Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
"Come out and walk with me," said Forester to Henry, as soon as the lady
was gone. Henry frequently left his occupations with great good-nature,
to accompany our hero in his rambles, and he usually followed the
subjects of conversation which Forester started. He saw, by the gravity
of his countenance, that he had something of importance revolving in his
mind. After he had proceeded in silence for some time along the walk,
under the high rock called Arthur's Seat, he suddenly stopped, and,
turning to Henry, exclaimed, "I esteem you; do not make me despise you!"
"I hope I never shall," said Henry, a little surprised by his friend's
manner; "what is the matter?"
"Leave balls, and lady patronesses, and petty artifices, and supple
address, to such people as Archibald Mackenzie," pursued Forester, with
enthusiasm:
"Who noble ends by noble means pursues--"
"Will scorn canary birds, and _cobble shoes_,"
replied Henry, laughing; "I see no meanness in my conduct: I do not know
what it is you disapprove."
"I do not approve," said Forester, "of your having recourse to _mean
address_ to obtain justice."
Henry requested to know what his severe friend meant by _address_; but
this was not easily explained. Forester, in his definition of _mean
address_, included all that attention to the feelings of others, all
those honest arts of pleasing, which make society agreeable. Henry
endeavoured to convince him, that it was possible for a person to wish
to please, nay, even to succeed in that wish, without being insincere.
Their argument and their walk continued, till Henry, who, though very
active, was not quite so robust as his friend, was completely tired,
especially as he perceived that Forester's opinions remained unshaken.
"How effeminate you _gentlemen_ are!" cried Forester: "see what it is to
be brought up in the lap of luxury. Why, I am not at all tired; I could
walk a dozen miles further, without being in the least fatigued!"
Henry thought it a very good thing to be able to walk a number of
miles without being fatigued, but he did not consider it as the highest
perfection of human nature. In his friend's present mood, nothing less
could content him, and Forester went on to demonstrate to the weary
Henry, that all fortitude, all courage, and all the manly virtues, were
inseparably connected with _pedestrian indefatigability_. Henry, with
good-natured presence of mind, which perhaps his friend would have
called _mean address_, diverted our hero's rising indignation by
proposing that they should both go and look at the large brewery which
was in their way home, and with which Forester would, he thought, be
entertained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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