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第62章

over the teacups-第62章

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pastures。  Their interests are in the out…door; active world。  Some

of them are circumnavigating the planet while he is hitching his

rocking chair about his hearth…rug。  Some are gazing upon the

pyramids while he is staring at his andirons。  Some are settling the

tariff and fixing the laws of suffrage and taxation while he is

dozing over the weather bulletin; and going to sleep over the

obituaries in his morning or evening paper。



Nature is wiser than we give her credit for being; never wiser than

in her dealings with the old。  She has no idea of mortifying them by

sudden and wholly unexpected failure of the chief servants of

consciousness。  The sight; for instance; begins to lose something of

its perfection long before its deficiency calls the owner's special

attention to it。  Very probably; the first hint we have of the change

is that a friend makes the pleasing remark that we are 〃playing the

trombone;〃 as he calls it; that is; moving a book we are holding

backward and forward; to get the right focal distance。  Or it may be

we find fault with the lamp or the gas…burner for not giving so much

light as it used to。  At last; somewhere between forty and fifty; we

begin to dangle a jaunty pair of eye…glasses; half plaything and half

necessity。  In due time a pair of sober; business…like spectacles

bestrides the nose。  Old age leaps upon it as his saddle; and rides

triumphant; unchallenged; until the darkness comes which no glasses

can penetrate。  Nature is pitiless in carrying out the universal

sentence; but very pitiful in her mode of dealing with the condemned

on his way to the final scene。  The man who is to be hanged always

has a good breakfast provided for him。



Do not think that the old look upon themselves as the helpless;

hopeless; forlorn creatures which they seem to young people。  Do

these young folks suppose that all vanity dies out of the natures of

old men and old women?  A dentist of olden time told me that a good…

looking young man once said to him; 〃Keep that incisor presentable;

if you can; till I am fifty; and then I sha'n't care how I look。〃  I

venture to say that that gentleman was as particular about his

personal appearance and as proud of his good looks at fifty; and many

years after fifty; as he was in the twenties; when he made that

speech to the dentist。



My dear friends around the teacups; and at that wider board where I

am now entertaining; or trying to entertain; my company; is it not as

plain to you as it is to me that I had better leave such tasks as

that which I am just finishing to those who live in a more

interesting period of life than one which; in the order of nature; is

next door to decrepitude?  Ought I not to regret having undertaken to

report the doings and sayings of the members of the circle which you

have known as The Teacups?



Dear; faithful reader; whose patient eyes have followed my reports

through these long months; you and I are about parting company。

Perhaps you are one of those who have known me under another name; in

those far…off days separated from these by the red sea of the great

national conflict。  When you first heard the tinkle of the teaspoons;

as the table was being made ready for its guests; you trembled for

me; in the kindness of your hearts。  I do not wonder that you did;I

trembled for myself。  But I remembered the story of Sir Cloudesley

Shovel; who was seen all of a tremor just as he was going into

action。  〃How is this?〃 said a brother officer to him。  〃Surely you

are not afraid?〃  〃 No;〃 he answered; 〃but my flesh trembles at the

thought of the dangers into which my intrepid spirit will carry me。〃

I knew the risk of undertaking to carry through a series of connected

papers。  And yet I thought it was better to run that risk; more

manly; more sensible; than to give way to the fears which made my

flesh tremble as did Sir Cloudesley Shovel's。  For myself the labor

has been a distraction; and one which came at a time when it was

needed。  Sometimes; as in one of those poems recently published;the

reader will easily guess which;the youthful spirit has come over me

with such a rush that it made me feel just as I did when I wrote the

history of the 〃One…hoss Shay〃 thirty years ago。  To repeat one of my

comparisons; it was as if an early fruit had ripened on a graft upon

an old; steady…going tree; to the astonishment of all its later…

maturing products。  I should hardly dare to say so much as this if I

had not heard a similar opinion expressed by others。



Once committed to my undertaking; there was no turning back。  It is

true that I had said I might stop at any moment; but after one or two

numbers it seemed as if there were an informal pledge to carry the

series on; as in former cases; until I had completed my dozen

instalments。



Writers and speakers have their idiosyncrasies; their habits; their

tricks; if you had rather call them so; as to their ways of writing

and speaking。  There is a very old and familiar story; accompanied by

a feeble jest; which most of my readers may probably enough have met

with in Joe Miller or elsewhere。  It is that of a lawyer who could

never make an argument without having a piece of thread to work upon

with his fingers while he was pleading。  Some one stole it from him

one day; and he could not get on at all with his speech;he had lost

the thread of his discourse; as the story had it。  Now this is what I

myself once saw。  It was at a meeting where certain grave matters

were debated in an assembly of professional men。  A speaker; whom I

never heard before or since; got up and made a long and forcible

argument。  I do not think he was a lawyer; but he spoke as if he had

been trained to talk to juries。  He held a long string in one hand;

which he drew through the other band incessantly; as he spoke; just

as a shoe maker performs the motion of waxing his thread。  He

appeared to be dependent on this motion。  The physiological

significance of the fact I suppose to be that the flow of what we

call the nervous current from the thinking centre to the organs of

speech was rendered freer and easier by the establishment of a

simultaneous collateral nervous current to the set of muscles

concerned in the action I have described。



I do not use a string to help me write or speak; but I must have its

equivalent。  I must have my paper and pen or pencil before me to set

my thoughts flowing in such form that they can be written

continuously。  There have been lawyers who could think out their

whole argument in connected order without a single note。  There are

authors;and I think there are many;who can compose and finish off

a poem or a story without writing a word of it until; when the proper

time comes; they copy what they carry in their heads。  I have been

told that Sir Edwin Arnold thought out his beautiful 〃Light of Asia〃

in this way。



I find the great charm of writing consists in its surprises。  When

one is in the receptive attitude of mind; the thoughts which are

sprung upon him; the images which flash through hisconsciousness;

are a delight and an excitement。  I am impatient of every hindrance

in setting down my thoughts;of a pen that will not write; of ink

that will not flow; of paper that will not receive the ink。  And here

let me pay the tribute which I owe to one of the humblest but most

serviceable of my assistants; especially in poetical composition。

Nothing seems more prosaic than the stylographic pen。  It deprives

the handwriting of its beauty; and to some extent of its individual

character。  The brutal communism of the letters it forms covers the

page it fills with the most uniformly uninteresting characters。  But;

abuse it as much as you choose; there is nothing like it for the

poet; for the imaginative writer。  Many a fine flow of thought has

been checked; perhaps arrested; by the ill behavior of a goose…quill。

Many an idea has escaped while the author was dipping his pen

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