At Large

At Large

The Project Gutenberg Etext of At Large
by Arthur Christopher Benson (#4 in our series by Arthur Christopher Benson)
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Title: At Large
Author: Arthur Christopher Benson
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4613] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 19, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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AT LARGE

By ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON
Haec ego mecum
1908

Contents
I. THE SCENE II. CONTENTMENT III. FRIENDSHIP IV. HUMOUR V. TRAVEL VI. SPECIALISM VII. OUR LACK OF GREAT MEN VIII. SHYNESS IX. EQUALITY X. THE DRAMATIC SENSE XI. KELMSCOTT AND WILLIAM MORRIS XII. A SPEECH DAY XIII. LITERARY FINISH XIV. A MIDSUMMER DAY'S DREAM XV. SYMBOLS XVI. OPTIMISM XVII. JOY XVIII. THE LOVE OF GOD EPILOGUE

I
THE SCENE

Yes, of course it is an experiment! But it is made in corpore vili. It is not irreparable, and there is no reason, more's the pity, why I should not please myself. I will ask--it is a rhetorical question which needs no answer--what is a hapless bachelor to do, who is professionally occupied and tied down in a certain place for just half the year? What is he to do with the other half? I cannot live on in my college rooms, and I am not compelled to do so for economy. I have near relations and many friends, at whose houses I should be made welcome. But I cannot be like the wandering dove, who found no repose. I have a great love of my independence and my liberty. I love my own fireside, my own chair, my own books, my own way. It is little short of torture to have to conform to the rules of other households, to fall in with other people's arrangements, to throw my pen down when the gong sounds, to make myself agreeable to fortuitous visitors, to be led whither I would not. I do this, a very little, because I do not desire to lose touch with my kind; but then my work is of a sort which brings me into close touch day after day with all sorts of people, till I crave for recollection and repose; the prospect of a round of visits is one that fairly unmans me. No doubt it implies a certain want of vitality, but one does not increase one's vitality by making overdrafts upon it; and then too I am a slave to my pen, and the practice of authorship is inconsistent with paying visits. Of course the obvious remedy is marriage; but one cannot marry from prudence, or from a sense of duty, or even to increase the birth-rate, which I am concerned to see is diminishing. I am, moreover, to be perfectly frank, a transcendentalist on the subject of marriage. I know that a happy marriage is the finest and noblest thing in the world, and I would resign all the conveniences I possess with the utmost readiness for it. But a great passion cannot be the result of reflection, or of desire, or even