Greenville chewing
wine-glasses at table makes no very pleasant figure, any
more than a thousand other artists when they are viewed in
the body, or met in private life; but his work of art, his
finished tragedy, is an elegant performance; and I contend
it ought not only to enliven men of the sword as they go
into battle, but send back merchant-clerks with more heart
and spirit to their book-keeping by double entry.
*
It is said that a poet has died young in the breast of the
most stolid. 'It may be contended, rather, that this
(somewhat minor) bard in almost every case survives, and is
the spice of life to his possessor. Justice is not done to
the versatility and the unplumbed childishness of man's
imagination. His life from without may seem but a rude
mound of mud; there will be some golden chamber at the
heart of it, in which he dwells delighted; and for as dark
as his pathway seems to the observer, he will have some
kind of a bull's-eye at his belt.
*
For, to repeat, the ground of a man's joy is often hard to
hit. It may hinge at times upon a mere accessory, like the
lantern; it may reside, like Dancer's in the mysterious
inwards of psychology. It may consist with perpetual
failure, and find exercise in the continued chase. It has
so little bond with externals (such as the observer
scribbles in his notebook) that it may even touch them not;
and the man's true life, for which he consents to live, lie
altogether in the field of fancy.
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