第130章 CHAPTER XXXVI(1)
THE SPOTTED PAPER.
What Master Gridley may have said to Myrtle Hazard that served to calm her after this exciting scene cannot now be recalled. That Murray Bradshaw thought he was inflicting a deadly injury on her was plain enough. That Master Gridley did succeed in convincing her that no great harm had probably been done her is equally certain.
Like all bachelors who have lived a lonely life, Master Byles Gridley had his habits, which nothing short of some terrestrial convulsion--or perhaps, in his case, some instinct that drove him forth to help somebody in trouble--could possibly derange. After his breakfast, he always sat and read awhile,--the paper, if a new one came to hand, or some pleasant old author,--if a little neglected by the world of readers, he felt more at ease with him, and loved him all the better.
But on the morning after his interview with Myrtle Hazard, he had received a letter which made him forget newspapers, old authors, almost everything, for the moment. It was from the publisher with whom he had had a conversation, it may be remembered, when he visited the city, and was to this effect: That Our Firm propose to print and stereotype the work originally published under the title of "Thoughts on the Universe"; said work to be remodelled according to the plan suggested by the Author, with the corrections, alterations, omissions, and additions proposed by him; said work to be published under the following title, to wit: ________ _________: said work to be printed in 12mo, on paper of good quality, from new types, etc., etc., and for every copy thereof printed the author to receive, etc., etc.
Master Gridley sat as in a trance, reading this letter over and over, to know if it could be really so. So it really was. His book had disappeared from the market long ago, as the elm seeds that carpet the ground and never germinate disappear. At last it had got a certain value as a curiosity for book-hunters. Some one of them, keener-eyed than the rest, had seen that there was a meaning and virtue in this unsuccessful book, for which there was a new audience educated since it had tried to breathe before its time. Out of this had grown at last the publisher's proposal. It was too much: his heart swelled with joy, and his eyes filled with tears.
How could he resist the temptation? He took down his own particular copy of the book, which was yet to do him honor as its parent, and began reading. As his eye fell on one paragraph after another, he nodded approval of this sentiment or opinion, he shook his head as if questioning whether this other were not to be modified or left out, he condemned a third as being no longer true for him as when it was written, and he sanctioned a fourth with his hearty approval. The reader may like a few specimens from this early edition, now a rarity. He shall have them, with Master Gridley's verbal comments.
The book, as its name implied, contained "Thoughts" rather than consecutive trains of reasoning or continuous disquisitions. What he read and remarked upon were a few of the more pointed statements which stood out in the chapters he was turning over. The worth of the book must not be judged by these almost random specimens.
"THE BEST THOUGHT, LIKE THE MOST PERFECT DIGESTION, IS DONEUNCONSCIOUSLY. --Develop that. --Ideas at compound interest in the mind. --Be aye sticking in an idea,--while you're sleeping it'll be growing. Seed of a thought to-day,--flower to-morrow--next week--ten years from now, etc. --Article by and by for the....
"CAN THE INFINITE BE SUPPOSED TO SHIFT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THEULTIMATE DESTINY OF ANY CREATED THING TO THE FINITE? OUR THEOLOGIANSPRETEND THAT IT CAN. I DOUBT. --Heretical. Stet.
"PROTESTANTISM MEANS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. BUT IT IS AFRAID OF ITSOWN LOGIC. --Stet. No logical resting-place short of None of your business.
"THE SUPREME SELF-INDULGENCE IS TO SURRENDER THE WILL TO A SPIRITUALDIRECTOR. --Protestantism gave up a great luxury. --Did it though?
"ASIATIC MODES OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH DO NOT EXPRESS THE 'RELATIONS INWHICH THE AMERICAN FEELS HIM SELF TO STAND TO HIS SUPERIORS IN THISOR ANY OTHER SPHERE OF BEING. REPUBLICANISM MUST HAVE ITS OWNRELIGIOUS PHRASEOLOGY, WHICH IS NOT THAT BORROWED FROM ORIENTALDESPOTISMS.
"IDOLS AND DOGMAS IN PLACE OF CHARACTER; PILLS AND THEORIES IN PLACEOF WHOLESOME LIVING. SEE THE HISTORIES OF THEOLOGY AND MEDICINEPASSIM.--Hits 'em.
"'OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.' DO YOU MEAN TO SAY JEAN CHAUVIN, THAT'HEAVEN LIES ABOUT US IN OUR INFANCY'?
"WHY DO YOU COMPLAIN OF YOUR ORGANIZATION? YOUR SOUL WAS IN A HURRY, AND MADE A RUSH FOR A BODY. THERE ARE PATIENT SPIRITS THAT HAVEWAITED FROM ETERNITY, AND NEVER FOUND PARENTS FIT TO BE BORN OF.
--How do you know anything about all that? Dele.
"WHAT SWEET, SMOOTH VOICES THE NEGROES HAVE! A HUNDRED GENERATIONSFED ON BANANAS.--COMPARE THEM WITH OUR APPLE-EATING WHITE FOLKS! --It won't do. Bananas came from the West Indies.
"TO TELL A MAN'S TEMPERAMENT BY HIS HANDWRITING. SEE IF THE DOTS OFHIS I'S RUN AHEAD OR NOT, AND IF THEY DO, HOW FAR. --I have tried that--on myself.
"MARRYING INTO SOME FAMILIES IS THE NEXT THING TO BEING CANONIZED.
--Not so true now as twenty or thirty years ago. As many bladders, but more pins.
"FISH AND DANDIES ONLY KEEP ON ICE. --Who will take? Explain in note how all warmth approaching blood heat spoils fops and flounders.
"FLYING IS A LOST ART AMONG MEN AND REPTILES. BATS FLY, AND MENOUGHT TO. TRY A LIGHT TURBINE. RISE A MILE STRAIGHT, FALL HALF AMILE SLANTING,--RISE HALF A MILE STRAIGHT, FALL HALF A MILE SLANTING, AND SO ON. OR SLANT UP AND SLANT DOWN. --Poh! You ain't such a fool as to think that is new,--are you?
"Put in my telegraph project. Central station. Cables with insulated wires running to it from different quarters of the city.
These form the centripetal system. From central station, wires to all the livery stables, messenger stands, provision shops, etc., etc.