Some Private Views

Some Private Views

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Title: Some Private Views
Author: James Payn
Release Date: September 9, 2004 [EBook #13410]
Language: English
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SOME PRIVATE VIEWS
By
JAMES PAYN
Author of 'High Spirits,' 'A Confidential Agent,' Etc.
A NEW EDITION 1881
London CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
TO HORACE N. PYM THIS Book is Dedicated BY HIS FRIEND

THE AUTHOR

CONTENTS.
FROM _'THE NINETEENTH CENTURY' REVIEW_.
THE MIDWAY INN 1
THE CRITIC ON THE HEARTH 20
SHAM ADMIRATION IN LITERATURE 37
THE PINCH OF POVERTY 59
THE LITERARY CALLING AND ITS FUTURE 72
STORY-TELLING 96
PENNY FICTION 116

FROM 'THE TIMES.'
HOTELS 133
MAID-SERVANTS 149
MEN-SERVANTS 163
WHIST-PLAYERS 173
RELATIONS 182
INVALID LITERATURE 192
WET HOLIDAYS 201
TRAVELLING COMPANIONS 211

THE MIDWAY INN.
'The hidden but the common thought of all.'
The thoughts I am about to set down are not my thoughts, for, as my
friends say, I have given up the practice of thinking, or it may be, as my
enemies say, I never had it. They are the thoughts of an acquaintance
who thinks for me. I call him an acquaintance, though I pass as much of
my time with him as with my nearest and dearest; perhaps at the club,
perhaps at the office, perhaps in metaphysical discussion, perhaps at
billiards--what does it matter? Thousands of men in town have such
acquaintances, in whose company they spend, by necessity or custom,
half the sum of their lives. It is not rational, doubtless; but then
'Consider, sir,' said the great talking philosopher, 'should we become
purely rational, how our friendships would be cut off. We form many

such with bad men because they have agreeable qualities, or may be
useful to us. We form many such by mistake, imagining people to be
different from what they really are.' And he goes on complacently to
observe that we shall either have the satisfaction of meeting these
gentlemen in a future state, or be satisfied without meeting them.
For my part, I do not feel that the scheme of future happiness, which
ought by rights to be in preparation for me, will be at all interfered with
by my not meeting again the man I have in my. mind. To have seen
him in the flesh is sufficient for me. In the spirit I cannot imagine him;
the consideration is too subtle; for, unlike the little man who had (for
certain) a little soul,' I don't believe he has a soul at all.
He is middle-aged, rich, lethargic, sententious, dogmatic, and, in short,
the quintessence of the commonplace. I need not say, therefore, that he
is credited by the world with unlimited common-sense. And for once
the world is right. He has nothing-original about him, save so much of
sin as he may have inherited from our first parents; there is no more at
the back of him than at the back of a looking-glass--indeed less, for he
has not a grain of quicksilver; but, like the looking-glass, he reflects.
Having nothing else to do, he hangs, as it were, on the wall of the world,
and mirrors it for me as it unconsciously passes by him--not, however,
as in a glass darkly, but with singular clearness. His vision is never
disturbed by passion or prejudice; he has no enthusiasm and no
illusions. Nor do I believe he has ever had any. If the noblest study of
mankind is man, my friend has devoted himself to a high calling; the
living page of human life has been his favourite and indeed, for these
many years, his only reading. And for this he has had exceptional
opportunities. Always a man of wealth and leisure, he has never wasted
himself in that superficial observation which is often the only harvest
of foreign travel. He despises it, and in relation to travellers, is wont to
quote the famous parallel of the copper wire, 'which grows the
narrower by going further.' A confirmed stay-at-home, he has mingled
much in society of all sorts, and exercised a keen but quite
unsympathetic observation. His very reserve in company (though, when
he catches you alone, he is a button-holder of great tenacity)
encourages free speech in others; they have no more reticence in his
presence than if he were the butler. He has belonged to no cliques,