I heard other instances of this state of things, as I must vaguely call
it, since I do not know what else to call it. But I suppose we can all
agree that to the man in average health, the average impact of the
external world on his senses is a matter of indifference. The average
impact; a harsh scream, the bursting of a motor tyre, any violent
assault on the aural nerves will annoy him, and he may say "damn." Then,
on the other hand, the man who is not "fit" will easily be annoyed and
irritated by someone pushing past him in a crowd, by the ringing of a
bell, by the sharp closing of a book.
But so far as I could judge from the talk of these sailors, the average
impact of the external world had become to them a fountain of pleasure.
Their nerves were on edge, but an edge to receive exquisite sensuous
impressions. The touch of the rough mast, for example; that was a joy
far greater than is the joy of fine silk to some luxurious skins; they
drank water and stared as if they had been _fins gourmets_ tasting an
amazing wine; the creak and whine of their ship on its slow way were as
exquisite as the rhythm and song of a Bach fugue to an amateur of music.
And then, within; these rough fellows have their quarrels and strifes
and variances and envyings like the rest of us; but that was all over
between them that had seen the rosy light; old enemies shook hands
heartily, and roared with laughter as they confessed one to another what
fools they had been.
"I can't exactly say how it has happened or what has happened at all,"
said one, "but if you have all the world and the glory of it, how can
you fight for fivepence?"
* * * * *
The church of Llantrisant is a typical example of a Welsh parish church,
before the evil and horrible period of "restoration."
This lower world is a palace of lies, and of all foolish lies there is
none more insane than a certain vague fable about the mediæval
freemasons, a fable which somehow imposed itself upon the cold intellect
of Hallam the historian. The story is, in brief, that throughout the
Gothic period, at any rate, the art and craft of church building were
executed by wandering guilds of "freemasons," possessed of various
secrets of building and adornment, which they employed wherever they
went. If this nonsense were true, the Gothic of Cologne would be as the
Gothic of Colne, and the Gothic of Arles like to the Gothic of Abingdon.
It is so grotesquely untrue that almost every county, let alone every
country, has its distinctive style in Gothic architecture. Arfon is in
the west of Wales; its churches have marks and features which
distinguish them from the churches in the east of Wales.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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