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954 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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PASSAGES FROM A BOY'S EPIC. X. Hespebia....
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Vii. Harley-Street, Jan. 13, 1852. Gw§ O...
" Where ! where ? " He looked round , as if he did not understand my forgetting the where ; but then resumed— < c We were speaking exactly of such a case—of a wife who refuses to be a wife to her husband ; and whom the law , " he added , with violence , " will force to return to her duty . " I was shocked and silenced . A light suddenly burst upon me : Edwardes was , incited by some degree of parallel in the newspaper , stating his own case , and I was the object through whom he was now speaking at another . This explained circumstances before unintelligible to me . I wished to drop the subject , but he would not let me . " You cannot answer that , " he said , ' I suppose you state the law of your country as it is , " I rejoined ; " but you ascribe to it a tyranny that seems to be horrible , revolting—one against morals . I insist that to love is a spontaneous growth , not to be forced by the will : it is a fact , not a duty ; and the absence of it is also a fact , not a breach of duty . But to treat indifference as love— — !" "Go on . View it practically . A woman , is given to man for his companion—for the prevention of vice , says the prayer book ; and she has no right , I say , to make him a widower in her lifetime . " " I do view it practically . I reply that love is a fact not a duty ; that love , the mysterious power which subdues us the one to the other , is a condition not to be undergone where love meets indifference ; for if it do , both are disgraced . No , I am wrong—the unwilling may be outraged , but not disgraced . Love which obtrudes itself upon indifference , desecrates itself ; since it consents to undergo its divine submission before cold eyes not equally consecrated . And if without love—if only with what it is vile to call ' passion '—if only asserting convenient right—Oh ! Edwardes , it is horrible that any creature capable of loving , especially capable as a noble and tender woman must be , should be forced to undergo the hideous mockery of love . It is abominable . " " I grant you , " cried Edwardes , taking a perverse pleasure in the discussion , and in probing his own wound—Yseult , who had been reading with resolute pertinacity , now laid down her book , rose from the sofa and left the room . After she had gone Edwardes made a long pause of silence , walking heavily up and down ; and then he suddenly resumed . "I grant you that there may be cases of cruelty , and I have known them . I do not speak as a bigot . As to the altar , I assuredly need not rely on that . But I speak practically . I grant you that there are cases in which there is much cruelty . I have known them . I have known the case of a girl , young , married in total ignorance , to whom the very first aspect of matrimony approached in such inconsiderate and brutal abruptness , that terror seized her , from which she never recovered . She was a patient of mine—a patient rather to my skill in reasoning and persuasion than in drugs : but I must confess that it was a horrible endurance , that life of hers .. One does not wonder at repugnance in such cases . It may be terror . I have known another case of a rough selfish ogre wedded to a delicate fairy , who—but I will not scarify your ears with that . It is horrible to think of—midnight , and no rescue /> ossi £ > Z —not once , but always . No escape ! ' Right' was very like crime there . " " But , " I said , not unwilling to stop his morbid revel in the shocking , " are there no cases short of such , —no minor moral , or even physical brutalities ? Has the drunkard , with tainted words of endearment , a right to invade the love of a woman who acccepted him before he was com . ptcd " " It is a difficult question . Yes , I know , —there are shoals of cases . We talk of a young girl prostituted for position to some old rascal , and forget that decrepitude is not always the most revolting trait . It is frightful that any brute incubus should have a right to appropriate a human creature with an independent soul , and that human being probably a timid and delicate one ; to be without any help of interference . ft is odious . But we were not speaking of such cases . We were only saying , that , as it a ; ways happens , the first vehemence and romantic illusion of passion passes ; and because a soberer feeling supervenes , a woman has no right to plead indifference in bar of her duty . " " Are you sure , Edwardes , that indifference always supervenes ?" " You are not a married man , or you would not ask . " " How are you so sure I should not ? Is it the marriage , then , that is always such a certain cause of indifference ?" " The marriage ? No ; it is the habit . Continuance always has that effect . " " Always ?" " Always—except in novels , and in cases that one never finds in one ' s own experience . " " But what if I say that T do know such V " In married life V * ' In married life . But how strange that question . It presupposes that such cases "of continued affection might exist , without marriage . " " Undoubtedly : one effect of . Hut we are wandering from the point , and you an ; getting tired . Good night . I will go to town after nil . Tell Yseult that 1 must see 11 aisled to-night , or very early . I will get a horn ? . " lie was leaving the room , but lie came back . " I tell you what , Tristan , life is a sad reality , not a romance ; and when we expect romance in real life , or refuse to accept life as we find it , we inflict misery where at least misery is not due , punishing others for our disappointment . ( Jood night . " Soon ufterwurds I heard him ride off . I fear that what he gays is true ;
and that after the " illusion" is over , married life k but an endura That accounts , in part , for the sombre faces all round . Two human bei ^ become a mutual sacrifice , under the full belief , on presumption th t ^ must be so . And so it must , to the feeble and the acquiescent . ' jw see noble natures sacrificed , and sacrificed by noble natures ! I saw Yseult no more that night , and next day only in Margaret ' roo when I visited the patient ; now out of all danger , pale as she is , with hehair cut close , and her fine rounded face sharpened . Edwardes spent yester da with us , and to-day Yseult and I followed him tip , as she had not see n th children since Margaret ' s accident . It is painful , and yet delightful to see how Edwardes ' love and hers still consciously meet in their children
I forgot to tell you in my last letter , that when I attained to Gulia Sidney ' s lodging , she had gone , leaving for me a note , with onl y these words : — " I am gone into the country , not to return till you have had time to forgive me . I am more wretched than wicked . Addio . " But Werneth tells me that she is to be at his father ' s ; and I shall surprise her there . I go the more readily , as Werneth promises that I shall see something of working-class life . I am beginning to tire of England , with all its bondages . See how much more I have written than I meant ! But Yseult calls me
954 The Leader. [Saturday,
954 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Passages From A Boy's Epic. X. Hespebia....
PASSAGES FROM A BOY'S EPIC . X . Hespebia . Firm anchorage finding there , Leapt Bacchus to the shore , and leaping flung His tresses , that like golden morning streamed , From off his shoulders and his neck divine . Along the pier a mighty multitude Loud welcome shouted , and from echoing halls Came sceptred Gods , and all the Hesperian Powers . Some in their crowns wore wreaths of ivy green ; Some briony and blossoms of the grape , Or rose and myrtle , that above the sun , Bloom in the gardens of perpetual spring . With glad acclaim they hailed the Olympian god arriving , With Evoe and Io ; such all night In folds of gray Cithseron when the train Of Mcenad wassailers confront the ffark With flaring torches and large shadowy boughs , A vineyard all on fire , the traveller hears , And in some mountain hollow lurks secure . So shouting led they Bacchus through the streets Of the metropolis , Dionium called . Of gold the pavement was , more pure than glass ; Throughout the streets on either hand appeared Temple , and colonnade , andisiheatre , Of amethyst and opal , pearl and gold , With sculpture rare , and carved entablature , And delicate embroidery wrought in stone , Wild flower of rose and flower of lily wrought . Through streets and arches , halls and corridors , Like a bright stream the long procession flowed , Continuous , till it reached an open square , White with the wandering moonlight . Central rose The palace of the Queen , wrought all of pearl , That in the moonlight likest moonlight seemed , Or work of radiant cloud that miracle Had hardened into stone . Four portals lookt Direct towards the four great winds of heaven , Fashioned of amethyst ; above them stood Pale images of marble ; Got ! and man , Woman and goddess , and the larger forms Of panther , eameleopard , and lucern , Bewildering air with beauty . But ere long , Self-moving upon golden hinges , rolled The amethystine portals to receive Bacchus and all his mighty company ; Self-moving , yet once more , the jewelled gates Closed , and the flying echoes far away Died , as the gods advanced . Through regal bowers , ^ That shone as with the light of sunset clouds , While all the painted life upon the walls Seemed pleading for heroic memories Of old and crowned men , whom love made gods , Through halls and corridors , in lengthening line That pomp resplendent past , and now attained An ample chamber , wrought of solid pearl , With gorgeous light from gem and jewel rare , That suited the strong vision of the gods . Throughout the hall , at equal distance ranged , Twelve thrones were seen , whereof the central shone As among stars the moon , and here the Queen Of all Desire and of all Beautv sat .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101852/page/22/
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