|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 65
I said to him: "Let me ask you one question. I had always had a sort of
hope that when I came to the land of spirits, I should have a chance of
seeing and hearing something of some of the great souls of earth. I had
dimly imagined a sort of reception, where one could wander about and
listen to the talk of the men one had admired and longed to see--Plato,
let me say, and Shakespeare, Walter Scott, and Shelley--some of the
immortals. But I don't seem to have seen anything of them--only just
ordinary and simple people."
Amroth laughed.
"You do say the most extraordinarily ingenuous things," he said. "In the
first place, of course, we have quite a different scale of values here.
People do not take rank by their accomplishments, but by their power of
loving. Many of the great men of earth--and this is particularly the
case with writers and artists--are absolutely nothing here. They had, it
is true, a fine and delicate brain, on which they played with great
skill; but half the artists of the world are great as artists, simply
because they do not care. They perceive and they express; but they would
not have the heart to do it at all, if they really cared. Some of them,
no doubt, were men of great hearts, and they have their place and work.
But to claim to see all the highest spirits together is as absurd as if
you called on a doctor in London at eleven o'clock and expected to meet
all the great physicians at his house, intent on general conversation.
Some of the great people, indeed, you have met, and they were very
simple persons on earth. The greatest person you have hitherto seen was
a butler on earth--the master of your College. And if it does not shock
your aristocratic susceptibilities too much, the President of this place
kept a small shop in a country village. But one of the teachers here
was actually a marquis in the world! Does that uplift you? He teaches
the little girls how to play cricket, and he is a very good dancer.
Perhaps you would like to be introduced to him?"
"Don't treat me as a child," I said, rather pettishly.
"No, no," said Amroth, "it isn't that. But you are one of those
impressible people; and they always find it harder to disentangle
themselves from the old ideas."
I spent a long and happy time in the school. I was given a little
teaching to do, and found it perfectly enchanting. Imagine children with
everything greedy and sensual gone, with none of the crossness or
spitefulness that comes of fatigue or pressure, but with all the
interesting passions of humanity, admiration, keenness, curiosity, and
even jealousy, emulation, and anger, all alive and active in them. They
were not angelic children at all, neither meek nor mild. But they were
generous and affectionate, and it was easy to evoke these feelings. The
one thing absent from the whole place was any touch of sentimentality,
which arises from natural affections suppressed into a giggling kind of
secrecy. They expressed affection loudly and frankly, just as they
expressed indignation and annoyance. All the while I kept Cynthia in my
heart; she was ever before me in a thousand sweet postures and with
innumerable glances. But I saw much of my sturdy and wholesome-minded
old friend; and the sore pain of parting faded away out of my heart, and
left me with nothing but the purest and deepest love, which helped me in
all I did or said, and made me patient and tender-hearted. And thus the
period sped not unhappily away, though I had my times of agony and
despair.
XXXII
I became aware at this time, very gradually and even solemnly, that some
crisis of my life was approaching. How the monition came to me I hardly
know; I felt like a man wandering in the dark, with eyes strained and
hands outstretched, who is dimly aware of some great object, tree or
haystack or house, looming up ahead of him, which he cannot directly
see, but of which he is yet conscious by the vibration of some sixth
sense. The wonder came by degrees to overshadow my thoughts with a sense
of expectant awe, and to permeate all the urgent concerns of my life
with its shadowy presence. Even the thought of Cynthia, who indeed was
always in my mind, became obscured with the dimness of this obscure
anticipation.
One day Amroth stood beside me as I worked; he was very grave and
serious, but with a joyful kind of courage about him. I pushed my books
and papers away, and rose to greet him, saying half-unconsciously, and
just putting my thought into words:
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|