Part 11 (1/2)

_Mr. Falconer._ You do not say so much for sons.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Young men are ambitious, self-willed, self-indulgent, easily corrupted by bad example, of which there is always too much. I cannot say much for those of the present day, though it is not absolutely dest.i.tute of good specimens.

_Mr. Falconer._ You know what Paterculus says of those of his own day.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ 'The faith of wives towards the proscribed was great; of freed-men, middling; of slaves, some; of sons, none.'{1} So he says; but there were some: for example, of the sons of Marcus Oppius and Quintus Cicero.{2} You may observe, by the way, he gives the first place to the wives.

1 Id tamen nolandum est, fuisse in proscriptos uxorum fidem summam, libcriorum niediam, servorum ahquam, filiorum nullam.--Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 67.

2 A compendious and comprehensive account of these and other instances of filial piety, in the proscription of the second triumvirate, will be found in Freinihemius; Suppununta Liviania, cxx. 77-80.

_Mr. Falconer._ Well, that is a lottery in which every man must take his chance. But my scheme of life was perfect.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Perhaps there is something to be said against condemning seven young women to celibacy.

_Mr. Falconer._ But if such were their choice--

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ No doubt there are many reasons why they should prefer the condition they are placed in to the ordinary chances of marriage: but, after all, to be married is the natural aspiration of a young woman, and if favourable conditions presented themselves--

_Mr. Falconer._ Conditions suitable to their education are scarcely compatible with their social position.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ They have been educated to be both useful and ornamental. The ornamental need not, and in their case certainly does not, damage the useful, which in itself would procure them suitable matches.

Mr. Falconer shook his head, and, after a brief pause, poured out a volume of quotations, demonstrating the general unhappiness of marriage.

The doctor responded by as many, demonstrating the contrary. He paused to take breath. Both laughed heartily. But the result of the discussion and the laughter was, that Mr. Falconer was curious to see Lord Curryfin, and would therefore go to Gryll Grange.

CHAPTER XIII

LORD CURRYFIN--SIBERIAN DINNERS--SOCIAL MONOTONY

Ille potens sui laetusque deget, cui licet in diem dixisse, Vixi: eras vel atra nube polum pater occupato, vel sole puro: non tamen irritum quodc.u.mque retro est, efficiet; neque diffinget infectumque reddet, quod fugiens semel hora vexit.

--Hor. Carm. iii. 29.

Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call to-day his own: He who, secure within, can say, To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived to-day.

Be storm, or calm, or rain, or s.h.i.+ne, The joys I have possessed in spite of fate are mine.

Not heaven itself upon the past has power, But what has been has been, and I have had my hour.

--Dryden.

A large party was a.s.sembled at the Grange. Among them were some of the young ladies who were to form the chorus; one elderly spinster, Miss Ilex, who pa.s.sed more than half her life in visits, and was everywhere welcome, being always good-humoured, agreeable in conversation, having much knowledge of society, good sense in matters of conduct, good taste and knowledge in music; sound judgment in dress, which alone sufficed to make her valuable to young ladies; a fair amount of reading, old and new; and on most subjects an opinion of her own, for which she had always something to say; Mr. MacBorrowdale, an old friend of Mr. Gryll, a gentleman who comprised in himself all that Scotland had ever been supposed to possess of mental, moral, and political philosophy; 'And yet he bore it not about'; not 'as being loth to wear it out,'{1} but because he held that there was a time for all things, and that dinner was the time for joviality, and not for argument; Mr. Minim, the amateur composer of the music for the comedy; Mr. Pallet, the amateur painter of the scenery; and last, not least, the newly-made acquaintance, Lord Curryfin.

1 We grant, although he had much wit, H. was very shy of using it, As being loth to wear it out; And therefore bore it not about, Except on holidays or so, As men their best apparel do.

Hudibras.

Lord Curryfin was a man on the younger side of thirty, with a good person, handsome features, a powerful voice, and an agreeable delivery.

He had a strong memory, much power of application, and a facility of learning rapidly whatever he turned his mind to. But with all this, he valued what he learned less for the pleasure which he derived from the acquisition, than from the effect which it enabled him to produce on others. He liked to s.h.i.+ne in conversation, and there was scarcely a subject which could be mooted in any society, on which his multifarious attainments did not qualify him to say something. He was readily taken by novelty in doctrine, and followed a new lead with great pertinacity; and in this way he had been caught by the science of pantopragmatics, and firmly believed for a time that a scientific organisation for teaching everybody everything would cure all the evils of society. But being one of those 'over sharp wits whose edges are very soon turned,'