled trees1 and fading gradually into shadow in the distance4 ,to the south1 too1 they beheld a deep-shaded amphitheatre of heather and bracken2 the course of the ,esk1 near ,penicuik1 winding about at the foot of its gorge2 the broad1 brown expanse of ,maw ,moss2 and1 fading into blue indistinctness in the south1 the wild heath-clad ,peeblesshire hills4 ,in sooth1 that scene was fair1 and many a yearning glance was cast over that peaceful evening scene from the spot where the rebels awaited their defeat2 and when the fight was over1 many a noble fellow lifted his head from the blood-stained heather to strive with darkening eyeballs to behold that landscape1 over which1 as over his life and his cause1 the shadows of night and of gloom were falling and thickening4 ,it was while waiting on this spot that the fear-inspiring cry was raised3 #8,the enemy6 ,here come the enemy6' ,unwilling to believe their own doom--for our insurgents still hoped for success in some negotiations for peace which had been carried on at ,colinton--they called out1 #8,they are some of our own4' #8,they are too blacke' 7i4e4 numerous71 #8fie6 fie6 for ground to draw up on1' cried ,wallace1 fully realising the want of space for his men1 and proving that it was not till after this time that his forces were finally arranged4 #aja;a ,first of all the battle was commenced by fifty ,royalist horse sent obliquely across the hill to attack the left wing of the rebels4 ,an equal number of ,learmont's men met them1 and1 after a struggle1 drove them back4 ,the course of the ,rullion ,burn prevented almost all pursuit1 and ,wallace1 on perceiving it1 dispatched a body of foot to occupy both the burn and some ruined sheep-walls on the farther side4 ,dalzell changed his position1 and drew up his army at the foot of the hill1 on the top of which were his foes4 ,he then dispatched a mingled body of infantry and cavalry to attack ,wallace's outpost1 but they also were driven back4 ,a third charge produced a still more disastrous effect1 for ,dalzell had to check the pursuit of his men by a reinforcement4 ,these repeated checks bred a panic in the ,lieutenant-,general's ranks1 for several of his men flung down their arms4 ,urged by such fatal symptoms1 and by the approaching night1 he deployed his men1 and closed in overwhelming numbers on the centre and right flank of the insurgent army4 ,in the increasing twilight the burning matches of the firelocks1 shimmering on barrel1 halbert1 and cuirass1 lent to the approaching army a picturesque effect1 like a huge1 many-armed giant breathing flame into the darkness4 ,placed on an overhanging hill1 ,welch and ,semple cried aloud1 #8,the ,god of ,jacob6 ,the ,god of ,jacob6' and prayed with uplifted hands for victory4 #aja;b ,but still the ,royalist troops closed in4 ,captain ,john ,paton was observed by ,dalzell1 who determined to capture him with his own hands4 ,accordingly he charged forward1 presenting his pistols4 ,paton fired1 but the balls hopped off ,dalzell's buff coat and fell into his boot4 ,with the superstition peculiar to his age1 the ,nonconformist concluded that his adversary was rendered bullet-proof by enchantment1 and1 pulling some small silver coins from his pocket1 charged his pistol therewith4 ,dalzell1 seeing this1 and supposing1 it is likely1 that ,paton was putting in larger balls1 hid behind his servant1 who was killed4 #ajb ,meantime the outposts were forced1 and the army of ,wallace was enveloped in the embrace of a hideous boa-constrictor--tightening1 closing1 crushing every semblance of life from the victim enclosed in his toils4 ,the flanking parties of horse were forced in upon the centre1 and though1 as even ,turner grants1 they fought with desperation1 a general flight was the result4 ,but when they fell there was none to sing their coronach or wail the death-wail over them4 ,those who sacrificed themselves for the peace1 the liberty1 and the religion of their fellow-countrymen1 lay bleaching in the field of death for long1 and when at last they were buried by charity1 the peasants dug up their bodies1 desecrated their graves1 and cast them once more upon the open heath for the sorry value of their winding-sheets6 ,inscription on stone at ,rullion ,green3 ,,here ,,and ,,near ,,to ,,this ,,place ,,lyes ,,the ,,reverend ,,mr ,,john ,,crookshank ,,and ,,mr ,,andrew ,,mccormick ,,ministers ,,of ,,the ,,gospel ,,and ,,about ,,fifty ,,other ,,true ,,covenanted ,,presbyterians ,,who ,,were ,,killed ,,in ,,this ,,place ,,in ,,their ,,own ,,inocent ,,self ,,defence ,,and ,,deffence ,,of ,,the ,,covenanted ,,work ,,of ,,reformation ,,by ,,thomas ,,dalzeel ,,of ,,bins ,,upon ,,the #bh ,,of ,,november #afff4 ,,rev4 #ab4 #aa4 ,,erected ,,sept4 #bh #agch4 ,back of stone3 ,a ,cloud of ,witnesses lyes here1 ,who for ,christ's ,interest did appear1 ,for to restore true ,liberty1 ,o'erturnd then by tyranny4 ,and by proud ,prelats who did ,rage ,against the ,lord's ,own heritage4 ,they sacrificed were for the laws ,of ,christ their king1 his noble cause4 ,these heroes fought with great renown2 ,by falling got the ,martyr's crown4 #ajc ,,chapter ,v--,a ,,record ,,of ,,blood #8,they cut his hands ere he was dead1 ,and after that struck of his head4 ,his blood under the altar cries ,for vengeance on ,christ's enemies4' ,epitaph on ,tomb at ,longcross of ,clermont4 #ajd ,master ,andrew ,murray1 an outed minister1 residing in the ,potterrow1 on the morning after the defeat1 heard the sounds of cheering and the march of many feet beneath his window4 ,he gazed out4 ,with colours flying1 and with music sounding1 ,dalzell1 victorious1 entered ,edinburgh4 ,but his banners were dyed in blood1 and a band of prisoners were marched within his ranks4 ,the old man knew it all4 ,that martial and triumphant strain was the death-knell of his friends and of their cause1 the rust-hued spots upon the flags were the tokens of their courage and their death1 and the prisoners were the miserable remnant spared from death in battle to die upon the scaffold4 ,poor old man6 he had outlived all joy4 ,had he lived longer he would have seen increasing torment and increasing woe2 he would have seen the clouds1 then but gathering in mist1 cast a more than midnight darkness over his native hills1 and have fallen a victim to those bloody persecutions which1 later1 sent their red memorials to the sea by many a burn4 ,by a merciful ,providence all this was spared to him--he fell beneath the first blow2 and ere four days had passed since ,rullion ,green1 the aged minister of ,god was gathered to is fathers4 #aje;a ,when ,sharpe first heard of the rebellion1 he applied to ,sir ,alexander ,ramsay1 the ,provost1 for soldiers to guard his house4 ,disliking their occupation1 the soldiers gave him an ugly time of it4 ,all the night through they kept up a continuous series of #8alarms and incursions1' #8cries of 8,stand60 8,give fire60' etc41 which forced the prelate to flee to the ,castle in the morning1 hoping there to find the rest which was denied him at home4 #aje;b ,now1 however1 when all danger to himself was past1 ,sharpe came out in his true colours1 and scant was the justice likely to be shown to the foes of ,scottish ,episcopacy when the ,primate was by4 ,the prisoners were lodged in ,haddo's ,hole1 a part of ,st4 ,giles' ,cathedral1 where1 by the kindness of ,bishop ,wishart1 to his credit be it spoken1 they were amply supplied with food4 #aje;c ,some people urged1 in the ,council1 that the promise of quarter which had been given on the field of battle should protect the lives of the miserable men4 ,sir ,john ,gilmoure1 the greatest lawyer1 gave no opinion--certainly a suggestive circumstance--but ,lord ,lee declared that this would not interfere with their legal trial1 #8so to bloody executions they went4' #aje;d ,to the number of thirty they were condemned and executed2 while two of them1 ,hugh ,m#8,kail1 a young minister1 and ,neilson of ,corsack1 were tortured with the boots4 ,the goods of those who perished were confiscated1 and their bodies were dismembered and distributed to different parts of the country2 #8the heads of ,major ,m#8,culloch and the two ,gordons1' it was resolved1 says ,kirkton1 #8should be pitched on the gate of ,kirkcudbright2 the two ,hamiltons and ,strong's head should be affixed at ,hamilton1 and ,captain ,arnot's sett on the ,watter ,gate at ,edinburgh4 ,the armes of all the ten1 because they hade with uplifted hands renewed the ,covenant at ,lanark1 were sent to the people of that town to expiate that crime1 by placing these arms on the top of the prison4' #ajf ,among these was ,john ,neilson1 the ,laird of ,corsack1 who saved ,turner's life at ,dumfries2 in return for which service ,sir ,james attempted1 though without success1 to get the poor man reprieved4 ,one of the condemned died of his wounds between the day of condemnation and the day of execution4 #8,none of them1' says ,kirkton1 #8would save their life by taking the declaration and renouncing the ,covenant1 though it was offered to them4 4 4 4 ,but never men died in ,scotland so much lamented by the people1 not only spectators1 but those in the country4 ,when ,knockbreck and his brother were turned over1 they clasped each other in their armes1 and so endured the pangs of death4 ,when ,humphrey ,colquhoun died1 he spoke not like an ordinary citizen1 but like a heavenly minister1 relating his comfortable ,christian experiences1 and called for his ,bible1 and laid it on his wounded arm1 and read ,john iii4 #h1 and spoke upon it to the admiration of all4 ,but most of all1 when ,mr4 ,m#8,kail died1 there was such a lamentation as was never known in ,scotland before2 not one dry cheek upon all the street1 or in all the numberless windows in the mercate place4' #ajg;a ,the following passage from this speech speaks for itself and its author3 #8,hereafter ,i will not talk with flesh and blood1 nor think on the world's consolations4 ,farewell to all my friends1 whose company hath been refreshful to me in my pilgrimage4 ,i have done with the light of the sun and the moon2 welcome eternal light1 eternal life1 everlasting love1 everlasting praise1 everlasting glory4 ,praise to ,him that sits upon the throne1 and to the ,lamb for ever6 ,bless the ,lord1 ,o my soul1 that hath pardoned all my iniquities in the blood of ,his ,son1 and healed all my diseases4 ,bless ,him1 ,o all ye ,his angels that excel in strength1 ye ministers of ,his that do ,his pleasure4 ,bless the ,lord1 ,o my soul6' #ajg;b ,after having ascended the gallows ladder he again broke forth in the following words of touching eloquence3 #8,and now ,i leave off to speak any more to creatures1 and begin my intercourse with ,god1 which shall never be broken off4 ,farewell father and mother1 friends and relations6 ,farewell the world and all delights6 ,farewell meat and drink6 ,farewell sun1 moon1 and stars6--,welcome ,god and ,father6 ,welcome sweet ,jesus ,christ1 the ,mediator of the new covenant6 ,welcome blessed ,spirit of grace and ,god of all consolation6 ,welcome glory6 ,welcome eternal life6 ,welcome ,death6' #ajg;c ,at ,glasgow1 too1 where some were executed1 they caused the soldiers to beat the drums and blow the trumpets on their closing ears4 ,hideous refinement of revenge6 ,even the last words which drop from the lips of a dying man--words surely the most sincere and the most unbiassed which mortal mouth can utter--even these were looked upon as poisoned and as poisonous4 #8,drown their last accents1' was the cry1 #8lest they should lead the crowd to take their part1 or at the least to mourn their doom6' #ajh;a ,but1 after all1 perhaps it was more merciful than one would think--unintentionally so1 of course2 perhaps the storm of harsh and fiercely jubilant noises1 the clanging of trumpets1 the rattling of drums1 and the hootings and jeerings of an unfeeling mob1 which were the last they heard on earth1 might1 when the mortal fight was over1 when the river of death was passed1 add tenfold sweetness to the hymning of the angels1 tenfold peacefulness to the shores which they had reached4 ,not content with the cruelty of these executions1 some even of the peasantry1 though these were confined to the shire of ,mid-,lothian1 pursued1 captured1 plundered1 and murdered the miserable fugitives who fell in their way4 ,one strange story have we of these times of blood and persecution3 ,kirkton the historian and popular tradition tell us alike of a flame which often would arise from the grave1 in a moss near ,carnwath1 of some of those poor rebels3 of how it crept along the ground2 of how it covered the house of their murderer2 and of how it scared him with its lurid glare4 ,hear ,daniel ,defoe3 #ajh;b #8,if the poor people were by these insupportable violences made desperate1 and driven to all the extremities of a wild despair1 who can justly reflect on them when they read in the ,word of ,god 8,that oppression makes a wise man mad08 ,and therefore were there no other original of the insurrection known by the name of the ,rising of ,pentland1 it was nothing but what the intolerable oppressions of those times might have justified to all the world1 nature having dictated to all people a right of defence when illegally and arbitrarily attacked in a manner not justifiable either by laws of nature1 the laws of ,god1 or the laws of the country4' ,bear this remonstrance of ,defoe's in mind1 and though it is the fashion of the day to jeer and to mock1 to execrate and to contemn1 the noble band of ,covenanters--though the bitter laugh at their old-world religious views1 the curl of the lip at their merits1 and the chilling silence on their bravery and their determination1 are but too rife through all society--be charitable to what was evil and honest to what was good about the ,pentland insurgents1 who fought for life and liberty1 for country and religion1 on the #bhth of ,november #afff1 now just two hundred years ago4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,edinburgh1 #bhth ,november #ahff4 ,,the ,,day ,,after ,,to-,,morrow ,history is much decried2 it is a tissue of errors1 we are told1 no doubt correctly2 and rival historians expose each other's blunders with gratification4 ,yet the worst historian has a clearer view of the period he studies than the best of us can hope to form of that in which we live4 ,the obscurest epoch is to-day2 and that for a thousand reasons of inchoate tendency1 conflicting report1 and sheer mass and multiplicity of experience2 but chiefly1 perhaps1 by reason of an insidious shifting of landmarks4 ,parties and ideas continually move1 but not by measurable marches on a stable course2 the political soil itself steals forth by imperceptible degrees1 like a travelling glacier1 carrying on its bosom not only political parties but their flag-posts and cantonments2 so that what appears to be an eternal city founded on hills is but a flying island of ,laputa4 ,it is for this reason in particular that we are all becoming ,socialists without knowing it2 by which ,i would not in the least refer to the acute case of ,mr4 ,hyndman and his horn-blowing supporters1 sounding their trumps of a ,sunday within the walls of our individualist ,jericho--but to the stealthy change that has come over the spirit of ,englishmen and ,english legislation4 ,a little while ago1 and we were still for liberty2 #8crowd a few more thousands on the bench of ,government1' we seemed to cry2 #8keep her head direct on liberty1 and we cannot help but come to port4' ,this is over2 laisser faire declines in favour2 our legislation grows authoritative1 grows philanthropical1 bristles with new duties and new penalties1 and casts a spawn of inspectors1 who now begin1 note-book in hand1 to darken the face of ,england4 ,it may be right or wrong1 we are not trying that2 but one thing it is beyond doubt3 it is ,socialism in action1 and the strange thing is that we scarcely know it4 ,liberty has served us a long while1 and it may be time to seek new altars4 ,like all other principles1 she has been proved to be self-exclusive in the long run4 ,she has taken wages besides 7like all other virtues7 and dutifully served ,mammon2 so that many things we were accustomed to admire as the benefits of freedom and common to all were truly benefits of wealth1 and took their value from our neighbours' poverty4 ,a few shocks of logic1 a few disclosures 7in the journalistic phrase7 of what the freedom of manufacturers1 landlords1 or shipowners may imply for operatives1 tenants1 or seamen1 and we not unnaturally begin to turn to that other pole of hope1 beneficent tyranny4 ,freedom1 to be desirable1 involves kindness1 wisdom1 and all the virtues of the free2 but the free man as we have seen him in action has been1 as of yore1 only the master of many helots2 and the slaves are still ill-fed1 ill-clad1 ill-taught1 ill-housed1 insolently treated1 and driven to their mines and workshops by the lash of famine4 ,so much1 in other men's affairs1 we have begun to see clearly2 we have begun to despair of virtue in these other men1 and from our seat in ,parliament begin to discharge upon them1 thick as arrows1 the host of our inspectors4 ,the landlord has long shaken his head over the manufacturer2 those who do business on land have lost all trust in the virtues of the shipowner2 the professions look askance upon the retail traders and have even started their co-operative stores to ruin them2 and from out the smoke-wreaths of ,birmingham a finger has begun to write upon the wall the condemnation of the landlord4 ,thus1 piece by piece1 do we condemn each other1 and yet not perceive the conclusion1 that our whole estate is somewhat damnable4 ,thus1 piece by piece1 each acting against his neighbour1 each sawing away the branch on which some other interest is seated1 do we apply in detail our ,socialistic remedies1 and yet not perceive that we are all labouring together to bring in ,socialism at large4 ,a tendency so stupid and so selfish is like to prove invincible2 and if ,socialism be at all a practicable rule of life1 there is every chance that our grand-children will see the day and taste the pleasures of existence in something far liker an ant-heap than any previous human polity4 ,and this not in the least because of the voice of ,mr4 ,hyndman or the horns of his followers2 but by the mere glacier movement of the political soil1 bearing forward on its bosom1 apparently undisturbed1 the proud camps of ,whig and ,tory4 ,if ,mr4 ,hyndman were a man of keen humour1 which is far from my conception of his character1 he might rest from his troubling and look on3 the walls of ,jericho begin already to crumble and dissolve4 ,that great servile war1 the ,armageddon of money and numbers1 to which we looked forward when young1 becomes more and more unlikely2 and we may rather look to see a peaceable and blindfold evolution1 the work of dull men immersed in political tactics and dead to political results4 ,the principal scene of this comedy lies1 of course1 in the ,house of ,commons2 it is there1 besides1 that the details of this new evolution 7if it proceed7 will fall to be decided2 so that the state of ,parliament is not only diagnostic of the present but fatefully prophetic of the future4 ,well1 we all know what ,parliament is1 and we are all ashamed of it4 ,we may pardon it some faults1 indeed1 on the ground of ,irish obstruction--a bitter trial1 which it supports with notable good humour4 ,but the excuse is merely local2 it cannot apply to similar bodies in ,america and ,france2 and what are we to say of these8 ,president ,cleveland's letter may serve as a picture of the one2 a glance at almost any paper will convince us of the weakness of the other4 ,decay appears to have seized on the organ of popular government in every land2 and this just at the moment when we begin to bring to it1 as to an oracle of justice1 the whole skein of our private affairs to be unravelled1 and ask it1 like a new ,messiah1 to take upon itself our frailties and play for us the part that should be played by our own virtues4 ,for that1 in few words1 is the case4 ,we cannot trust ourselves to behave with decency2 we cannot trust our consciences2 and the remedy proposed is to elect a round number of our neighbours1 pretty much at random1 and say to these3 #8,be ye our conscience2 make laws so wise1 and continue from year to year to administer them so wisely1 that they shall save us from ourselves and make us righteous and happy1 world without end4 ,amen4' ,and who can look twice at the ,british ,parliament and then seriously bring it such a task8 ,i am not advancing this as an argument against ,socialism3 once again1 nothing is further from my mind4 ,there are great truths in ,socialism1 or no one1 not even ,mr4 ,hyndman1 would be found to hold it2 and if it came1 and did one-tenth part of what it offers1 ,i for one should make it welcome4 ,but if it is to come1 we may as well have some notion of what it will be like2 and the first thing to grasp is that our new polity will be designed and administered 7to put it courteously7 with something short of inspiration4 ,it will be made1 or will grow1 in a human parliament2 and the one thing that will not very hugely change is human nature4 ,the ,anarchists think otherwise1 from which it is only plain that they have not carried to the study of history the lamp of human sympathy4 ,given1 then1 our new polity1 with its new waggon-load of laws1 what headmarks must we look for in the life8 ,we chafe a good deal at that excellent thing1 the income-tax1 because it brings into our affairs the prying fingers1 and exposes us to the tart words1 of the official4 ,the official1 in all degrees1 is already something of a terror to many of us4 ,i would not willingly have to do with even a police-constable in any other spirit than that of kindness4 ,i still remember in my dreams the eye-glass of a certain attach at a certain embassy--an eyeglass that was a standing indignity to all on whom it looked2 and my next most disagreeable remembrance is of a bracing1 ,republican postman in the city of ,san ,francisco4 ,i lived in that city among working folk1 and what my neighbours accepted at the postman's hands--nay1 what ,i took from him myself--it is still distasteful to recall4 ,the bourgeois1 residing in the upper parts of society1 has but few opportunities of tasting this peculiar bowl2 but about the income-tax1 as ,i have said1 or perhaps about a patent1 or in the halls of an embassy at the hands of my friend of the eye-glass1 he occasionally sets his lips to it2 and he may thus imagine 7if he has that faculty of imagination1 without which most faculties are void7 how it tastes to his poorer neighbours1 who must drain it to the dregs4 ,in every contact with authority1 with their employer1 with the police1 with the ,school ,board officer1 in the hospital1 or in the workhouse1 they have equally the occasion to appreciate the light-hearted civility of the man in office2 and as an experimentalist in several out-of-the-way provinces of life1 ,i may say it has but to be felt to be appreciated4 ,well1 this golden age of which we are speaking will be the golden age of officials4 ,in all our concerns it will be their beloved duty to meddle1 with what tact1 with what obliging words1 analogy will aid us to imagine4 ,it is likely these gentlemen will be periodically elected2 they will therefore have their turn of being underneath1 which does not always sweeten men's conditions4 ,the laws they will have to administer will be no clearer than those we know to-day1 and the body which is to regulate their administration no wiser than the ,british ,parliament4 ,so that upon all hands we may look for a form of servitude most galling to the blood--servitude to many and changing masters1 and for all the slights that accompany the rule of jack-in-office4 ,and if the ,socialistic programme be carried out with the least fulness1 we shall have lost a thing1 in most respects not much to be regretted1 but as a moderator of oppression1 a thing nearly invaluable--the newspaper4 ,for the independent journal is a creature of capital and competition2 it stands and falls with millionaires and railway bonds and all the abuses and glories of to-day2 and as soon as the ,state has fairly taken its bent to authority and philanthropy1 and laid the least touch on private property1 the days of the independent journal are numbered4 ,state railways may be good things and so may ,state bakeries2 but a ,state newspaper will never be a very trenchant critic of the ,state officials4 ,but again1 these officials would have no sinecure4 ,crime would perhaps be less1 for some of the motives of crime we may suppose would pass away4 ,but if ,socialism were carried out with any fulness1 there would be more contraventions4 ,we see already new sins ringing up like mustard--,school ,board sins1 factory sins1 ,merchant ,shipping ,act sins--none of which ,i would be thought to except against in particular1 but all of which1 taken together1 show us that ,socialism can be a hard master even in the beginning4 ,if it go on to such heights as we hear proposed and lauded1 if it come actually to its ideal of the ant-heap1 ruled with iron justice1 the number of new contraventions will be out of all proportion multiplied4 ,take the case of work alone4 ,man is an idle animal4 ,he is at least as intelligent as the ant2 but generations of advisers have in vain recommended him the ant's example4 ,of those who are found truly indefatigable in business1 some are misers2 some are the practisers of delightful industries1 like gardening2 some are students1 artists1 inventors1 or discoverers1 men lured forward by successive hopes2 and the rest are those who live by games of skill or hazard--financiers1 billiard-players1 gamblers1 and the like4 ,but in unloved toils1 even under the prick of necessity1 no man is continually sedulous4 ,once eliminate the fear of starvation1 once eliminate or bound the hope of riches1 and we shall see plenty of skulking and malingering4 ,society will then be something not wholly unlike a cotton plantation in the old days2 with cheerful1 careless1 demoralised slaves1 with elected overseers1 and1 instead of the planter1 a chaotic popular assembly4 ,if the blood be purposeful and the soil strong1 such a plantation may succeed1 and be1 indeed1 a busy ant-heap1 with full granaries and long hours of leisure4 ,but even then ,i think the whip will be in the overseer's hands1 and not in vain4 ,for1 when it comes to be a question of each man doing his own share or the rest doing more1 prettiness of sentiment will be forgotten4 ,to dock the skulker's food is not enough2 many will rather eat haws and starve on petty pilferings than put their shoulder to the wheel for one hour daily4 ,for such as these1 then1 the whip will be in the overseer's hand2 and his own sense of justice and the superintendence of a chaotic popular assembly will be the only checks on its employment4 ,now1 you may be an industrious man and a good citizen1 and yet not love1 nor yet be loved by1 ,dr4 ,fell the inspector4 ,it is admitted by private soldiers that the disfavour of a sergeant is an evil not to be combated2 offend the sergeant1 they say1 and in a brief while you will either be disgraced or have deserted4 ,and the sergeant can no longer appeal to the lash4 ,but if these things go on1 we shall see1 or our sons shall see1 what it is to have offended an inspector4 ,this for the unfortunate4 ,but with the fortunate also1 even those whom the inspector loves1 it may not be altogether well4 ,it is concluded that in such a state of society1 supposing it to be financially sound1 the level of comfort will be high4 ,it does not follow3 there are strange depths of idleness in man1 a too-easily-got sufficiency1 as in the case of the sago-eaters1 often quenching the desire for all besides2 and it is possible that the men of the richest ant-heaps may sink even into squalor4 ,but suppose they do not2 suppose our tricksy instrument of human nature1 when we play upon it this new tune1 should respond kindly2 suppose no one to be damped and none exasperated by the new conditions1 the whole enterprise to be financially sound--a vaulting supposition--and all the inhabitants to dwell together in a golden mean of comfort3 we have yet to ask ourselves if this be what man desire1 or if it be what man will even deign to accept for a continuance4 ,it is certain that man loves to eat1 it is not certain that he loves that only or that best4 ,he is supposed to love comfort2 it is not a love1 at least1 that he is faithful to4 ,he is supposed to love happiness2 it is my contention that he rather loves excitement4 ,danger1 enterprise1 hope1 the novel1 the aleatory1 are dearer to man than regular meals4 ,he does not think so when he is hungry1 but he thinks so again as soon as he is fed2 and on the hypothesis of a successful ant-heap1 he would never go hungry4 ,it would be always after dinner in that society1 as1 in the land of the ,lotos-eaters1 it was always afternoon2 and food1 which1 when we have it not1 seems all-important1 drops in our esteem1 as soon as we have it1 to a mere prerequisite of living4 ,that for which man lives is not the same thing for all individuals nor in all ages2 yet it has a common base2 what he seeks and what he must have is that which will seize and hold his attention4 ,regular meals and weatherproof lodgings will not do this long4 ,play in its wide sense1 as the artificial induction of sensation1 including all games and all arts1 will1 indeed1 go far to keep him conscious of himself2 but in the end he wearies for realities4 ,study or experiment1 to some rare natures1 is the unbroken pastime of a life4 ,these are enviable natures2 people shut in the house by sickness often bitterly envy them2 but the commoner man cannot continue to exist upon such altitudes3 his feet itch for physical adventure2 his blood boils for physical dangers1 pleasures1 and triumphs2 his fancy1 the looker after new things1 cannot continue to look for them in books and crucibles1 but must seek them on the breathing stage of life4 ,pinches1 buffets1 the glow of hope1 the shock of disappointment1 furious contention with obstacles3 these are the true elixir for all vital spirits1 these are what they seek alike in their romantic enterprises and their unromantic dissipations4 ,when they are taken in some pinch closer than the common1 they cry1 #8,catch me here again6' and sure enough you catch them there again--perhaps before the week is out4 ,it is as old as ,robinson ,crusoe2 as old as man4 ,our race has not been strained for all these ages through that sieve of dangers that we call ,natural ,selection1 to sit down with patience in the tedium of safety2 the voices of its fathers call it forth4 ,already in our society as it exists1 the bourgeois is too much cottoned about for any zest in living2 he sits in his parlour out of reach of any danger1 often out of reach of any vicissitude but one of health2 and there he yawns4 ,if the people in the next villa took pot-shots at him1 he might be killed indeed1 but so long as he escaped he would find his blood oxygenated and his views of the world brighter4 ,if ,mr4 ,mallock1 on his way to the publishers1 should have his skirts pinned to a wall by a javelin1 it would not occur to him--at least for several hours--to ask if life were worth living2 and if such peril were a daily matter1 he would ask it never more2 he would have other things to think about1 he would be living indeed--not lying in a box with cotton1 safe1 but immeasurably dull4 ,the aleatory1 whether it touch life1 or fortune1 or renown--whether we explore ,africa or only toss for halfpence--that is what ,i conceive men to love best1 and that is what we are seeking to exclude from men's existences4 ,of all forms of the aleatory1 that which most commonly attends our working men--the danger of misery from want of work--is the least inspiriting3 it does not whip the blood1 it does not evoke the glory of contest2 it is tragic1 but it is passive2 and yet1 in so far as it is aleatory1 and a peril sensibly touching them1 it does truly season the men's lives4 ,of those who fail1 ,i do not speak--despair should be sacred2 but to those who even modestly succeed1 the changes of their life bring interest3 a job found1 a shilling saved1 a dainty earned1 all these are wells of pleasure springing afresh for the successful poor2 and it is not from these but from the villa-dweller that we hear complaints of the unworthiness of life4 ,much1 then1 as the average of the proletariat would gain in this new state of life1 they would also lose a certain something1 which would not be missed in the beginning1 but would be missed progressively and progressively lamented4 ,soon there would be a looking back3 there would be tales of the old world humming in young men's ears1 tales of the tramp and the pedlar1 and the hopeful emigrant4 ,and in the stall-fed life of the successful ant-heap--with its regular meals1 regular duties1 regular pleasures1 an even course of life1 and fear excluded--the vicissitudes1 delights1 and havens of to-day will seem of epic breadth4 ,this may seem a shallow observation2 but the springs by which men are moved lie much on the surface4 ,bread1 ,i believe1 has always been considered first1 but the circus comes close upon its heels4 ,bread we suppose to be given amply2 the cry for circuses will be the louder1 and if the life of our descendants be such as we have conceived1 there are two beloved pleasures on which they will be likely to fall back3 the pleasures of intrigue and of sedition4 ,in all this ,i have supposed the ant-heap to be financially sound4 ,i am no economist1 only a writer of fiction2 but even as such1 ,i know one thing that bears on the economic question--,i know the imperfection of man's faculty for business4 ,the ,anarchists1 who count some rugged elements of common sense among what seem to me their tragic errors1 have said upon this matter all that ,i could wish to say1 and condemned beforehand great economical polities4 ,so far it is obvious that they are right2 they may be right also in predicting a period of communal independence1 and they may even be right in thinking that desirable4 ,but the rise of communes is none the less the end of economic equality1 just when we were told it was beginning4 ,communes will not be all equal in extent1 nor in quality of soil1 nor in growth of population2 nor will the surplus produce of all be equally marketable4 ,it will be the old story of competing interests1 only with a new unit2 and1 as it appears to me1 a new1 inevitable danger4 ,for the merchant and the manufacturer1 in this new world1 will be a sovereign commune2 it is a sovereign power that will see its crops undersold1 and its manufactures worsted in the market4 ,and all the more dangerous that the sovereign power should be small4 ,great powers are slow to stir2 national affronts1 even with the aid of newspapers1 filter slowly into popular consciousness2 national losses are so unequally shared1 that one part of the population will be counting its gains while another sits by a cold hearth4 ,but in the sovereign commune all will be centralised and sensitive4 ,when jealousy springs up1 when 7let us say7 the commune of ,poole has overreached the commune of ,dorchester1 irritation will run like quicksilver throughout the body politic2 each man in ,dorchester will have to suffer directly in his diet and his dress2 even the secretary1 who drafts the official correspondence1 will sit down to his task embittered1 as a man who has dined ill and may expect to dine worse2 and thus a business difference between communes will take on much the same colour as a dispute between diggers in the lawless ,west1 and will lead as directly to the arbitrament of blows4 ,so that the establishment of the communal system will not only reintroduce all the injustices and heart-burnings of economic inequality1 but will1 in all human likelihood1 inaugurate a world of hedgerow warfare4 ,dorchester will march on ,poole1 ,sherborne on ,dorchester1 ,wimborne on both2 the waggons will be fired on as they follow the highway1 the trains wrecked on the lines1 the ploughman will go armed into the field of tillage2 and if we have not a return of ballad literature1 the local press at least will celebrate in a high vein the victory of ,cerne ,abbas or the reverse of ,toller ,porcorum4 ,at least this will not be dull2 when ,i was younger1 ,i could have welcomed such a world with relief2 but it is the ,new-,old with a vengeance1 and irresistibly suggests the growth of military powers and the foundation of new empires4 ,,college ,,papers ,,chapter ,i--,,edinburgh ,,students ,,in #ahbd ,on the #bnd of ,january #ahbd was issued the prospectus of the ,lapsus ,lingu2 or1 the ,college ,tatler2 and on the #gth the first number appeared4 ,on ,friday the #bnd of ,april #8,mr4 ,tatler became speechless4' ,its history was not all one success2 for the editor 7who applies to himself the words of ,iago1 #8,i am nothing if ,i am not critical'7 overstepped the bounds of caution1 and found himself seriously embroiled with the powers that were4 ,there appeared in ,no4 ,,xvi4 a most bitter satire upon ,sir ,john ,leslie1 in which he was compared to ,falstaff1 charged with puffing himself1 and very prettily censured for publishing only the first volume of a class-book1 and making all purchasers pay for both4 ,sir ,john ,leslie took up the matter angrily1 visited ,carfrae the publisher1 and threatened him with an action1 till he was forced to turn the hapless ,lapsus out of doors4 ,the maltreated periodical found shelter in the shop of ,huie1 ,infirmary ,street2 and ,no4 ,,xvii4 was duly issued from the new office4 ,no4 ,,xvii4 beheld ,mr4 ,tatler's humiliation1 in which1 with fulsome apology and not very credible assurances of respect and admiration1 he disclaims the article in question1 and advertises a new issue of ,no4 ,,xvi4 with all objectionable matter omitted4 ,this1 with pleasing euphemism1 he terms in a later advertisement1 #8a new and improved edition4' ,this was the only remarkable adventure of ,mr4 ,tatler's brief existence2 unless we consider as such a silly ,chaldee manuscript in imitation of ,blackwood1 and a letter of reproof from a divinity student on the impiety of the same dull effusion4 ,he laments the near approach of his end in pathetic terms4 #8,how shall we summon up sufficient courage1' says he1 #8to look for the last time on our beloved little devil and his inestimable proof-sheet8 ,how shall we be able to pass ,no4 #ad ,infirmary ,street and feel that all its attractions are over8 ,how shall we bid farewell for ever to that excellent man1 with the long greatcoat1 wooden leg and wooden board1 who acts as our representative at the gate of ,alma ,mater8' ,but alas6 he had no choice3 ,mr4 ,tatler1 whose career1 he says himself1 had been successful1 passed peacefully away1 and has ever since dumbly implored #8the bringing home of bell and burial4' ,alter et idem4 ,a very different affair was the ,lapsus ,lingu from the ,edinburgh ,university ,magazine4 ,the two prospectuses alone1 laid side by side1 would indicate the march of luxury and the repeal of the paper duty4 ,the penny bi-weekly broadside of session #ahbh-d was almost wholly dedicated to ,momus4 ,epigrams1 pointless letters1 amorous verses1 and ,university grievances are the continual burthen of the song4 ,but ,mr4 ,tatler was not without a vein of hearty humour2 and his pages afford what is much better3 to wit1 a good picture of student life as it then was4 ,the students of those polite days insisted on retaining their hats in the class-room4 ,there was a cab-stance in front of the ,college2 and #8,carriage ,entrance' was posted above the main arch1 on what the writer pleases to call #8coarse1 unclassic boards4' ,the benches of the #8,speculative' then1 as now1 were red2 but all other ,societies 7the #8,dialectic' is the only survivor7 met downstairs1 in some rooms of which it is pointedly said that #8nothing else could conveniently be made of them4' ,however horrible these dungeons may have been1 it is certain that they were paid for1 and that far too heavily for the taste of session #ahbc-d1 which found enough calls upon its purse for porter and toasted cheese at ,ambrose's1 or cranberry tarts and ginger-wine at ,doull's4 ,duelling was still a possibility2 so much so that when two medicals fell to fisticuffs in ,adam ,square1 it was seriously hinted that single combat would be the result4 ,last and most wonderful of all1 ,gall and ,spurzheim were in every one's mouth2 and the ,law student1 after having exhausted ,byron's poetry and ,scott's novels1 informed the ladies of his belief in phrenology4 ,in the present day he would dilate on #8,red as a rose is she1' and then mention that he attends ,old ,greyfriars'1 as a tacit claim to intellectual superiority4 ,i do not know that the advance is much4 ,but ,mr4 ,tatler's best performances were three short papers in which he hit off pretty smartly the idiosyncrasies of the #8,divinity1' the #8,medical1' and the #8,law' of session #ahbc-d4 ,the fact that there was no notice of the #8,arts' seems to suggest that they stood in the same intermediate position as they do now--the epitome of student-kind4 ,mr4 ,tatler's satire is1 on the whole1 good-humoured1 and has not grown superannuated in all its limbs4 ,his descriptions may limp at some points1 but there are certain broad traits that apply equally well to session #ahgj-a4 ,he shows us the ,divinity of the period--tall1 pale1 and slender--his collar greasy1 and his coat bare about the seams--#8his white neckcloth serving four days1 and regularly turned the third'--#8the rim of his hat deficient in wool'--and #8a weighty volume of theology under his arm4' ,he was the man to buy cheap #8a snuff-box1 or a dozen of pencils1 or a six-bladed knife1 or a quarter of a hundred quills1' at any of the public sale-rooms4 ,he was noted for cheap purchases1 and for exceeding the legal tender in halfpence4 ,he haunted #8the darkest and remotest corner of the ,theatre ,gallery4' ,he was to be seen issuing from #8aerial lodging-houses4' ,withal1 says mine author1 #8there were many good points about him3 he paid his landlady's bill1 read his ,bible1 went twice to church on ,sunday1 seldom swore1 was not often tipsy1 and bought the ,lapsus ,lingu4' ,the ,medical1 again1 #8wore a white greatcoat1 and consequently talked loud'--7there is something very delicious in that consequently74 ,he wore his hat on one side4 ,he was active1 volatile1 and went to the top of ,arthur's ,seat on the ,sunday forenoon4 ,he was as quiet in a debating society as he was loud in the streets4 ,he was reckless and imprudent3 yesterday he insisted on your sharing a bottle of claret with him 7and claret was claret then1 before the cheap-and-nasty treaty71 and to-morrow he asks you for the loan of a penny to buy the last number of the ,lapsus4 ,the student of ,law1 again1 was a learned man4 #8,he had turned over the leaves of ,justinian's ,institutes1 and knew that they were written in ,latin4 ,he was well acquainted with the title-page of ,blackstone's ,commentaries1 and argal 7as the gravedigger in ,hamlet says7 he was not a person to be laughed at4' ,he attended the ,parliament ,house in the character of a critic1 and could give you stale sneers at all the celebrated speakers4 ,he was the terror of essayists at the ,speculative or the ,forensic4 ,in social qualities he seems to have stood unrivalled4 ,even in the police-office we find him shining with undiminished lustre4 #8,if a ,charlie should find him rather noisy at an untimely hour1 and venture to take him into custody1 he appears next morning like a ,daniel come to judgment4 ,he opens his mouth to speak1 and the divine precepts of unchanging justice and ,scots law flow from his tongue4 ,the magistrate listens in amazement1 and fines him only a couple of guineas4' ,such then were our predecessors and their ,college ,magazine4 ,barclay1 ,ambrose1 ,young ,amos1 and ,fergusson were to them what the ,caf1 the ,rainbow1 and ,rutherford's are to us4 ,an hour's reading in these old pages absolutely confuses us1 there is so much that is similar and so much that is different2 the follies and amusements are so like our own1 and the manner of frolicking and enjoying are so changed1 that one pauses and looks about him in philosophic judgment4 ,the muddy quadrangle is thick with living students2 but in our eyes it swarms also with the phantasmal white greatcoats and tilted hats of #ahbd4 ,two races meet3 races alike and diverse4 ,two performances are played before our eyes2 but the change seems merely of impersonators1 of scenery1 of costume4 ,plot and passion are the same4 ,it is the fall of the spun shilling whether seventy-one or twenty-four has the best of it4 ,in a future number we hope to give a glance at the individualities of the present1 and see whether the cast shall be head or tail--whether we or the readers of the ,lapsus stand higher in the balance4 ,,chapter ,,ii--,,the ,,modern ,,student ,,considered ,,generally ,we have now reached the difficult portion of our task4 ,mr4 ,tatler1 for all that we care1 may have been as virulent as he liked about the students of a former2 but for the iron to touch our sacred selves1 for a brother of the ,guild to betray its most privy infirmities1 let such a ,judas look to himself as he passes on his way to the ,scots ,law or the ,diagnostic1 below the solitary lamp at the corner of the dark quadrangle4 ,we confess that this idea alarms us4 ,we enter a protest4 ,we bind ourselves over verbally to keep the peace4 ,we hope1 moreover1 that having thus made you secret to our misgivings1 you will excuse us if we be dull1 and set that down to caution which you might before have charged to the account of stupidity4 ,the natural tendency of civilisation is to obliterate those distinctions which are the best salt of life4 ,all the fine old professional flavour in language has evaporated4 ,your very gravedigger has forgotten his avocation in his electorship1 and would quibble on the ,franchise over ,ophelia's grave1 instead of more appropriately discussing the duration of bodies under ground4 ,from this tendency1 from this gradual attrition of life1 in which everything pointed and characteristic is being rubbed down1 till the whole world begins to slip between our fingers in smooth undistinguishable sands1 from this1 we say1 it follows that we must not attempt to join ,mr4 ,taller in his simple division of students into ,law1 ,divinity1 and ,medical4 ,nowadays the ,faculties may shake hands over their follies2 and1 like ,mrs4 ,frail and ,mrs4 ,foresight 7in ,love for ,love7 they may stand in the doors of opposite class-rooms1 crying3 #8,sister1 ,sister--,sister everyway6' ,a few restrictions1 indeed1 remain to influence the followers of individual branches of study4 ,the ,divinity1 for example1 must be an avowed believer2 and as this1 in the present day1 is unhappily considered by many as a confession of weakness1 he is fain to choose one of two ways of gilding the distasteful orthodox bolus4 ,some swallow it in a thin jelly of metaphysics2 for it is even a credit to believe in ,god on the evidence of some crack-jaw philosopher1 although it is a decided slur to believe in ,him on ,his own authority4 ,others again 7and this we think the worst method71 finding ,german grammar a somewhat dry morsel1 run their own little heresy as a proof of independence2 and deny one of the cardinal doctrines that they may hold the others without being laughed at4 ,besides1 however1 such influences as these1 there is little more distinction between the faculties than the traditionary ideal1 handed down through a long sequence of students1 and getting rounder and more featureless at each successive session4 ,the plague of uniformity has descended on the ,college4 ,students 7and indeed all sorts and conditions of men7 now require their faculty and character hung round their neck on a placard1 like the scenes in ,shakespeare's theatre4 ,and in the midst of all this weary sameness1 not the least common feature is the gravity of every face4 ,no more does the merry medical run eagerly in the clear winter morning up the rugged sides of ,arthur's ,seat1 and hear the church bells begin and thicken and die away below him among the gathered smoke of the city4 ,he will not break ,sunday to so little purpose4 ,he no longer finds pleasure in the mere output of his surplus energy4 ,he husbands his strength1 and lays out walks1 and reading1 and amusement with deep consideration1 so that he may get as much work and pleasure out of his body as he can1 and waste none of his energy on mere impulse1 or such flat enjoyment as an excursion in the country4 ,see the quadrangle in the interregnum of classes1 in those two or three minutes when it is full of passing students1 and we think you will admit that1 if we have not made it #8an habitation of dragons1' we have at least transformed it into #8a court for owls4' ,solemnity broods heavily over the enclosure2 and wherever you seek it1 you will find a dearth of merriment1 an absence of real youthful enjoyment4 ,you might as well try #8,to move wild laughter in the throat of death' as to excite any healthy stir among the bulk of this staid company4 ,the studious congregate about the doors of the different classes1 debating the matter of the lecture1 or comparing note-books4 ,a reserved rivalry sunders them4 ,here are some deep in ,greek particles3 there1 others are already inhabitants of that land #8,where entity and quiddity1 #8,like ghosts of defunct bodies fly-- ,where ,truth in person does appear ,like words congealed in northern air4' ,but none of them seem to find any relish for their studies--no pedantic love of this subject or that lights up their eyes--science and learning are only means for a livelihood1 which they have considerately embraced and which they solemnly pursue4 #8,labour's pale priests1' their lips seem incapable of laughter1 except in the way of polite recognition of professorial wit4 ,the stains of ink are chronic on their meagre fingers4 ,they walk like ,saul among the asses4 ,the dandies are not less subdued4 ,in #ahbd there was a noisy dapper dandyism abroad4 ,vulgar1 as we should now think1 but yet genial--a matter of white greatcoats and loud voices--strangely different from the stately frippery that is rife at present4 ,these men are out of their element in the quadrangle4 ,even the small remains of boisterous humour1 which still clings to any collection of young men1 jars painfully on their morbid sensibilities2 and they beat a hasty retreat to resume their perfunctory march along ,princes ,street4 ,flirtation is to them a great social duty1 a painful obligation1 which they perform on every occasion in the same chill official manner1 and with the same commonplace advances1 the same dogged observance of traditional behaviour4 ,the shape of their raiment is a burden almost greater than they can bear1 and they halt in their walk to preserve the due adjustment of their trouser-knees1 till one would fancy he had mixed in a procession of ,jacobs4 ,we speak1 of course1 for ourselves2 but we would as soon associate with a herd of sprightly apes as with these gloomy modern beaux4 ,alas1 that our ,mirabels1 our ,valentines1 even our ,brummels1 should have left their mantles upon nothing more amusing6 ,nor are the fast men less constrained4 ,solemnity1 even in dissipation1 is the order of the day2 and they go to the devil with a perverse seriousness1 a systematic rationalism of wickedness that would have surprised the simpler sinners of old4 ,some of these men whom we see gravely conversing on the steps have but a slender acquaintance with each other4 ,their intercourse consists principally of mutual bulletins of depravity2 and1 week after week1 as they meet they reckon up their items of transgression1 and give an abstract of their downward progress for approval and encouragement4 ,these folk form a freemasonry of their own4 ,an oath is the shibboleth of their sinister fellowship4 ,once they hear a man swear1 it is wonderful how their tongues loosen and their bashful spirits take enlargement1 under the consciousness of brotherhood4 ,there is no folly1 no pardoning warmth of temper about them2 they are as steady-going and systematic in their own way as the studious in theirs4 ,not that we are without merry men4 ,no4 ,we shall not be ungrateful to those1 whose grimaces1 whose ironical laughter1 whose active feet in the #8,college ,anthem' have beguiled so many weary hours and added a pleasant variety to the strain of close attention4 ,but even these are too evidently professional in their antics4 ,they go about cogitating puns and inventing tricks4 ,it is their vocation1 ,hal4 ,they are the gratuitous jesters of the class-room2 and1 like the clown when he leaves the stage1 their merriment too often sinks as the bell rings the hour of liberty1 and they pass forth by the ,post-,office1 grave and sedate1 and meditating fresh gambols for the morrow4 ,this is the impression left on the mind of any observing student by too many of his fellows4 ,they seem all frigid old men2 and one pauses to think how such an unnatural state of matters is produced4 ,we feel inclined to blame for it the unfortunate absence of ,university feeling which is so marked a characteristic of our ,edinburgh students4 ,academical interests are so few and far between--students1 as students1 have so little in common1 except a peevish rivalry--there is such an entire want of broad college sympathies and ordinary college friendships1 that we fancy that no ,university in the kingdom is in so poor a plight4 ,our system is full of anomalies4 ,a1 who cut ,b whilst he was a shabby student1 curries sedulously up to him and cudgels his memory for anecdotes about him when he becomes the great so-and-so4 ,let there be an end of this shy1 proud reserve on the one hand1 and this shuddering fine ladyism on the other2 and we think we shall find both ourselves and the ,college bettered4 ,let it be a sufficient reason for intercourse that two men sit together on the same benches4 ,let the great ,a be held excused for nodding to the shabby ,b in ,princes ,street1 if he can say1 #8,that fellow is a student4' ,once this could be brought about1 we think you would find the whole heart of the ,university beat faster4 ,we think you would find a fusion among the students1 a growth of common feelings1 an increasing sympathy between class and class1 whose influence 7in such a heterogeneous company as ours7 might be of incalculable value in all branches of politics and social progress4 ,it would do more than this4 ,if we could find some method of making the ,university a real mother to her sons--something beyond a building of class-rooms1 a ,senatus and a lottery of somewhat shabby prizes--we should strike a death-blow at the constrained and unnatural attitude of our ,society4 ,at present we are not a united body1 but a loose gathering of individuals1 whose inherent attraction is allowed to condense them into little knots and coteries4 ,our last snowball riot read us a plain lesson on our condition4 ,there was no party spirit--no unity of interests4 ,a few1 who were mischievously inclined1 marched off to the ,college of ,surgeons in a pretentious file2 but even before they reached their destination the feeble inspiration had died out in many1 and their numbers were sadly thinned4 ,some followed strange gods in the direction of ,drummond ,street1 and others slunk back to meek good-boyism at the feet of the ,professors4 ,the same is visible in better things4 ,as you send a man to an ,english ,university that he may have his prejudices rubbed off1 you might send him to ,edinburgh that he may have them ingrained--rendered indelible--fostered by sympathy into living principles of his spirit4 ,and the reason of it is quite plain4 ,from this absence of ,university feeling it comes that a man's friendships are always the direct and immediate results of these very prejudices4 ,a common weakness is the best master of ceremonies in our quadrangle3 a mutual vice is the readiest introduction4 ,the studious associate with the studious alone--the dandies with the dandies4 ,there is nothing to force them to rub shoulders with the others2 and so they grow day by day more wedded to their own original opinions and affections4 ,they see through the same spectacles continually4 ,all broad sentiments1 all real catholic humanity expires2 and the mind gets gradually stiffened into one position--becomes so habituated to a contracted atmosphere1 that it shudders and withers under the least draught of the free air that circulates in the general field of mankind4 ,specialism in ,society then is1 we think1 one cause of our present state4 ,specialism in study is another4 ,we doubt whether this has ever been a good thing since the world began2 but we are sure it is much worse now than it was4 ,formerly1 when a man became a specialist1 it was out of affection for his subject4 ,with a somewhat grand devotion he left all the world of ,science to follow his true love2 and he contrived to find that strange pedantic interest which inspired the man who #8,settled ,hoti's business--let it be-- ,properly based ,oun-- ,gave us the doctrine of the enclitic ,de1 ,dead from the waist down4' ,nowadays it is quite different4 ,our pedantry wants even the saving clause of ,enthusiasm4 ,the election is now matter of necessity and not of choice4 ,knowledge is now too broad a field for your ,jack-of-all-,trades2 and1 from beautifully utilitarian reasons1 he makes his choice1 draws his pen through a dozen branches of study1 and behold--,john the ,specialist4 ,that this is the way to be wealthy we shall not deny2 but we hold that it is not the way to be healthy or wise4 ,the whole mind becomes narrowed and circumscribed to one #8punctual spot' of knowledge4 ,a rank unhealthy soil breeds a harvest of prejudices4 ,feeling himself above others in his one little branch--in the classification of toadstools1 or ,carthaginian history--he waxes great in his own eyes and looks down on others4 ,having all his sympathies educated in one way1 they die out in every other2 and he is apt to remain a peevish1 narrow1 and intolerant bigot4 ,dilettante is now a term of reproach2 but there is a certain form of dilettantism to which no one can object4 ,it is this that we want among our students4 ,we wish them to abandon no subject until they have seen and felt its merit--to act under a general interest in all branches of knowledge1 not a commercial eagerness to excel in one4 ,in both these directions our sympathies are constipated4 ,we are apostles of our own caste and our own subject of study1 instead of being1 as we should1 true men and loving students4 ,of course both of these could be corrected by the students themselves2 but this is nothing to the purpose3 it is more important to ask whether the ,senatus or the body of alumni could do nothing towards the growth of better feeling and wider sentiments4 ,perhaps in another paper we may say something upon this head4 ,one other word1 however1 before we have done4 ,what shall we be when we grow really old8 ,of yore1 a man was thought to lay on restrictions and acquire new deadweight of mournful experience with every year1 till he looked back on his youth as the very summer of impulse and freedom4 ,we please ourselves with thinking that it cannot be so with us4 ,we would fain hope that1 as we have begun in one way1 we may end in another2 and that when we are in fact the octogenarians that we seem at present1 there shall be no merrier men on earth4 ,it is pleasant to picture us1 sunning ourselves in ,princes ,street of a morning1 or chirping over our evening cups1 with all the merriment that we wanted in youth4 ,,chapter ,,iii--,,debating ,,societies ,a debating society is at first somewhat of a disappointment4 ,you do not often find the youthful ,demosthenes chewing his pebbles in the same room with you2 or1 even if you do1 you will probably think the performance little to be admired4 ,as a general rule1 the members speak shamefully ill4 ,the subjects of debate are heavy2 and so are the fines4 ,the ,ballot ,question--oldest of dialectic nightmares--is often found astride of a somnolent sederunt4 ,the ,greeks and ,romans1 too1 are reserved as sort of general-utility men1 to do all the dirty work of illustration2 and they fill as many functions as the famous waterfall scene at the #8,princess's1' which ,i found doing duty on one evening as a gorge in ,peru1 a haunt of ,german robbers1 and a peaceful vale in the ,scottish borders4 ,there is a sad absence of striking argument or real lively discussion4 ,indeed1 you feel a growing contempt for your fellow-members2 and it is not until you rise yourself to hawk and hesitate and sit shamefully down again1 amid eleemosynary applause1 that you begin to find your level and value others rightly4 ,even then1 even when failure has damped your critical ardour1 you will see many things to be laughed at in the deportment of your rivals4 ,most laughable1 perhaps1 are your indefatigable strivers after eloquence4 ,they are of those who #8pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope1' and who1 since they expect that #8the deficiencies of last sentence will be supplied by the next1' have been recommended by ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson to #8attend to the ,history of ,rasselas1 ,prince of ,abyssinia4' ,they are characterised by a hectic hopefulness4 ,nothing damps them4 ,they rise from the ruins of one abortive sentence1 to launch forth into another with unabated vigour4 ,they have all the manner of an orator4 ,from the tone of their voice1 you would expect a splendid period--and lo6 a string of broken-backed1 disjointed clauses1 eked out with stammerings and throat-clearings4 ,they possess the art 7learned from the pulpit7 of rounding an uneuphonious sentence by dwelling on a single syllable--of striking a balance in a top-heavy period by lengthening out a word into a melancholy quaver4 ,withal1 they never cease to hope4 ,even at last1 even when they have exhausted all their ideas1 even after the would-be peroration has finally refused to perorate1 they remain upon their feet with their mouths open1 waiting for some further inspiration1 like ,chaucer's widow's son in the dung-hole1 after #8,his throat was kit unto the nekk bone1' in vain expectation of that seed that was to be laid upon his tongue1 and give him renewed and clearer utterance4 ,these men may have something to say1 if they could only say it--indeed they generally have2 but the next class are people who1 having nothing to say1 are cursed with a facility and an unhappy command of words1 that makes them the prime nuisances of the society they affect4 ,they try to cover their absence of matter by an unwholesome vitality of delivery4 ,they look triumphantly round the room1 as if courting applause1 after a torrent of diluted truism4 ,they talk in a circle1 harping on the same dull round of argument1 and returning again and again to the same remark with the same sprightliness1 the same irritating appearance of novelty4 ,after this set1 any one is tolerable2 so we shall merely hint at a few other varieties4 ,there is your man who is pre-eminently conscientious1 whose face beams with sincerity as he opens on the negative1 and who votes on the affirmative at the end1 looking round the room with an air of chastened pride4 ,there is also the irrelevant speaker1 who rises1 emits a joke or two1 and then sits down again1 without ever attempting to tackle the subject of debate4 ,again1 we have men who ride pick-a-back on their family reputation1 or1 if their family have none1 identify themselves with some well-known statesman1 use his opinions1 and lend him their patronage on all occasions4 ,this is a dangerous plan1 and serves oftener1 ,i am afraid1 to point a difference than to adorn a speech4 ,but alas6 a striking failure may be reached without tempting ,providence by any of these ambitious tricks4 ,our own stature will be found high enough for shame4 ,the success of three simple sentences lures us into a fatal parenthesis in the fourth1 from whose shut brackets we may never disentangle the thread of our discourse4 ,a momentary flush tempts us into a quotation2 and we may be left helpless in the middle of one of ,pope's couplets1 a white film gathering before our eyes1 and our kind friends charitably trying to cover our disgrace by a feeble round of applause4 ,amis lecteurs1 this is a painful topic4 ,it is possible that we too1 we1 the #8potent1 grave1 and reverend' editor1 may have suffered these things1 and drunk as deep as any of the cup of shameful failure4 ,let us dwell no longer on so delicate a subject4 ,in spite1 however1 of these disagreeables1 ,i should recommend any student to suffer them with ,spartan courage1 as the benefits he receives should repay him an hundredfold for them all4 ,the life of the debating society is a handy antidote to the life of the classroom and quadrangle4 ,nothing could be conceived more excellent as a weapon against many of those peccant humours that we have been railing against in the jeremiad of our last #8,college ,paper'--particularly in the field of intellect4 ,it is a sad sight to see our heather-scented students1 our boys of seventeen1 coming up to ,college with determined views--rous in speculation--having gauged the vanity of philosophy or learned to shun it as the middle-man of heresy--a company of determined1 deliberate opinionists1 not to be moved by all the sleights of logic4 ,what have such men to do with study8 ,if their minds are made up irrevocably1 why burn the #8studious lamp' in search of further confirmation8 ,every set opinion ,i hear a student deliver ,i feel a certain lowering of my regard4 ,he who studies1 he who is yet employed in groping for his premises1 should keep his mind fluent and sensitive1 keen to mark flaws1 and willing to surrender untenable positions4 ,he should keep himself teachable1 or cease the expensive farce of being taught4 ,it is to further this docile spirit that we desire to press the claims of debating societies4 ,it is as a means of melting down this museum of premature petrifactions into living and impressionable soul that we insist on their utility4 ,if we could once prevail on our students to feel no shame in avowing an uncertain attitude towards any subject1 if we could teach them that it was unnecessary for every lad to have his opinionette on every topic1 we should have gone a far way towards bracing the intellectual tone of the coming race of thinkers2 and this it is which debating societies are so well fitted to perform4 ,we there meet people of every shade of opinion1 and make friends with them4 ,we are taught to rail against a man the whole session through1 and then hob-a-nob with him at the concluding entertainment4 ,we find men of talent far exceeding our own1 whose conclusions are widely different from ours2 and we are thus taught to distrust ourselves4 ,but the best means of all towards catholicity is that wholesome rule which some folk are most inclined to condemn--,i mean the law of obliged speeches4 ,your senior member commands2 and you must take the affirmative or the negative1 just as suits his best convenience4 ,this tends to the most perfect liberality4 ,it is no good hearing the arguments of an opponent1 for in good verity you rarely follow them2 and even if you do take the trouble to listen1 it is merely in a captious search for weaknesses4 ,this is proved1 ,i fear1 in every debate2 when you hear each speaker arguing out his own prepared spcialit 7he never intended speaking1 of course1 until some remarks of1 etc471 arguing out1 ,i say1 his own coached-up subject without the least attention to what has gone before1 as utterly at sea about the drift of his adversary's speech as ,panurge when he argued with ,thaumaste1 and merely linking his own prelection to the last by a few flippant criticisms4 ,now1 as the rule stands1 you are saddled with the side you disapprove1 and so you are forced1 by regard for your own fame1 to argue out1 to feel with1 to elaborate completely1 the case as it stands against yourself2 and what a fund of wisdom do you not turn up in this idle digging of the vineyard6 ,how many new difficulties take form before your eyes8 how many superannuated arguments cripple finally into limbo1 under the glance of your enforced eclecticism6 ,nor is this the only merit of ,debating ,societies4 ,they tend also to foster taste1 and to promote friendship between ,university men4 ,this last1 as we have had occasion before to say1 is the great requirement of our student life2 and it will therefore be no waste of time if we devote a paragraph to this subject in its connection with ,debating ,societies4 ,at present they partake too much of the nature of a clique4 ,friends propose friends1 and mutual friends second them1 until the society degenerates into a sort of family party4 ,you may confirm old acquaintances1 but you can rarely make new ones4 ,you find yourself in the atmosphere of your own daily intercourse4 ,now1 this is an unfortunate circumstance1 which it seems to me might readily be rectified4 ,our ,principal has shown himself so friendly towards all ,college improvements that ,i cherish the hope of seeing shortly realised a certain suggestion1 which is not a new one with me1 and which must often have been proposed and canvassed heretofore--,i mean1 a real ,university ,debating ,society1 patronised by the ,senatus1 presided over by the ,professors1 to which every one might gain ready admittance on sight of his matriculation ticket1 where it would be a favour and not a necessity to speak1 and where the obscure student might have another object for attendance besides the mere desire to save his fines3 to wit1 the chance of drawing on himself the favourable consideration of his teachers4 ,this would be merely following in the good tendency1 which has been so noticeable during all this session1 to increase and multiply student societies and clubs of every sort4 ,nor would it be a matter of much difficulty4 ,the united societies would form a nucleus3 one of the class-rooms at first1 and perhaps afterwards the great hall above the library1 might be the place of meeting4 ,there would be no want of attendance or enthusiasm1 ,i am sure2 for it is a very different thing to speak under the bushel of a private club on the one hand1 and1 on the other1 in a public place1 where a happy period or a subtle argument may do the speaker permanent service in after life4 ,such a club might end1 perhaps1 by rivalling the #8,union' at ,cambridge or the #8,union' at ,oxford4 ,,chapter ,,iv--,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,umbrellas #aea ,it is wonderful to think what a turn has been given to our whole ,society by the fact that we live under the sign of ,aquarius--that our climate is essentially wet4 ,a mere arbitrary distinction1 like the walking-swords of yore1 might have remained the symbol of foresight and respectability1 had not the raw mists and dropping showers of our island pointed the inclination of ,society to another exponent of those virtues4 ,a ribbon of the ,legion of ,honour or a string of medals may prove a person's courage2 a title may prove his birth2 a professorial chair his study and acquirement2 but it is the habitual carriage of the umbrella that is the stamp of ,respectability4 ,the umbrella has become the acknowledged index of social position4 ,robinson ,crusoe presents us with a touching instance of the hankering after them inherent in the civilised and educated mind4 ,to the superficial1 the hot suns of ,juan ,fernandez may sufficiently account for his quaint choice of a luxury2 but surely one who had borne the hard labour of a seaman under the tropics for all these years could have supported an excursion after goats or a peaceful constitutional arm in arm with the nude ,friday4 ,no1 it was not this3 the memory of a vanished respectability called for some outward manifestation1 and the result was--an umbrella4 ,a pious castaway might have rigged up a belfry and solaced his ,sunday mornings with the mimicry of church-bells2 but ,crusoe was rather a moralist than a pietist1 and his leaf-umbrella is as fine an example of the civilised mind striving to express itself under adverse circumstances as we have ever met with4 ,it is not for nothing1 either1 that the umbrella has become the very foremost badge of modern civilisation--the ,urim and ,thummim of respectability4 ,its pregnant symbolism has taken its rise in the most natural manner4 ,consider1 for a moment1 when umbrellas were first introduced into this country1 what manner of men would use them1 and what class would adhere to the useless but ornamental cane4 ,the first1 without doubt1 would be the hypochondriacal1 out of solicitude for their health1 or the frugal1 out of care for their raiment2 the second1 it is equally plain1 would include the fop1 the fool1 and the ,bobadil4 ,any one acquainted with the growth of ,society1 and knowing out of what small seeds of cause are produced great revolutions1 and wholly new conditions of intercourse1 sees from this simple thought how the carriage of an umbrella came to indicate frugality1 judicious regard for bodily welfare1 and scorn for mere outward adornment1 and1 in one word1 all those homely and solid virtues implied in the term ,,respectability4 ,not that the umbrella's costliness has nothing to do with its great influence4 ,its possession1 besides symbolising 7as we have already indicated7 the change from wild ,esau to plain ,jacob dwelling in tents1 implies a certain comfortable provision of fortune4 ,it is not every one that can expose twenty-six shillings' worth of property to so many chances of loss and theft4 ,so strongly do we feel on this point1 indeed1 that we are almost inclined to consider all who possess really well-conditioned umbrellas as worthy of the ,franchise4 ,they have a qualification standing in their lobbies2 they carry a sufficient stake in the common-weal below their arm4 ,one who bears with him an umbrella--such a complicated structure of whalebone1 of silk1 and of cane1 that it becomes a very microcosm of modern industry--is necessarily a man of peace4 ,a half-crown cane may be applied to an offender's head on a very moderate provocation2 but a six-and-twenty shilling silk is a possession too precious to be adventured in the shock of war4 ,these are but a few glances at how umbrellas 7in the general7 came to their present high estate4 ,but the true ,umbrella-,philosopher meets with far stranger applications as he goes about the streets4 ,umbrellas1 like faces1 acquire a certain sympathy with the individual who carries them3 indeed1 they are far more capable of betraying his trust2 for whereas a face is given to us so far ready made1 and all our power over it is in frowning1 and laughing1 and grimacing1 during the first three or four decades of life1 each umbrella is selected from a whole shopful1 as being most consonant to the purchaser's disposition4 ,an undoubted power of diagnosis rests with the practised ,umbrella-,philosopher4 ,o you who lisp1 and amble1 and change the fashion of your countenances--you who conceal all these1 how little do you think that you left a proof of your weakness in our umbrella-stand--that even now1 as you shake out the folds to meet the thickening snow1 we read in its ivory handle the outward and visible sign of your snobbery1 or from the exposed gingham of its cover detect1 through coat and waistcoat1 the hidden hypocrisy of the #8dickey'6 ,but alas6 even the umbrella is no certain criterion4 ,the falsity and the folly of the human race have degraded that graceful symbol to the ends of dishonesty2 and while some umbrellas1 from carelessness in selection1 are not strikingly characteristic 7for it is only in what a man loves that he displays his real nature71 others1 from certain prudential motives1 are chosen directly opposite to the person's disposition4 ,a mendacious umbrella is a sign of great moral degradation4 ,hypocrisy naturally shelters itself below a silk2 while the fast youth goes to visit his religious friends armed with the decent and reputable gingham4 ,may it not be said of the bearers of these inappropriate umbrellas that they go about the streets #8with a lie in their right hand'8 ,the kings of ,siam1 as we read1 besides having a graduated social scale of umbrellas 7which was a good thing71 prevented the great bulk of their subjects from having any at all1 which was certainly a bad thing4 ,we should be sorry to believe that this ,eastern legislator was a fool--the idea of an aristocracy of umbrellas is too philosophic to have originated in a nobody--and we have accordingly taken exceeding pains to find out the reason of this harsh restriction4 ,we think we have succeeded2 but1 while admiring the principle at which he aimed1 and while cordially recognising in the ,siamese potentate the only man before ourselves who had taken a real grasp of the umbrella1 we must be allowed to point out how unphilosophically the great man acted in this particular4 ,his object1 plainly1 was to prevent any unworthy persons from bearing the sacred symbol of domestic virtues4 ,we cannot excuse his limiting these virtues to the circle of his court4 ,we must only remember that such was the feeling of the age in which he lived4 ,liberalism had not yet raised the war-cry of the working classes4 ,but here was his mistake3 it was a needless regulation4 ,except in a very few cases of hypocrisy joined to a powerful intellect1 men1 not by nature umbrellarians1 have tried again and again to become so by art1 and yet have failed--have expended their patrimony in the purchase of umbrella after umbrella1 and yet have systematically lost them1 and have finally1 with contrite spirits and shrunken purses1 given up their vain struggle1 and relied on theft and borrowing for the remainder of their lives4 ,this is the most remarkable fact that we have had occasion to notice2 and yet we challenge the candid reader to call it in question4 ,now1 as there cannot be any moral selection in a mere dead piece of furniture--as the umbrella cannot be supposed to have an affinity for individual men equal and reciprocal to that which men certainly feel toward individual umbrellas--we took the trouble of consulting a scientific friend as to whether there was any possible physical explanation of the phenomenon4 ,he was unable to supply a plausible theory1 or even hypothesis2 but we extract from his letter the following interesting passage relative to the physical peculiarities of umbrellas3 #8,not the least important1 and by far the most curious property of the umbrella1 is the energy which it displays in affecting the atmospheric strata4 ,there is no fact in meteorology better established--indeed1 it is almost the only one on which meteorologists are agreed--than that the carriage of an umbrella produces desiccation of the air2 while if it be left at home1 aqueous vapour is largely produced1 and is soon deposited in the form of rain4 ,no theory1' my friend continues1 #8competent to explain this hygrometric law has been given 7as far as ,i am aware7 by ,herschel1 ,dove1 ,glaisher1 ,tait1 ,buchan1 or any other writer2 nor do ,i pretend to supply the defect4 ,i venture1 however1 to throw out the conjecture that it will be ultimately found to belong to the same class of natural laws as that agreeable to which a slice of toast always descends with the buttered surface downwards4' ,but it is time to draw to a close4 ,we could expatiate much longer upon this topic1 but want of space constrains us to leave unfinished these few desultory remarks--slender contributions towards a subject which has fallen sadly backward1 and which1 we grieve to say1 was better understood by the king of ,siam in #afhf than by all the philosophers of to-day4 ,if1 however1 we have awakened in any rational mind an interest in the symbolism of umbrellas--in any generous heart a more complete sympathy with the dumb companion of his daily walk--or in any grasping spirit a pure notion of respectability strong enough to make him expend his six-and-twenty shillings--we shall have deserved well of the world1 to say nothing of the many industrious persons employed in the manufacture of the article4 ,,chapter ,v--,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,nomenclature #8,how many ,csars and ,pompeys1 by mere inspirations of the names1 have been rendered worthy of them8 ,and how many are there1 who might have done exceeding well in the world1 had not their characters and spirits been totally depressed and ,nicodemus'd into nothing8'--,tristram ,shandy1 vol4 ,i4 chap xix4 ,such were the views of the late ,walter ,shandy1 ,esq41 ,turkey merchant4 ,to the best of my belief1 ,mr4 ,shandy is the first who fairly pointed out the incalculable influence of nomenclature upon the whole life--who seems first to have recognised the one child1 happy in an heroic appellation1 soaring upwards on the wings of fortune1 and the other1 like the dead sailor in his shotted hammock1 haled down by sheer weight of name into the abysses of social failure4 ,solomon possibly had his eye on some such theory when he said that #8a good name is better than precious ointment'2 and perhaps we may trace a similar spirit in the compilers of the ,english ,catechism1 and the affectionate interest with which they linger round the catechumen's name at the very threshold of their work4 ,but1 be these as they may1 ,i think no one can censure me for appending1 in pursuance of the expressed wish of his son1 the ,turkey merchant's name to his system1 and pronouncing1 without further preface1 a short epitome of the #8,shandean ,philosophy of ,nomenclature4' ,to begin1 then3 the influence of our name makes itself felt from the very cradle4 ,as a schoolboy ,i remember the pride with which ,i hailed ,robin ,hood1 ,robert ,bruce1 and ,robert le ,diable as my name-fellows2 and the feeling of sore disappointment that fell on my heart when ,i found a freebooter or a general who did not share with me a single one of my numerous prnomina4 ,look at the delight with which two children find they have the same name4 ,they are friends from that moment forth2 they have a bond of union stronger than exchange of nuts and sweetmeats4 ,this feeling1 ,i own1 wears off in later life4 ,our names lose their freshness and interest1 become trite and indifferent4 ,but this1 dear reader1 is merely one of the sad effects of those #8shades of the prison-house' which come gradually betwixt us and nature with advancing years2 it affords no weapon against the philosophy of names4 ,in after life1 although we fail to trace its working1 that name which careless godfathers lightly applied to your unconscious infancy will have been moulding your character1 and influencing with irresistible power the whole course of your earthly fortunes4 ,but the last name1 overlooked by ,mr4 ,shandy1 is no whit less important as a condition of success4 ,family names1 we must recollect1 are but inherited nicknames2 and if the sobriquet were applicable to the ancestor1 it is most likely applicable to the descendant also4 ,you would not expect to find ,mr4 ,m#8,phun acting as a mute1 or ,mr4 ,m#8,lumpha excelling as a professor of dancing4 ,therefore1 in what follows1 we shall consider names1 independent of whether they are first or last4 ,and to begin with1 look what a pull ,cromwell had over ,pym--the one name full of a resonant imperialism1 the other1 mean1 pettifogging1 and unheroic to a degree4 ,who would expect eloquence from ,pym--who would read poems by ,pym--who would bow to the opinion of ,pym8 ,he might have been a dentist1 but he should never have aspired to be a statesman4 ,i can only wonder that he succeeded as he did4 ,pym and ,habakkuk stand first upon the roll of men who have triumphed1 by sheer force of genius1 over the most unfavourable appellations4 ,but even these have suffered2 and1 had they been more fitly named1 the one might have been ,lord ,protector1 and the other have shared the laurels with ,isaiah4 ,in this matter we must not forget that all our great poets have borne great names4 ,chaucer1 ,spenser1 ,shakespeare1 ,milton1 ,pope1 ,wordsworth1 ,shelley--what a constellation of lordly words6 ,not a single common-place name among them--not a ,brown1 not a ,jones1 not a ,robinson2 they are all names that one would stop and look at on a door-plate4 ,now1 imagine if ,pepys had tried to clamber somehow into the enclosure of poetry1 what a blot would that word have made upon the list6 ,the thing was impossible4 ,in the first place a certain natural consciousness that men would have held him down to the level of his name1 would have prevented him from rising above the ,pepsine standard1 and so haply withheld him altogether from attempting verse4 ,next1 the booksellers would refuse to publish1 and the world to read them1 on the mere evidence of the fatal appellation4 ,and now1 before ,i close this section1 ,i must say one word as to punnable names1 names that stand alone1 that have a significance and life apart from him that bears them4 ,these are the bitterest of all4 ,one friend of mine goes bowed and humbled through life under the weight of this misfortune2 for it is an awful thing when a man's name is a joke1 when he cannot be mentioned without exciting merriment1 and when even the intimation of his death bids fair to carry laughter into many a home4 ,so much for people who are badly named4 ,now for people who are too well named1 who go top-heavy from the font1 who are baptized into a false position1 and find themselves beginning life eclipsed under the fame of some of the great ones of the past4 ,a man1 for instance1 called ,william ,shakespeare could never dare to write plays4 ,he is thrown into too humbling an apposition with the author of ,hamlet4 ,its own name coming after is such an anti-climax4 #8,the plays of ,william ,shakespeare'8 says the reader--#8,o no6 ,the plays of ,william ,shakespeare ,cockerill1' and he throws the book aside4 ,in wise pursuance of such views1 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,hengler1 who not long since delighted us in this favoured town1 has never attempted to write an epic1 but has chosen a new path1 and has excelled upon the tight-rope4 ,a marked example of triumph over this is the case of ,mr4 ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,on the face of the matter1 ,i should have advised him to imitate the pleasing modesty of the last-named gentleman1 and confine his ambition to the sawdust4 ,but ,mr4 ,rossetti has triumphed4 ,he has even dared to translate from his mighty name-father2 and the voice of fame supports him in his boldness4 ,dear readers1 one might write a year upon this matter4 ,a lifetime of comparison and research could scarce suffice for its elucidation4 ,so here1 if it please you1 we shall let it rest4 ,slight as these notes have been1 ,i would that the great founder of the system had been alive to see them4 ,how he had warmed and brightened1 how his persuasive eloquence would have fallen on the ears of ,toby2 and what a letter of praise and sympathy would not the editor have received before the month was out6 ,alas1 the thing was not to be4 ,walter ,shandy died and was duly buried1 while yet his theory lay forgotten and neglected by his fellow-countrymen4 ,but1 reader1 the day will come1 ,i hope1 when a paternal government will stamp out1 as seeds of national weakness1 all depressing patronymics1 and when godfathers and godmothers will soberly and earnestly debate the interest of the nameless one1 and not rush blindfold to the christening4 ,in these days there shall be written a #8,godfather's ,assistant1' in shape of a dictionary of names1 with their concomitant virtues and vices2 and this book shall be scattered broadcast through the land1 and shall be on the table of every one eligible for godfathership1 until such a thing as a vicious or untoward appellation shall have ceased from off the face of the earth4 ,,criticisms ,,chapter ,i--,,lord ,,lytton',s #8,,fables ,,in ,,song' ,it seems as if ,lord ,lytton1 in this new book of his1 had found the form most natural to his talent4 ,in some ways1 indeed1 it may be held inferior to ,chronicles and ,characters2 we look in vain for anything like the terrible intensity of the night-scene in ,irene1 or for any such passages of massive and memorable writing as appeared1 here and there1 in the earlier work1 and made it not altogether unworthy of its model1 ,hugo's ,legend of the ,ages4 ,but it becomes evident1 on the most hasty retrospect1 that this earlier work was a step on the way towards the later4 ,it seems as if the author had been feeling about for his definite medium1 and was already1 in the language of the child's game1 growing hot4 ,there are many pieces in ,chronicles and ,characters that might be detached from their original setting1 and embodied1 as they stand1 among the ,fables in ,song4 ,for the term ,fable is not very easy to define rigorously4 ,in the most typical form some moral precept is set forth by means of a conception purely fantastic1 and usually somewhat trivial into the bargain2 there is something playful about it1 that will not support a very exacting criticism1 and the lesson must be apprehended by the fancy at half a hint4 ,such is the great mass of the old stories of wise animals or foolish men that have amused our childhood4 ,but we should expect the fable1 in company with other and more important literary forms1 to be more and more loosely1 or at least largely1 comprehended as time went on1 and so to degenerate in conception from this original type4 ,that depended for much of its piquancy on the very fact that it was fantastic3 the point of the thing lay in a sort of humorous inappropriateness2 and it is natural enough that pleasantry of this description should become less common1 as men learn to suspect some serious analogy underneath4 ,thus a comical story of an ape touches us quite differently after the proposition of ,mr4 ,darwin's theory4 ,moreover1 there lay1 perhaps1 at the bottom of this primitive sort of fable1 a humanity1 a tenderness of rough truths2 so that at the end of some story1 in which vice or folly had met with its destined punishment1 the fabulist might be able to assure his auditors1 as we have often to assure tearful children on the like occasions1 that they may dry their eyes1 for none of it was true4 ,but this benefit of fiction becomes lost with more sophisticated hearers and authors3 a man is no longer the dupe of his own artifice1 and cannot deal playfully with truths that are a matter of bitter concern to him in his life4 ,and hence1 in the progressive centralisation of modern thought1 we should expect the old form of fable to fall gradually into desuetude1 and be gradually succeeded by another1 which is a fable in all points except that it is not altogether fabulous4 ,and this new form1 such as we should expect1 and such as we do indeed find1 still presents the essential character of brevity2 as in any other fable also1 there is1 underlying and animating the brief action1 a moral idea2 and as in any other fable1 the object is to bring this home to the reader through the intellect rather than through the feelings2 so that1 without being very deeply moved or interested by the characters of the piece1 we should recognise vividly the hinges on which the little plot revolves4 ,but the fabulist now seeks analogies where before he merely sought humorous situations4 ,there will be now a logical nexus between the moral expressed and the machinery employed to express it4 ,the machinery1 in fact1 as this change is developed1 becomes less and less fabulous4 ,we find ourselves in presence of quite a serious1 if quite a miniature division of creative literature2 and sometimes we have the lesson embodied in a sober1 everyday narration1 as in the parables of the ,new ,testament1 and sometimes merely the statement or1 at most1 the collocation of significant facts in life1 the reader being left to resolve for himself the vague1 troublesome1 and not yet definitely moral sentiment which has been thus created4 ,and step by step with the development of this change1 yet another is developed3 the moral tends to become more indeterminate and large4 ,it ceases to be possible to append it1 in a tag1 to the bottom of the piece1 as one might write the name below a caricature2 and the fable begins to take rank with all other forms of creative literature1 as something too ambitious1 in spite of its miniature dimensions1 to be resumed in any succinct formula without the loss of all that is deepest and most suggestive in it4 ,now it is in this widest sense that ,lord ,lytton understands the term2 there are examples in his two pleasant volumes of all the forms already mentioned1 and even of another which can only be admitted among fables by the utmost possible leniency of construction4 #8,composure1' #8,et ,ctera1' and several more1 are merely similes poetically elaborated4 ,so1 too1 is the pathetic story of the grandfather and grandchild3 the child1 having treasured away an icicle and forgotten it for ten minutes1 comes back to find it already nearly melted1 and no longer beautiful3 at the same time1 the grandfather has just remembered and taken out a bundle of love-letters1 which he too had stored away in years gone by1 and then long neglected2 and1 behold6 the letters are as faded and sorrowfully disappointing as the icicle4 ,this is merely a simile poetically worked out2 and yet it is in such as these1 and some others1 to be mentioned further on1 that the author seems at his best4 ,wherever he has really written after the old model1 there is something to be deprecated3 in spite of all the spirit and freshness1 in spite of his happy assumption of that cheerful acceptation of things as they are1 which1 rightly or wrongly1 we come to attribute to the ideal fabulist1 there is ever a sense as of something a little out of place4 ,a form of literature so very innocent and primitive looks a little over-written in ,lord ,lytton's conscious and highly-coloured style4 ,it may be bad taste1 but sometimes we should prefer a few sentences of plain prose narration1 and a little ,bewick by way of tail-piece4 ,so that it is not among those fables that conform most nearly to the old model1 but one had nearly said among those that most widely differ from it1 that we find the most satisfactory examples of the author's manner4 ,in the mere matter of ingenuity1 the metaphysical fables are the most remarkable2 such as that of the windmill who imagined that it was he who raised the wind2 or that of the grocer's balance 7#8,cogito ergo sum'7 who considered himself endowed with free-will1 reason1 and an infallible practical judgment2 until1 one fine day1 the police made a descent upon the shop1 and find the weights false and the scales unequal2 and the whole thing is broken up for old iron4 ,capital fables1 also1 in the same ironical spirit1 are #8,prometheus ,unbound1' the tale of the vainglorying of a champagne-cork1 and #8,teleology1' where a nettle justifies the ways of ,god to nettles while all goes well with it1 and1 upon a change of luck1 promptly changes its divinity4 ,in all these there is still plenty of the fabulous if you will1 although1 even here1 there may be two opinions possible2 but there is another group1 of an order of merit perhaps still higher1 where we look in vain for any such playful liberties with ,nature4 ,thus we have #8,conservation of ,force'2 where a musician1 thinking of a certain picture1 improvises in the twilight2 a poet1 hearing the music1 goes home inspired1 and writes a poem2 and then a painter1 under the influence of this poem1 paints another picture1 thus lineally descended from the first4 ,this is fiction1 but not what we have been used to call fable4 ,we miss the incredible element1 the point of audacity with which the fabulist was wont to mock at his readers4 ,and still more so is this the case with others4 #8,the ,horse and the ,fly' states one of the unanswerable problems of life in quite a realistic and straightforward way4 ,a fly startles a cab-horse1 the coach is overset2 a newly-married pair within and the driver1 a man with a wife and family1 are all killed4 ,the horse continues to gallop off in the loose traces1 and ends the tragedy by running over an only child2 and there is some little pathetic detail here introduced in the telling1 that makes the reader's indignation very white-hot against some one4 ,it remains to be seen who that some one is to be3 the fly8 ,nay1 but on closer inspection1 it appears that the fly1 actuated by maternal instinct1 was only seeking a place for her eggs3 is maternal instinct1 then1 #8sole author of these mischiefs all'8 #8,who's in the ,right8' one of the best fables in the book1 is somewhat in the same vein4 ,after a battle has been won1 a group of officers assemble inside a battery1 and debate together who should have the honour of the success2 the ,prince1 the general staff1 the cavalry1 the engineer who posted the battery in which they then stand talking1 are successively named3 the sergeant1 who pointed the guns1 sneers to himself at the mention of the engineer2 and1 close by1 the gunner1 who had applied the match1 passes away with a smile of triumph1 since it was through his hand that the victorious blow had been dealt4 ,meanwhile1 the cannon claims the honour over the gunner2 the cannon-ball1 who actually goes forth on the dread mission1 claims it over the cannon1 who remains idly behind2 the powder reminds the cannon-ball that1 but for him1 it would still be lying on the arsenal floor2 and the match caps the discussion2 powder1 cannon-ball1 and cannon would be all equally vain and ineffectual without fire4 ,just then there comes on a shower of rain1 which wets the powder and puts out the match1 and completes this lesson of dependence1 by indicating the negative conditions which are as necessary for any effect1 in their absence1 as is the presence of this great fraternity of positive conditions1 not any one of which can claim priority over any other4 ,but the fable does not end here1 as perhaps1 in all logical strictness1 it should4 ,it wanders off into a discussion as to which is the truer greatness1 that of the vanquished fire or that of the victorious rain4 ,and the speech of the rain is charming3 #8,lo1 with my little drops ,i bless again ,and beautify the fields which thou didst blast6 ,rend1 wither1 waste1 and ruin1 what thou wilt1 ,but call not ,greatness what the ,gods call ,guilt4 ,blossoms and grass from blood in battle spilt1 ,and poppied corn1 ,i bring4 #8,mid mouldering ,babels1 to oblivion built1 ,my violets spring4 ,little by little my small drops have strength ,to deck with green delights the grateful earth4' ,and so forth1 not quite germane 7it seems to me7 to the matter in hand1 but welcome for its own sake4 ,best of all are the fables that deal more immediately with the emotions4 ,there is1 for instance1 that of #8,the ,two ,travellers1' which is profoundly moving in conception1 although by no means as well written as some others4 ,in this1 one of the two1 fearfully frost-bitten1 saves his life out of the snow at the cost of all that was comely in his body2 just as1 long before1 the other1 who has now quietly resigned himself to death1 had violently freed himself from ,love at the cost of all that was finest and fairest in his character4 ,very graceful and sweet is the fable 7if so it should be called7 in which the author sings the praises of that #8kindly perspective1' which lets a wheat-stalk near the eye cover twenty leagues of distant country1 and makes the humble circle about a man's hearth more to him than all the possibilities of the external world4 ,the companion fable to this is also excellent4 ,it tells us of a man who had1 all his life through1 entertained a passion for certain blue hills on the far horizon1 and had promised himself to travel thither ere he died1 and become familiar with these distant friends4 ,at last1 in some political trouble1 he is banished to the very place of his dreams4 ,he arrives there overnight1 and1 when he rises and goes forth in the morning1 there sure enough are the blue hills1 only now they have changed places with him1 and smile across to him1 distant as ever1 from the old home whence he has come4 ,such a story might have been very cynically treated2 but it is not so done1 the whole tone is kindly and consolatory1 and the disenchanted man submissively takes the lesson1 and understands that things far away are to be loved for their own sake1 and that the unattainable is not truly unattainable1 when we can make the beauty of it our own4 ,indeed1 throughout all these two volumes1 though there is much practical scepticism1 and much irony on abstract questions1 this kindly and consolatory spirit is never absent4 ,there is much that is cheerful and1 after a sedate1 fireside fashion1 hopeful4 ,no one will be discouraged by reading the book2 but the ground of all this hopefulness and cheerfulness remains to the end somewhat vague4 ,it does not seem to arise from any practical belief in the future either of the individual or the race1 but rather from the profound personal contentment of the writer4 ,this is1 ,i suppose1 all we must look for in the case4 ,it is as much as we can expect1 if the fabulist shall prove a shrewd and cheerful fellow-wayfarer1 one with whom the world does not seem to have gone much amiss1 but who has yet laughingly learned something of its evil4 ,it will depend much1 of course1 upon our own character and circumstances1 whether the encounter will be agreeable and bracing to the spirits1 or offend us as an ill-timed mockery4 ,but where1 as here1 there is a little tincture of bitterness along with the good-nature1 where it is plainly not the humour of a man cheerfully ignorant1 but of one who looks on1 tolerant and superior and smilingly attentive1 upon the good and bad of our existence1 it will go hardly if we do not catch some reflection of the same spirit to help us on our way4 ,there is here no impertinent and lying proclamation of peace--none of the cheap optimism of the well-to-do2 what we find here is a view of life that would be even grievous1 were it not enlivened with this abiding cheerfulness1 and ever and anon redeemed by a stroke of pathos4 ,it is natural enough1 ,i suppose1 that we should find wanting in this book some of the intenser qualities of the author's work2 and their absence is made up for by much happy description after a quieter fashion4 ,the burst of jubilation over the departure of the snow1 which forms the prelude to #8,the ,thistle1' is full of spirit and of pleasant images4 ,the speech of the forest in #8,sans ,souci' is inspired by a beautiful sentiment for nature of the modern sort1 and pleases us more1 ,i think1 as poetry should please us1 than anything in ,chronicles and ,characters4 ,there are some admirable felicities of expression here and there2 as that of the hill1 whose summit #8,did print ,the azure air with pines4' ,moreover1 ,i do not recollect in the author's former work any symptom of that sympathetic treatment of still life1 which is noticeable now and again in the fables2 and perhaps most noticeably1 when he sketches the burned letters as they hover along the gusty flue1 #8,thin1 sable veils1 wherein a restless spark ,yet trembled4' ,but the description is at its best when the subjects are unpleasant1 or even grisly4 ,there are a few capital lines in this key on the last spasm of the battle before alluded to4 ,surely nothing could be better1 in its own way1 than the fish in #8,the ,last ,cruise of the ,arrogant1' #8the shadowy1 side-faced1 silent things1' that come butting and staring with lidless eyes at the sunken steam-engine4 ,and although1 in yet another1 we are told1 pleasantly enough1 how the water went down into the valleys1 where it set itself gaily to saw wood1 and on into the plains1 where it would soberly carry grain to town2 yet the real strength of the fable is when it dealt with the shut pool in which certain unfortunate raindrops are imprisoned among slugs and snails1 and in the company of an old toad4 ,the sodden contentment of the fallen acorn is strangely significant2 and it is astonishing how unpleasantly we are startled by the appearance of her horrible lover1 the maggot4 ,and now for a last word1 about the style4 ,this is not easy to criticise4 ,it is impossible to deny to it rapidity1 spirit1 and a full sound2 the lines are never lame1 and the sense is carried forward with an uninterrupted1 impetuous rush4 ,but it is not equal4 ,after passages of really admirable versification1 the author falls back upon a sort of loose1 cavalry manner1 not unlike the style of some of ,mr4 ,browning's minor pieces1 and almost inseparable from wordiness1 and an easy acceptation of somewhat cheap finish4 ,there is nothing here of that compression which is the note of a really sovereign style4 ,it is unfair1 perhaps1 to set a not remarkable passage from ,lord ,lytton side by side with one of the signal masterpieces of another1 and a very perfect poet2 and yet it is interesting1 when we see how the portraiture of a dog1 detailed through thirty odd lines1 is frittered down and finally almost lost in the mere laxity of the style1 to compare it with the clear1 simple1 vigorous delineation that ,burns1 in four couplets1 has given us of the ploughman's collie4 ,it is interesting1 at first1 and then it becomes a little irritating2 for when we think of other passages so much more finished and adroit1 we cannot help feeling1 that with a little more ardour after perfection of form1 criticism would have found nothing left for her to censure4 ,a similar mark of precipitate work is the number of adjectives tumultuously heaped together1 sometimes to help out the sense1 and sometimes 7as one cannot but suspect7 to help out the sound of the verses4 ,i do not believe1 for instance1 that ,lord ,lytton himself would defend the lines in which we are told how ,laocon #8,revealed to ,roman crowds1 now ,christian grown1 ,that ,pagan anguish which1 in ,parian stone1 ,the ,rhodian artist1' and so on4 ,it is not only that this is bad in itself2 but that it is unworthy of the company in which it is found2 that such verses should not have appeared with the name of a good versifier like ,lord ,lytton4 ,we must take exception1 also1 in conclusion1 to the excess of alliteration4 ,alliteration is so liable to be abused that we can scarcely be too sparing of it2 and yet it is a trick that seems to grow upon the author with years4 ,it is a pity to see fine verses1 such as some in #8,demos1' absolutely spoiled by the recurrence of one wearisome consonant4 ,,chapter ,,ii--,,salvini',s ,,macbeth ,salvini closed his short visit to ,edinburgh by a performance of ,macbeth4 ,it was1 perhaps1 from a sentiment of local colour that he chose to play the ,scottish usurper for the first time before ,scotsmen2 and the audience were not insensible of the privilege4 ,few things1 indeed1 can move a stronger interest than to see a great creation taking shape for the first time4 ,if it is not purely artistic1 the sentiment is surely human4 ,and the thought that you are before all the world1 and have the start of so many others as eager as yourself1 at least keeps you in a more unbearable suspense before the curtain rises1 if it does not enhance the delight with which you follow the performance and see the actor #8bend up each corporal agent' to realise a masterpiece of a few hours' duration4 ,with a player so variable as ,salvini1 who trusts to the feelings of the moment for so much detail1 and who1 night after night1 does the same thing differently but always well1 it can never be safe to pass judgment after a single hearing4 ,and this is more particularly true of last week's ,macbeth2 for the whole third act was marred by a grievously humorous misadventure4 ,several minutes too soon the ghost of ,banquo joined the party1 and after having sat helpless a while at a table1 was ignominiously withdrawn4 ,twice was this ghostly ,jack-in-the-box obtruded on the stage before his time2 twice removed again2 and yet he showed so little hurry when he was really wanted1 that1 after an awkward pause1 ,macbeth had to begin his apostrophe to empty air4 ,the arrival of the belated spectre in the middle1 with a jerk that made him nod all over1 was the last accident in the chapter1 and worthily topped the whole4 ,it may be imagined how lamely matters went throughout these cross purposes4 ,in spite of this1 and some other hitches1 ,salvini's ,macbeth had an emphatic success4 ,the creation is worthy of a place beside the same artist's ,othello and ,hamlet4 ,it is the simplest and most unsympathetic of the three2 but the absence of the finer lineaments of ,hamlet is redeemed by gusto1 breadth1 and a headlong unity4 ,salvini sees nothing great in ,macbeth beyond the royalty of muscle1 and that courage which comes of strong and copious circulation4 ,the moral smallness of the man is insisted on from the first1 in the shudder of uncontrollable jealousy with which he sees ,duncan embracing ,banquo4 ,he may have some northern poetry of speech1 but he has not much logical understanding4 ,in his dealings with the supernatural powers he is like a savage with his fetich1 trusting them beyond bounds while all goes well1 and whenever he is crossed1 casting his belief aside and calling #8fate into the list4' ,for his wife1 he is little more than an agent1 a frame of bone and sinew for her fiery spirit to command4 ,the nature of his feeling towards her is rendered with a most precise and delicate touch4 ,he always yields to the woman's fascination2 and yet his caresses 7and we know how much meaning ,salvini can give to a caress7 are singularly hard and unloving4 ,sometimes he lays his hand on her as he might take hold of any one who happened to be nearest to him at a moment of excitement4 ,love has fallen out of this marriage by the way1 and left a curious friendship4 ,only once--at the very moment when she is showing herself so little a woman and so much a high-spirited man--only once is he very deeply stirred towards her2 and that finds expression in the strange and horrible transport of admiration1 doubly strange and horrible on ,salvini's lips--#8,bring forth men-children only6' ,the murder scene1 as was to be expected1 pleased the audience best4 ,macbeth's voice1 in the talk with his wife1 was a thing not to be forgotten2 and when he spoke of his hangman's hands he seemed to have blood in his utterance4 ,never for a moment1 even in the very article of the murder1 does he possess his own soul4 ,he is a man on wires4 ,from first to last it is an exhibition of hideous cowardice4 ,for1 after all1 it is not here1 but in broad daylight1 with the exhilaration of conflict1 where he can assure himself at every blow he has the longest sword and the heaviest hand1 that this man's physical bravery can keep him up2 he is an unwieldy ship1 and needs plenty of way on before he will steer4 ,in the banquet scene1 while the first murderer gives account of what he has done1 there comes a flash of truculent joy at the #8twenty trenchd gashes' on ,banquo's head4 ,thus ,macbeth makes welcome to his imagination those very details of physical horror which are so soon to turn sour in him4 ,as he runs out to embrace these cruel circumstances1 as he seeks to realise to his mind's eye the reassuring spectacle of his dead enemy1 he is dressing out the phantom to terrify himself2 and his imagination1 playing the part of justice1 is to #8commend to his own lips the ingredients of his poisoned chalice4' ,with the recollection of ,hamlet and his father's spirit still fresh upon him1 and the holy awe with which that good man encountered things not dreamt of in his philosophy1 it was not possible to avoid looking for resemblances between the two apparitions and the two men haunted4 ,but there are none to be found4 ,macbeth has a purely physical dislike for ,banquo's spirit and the #8twenty trenchd gashes4' ,he is afraid of he knows not what4 ,he is abject1 and again blustering4 ,in the end he so far forgets himself1 his terror1 and the nature of what is before him1 that he rushes upon it as he would upon a man4 ,when his wife tells him he needs repose1 there is something really childish in the way he looks about the room1 and1 seeing nothing1 with an expression of almost sensual relief1 plucks up heart enough to go to bed4 ,and what is the upshot of the visitation8 ,it is written in ,shakespeare1 but should be read with the commentary of ,salvini's voice and expression3--#8,o6 siam nell' opra ancor fanciulli'--#8,we are yet but young in deed4' ,circle below circle4 ,he is looking with horrible satisfaction into the mouth of hell4 ,there may still be a prick to-day2 but to-morrow conscience will be dead1 and he may move untroubled in this element of blood4 ,in the fifth act we see this lowest circle reached2 and it is ,salvini's finest moment throughout the play4 ,from the first he was admirably made up1 and looked ,macbeth to the full as perfectly as ever he looked ,othello4 ,from the first moment he steps upon the stage you can see this character is a creation to the fullest meaning of the phrase2 for the man before you is a type you know well already4 ,he arrives with ,banquo on the heath1 fair and red-bearded1 sparing of gesture1 full of pride and the sense of animal wellbeing1 and satisfied after the battle like a beast who has eaten his fill4 ,but in the fifth act there is a change4 ,this is still the big1 burly1 fleshly1 handsome-looking ,thane2 here is still the same face which in the earlier acts could be superficially good-humoured and sometimes royally courteous4 ,but now the atmosphere of blood1 which pervades the whole tragedy1 has entered into the man and subdued him to its own nature2 and an indescribable degradation1 a slackness and puffiness1 has overtaken his features4 ,he has breathed the air of carnage1 and supped full of horrors4 ,lady ,macbeth complains of the smell of blood on her hand3 ,macbeth makes no complaint--he has ceased to notice it now2 but the same smell is in his nostrils4 ,a contained fury and disgust possesses him4 ,he taunts the messenger and the doctor as people would taunt their mortal enemies4 ,and1 indeed1 as he knows right well1 every one is his enemy now1 except his wife4 ,about her he questions the doctor with something like a last human anxiety2 and1 in tones of grisly mystery1 asks him if he can #8minister to a mind diseased4' ,when the news of her death is brought him1 he is staggered and falls into a seat2 but somehow it is not anything we can call grief that he displays4 ,there had been two of them against ,god and man2 and now1 when there is only one1 it makes perhaps less difference than he had expected4 ,and so her death is not only an affliction1 but one more disillusion2 and he redoubles in bitterness4 ,the speech that follows1 given with tragic cynicism in every word1 is a dirge1 not so much for her as for himself4 ,from that time forth there is nothing human left in him1 only #8the fiend of ,scotland1' ,macduff's #8hell-hound1' whom1 with a stern glee1 we see baited like a bear and hunted down like a wolf4 ,he is inspired and set above fate by a demoniacal energy1 a lust of wounds and slaughter4 ,even after he meets ,macduff his courage does not fail2 but when he hears the ,thane was not born of woman1 all virtue goes out of him2 and though he speaks sounding words of defiance1 the last combat is little better than a suicide4 ,the whole performance is1 as ,i said1 so full of gusto and a headlong unity2 the personality of ,macbeth is so sharp and powerful2 and within these somewhat narrow limits there is so much play and saliency that1 so far as concerns ,salvini himself1 a third great success seems indubitable4 ,unfortunately1 however1 a great actor cannot fill more than a very small fraction of the boards2 and though ,banquo's ghost will probably be more seasonable in his future apparitions1 there are some more inherent difficulties in the piece4 ,the company at large did not distinguish themselves4 ,macduff1 to the huge delight of the gallery1 out-,macduff'd the average ranter4 ,the lady who filled the principal female part has done better on other occasions1 but ,i fear she has not metal for what she tried last week4 ,not to succeed in the sleep-walking scene is to make a memorable failure4 ,as it was given1 it succeeded in being wrong in art without being true to nature4 ,and there is yet another difficulty1 happily easy to reform1 which somewhat interfered with the success of the performance4 ,at the end of the incantation scene the ,italian translator has made ,macbeth fall insensible upon the stage4 ,this is a change of questionable propriety from a psychological point of view2 while in point of view of effect it leaves the stage for some moments empty of all business4 ,to remedy this1 a bevy of green ballet-girls came forth and pointed their toes about the prostrate king4 ,a dance of ,high ,church curates1 or a hornpipe by ,mr4 ,t4 ,p4 ,cooke1 would not be more out of the key2 though the gravity of a ,scots audience was not to be overcome1 and they merely expressed their disapprobation by a round of moderate hisses1 a similar irruption of ,christmas fairies would most likely convulse a ,london theatre from pit to gallery with inextinguishable laughter4 ,it is1 ,i am told1 the ,italian tradition2 but it is one more honoured in the breach than the observance4 ,with the total disappearance of these damsels1 with a stronger ,lady ,macbeth1 and1 if possible1 with some compression of those scenes in which ,salvini does not appear1 and the spectator is left at the mercy of ,macduffs and ,duncans1 the play would go twice as well1 and we should be better able to follow and enjoy an admirable work of dramatic art4 ,,chapter ,,iii--,,bagster',s #8,,pilgrim',s ,,progress' ,i have here before me an edition of the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 bound in green1 without a date1 and described as #8illustrated by nearly three hundred engravings1 and memoir of ,bunyan4' ,on the outside it is lettered #8,bagster's ,illustrated ,edition1' and after the author's apology1 facing the first page of the tale1 a folding pictorial #8,plan of the ,road' is marked as #8drawn by the late ,mr4 ,t4 ,conder1' and engraved by ,j4 ,basire4 ,no further information is anywhere vouchsafed2 perhaps the publishers had judged the work too unimportant2 and we are still left ignorant whether or not we owe the woodcuts in the body of the volume to the same hand that drew the plan4 ,it seems1 however1 more than probable4 ,the literal particularity of mind which1 in the map1 laid down the flower-plots in the devil's garden1 and carefully introduced the court-house in the town of ,vanity1 is closely paralleled in many of the cuts2 and in both1 the architecture of the buildings and the disposition of the gardens have a kindred and entirely ,english air4 ,whoever he was1 the author of these wonderful little pictures may lay claim to be the best illustrator of ,bunyan4 #ahc ,they are not only good illustrations1 like so many others2 but they are like so few1 good illustrations of ,bunyan4 ,their spirit1 in defect and quality1 is still the same as his own4 ,the designer also has lain down and dreamed a dream1 as literal1 as quaint1 and almost as apposite as ,bunyan's2 and text and pictures make but the two sides of the same homespun yet impassioned story4 ,to do justice to the designs1 it will be necessary to say1 for the hundredth time1 a word or two about the masterpiece which they adorn4 ,all allegories have a tendency to escape from the purpose of their creators2 and as the characters and incidents become more and more interesting in themselves1 the moral1 which these were to show forth1 falls more and more into neglect4 ,an architect may command a wreath of vine-leaves round the cornice of a monument2 but if1 as each leaf came from the chisel1 it took proper life and fluttered freely on the wall1 and if the vine grew1 and the building were hidden over with foliage and fruit1 the architect would stand in much the same situation as the writer of allegories4 ,the ,fary ,queen was an allegory1 ,i am willing to believe2 but it survives as an imaginative tale in incomparable verse4 ,the case of ,bunyan is widely different2 and yet in this also ,allegory1 poor nymph1 although never quite forgotten1 is sometimes rudely thrust against the wall4 ,bunyan was fervently in earnest2 with #8his fingers in his ears1 he ran on1' straight for his mark4 ,he tells us himself1 in the conclusion to the first part1 that he did not fear to raise a laugh2 indeed1 he feared nothing1 and said anything2 and he was greatly served in this by a certain rustic privilege of his style1 which1 like the talk of strong uneducated men1 when it does not impress by its force1 still charms by its simplicity4 ,the mere story and the allegorical design enjoyed perhaps his equal favour4 ,he believed in both with an energy of faith that was capable of moving mountains4 ,and we have to remark in him1 not the parts where inspiration fails and is supplied by cold and merely decorative invention1 but the parts where faith has grown to be credulity1 and his characters become so real to him that he forgets the end of their creation4 ,we can follow him step by step into the trap which he lays for himself by his own entire good faith and triumphant literality of vision1 till the trap closes and shuts him in an inconsistency4 ,the allegories of the ,interpreter and of the ,shepherds of the ,delectable ,mountains are all actually performed1 like stage-plays1 before the pilgrims4 ,the son of ,mr4 ,great-grace visibly #8tumbles hills about with his words4' ,adam the ,first has his condemnation written visibly on his forehead1 so that ,faithful reads it4 ,at the very instant the net closes round the pilgrims1 #8the white robe falls from the black man's body4' ,despair #8getteth him a grievous crab-tree cudgel'2 it was in #8sunshiny weather' that he had his fits2 and the birds in the grove about the ,house ,beautiful1 #8our country birds1' only sing their little pious verses #8at the spring1 when the flowers appear and the sun shines warm4' #8,i often1' says ,piety1 #8go out to hear them2 we also ofttimes keep them tame on our house4' ,the post between ,beulah and the ,celestial ,city sounds his horn1 as you may yet hear in country places4 ,madam ,bubble1 that #8tall1 comely dame1 something of a swarthy complexion1 in very pleasant attire1 but old1' #8gives you a smile at the end of each sentence'--a real woman she2 we all know her4 ,christiana dying #8gave ,mr4 ,stand-fast a ring1' for no possible reason in the allegory1 merely because the touch was human and affecting4 ,look at ,great-heart1 with his soldierly ways1 garrison ways1 as ,i had almost called them2 with his taste in weapons2 his delight in any that #8he found to be a man of his hands'2 his chivalrous point of honour1 letting ,giant ,maul get up again when he was down1 a thing fairly flying in the teeth of the moral2 above all1 with his language in the inimitable tale of ,mr4 ,fearing3 #8,i thought ,i should have lost my man'--#8chicken-hearted'--#8at last he came in1 and ,i will say that for my lord1 he carried it wonderful lovingly to him4' ,this is no ,independent minister2 this is a stout1 honest1 big-busted ancient1 adjusting his shoulder-belts1 twirling his long moustaches as he speaks4 ,last and most remarkable1 #8,my sword1' says the dying ,valiant-for-,truth1 he in whom ,great-heart delighted1 #8my sword ,i give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage1 and my courage and skill to him that can get it4' ,and after this boast1 more arrogantly unorthodox than was ever dreamed of by the rejected ,ignorance1 we are told that #8all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side4' ,in every page the book is stamped with the same energy of vision and the same energy of belief4 ,the quality is equally and indifferently displayed in the spirit of the fighting1 the tenderness of the pathos1 the startling vigour and strangeness of the incidents1 the natural strain of the conversations1 and the humanity and charm of the characters4 ,trivial talk over a meal1 the dying words of heroes1 the delights of ,beulah or the ,celestial ,city1 ,apollyon and my ,lord ,hate-good1 ,great-heart1 and ,mr4 ,worldly-,wiseman1 all have been imagined with the same clearness1 all written of with equal gusto and precision1 all created in the same mixed element1 of simplicity that is almost comical1 and art that1 for its purpose1 is faultless4 ,it was in much the same spirit that our artist sat down to his drawings4 ,he is by nature a ,bunyan of the pencil4 ,he1 too1 will draw anything1 from a butcher at work on a dead sheep1 up to the courts of ,heaven4 #8,a ,lamb for ,supper' is the name of one of his designs1 #8,their ,glorious ,entry' of another4 ,he has the same disregard for the ridiculous1 and enjoys somewhat of the same privilege of style1 so that we are pleased even when we laugh the most4 ,he is literal to the verge of folly4 ,if dust is to be raised from the unswept parlour1 you may be sure it will #8fly abundantly' in the picture4 ,if ,faithful is to lie #8as dead' before ,moses1 dead he shall lie with a warrant--dead and stiff like granite2 nay 7and here the artist must enhance upon the symbolism of the author71 it is with the identical stone tables of the law that ,moses fells the sinner4 ,good and bad people1 whom we at once distinguish in the text by their names1 ,hopeful1 ,honest1 and ,valiant-for-,truth1 on the one hand1 as against ,by-ends1 ,sir ,having ,greedy1 and the ,lord ,old-man on the other1 are in these drawings as simply distinguished by their costume4 ,good people1 when not armed cap--pie1 wear a speckled tunic girt about the waist1 and low hats1 apparently of straw4 ,bad people swagger in tail-coats and chimney-pots1 a few with knee-breeches1 but the large majority in trousers1 and for all the world like guests at a garden-party4 ,worldly-,wiseman alone1 by some inexplicable quirk1 stands before ,christian in laced hat1 embroidered waistcoat1 and trunk-hose4 ,but above all examples of this artist's intrepidity1 commend me to the print entitled #8,christian ,finds it ,deep4' #8,a great darkness and horror1' says the text1 have fallen on the pilgrim2 it is the comfortless deathbed with which ,bunyan so strikingly concludes the sorrows and conflicts of his hero4 ,how to represent this worthily the artist knew not2 and yet he was determined to represent it somehow4 ,this was how he did3 ,hopeful is still shown to his neck above the water of death2 but ,christian has bodily disappeared1 and a blot of solid blackness indicates his place4 ,as you continue to look at these pictures1 about an inch square for the most part1 sometimes printed three or more to the page1 and each having a printed legend of its own1 however trivial the event recorded1 you will soon become aware of two things3 first1 that the man can draw1 and1 second1 that he possesses the gift of an imagination4 #8,obstinate reviles1' says the legend2 and you should see ,obstinate reviling4 #8,he warily retraces his steps'2 and there is ,christian1 posting through the plain1 terror and speed in every muscle4 #8,mercy yearns to go' shows you a plain interior with packing going forward1 and1 right in the middle1 ,mercy yearning to go--every line of the girl's figure yearning4 ,in #8,the ,chamber called ,peace' we see a simple ,english room1 bed with white curtains1 window valance and door1 as may be found in many thousand unpretentious houses2 but far off1 through the open window1 we behold the sun uprising out of a great plain1 and ,christian hails it with his hand3 #8,where am ,i now6 is this the love and care ,of ,jesus1 for the men that pilgrims are6 ,thus to provide6 ,that ,i should be forgiven6 ,and dwell already the next door to heaven6' ,a page or two further1 from the top of the ,house ,beautiful1 the damsels point his gaze toward the ,delectable ,mountains3 #8,the ,prospect1' so the cut is ticketed--and ,i shall be surprised1 if on less than a square inch of paper you can show me one so wide and fair4 ,down a cross road on an ,english plain1 a cathedral city outlined on the horizon1 a hazel shaw upon the left1 comes ,madam ,wanton dancing with her fair enchanted cup1 and ,faithful1 book in hand1 half pauses4 ,the cut is perfect as a symbol2 the giddy movement of the sorceress1 the uncertain poise of the man struck to the heart by a temptation1 the contrast of that even plain of life whereon he journeys with the bold1 ideal bearing of the wanton--the artist who invented and portrayed this had not merely read ,bunyan1 he had also thoughtfully lived4 ,the ,delectable ,mountains--,i continue skimming the first part--are not on the whole happily rendered4 ,once1 and once only1 the note is struck1 when ,christian and ,hopeful are seen coming1 shoulder-high1 through a thicket of green shrubs--box1 perhaps1 or perfumed nutmeg2 while behind them1 domed or pointed1 the hills stand ranged against the sky4 ,a little further1 and we come to that masterpiece of ,bunyan's insight into life1 the ,enchanted ,ground2 where1 in a few traits1 he has set down the latter end of such a number of the would-be good2 where his allegory goes so deep that1 to people looking seriously on life1 it cuts like satire4 ,the true significance of this invention lies1 of course1 far out of the way of drawing2 only one feature1 the great tedium of the land1 the growing weariness in well-doing1 may be somewhat represented in a symbol4 ,the pilgrims are near the end3 #8,two ,miles ,yet1' says the legend4 ,the road goes ploughing up and down over a rolling heath2 the wayfarers1 with outstretched arms1 are already sunk to the knees over the brow of the nearest hill2 they have just passed a milestone with the cipher two2 from overhead a great1 piled1 summer cumulus1 as of a slumberous summer afternoon1 beshadows them3 two miles6 it might be hundreds4 ,in dealing with the ,land of ,beulah the artist lags1 in both parts1 miserably behind the text1 but in the distant prospect of the ,celestial ,city more than regains his own4 ,you will remember when ,christian and ,hopeful #8with desire fell sick4' #8,effect of the ,sunbeams' is the artist's title4 ,against the sky1 upon a cliffy mountain1 the radiant temple beams upon them over deep1 subjacent woods2 they1 behind a mound1 as if seeking shelter from the splendour--one prostrate on his face1 one kneeling1 and with hands ecstatically lifted--yearn with passion after that immortal city4 ,turn the page1 and we behold them walking by the very shores of death2 ,heaven1 from this nigher view1 has risen half-way to the zenith1 and sheds a wider glory2 and the two pilgrims1 dark against that brightness1 walk and sing out of the fulness of their hearts4 ,no cut more thoroughly illustrates at once the merit and the weakness of the artist4 ,each pilgrim sings with a book in his grasp--a family ,bible at the least for bigness2 tomes so recklessly enormous that our second1 impulse is to laughter4 ,and yet that is not the first thought1 nor perhaps the last4 ,something in the attitude of the manikins--faces they have none1 they are too small for that--something in the way they swing these monstrous volumes to their singing1 something perhaps borrowed from the text1 some subtle differentiation from the cut that went before and the cut that follows after--something1 at least1 speaks clearly of a fearful joy1 of ,heaven seen from the deathbed1 of the horror of the last passage no less than of the glorious coming home4 ,there is that in the action of one of them which always reminds me1 with a difference1 of that haunting last glimpse of ,thomas ,idle1 travelling to ,tyburn in the cart4 ,next come the ,shining ,ones1 wooden and trivial enough2 the pilgrims pass into the river2 the blot already mentioned settles over and obliterates ,christian4 ,in two more cuts we behold them drawing nearer to the other shore2 and then1 between two radiant angels1 one of whom points upward1 we see them mounting in new weeds1 their former lendings left behind them on the inky river4 ,more angels meet them2 ,heaven is displayed1 and if no better1 certainly no worse1 than it has been shown by others--a place1 at least1 infinitely populous and glorious with light--a place that haunts solemnly the hearts of children4 ,and then this symbolic draughtsman once more strikes into his proper vein4 ,three cuts conclude the first part4 ,in the first the gates close1 black against the glory struggling from within4 ,the second shows us ,ignorance--alas6 poor ,arminian6--hailing1 in a sad twilight1 the ferryman ,vain-,hope2 and in the third we behold him1 bound hand and foot1 and black already with the hue of his eternal fate1 carried high over the mountain-tops of the world by two angels of the anger of the ,lord4 #8,carried to ,another ,place1' the artist enigmatically names his plate--a terrible design4 ,wherever he touches on the black side of the supernatural his pencil grows more daring and incisive4 ,he has many true inventions in the perilous and diabolic2 he has many startling nightmares realised4 ,it is not easy to select the best2 some may like one and some another2 the nude1 depilated devil bounding and casting darts against the ,wicket ,gate2 the scroll of flying horrors that hang over ,christian by the ,mouth of ,hell2 the horned shade that comes behind him whispering blasphemies2 the daylight breaking through that rent cave-mouth of the mountains and falling chill adown the haunted tunnel2 ,christian's further progress along the causeway1 between the two black pools1 where1 at every yard or two1 a gin1 a pitfall1 or a snare awaits the passer-by--loathsome white devilkins harbouring close under the bank to work the springes1 ,christian himself pausing and pricking with his sword's point at the nearest noose1 and pale discomfortable mountains rising on the farther side2 or yet again1 the two ill-favoured ones that beset the first of ,christian's journey1 with the frog-like structure of the skull1 the frog-like limberness of limbs--crafty1 slippery1 lustful-looking devils1 drawn always in outline as though possessed of a dim1 infernal luminosity4 ,horrid fellows are they1 one and all2 horrid fellows and horrific scenes4 ,in another spirit that ,good-,conscience #8to whom ,mr4 ,honest had spoken in his lifetime1' a cowled1 grey1 awful figure1 one hand pointing to the heavenly shore1 realises1 ,i will not say all1 but some at least of the strange impressiveness of ,bunyan's words4 ,it is no easy nor pleasant thing to speak in one's lifetime with ,good-,conscience2 he is an austere1 unearthly friend1 whom maybe ,torquemada knew2 and the folds of his raiment are not merely claustral1 but have something of the horror of the pall4 ,be not afraid1 however2 with the hand of that appearance ,mr4 ,honest will get safe across4 ,yet perhaps it is in sequences that this artist best displays himself4 ,he loves to look at either side of a thing3 as1 for instance1 when he shows us both sides of the wall--#8,grace ,inextinguishable' on the one side1 with the devil vainly pouring buckets on the flame1 and #8,the ,oil of ,grace' on the other1 where the ,holy ,spirit1 vessel in hand1 still secretly supplies the fire4 ,he loves1 also1 to show us the same event twice over1 and to repeat his instantaneous photographs at the interval of but a moment4 ,so we have1 first1 the whole troop of pilgrims coming up to ,valiant1 and ,great-heart to the front1 spear in hand and parleying2 and next1 the same cross-roads1 from a more distant view1 the convoy now scattered and looking safely and curiously on1 and ,valiant handing over for inspection his #8right ,jerusalem blade4' ,it is true that this designer has no great care after consistency3 ,apollyon's spear is laid by1 his quiver of darts will disappear1 whenever they might hinder the designer's freedom2 and the fiend's tail is blobbed or forked at his good pleasure4 ,but this is not unsuitable to the illustration of the fervent ,bunyan1 breathing hurry and momentary inspiration4 ,he1 with his hot purpose1 hunting sinners with a lasso1 shall himself forget the things that he has written yesterday4 ,he shall first slay ,heedless in the ,valley of the ,shadow1 and then take leave of him talking in his sleep1 as if nothing had happened1 in an arbour on the ,enchanted ,ground4 ,and again1 in his rhymed prologue1 he shall assign some of the glory of the siege of ,doubting ,castle to his favourite ,valiant-for-the-,truth1 who did not meet with the besiegers till long after1 at that dangerous corner by ,deadman's ,lane4 ,and1 with all inconsistencies and freedoms1 there is a power shown in these sequences of cuts3 a power of joining on one action or one humour to another2 a power of following out the moods1 even of the dismal subterhuman fiends engendered by the artist's fancy2 a power of sustained continuous realisation1 step by step1 in nature's order1 that can tell a story1 in all its ins and outs1 its pauses and surprises1 fully and figuratively1 like the art of words4 ,one such sequence is the fight of ,christian and ,apollyon--six cuts1 weird and fiery1 like the text4 ,the pilgrim is throughout a pale and stockish figure2 but the devil covers a multitude of defects4 ,there is no better devil of the conventional order than our artist's ,apollyon1 with his mane1 his wings1 his bestial legs1 his changing and terrifying expression1 his infernal energy to slay4 ,in cut the first you see him afar off1 still obscure in form1 but already formidable in suggestion4 ,cut the second1 #8,the ,fiend in ,discourse1' represents him1 not reasoning1 railing rather1 shaking his spear at the pilgrim1 his shoulder advanced1 his tail writhing in the air1 his foot ready for a spring1 while ,christian stands back a little1 timidly defensive4 ,the third illustrates these magnificent words3 #8,then ,apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way1 and said1 ,i am void of fear in this matter3 prepare thyself to die2 for ,i swear by my infernal den that thou shalt go no farther3 here will ,i spill thy soul6 ,and with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast4' ,in the cut he throws a dart with either hand1 belching pointed flames out of his mouth1 spreading his broad vans1 and straddling the while across the path1 as only a fiend can straddle who has just sworn by his infernal den4 ,the defence will not be long against such vice1 such flames1 such red-hot nether energy4 ,and in the fourth cut1 to be sure1 he has leaped bodily upon his victim1 sped by foot and pinion1 and roaring as he leaps4 ,the fifth shows the climacteric of the battle2 ,christian has reached nimbly out and got his sword1 and dealt that deadly home-thrust1 the fiend still stretched upon him1 but #8giving back1 as one that had received his mortal wound4' ,the raised head1 the bellowing mouth1 the paw clapped upon the sword1 the one wing relaxed in agony1 all realise vividly these words of the text4 ,in the sixth and last1 the trivial armed figure of the pilgrim is seen kneeling with clasped hands on the betrodden scene of contest and among the shivers of the darts2 while just at the margin the hinder quarters and the tail of ,apollyon are whisking off1 indignant and discounted4 ,in one point only do these pictures seem to be unworthy of the text1 and that point is one rather of the difference of arts than the difference of artists4 ,throughout his best and worst1 in his highest and most divine imaginations as in the narrowest sallies of his sectarianism1 the human-hearted piety of ,bunyan touches and ennobles1 convinces1 accuses the reader4 ,through no art beside the art of words can the kindness of a man's affections be expressed4 ,in the cuts you shall find faithfully parodied the quaintness and the power1 the triviality and the surprising freshness of the author's fancy2 there you shall find him out-stripped in ready symbolism and the art of bringing things essentially invisible before the eyes3 but to feel the contact of essential goodness1 to be made in love with piety1 the book must be read and not the prints examined4 ,farewell should not be taken with a grudge2 nor can ,i dismiss in any other words than those of gratitude a series of pictures which have1 to one at least1 been the visible embodiment of ,bunyan from childhood up1 and shown him1 through all his years1 ,great-heart lungeing at ,giant ,maul1 and ,apollyon breathing fire at ,christian1 and every turn and town along the road to the ,celestial ,city1 and that bright place itself1 seen as to a stave of music1 shining afar off upon the hill-top1 the candle of the world4 ,,sketches ,i4 ,,the ,,satirist ,my companion enjoyed a cheap reputation for wit and insight4 ,he was by habit and repute a satirist4 ,if he did occasionally condemn anything or anybody who richly deserved it1 and whose demerits had hitherto escaped1 it was simply because he condemned everything and everybody4 ,while ,i was with him he disposed of ,st4 ,paul with an epigram1 shook my reverence for ,shakespeare in a neat antithesis1 and fell foul of the ,almighty ,himself1 on the score of one or two out of the ten commandments4 ,nothing escaped his blighting censure4 ,at every sentence he overthrew an idol1 or lowered my estimation of a friend4 ,i saw everything with new eyes1 and could only marvel at my former blindness4 ,how was it possible that ,i had not before observed ,a's false hair1 ,b's selfishness1 or ,c's boorish manners8 ,i and my companion1 methought1 walked the streets like a couple of gods among a swarm of vermin2 for every one we saw seemed to bear openly upon his brow the mark of the apocalyptic beast4 ,i half expected that these miserable beings1 like the people of ,lystra1 would recognise their betters and force us to the altar2 in which case1 warned by the late of ,paul and ,barnabas1 ,i do not know that my modesty would have prevailed upon me to decline4 ,but there was no need for such churlish virtue4 ,more blinded than the ,lycaonians1 the people saw no divinity in our gait2 and as our temporary godhead lay more in the way of observing than healing their infirmities1 we were content to pass them by in scorn4 ,i could not leave my companion1 not from regard or even from interest1 but from a very natural feeling1 inseparable from the case4 ,to understand it1 let us take a simile4 ,suppose yourself walking down the street with a man who continues to sprinkle the crowd out of a flask of vitriol4 ,you would be much diverted with the grimaces and contortions of his victims2 and at the same time you would fear to leave his arm until his bottle was empty1 knowing that1 when once among the crowd1 you would run a good chance yourself of baptism with his biting liquor4 ,now my companion's vitriol was inexhaustible4 ,it was perhaps the consciousness of this1 the knowledge that ,i was being anointed already out of the vials of his wrath1 that made me fall to criticising the critic1 whenever we had parted4 ,after all1 ,i thought1 our satirist has just gone far enough into his neighbours to find that the outside is false1 without caring to go farther and discover what is really true4 ,he is content to find that things are not what they seem1 and broadly generalises from it that they do not exist at all4 ,he sees our virtues are not what they pretend they are2 and1 on the strength of that1 he denies us the possession of virtue altogether4 ,he has learnt the first lesson1 that no man is wholly good2 but he has not even suspected that there is another equally true1 to wit1 that no man is wholly bad4 ,like the inmate of a coloured star1 he has eyes for one colour alone4 ,he has a keen scent after evil1 but his nostrils are plugged against all good1 as people plugged their nostrils before going about the streets of the plague-struck city4 ,why does he do this8 ,it is most unreasonable to flee the knowledge of good like the infection of a horrible disease1 and batten and grow fat in the real atmosphere of a lazar-house4 ,this was my first thought2 but my second was not like unto it1 and ,i saw that our satirist was wise1 wise in his generation1 like the unjust steward4 ,he does not want light1 because the darkness is more pleasant4 ,he does not wish to see the good1 because he is happier without it4 ,i recollect that when ,i walked with him1 ,i was in a state of divine exaltation1 such as ,adam and ,eve must have enjoyed when the savour of the fruit was still unfaded between their lips2 and ,i recognise that this must be the man's habitual state4 ,he has the forbidden fruit in his waist-coat pocket1 and can make himself a god as often and as long as he likes4 ,he has raised himself upon a glorious pedestal above his fellows2 he has touched the summit of ambition2 and he envies neither ,king nor ,kaiser1 ,prophet nor ,priest1 content in an elevation as high as theirs1 and much more easily attained4 ,yes1 certes1 much more easily attained4 ,he has not risen by climbing himself1 but by pushing others down4 ,he has grown great in his own estimation1 not by blowing himself out1 and risking the fate of sop's frog1 but simply by the habitual use of a diminishing glass on everybody else4 ,and ,i think altogether that his is a better1 a safer1 and a surer recipe than most others4 ,after all1 however1 looking back on what ,i have written1 ,i detect a spirit suspiciously like his own4 ,all through1 ,i have been comparing myself with our satirist1 and all through1 ,i have had the best of the comparison4 ,well1 well1 contagion is as often mental as physical2 and ,i do not think my readers1 who have all been under his lash1 will blame me very much for giving the headsman a mouthful of his own sawdust4 ,,ii4 ,,nuits ,,blanches ,if any one should know the pleasure and pain of a sleepless night1 it should be ,i4 ,i remember1 so long ago1 the sickly child that woke from his few hours' slumber with the sweat of a nightmare on his brow1 to lie awake and listen and long for the first signs of life among the silent streets4 ,these nights of pain and weariness are graven on my mind2 and so when the same thing happened to me again1 everything that ,i heard or saw was rather a recollection than a discovery4 ,weighed upon by the opaque and almost sensible darkness1 ,i listened eagerly for anything to break the sepulchral quiet4 ,but nothing came1 save1 perhaps1 an emphatic crack from the old cabinet that was made by ,deacon ,brodie1 or the dry rustle of the coals on the extinguished fire4 ,it was a calm2 or ,i know that ,i should have heard in the roar and clatter of the storm1 as ,i have not heard it for so many years1 the wild career of a horseman1 always scouring up from the distance and passing swiftly below the window2 yet always returning again from the place whence first he came1 as though1 baffled by some higher power1 he had retraced his steps to gain impetus for another and another attempt4 ,as ,i lay there1 there arose out of the utter stillness the rumbling of a carriage a very great way off1 that drew near1 and passed within a few streets of the house1 and died away as gradually as it had arisen4 ,this1 too1 was as a reminiscence4 ,i rose and lifted a corner of the blind4 ,over the black belt of the garden ,i saw the long line of ,queen ,street1 with here and there a lighted window4 ,how often before had my nurse lifted me out of bed and pointed them out to me1 while we wondered together if1 there also1 there were children that could not sleep1 and if these lighted oblongs were signs of those that waited like us for the morning4 ,i went out into the lobby1 and looked down into the great deep well of the staircase4 ,for what cause ,i know not1 just as it used to be in the old days that the feverish child might be the better served1 a peep of gas illuminated a narrow circle far below me4 ,but where ,i was1 all was darkness and silence1 save the dry monotonous ticking of the clock that came ceaselessly up to my ear4 ,the final crown of it all1 however1 the last touch of reproduction on the pictures of my memory1 was the arrival of that time for which1 all night through1 ,i waited and longed of old4 ,it was my custom1 as the hours dragged on1 to repeat the question1 #8,when will the carts come in8' and repeat it again and again until at last those sounds arose in the street that ,i have heard once more this morning4 ,the road before our house is a great thoroughfare for early carts4 ,i know not1 and ,i never have known1 what they carry1 whence they come1 or whither they go4 ,but ,i know that1 long ere dawn1 and for hours together1 they stream continuously past1 with the same rolling and jerking of wheels and the same clink of horses' feet4 ,it was not for nothing that they made the burthen of my wishes all night through4 ,they are really the first throbbings of life1 the harbingers of day2 and it pleases you as much to hear them as it must please a shipwrecked seaman once again to grasp a hand of flesh and blood after years of miserable solitude4 ,they have the freshness of the daylight life about them4 ,you can hear the carters cracking their whips and crying hoarsely to their horses or to one another2 and sometimes even a peal of healthy1 harsh horse-laughter comes up to you through the darkness4 ,there is now an end of mystery and fear4 ,like the knocking at the door in ,macbeth1 #bje or the cry of the watchman in the ,tour de ,nesle1 they show that the horrible csura is over and the nightmares have fled away1 because the day is breaking and the ordinary life of men is beginning to bestir itself among the streets4 ,in the middle of it all ,i fell asleep1 to be wakened by the officious knocking at my door1 and ,i find myself twelve years older than ,i had dreamed myself all night4 ,,iii4 ,,the ,,wreath ,,of ,,immortelles ,it is all very well to talk of death as #8a pleasant potion of immortality'1 but the most of us1 ,i suspect1 are of #8queasy stomachs1' and find it none of the sweetest4 #bjf;a ,the graveyard may be cloak-room to ,heaven2 but we must admit that it is a very ugly and offensive vestibule in itself1 however fair may be the life to which it leads4 ,and though ,enoch and ,elias went into the temple through a gate which certainly may be called ,beautiful1 the rest of us have to find our way to it through ,ezekiel's low-bowed door and the vault full of creeping things and all manner of abominable beasts4 ,nevertheless1 there is a certain frame of mind to which a cemetery is1 if not an antidote1 at least an alleviation4 ,if you are in a fit of the blues1 go nowhere else4 ,it was in obedience to this wise regulation that the other morning found me lighting my pipe at the entrance to ,old ,greyfriars'1 thoroughly sick of the town1 the country1 and myself4 ,two of the men were talking at the gate1 one of them carrying a spade in hands still crusted with the soil of graves4 ,their very aspect was delightful to me2 and ,i crept nearer to them1 thinking to pick up some snatch of sexton gossip1 some #8talk fit for a charnel1' #bjf;b something1 in fine1 worthy of that fastidious logician1 that adept in coroner's law1 who has come down to us as the patron of ,yaughan's liquor1 and the very prince of gravediggers4 ,scots people in general are so much wrapped up in their profession that ,i had a good chance of overhearing such conversation3 the talk of fish-mongers running usually on stockfish and haddocks2 while of the ,scots sexton ,i could repeat stories and speeches that positively smell of the graveyard4 ,but on this occasion ,i was doomed to disappointment4 ,my two friends were far into the region of generalities4 ,their profession was forgotten in their electorship4 ,politics had engulfed the narrower economy of grave-digging4 #8,na1 na1' said the one1 #8ye're a' wrang4' #8,the ,english and ,irish ,churches1' answered the other1 in a tone as if he had made the remark before1 and it had been called in question--#8,the ,english and ,irish ,churches have impoverished the country4' #8,such are the results of education1' thought ,i as ,i passed beside them and came fairly among the tombs4 ,here1 at least1 there were no commonplace politics1 no diluted this-morning's leader1 to distract or offend me4 ,the old shabby church showed1 as usual1 its quaint extent of roofage and the relievo skeleton on one gable1 still blackened with the fire of thirty years ago4 ,a chill dank mist lay over all4 ,the ,old ,greyfriars' churchyard was in perfection that morning1 and one could go round and reckon up the associations with no fear of vulgar interruption4 ,on this stone the ,covenant was signed4 ,in that vault1 as the story goes1 ,john ,knox took hiding in some ,reformation broil4 ,from that window ,burke the murderer looked out many a time across the tombs1 and perhaps o' nights let himself down over the sill to rob some new-made grave4 ,certainly he would have a selection here4 ,the very walks have been carried over forgotten resting-places2 and the whole ground is uneven1 because 7as ,i was once quaintly told7 #8when the wood rots it stands to reason the soil should fall in1' which1 from the law of gravitation1 is certainly beyond denial4 ,but it is round the boundary that there are the finest tombs4 ,the whole irregular space is1 as it were1 fringed with quaint old monuments1 rich in death's-heads and scythes and hour-glasses1 and doubly rich in pious epitaphs and ,latin mottoes--rich in them to such an extent that their proper space has run over1 and they have crawled end-long up the shafts of columns and ensconced themselves in all sorts of odd corners among the sculpture4 ,these tombs raise their backs against the rabble of squalid dwelling-houses1 and every here and there a clothes-pole projects between two monuments its fluttering trophy of white and yellow and red4 ,with a grim irony they recall the banners in the ,invalides1 banners as appropriate perhaps over the sepulchres of tailors and weavers as these others above the dust of armies4 ,why they put things out to dry on that particular morning it was hard to imagine4 ,the grass was grey with drops of rain1 the headstones black with moisture4 ,yet1 in despite of weather and common sense1 there they hung between the tombs2 and beyond them ,i could see through open windows into miserable rooms where whole families were born and fed1 and slept and died4 ,at one a girl sat singing merrily with her back to the graveyard2 and from another came the shrill tones of a scolding woman4 ,every here and there was a town garden full of sickly flowers1 or a pile of crockery inside upon the window-seat4 ,but you do not grasp the full connection between these houses of the dead and the living1 the unnatural marriage of stately sepulchres and squalid houses1 till1 lower down1 where the road has sunk far below the surface of the cemetery1 and the very roofs are scarcely on a level with its wall1 you observe that a proprietor has taken advantage of a tall monument and trained a chimney-stack against its back4 ,it startles you to see the red1 modern pots peering over the shoulder of the tomb4 ,a man was at work on a grave1 his spade clinking away the drift of bones that permeates the thin brown soil2 but my first disappointment had taught me to expect little from ,greyfriars' sextons1 and ,i passed him by in silence4 ,a slater on the slope of a neighbouring roof eyed me curiously4 ,a lean black cat1 looking as if it had battened on strange meats1 slipped past me4 ,a little boy at a window put his finger to his nose in so offensive a manner that ,i was put upon my dignity1 and turned grandly off to read old epitaphs and peer through the gratings into the shadow of vaults4 ,just then ,i saw two women coming down a path1 one of them old1 and the other younger1 with a child in her arms4 ,both had faces eaten with famine and hardened with sin1 and both had reached that stage of degradation1 much lower in a woman than a man1 when all care for dress is lost4 ,as they came down they neared a grave1 where some pious friend or relative had laid a wreath of immortelles1 and put a bell glass over it1 as is the custom4 ,the effect of that ring of dull yellow among so many blackened and dusty sculptures was more pleasant than it is in modern cemeteries1 where every second mound can boast a similar coronal2 and here1 where it was the exception and not the rule1 ,i could even fancy the drops of moisture that dimmed the covering were the tears of those who laid it where it was4 ,as the two women came up to it1 one of them kneeled down on the wet grass and looked long and silently through the clouded shade1 while the second stood above her1 gently oscillating to and fro to lull the muling baby4 ,i was struck a great way off with something religious in the attitude of these two unkempt and haggard women2 and ,i drew near faster1 but still cautiously1 to hear what they were saying4 ,surely on them the spirit of death and decay had descended2 ,i had no education to dread here3 should ,i not have a chance of seeing nature8 ,alas6 a pawnbroker could not have been more practical and commonplace1 for this was what the kneeling woman said to the woman upright--this and nothing more3 #8,eh1 what extravagance6' ,o nineteenth century1 wonderful art thou indeed--wonderful1 but wearisome in thy stale and deadly uniformity4 ,thy men are more like numerals than men4 ,they must bear their idiosyncrasies or their professions written on a placard about their neck1 like the scenery in ,shakespeare's theatre4 ,thy precepts of economy have pierced into the lowest ranks of life2 and there is now a decorum in vice1 a respectability among the disreputable1 a pure spirit of ,philistinism among the waifs and strays of thy ,bohemia4 ,for lo6 thy very gravediggers talk politics2 and thy castaways kneel upon new graves1 to discuss the cost of the monument and grumble at the improvidence of love4 ,such was the elegant apostrophe that ,i made as ,i went out of the gates again1 happily satisfied in myself1 and feeling that ,i alone of all whom ,i had seen was able to profit by the silent poem of these green mounds and blackened headstones4 ,,iv4 ,,nurses ,i knew one once1 and the room where1 lonely and old1 she waited for death4 ,it was pleasant enough1 high up above the lane1 and looking forth upon a hill-side1 covered all day with sheets and yellow blankets1 and with long lines of underclothing fluttering between the battered posts4 ,there were any number of cheap prints1 and a drawing by one of #8her children1' and there were flowers in the window1 and a sickly canary withered into consumption in an ornamental cage4 ,the bed1 with its checked coverlid1 was in a closet4 ,a great ,bible lay on the table2 and her drawers were full of #8scones1' which it was her pleasure to give to young visitors such as ,i was then4 ,you may not think this a melancholy picture2 but the canary1 and the cat1 and the white mouse that she had for a while1 and that died1 were all indications of the want that ate into her heart4 ,i think ,i know a little of what that old woman felt2 and ,i am as sure as if ,i had seen her1 that she sat many an hour in silent tears1 with the big ,bible open before her clouded eyes4 ,if you could look back upon her life1 and feel the great chain that had linked her to one child after another1 sometimes to be wrenched suddenly through1 and sometimes1 which is infinitely worse1 to be torn gradually off through years of growing neglect1 or perhaps growing dislike6 ,she had1 like the mother1 overcome that natural repugnance--repugnance which no man can conquer--towards the infirm and helpless mass of putty of the earlier stage4 ,she had spent her best and happiest years in tending1 watching1 and learning to love like a mother this child1 with which she has no connection and to which she has no tie4 ,perhaps she refused some sweetheart 7such things have been71 or put him off and off1 until he lost heart and turned to some one else1 all for fear of leaving this creature that had wound itself about her heart4 ,and the end of it all--her month's warning1 and a present perhaps1 and the rest of the life to vain regret4 ,or1 worse still1 to see the child gradually forgetting and forsaking her1 fostered in disrespect and neglect on the plea of growing manliness1 and at last beginning to treat her as a servant whom he had treated a few years before as a mother4 ,she sees the ,bible or the ,psalm-book1 which with gladness and love unutterable in her heart she had bought for him years ago out of her slender savings1 neglected for some newer gift of his father1 lying in dust in the lumber-room or given away to a poor child1 and the act applauded for its unfeeling charity4 ,little wonder if she becomes hurt and angry1 and attempts to tyrannise and to grasp her old power back again4 ,we are not all patient ,grizzels1 by good fortune1 but the most of us human beings with feelings and tempers of our own4 ,and so1 in the end1 behold her in the room that ,i described4 ,very likely and very naturally1 in some fling of feverish misery or recoil of thwarted love1 she has quarrelled with her old employers and the children are forbidden to see her or to speak to her2 or at best she gets her rent paid and a little to herself1 and now and then her late charges are sent up 7with another nurse1 perhaps7 to pay her a short visit4 ,how bright these visits seem as she looks forward to them on her lonely bed6 ,how unsatisfactory their realisation1 when the forgetful child1 half wondering1 checks with every word and action the outpouring of her maternal love6 ,how bitter and restless the memories that they leave behind6 ,and for the rest1 what else has she8--to watch them with eager eyes as they go to school1 to sit in church where she can see them every ,sunday1 to be passed some day unnoticed in the street1 or deliberately cut because the great man or the great woman are with friends before whom they are ashamed to recognise the old woman that loved them4 ,when she goes home that night1 how lonely will the room appear to her6 ,perhaps the neighbours may hear her sobbing to herself in the dark1 with the fire burnt out for want of fuel1 and the candle still unlit upon the table4 ,and it is for this that they live1 these quasi-mothers--mothers in everything but the travail and the thanks4 ,it is for this that they have remained virtuous in youth1 living the dull life of a household servant4 ,it is for this that they refused the old sweetheart1 and have no fireside or offspring of their own4 ,i believe in a better state of things1 that there will be no more nurses1 and that every mother will nurse her own offspring2 for what can be more hardening and demoralising than to call forth the tenderest feelings of a woman's heart and cherish them yourself as long as you need them1 as long as your children require a nurse to love them1 and then to blight and thwart and destroy them1 whenever your own use for them is at an end4 ,this may be ,utopian2 but it is always a little thing if one mother or two mothers can be brought to feel more tenderly to those who share their toil and have no part in their reward4 ,v4 ,a ,,character ,the man has a red1 bloated face1 and his figure is short and squat4 ,so far there is nothing in him to notice1 but when you see his eyes1 you can read in these hard and shallow orbs a depravity beyond measure depraved1 a thirst after wickedness1 the pure1 disinterested love of ,hell for its own sake4 ,the other night1 in the street1 ,i was watching an omnibus passing with lit-up windows1 when ,i heard some one coughing at my side as though he would cough his soul out2 and turning round1 ,i saw him stopping under a lamp1 with a brown greatcoat buttoned round him and his whole face convulsed4 ,it seemed as if he could not live long2 and so the sight set my mind upon a train of thought1 as ,i finished my cigar up and down the lighted streets4 ,he is old1 but all these years have not yet quenched his thirst for evil1 and his eyes still delight themselves in wickedness4 ,he is dumb2 but he will not let that hinder his foul trade1 or perhaps ,i should say1 his yet fouler amusement1 and he has pressed a slate into the service of corruption4 ,look at him1 and he will sign to you with his bloated head1 and when you go to him in answer to the sign1 thinking perhaps that the poor dumb man has lost his way1 you will see what he writes upon his slate4 ,he haunts the doors of schools1 and shows such inscriptions as these to the innocent children that come out4 ,he hangs about picture-galleries1 and makes the noblest pictures the text for some silent homily of vice4 ,his industry is a lesson to ourselves4 ,is it not wonderful how he can triumph over his infirmities and do such an amount of harm without a tongue8 ,wonderful industry--strange1 fruitless1 pleasureless toil8 ,must not the very devil feel a soft emotion to see his disinterested and laborious service8 ,ah1 but the devil knows better than this3 he knows that this man is penetrated with the love of evil and that all his pleasure is shut up in wickedness3 he recognises him1 perhaps1 as a fit type for mankind of his satanic self1 and watches over his effigy as we might watch over a favourite likeness4 ,as the business man comes to love the toil1 which he only looked upon at first as a ladder towards other desires and less unnatural gratifications1 so the dumb man has felt the charm of his trade and fallen captivated before the eyes of sin4 ,it is a mistake when preachers tell us that vice is hideous and loathsome2 for even vice has her ,hrsel and her devotees1 who love her for her own sake4 ,,the ,,great ,,north ,,road ,,chapter ,i--,,nance ,,at ,,the #8,,green ,,dragon' ,nance ,holdaway was on her knees before the fire blowing the green wood that voluminously smoked upon the dogs1 and only now and then shot forth a smothered flame2 her knees already ached and her eyes smarted1 for she had been some while at this ungrateful task1 but her mind was gone far away to meet the coming stranger4 ,now she met him in the wood1 now at the castle gate1 now in the kitchen by candle-light2 each fresh presentment eclipsed the one before2 a form so elegant1 manners so sedate1 a countenance so brave and comely1 a voice so winning and resolute--sure such a man was never seen6 ,the thick-coming fancies poured and brightened in her head like the smoke and flames upon the hearth4 ,presently the heavy foot of her uncle ,jonathan was heard upon the stair1 and as he entered the room she bent the closer to her work4 ,he glanced at the green fagots with a sneer1 and looked askance at the bed and the white sheets1 at the strip of carpet laid1 like an island1 on the great expanse of the stone floor1 and at the broken glazing of the casement clumsily repaired with paper4 #8,leave that fire a-be1' he cried4 #8,what1 have ,i toiled all my life to turn innkeeper at the hind end8 ,leave it a-be1 ,i say4' #8,la1 uncle1 it doesn't burn a bit2 it only smokes1' said ,nance1 looking up from her position4 #8,you are come of decent people on both sides1' returned the old man4 #8,who are you to blow the coals for any ,robin-run-agate8 ,get up1 get on your hood1 make yourself useful1 and be off to the 8,green ,dragon40' #8,i thought you was to go yourself1' ,nance faltered4 #8,so did ,i1' quoth ,jonathan2 #8but it appears ,i was mistook4' ,the very excess of her eagerness alarmed her1 and she began to hang back4 #8,i think ,i would rather not1 dear uncle1' she said4 #8,night is at hand1 and ,i think1 dear1 ,i would rather not4' #8,now you look here1' replied ,jonathan1 #8,i have my lord's orders1 have ,i not8 ,little he gives me1 but it's all my livelihood4 ,and do you fancy1 if ,i disobey my lord1 ,i'm likely to turn round for a lass like you8 ,no1 ,i've that hell-fire of pain in my old knee1 ,i wouldn't walk a mile1 not for ,king ,george upon his bended knees4' ,and he walked to the window and looked down the steep scarp to where the river foamed in the bottom of the dell4 ,nance stayed for no more bidding4 ,in her own room1 by the glimmer of the twilight1 she washed her hands and pulled on her ,sunday mittens2 adjusted her black hood1 and tied a dozen times its cherry ribbons2 and in less than ten minutes1 with a fluttering heart and excellently bright eyes1 she passed forth under the arch and over the bridge1 into the thickening shadows of the groves4 ,a well-marked wheel-track conducted her4 ,the wood1 which upon both sides of the river dell was a mere scrambling thicket of hazel1 hawthorn1 and holly1 boasted on the level of more considerable timber4 ,beeches came to a good growth1 with here and there an oak2 and the track now passed under a high arcade of branches1 and now ran under the open sky in glades4 ,as the girl proceeded these glades became more frequent1 the trees began again to decline in size1 and the wood to degenerate into furzy coverts4 ,last of all there was a fringe of elders2 and beyond that the track came forth upon an open1 rolling moorland1 dotted with wind-bowed and scanty bushes1 and all golden brown with the winter1 like a grouse4 ,right over against the girl the last red embers of the sunset burned under horizontal clouds2 the night fell clear and still and frosty1 and the track in low and marshy passages began to crackle under foot with ice4 ,some half a mile beyond the borders of the wood the lights of the #8,green ,dragon' hove in sight1 and running close beside them1 very faint in the dying dusk1 the pale ribbon of the ,great ,north ,road4 ,it was the back of the post-house that was presented to ,nance ,holdaway2 and as she continued to draw near and the night to fall more completely1 she became aware of an unusual brightness and bustle4 ,a post-chaise stood in the yard1 its lamps already lighted3 light shone hospitably in the windows and from the open door2 moving lights and shadows testified to the activity of servants bearing lanterns4 ,the clank of pails1 the stamping of hoofs on the firm causeway1 the jingle of harness1 and1 last of all1 the energetic hissing of a groom1 began to fall upon her ear4 ,by the stir you would have thought the mail was at the door1 but it was still too early in the night4 ,the down mail was not due at the #8,green ,dragon' for hard upon an hour2 the up mail from ,scotland not before two in the black morning4 ,nance entered the yard somewhat dazzled4 ,sam1 the tall ostler1 was polishing a curb-chain wit sand2 the lantern at his feet letting up spouts of candle-light through the holes with which its conical roof was peppered4 #8,hey1 miss1' said he jocularly1 #8you won't look at me any more1 now you have gentry at the castle4' ,her cheeks burned with anger4 #8,that's my lord's chay1' the man continued1 nodding at the chaise1 #8,lord ,windermoor's4 ,came all in a fluster--dinner1 bowl of punch1 and put the horses to4 ,for all the world like a runaway match1 my dear--bar the bride4 ,he brought ,mr4 ,archer in the chay with him4' #8,is that ,holdaway8' cried the landlord from the lighted entry1 where he stood shading his eyes4 #8,only me1 sir1' answered ,nance4 #8,o1 you1 ,miss ,nance1' he said4 #8,well1 come in quick1 my pretty4 ,my lord is waiting for your uncle4' ,and he ushered ,nance into a room cased with yellow wainscot and lighted by tall candles1 where two gentlemen sat at a table finishing a bowl of punch4 ,one of these was stout1 elderly1 and irascible1 with a face like a full moon1 well dyed with liquor1 thick tremulous lips1 a short1 purple hand1 in which he brandished a long pipe1 and an abrupt and gobbling utterance4 ,this was my ,lord ,windermoor4 ,in his companion ,nance beheld a younger man1 tall1 quiet1 grave1 demurely dressed1 and wearing his own hair4 ,her glance but lighted on him1 and she flushed1 for in that second she made sure that she had twice betrayed herself--betrayed by the involuntary flash of her black eyes her secret impatience to behold this new companion1 and1 what was far worse1 betrayed her disappointment in the realisation of her dreams4 ,he1 meanwhile1 as if unconscious1 continued to regard her with unmoved decorum4 #8,o1 a man of wood1' thought ,nance4 #8,what--what8' said his lordship4 #8,who is this8' #8,if you please1 my lord1 ,i am ,holdaway's niece1' replied ,nance1 with a curtsey4 #8,should have been here himself1' observed his lordship4 #8,well1 you tell ,holdaway that ,i'm aground1 not a stiver--not a stiver4 ,i'm running from the beagles--going abroad1 tell ,holdaway4 ,and he need look for no more wages3 glad of 'em myself1 if ,i could get 'em4 ,he can live in the castle if he likes1 or go to the devil4 ,o1 and here is ,mr4 ,archer2 and ,i recommend him to take him in--a friend of mine--and ,mr4 ,archer will pay1 as ,i wrote4 ,and ,i regard that in the light of a precious good thing for ,holdaway1 let me tell you1 and a set-off against the wages4' #8,but ,o1 my lord6' cried ,nance1 #8we live upon the wages1 and what are we to do without8' #8,what am ,i to do8--what am ,i to do8' replied ,lord ,windermoor with some exasperation4 #8,i have no wages4 ,and there is ,mr4 ,archer4 ,and if ,holdaway doesn't like it1 he can go to the devil1 and you with him6--and you with him6' #8,and yet1 my lord1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8these good people will have as keen a sense of loss as you or ,i2 keener1 perhaps1 since they have done nothing to deserve it4' #8,deserve it8' cried the peer4 #8,what8 ,what8 ,if a rascally highwayman comes up to me with a confounded pistol1 do you say that ,i've deserved it8 ,how often am ,i to tell you1 sir1 that ,i was cheated--that ,i was cheated8' #8,you are happy in the belief1' returned ,mr4 ,archer gravely4 #8,archer1 you would be the death of me6' exclaimed his lordship4 #8,you know you're drunk2 you know it1 sir2 and yet you can't get up a spark of animation4' #8,i have drunk fair1 my lord1' replied the younger man2 #8but ,i own ,i am conscious of no exhilaration4' #8,if you had as black a look-out as me1 sir1' cried the peer1 #8you would be very glad of a little innocent exhilaration1 let me tell you4 ,i am glad of it--glad of it1 and ,i only wish ,i was drunker4 ,for let me tell you it's a cruel hard thing upon a man of my time of life and my position1 to be brought down to beggary because the world is full of thieves and rascals--thieves and rascals4 ,what8 ,for all ,i know1 you may be a thief and a rascal yourself2 and ,i would fight you for a pinch of snuff--a pinch of snuff1' exclaimed his lordship4 ,here ,mr4 ,archer turned to ,nance ,holdaway with a pleasant smile1 so full of sweetness1 kindness1 and composure that1 at one bound1 her dreams returned to her4 #8,my good ,miss ,holdaway1' said he1 #8if you are willing to show me the road1 ,i am even eager to be gone4 ,as for his lordship and myself1 compose yourself2 there is no fear2 this is his lordship's way4' #8,what8 what8' cried his lordship4 #8,my way8 ,ish no such a thing1 my way4' #8,come1 my lord1' cried ,archer2 #8you and ,i very thoroughly understand each other2 and let me suggest1 it is time that both of us were gone4 ,the mail will soon be due4 ,here1 then1 my lord1 ,i take my leave of you1 with the most earnest assurance of my gratitude for the past1 and a sincere offer of any services ,i may be able to render in the future4' #8,archer1' exclaimed ,lord ,windermoor1 #8,i love you like a son4 ,le' 's have another bowl4' #8,my lord1 for both our sakes1 you will excuse me1' replied ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,we both require caution2 we must both1 for some while at least1 avoid the chance of a pursuit4' #8,archer1' quoth his lordship1 #8this is a rank ingratishood4 ,what8 ,i'm to go firing away in the dark in the cold po'chaise1 and not so much as a game of cart possible1 unless ,i stop and play with the postillion1 the postillion2 and the whole country swarming with thieves and rascals and highwaymen4' #8,i beg your lordship's pardon1' put in the landlord1 who now appeared in the doorway to announce the chaise1 #8but this part of the ,north ,road is known for safety4 ,there has not been a robbery1 to call a robbery1 this five years' time4 ,further south1 of course1 it's nearer ,london1 and another story1' he added4 #8,well1 then1 if that's so1' concluded my lord1 #8le' 's have t'other bowl and a pack of cards4' #8,my lord1 you forget1' said ,archer1 #8,i might still gain2 but it is hardly possible for me to lose4' #8,think ,i'm a sharper8' inquired the peer4 #8,gen'leman's parole's all ,i ask4' ,but ,mr4 ,archer was proof against these blandishments1 and said farewell gravely enough to ,lord ,windermoor1 shaking his hand and at the same time bowing very low4 #8,you will never know1' says he1 #8the service you have done me4' ,and with that1 and before my lord had finally taken up his meaning1 he had slipped about the table1 touched ,nance lightly but imperiously on the arm1 and left the room4 ,in face of the outbreak of his lordship's lamentations she made haste to follow the truant4 ,,chapter ,,ii--,,in ,,which ,,mr4 ,,archer ,,is ,,installed ,the chaise had been driven round to the front door2 the courtyard lay all deserted1 and only lit by a lantern set upon a window-sill4 ,through this ,nance rapidly led the way1 and began to ascend the swellings of the moor with a heart that somewhat fluttered in her bosom4 ,she was not afraid1 but in the course of these last passages with ,lord ,windermoor ,mr4 ,archer had ascended to that pedestal on which her fancy waited to instal him4 ,the reality1 she felt1 excelled her dreams1 and this cold night walk was the first romantic incident in her experience4 ,it was the rule in these days to see gentlemen unsteady after dinner1 yet ,nance was both surprised and amused when her companion1 who had spoken so soberly1 began to stumble and waver by her side with the most airy divagations4 ,sometimes he would get so close to her that she must edge away2 and at others lurch clear out of the track and plough among deep heather4 ,his courtesy and gravity meanwhile remained unaltered4 ,he asked her how far they had to go2 whether the way lay all upon the moorland1 and when he learned they had to pass a wood expressed his pleasure4 #8,for1' said he1 #8,i am passionately fond of trees4 ,trees and fair lawns1 if you consider of it rightly1 are the ornaments of nature1 as palaces and fine approaches--' ,and here he stumbled into a patch of slough and nearly fell4 ,the girl had hard work not to laugh1 but at heart she was lost in admiration for one who talked so elegantly4 ,they had got to about a quarter of a mile from the #8,green ,dragon1' and were near the summit of the rise1 when a sudden rush of wheels arrested them4 ,turning and looking back1 they saw the post-house1 now much declined in brightness2 and speeding away northward the two tremulous bright dots of my ,lord ,windermoor's chaise-lamps4 ,mr4 ,archer followed these yellow and unsteady stars until they dwindled into points and disappeared4 #8,there goes my only friend1' he said4 #8,death has cut off those that loved me1 and change of fortune estranged my flatterers2 and but for you1 poor bankrupt1 my life is as lonely as this moor4' ,the tone of his voice affected both of them4 ,they stood there on the side of the moor1 and became thrillingly conscious of the void waste of the night1 without a feature for the eye1 and except for the fainting whisper of the carriage-wheels without a murmur for the ear4 ,and instantly1 like a mockery1 there broke out1 very far away1 but clear and jolly1 the note of the mail-guard's horn4 #8,over the hills' was his air4 ,it rose to the two watchers on the moor with the most cheerful sentiment of human company and travel1 and at the same time in and around the #8,green ,dragon' it woke up a great bustle of lights running to and fro and clattering hoofs4 ,presently after1 out of the darkness to southward1 the mail grew near with a growing rumble4 ,its lamps were very large and bright1 and threw their radiance forward in overlapping cones2 the four cantering horses swarmed and steamed2 the body of the coach followed like a great shadow2 and this lit picture slid with a sort of ineffectual swiftness over the black field of night1 and was eclipsed by the buildings of the #8,green ,dragon4' ,mr4 ,archer turned abruptly and resumed his former walk2 only that he was now more steady1 kept better alongside his young conductor1 and had fallen into a silence broken by sighs4 ,nance waxed very pitiful over his fate1 contrasting an imaginary past of courts and great society1 and perhaps the ,king himself1 with the tumbledown ruin in a wood to which she was now conducting him4 #8,you must try1 sir1 to keep your spirits up1' said she4 #8,to be sure this is a great change for one like you2 but who knows the future8' ,mr4 ,archer turned towards her in the darkness1 and she could clearly perceive that he smiled upon her very kindly4 #8,there spoke a sweet nature1' said he1 #8and ,i must thank you for these words4 ,but ,i would not have you fancy that ,i regret the past for any happiness found in it1 or that ,i fear the simplicity and hardship of the country4 ,i am a man that has been much tossed about in life2 now up1 now down2 and do you think that ,i shall not be able to support what you support--you who are kind1 and therefore know how to feel pain2 who are beautiful1 and therefore hope2 who are young1 and therefore 7or am ,i the more mistaken87 discontented8' #8,nay1 sir1 not that1 at least1' said ,nance2 #8not discontented4 ,if ,i were to be discontented1 how should ,i look those that have real sorrows in the face8 ,i have faults enough1 but not that fault2 and ,i have my merits too1 for ,i have a good opinion of myself4 ,but for beauty1 ,i am not so simple but that ,i can tell a banter from a compliment4' #8,nay1 nay1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8,i had half forgotten2 grief is selfish1 and ,i was thinking of myself and not of you1 or ,i had never blurted out so bold a piece of praise4 ',tis the best proof of my sincerity4 ,but come1 now1 ,i would lay a wager you are no coward8' #8,indeed1 sir1 ,i am not more afraid than another1' said ,nance4 #8,none of my blood are given to fear4' #8,and you are honest8' he returned4 #8,i will answer for that1' said she4 #8,well1 then1 to be brave1 to be honest1 to be kind1 and to be contented1 since you say you are so--is not that to fill up a great part of virtue8' #8,i fear you are but a flatterer1' said ,nance1 but she did not say it clearly1 for what with bewilderment and satisfaction1 her heart was quite oppressed4 ,there could be no harm1 certainly1 in these grave compliments2 but yet they charmed and frightened her1 and to find favour1 for reasons however obscure1 in the eyes of this elegant1 serious1 and most unfortunate young gentleman1 was a giddy elevation1 was almost an apotheosis1 for a country maid4 ,but she was to be no more exercised2 for ,mr4 ,archer1 disclaiming any thought of flattery1 turned off to other subjects1 and held her all through the wood in conversation1 addressing her with an air of perfect sincerity1 and listening to her answers with every mark of interest4 ,had open flattery continued1 ,nance would have soon found refuge in good sense2 but the more subtle lure she could not suspect1 much less avoid4 ,it was the first time she had ever taken part in a conversation illuminated by any ideas4 ,all was then true that she had heard and dreamed of gentlemen2 they were a race apart1 like deities knowing good and evil4 ,and then there burst upon her soul a divine thought1 hope's glorious sunrise3 since she could understand1 since it seemed that she too1 even she1 could interest this sorrowful ,apollo1 might she not learn8 or was she not learning8 ,would not her soul awake and put forth wings8 ,was she not1 in fact1 an enchanted princess1 waiting but a touch to become royal8 ,she saw herself transformed1 radiantly attired1 but in the most exquisite taste3 her face grown longer and more refined2 her tint etherealised2 and she heard herself with delighted wonder talking like a book4 ,meanwhile they had arrived at where the track comes out above the river dell1 and saw in front of them the castle1 faintly shadowed on the night1 covering with its broken battlements a bold projection of the bank1 and showing at the extreme end1 where were the habitable tower and wing1 some crevices of candle-light4 ,hence she called loudly upon her uncle1 and he was seen to issue1 lantern in hand1 from the tower door1 and1 where the ruins did not intervene1 to pick his way over the swarded courtyard1 avoiding treacherous cellars and winding among blocks of fallen masonry4 ,the arch of the great gate was still entire1 flanked by two tottering bastions1 and it was here that ,jonathan met them1 standing at the edge of the bridge1 bent somewhat forward1 and blinking at them through the glow of his own lantern4 ,mr4 ,archer greeted him with civility2 but the old man was in no humour of compliance4 ,he guided the newcomer across the court-yard1 looking sharply and quickly in his face1 and grumbling all the time about the cold1 and the discomfort and dilapidation of the castle4 ,he was sure he hoped that ,mr4 ,archer would like it2 but in truth he could not think what brought him there4 ,doubtless he had a good reason--this with a look of cunning scrutiny--but1 indeed1 the place was quite unfit for any person of repute2 he himself was eaten up with the rheumatics4 ,it was the most rheumaticky place in ,england1 and some fine day the whole habitable part 7to call it habitable7 would fetch away bodily and go down the slope into the river4 ,he had seen the cracks widening2 there was a plaguy issue in the bank below2 he thought a spring was mining it2 it might be to-morrow1 it might be next day2 but they were all sure of a come-down sooner or later4 #8,and that is a poor death1' said he1 #8for any one1 let alone a gentleman1 to have a whole old ruin dumped upon his belly4 ,have a care to your left there2 these cellar vaults have all broke down1 and the grass and hemlock hide 'em4 ,well1 sir1 here is welcome to you1 such as it is1 and wishing you well away4' ,and with that ,jonathan ushered his guest through the tower door1 and down three steps on the left hand into the kitchen or common room of the castle4 ,it was a huge1 low room1 as large as a meadow1 occupying the whole width of the habitable wing1 with six barred windows looking on the court1 and two into the river valley4 ,a dresser1 a table1 and a few chairs stood dotted here and there upon the uneven flags4 ,under the great chimney a good fire burned in an iron fire-basket2 a high old settee1 rudely carved with figures and ,gothic lettering1 flanked it on either side2 there was a hinge table and a stone bench in the chimney corner1 and above the arch hung guns1 axes1 lanterns1 and great sheaves of rusty keys4 ,jonathan looked about him1 holding up the lantern1 and shrugged his shoulders1 with a pitying grimace4 #8,here it is1' he said4 #8,see the damp on the floor1 look at the moss2 where there's moss you may be sure that it's rheumaticky4 ,try and get near that fire for to warm yourself2 it'll blow the coat off your back4 ,and with a young gentleman with a face like yours1 as pale as a tallow-candle1 ,i'd be afeard of a churchyard cough and a galloping decline1' says ,jonathan1 naming the maladies with gloomy gusto1 #8or the cold might strike and turn your blood1' he added4 ,mr4 ,archer fairly laughed4 #8,my good ,mr4 ,holdaway1' said he1 #8,i was born with that same tallow-candle face1 and the only fear that you inspire me with is the fear that ,i intrude unwelcomely upon your private hours4 ,but ,i think ,i can promise you that ,i am very little troublesome1 and ,i am inclined to hope that the terms which ,i can offer may still pay you the derangement4' #8,yes1 the terms1' said ,jonathan1 #8,i was thinking of that4 ,as you say1 they are very small1' and he shook his head4 #8,unhappily1 ,i can afford no more1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,but this we have arranged already1' he added with a certain stiffness2 #8and as ,i am aware that ,miss ,holdaway has matter to communicate1 ,i will1 if you permit1 retire at once4 ,to-night ,i must bivouac2 to-morrow my trunk is to follow from the 8,dragon40 ,so if you will show me to my room ,i shall wish you a good slumber and a better awakening4' ,jonathan silently gave the lantern to ,nance1 and she1 turning and curtseying in the doorway1 proceeded to conduct their guest up the broad winding staircase of the tower4 ,he followed with a very brooding face4 #8,alas6' cried ,nance1 as she entered the room1 #8your fire black out1' and1 setting down the lantern1 she clapped upon her knees before the chimney and began to rearrange the charred and still smouldering remains4 ,mr4 ,archer looked about the gaunt apartment with a sort of shudder4 ,the great height1 the bare stone1 the shattered windows1 the aspect of the uncurtained bed1 with one of its four fluted columns broken short1 all struck a chill upon his fancy4 ,from this dismal survey his eyes returned to ,nance crouching before the fire1 the candle in one hand and artfully puffing at the embers2 the flames as they broke forth played upon the soft outline of her cheek--she was alive and young1 coloured with the bright hues of life1 and a woman4 ,he looked upon her1 softening2 and then sat down and continued to admire the picture4 #8,there1 sir1' said she1 getting upon her feet1 #8your fire is doing bravely now4 ,good-night4' ,he rose and held out his hand4 #8,come1' said he1 #8you are my only friend in these parts1 and you must shake hands4' ,she brushed her hand upon her skirt and offered it1 blushing4 #8,god bless you1 my dear1' said he4 ,and then1 when he was alone1 he opened one of the windows1 and stared down into the dark valley4 ,a gentle wimpling of the river among stones ascended to his ear2 the trees upon the other bank stood very black against the sky2 farther away an owl was hooting4 ,it was dreary and cold1 and as he turned back to the hearth and the fine glow of fire1 #8,heavens6' said he to himself1 #8what an unfortunate destiny is mine6' ,he went to bed1 but sleep only visited his pillow in uneasy snatches4 ,outbreaks of loud speech came up the staircase2 he heard the old stones of the castle crack in the frosty night with sharp reverberations1 and the bed complained under his tossings4 ,lastly1 far on into the morning1 he awakened from a doze to hear1 very far off1 in the extreme and breathless quiet1 a wailing flourish on the horn4 ,the down mail was drawing near to the #8,green ,dragon4' ,he sat up in bed2 the sound was tragical by distance1 and the modulation appealed to his ear like human speech4 ,it seemed to call upon him with a dreary insistence--to call him far away1 to address him personally1 and to have a meaning that he failed to seize4 ,it was thus1 at least1 in this nodding castle1 in a cold1 miry woodland1 and so far from men and society1 that the traffic on the ,great ,north ,road spoke to him in the intervals of slumber4 ,,chapter ,,iii--,,jonathan ,,holdaway ,nance descended the tower stair1 pausing at every step4 ,she was in no hurry to confront her uncle with bad news1 and she must dwell a little longer on the rich note of ,mr4 ,archer's voice1 the charm of his kind words1 and the beauty of his manner and person4 ,but1 once at the stair-foot1 she threw aside the spell and recovered her sensible and workaday self4 ,jonathan was seated in the middle of the settle1 a mug of ale beside him1 in the attitude of one prepared for trouble2 but he did not speak1 and suffered her to fetch her supper and eat of it1 with a very excellent appetite1 in silence4 ,when she had done1 she1 too1 drew a tankard of home-brewed1 and came and planted herself in front of him upon the settle4 #8,well8' said ,jonathan4 #8,my lord has run away1' said ,nance4 #8,what8' cried the old man4 #8,abroad1' she continued2 #8run away from creditors4 ,he said he had not a stiver1 but he was drunk enough4 ,he said you might live on in the castle1 and ,mr4 ,archer would pay you2 but you was to look for no more wages1 since he would be glad of them himself4' ,jonathan's face contracted2 the flush of a black1 bilious anger mounted to the roots of his hair2 he gave an inarticulate cry1 leapt upon his feet1 and began rapidly pacing the stone floor4 ,at first he kept his hands behind his back in a tight knot2 then he began to gesticulate as he turned4 #8,this man--this lord1' he shouted1 #8who is he8 ,he was born with a gold spoon in his mouth1 and ,i with a dirty straw4 ,he rolled in his coach when he was a baby4 ,i have dug and toiled and laboured since ,i was that high--that high4' ,and he shouted again4 #8,i'm bent and broke1 and full of pains4 ,d' ye think ,i don't know the taste of sweat8 ,many's the gallon ,i've drunk of it--ay1 in the midwinter1 toiling like a slave4 ,all through1 what has my life been8 ,bend1 bend1 bend my old creaking back till it would ache like breaking2 wade about in the foul mire1 never a dry stitch2 empty belly1 sore hands1 hat off to my ,lord ,redface2 kicks and ha'pence2 and now1 here1 at the hind end1 when ,i'm worn to my poor bones1 a kick and done with it4' ,he walked a little while in silence1 and then1 extending his hand1 #8,now you1 ,nance ,holdaway1' says he1 #8you come of my blood1 and you're a good girl4 ,when that man was a boy1 ,i used to carry his gun for him4 ,i carried the gun all day on my two feet1 and many a stitch ,i had1 and chewed a bullet for4 ,he rode upon a horse1 with feathers in his hat2 but it was him that had the shots and took the game home4 ,did ,i complain8 ,not ,i4 ,i knew my station4 ,what did ,i ask1 but just the chance to live and die honest8 ,nance ,holdaway1 don't let them deny it to me--don't let them do it4 ,i've been as poor as ,job1 and as honest as the day1 but now1 my girl1 you mark these words of mine1 ,i'm getting tired of it4' #8,i wouldn't say such words1 at least1' said ,nance4 #8,you wouldn't8' said the old man grimly4 #8,well1 and did ,i when ,i was your age8 ,wait till your back's broke and your hands tremble1 and your eyes fail1 and you're weary of the battle and ask no more but to lie down in your bed and give the ghost up like an honest man2 and then let there up and come some insolent1 ungodly fellow--ah6 if ,i had him in these hands6 8,where's my money that you gambled80 ,i should say4 8,where's my money that you drank and diced80 8,thief60 is what ,i would say2 8,thief60' he roared1 #88,thief0' #8,mr4 ,archer will hear you if you don't take care1' said ,nance1 #8and ,i would be ashamed1 for one1 that he should hear a brave1 old1 honest1 hard-working man like ,jonathan ,holdaway talk nonsense like a boy4' #8,d' ye think ,i mind for ,mr4 ,archer8' he cried shrilly1 with a clack of laughter2 and then he came close up to her1 stooped down with his two palms upon his knees1 and looked her in the eyes1 with a strange hard expression1 something like a smile4 #8,do ,i mind for ,god1 my girl8' he said2 #8that's what it's come to be now1 do ,i mind for ,god8' #8,uncle ,jonathan1' she said1 getting up and taking him by the arm2 #8you sit down again1 where you were sitting4 ,there1 sit still2 ,i'll have no more of this2 you'll do yourself a mischief4 ,come1 take a drink of this good ale1 and ,i'll warm a tankard for you4 ,la1 we'll pull through1 you'll see4 ,i'm young1 as you say1 and it's my turn to carry the bundle2 and don't you worry your bile1 or we'll have sickness1 too1 as well as sorrow4' #8,d' ye think that ,i'd forgotten you8' said ,jonathan1 with something like a groan2 and thereupon his teeth clicked to1 and he sat silent with the tankard in his hand and staring straight before him4 #8,why1' says ,nance1 setting on the ale to mull1 #8men are always children1 they say1 however old2 and if ever ,i heard a thing like this1 to set to and make yourself sick1 just when the money's failing4 ,keep a good heart up2 you haven't kept a good heart these seventy years1 nigh hand1 to break down about a pound or two4 ,here's this ,mr4 ,archer come to lodge1 that you disliked so much4 ,well1 now you see it was a clear ,providence4 ,come1 let's think upon our mercies4 ,and here is the ale mulling lovely2 smell of it2 ,i'll take a drop myself1 it smells so sweet4 ,and1 ,uncle ,jonathan1 you let me say one word4 ,you've lost more than money before now2 you lost my aunt1 and bore it like a man4 ,bear this4' ,his face once more contracted2 his fist doubled1 and shot forth into the air1 and trembled4 #8,let them look out6' he shouted4 #8,here1 ,i warn all men2 ,i've done with this foul kennel of knaves4 ,let them look out6' #8,hush1 hush6 for pity's sake1' cried ,nance4 ,and then all of a sudden he dropped his face into his hands1 and broke out with a great hiccoughing dry sob that was horrible to hear4 #8,o1' he cried1 #8my ,god1 if my son hadn't left me1 if my ,dick was here6' and the sobs shook him2 ,nance sitting still and watching him1 with distress4 #8,o1 if he were here to help his father6' he went on again4 #8,if ,i had a son like other fathers1 he would save me now1 when all is breaking down2 ,o1 he would save me6 ,ay1 but where is he8 ,raking taverns1 a thief perhaps4 ,my curse be on him6' he added1 rising again into wrath4 #8,hush6' cried ,nance1 springing to her feet3 #8your boy1 your dead wife's boy--,aunt ,susan's baby that she loved--would you curse him8 ,o1 ,god forbid6' ,the energy of her address surprised him from his mood4 ,he looked upon her1 tearless and confused4 #8,let me go to my bed1' he said at last1 and he rose1 and1 shaking as with ague1 but quite silent1 lighted his candle1 and left the kitchen4 ,poor ,nance6 the pleasant current of her dreams was all diverted4 ,she beheld a golden city1 where she aspired to dwell2 she had spoken with a deity1 and had told herself that she might rise to be his equal2 and now the earthly ligaments that bound her down had been tightened4 ,she was like a tree looking skyward1 her roots were in the ground4 ,it seemed to her a thing so coarse1 so rustic1 to be thus concerned about a loss in money2 when ,mr4 ,archer1 fallen from the sky-level of counts and nobles1 faced his changed destiny with so immovable a courage4 ,to weary of honesty2 that1 at least1 no one could do1 but even to name it was already a disgrace2 and she beheld in fancy her uncle1 and the young lad1 all laced and feathered1 hand upon hip1 bestriding his small horse4 ,the opposition seemed to perpetuate itself from generation to generation2 one side still doomed to the clumsy and the servile1 the other born to beauty4 ,she thought of the golden zones in which gentlemen were bred1 and figured with so excellent a grace2 zones in which wisdom and smooth words1 white linen and slim hands1 were the mark of the desired inhabitants2 where low temptations were unknown1 and honesty no virtue1 but a thing as natural as breathing4 ,,chapter ,,iv--,,mingling ,,threads ,it was nearly seven before ,mr4 ,archer left his apartment4 ,on the landing he found another door beside his own opening on a roofless corridor1 and presently he was walking on the top of the ruins4 ,on one hand he could look down a good depth into the green court-yard2 on the other his eye roved along the downward course of the river1 the wet woods all smoking1 the shadows long and blue1 the mists golden and rosy in the sun1 here and there the water flashing across an obstacle4 ,his heart expanded and softened to a grateful melancholy1 and with his eye fixed upon the distance1 and no thought of present danger1 he continued to stroll along the elevated and treacherous promenade4 ,a terror-stricken cry rose to him from the courtyard4 ,he looked down1 and saw in a glimpse ,nance standing below with hands clasped in horror and his own foot trembling on the margin of a gulf4 ,he recoiled and leant against a pillar1 quaking from head to foot1 and covering his face with his hands2 and ,nance had time to run round by the stair and rejoin him where he stood before he had changed a line of his position4 #8,ah6' he cried1 and clutched her wrist2 #8don't leave me4 ,the place rocks2 ,i have no head for altitudes4' #8,sit down against that pillar1' said ,nance4 #8,don't you be afraid2 ,i won't leave you1 and don't look up or down3 look straight at me4 ,how white you are6' #8,the gulf1' he said1 and closed his eyes again and shuddered4 #8,why1' said ,nance1 #8what a poor climber you must be6 ,that was where my cousin ,dick used to get out of the castle after ,uncle ,jonathan had shut the gate4 ,i've been down there myself with him helping me4 ,i wouldn't try with you1' she said1 and laughed merrily4 ,the sound of her laughter was sincere and musical1 and perhaps its beauty barbed the offence to ,mr4 ,archer4 ,the blood came into his face with a quick jet1 and then left it paler than before4 #8,it is a physical weakness1' he said harshly1 #8and very droll1 no doubt1 but one that ,i can conquer on necessity4 ,see1 ,i am still shaking4 ,well1 ,i advance to the battlements and look down4 ,show me your cousin's path4' #8,he would go sure-foot along that little ledge1' said ,nance1 pointing as she spoke2 #8then out through the breach and down by yonder buttress4 ,it is easier coming back1 of course1 because you see where you are going4 ,from the buttress foot a sheep-walk goes along the scarp--see1 you can follow it from here in the dry grass4 ,and now1 sir1' she added1 with a touch of womanly pity1 #8,i would come away from here if ,i were you1 for indeed you are not fit4' ,sure enough ,mr4 ,archer's pallor and agitation had continued to increase2 his cheeks were deathly1 his clenched fingers trembled pitifully4 #8,the weakness is physical1' he sighed1 and had nearly fallen4 ,nance led him from the spot1 and he was no sooner back in the tower-stair1 than he fell heavily against the wall and put his arm across his eyes4 ,a cup of brandy had to be brought him before he could descend to breakfast2 and the perfection of ,nance's dream was for the first time troubled4 ,jonathan was waiting for them at table1 with yellow1 blood-shot eyes and a peculiar dusky complexion4 ,he hardly waited till they found their seats1 before1 raising one hand1 and stooping with his mouth above his plate1 he put up a prayer for a blessing on the food and a spirit of gratitude in the eaters1 and thereupon1 and without more civility1 fell to4 ,but it was notable that he was no less speedily satisfied than he had been greedy to begin4 ,he pushed his plate away and drummed upon the table4 #8,these are silly prayers1' said he1 #8that they teach us4 ,eat and be thankful1 that's no such wonder4 ,speak to me of starving--there's the touch4 ,you're a man1 they tell me1 ,mr4 ,archer1 that has met with some reverses8' #8,i have met with many1' replied ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,ha6' said ,jonathan4 #8,none reckons but the last4 ,now1 see2 ,i tried to make this girl here understand me4' #8,uncle1' said ,nance1 #8what should ,mr4 ,archer care for your concerns8 ,he hath troubles of his own1 and came to be at peace1 ,i think4' #8,i tried to make her understand me1' repeated ,jonathan doggedly2 #8and now ,i'll try you4 ,do you think this world is fair8' #8,fair and false6' quoth ,mr4 ,archer4 ,the old man laughed immoderately4 #8,good1' said he1 #8very good1 but what ,i mean is this3 do you know what it is to get up early and go to bed late1 and never take so much as a holiday but four3 and one of these your own marriage day1 and the other three the funerals of folk you loved1 and all that1 to have a quiet old age in shelter1 and bread for your old belly1 and a bed to lay your crazy bones upon1 with a clear conscience8' #8,sir1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 with an inclination of his head1 #8you portray a very brave existence4' #8,well1' continued ,jonathan1 #8and in the end thieves deceive you1 thieves rob and rook you1 thieves turn you out in your old age and send you begging4 ,what have you got for all your honesty8 ,a fine return6 ,you that might have stole scores of pounds1 there you are out in the rain with your rheumatics6' ,mr4 ,archer had forgotten to eat2 with his hand upon his chin he was studying the old man's countenance4 #8,and you conclude8' he asked4 #8,conclude6' cried ,jonathan4 #8,i conclude ,i'll be upsides with them4' #8,ay1' said the other1 #8we are all tempted to revenge4' #8,you have lost money8' asked ,jonathan4 #8,a great estate1' said ,archer quietly4 #8,see now6' says ,jonathan1 #8and where is it8' #8,nay1 ,i sometimes think that every one has had his share of it but me1' was the reply4 #8,all ,england hath paid his taxes with my patrimony3 ,i was a sheep that left my wool on every briar4' #8,and you sit down under that8' cried the old man4 #8,come now1 ,mr4 ,archer1 you and me belong to different stations2 and ,i know mine--no man better--but since we have both been rooked1 and are both sore with it1 why1 here's my hand with a very good heart1 and ,i ask for yours1 and no offence1 ,i hope4' #8,there is surely no offence1 my friend1' returned ,mr4 ,archer1 as they shook hands across the table2 #8for1 believe me1 my sympathies are quite acquired to you4 ,this life is an arena where we fight with beasts2 and1 indeed1' he added1 sighing1 #8,i sometimes marvel why we go down to it unarmed4' ,in the meanwhile a creaking of ungreased axles had been heard descending through the wood2 and presently after1 the door opened1 and the tall ostler entered the kitchen carrying one end of ,mr4 ,archer's trunk4 ,the other was carried by an aged beggar man of that district1 known and welcome for some twenty miles about under the name of #8,old ,cumberland4' ,each was soon perched upon a settle1 with a cup of ale2 and the ostler1 who valued himself upon his affability1 began to entertain the company1 still with half an eye on ,nance1 to whom in gallant terms he expressly dedicated every sip of ale4 ,first he told of the trouble they had to get his ,lordship started in the chaise2 and how he had dropped a rouleau of gold on the threshold1 and the passage and doorstep had been strewn with guinea-pieces4 ,at this old ,jonathan looked at ,mr4 ,archer4 ,next the visitor turned to news of a more thrilling character3 how the down mail had been stopped again near ,grantham by three men on horseback--a white and two bays2 how they had handkerchiefs on their faces2 how ,tom the guard's blunderbuss missed fire1 but he swore he had winged one of them with a pistol2 and how they had got clean away with seventy pounds in money1 some valuable papers1 and a watch or two4 #8,brave6 brave6' cried ,jonathan in ecstasy4 #8,seventy pounds6 ,o1 it's brave6' #8,well1 ,i don't see the great bravery1' observed the ostler1 misapprehending him4 #8,three men1 and you may call that three to one4 ,i'll call it brave when some one stops the mail single-handed2 that's a risk4' #8,and why should they hesitate8' inquired ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,the poor souls who are fallen to such a way of life1 pray what have they to lose8 ,if they get the money1 well2 but if a ball should put them from their troubles1 why1 so better4' #8,well1 sir1' said the ostler1 #8,i believe you'll find they won't agree with you4 ,they count on a good fling1 you see2 or who would risk it8--,and here's my best respects to you1 ,miss ,nance4' #8,and ,i forgot the part of cowardice1' resumed ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,all men fear4' #8,o1 surely not6' cried ,nance4 #8,all men1' reiterated ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,ay1 that's a true word1' observed ,old ,cumberland1 #8and a thief1 anyway1 for it's a coward's trade4' #8,but these fellows1 now1' said ,jonathan1 with a curious1 appealing manner--#8these fellows with their seventy pounds6 ,perhaps1 ,mr4 ,archer1 they were no true thieves after all1 but just people who had been robbed and tried to get their own again4 ,what was that you said1 about all ,england and the taxes8 ,one takes1 another gives2 why1 that's almost fair4 ,if ,i've been rooked and robbed1 and the coat taken off my back1 ,i call it almost fair to take another's4' #8,ask ,old ,cumberland1' observed the ostler2 #8you ask ,old ,cumberland1 ,miss ,nance6' and he bestowed a wink upon his favoured fair one4 #8,why that8' asked ,jonathan4 #8,he had his coat taken--ay1 and his shirt too1' returned the ostler4 #8,is that so8' cried ,jonathan eagerly4 #8,was you robbed too8' #8,that was ,i1' replied ,cumberland1 #8with a warrant6 ,i was a well-to-do man when ,i was young4' #8,ay6 ,see that6' says ,jonathan4 #8,and you don't long for a revenge8' #8,eh6 ,not me6' answered the beggar4 #8,it's too long ago4 ,but if you'll give me another mug of your good ale1 my pretty lady1 ,i won't say no to that4' #8,and shalt have6 ,and shalt have6' cried ,jonathan4 #8,or brandy even1 if you like it better4' ,and as ,cumberland did like it better1 and the ostler chimed in1 the party pledged each other in a dram of brandy before separating4 ,as for ,nance1 she slipped forth into the ruins1 partly to avoid the ostler's gallantries1 partly to lament over the defects of ,mr4 ,archer4 ,plainly1 he was no hero4 ,she pitied him2 she began to feel a protecting interest mingle with and almost supersede her admiration1 and was at the same time disappointed and yet drawn to him4 ,she was1 indeed1 conscious of such unshaken fortitude in her own heart1 that she was almost tempted by an occasion to be bold for two4 ,she saw herself1 in a brave attitude1 shielding her imperfect hero from the world2 and she saw1 like a piece of heaven1 his gratitude for her protection4 ,,chapter ,v--,,life ,,in ,,the ,,castle ,from that day forth the life of these three persons in the ruin ran very smoothly4 ,mr4 ,archer now sat by the fire with a book1 and now passed whole days abroad1 returning late1 dead weary4 ,his manner was a mask2 but it was half transparent2 through the even tenor of his gravity and courtesy profound revolutions of feeling were betrayed1 seasons of numb despair1 of restlessness1 of aching temper4 ,for days he would say nothing beyond his usual courtesies and solemn compliments2 and then1 all of a sudden1 some fine evening beside the kitchen fire1 he would fall into a vein of elegant gossip1 tell of strange and interesting events1 the secrets of families1 brave deeds of war1 the miraculous discovery of crime1 the visitations of the dead4 ,nance and her uncle would sit till the small hours with eyes wide open3 ,jonathan applauding the unexpected incidents with many a slap of his big hand2 ,nance1 perhaps1 more pleased with the narrator's eloquence and wise reflections2 and then1 again1 days would follow of abstraction1 of listless humming1 of frequent apologies and long hours of silence4 ,once only1 and then after a week of unrelieved melancholy1 he went over to the #8,green ,dragon1' spent the afternoon with the landlord and a bowl of punch1 and returned as on the first night1 devious in step but courteous and unperturbed of speech4 ,if he seemed more natural and more at his ease it was when he found ,nance alone2 and1 laying by some of his reserve1 talked before her rather than to her of his destiny1 character and hopes4 ,to ,nance these interviews were but a doubtful privilege4 ,at times he would seem to take a pleasure in her presence1 to consult her gravely1 to hear and to discuss her counsels2 at times even1 but these were rare and brief1 he would talk of herself1 praise the qualities that she possessed1 touch indulgently on her defects1 and lend her books to read and even examine her upon her reading2 but far more often he would fall into a half unconsciousness1 put her a question and then answer it himself1 drop into the veiled tone of voice of one soliloquising1 and leave her at last as though he had forgotten her existence4 ,it was odd1 too1 that in all this random converse1 not a fact of his past life1 and scarce a name1 should ever cross his lips4 ,a profound reserve kept watch upon his most unguarded moments4 ,he spoke continually of himself1 indeed1 but still in enigmas2 a veiled prophet of egoism4 ,the base of ,nance's feelings for ,mr4 ,archer was admiration as for a superior being2 and with this1 his treatment1 consciously or not1 accorded happily4 ,when he forgot her1 she took the blame upon herself4 ,his formal politeness was so exquisite that this essential brutality stood excused4 ,his compliments1 besides1 were always grave and rational2 he would offer reason for his praise1 convict her of merit1 and thus disarm suspicion4 ,nay1 and the very hours when he forgot and remembered her alternately could by the ardent fallacies of youth be read in the light of an attention4 ,she might be far from his confidence2 but still she was nearer it than any one4 ,he might ignore her presence1 but yet he sought it4 ,moreover1 she1 upon her side1 was conscious of one point of superiority4 ,beside this rather dismal1 rather effeminate man1 who recoiled from a worm1 who grew giddy on the castle wall1 who bore so helplessly the weight of his misfortunes1 she felt herself a head and shoulders taller in cheerful and sterling courage4 ,she could walk head in air along the most precarious rafter2 her hand feared neither the grossness nor the harshness of life's web1 but was thrust cheerfully1 if need were1 into the briar bush1 and could take hold of any crawling horror4 ,ruin was mining the walls of her cottage1 as already it had mined and subverted ,mr4 ,archer's palace4 ,well1 she faced it with a bright countenance and a busy hand4 ,she had got some washing1 some rough seamstress work from the #8,green ,dragon1' and from another neighbour ten miles away across the moor4 ,at this she cheerfully laboured1 and from that height she could afford to pity the useless talents and poor attitude of ,mr4 ,archer4 ,it did not change her admiration1 but it made it bearable4 ,he was above her in all ways2 but she was above him in one4 ,she kept it to herself1 and hugged it4 ,when1 like all young creatures1 she made long stories to justify1 to nourish1 and to forecast the course of her affection1 it was this private superiority that made all rosy1 that cut the knot1 and that1 at last1 in some great situation1 fetched to her knees the dazzling but imperfect hero4 ,with this pretty exercise she beguiled the hours of labour1 and consoled herself for ,mr4 ,archer's bearing4 ,pity was her weapon and her weakness4 ,to accept the loved one's faults1 although it has an air of freedom1 is to kiss the chain1 and this pity it was which1 lying nearer to her heart1 lent the one element of true emotion to a fanciful and merely brain-sick love4 ,thus it fell out one day that she had gone to the #8,green ,dragon' and brought back thence a letter to ,mr4 ,archer4 ,he1 upon seeing it1 winced like a man under the knife3 pain1 shame1 sorrow1 and the most trenchant edge of mortification cut into his heart and wrung the steady composure of his face4 #8,dear heart6 have you bad news8' she cried4 ,but he only replied by a gesture and fled to his room1 and when1 later on1 she ventured to refer to it1 he stopped her on the threshold1 as if with words prepared beforehand4 #8,there are some pains1' said he1 #8too acute for consolation1 or ,i would bring them to my kind consoler4 ,let the memory of that letter1 if you please1 be buried4' ,and then as she continued to gaze at him1 being1 in spite of herself1 pained by his elaborate phrase1 doubtfully sincere in word and manner3 #8,let it be enough1' he added haughtily1 #8that if this matter wring my heart1 it doth not touch my conscience4 ,i am a man1 ,i would have you to know1 who suffers undeservedly4' ,he had never spoken so directly3 never with so convincing an emotion2 and her heart thrilled for him4 ,she could have taken his pains and died of them with joy4 ,meanwhile she was left without support4 ,jonathan now swore by his lodger1 and lived for him4 ,he was a fine talker4 ,he knew the finest sight of stories2 he was a man and a gentleman1 take him for all in all1 and a perfect credit to ,old ,england4 ,such were the old man's declared sentiments1 and sure enough he clung to ,mr4 ,archer's side1 hung upon his utterance when he spoke1 and watched him with unwearing interest when he was silent4 ,and yet his feeling was not clear2 in the partial wreck of his mind1 which was leaning to decay1 some after-thought was strongly present4 ,as he gazed in ,mr4 ,archer's face a sudden brightness would kindle in his rheumy eyes1 his eye-brows would lift as with a sudden thought1 his mouth would open as though to speak1 and close again on silence4 ,once or twice he even called ,mr4 ,archer mysteriously forth into the dark courtyard1 took him by the button1 and laid a demonstrative finger on his chest2 but there his ideas or his courage failed him2 he would shufflingly excuse himself and return to his position by the fire without a word of explanation4 #8,the good man was growing old1' said ,mr4 ,archer with a suspicion of a shrug4 ,but the good man had his idea1 and even when he was alone the name of ,mr4 ,archer fell from his lips continually in the course of mumbled and gesticulative conversation4 ,,chapter ,,vi--,,the ,,bad ,,half-,,crown ,however early ,nance arose1 and she was no sluggard1 the old man1 who had begun to outlive the earthly habit of slumber1 would usually have been up long before1 the fire would be burning brightly1 and she would see him wandering among the ruins1 lantern in hand1 and talking assiduously to himself4 ,one day1 however1 after he had returned late from the market town1 she found that she had stolen a march upon that indefatigable early riser4 ,the kitchen was all blackness4 ,she crossed the castle-yard to the wood-cellar1 her steps printing the thick hoarfrost4 ,a scathing breeze blew out of the north-east and slowly carried a regiment of black and tattered clouds over the face of heaven1 which was already kindled with the wild light of morning1 but where she walked1 in shelter of the ruins1 the flame of her candle burned steady4 ,the extreme cold smote upon her conscience4 ,she could not bear to think this bitter business fell usually to the lot of one so old as ,jonathan1 and made desperate resolutions to be earlier in the future4 ,the fire was a good blaze before he entered1 limping dismally into the kitchen4 #8,nance1' said he1 #8,i be all knotted up with the rheumatics2 will you rub me a bit8' ,she came and rubbed him where and how he bade her4 #8,this is a cruel thing that old age should be rheumaticky1' said he4 #8,when ,i was young ,i stood my turn of the teethache like a man6 for why8 because it couldn't last for ever2 but these rheumatics come to live and die with you4 ,your aunt was took before the time came2 never had an ache to mention4 ,now ,i lie all night in my single bed and the blood never warms in me2 this knee of mine it seems like lighted up with rheumatics2 it seems as though you could see to sew by it2 and all the strings of my old body ache1 as if devils was pulling 'em4 ,thank you kindly2 that's someways easier now1 but an old man1 my dear1 has little to look for2 it's pain1 pain1 pain to the end of the business1 and ,i'll never be rightly warm again till ,i get under the sod1' he said1 and looked down at her with a face so aged and weary that she had nearly wept4 #8,i lay awake all night1' he continued2 #8,i do so mostly1 and a long walk kills me4 ,eh1 deary me1 to think that life should run to such a puddle6 ,and ,i remember long syne when ,i was strong1 and the blood all hot and good about me1 and ,i loved to run1 too--deary me1 to run6 ,well1 that's all by4 ,you'd better pray to be took early1 ,nance1 and not live on till you get to be like me1 and are robbed in your grey old age1 your cold1 shivering1 dark old age1 that's like a winter's morning'2 and he bitterly shuddered1 spreading his hands before the fire4 #8,come now1' said ,nance1 #8the more you say the less you'll like it1 ,uncle ,jonathan2 but if ,i were you ,i would be proud for to have lived all your days honest and beloved1 and come near the end with your good name3 isn't that a fine thing to be proud of8 ,mr4 ,archer was telling me in some strange land they used to run races each with a lighted candle1 and the art was to keep the candle burning4 ,well1 now1 ,i thought that was like life3 a man's good conscience is the flame he gets to carry1 and if he comes to the winning-post with that still burning1 why1 take it how you will1 the man's a hero--even if he was low-born like you and me4' #8,did ,mr4 ,archer tell you that8' asked ,jonathan4 #8,no1 dear1' said she1 #8that's my own thought about it4 ,he told me of the race4 ,but see1 now1' she continued1 putting on the porridge1 #8you say old age is a hard season1 but so is youth4 ,you're half out of the battle1 ,i would say2 you loved my aunt and got her1 and buried her1 and some of these days soon you'll go to meet her2 and take her my love and tell her ,i tried to take good care of you2 for so ,i do1 ,uncle ,jonathan4' ,jonathan struck with his fist upon the settle4 #8,d' ye think ,i want to die1 ye vixen8' he shouted4 #8,i want to live ten hundred years4' ,this was a mystery beyond ,nance's penetration1 and she stared in wonder as she made the porridge4 #8,i want to live1' he continued1 #8,i want to live and to grow rich4 ,i want to drive my carriage and to dice in hells and see the ring1 ,i do4 ,is this a life that ,i lived8 ,i want to be a rake1 d' ye understand8 ,i want to know what things are like4 ,i don't want to die like a blind kitten1 and me seventy-six4' #8,o fie6' said ,nance4 ,the old man thrust out his jaw at her1 with the grimace of an irreverent schoolboy4 ,upon that aged face it seemed a blasphemy4 ,then he took out of his bosom a long leather purse1 and emptying its contents on the settle1 began to count and recount the pieces1 ringing and examining each1 and suddenly he leapt like a young man4 #8,what6' he screamed4 #8,bad8 ,o ,lord6 ,i'm robbed again6' ,and falling on his knees before the settle he began to pour forth the most dreadful curses on the head of his deceiver4 ,his eyes were shut1 for to him this vile solemnity was prayer4 ,he held up the bad half-crown in his right hand1 as though he were displaying it to ,heaven1 and what increased the horror of the scene1 the curses he invoked were those whose efficacy he had tasted--old age and poverty1 rheumatism and an ungrateful son4 ,nance listened appalled2 then she sprang forward and dragged down his arm and laid her hand upon his mouth4 #8,whist6' she cried4 #8,whist ye1 for ,god's sake6 ,o my man1 whist ye6 ,if ,heaven were to hear2 if poor ,aunt ,susan were to hear6 ,think1 she may be listening4' ,and with the histrionism of strong emotion she pointed to a corner of the kitchen4 ,his eyes followed her finger4 ,he looked there for a little1 thinking1 blinking2 then he got stiffly to his feet and resumed his place upon the settle1 the bad piece still in his hand4 ,so he sat for some time1 looking upon the half-crown1 and now wondering to himself on the injustice and partiality of the law1 now computing again and again the nature of his loss4 ,so he was still sitting when ,mr4 ,archer entered the kitchen4 ,at this a light came into his face1 and after some seconds of rumination he dispatched ,nance upon an errand4 #8,mr4 ,archer1' said he1 as soon as they were alone together1 #8would you give me a guinea-piece for silver8' #8,why1 sir1 ,i believe ,i can1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 ,and the exchange was just effected when ,nance re-entered the apartment4 ,the blood shot into her face4 #8,what's to do here8' she asked rudely4 #8,nothing1 my dearie1' said old ,jonathan1 with a touch of whine4 #8,what's to do8' she said again4 #8,your uncle was but changing me a piece of gold1' returned ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,let me see what he hath given you1 ,mr4 ,archer1' replied the girl4 #8,i had a bad piece1 and ,i fear it is mixed up among the good4' #8,well1 well1' replied ,mr4 ,archer1 smiling1 #8,i must take the merchant's risk of it4 ,the money is now mixed4' #8,i know my piece1' quoth ,nance4 #8,come1 let me see your silver1 ,mr4 ,archer4 ,if ,i have to get it by a theft ,i'll see that money1' she cried4 #8,nay1 child1 if you put as much passion to be honest as the world to steal1 ,i must give way1 though ,i betray myself1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,there it is as ,i received it4' ,nance quickly found the bad half-crown4 #8,give him another1' she said1 looking ,jonathan in the face2 and when that had been done1 she walked over to the chimney and flung the guilty piece into the reddest of the fire4 ,its base constituents began immediately to run2 even as she watched it the disc crumbled1 and the lineaments of the ,king became confused4 ,jonathan1 who had followed close behind1 beheld these changes from over her shoulder1 and his face darkened sorely4 #8,now1' said she1 #8come back to table1 and to-day it is ,i that shall say grace1 as ,i used to do in the old times1 day about with ,dick'2 and covering her eyes with one hand1 #8,o ,lord1' said she with deep emotion1 #8make us thankful2 and1 ,o ,lord1 deliver us from evil6 ,for the love of the poor souls that watch for us in heaven1 ,o deliver us from evil4' ,,chapter ,,vii--,,the ,,bleaching-,,green ,the year moved on to ,march2 and ,march1 though it blew bitter keen from the ,north ,sea1 yet blinked kindly between whiles on the river dell4 ,the mire dried up in the closest covert2 life ran in the bare branches1 and the air of the afternoon would be suddenly sweet with the fragrance of new grass4 ,above and below the castle the river crooked like the letter #8,s4' ,the lower loop was to the left1 and embraced the high and steep projection which was crowned by the ruins2 the upper loop enclosed a lawny promontory1 fringed by thorn and willow4 ,it was easy to reach it from the castle side1 for the river ran in this part very quietly among innumerable boulders and over dam-like walls of rock4 ,the place was all enclosed1 the wind a stranger1 the turf smooth and solid2 so it was chosen by ,nance to be her bleaching-green4 ,one day she brought a bucketful of linen1 and had but begun to wring and lay them out when ,mr4 ,archer stepped from the thicket on the far side1 drew very deliberately near1 and sat down in silence on the grass4 ,nance looked up to greet him with a smile1 but finding her smile was not returned1 she fell into embarrassment and stuck the more busily to her employment4 ,man or woman1 the whole world looks well at any work to which they are accustomed2 but the girl was ashamed of what she did4 ,she was ashamed1 besides1 of the sun-bonnet that so well became her1 and ashamed of her bare arms1 which were her greatest beauty4 #8,nausicaa1' said ,mr4 ,archer at last1 #8,i find you like ,nausicaa4' #8,and who was she8' asked ,nance1 and laughed in spite of herself1 an empty and embarrassed laugh1 that sounded in ,mr4 ,archer's ears1 indeed1 like music1 but to her own like the last grossness of rusticity4 #8,she was a princess of the ,grecian islands1' he replied4 #8,a king1 being shipwrecked1 found her washing by the shore4 ,certainly ,i1 too1 was shipwrecked1' he continued1 plucking at the grass4 #8,there was never a more desperate castaway--to fall from polite life1 fortune1 a shrine of honour1 a grateful conscience1 duties willingly taken up and faithfully discharged2 and to fall to this--idleness1 poverty1 inutility1 remorse4' ,he seemed to have forgotten her presence1 but here he remembered her again4 #8,nance1' said he1 #8would you have a man sit down and suffer or rise up and strive8' #8,nay1' she said4 #8,i would always rather see him doing4' #8,ha6' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8but yet you speak from an imperfect knowledge4 ,conceive a man damned to a choice of only evil--misconduct upon either side1 not a fault behind him1 and yet naught before him but this choice of sins4 ,how would you say then8' #8,i would say that he was much deceived1 ,mr4 ,archer1' returned ,nance4 #8,i would say there was a third choice1 and that the right one4' #8,i tell you1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8the man ,i have in view hath two ways open1 and no more4 ,one to wait1 like a poor mewling baby1 till ,fate save or ruin him2 the other to take his troubles in his hand1 and to perish or be saved at once4 ,it is no point of morals2 both are wrong4 ,either way this step-child of ,providence must fall2 which shall he choose1 by doing or not doing8' #8,fall1 then1 is what ,i would say1' replied ,nance4 #8,fall where you will1 but do it6 ,for ,o1 ,mr4 ,archer1' she continued1 stooping to her work1 #8you that are good and kind1 and so wise1 it doth sometimes go against my heart to see you live on here like a sheep in a turnip-field6 ,if you were braver--' and here she paused1 conscience-smitten4 #8,do ,i1 indeed1 lack courage8' inquired ,mr4 ,archer of himself4 #8,courage1 the footstool of the virtues1 upon which they stand8 ,courage1 that a poor private carrying a musket has to spare of2 that does not fail a weasel or a rat2 that is a brutish faculty8 ,i to fail there1 ,i wonder8 ,but what is courage1 then8 ,the constancy to endure oneself or to see others suffer8 ,the itch of ill-advised activity3 mere shuttle-wittedness1 or to be still and patient8 ,to inquire of the significance of words is to rob ourselves of what we seem to know1 and yet1 of all things1 certainly to stand still is the least heroic4 ,nance1' he said1 #8did you ever hear of ,hamlet8' #8,never1' said ,nance4 #8',tis an old play1' returned ,mr4 ,archer1 #8and frequently enacted4 ,this while ,i have been talking ,hamlet4 ,you must know this ,hamlet was a ,prince among the ,danes1' and he told her the play in a very good style1 here and there quoting a verse or two with solemn emphasis4 #8,it is strange1' said ,nance2 #8he was then a very poor creature8' #8,that was what he could not tell1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,look at me1 am ,i as poor a creature8' ,she looked1 and what she saw was the familiar thought of all her hours2 the tall figure very plainly habited in black1 the spotless ruffles1 the slim hands2 the long1 well-shapen1 serious1 shaven face1 the wide and somewhat thin-lipped mouth1 the dark eyes that were so full of depth and change and colour4 ,he was gazing at her with his brows a little knit1 his chin upon one hand and that elbow resting on his knee4 #8,ye look a man6' she cried1 #8ay1 and should be a great one6 ,the more shame to you to lie here idle like a dog before the fire4' #8,my fair ,holdaway1' quoth ,mr4 ,archer1 #8you are much set on action4 ,i cannot dig1 to beg ,i am ashamed4' ,he continued1 looking at her with a half-absent fixity1 #8',tis a strange thing1 certainly1 that in my years of fortune ,i should never taste happiness1 and now when ,i am broke1 enjoy so much of it1 for was ,i ever happier than to-day8 ,was the grass softer1 the stream pleasanter in sound1 the air milder1 the heart more at peace8 ,why should ,i not sink8 ,to dig--why1 after all1 it should be easy4 ,to take a mate1 too8 ,love is of all grades since ,jupiter2 love fails to none2 and children'--but here he passed his hand suddenly over his eyes4 #8,o fool and coward1 fool and coward6' he said bitterly2 #8can you forget your fetters8 ,you did not know that ,i was fettered1 ,nance8' he asked1 again addressing her4 ,but ,nance was somewhat sore4 #8,i know you keep talking1' she said1 and1 turning half away from him1 began to wring out a sheet across her shoulder4 #8,i wonder you are not wearied of your voice4 ,when the hands lie abed the tongue takes a walk4' ,mr4 ,archer laughed unpleasantly1 rose and moved to the water's edge4 ,in this part the body of the river poured across a little narrow fell1 ran some ten feet very smoothly over a bed of pebbles1 then getting wind1 as it were1 of another shelf of rock which barred the channel1 began1 by imperceptible degrees1 to separate towards either shore in dancing currents1 and to leave the middle clear and stagnant4 ,the set towards either side was nearly equal2 about one half of the whole water plunged on the side of the castle1 through a narrow gullet2 about one half ran ripping past the margin of the green and slipped across a babbling rapid4 #8,here1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 after he had looked for some time at the fine and shifting demarcation of these currents1 #8come here and see me try my fortune4' #8,i am not like a man1' said ,nance2 #8,i have no time to waste4' #8,come here1' he said again4 #8,i ask you seriously1 ,nance4 ,we are not always childish when we seem so4' ,she drew a little nearer4 #8,now1' said he1 #8you see these two channels--choose one4' #8,i'll choose the nearest1 to save time1' said ,nance4 #8,well1 that shall be for action1' returned ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,and since ,i wish to have the odds against me1 not only the other channel but yon stagnant water in the midst shall be for lying still4 ,you see this8' he continued1 pulling up a withered rush4 #8,i break it in three4 ,i shall put each separately at the top of the upper fall1 and according as they go by your way or by the other ,i shall guide my life4' #8,this is very silly1' said ,nance1 with a movement of her shoulders4 #8,i do not think it so1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,and then1' she resumed1 #8if you are to try your fortune1 why not evenly8' #8,nay1' returned ,mr4 ,archer with a smile1 #8no man can put complete reliance in blind fate2 he must still cog the dice4' ,by this time he had got upon the rock beside the upper fall1 and1 bidding her look out1 dropped a piece of rush into the middle of the intake4 ,the rusty fragment was sucked at once over the fall1 came up again far on the right hand1 leaned ever more and more in the same direction1 and disappeared under the hanging grasses on the castle side4 #8,one1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8one for standing still4' ,but the next launch had a different fate1 and after hanging for a while about the edge of the stagnant water1 steadily approached the bleaching-green and danced down the rapid under ,nance's eyes4 #8,one for me1' she cried with some exultation2 and then she observed that ,mr4 ,archer had grown pale1 and was kneeling on the rock1 with his hand raised like a person petrified4 #8,why1' said she1 #8you do not mind it1 do you8' #8,does a man not mind a throw of dice by which a fortune hangs8' said ,mr4 ,archer1 rather hoarsely4 #8,and this is more than fortune4 ,nance1 if you have any kindness for my fate1 put up a prayer before ,i launch the next one4' #8,a prayer1' she cried1 #8about a game like this8 ,i would not be so heathen4' #8,well1' said he1 #8then without1' and he closed his eyes and dropped the piece of rush4 ,this time there was no doubt4 ,it went for the rapid as straight as any arrow4 #8,action then6' said ,mr4 ,archer1 getting to his feet2 #8and then ,god forgive us1' he added1 almost to himself4 #8,god forgive us1 indeed1' cried ,nance1 #8for wasting the good daylight6 ,but come1 ,mr4 ,archer1 if ,i see you look so serious ,i shall begin to think you was in earnest4' #8,nay1' he said1 turning upon her suddenly1 with a full smile2 #8but is not this good advice8 ,i have consulted ,god and demigod2 the nymph of the river1 and what ,i far more admire and trust1 my blue-eyed ,minerva4 ,both have said the same4 ,my own heart was telling it already4 ,action1 then1 be mine2 and into the deep sea with all this paralysing casuistry4 ,i am happy to-day for the first time4' ,,chapter ,,viii--,,the ,,mail ,,guard ,somewhere about two in the morning a squall had burst upon the castle1 a clap of screaming wind that made the towers rock1 and a copious drift of rain that streamed from the windows4 ,the wind soon blew itself out1 but the day broke cloudy and dripping1 and when the little party assembled at breakfast their humours appeared to have changed with the change of weather4 ,nance had been brooding on the scene at the river-side1 applying it in various ways to her particular aspirations1 and the result1 which was hardly to her mind1 had taken the colour out of her cheeks4 ,mr4 ,archer1 too1 was somewhat absent1 his thoughts were of a mingled strain2 and even upon his usually impassive countenance there were betrayed successive depths of depression and starts of exultation1 which the girl translated in terms of her own hopes and fears4 ,but ,jonathan was the most altered3 he was strangely silent1 hardly passing a word1 and watched ,mr4 ,archer with an eager and furtive eye4 ,it seemed as if the idea that had so long hovered before him had now taken a more solid shape1 and1 while it still attracted1 somewhat alarmed his imagination4 ,at this rate1 conversation languished into a silence which was only broken by the gentle and ghostly noises of the rain on the stone roof and about all that field of ruins2 and they were all relieved when the note of a man whistling and the sound of approaching footsteps in the grassy court announced a visitor4 ,it was the ostler from the #8,green ,dragon' bringing a letter for ,mr4 ,archer4 ,nance saw her hero's face contract and then relax again at sight of it2 and she thought that she knew why1 for the sprawling1 gross black characters of the address were easily distinguishable from the fine writing on the former letter that had so much disturbed him4 ,he opened it and began to read2 while the ostler sat down to table with a pot of ale1 and proceeded to make himself agreeable after his fashion4 #8,fine doings down our way1 ,miss ,nance1' said he4 #8,i haven't been abed this blessed night4' ,nance expressed a polite interest1 but her eye was on ,mr4 ,archer1 who was reading his letter with a face of such extreme indifference that she was tempted to suspect him of assumption4 #8,yes1' continued the ostler1 #8not been the like of it this fifteen years3 the ,north ,mail stopped at the three stones4' ,jonathan's cup was at his lip1 but at this moment he choked with a great splutter2 and ,mr4 ,archer1 as if startled by the noise1 made so sudden a movement that one corner of the sheet tore off and stayed between his finger and thumb4 ,it was some little time before the old man was sufficiently recovered to beg the ostler to go on1 and he still kept coughing and crying and rubbing his eyes4 ,mr4 ,archer1 on his side1 laid the letter down1 and1 putting his hands in his pocket1 listened gravely to the tale4 #8,yes1' resumed ,sam1 #8the ,north ,mail was stopped by a single horseman2 dash my wig1 but ,i admire him6 ,there were four insides and two out1 and poor ,tom ,oglethorpe1 the guard4 ,tom showed himself a man2 let fly his blunderbuss at him2 had him covered1 too1 and could swear to that2 but the ,captain never let on1 up with a pistol and fetched poor ,tom a bullet through the body4 ,tom1 he squelched upon the seat1 all over blood4 ,up comes the ,captain to the window4 8,oblige me10 says he1 8with what you have40 ,would you believe it8 ,not a man says cheep6--not them4 8,thy hands over thy head40 ,four watches1 rings1 snuff-boxes1 seven-and-forty pounds overhead in gold4 ,one ,dicksee1 a grazier1 tries it on3 gives him a guinea4 8,beg your pardon10 says the ,captain1 8,i think too highly of you to take it at your hand4 ,i will not take less than ten from such a gentleman40 ,this ,dicksee had his money in his stocking1 but there was the pistol at his eye4 ,down he goes1 offs with his stocking1 and there was thirty golden guineas4 8,now10 says the ,captain1 8you've tried it on with me1 but ,i scorns the advantage4 ,ten ,i said10 he says1 8and ten ,i take40 ,so1 dash my buttons1 ,i call that man a man6' cried ,sam in cordial admiration4 #8,well1 and then8' says ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,then1' resumed ,sam1 #8that old fat fagot ,engleton1 him as held the ribbons and drew up like a lamb when he was told to1 picks up his cattle1 and drives off again4 ,down they came to the 8,dragon10 all singing like as if they was scalded1 and poor ,tom saying nothing4 ,you would #8a' thought they had all lost the ,king's crown to hear them4 ,down gets this ,dicksee4 8,postmaster10 he says1 taking him by the arm1 8this is a most abominable thing10 he says4 ,down gets a ,major ,clayton1 and gets the old man by the other arm4 8,we've been robbed10 he cries1 8robbed60 ,down gets the others1 and all around the old man telling their story1 and what they had lost1 and how they was all as good as ruined2 till at last ,old ,engleton says1 says he1 8,how about ,oglethorpe80 says he4 8,ay10 says the others1 8how about the guard80 ,well1 with that we bousted him down1 as white as a rag and all blooded like a sop4 ,i thought he was dead4 ,well1 he ain't dead2 but he's dying1 ,i fancy4' #8,did you say four watches8' said ,jonathan4 #8,four1 ,i think4 ,i wish it had been forty1' cried ,sam4 #8,such a party of soused herrings ,i never did see--not a man among them bar poor ,tom4 ,but us that are the servants on the road have all the risk and none of the profit4' #8,and this brave fellow1' asked ,mr4 ,archer1 very quietly1 #8this ,oglethorpe--how is he now8' #8,well1 sir1 with my respects1 ,i take it he has a hole bang through him1' said ,sam4 #8,the doctor hasn't been yet4 ,he'd #8a' been bright and early if it had been a passenger4 ,but1 doctor or no1 ,i'll make a good guess that ,tom won't see to-morrow4 ,he'll die on a ,sunday1 will poor ,tom2 and they do say that's fortunate4' #8,did ,tom see him that did it8' asked ,jonathan4 #8,well1 he saw him1' replied ,sam1 #8but not to swear by4 ,said he was a very tall man1 and very big1 and had a 'ankerchief about his face1 and a very quick shot1 and sat his horse like a thorough gentleman1 as he is4' #8,a gentleman6' cried ,nance4 #8,the dirty knave6' #8,well1 ,i calls a man like that a gentleman1' returned the ostler2 #8that's what ,i mean by a gentleman4' #8,you don't know much of them1 then1' said ,nance4 #8,a gentleman would scorn to stoop to such a thing4 ,i call my uncle a better gentleman than any thief4' #8,and you would be right1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,how many snuff-boxes did he get8' asked ,jonathan4 #8,o1 dang me if ,i know1' said ,sam2 #8,i didn't take an inventory4' #8,i will go back with you1 if you please1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,i should like to see poor ,oglethorpe4 ,he has behaved well4' #8,at your service1 sir1' said ,sam1 jumping to his feet4 #8,i dare to say a gentleman like you would not forget a poor fellow like ,tom--no1 nor a plain man like me1 sir1 that went without his sleep to nurse him4 ,and excuse me1 sir1' added ,sam1 #8you won't forget about the letter neither8' #8,surely not1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 ,oglethorpe lay in a low bed1 one of several in a long garret of the inn4 ,the rain soaked in places through the roof and fell in minute drops2 there was but one small window2 the beds were occupied by servants1 the air of the garret was both close and chilly4 ,mr4 ,archer's heart sank at the threshold to see a man lying perhaps mortally hurt in so poor a sick-room1 and as he drew near the low bed he took his hat off4 ,the guard was a big1 blowsy1 innocent-looking soul with a thick lip and a broad nose1 comically turned up2 his cheeks were crimson1 and when ,mr4 ,archer laid a finger on his brow he found him burning with fever4 #8,i fear you suffer much1' he said1 with a catch in his voice1 as he sat down on the bedside4 #8,i suppose ,i do1 sir1' returned ,oglethorpe2 #8it is main sore4' #8,i am used to wounds and wounded men1' returned the visitor4 #8,i have been in the wars and nursed brave fellows before now2 and1 if you will suffer me1 ,i propose to stay beside you till the doctor comes4' #8,it is very good of you1 sir1 ,i am sure1' said ,oglethorpe4 #8,the trouble is they won't none of them let me drink4' #8,if you will not tell the doctor1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8,i will give you some water4 ,they say it is bad for a green wound1 but in the ,low ,countries we all drank water when we found the chance1 and ,i could never perceive we were the worse for it4' #8,been wounded yourself1 sir1 perhaps8' called ,oglethorpe4 #8,twice1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8and was as proud of these hurts as any lady of her bracelets4 ',tis a fine thing to smart for one's duty2 even in the pangs of it there is contentment4' #8,ah1 well6' replied the guard1 #8if you've been shot yourself1 that explains4 ,but as for contentment1 why1 sir1 you see1 it smarts1 as you say4 ,and then1 ,i have a good wife1 you see1 and a bit of a brat--a little thing1 so high4' #8,don't move1' said ,mr4 ,archer4 #8,no1 sir1 ,i will not1 and thank you kindly1' said ,oglethorpe4 #8,at ,york they are4 ,a very good lass is my wife--far too good for me4 ,and the little rascal--well1 ,i don't know how to say it1 but he sort of comes round you4 ,if ,i were to go1 sir1 it would be hard on my poor girl--main hard on her6' #8,ay1 you must feel bitter hardly to the rogue that laid you here1' said ,archer4 #8,why1 no1 sir1 more against ,engleton and the passengers1' replied the guard4 #8,he played his hand1 if you come to look at it2 and ,i wish he had shot worse1 or me better4 ,and yet ,i'll go to my grave but what ,i covered him1' he cried4 #8,it looks like witchcraft4 ,i'll go to my grave but what he was drove full of slugs like a pepper-box4' #8,quietly1' said ,mr4 ,archer1 #8you must not excite yourself4 ,these deceptions are very usual in war2 the eye1 in the moment of alert1 is hardly to be trusted1 and when the smoke blows away you see the man you fired at1 taking aim1 it may be1 at yourself4 ,you should observe1 too1 that you were in the dark night1 and somewhat dazzled by the lamps1 and that the sudden stopping of the mail had jolted you4 ,in such circumstances a man may miss1 ay1 even with a blunder-buss1 and no blame attach to his marksmanship4' 4 4 4 ,,the ,,young ,,chevalier ,,prologue--,,the ,,wine-,,seller',s ,,wife ,there was a wine-seller's shop1 as you went down to the river in the city of the ,anti-popes4 ,there a man was served with good wine of the country and plain country fare2 and the place being clean and quiet1 with a prospect on the river1 certain gentlemen who dwelt in that city in attendance on a great personage made it a practice 7when they had any silver in their purses7 to come and eat there and be private4 ,they called the wine-seller ,paradou4 ,he was built more like a bullock than a man1 huge in bone and brawn1 high in colour1 and with a hand like a baby for size4 ,marie-,madeleine was the name of his wife2 she was of ,marseilles1 a city of entrancing women1 nor was any fairer than herself4 ,she was tall1 being almost of a height with ,paradou2 full-girdled1 point-device in every form1 with an exquisite delicacy in the face2 her nose and nostrils a delight to look at from the fineness of the sculpture1 her eyes inclined a hair's-breadth inward1 her colour between dark and fair1 and laid on even like a flower's4 ,a faint rose dwelt in it1 as though she had been found unawares bathing1 and had blushed from head to foot4 ,she was of a grave countenance1 rarely smiling2 yet it seemed to be written upon every part of her that she rejoiced in life4 ,her husband loved the heels of her feet and the knuckles of her fingers2 he loved her like a glutton and a brute2 his love hung about her like an atmosphere2 one that came by chance into the wine-shop was aware of that passion2 and it might be said that by the strength of it the woman had been drugged or spell-bound4 ,she knew not if she loved or loathed him2 he was always in her eyes like something monstrous--monstrous in his love1 monstrous in his person1 horrific but imposing in his violence2 and her sentiment swung back and forward from desire to sickness4 ,but the mean1 where it dwelt chiefly1 was an apathetic fascination1 partly of horror2 as of ,europa in mid ocean with her bull4 ,on the #ajth ,november #agdi there sat two of the foreign gentlemen in the wine-seller's shop4 ,they were both handsome men of a good presence1 richly dressed4 ,the first was swarthy and long and lean1 with an alert1 black look1 and a mole upon his cheek4 ,the other was more fair4 ,he seemed very easy and sedate1 and a little melancholy for so young a man1 but his smile was charming4 ,in his grey eyes there was much abstraction1 as of one recalling fondly that which was past and lost4 ,yet there was strength and swiftness in his limbs2 and his mouth set straight across his face1 the under lip a thought upon side1 like that of a man accustomed to resolve4 ,these two talked together in a rude outlandish speech that no frequenter of that wine-shop understood4 ,the swarthy man answered to the name of ,ballantrae2 he of the dreamy eyes was sometimes called ,balmile1 and sometimes my ,lord1 or my ,lord ,gladsmuir2 but when the title was given him1 he seemed to put it by as if in jesting1 not without bitterness4 ,the mistral blew in the city4 ,the first day of that wind1 they say in the countries where its voice is heard1 it blows away all the dust1 the second all the stones1 and the third it blows back others from the mountains4 ,it was now come to the third day2 outside the pebbles flew like hail1 and the face of the river was puckered1 and the very building-stones in the walls of houses seemed to be curdled with the savage cold and fury of that continuous blast4 ,it could be heard to hoot in all the chimneys of the city2 it swept about the wine-shop1 filling the room with eddies2 the chill and gritty touch of it passed between the nearest clothes and the bare flesh2 and the two gentlemen at the far table kept their mantles loose about their shoulders4 ,the roughness of these outer hulls1 for they were plain travellers' cloaks that had seen service1 set the greater mark of richness on what showed below of their laced clothes2 for the one was in scarlet and the other in violet and white1 like men come from a scene of ceremony2 as indeed they were4 ,it chanced that these fine clothes were not without their influence on the scene which followed1 and which makes the prologue of our tale4 ,for a long time ,balmile was in the habit to come to the wine-shop and eat a meal or drink a measure of wine2 sometimes with a comrade2 more often alone1 when he would sit and dream and drum upon the table1 and the thoughts would show in the man's face in little glooms and lightenings1 like the sun and the clouds upon a water4 ,for a long time ,marie-,madeleine had observed him apart4 ,his sadness1 the beauty of his smile when by any chance he remembered her existence and addressed her1 the changes of his mind signalled forth by an abstruse play of feature1 the mere fact that he was foreign and a thing detached from the local and the accustomed1 insensibly attracted and affected her4 ,kindness was ready in her mind2 it but lacked the touch of an occasion to effervesce and crystallise4 ,now ,balmile had come hitherto in a very poor plain habit2 and this day of the mistral1 when his mantle was just open1 and she saw beneath it the glancing of the violet and the velvet and the silver1 and the clustering fineness of the lace1 it seemed to set the man in a new light1 with which he shone resplendent to her fancy4 ,the high inhuman note of the wind1 the violence and continuity of its outpouring1 and the fierce touch of it upon man's whole periphery1 accelerated the functions of the mind4 ,it set thoughts whirling1 as it whirled the trees of the forest2 it stirred them up in flights1 as it stirred up the dust in chambers4 ,as brief as sparks1 the fancies glittered and succeeded each other in the mind of ,marie-,madeleine2 and the grave man with the smile1 and the bright clothes under the plain mantle1 haunted her with incongruous explanations4 ,she considered him1 the unknown1 the speaker of an unknown tongue1 the hero 7as she placed him7 of an unknown romance1 the dweller upon unknown memories4 ,she recalled him sitting there alone1 so immersed1 so stupefied2 yet she was sure he was not stupid4 ,she recalled one day when he had remained a long time motionless1 with parted lips1 like one in the act of starting up1 his eyes fixed on vacancy4 ,any one else must have looked foolish2 but not he4 ,she tried to conceive what manner of memory had thus entranced him2 she forged for him a past2 she showed him to herself in every light of heroism and greatness and misfortune2 she brooded with petulant intensity on all she knew and guessed of him4 ,yet1 though she was already gone so deep1 she was still unashamed1 still unalarmed2 her thoughts were still disinterested2 she had still to reach the stage at which--beside the image of that other whom we love to contemplate and to adorn--we place the image of ourself and behold them together with delight4 ,she stood within the counter1 her hands clasped behind her back1 her shoulders pressed against the wall1 her feet braced out4 ,her face was bright with the wind and her own thoughts2 as a fire in a similar day of tempest glows and brightens on a hearth1 so she seemed to glow1 standing there1 and to breathe out energy4 ,it was the first time ,ballantrae had visited that wine-seller's1 the first time he had seen the wife2 and his eyes were true to her4 #8,i perceive your reason for carrying me to this very draughty tavern1' he said at last4 #8,i believe it is propinquity1' returned ,balmile4 #8,you play dark1' said ,ballantrae1 #8but have a care6 ,be more frank with me1 or ,i will cut you out4 ,i go through no form of qualifying my threat1 which would be commonplace and not conscientious4 ,there is only one point in these campaigns3 that is the degree of admiration offered by the man2 and to our hostess ,i am in a posture to make victorious love4' #8,if you think you have the time1 or the game worth the candle1' replied the other with a shrug4 #8,one would suppose you were never at the pains to observe her1' said ,ballantrae4 #8,i am not very observant1' said ,balmile4 #8,she seems comely4' #8,you very dear and dull dog6' cried ,ballantrae2 #8chastity is the most besotting of the virtues4 ,why1 she has a look in her face beyond singing6 ,i believe1 if you was to push me hard1 ,i might trace it home to a trifle of a squint4 ,what matters8 ,the height of beauty is in the touch that's wrong1 that's the modulation in a tune4 ',tis the devil we all love2 ,i owe many a conquest to my mole'--he touched it as he spoke with a smile1 and his eyes glittered2--#8we are all hunchbacks1 and beauty is only that kind of deformity that ,i happen to admire4 ,but come6 ,because you are chaste1 for which ,i am sure ,i pay you my respects1 that is no reason why you should be blind4 ,look at her1 look at the delicious nose of her1 look at her cheek1 look at her ear1 look at her hand and wrist--look at the whole baggage from heels to crown1 and tell me if she wouldn't melt on a man's tongue4' ,as ,ballantrae spoke1 half jesting1 half enthusiastic1 ,balmile was constrained to do as he was bidden4 ,he looked at the woman1 admired her excellences1 and was at the same time ashamed for himself and his companion4 ,so it befell that when ,marie-,madeleine raised her eyes1 she met those of the subject of her contemplations fixed directly on herself with a look that is unmistakable1 the look of a person measuring and valuing another--and1 to clench the false impression1 that his glance was instantly and guiltily withdrawn4 ,the blood beat back upon her heart and leaped again2 her obscure thoughts flashed clear before her2 she flew in fancy straight to his arms like a wanton1 and fled again on the instant like a nymph4 ,and at that moment there chanced an interruption1 which not only spared her embarrassment1 but set the last consecration on her now articulate love4 ,into the wine-shop there came a ,french gentleman1 arrayed in the last refinement of the fashion1 though a little tumbled by his passage in the wind4 ,it was to be judged he had come from the same formal gathering at which the others had preceded him2 and perhaps that he had gone there in the hope to meet with them1 for he came up to ,ballantrae with unceremonious eagerness4 #8,at last1 here you are6' he cried in ,french4 #8,i thought ,i was to miss you altogether4' ,the ,scotsmen rose1 and ,ballantrae1 after the first greetings1 laid his hand on his companion's shoulder4 #8,my lord1' said he1 #8allow me to present to you one of my best friends and one of our best soldiers1 the ,lord ,viscount ,gladsmuir4' ,the two bowed with the elaborate elegance of the period4 #8,monseigneur1' said ,balmile1 #8je n'ai pas la prtention de m'affubler d'un titre que la mauvaise fortune de mon roi ne me permet pas de porter comma il sied4 ,je m'appelle1 pour vous servir1 ,blair de ,balmile tout court4' ,my lord1 ,i have not the effrontery to cumber myself with a title which the ill fortunes of my king will not suffer me to bear the way it should be4 ,i call myself1 at your service1 plain ,blair of ,balmile4 #8,monsieur le ,vicomte ou monsieur ,blr' de ,balmal1' replied the newcomer1 #8le nom n'y fait rien1 et l'on connat vos beaux faits4' ,the name matters nothing1 your gallant actions are known4 ,a few more ceremonies1 and these three1 sitting down together to the table1 called for wine4 ,it was the happiness of ,marie-,madeleine to wait unobserved upon the prince of her desires4 ,she poured the wine1 he drank of it2 and that link between them seemed to her1 for the moment1 close as a caress4 ,though they lowered their tones1 she surprised great names passing in their conversation1 names of kings1 the names of de ,gesvre and ,belle-,isle2 and the man who dealt in these high matters1 and she who was now coupled with him in her own thoughts1 seemed to swim in mid air in a transfiguration4 ,love is a crude core1 but it has singular and far-reaching fringes2 in that passionate attraction for the stranger that now swayed and mastered her1 his harsh incomprehensible language1 and these names of grandees in his talk1 were each an element4 ,the ,frenchman stayed not long1 but it was plain he left behind him matter of much interest to his companions2 they spoke together earnestly1 their heads down1 the woman of the wine-shop totally forgotten2 and they were still so occupied when ,paradou returned4 ,this man's love was unsleeping4 ,the even bluster of the mistral1 with which he had been combating some hours1 had not suspended1 though it had embittered1 that predominant passion4 ,his first look was for his wife1 a look of hope and suspicion1 menace and humility and love1 that made the over-blooming brute appear for the moment almost beautiful4 ,she returned his glance1 at first as though she knew him not1 then with a swiftly waxing coldness of intent2 and at last1 without changing their direction1 she had closed her eyes4 ,there passed across her mind during that period much that ,paradou could not have understood had it been told to him in words3 chiefly the sense of an enlightening contrast betwixt the man who talked of kings and the man who kept a wine-shop1 betwixt the love she yearned for and that to which she had been long exposed like a victim bound upon the altar4 ,there swelled upon her1 swifter than the ,rhone1 a tide of abhorrence and disgust4 ,she had succumbed to the monster1 humbling herself below animals2 and now she loved a hero1 aspiring to the semi-divine4 ,it was in the pang of that humiliating thought that she had closed her eyes4 ,paradou--quick as beasts are quick1 to translate silence--felt the insult through his blood2 his inarticulate soul bellowed within him for revenge4 ,he glanced about the shop4 ,he saw the two indifferent gentlemen deep in talk1 and passed them over3 his fancy flying not so high4 ,there was but one other present1 a country lout who stood swallowing his wine1 equally unobserved by all and unobserving--to him he dealt a glance of murderous suspicion1 and turned direct upon his wife4 ,the wine-shop had lain hitherto1 a space of shelter1 the scene of a few ceremonial passages and some whispered conversation1 in the howling river of the wind2 the clock had not yet ticked a score of times since ,paradou's appearance2 and now1 as he suddenly gave tongue1 it seemed as though the mistral had entered at his heels4 #8,what ails you1 woman8' he cried1 smiting on the counter4 #8,nothing ails me1' she replied4 ,it was strange2 but she spoke and stood at that moment like a lady of degree1 drawn upward by her aspirations4 #8,you speak to me1 by ,god1 as though you scorned me6' cried the husband4 ,the man's passion was always formidable2 she had often looked on upon its violence with a thrill1 it had been one ingredient in her fascination2 and she was now surprised to behold him1 as from afar off1 gesticulating but impotent4 ,his fury might be dangerous like a torrent or a gust of wind1 but it was inhuman2 it might be feared or braved1 it should never be respected4 ,and with that there came in her a sudden glow of courage and that readiness to die which attends so closely upon all strong passions4 #8,i do scorn you1' she said4 #8,what is that8' he cried4 #8,i scorn you1' she repeated1 smiling4 #8,you love another man6' said he4 #8,with all my soul1' was her reply4 ,the wine-seller roared aloud so that the house rang and shook with it4 #8,is this the--8' he cried1 using a foul word1 common in the ,south2 and he seized the young countryman and dashed him to the ground4 ,there he lay for the least interval of time insensible2 thence fled from the house1 the most terrified person in the county4 ,the heavy measure had escaped from his hands1 splashing the wine high upon the wall4 ,paradou caught it4 #8,and you8' he roared to his wife1 giving her the same name in the feminine1 and he aimed at her the deadly missile4 ,she expected it1 motionless1 with radiant eyes4 ,but before it sped1 ,paradou was met by another adversary1 and the unconscious rivals stood confronted4 ,it was hard to say at that moment which appeared the more formidable4 ,in ,paradou1 the whole muddy and truculent depths of the half-man were stirred to frenzy2 the lust of destruction raged in him2 there was not a feature in his face but it talked murder4 ,balmile had dropped his cloak3 he shone out at once in his finery1 and stood to his full stature2 girt in mind and body all his resources1 all his temper1 perfectly in command in his face the light of battle4 ,neither spoke2 there was no blow nor threat of one2 it was war reduced to its last element1 the spiritual2 and the huge wine-seller slowly lowered his weapon4 ,balmile was a noble1 he a commoner2 ,balmile exulted in an honourable cause4 ,paradou already perhaps began to be ashamed of his violence4 ,of a sudden1 at least1 the tortured brute turned and fled from the shop in the footsteps of his former victim1 to whose continued flight his reappearance added wings4 ,so soon as ,balmile appeared between her husband and herself1 ,marie-,madeleine transferred to him her eyes4 ,it might be her last moment1 and she fed upon that face2 reading there inimitable courage and illimitable valour to protect4 ,and when the momentary peril was gone by1 and the champion turned a little awkwardly towards her whom he had rescued1 it was to meet1 and quail before1 a gaze of admiration more distinct than words4 ,he bowed1 he stammered1 his words failed him2 he who had crossed the floor a moment ago1 like a young god1 to smite1 returned like one discomfited2 got somehow to his place by the table1 muffled himself again in his discarded cloak1 and for a last touch of the ridiculous1 seeking for anything to restore his countenance1 drank of the wine before him1 deep as a porter after a heavy lift4 ,it was little wonder if ,ballantrae1 reading the scene with malevolent eyes1 laughed out loud and brief1 and drank with raised glass1 #8,to the champion of the ,fair4' ,marie-,madeleine stood in her old place within the counter2 she disdained the mocking laughter2 it fell on her ears1 but it did not reach her spirit4 ,for her1 the world of living persons was all resumed again into one pair1 as in the days of ,eden2 there was but the one end in life1 the one hope before her1 the one thing needful1 the one thing possible--to be his4 ,,chapter ,i--,,the ,,prince ,that same night there was in the city of ,avignon a young man in distress of mind4 ,now he sat1 now walked in a high apartment1 full of draughts and shadows4 ,a single candle made the darkness visible2 and the light scarce sufficed to show upon the wall1 where they had been recently and rudely nailed1 a few miniatures and a copper medal of the young man's head4 ,the same was being sold that year in ,london1 to admiring thousands4 ,the original was fair2 he had beautiful brown eyes1 a beautiful bright open face2 a little feminine1 a little hard1 a little weak2 still full of the light of youth1 but already beginning to be vulgarised2 a sordid bloom come upon it1 the lines coarsened with a touch of puffiness4 ,he was dressed1 as for a gala1 in peach-colour and silver2 his breast sparkled with stars and was bright with ribbons2 for he had held a levee in the afternoon and received a distinguished personage incognito4 ,now he sat with a bowed head1 now walked precipitately to and fro1 now went and gazed from the uncurtained window1 where the wind was still blowing1 and the lights winked in the darkness4 ,the bells of ,avignon rose into song as he was gazing2 and the high notes and the deep tossed and drowned1 boomed suddenly near or were suddenly swallowed up1 in the current of the mistral4 ,tears sprang in the pale blue eyes2 the expression of his face was changed to that of a more active misery1 it seemed as if the voices of the bells reached1 and touched and pained him1 in a waste of vacancy where even pain was welcome4 ,outside in the night they continued to sound on1 swelling and fainting2 and the listener heard in his memory1 as it were their harmonies1 joy-bells clashing in a northern city1 and the acclamations of a multitude1 the cries of battle1 the gross voices of cannon1 the stridor of an animated life4 ,and then all died away1 and he stood face to face with himself in the waste of vacancy1 and a horror came upon his mind1 and a faintness on his brain1 such as seizes men upon the brink of cliffs4 ,on the table1 by the side of the candle1 stood a tray of glasses1 a bottle1 and a silver bell4 ,he went thither swiftly1 then his hand lowered first above the bell1 then settled on the bottle4 ,slowly he filled a glass1 slowly drank it out2 and1 as a tide of animal warmth recomforted the recesses of his nature1 stood there smiling at himself4 ,he remembered he was young2 the funeral curtains rose1 and he saw his life shine and broaden and flow out majestically1 like a river sunward4 ,the smile still on his lips1 he lit a second candle and a third2 a fire stood ready built in a chimney1 he lit that also2 and the fir-cones and the gnarled olive billets were swift to break in flame and to crackle on the hearth1 and the room brightened and enlarged about him like his hopes4 ,to and fro1 to and fro1 he went1 his hands lightly clasped1 his breath deeply and pleasurably taken4 ,victory walked with him2 he marched to crowns and empires among shouting followers2 glory was his dress4 ,and presently again the shadows closed upon the solitary4 ,under the gilt of flame and candle-light1 the stone walls of the apartment showed down bare and cold2 behind the depicted triumph loomed up the actual failure3 defeat1 the long distress of the flight1 exile1 despair1 broken followers1 mourning faces1 empty pockets1 friends estranged4 ,the memory of his father rose in his mind3 he1 too1 estranged and defied2 despair sharpened into wrath4 ,there was one who had led armies in the field1 who had staked his life upon the family enterprise1 a man of action and experience1 of the open air1 the camp1 the court1 the council-room2 and he was to accept direction from an old1 pompous gentleman in a home in ,italy1 and buzzed about by priests8 ,a pretty king1 if he had not a martial son to lean upon6 ,a king at all8 #8,there was a weaver 7of all people7 joined me at ,st4 ,ninians2 he was more of a man than my papa6' he thought4 #8,i saw him lie doubled in his blood and a grenadier below him--and he died for my papa6 ,all died for him1 or risked the dying1 and ,i lay for him all those months in the rain and skulked in heather like a fox2 and now he writes me his advice6 calls me ,carluccio--me1 the man of the house1 the only king in that king's race4' ,he ground his teeth4 #8,the only king in ,europe6' ,who else8 ,who has done and suffered except me8 who has lain and run and hidden with his faithful subjects1 like a second ,bruce8 ,not my accursed cousin1 ,louis of ,france1 at least1 the lewd effeminate traitor6' ,and filling the glass to the brim1 he drank a king's damnation4 ,ah1 if he had the power of ,louis1 what a king were here6 ,the minutes followed each other into the past1 and still he persevered in this debilitating cycle of emotions1 still fed the fire of his excitement with driblets of ,rhine wine3 a boy at odds with life1 a boy with a spark of the heroic1 which he was now burning out and drowning down in futile reverie and solitary excess4 ,from two rooms beyond1 the sudden sound of a raised voice attracted him4 #8,by 4 4 4 ,,heathercat ,,chapter ,i--,,traquairs ,,of ,,montroymont ,the period of this tale is in the heat of the killing-time2 the scene laid for the most part in solitary hills and morasses1 haunted only by the so-called ,mountain ,wanderers1 the dragoons that came in chase of them1 the women that wept on their dead bodies1 and the wild birds of the moorland that have cried there since the beginning4 ,it is a land of many rain-clouds2 a land of much mute history1 written there in prehistoric symbols4 ,strange green raths are to be seen commonly in the country1 above all by the kirkyards2 barrows of the dead1 standing stones2 beside these1 the faint1 durable footprints and handmarks of the ,roman2 and an antiquity older perhaps than any1 and still living and active--a complete ,celtic nomenclature and a scarce-mingled ,celtic population4 ,these rugged and grey hills were once included in the boundaries of the ,caledonian ,forest4 ,merlin sat here below his apple-tree and lamented ,gwendolen2 here spoke with ,kentigern2 here fell into his enchanted trance4 ,and the legend of his slumber seems to body forth the story of that ,celtic race1 deprived for so many centuries of their authentic speech1 surviving with their ancestral inheritance of melancholy perversity and patient1 unfortunate courage4 ,the ,traquairs of ,montroymont 7,mons ,romanus1 as the erudite expound it7 had long held their seat about the head-waters of the ,dule and in the back parts of the moorland parish of ,balweary4 ,for two hundred years they had enjoyed in these upland quarters a certain decency 7almost to be named distinction7 of repute2 and the annals of their house1 or what is remembered of them1 were obscure and bloody4 ,ninian ,traquair was #8cruallie slochtered' by the ,crozers at the kirk-door of ,balweary1 anno #adhb4 ,francis killed ,simon ,ruthven of ,drumshoreland1 anno #aedj2 bought letters of slayers at the widow and heir1 and1 by a barbarous form of compounding1 married 7without tocher7 ,simon's daughter ,grizzel1 which is the way the ,traquairs and ,ruthvens came first to an intermarriage4 ,about the last ,traquair and ,ruthven marriage1 it is the business of this book1 among many other things1 to tell4 ,the ,traquairs were always strong for the ,covenant2 for the ,king also1 but the ,covenant first2 and it began to be ill days for ,montroymont when the ,bishops came in and the dragoons at the heels of them4 ,ninian 7then laird7 was an anxious husband of himself and the property1 as the times required1 and it may be said of him1 that he lost both4 ,he was heavily suspected of the ,pentland ,hills rebellion4 ,when it came the length of ,bothwell ,brig1 he stood his trial before the ,secret ,council1 and was convicted of talking with some insurgents by the wayside1 the subject of the conversation not very clearly appearing1 and of the reset and maintenance of one ,gale1 a gardener man1 who was seen before ,bothwell with a musket1 and afterwards1 for a continuance of months1 delved the garden at ,montroymont4 ,matters went very ill with ,ninian at the ,council2 some of the lords were clear for treason2 and even the boot was talked of4 ,but he was spared that torture2 and at last1 having pretty good friendship among great men1 he came off with a fine of seven thousand marks1 that caused the estate to groan4 ,in this case1 as in so many others1 it was the wife that made the trouble4 ,she was a great keeper of conventicles2 would ride ten miles to one1 and when she was fined1 rejoiced greatly to suffer for the ,kirk2 but it was rather her husband that suffered4 ,she had their only son1 ,francis1 baptized privately by the hands of ,mr4 ,kidd2 there was that much the more to pay for6 ,she could neither be driven nor wiled into the parish kirk2 as for taking the sacrament at the hands of any ,episcopalian curate1 and tenfold more at those of ,curate ,haddo1 there was nothing further from her purposes2 and ,montroymont had to put his hand in his pocket month by month and year by year4 ,once1 indeed1 the little lady was cast in prison1 and the laird1 worthy1 heavy1 uninterested man1 had to ride up and take her place2 from which he was not discharged under nine months and a sharp fine4 ,it scarce seemed she had any gratitude to him2 she came out of gaol herself1 and plunged immediately deeper in conventicles1 resetting recusants1 and all her old1 expensive folly1 only with greater vigour and openness1 because ,montroymont was safe in the ,tolbooth and she had no witness to consider4 ,when he was liberated and came back1 with his fingers singed1 in ,december #afhj1 and late in the black night1 my lady was from home4 ,he came into the house at his alighting1 with a riding-rod yet in his hand2 and1 on the servant-maid telling him1 caught her by the scruff of the neck1 beat her violently1 flung her down in the passageway1 and went upstairs to his bed fasting and without a light4 ,it was three in the morning when my lady returned from that conventicle1 and1 hearing of the assault 7because the maid had sat up for her1 weeping71 went to their common chamber with a lantern in hand and stamping with her shoes so as to wake the dead2 it was supposed1 by those that heard her1 from a design to have it out with the good man at once4 ,the house-servants gathered on the stair1 because it was a main interest with them to know which of these two was the better horse2 and for the space of two hours they were heard to go at the matter1 hammer and tongs4 ,montroymont alleged he was at the end of possibilities2 it was no longer within his power to pay the annual rents2 she had served him basely by keeping conventicles while he lay in prison for her sake2 his friends were weary1 and there was nothing else before him but the entire loss of the family lands1 and to begin life again by the wayside as a common beggar4 ,she took him up very sharp and high3 called upon him1 if he were a ,christian8 and which he most considered1 the loss of a few dirty1 miry glebes1 or of his soul8 ,presently he was heard to weep1 and my lady's voice to go on continually like a running burn1 only the words indistinguishable2 whereupon it was supposed a victory for her ladyship1 and the domestics took themselves to bed4 ,the next day ,traquair appeared like a man who had gone under the harrows2 and his lady wife thenceforward continued in her old course without the least deflection4 ,thenceforward ,ninian went on his way without complaint1 and suffered his wife to go on hers without remonstrance4 ,he still minded his estate1 of which it might be said he took daily a fresh farewell1 and counted it already lost2 looking ruefully on the acres and the graves of his fathers1 on the moorlands where the wild-fowl consorted1 the low1 gurgling pool of the trout1 and the high1 windy place of the calling curlews--things that were yet his for the day and would be another's to-morrow2 coming back again1 and sitting ciphering till the dusk at his approaching ruin1 which no device of arithmetic could postpone beyond a year or two4 ,he was essentially the simple ancient man1 the farmer and landholder2 he would have been content to watch the seasons come and go1 and his cattle increase1 until the limit of age2 he would have been content at any time to die1 if he could have left the estates undiminished to an heir-male of his ancestors1 that duty standing first in his instinctive calendar4 ,and now he saw everywhere the image of the new proprietor come to meet him1 and go sowing and reaping1 or fowling for his pleasure on the red moors1 or eating the very gooseberries in the ,place garden2 and saw always1 on the other hand1 the figure of ,francis go forth1 a beggar1 into the broad world4 ,it was in vain the poor gentleman sought to moderate2 took every test and took advantage of every indulgence2 went and drank with the dragoons in ,balweary2 attended the communion and came regularly to the church to ,curate ,haddo1 with his son beside him4 ,the mad1 raging1 ,presbyterian zealot of a wife at home made all of no avail2 and indeed the house must have fallen years before if it had not been for the secret indulgence of the curate1 who had a great sympathy with the laird1 and winked hard at the doings in ,montroymont4 ,this curate was a man very ill reputed in the countryside1 and indeed in all ,scotland4 #8,infamous ,haddo' is ,shield's expression4 ,but ,patrick ,walker is more copious4 #8,curate ,hall ,haddo1' says he1 sub voce ,peden1 #8or ,hell ,haddo1 as he was more justly to be called1 a pokeful of old condemned errors and the filthy vile lusts of the flesh1 a published whore-monger1 a common gross drunkard1 continually and godlessly scraping and skirling on a fiddle1 continually breathing flames against the remnant of ,israel4 ,but the ,lord put an end to his piping1 and all these offences were composed into one bloody grave4' ,no doubt this was written to excuse his slaughter2 and ,i have never heard it claimed for ,walker that he was either a just witness or an indulgent judge4 ,at least1 in a merely human character1 ,haddo comes off not wholly amiss in the matter of these ,traquairs3 not that he showed any graces of the ,christian1 but had a sort of ,pagan decency1 which might almost tempt one to be concerned about his sudden1 violent1 and unprepared fate4 ,,chapter ,,ii--,,francie ,francie was eleven years old1 shy1 secret1 and rather childish of his age1 though not backward in schooling1 which had been pushed on far by a private governor1 one ,m#8,brair1 a forfeited minister harboured in that capacity at ,montroymont4 ,the boy1 already much employed in secret by his mother1 was the most apt hand conceivable to run upon a message1 to carry food to lurking fugitives1 or to stand sentry on the skyline above a conventicle4 ,it seemed no place on the moorlands was so naked but what he would find cover there2 and as he knew every hag1 boulder1 and heather-bush in a circuit of seven miles about ,montroymont1 there was scarce any spot but what he could leave or approach it unseen4 ,this dexterity had won him a reputation in that part of the country2 and among the many children employed in these dangerous affairs1 he passed under the by-name of ,heathercat4 ,how much his father knew of this employment might be doubted4 ,he took much forethought for the boy's future1 seeing he was like to be left so poorly1 and would sometimes assist at his lessons1 sighing heavily1 yawning deep1 and now and again patting ,francie on the shoulder if he seemed to be doing ill1 by way of a private1 kind encouragement4 ,but a great part of the day was passed in aimless wanderings with his eyes sealed1 or in his cabinet sitting bemused over the particulars of the coming bankruptcy2 and the boy would be absent a dozen times for once that his father would observe it4 ,on #bnd of ,july #afhb the boy had an errand from his mother1 which must be kept private from all1 the father included in the first of them4 ,crossing the braes1 he hears the clatter of a horse's shoes1 and claps down incontinent in a hag by the wayside4 ,and presently he spied his father come riding from one direction1 and ,curate ,haddo walking from another2 and ,montroymont leaning down from the saddle1 and ,haddo getting on his toes 7for he was a little1 ruddy1 bald-pated man1 more like a dwarf71 they greeted kindly1 and came to a halt within two fathoms of the child4 #8,montroymont1' the curate said1 #8the deil's in 't but ,i'll have to denunciate your leddy again4' #8,deil's in 't indeed6' says the laird4 #8,man6 can ye no induce her to come to the kirk8' pursues ,haddo2 #8or to a communion at the least of it8 ,for the conventicles1 let be6 and the same for yon solemn fule1 ,m#8,brair3 ,i can blink at them4 ,but she's got to come to the kirk1 ,montroymont4' #8,dinna speak of it1' says the laird4 #8,i can do nothing with her4' #8,couldn't ye try the stick to her8 it works wonders whiles1' suggested ,haddo4 #8,no8 ,i'm wae to hear it4 ,and ,i suppose ye ken where you're going8' #8,fine6' said ,montroymont4 #8,fine do ,i ken where3 bankrup'cy and the ,bass ,rock6' #8,praise to my bones that ,i never married6' cried the curate4 #8,well1 it's a grievous thing to me to see an auld house dung down that was here before ,flodden ,field4 ,but naebody can say it was with my wish4' #8,no more they can1 ,haddo6' says the laird4 #8,a good friend ye've been to me1 first and last4 ,i can give you that character with a clear conscience4' ,whereupon they separated1 and ,montroymont rode briskly down into the ,dule ,valley4 ,but of the curate ,francis was not to be quit so easily4 ,he went on with his little1 brisk steps to the corner of a dyke1 and stopped and whistled and waved upon a lassie that was herding cattle there4 ,this ,janet ,m#8,clour was a big lass1 being taller than the curate2 and what made her look the more so1 she was kilted very high4 ,it seemed for a while she would not come1 and ,francie heard her calling ,haddo a #8daft auld fule1' and saw her running and dodging him among the whins and hags till he was fairly blown4 ,but at the last he gets a bottle from his plaid-neuk and holds it up to her2 whereupon she came at once into a composition1 and the pair sat1 drinking of the bottle1 and daffing and laughing together1 on a mound of heather4 ,the boy had scarce heard of these vanities1 or he might have been minded of a nymph and satyr1 if anybody could have taken long-leggit ,janet for a nymph4 ,but they seemed to be huge friends1 he thought2 and was the more surprised1 when the curate had taken his leave1 to see the lassie fling stones after him with screeches of laughter1 and ,haddo turn about and caper1 and shake his staff at her1 and laugh louder than herself4 ,a wonderful merry pair1 they seemed2 and when ,francie had crawled out of the hag1 he had a great deal to consider in his mind4 ,it was possible they were all fallen in error about ,mr4 ,haddo1 he reflected--having seen him so tender with ,montroymont1 and so kind and playful with the lass ,janet2 and he had a temptation to go out of his road and question her herself upon the matter4 ,but he had a strong spirit of duty on him2 and plodded on instead over the braes till he came near the ,house of ,cairngorm4 ,there1 in a hollow place by the burnside that was shaded by some birks1 he was aware of a barefoot boy1 perhaps a matter of three years older than himself4 ,the two approached with the precautions of a pair of strange dogs1 looking at each other queerly4 #8,it's ill weather on the hills1' said the stranger1 giving the watchword4 #8,for a season1' said ,francie1 #8but the ,lord will appear4' #8,richt1' said the barefoot boy2 #8wha're ye frae8' #8,the ,leddy ,montroymont1' says ,francie4 #8,ha'e1 then6' says the stranger1 and handed him a folded paper1 and they stood and looked at each other again4 #8,it's unco het1' said the boy4 #8,dooms het1' says ,francie4 #8,what do they ca' ye8' says the other4 #8,francie1' says he4 #8,i'm young ,montroymont4 ,they ca' me ,heathercat4' #8,i'm ,jock ,crozer1' said the boy4 ,and there was another pause1 while each rolled a stone under his foot4 #8,cast your jaiket and ,i'll fecht ye for a bawbee1' cried the elder boy with sudden violence1 and dramatically throwing back his jacket4 #8,na1 ,i've nae time the now1' said ,francie1 with a sharp thrill of alarm1 because ,crozer was much the heavier boy4 #8,ye're feared4 ,heathercat indeed6' said ,crozer1 for among this infantile army of spies and messengers1 the fame of ,crozer had gone forth and was resented by his rivals4 ,and with that they separated4 ,on his way home ,francie was a good deal occupied with the recollection of this untoward incident4 ,the challenge had been fairly offered and basely refused3 the tale would be carried all over the country1 and the lustre of the name of ,heathercat be dimmed4 ,but the scene between ,curate ,haddo and ,janet ,m#8,clour had also given him much to think of3 and he was still puzzling over the case of the curate1 and why such ill words were said of him1 and why1 if he were so merry-spirited1 he should yet preach so dry1 when coming over a knowe1 whom should he see but ,janet1 sitting with her back to him1 minding her cattle6 ,he was always a great child for secret1 stealthy ways1 having been employed by his mother on errands when the same was necessary2 and he came behind the lass without her hearing4 #8,jennet1' says he4 #8,keep me1' cries ,janet1 springing up4 #8,o1 it's you1 ,maister ,francie6 ,save us1 what a fricht ye gied me4' #8,ay1 it's me1' said ,francie4 #8,i've been thinking1 ,jennet2 ,i saw you and the curate a while back--' #8,brat6' cried ,janet1 and coloured up crimson2 and the one moment made as if she would have stricken him with a ragged stick she had to chase her bestial with1 and the next was begging and praying that he would mention it to none4 ,it was #8naebody's business1 whatever1' she said2 #8it would just start a clash in the country'2 and there would be nothing left for her but to drown herself in ,dule ,water4 #8,why8' says ,francie4 ,the girl looked at him and grew scarlet again4 #8,and it isna that1 anyway1' continued ,francie4 #8,it was just that he seemed so good to ye--like our ,father in heaven1 ,i thought2 and ,i thought that mebbe1 perhaps1 we had all been wrong about him from the first4 ,but ,i'll have to tell ,mr4 ,m#8,brair2 ,i'm under a kind of a bargain to him to tell him all4' #8,tell it to the divil if ye like for me6' cried the lass4 #8,i've naething to be ashamed of4 ,tell ,m#8,brair to mind his ain affairs1' she cried again3 #8they'll be hot eneugh for him1 if ,haddie likes6' ,and so strode off1 shoving her beasts before her1 and ever and again looking back and crying angry words to the boy1 where he stood mystified4 ,by the time he had got home his mind was made up that he would say nothing to his mother4 ,my ,lady ,montroymont was in the keeping-room1 reading a godly book2 she was a wonderful frail little wife to make so much noise in the world and be able to steer about that patient sheep her husband2 her eyes were like sloes1 the fingers of her hands were like tobacco-pipe shanks1 her mouth shut tight like a trap2 and even when she was the most serious1 and still more when she was angry1 there hung about her face the terrifying semblance of a smile4 #8,have ye gotten the billet1 ,francie said she2 and when he had handed it over1 and she had read and burned it1 #8,did you see anybody8' she asked4 #8,i saw the laird1' said ,francie4 #8,he didna see you1 though8' asked his mother4 #8,deil a fear1' from ,francie4 #8,francie6' she cried4 #8,what's that ,i hear8 an aith8 ,the ,lord forgive me1 have ,i broughten forth a brand for the burning1 a fagot for hell-fire8' #8,i'm very sorry1 ma'am1' said ,francie4 #8,i humbly beg the ,lord's pardon1 and yours1 for my wickedness4' #8,h'm1' grunted the lady4 #8,did ye see nobody else8' #8,no1 ma'am1' said ,francie1 with the face of an angel1 #8except ,jock ,crozer1 that gied me the billet4' #8,jock ,crozer6' cried the lady4 #8,i'll ,crozer them6 ,crozers indeed6 ,what next8 ,are we to repose the lives of a suffering remnant in ,crozers8 ,the whole clan of them wants hanging1 and if ,i had my way of it1 they wouldna want it long4 ,are you aware1 sir1 that these ,crozers killed your forebear at the kirk-door8' #8,you see1 he was bigger 'n me1' said ,francie4 #8,jock ,crozer6' continued the lady4 #8,that'll be ,clement's son1 the biggest thief and reiver in the country-side4 ,to trust a note to him6 ,but ,i'll give the benefit of my opinions to ,lady ,whitecross when we two forgather4 ,let her look to herself6 ,i have no patience with half-hearted carlines1 that complies on the ,lord's day morning with the kirk1 and comes taigling the same night to the conventicle4 ,the one or the other6 is what ,i say3 hell or heaven--,haddie's abominations or the pure word of ,god dreeping from the lips of ,mr4 ,arnot1 #88,like honey from the honeycomb ,that dreepeth1 sweeter far40' ,my lady was now fairly launched1 and that upon two congenial subjects3 the deficiencies of the ,lady ,whitecross and the turpitudes of the whole ,crozer race--which1 indeed1 had never been conspicuous for respectability4 ,she pursued the pair of them for twenty minutes on the clock with wonderful animation and detail1 something of the pulpit manner1 and the spirit of one possessed4 #8,o hellish compliance6' she exclaimed4 #8,i would not suffer a complier to break bread with ,christian folk4 ,of all the sins of this day there is not one so ,god-defying1 so ,christ-humiliating1 as damnable compliance'3 the boy standing before her meanwhile1 and brokenly pursuing other thoughts1 mainly of ,haddo and ,janet1 and ,jock ,crozer stripping off his jacket4 ,and yet1 with all his distraction1 it might be argued that he heard too much3 his father and himself being #8compliers'--that is to say1 attending the church of the parish as the law required4 ,presently1 the lady's passion beginning to decline1 or her flux of ill words to be exhausted1 she dismissed her audience4 ,francie bowed low1 left the room1 closed the door behind him3 and then turned him about in the passage-way1 and with a low voice1 but a prodigious deal of sentiment1 repeated the name of the evil one twenty times over1 to the end of which1 for the greater efficacy1 he tacked on #8damnable' and #8hellish4' ,fas est ab hoste doceri--disrespect is made more pungent by quotation2 and there is no doubt but he felt relieved1 and went upstairs into his tutor's chamber with a quiet mind4 ,m#8,brair sat by the cheek of the peat-fire and shivered1 for he had a quartan ague and this was his day4 ,the great night-cap and plaid1 the dark unshaven cheeks of the man1 and the white1 thin hands that held the plaid about his chittering body1 made a sorrowful picture4 ,but ,francie knew and loved him2 came straight in1 nestled close to the refugee1 and told his story4 ,m#8,brair had been at the ,college with ,haddo2 the ,presbytery had licensed both on the same day2 and at this tale1 told with so much innocency by the boy1 the heart of the tutor was commoved4 #8,woe upon him6 ,woe upon that man6' he cried4 #8,o the unfaithful shepherd6 ,o the hireling and apostate minister6 ,make my matters hot for me8 quo' she6 the shameless limmer6 ,and true it is1 that he could repose me in that nasty1 stinking hole1 the ,canongate ,tolbooth1 from which your mother drew me out--the ,lord reward her for it6--or to that cold1 unbieldy1 marine place of the ,bass ,rock1 which1 with my delicate kist1 would be fair ruin to me4 ,but ,i will be valiant in my ,master's service4 ,i have a duty here3 a duty to my ,god1 to myself1 and to ,haddo3 in ,his strength1 ,i will perform it4' ,then he straitly discharged ,francie to repeat the tale1 and bade him in the future to avert his very eyes from the doings of the curate4 #8,you must go to his place of idolatry2 look upon him there6' says he1 #8but nowhere else4 ,avert your eyes1 close your ears1 pass him by like a three days' corp4 ,he is like that damnable monster ,basiliscus1 which defiles--yea1 poisons6--by the sight4'--,all which was hardly claratory to the boy's mind4 ,presently ,montroymont came home1 and called up the stairs to ,francie4 ,traquair was a good shot and swordsman3 and it was his pleasure to walk with his son over the braes of the moorfowl1 or to teach him arms in the back court1 when they made a mighty comely pair1 the child being so lean1 and light1 and active1 and the laird himself a man of a manly1 pretty stature1 his hair 7the periwig being laid aside7 showing already white with many anxieties1 and his face of an even1 flaccid red4 ,but this day ,francie's heart was not in the fencing4 #8,sir1' says he1 suddenly lowering his point1 #8will ye tell me a thing if ,i was to ask it8' #8,ask away1' says the father4 #8,well1 it's this1' said ,francie3 #8,why do you and me comply if it's so wicked8' #8,ay1 ye have the cant of it too6' cries ,montroymont4 #8,but ,i'll tell ye for all that4 ,it's to try and see if we can keep the rigging on this house1 ,francie4 ,if she had her way1 we would be beggar-folk1 and hold our hands out by the wayside4 ,when ye hear her--when ye hear folk1' he corrected himself briskly1 #8call me a coward1 and one that betrayed the ,lord1 and ,i kenna what else1 just mind it was to keep a bed to ye to sleep in and a bite for ye to eat4--,on guard6' he cried1 and the lesson proceeded again till they were called to supper4 #8,there's another thing yet1' said ,francie1 stopping his father4 #8,there's another thing that ,i am not sure that ,i am very caring for4 ,she--she sends me errands4' #8,obey her1 then1 as is your bounden duty1' said ,traquair4 #8,ay1 but wait till ,i tell ye1' says the boy4 #8,if ,i was to see you ,i was to hide4' ,montroymont sighed4 #8,well1 and that's good of her too1' said he4 #8,the less that ,i ken of thir doings the better for me2 and the best thing you can do is just to obey her1 and see and be a good son to her1 the same as ye are to me1 ,francie4' ,at the tenderness of this expression the heart of ,francie swelled within his bosom1 and his remorse was poured out4 #8,faither6' he cried1 #8,i said 8deil0 to-day2 many's the time ,i said it1 and damnable too1 and hellitsh4 ,i ken they're all right2 they're beeblical4 ,but ,i didna say them beeblically2 ,i said them for sweir words--that's the truth of it4' #8,hout1 ye silly bairn6' said the father1 #8dinna do it nae mair1 and come in by to your supper4' ,and he took the boy1 and drew him close to him a moment1 as they went through the door1 with something very fond and secret1 like a caress between a pair of lovers4 ,the next day ,m#8,brair was abroad in the afternoon1 and had a long advising with ,janet on the braes where she herded cattle4 ,what passed was never wholly known2 but the lass wept bitterly1 and fell on her knees to him among the whins4 ,the same night1 as soon as it was dark1 he took the road again for ,balweary4 ,in the ,kirkton1 where the dragoons quartered1 he saw many lights1 and heard the noise of a ranting song and people laughing grossly1 which was highly offensive to his mind4 ,he gave it the wider berth1 keeping among fields2 and came down at last by the water-side1 where the manse stands solitary between the river and the road4 ,he tapped at the back door1 and the old woman called upon him to come in1 and guided him through the house to the study1 as they still called it1 though there was little enough study there in ,haddo's days1 and more song-books than theology4 #8,here's yin to speak wi' ye1 ,mr4 ,haddie6' cries the old wife4 ,and ,m#8,brair1 opening the door and entering1 found the little1 round1 red man seated in one chair and his feet upon another4 ,a clear fire and a tallow dip lighted him barely4 ,he was taking tobacco in a pipe1 and smiling to himself2 and a brandy-bottle and glass1 and his fiddle and bow1 were beside him on the table4 #8,hech1 ,patey ,m#8,briar1 is this you8' said he1 a trifle tipsily4 #8,step in by1 man1 and have a drop brandy3 for the stomach's sake6 ,even the deil can quote ,scripture--eh1 ,patey8' #8,i will neither eat nor drink with you1' replied ,m#8,brair4 #8,i am come upon my ,master's errand3 woe be upon me if ,i should anyways mince the same4 ,hall ,haddo1 ,i summon you to quit this kirk which you encumber4' #8,muckle obleeged6' says ,haddo1 winking4 #8,you and me have been to kirk and market together1' pursued ,m#8,brair2 #8we have had blessed seasons in the kirk1 we have sat in the same teaching-rooms and read in the same book2 and ,i know you still retain for me some carnal kindness4 ,it would be my shame if ,i denied it2 ,i live here at your mercy and by your favour1 and glory to acknowledge it4 ,you have pity on my wretched body1 which is but grass1 and must soon be trodden under3 but ,o1 ,haddo6 how much greater is the yearning with which ,i yearn after and pity your immortal soul6 ,come now1 let us reason together6 ,i drop all points of controversy1 weighty though these be2 ,i take your defaced and damnified kirk on your own terms2 and ,i ask you1 ,are you a worthy minister8 ,the communion season approaches2 how can you pronounce thir solemn words1 8,the elders will now bring forrit the elements10 and not quail8 ,a parishioner may be summoned to-night2 you may have to rise from your miserable orgies2 and ,i ask you1 ,haddo1 what does your conscience tell you8 ,are you fit8 ,are you fit to smooth the pillow of a parting ,christian8 ,and if the summons should be for yourself1 how then8' ,haddo was startled out of all composure and the better part of his temper4 #8,what's this of it8' he cried4 #8,i'm no waur than my neebours4 ,i never set up to be speeritual2 ,i never did4 ,i'm a plain1 canty creature2 godliness is cheerfulness1 says ,i2 give me my fiddle and a dram1 and ,i wouldna hairm a flee4' #8,and ,i repeat my question1' said ,m#8,brair3 #8,are you fit--fit for this great charge8 fit to carry and save souls8' #8,fit8 ,blethers6 ,as fit's yoursel'1' cried ,haddo4 #8,are you so great a self-deceiver8' said ,m#8,brair4 #8,wretched man1 trampler upon ,god's covenants1 crucifier of your ,lord afresh4 ,i will ding you to the earth with one word3 ,how about the young woman1 ,janet ,m#8,clour8' #8,weel1 what about her8 what do ,i ken8' cries ,haddo4 #8,m',brair1 ye daft auld wife1 ,i tell ye as true's truth1 ,i never meddled her4 ,it was just daffing1 ,i tell ye3 daffing1 and nae mair3 a piece of fun1 like6 ,i'm no denying but what ,i'm fond of fun1 sma' blame to me6 ,but for onything sarious--hout1 man1 it might come to a deposeetion6 ,i'll sweir it to ye4 ,where's a ,bible1 till you hear me sweir8' #8,there is nae ,bible in your study1' said ,m#8,brair severely4 ,and ,haddo1 after a few distracted turns1 was constrained to accept the fact4 #8,weel1 and suppose there isna8' he cried1 stamping4 #8,what mair can ye say of us1 but just that ,i'm fond of my joke1 and so's she8 ,i declare to ,god1 by what ,i ken1 she might be the ,virgin ,mary--if she would just keep clear of the dragoons4 ,but me6 na1 deil haet o' me6' #8,she is penitent at least1' says ,m#8,brair4 #8,do you mean to actually up and tell me to my face that she accused me8' cried the curate4 #8,i canna just say that1' replied ,m#8,brair4 #8,but ,i rebuked her in the name of ,god1 and she repented before me on her bended knees4' #8,weel1 ,i daursay she's been ower far wi' the dragoons1' said ,haddo4 #8,i never denied that4 ,i ken naething by it4' #8,man1 you but show your nakedness the more plainly1' said ,m#8,brair4 #8,poor1 blind1 besotted creature--and ,i see you stoytering on the brink of dissolution3 your light out1 and your hours numbered4 ,awake1 man6' he shouted with a formidable voice1 #8awake1 or it be ower late4' #8,be damned if ,i stand this6' exclaimed ,haddo1 casting his tobacco-pipe violently on the table1 where it was smashed in pieces4 #8,out of my house with ye1 or ,i'll call for the dragoons4' #8,the speerit of the ,lord is upon me1' said ,m#8,brair with solemn ecstasy4 #8,i sist you to compear before the ,great ,white ,throne1 and ,i warn you the summons shall be bloody and sudden4' ,and at this1 with more agility than could have been expected1 he got clear of the room and slammed the door behind him in the face of the pursuing curate4 ,the next ,lord's day the curate was ill1 and the kirk closed1 but for all his ill words1 ,mr4 ,m#8,brair abode unmolested in the house of ,montroymont4 ,,chapter ,,iii--,,the ,,hill-,,end ,,of ,,drumlowe ,this was a bit of a steep broken hill that overlooked upon the west a moorish valley1 full of ink-black pools4 ,these presently drained into a burn that made off1 with little noise and no celerity of pace1 about the corner of the hill4 ,on the far side the ground swelled into a bare heath1 black with junipers1 and spotted with the presence of the standing stones for which the place was famous4 ,they were many in that part1 shapeless1 white with lichen--you would have said with age3 and had made their abode there for untold centuries1 since first the heathens shouted for their installation4 ,the ancients had hallowed them to some ill religion1 and their neighbourhood had long been avoided by the prudent before the fall of day2 but of late1 on the upspringing of new requirements1 these lonely stones on the moor had again become a place of assembly4 ,a watchful picket on the ,hill-end commanded all the northern and eastern approaches2 and such was the disposition of the ground1 that by certain cunningly posted sentries the west also could be made secure against surprise3 there was no place in the country where a conventicle could meet with more quiet of mind or a more certain retreat open1 in the case of interference from the dragoons4 ,the minister spoke from a knowe close to the edge of the ring1 and poured out the words ,god gave him on the very threshold of the devils of yore4 ,when they pitched a tent 7which was often in wet weather1 upon a communion occasion7 it was rigged over the huge isolated pillar that had the name of ,anes-,errand1 none knew why4 ,and the congregation sat partly clustered on the slope below1 and partly among the idolatrous monoliths and on the turfy soil of the ,ring itself4 ,in truth the situation was well qualified to give a zest to ,christian doctrines1 had there been any wanted4 ,but these congregations assembled under conditions at once so formidable and romantic as made a zealot of the most cold4 ,they were the last of the faithful2 ,god1 who had averted ,his face from all other countries of the world1 still leaned from heaven to observe1 with swelling sympathy1 the doings of ,his moorland remnant2 ,christ was by them with ,his eternal wounds1 with dropping tears2 the ,holy ,ghost 7never perfectly realised nor firmly adopted by ,protestant imaginations7 was dimly supposed to be in the heart of each and on the lips of the minister4 ,and over against them was the army of the hierarchies1 from the men ,charles and ,james ,stuart1 on to ,king ,lewie and the ,emperor2 and the scarlet ,pope1 and the muckle black devil himself1 peering out the red mouth of hell in an ecstasy of hate and hope4 #8,one pull more6' he seemed to cry2 #8one pull more1 and it's done4 ,there's only ,clydesdale and the ,stewartry1 and the three ,bailiaries of ,ayr1 left for ,god4' ,and with such an august assistance of powers and principalities looking on at the last conflict of good and evil1 it was scarce possible to spare a thought to those old1 infirm1 debile1 ab agendo devils whose holy place they were now violating4 ,there might have been three hundred to four hundred present4 ,at least there were three hundred horses tethered for the most part in the ring2 though some of the hearers on the outskirts of the crowd stood with their bridles in their hand1 ready to mount at the first signal4 ,the circle of faces was strangely characteristic2 long1 serious1 strongly marked1 the tackle standing out in the lean brown cheeks1 the mouth set and the eyes shining with a fierce enthusiasm2 the shepherd1 the labouring man1 and the rarer laird1 stood there in their broad blue bonnets or laced hats1 and presenting an essential identity of type4 ,from time to time a long-drawn groan of adhesion rose in this audience1 and was propagated like a wave to the outskirts1 and died away among the keepers of the horses4 ,it had a name2 it was called #8a holy groan4' ,a squall came up2 a great volley of flying mist went out before it and whelmed the scene2 the wind stormed with a sudden fierceness that carried away the minister's voice and twitched his tails and made him stagger1 and turned the congregation for a moment into a mere pother of blowing plaid-ends and prancing horses2 and the rain followed and was dashed straight into their faces4 ,men and women panted aloud in the shock of that violent shower-bath2 the teeth were bared along all the line in an involuntary grimace2 plaids1 mantles1 and riding-coats were proved vain1 and the worshippers felt the water stream on their naked flesh4 ,the minister1 reinforcing his great and shrill voice1 continued to contend against and triumph over the rising of the squall and the dashing of the rain4 #8,in that day ye may go thirty mile and not hear a crawing cock1' he said2 #8and fifty mile and not get a light to your pipe2 and an hundred mile and not see a smoking house4 ,for there'll be naething in all ,scotland but deid men's banes and blackness1 and the living anger of the ,lord4 ,o1 where to find a bield--,o sirs1 where to find a bield from the wind of the ,lord's anger8 ,do ye call this a wind8 ,bethankit6 ,sirs1 this is but a temporary dispensation2 this is but a puff of wind1 this is but a spit of rain and by with it4 ,already there's a blue bow in the west1 and the sun will take the crown of the causeway again1 and your things'll be dried upon ye1 and your flesh will be warm upon your bones4 ,but ,o1 sirs1 sirs6 for the day of the ,lord's anger6' ,his rhetoric was set forth with an ear-piercing elocution1 and a voice that sometimes crashed like cannon4 ,such as it was1 it was the gift of all hill-preachers1 to a singular degree of likeness or identity4 ,their images scarce ranged beyond the red horizon of the moor and the rainy hill-top1 the shepherd and his sheep1 a fowling-piece1 a spade1 a pipe1 a dunghill1 a crowing cock1 the shining and the withdrawal of the sun4 ,an occasional pathos of simple humanity1 and frequent patches of big ,biblical words1 relieved the homely tissue4 ,it was a poetry apart2 bleak1 austere1 but genuine1 and redolent of the soil4 ,a little before the coming of the squall there was a different scene enacting at the outposts4 ,for the most part1 the sentinels were faithful to their important duty2 the ,hill-end of ,drumlowe was known to be a safe meeting-place2 and the out-pickets on this particular day had been somewhat lax from the beginning1 and grew laxer during the inordinate length of the discourse4 ,francie lay there in his appointed hiding-hole1 looking abroad between two whin-bushes4 ,his view was across the course of the burn1 then over a piece of plain moorland1 to a gap between two hills2 nothing moved but grouse1 and some cattle who slowly traversed his field of view1 heading northward3 he heard the psalms1 and sang words of his own to the savage and melancholy music2 for he had his own design in hand1 and terror and cowardice prevailed in his bosom alternately1 like the hot and the cold fit of an ague4 ,courage was uppermost during the singing1 which he accompanied through all its length with this impromptu strain3 #8,and ,i will ding ,jock ,crozer down ,no later than the day4' ,presently the voice of the preacher came to him in wafts1 at the wind's will1 as by the opening and shutting of a door2 wild spasms of screaming1 as of some undiscerned gigantic hill-bird stirred with inordinate passion1 succeeded to intervals of silence2 and ,francie heard them with a critical ear4 #8,ay1' he thought at last1 #8he'll do2 he has the bit in his mou' fairly4' ,he had observed that his friend1 or rather his enemy1 ,jock ,crozer1 had been established at a very critical part of the line of outposts2 namely1 where the burn issues by an abrupt gorge from the semicircle of high moors4 ,if anything was calculated to nerve him to battle it was this4 ,the post was important2 next to the ,hill-end itself1 it might be called the key to the position2 and it was where the cover was bad1 and in which it was most natural to place a child4 ,it should have been ,heathercat's2 why had it been given to ,crozer8 ,an exquisite fear of what should be the answer passed through his marrow every time he faced the question4 ,was it possible that ,crozer could have boasted8 that there were rumours abroad to his--,heathercat's--discredit8 that his honour was publicly sullied8 ,all the world went dark about him at the thought2 he sank without a struggle into the midnight pool of despair2 and every time he so sank1 he brought back with him--not drowned heroism indeed1 but half-drowned courage by the locks4 ,his heart beat very slowly as he deserted his station1 and began to crawl towards that of ,crozer4 ,something pulled him back1 and it was not the sense of duty1 but a remembrance of ,crozer's build and hateful readiness of fist4 ,duty1 as he conceived it1 pointed him forward on the rueful path that he was travelling4 ,duty bade him redeem his name if he were able1 at the risk of broken bones2 and his bones and every tooth in his head ached by anticipation4 ,an awful subsidiary fear whispered him that if he were hurt1 he should disgrace himself by weeping4 ,he consoled himself1 boy-like1 with the consideration that he was not yet committed2 he could easily steal over unseen to ,crozer's post1 and he had a continuous private idea that he would very probably steal back again4 ,his course took him so near the minister that he could hear some of his words3 #8,what news1 minister1 of ,claver'se8 ,he's going round like a roaring rampaging lion4 4 4 4 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,printed by ,t4 and ,a4 ,,constable1 ,printers to ,his ,majesty at the ,edinburgh ,university ,press4 ,footnotes3 #j ,with special reference to ,father ,damien1 pp4 #fc-ha4 #fe ,from the ,sydney ,presbyterian1 ,october #bf1 #ahhi4 #he ,theater of ,mortality1 p4 #aj2 ,edin4 #agac4 #hf ,history of ,my ,own ,times1 beginning #affj1 by ,bishop ,gilbert ,burnet1 p4 #aeh4 #hg;a ,wodrow's ,church ,history1 ,book ,,ii4 chap4 i4 sect4 ,i4 #hg;b ,crookshank's ,church ,history1 #agea1 second ed4 p4 #bjb4 #hh ,burnet1 p4 #cdh4 #hi ,fuller's ,historie of the ,holy ,warre1 fourth ed4 #afea4 #ij ,wodrow1 vol4 ii4 p4 #ag4 #ib ,sir ,j4 ,turner's ,memoirs1 pp4 #adh-ej4 #ic ,a ,cloud of ,witnesses1 p4 #cgf4 #id;a ,wodrow1 pp4 #ai1 #bj4 #id;b ,a ,hind ,let ,loose1 p4 #abc4 #ie ,turner1 p4 #afc4 #if;a ,turner1 p4 #aih4 #if;b ,ibid4 p4 #afg4 #ig ,wodrow1 p4 #bi4 #ih ,turner1 ,wodrow1 and ,church ,history by ,james ,kirkton1 an outed minister of the period4 #ii ,kirkton1 p4 #bdd4 #aja;a ,kirkton4 #aja;b ,turner4 #ajb ,kirkton4 #ajc ,kirkton4 #ajd ,cloud of ,witnesses1 p4 #chi2 ,edin4 #agfe4 #aje;a ,kirkton1 p4 #bdg4 #aje;b ,ibid4 p4 #bed4 #aje;c ,ibid4 p4 #bdg4 #aje;d ,ibid4 pp4 #bdg1 #bdh4 #ajf ,kirkton1 p4 #bdh4 #ajg;a ,kirkton1 p4 #bdi4 #ajg;b ,naphtali1 p4 #bje2 ,glasgow1 #agba4 #ajg;c ,wodrow1 p4 #ei4 #ajh;a ,kirkton1 p4 #bdf4 #ajh;b ,defoe's ,history of the ,church of ,scotland4 #aea #8,this paper was written in collaboration with ,james ,waiter ,ferrier1 and if reprinted this is to be stated1 though his principal collaboration was to lie back in an easy-chair and laugh4'--,r4,l4,s41 ,oct4 #be1 #ahid4 #ahc ,the illustrator was1 in fact1 a lady1 ,miss ,eunice ,bagster1 eldest daughter of the publisher1 ,samuel ,bagster2 except in the case of the cuts depicting the fight with ,apollyon1 which were designed by her brother1 ,mr4 ,jonathan ,bagster4 ,the edition was published in #ahde4 ,i am indebted for this information to the kindness of ,mr4 ,robert ,bagster1 the present managing director of the firm4--,,sir ,,sidney ,,colvin',s ,,note4 #bje ,see a short essay of ,de ,quincey's4 #bjf;a ,religio ,medici1 ,part ii4 #bjf;b ,duchess of ,malfi4