Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the HeartJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the Heart
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
To the house of Mr. Hamilton, then, Morley Ernstein's very first visit
was paid. He had always felt the deepest gratitude and regard towards
his guardian, and he was now well pleased to express all such
sensations at the end of that period, during which the one had the
right to control, and the other was bound to obey. Ere he left Mr.
Hamilton, he told him the plan which he had laid out for himself in
London, but the good banker did not altogether approve of it.
"You are wise," he said, "Morley, not to plunge deeply into what may
be called innocent dissipations, but still the society of persons in
your own rank is a necessary which you must not deny yourself, not a
luxury which can enfeeble or injure the mind. Besides, my young
friend, if you would study man and society, you must study both
under their various aspects; nor must you look at them apart, for if
you would judge sanely, you must see, each grade acting and reacting
upon the other. The man of rank and station is but a mere automaton,
pretty to look at, amusing to examine; it is not till he is considered
in his relations with those around him and below him, in the reference
which his acts bear to his inferiors, to his equals, and to his God,
that you have the great moral agent, the most wonderful subject of
contemplation which this world can furnish. Such, too, is the case
with the inferior grades of society. All their arts, all their
thoughts, all their pleasures, all their sufferings, become tenfold
more interesting, tenfold more important, as an object of meditation,
when considered in reference to, and in comparison with, the pleasures
and sufferings, thoughts and acts of others. Beware, my dear boy,
beware, how, in your very outset of life, you gain a _one-sided_ view
of the grand scheme of society. It is this capital error which is the
prevailing fault of politicians and philosophers. It is from this
error that we have so many declaimers, and so few reasoners. It is
this error which makes the staple commodity of those men, who are
continually exciting one class of society against another. It is with
this that they trade, and often win themselves most undeserved renown,
of which future ages will strip them, and leave them naked and
disgraced. It is this one-sided view which actuates the many good,
and, in some respects, wise men, whom we see daily altering laws
without mending them, and founding institutions without benefiting
society. See, my dear Morley, the lower classes, but see the the
higher also--see with your own eyes, judge with your own
understanding; but see all, and not a part; judge, but judge not
without knowing all that is in dispute."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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