'
There was a slight resentment in Sherman's voice.
There was a slight resentment in Sherman's voice.
Yeats
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. A man when he rises from the grave will take with him only
the things that he is in himself. He will leave behind the things that
he merely possesses, learning and information not less than money and
high estate. They will stay behind with his house and his clothes and
his body. A collection of facts will no more help him than a collection
of stamps. The learned will not get into heaven as readily as the
flute-player, or even as the man who smokes a cigarette gracefully.
Now, you are not learned, but you have been brought up almost as badly
as if you were. In that wretched town they told you that education was
to know that Russia is bounded on the north by the Arctic Sea, and
on the west by the Baltic Ocean, and that Vienna is situated on the
Danube, and that William the Third came to the throne in the year
1688. They have never taught you any personal art. Even chess-playing
might have helped you at the day of judgment. '
'I am really not a worse chess-player than you. I am only more
careless.
'
There was a slight resentment in Sherman's voice. The other noticed it,
and said, changing his manner from the insolent air of a young beauty
to a self-depreciatory one, which was wont to give him at times a very
genuine charm: 'It is really a great pity, for you Shermans are a deep
people, much deeper than we Howards. We are like moths or butterflies,
or rather rapid rivulets, while you and yours are deep pools in the
forest where the beasts go to drink. No! I have a better metaphor.
Your mind and mine are two arrows. Yours has got no feathers, and mine
has no metal on the point. I don't know which is most needed for right
conduct. I wonder where we are going to strike earth. I suppose it
will be all right some day when the world has gone by and they have
collected all the arrows into one quiver. '
He went over to the mantelpiece to hunt for a match, as his cigarette
had gone out. Sherman had lifted a corner of the blind and was gazing
over the roofs shining from a recent shower, and thinking how on such
a night as this he had sat with Mary Carton by the rectory fire
listening to the rain without and talking of the future and of the
training of village children.
'Have you seen Miss Leland in her last new dress from Paris? ' said
Howard, making one of his rapid transitions. 'It is very rich in
colour, and makes her look a little pale, like Saint Cecilia. She is
wonderful as she stands by the piano, a silver cross round her neck.
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. A man when he rises from the grave will take with him only
the things that he is in himself. He will leave behind the things that
he merely possesses, learning and information not less than money and
high estate. They will stay behind with his house and his clothes and
his body. A collection of facts will no more help him than a collection
of stamps. The learned will not get into heaven as readily as the
flute-player, or even as the man who smokes a cigarette gracefully.
Now, you are not learned, but you have been brought up almost as badly
as if you were. In that wretched town they told you that education was
to know that Russia is bounded on the north by the Arctic Sea, and
on the west by the Baltic Ocean, and that Vienna is situated on the
Danube, and that William the Third came to the throne in the year
1688. They have never taught you any personal art. Even chess-playing
might have helped you at the day of judgment. '
'I am really not a worse chess-player than you. I am only more
careless.
'
There was a slight resentment in Sherman's voice. The other noticed it,
and said, changing his manner from the insolent air of a young beauty
to a self-depreciatory one, which was wont to give him at times a very
genuine charm: 'It is really a great pity, for you Shermans are a deep
people, much deeper than we Howards. We are like moths or butterflies,
or rather rapid rivulets, while you and yours are deep pools in the
forest where the beasts go to drink. No! I have a better metaphor.
Your mind and mine are two arrows. Yours has got no feathers, and mine
has no metal on the point. I don't know which is most needed for right
conduct. I wonder where we are going to strike earth. I suppose it
will be all right some day when the world has gone by and they have
collected all the arrows into one quiver. '
He went over to the mantelpiece to hunt for a match, as his cigarette
had gone out. Sherman had lifted a corner of the blind and was gazing
over the roofs shining from a recent shower, and thinking how on such
a night as this he had sat with Mary Carton by the rectory fire
listening to the rain without and talking of the future and of the
training of village children.
'Have you seen Miss Leland in her last new dress from Paris? ' said
Howard, making one of his rapid transitions. 'It is very rich in
colour, and makes her look a little pale, like Saint Cecilia. She is
wonderful as she stands by the piano, a silver cross round her neck.
