The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-10-24

lien men, leading a quiet life, and
without any strong or highly varied
change of circumstances, have seen
more variety of society than few
have enjoyed it more, or been bored,
as it is called, less by the company
of tiresome people. l have rarely, if
ever, found any one out of whom |
could not extract amusement or edifi
cation. Still, however, from the earli-
est time can remember, preferred
the pleasure of being alone to wish
ing for visitors, and have often taken
a hammock and bit of cheese to the
wood or hill, to avoid dining in COM
pany. AS | grew from boyhood to
manhood, l saw that this would not
do and to gain a place in mems es-
TEEN l must meet and hingle with
them. Pride, and an ekaltation of
spirits, often supplied the real pleas
ure which others seem to feel in 80
ciety; yet mine certainly upon many
occasions was real. Still, if the ques-
ton was, eternal company, without
the power of retiring within your
self, or solitary confinement for life,
l should say, Turnkey, lock the CELL"
Politics were very bitter then as
now, and he often was sorely tried
with public affairs. He writes at one
of these periods of wrath: $50 Tory
and Wing may go be id together
as names that have disturbed old
Scotland, and torn asunder the most
kindly feelings, since the first day
they were invented. Yes, d-m them,
for they are the spells to rouse all
ones angry passions, and I dare say,
notwithstanding the opinion of my
private and calm moments, I will
open on the cry again 80 soon as
something occurs to claim my
words"
January %, 1926, he writes after
the worst is fully known in regard to
his financial ruin: II feel neither dis
honored nor broken down by the bad
now really badnews 1 have re-
ceived. l have walked my last on
the domains l have planted-sat the
last time in the halls / have built.
But death would have taken them
from me if misfortune had spared
them. Ny poor people " hom I loved
SO we'll! There is just another die to
turn up against me in this run of i'll
lnck, 4. e., if | should break my magic
wand in the fall from the elephant,
and lose my popularity with my
fortune. Then Woodstock and Bony
may go to the paper-maker, and l
may take to smoking cigars and
drinking grog, or turn devotee, and
intoxicate the brain another way.
But find my eyes mois-
tening, and that will not do. l will
not yield without fight for it. 1t is
odd, when l set myself to work, dog
gedly, as DIR. Johnson would say, l
am exactly the same man es l ever
was neither low-spirited nor dis
trait. In prosperous times. / have
sometimes felt my fancy and powers
of language flag, but adversely is to
me at least tonic and a bracer;
the fountain is awakened from it's in.
most recesses, as if the spirit of affiic.
ton had troubled it in his passage"
A little later he writes: "Slept i'll, not
having been abroad these eight days
spIendidd bills. Then a dead sleep
in the morning, and when the awak-
ening, strong feeling how we'll 1
could dispense with it for once, and
forever. This passes away, and bet
ter and more dutiful thoughts arise in
my mind. l know not if my imagina
tion has fiagged-probably it has;
but at least my powers of labor have
not diminished during the last mel
ancholy week. On Monday and
Tuesday my exertions were sus-
pended. Since Wednesday inclusive,
I have written thirty-eight manu-
,ript pages, of which seventy make
volume of the usual novel size."
This extract shows more clearly
than anything which could be said
by his biographer, what the spirit of
the man was. Two days only of rest
after the great shock-than steady,
hard labor, the like of which few
men have done. 1t is the most pa
thetic thing in all literary history
this sight of man verging toward
old age setting to himself the task of
coming his already overworked brain
to pay off debts that aggregated
hundreds of thousands of pounds,
contracted not by himself, but for
which he was liable through his in
terest in the publishing firm of
James Ballantine & Co. The task
was gigantic, far too great to be
n ,,OsSihla ono and Of cOrrsa he