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ured of the truth, and on what grounds he conjectured it; and, further, how long he was to remain at San Marco. And on that fuller knowledge he hoped to mould a statement which would in any case save him from the necessity of quitting Florence. Tito had never had occasion to fabricate * an ingenious lie before: the 275 occasion was come now-the occasion which circumstance never fails to beget on tacit falsity; and his ingenuity was ready. For he had convinced himself that he was not bound to go in search of Baldassarre. He had once said that on a fair assurance of his father's existence and whereabouts he would unhesitatingly 280 go after him. But, after all, why was he bound to go? What, looked at closely, was the end of all life but to extract the utmost sum of pleasure? And was not his own blooming life a promise of incomparably more pleasure, not for himself only, but for others, than the withered, wintry life of a man who was past 285 the time of keen enjoyment, and whose ideas had stiffened into barren rigidity? Those ideas had all been sown in the fresh soil of Tito's mind, and were lively germs there; that was the proper order of things-the order of Nature, which treats all maturity as a mere nidus* for youth. Baldassarre had done his 290 work, had had his draught of life: Tito said it was his turn now.

And the prospect was so vague: "I think they are going to take me to Antioch." Here was a vista! After a long voyage, to spend months, perhaps years, in a search for which even now there was no guarantee that it would not prove vain; and to 295 leave behind at starting a life of distinction and love; and to find, if he found anything, the old exacting companionship which was known by rote beforehand. Certainly the gems, and therefore the florins, were, in a sense, Baldassarre's-in the narrow sense by which the right of possession is determined in or- 300 dinary affairs; but in that larger and more radically natural view by which the world belongs to youth and strength, they were

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—274–277. Tito... ready. What does circumstance never fail "to beget on tacit falsity?" Explain the expression “tacit falsity.” 277-291. For... now. State in your own words the conclusion that Tito had now reached, and the process by which he reached it.

298-326. Certainly ... themselves? Express briefly the self-imposed sophistries of Tito.-Explain "A mere tangle of anomalous traditions and opinions" (308, 309).—Point out a metaphor in this passage.

rather his who could extract the most pleasure out of them. That, he was conscious, was not the sentiment which the complicated play of human feelings had engendered in society. The 305 men around him would expect that he should immediately apply those florins to his benefactor's rescue. But what was the sentiment of society? A mere tangle of anomalous traditions and opinions, that no wise man would take as a guide, except so far as his own comfort was concerned. Not that he cared for the 310 florins, save, perhaps, for Romola's sake: he would give up the florins readily enough. It was the joy that was due to him and was close to his lips, which he felt he was not bound to thrust away from him and travel on thirsting. Any maxims that required a man to fling away the good that was needed to make 315 existence sweet were only the lining of human selfishness turned outward: they were made by men who wanted others to sacrifice themselves for their sake. He would rather that Baldassarre should not suffer; he liked no one to suffer: but could any philosophy prove to him that he was bound to care for another's 320 suffering more than for his own? To do so, he must have loved Baldassarre devotedly, and he did not love him. Was that his own fault? Gratitude! seen closely, it made no valid claim. His father's life would have been dreary without him. Are we convicted of a debt to men for the pleasures they give them- 325 selves?

Having once begun to explain away Baldassarre's claim, Tito's thought showed itself as active as a virulent acid, eating its rapid way through all the tissues of sentiment. His mind was destitute of that dread which has been erroneously decried as if it 330 were nothing higher than a man's animal care for his own skin: that awe of the Divine Nemesis* which was felt by religious pagans, and, though it took a more positive form under Christianity, is still felt by the mass of mankind simply as a vague fear at anything which is called wrong-doing. Such terror of the un- 335 seen is so far above mere sensual cowardice that it will annihi

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—327-347. In the last paragraph select all the words of classical origin. It may be noted that George Eliot employs a large proportion of words of classical origin, only about eighty per cent. of her vocabulary being of Anglo-Saxon origin. Account for this from her intellectual traits.

late that cowardice: it is the initial recognition of a moral law restraining desire, and checks the hard, bold scrutiny of imperfect thought into obligations which can never be proved to have any sanctity in the absence of feeling. "It is good," sing the 340 old Eumenides* in Æschylus, “that fear should sit as the guardian of the soul, forcing it into wisdom-good that men should carry a threatening shadow in their hearts under the full sunshine; else, how shall they learn to revere the right?" That guardianship may become needless; but only when all outward 345 law has become needless-only when duty and love have united in one stream and made a common force.

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Mtually

THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN MODERN THOUGHT.

[INTRODUCTION.-The following extracts form the greater part of Huxley's lay sermon On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge. The writings of Huxley furnish, perhaps, the most striking illustration of the mod

ern union of science with literature, a union that commends science to the great laity by a flowing treatment and the graces of style.]

1. This time two hundred years ago-in the beginning of January, 1666—those of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient city took breath between the shocks of two fearful calamities:* one not quite past, although its fury had abated; the other to come.

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2. Within a few yards of the very spot on which we are assembled, so the tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, appeared in the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, smote the people of England, and especially of her capital, with a violence unknown before, in the course of the 10 following year. The hand of a master has pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that truest of fictions, The History of the Plague Year, Defoe shows Death, with every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through the narrow streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a si- 15 lence broken only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; by the woful denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder yells of despairing profligates.

3. But, about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here 20 and there, and the richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their dwellings. The remnant of the people

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-I-31. Paragraphs 1-4 form the introduction to the essay to what class of composition does this exordium belong? (See Def. 7.)-The pupil will observe the skill with which an exposition strictly scientific is introduced in such a way as to challenge the attention of non-scientific, or lay, readers.

1-5. This... come. What kind of sentence rhetorically? (See Def. 58.)Grammatical construction of "time?" (See Swinton's New English Grammar, p. 105, ix.) By "this great . . . city," London will, of course, be understood.-What is the figure in "took breath?" (See Def. 20.)—Derivation of "calamity ?"

13, 14. Death . . . stalking, etc. What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 22.)

16, 17. fifty thousand dead. Observe the effectiveness of the use of a specific number, in contrast with the method of indefinite statement, as many thousands of dead, myriads of dead, etc.

19. this time in 1666: i. e., in January, 1666.

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