Hence it will not do for the Landlord to possess too fine a nature. He
must have health above the common accidents of life, subject to no
modern fashionable diseases; but no taste, rather a vast relish or
appetite. His sentiments on all subjects will be delivered as freely as
the wind blows; there is nothing private or individual in them, though
still original, but they are public, and of the hue of the heavens over
his house,—a certain out-of-door obviousness and transparency not to be
disputed. What he does, his manners are not to be complained of, though
abstractly offensive, for it is what man does, and in him the race is
exhibited. When he eats, he is liver and bowels, and the whole
digestive apparatus to the company, and so all admit the thing is done.
He must have no idiosyncrasies, no particular bents or tendencies to
this or that, but a general, uniform, and healthy development, such as
his portly person indicates, offering himself equally on all sides to
men. He is not one of your peaked and inhospitable men of genius, with
particular tastes, but, as we said before, has one uniform relish, and
taste which never aspires higher than a tavern-sign, or the cut of a
weather-cock. The man of genius, like a dog with a bone, or the slave
who has swallowed a diamond, or a patient with the gravel, sits afar
and retired, off the road, hangs out no sign of refreshment for man and
beast, but says, by all possible hints and signs, I wish to be
alone—good-by—farewell. But the landlord can afford to live without
privacy. He entertains no private thought, he cherishes no solitary
hour, no Sabbath day, but thinks,—enough to assert the dignity of
reason,—and talks, and reads the newspaper. What he does not tell to
one traveller, he tells to another. He never wants to be alone, but
sleeps, wakes, eats, drinks, sociably, still remembering his race. He
walks abroad through the thoughts of men, and the Iliad and Shakspeare
are tame to him, who hears the rude but homely incidents of the road
from every traveller. The mail might drive through his brain in the
midst of his most lonely soliloquy, without disturbing his equanimity,
provided it brought plenty of news and passengers. There can be no
_pro_-fanity where there is no fane behind, and the whole world may see
quite round him. Perchance his lines have fallen to him in dustier
places, and he has heroically sat down where two roads meet, or at the
Four Corners, or the Five Points, and his life is sublimely trivial for
the good of men. The dust of travel blows ever in his eyes, and they
preserve their clear, complacent look. The hourlies and half-hourlies,
the dailies and weeklies, whirl on well-worn tracks, round and round
his house, as if it were the goal in the stadium, and still he sits
within in unruffled serenity, with no show of retreat. His neighbor
dwells timidly behind a screen of poplars and willows, and a fence with
sheaves of spears at regular intervals, or defended against the tender
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account