"
"Can anything," said the publisher, "be conceived more impracticable
and imprudent?"
To all this Ernest replies with one word only- "Wait."
Such is my friend's latest development. He would not, it is true,
run much chance at present of trying to found a College of Spiritual
Pathology, but I must leave the reader to determine whether there is
not a strong family likeness between the Ernest of the College of
Spiritual Pathology and the Ernest who will insist on addressing the
next generation rather than his own. He says he trusts that there is
not, and takes the sacrament duly once a year as a sop to Nemesis lest
he should again feel strongly upon any subject. It rather fatigues
him, but "no man's opinions," he sometimes says, "can be worth holding
unless he knows how to deny them easily and gracefully upon occasion
in the cause of charity." In politics he is a Conservative so far as
his vote and interest are concerned. In all other respects he is an
advanced Radical. His father and grandfather could probably no more
understand his state of mind than they could understand Chinese, but
those who know him intimately do not know that they wish him greatly
different from what he actually is.
Pages:
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687