In short, the Sentimentalist decides to spread the body of Europe
without the soul.
The White Horses
It is within my experience, which is very brief and occasional
in this matter, that it is not really at all easy to talk
in a motor-car. This is fortunate; first, because, as a whole,
it prevents me from motoring; and second because, at any given moment,
it prevents me from talking. The difficulty is not wholly due to
the physical conditions, though these are distinctly unconversational.
FitzGerald's Omar, being a pessimist, was probably rich,
and being a lazy fellow, was almost certainly a motorist.
If any doubt could exist on the point, it is enough to say that,
in speaking of the foolish profits, Omar has defined the difficulties
of colloquial motoring with a precision which cannot be accidental.
"Their words to wind are scattered; and their mouths are stopped
with dust." From this follows not (as many of the cut-and-dried
philosophers would say) a savage silence and mutual hostility,
but rather one of those rich silences that make the mass and bulk
of all friendship; the silence of men rowing the same boat or fighting
in the same battle-line.
It happened that the other day I hired a motor-car, because I wanted
to visit in very rapid succession the battle-places and hiding-places
of Alfred the Great; and for a thing of this sort a motor is
really appropriate.
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