We can no more play chess than
we can think altogether by ourselves with security.
we can think altogether by ourselves with security.
Yeats
I know how lazy you are, and will save you the
trouble. ' A message was always found for him. A pile of books lent for
Sherman's improvement went home one by one.
'Look here,' said Howard's voice in the doorway, 'I have been watching
you for some time. You are cheating the red men most villainously. You
are forcing them to make mistakes that the white men may win. Why, a
few such games would ruin any man's moral nature. '
He was leaning against the doorway, looking, to Sherman's not too
critical eyes, an embodiment of all that was self-possessed and
brilliant. The great care with which he was dressed and his whole
manner seemed to say: 'Look at me; do I not combine perfectly the
zealot with the man of the world? ' He seemed excited to-night. He had
been talking at the Lelands, and talking well, and felt that elation
which brings us many thoughts.
'My dear Sherman,' he went on, 'do cease that game. It is very bad
for you. There is nobody alive who is honest enough to play a game
of chess fairly out--right hand against left. We are so radically
dishonest that we even cheat ourselves.
We can no more play chess than
we can think altogether by ourselves with security. You had much better
play with me. '
'Very well, but you will beat me; I have not much practice,' replied
the other.
They reset the men and began to play. Sherman relied most upon his
bishops and queen. Howard was fondest of the knights. At first Sherman
was the attacking party, but in his characteristic desire to scheme
out his game many moves ahead, kept making slips, and at last had to
give up, with his men nearly all gone and his king hopelessly cornered.
Howard seemed to let nothing escape him. When the game was finished
he leant back in his chair and said, as he rolled a cigarette: 'You
do not play well. ' It gave him satisfaction to feel his proficiency
in many small arts. 'You do not do any of these things at all well,'
he went on, with an insolence peculiar to him when excited. 'You
have been really very badly brought up and stupidly educated in that
intolerable Ballah. They do not understand there any, even the least,
of the arts of life; they only believe in information. Men who are
compelled to move in the great world, and who are also cultivated,
only value the personal acquirements--self-possession, adaptability,
how to dress well, how even to play tennis decently--you would be not
so bad at that, by the by, if you practised--or how to paint or write
effectively. They know that it is better to smoke one's cigarette with
a certain charm of gesture than to have by heart all the encyclopedias.
I say this not merely as a man of the world, but as a teacher of
religion.
trouble. ' A message was always found for him. A pile of books lent for
Sherman's improvement went home one by one.
'Look here,' said Howard's voice in the doorway, 'I have been watching
you for some time. You are cheating the red men most villainously. You
are forcing them to make mistakes that the white men may win. Why, a
few such games would ruin any man's moral nature. '
He was leaning against the doorway, looking, to Sherman's not too
critical eyes, an embodiment of all that was self-possessed and
brilliant. The great care with which he was dressed and his whole
manner seemed to say: 'Look at me; do I not combine perfectly the
zealot with the man of the world? ' He seemed excited to-night. He had
been talking at the Lelands, and talking well, and felt that elation
which brings us many thoughts.
'My dear Sherman,' he went on, 'do cease that game. It is very bad
for you. There is nobody alive who is honest enough to play a game
of chess fairly out--right hand against left. We are so radically
dishonest that we even cheat ourselves.
We can no more play chess than
we can think altogether by ourselves with security. You had much better
play with me. '
'Very well, but you will beat me; I have not much practice,' replied
the other.
They reset the men and began to play. Sherman relied most upon his
bishops and queen. Howard was fondest of the knights. At first Sherman
was the attacking party, but in his characteristic desire to scheme
out his game many moves ahead, kept making slips, and at last had to
give up, with his men nearly all gone and his king hopelessly cornered.
Howard seemed to let nothing escape him. When the game was finished
he leant back in his chair and said, as he rolled a cigarette: 'You
do not play well. ' It gave him satisfaction to feel his proficiency
in many small arts. 'You do not do any of these things at all well,'
he went on, with an insolence peculiar to him when excited. 'You
have been really very badly brought up and stupidly educated in that
intolerable Ballah. They do not understand there any, even the least,
of the arts of life; they only believe in information. Men who are
compelled to move in the great world, and who are also cultivated,
only value the personal acquirements--self-possession, adaptability,
how to dress well, how even to play tennis decently--you would be not
so bad at that, by the by, if you practised--or how to paint or write
effectively. They know that it is better to smoke one's cigarette with
a certain charm of gesture than to have by heart all the encyclopedias.
I say this not merely as a man of the world, but as a teacher of
religion.
