CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Mihi jam non regia Roma, Sed vacuum Tibur placet.--Horace.
"My dear child," said my mother to me, affectionately, "you must be verymuch bored here, pour dire vrai, I am so myself. Your uncle is a verygood man, but he does not make his house pleasant; and I have, lately,been very much afraid that he should convert you into a mere bookworm;after all, my dear Henry, you are quite clever enough to trust to yourown ability. Your great geniuses never read."
"True, my dear mother," said I, with a most unequivocal yawn, anddepositing on the table Mr. Bentham upon Popular Fallacies; "true, andI am quite of your opinion. Did you see in the Post of this morning, howfull Cheltenham was?"
"Yes, Henry; and now you mention it, I don't think you could do betterthan to go there for a month or two. As for me, I must return to yourfather, whom I left at Lord H--'s: a place, entre nous, very little moreamusing than this--but then one does get one's ecarte table, and thatdear Lady Roseville, your old acquaintance, is staying there."
"Well," said I, musingly, "suppose we take our departure the beginningof next week?--our way will be the same as far as London, and the pleaof attending you will be a good excuse to my uncle, for proceeding nofarther in these confounded books."
"C'est une affaire finie," replied my mother, "and I will speak to youruncle myself."
Accordingly the necessary disclosure of our intentions was made. LordGlenmorris received it with proper indifference, so far as my mother wasconcerned; but expressed much pain at my leaving him so soon. However,when he found I was not so much gratified as honoured by his wishes formy longer sejour, he gave up the point with a delicacy that enchantedme.
The morning of our departure arrived. Carriage at the door--bandboxes inthe passage--breakfast on the table--myself in my great coat--my unclein his great chair. "My dear boy," said he, "I trust we shall meet againsoon: you have abilities that may make you capable of effecting muchgood to your fellow-creatures; but you are fond of the world, and,though not averse to application, devoted to pleasure, and likely topervert the gifts you possess. At all events, you have now learned, bothas a public character and a private individual, the difference betweengood and evil. Make but this distinction, that whereas, in politicalscience, though the rules you have learned be fixed and unerring, yetthe application of them must vary with time and circumstance. We mustbend, temporize, and frequently withdraw, doctrines, which, invariablein their truth, the prejudices of the time will not invariably allow,and even relinquish a faint hope of obtaining a great good, for thecertainty of obtaining a lesser; yet in the science of private morals,which relate for the main part to ourselves individually, we have noright to deviate one single iota from the rule of our conduct. Neithertime nor circumstance must cause us to modify or to change. Integrityknows no variation; honesty no shadow of turning. We must pursue thesame course--stern and uncompromising--in the full persuasion that thepath of right is like the bridge from earth to heaven, in the Mahometancreed--if we swerve but a single hair's breadth, we are irrevocablylost."
At this moment my mother joined us, with a "Well, my dear Henry, everything is ready--we have no time to lose."
My uncle rose, pressed my hand, and left in it a pocket-book, which Iafterwards discovered to be most satisfactorily furnished. We took anedifying and affectionate farewell of each other, passed through thetwo rows of servants, drawn up in martial array, along the great hall,entered the carriage, and went off with the rapidity of a novel upon"fashionable life."
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