TALES OF THE HALL.
BOOK II.
THE BROTHERS.
Further Account of the Meeting—Of the Men—The Mother—The Uncle—The private Tutor—The second Husband—Dinner Conversation— School of the Rector and Squire—The Master.
TALES OF THE HALL.
BOOK II.
THE BROTHERS.
At length the Brothers met, no longer tried
By those strong feelings that in time subside;
Not fluent yet their language, but the eye
And action spoke both question and reply;
Till the heart rested, and could calmly feel;
Till the shook compass felt the settling steel;
Till playful smiles on graver converse broke,
And either speaker less abruptly spoke.
Still was there oft-times silence, silence blest,
Expressive, thoughtful—their emotions’ rest: 10
Pauses that came not from a want of thought,
But want of ease, by wearied passion sought;
For souls, when hurried by such powerful force,
Rest, and retrace the pleasure of the course.
They differ’d much; yet might observers trace
Likeness of features both in mind and face;
Pride they possess’d, that neither strove to hide,
But not offensive, not obtrusive pride.
Unlike had been their life, unlike the fruits
Of different tempers, studies, and pursuits; 20
Nay, in such varying scenes the men had moved,
’Twas passing strange that aught alike they loved.
But all distinction now was thrown apart,
While these strong feelings ruled in either heart.
As various colours in a painted ball,
While it has rest, are seen distinctly all,
Till, whirl’d around by some exterior force,
They all are blended in the rapid course:
So in repose, and not by passion sway’d,
We saw the difference by their habits made; 30
But, tried by strong emotions, they became
Fill’d with one love, and were in heart the same;
Joy to the face its own expression sent,
And gave a likeness in the looks it lent.
All now was sober certainty; the joy
That no strong passions swell till they destroy:
For they, like wine, our pleasures raise so high,
That they subdue our strength, and then they die.
George in his brother felt a glowing pride,
He wonder’d who that fertile mind supplied— 40
“Where could the wanderer gather on his road
Knowledge so various? how the mind this food?
No college train’d him, guideless through his life,
Without a friend—not so! he has a wife.
Ah! had I married, I might now have seen
My——No! it never, never could have been,
That long enchantment, that pernicious state!—
True, I recover’d, but alas! too late—
And here is Richard, poor indeed—but—nay!
This is self-torment—foolish thoughts, away!” 50
Ease leads to habit, as success to ease,
He lives by rule who lives himself to please;
For change is trouble, and a man of wealth
Consults his quiet as he guards his health;
And habit now on George had sovereign power,
His actions all had their accustom’d hour:
At the fix’d time he slept, he walk’d, he read,
Or sought his grounds, his gruel, and his bed;
For every season he with caution dress’d,
And morn and eve had the appropriate vest; 60
He talk’d of early mists, and night’s cold air,
And in one spot was fix’d his worship’s chair.
But not a custom yet on Richard’s mind
Had force, or him to certain modes confined;
To him no joy such frequent visits paid
That habit by its beaten track was made;
He was not one who at his ease could say,
“We’ll live to-morrow as we lived to-day;”
But he and his were as the ravens fed,
As the day came it brought the daily bread. 70
George, born to fortune, though of moderate kind,
Was not in haste his road through life to find.
His father early lost, his mother tried}
To live without him, liked it not, and—sigh’d, }
When, for her widow’d hand, an amorous youth applied. }
She still was young, and felt that she could share
A lover’s passion, and an husband’s care;
Yet past twelve years before her son was told,
To his surprise, “your father you behold.”
But he beheld not with his mother’s eye 80
The new relation, and would not comply,
But all obedience, all connexion spurn’d,
And fled their home, where he no more return’d.
His father’s brother was a man whose mind
Was to his business and his bank confined;
His guardian care the captious nephew sought,
And was received, caress’d, advised, and taught.
“That Irish beggar, whom your mother took,
Does you this good, he sends you to your book;
Yet love not books beyond their proper worth, 90
But, when they fit you for the world, go forth:
They are like beauties, and may blessings prove,
When we with caution study them, or love;
But, when to either we our souls devote,
We grow unfitted for that world, and dote.”
George to a school of higher class was sent,
But he was ever grieving that he went:
A still, retiring, musing, dreaming boy,
He relish’d not their sudden bursts of joy;
Nor the tumultuous pleasures of a rude, 100
A noisy, careless, fearless multitude.
He had his own delights, as one who flies
From every pleasure that a crowd supplies;
Thrice he return’d, but then was weary grown,
And was indulged with studies of his own.
Still could the rector and his friend relate
The small adventures of that distant date;
And Richard listen’d as they spake of time
Past in that world of misery and crime.
Freed from his school, a priest of gentle kind 110
The uncle found to guide the nephew’s mind;
Pleased with his teacher, George so long remain’d,
The mind was weaken’d by the store it gain’d.
His guardian uncle, then on foreign ground,
No time to think of his improvements found;
Nor had the nephew, now to manhood grown,
Talents or taste for trade or commerce shown,
But shunn’d a world of which he little knew,
Nor of that little did he like the view.
His mother chose, nor I the choice upbraid, 120
An Irish soldier of an house decay’d,
And passing poor; but, precious in her eyes
As she in his, they both obtain’d a prize.
To do the captain justice, she might share
What of her jointure his affairs could spare;
Irish he was in his profusion—true,
But he was Irish in affection too;
And, though he spent her wealth and made her grieve,
He always said “my dear” and “with your leave.”
Him she survived; she saw his boy possess’d 130
Of manly spirit, and then sank to rest.
Her sons thus left, some legal cause required
That they should meet, but neither this desired.
George, a recluse, with mind engaged, was one
Who did no business, with whom none was done;
Whose heart, engross’d by its peculiar care,
Shared no one’s counsel—no one his might share.
Richard, a boy, a lively boy, was told
Of his half-brother, haughty, stern, and cold;
And his boy folly, or his manly pride, 140
Made him on measures cool and harsh decide.
So, when they met, a distant cold salute
Was of a long-expected day the fruit;
The rest by proxies managed, each withdrew,
Vex’d by the business and the brother too;
But now they met when time had calm’d the mind;
Both wish’d for kindness, and it made them kind.
George had no wife or child, and was disposed
To love the man on whom his hope reposed:
Richard had both; and those so well beloved, 150
Husband and father were to kindness moved;
And thus th’ affections check’d, subdued, restrain’d,
Rose in their force, and in their fulness reign’d.
The bell now bids to dine; the friendly priest,
Social and shrewd, the day’s delight increased.
Brief and abrupt their speeches while they dined,
Nor were their themes of intellectual kind;
Nor, dinner past, did they to these advance,
But left the subjects they discuss’d to chance.
Richard, whose boyhood in the place was spent, 160
Profound attention to the speakers lent,
Who spake of men; and, as he heard a name,
Actors and actions to his memory came.
Then, too, the scenes he could distinctly trace,
Here he had fought, and there had gain’d a race;
In that church-walk he had affrighted been;
In that old tower he had a something seen—
What time, dismiss’d from school, he upward cast
A fearful look, and trembled as he past.
No private tutor Richard’s parents sought, 170
Made keen by hardship, and by trouble taught;
They might have sent him—some the counsel gave—
Seven gloomy winters of the North to brave:
Where a few pounds would pay for board and bed,
While the poor frozen boy was taught and fed;
When, say he lives, fair, freckled, lank and lean,
The lad returns shrewd, subtle, close and keen;
With all the northern virtues, and the rules
Taught to the thrifty in these thriving schools.
There had he gone, and borne this trying part— 180
But Richard’s mother had a mother’s heart.
Now squire and rector were return’d to school,
And spoke of him who there had sovereign rule:
He was, it seem’d, a tyrant of the sort
Who make the cries of tortured boys his sport;
One of a race, if not extinguish’d, tamed—
The flogger now is of the act ashamed;
But this great mind all mercy’s calls withstood;
This Holofernes was a man of blood.
“Students,” he said, “like horses on the road, 190
Must well be lash’d before they take the load;
They may be willing for a time to run,
But you must whip them ere the work be done.
To tell a boy, that, if he will improve,
His friends will praise him, and his parents love,
Is doing nothing—he has not a doubt
But they will love him, nay, applaud, without;
Let no fond sire a boy’s ambition trust,
To make him study, let him see he must.”
Such his opinion; and, to prove it true, 200
At least sincere, it was his practice too.
Pluto they call’d him, and they named him well:
’Twas not an heaven where he was pleased to dwell.
From him a smile was like the Greenland sun,
Surprising, nay portentous, when it shone;
Or like the lightning, for the sudden flash
Prepared the children for the thunder’s crash.
O! had Narcissa, when she fondly kiss’d
The weeping boy whom she to school dismiss’d,
Had she beheld him shrinking from the arm 210
Uplifted high to do the greater harm,
Then seen her darling stript, and that pure white,
And—O! her soul had fainted at the sight;
And with those looks that love could not withstand,
She would have cried, “Barbarian, hold thy hand!”
In vain! no grief to this stern soul could speak,
No iron-tear roll down this Pluto’s cheek.
Thus far they went, half earnest, half in jest,
Then turn’d to themes of deeper interest;
While Richard’s mind, that for awhile had stray’d, 220
Call’d home its powers, and due attention paid.