The Voyage of Captain Popanilla | Page 5

time not even inquired after.
At first, of course, they supposed that he was in love, or that he had a
slight cold, or that he was writing his memoirs; and as these
suppositions, in due course, take their place in the annals of society as
circumstantial histories, in about a week one knew the lady, another
had beard him sneeze, and a third had seen the manuscript. At the end
of another week Popanilla was forgotten.

CHAPTER 4
Six months had elapsed since the first chest of the cargo of Useful
Knowledge destined for the fortunate Maldives had been digested by
the recluse Popanilla; for a recluse he had now become. Great students
are rather dull companions. Our Fantaisian friend, during his first
studies, was as moody, absent, and querulous as are most men of
genius during that mystical period of life. He was consequently avoided
by the men and quizzed by the women, and consoled himself for the
neglect of the first and the taunts of the second by the indefinite
sensation that he should, some day or other, turn out that little being
called a great man. As for his mistress, she considered herself insulted
by being addressed by a man who had lost her lock of hair. When the
chest was exhausted Popanilla was seized with a profound melancholy.
Nothing depresses a man's spirits more completely than a
self-conviction of self-conceit; and Popanilla, who had been
accustomed to consider himself and his companions as the most elegant

portion of the visible creation, now discovered, with dismay, that he
and his fellow-islanders were nothing more than a horde of useless
savages.
This mortification, however, was soon succeeded by a proud
consciousness that he, at any rate, was now civilised; and that proud
consciousness by a fond hope that in a short time he might become a
civiliser. Like all projectors, he was not of a sanguine temperament; but
he did trust that in the course of another season the Isle of Fantaisie
might take its station among the nations. He was determined, however,
not to be too rapid. It cannot be expected that ancient prejudices can in
a moment be eradicated, and new modes of conduct instantaneously
substituted and established. Popanilla, like a wise man, determined to
conciliate. His views were to be as liberal, as his principles were
enlightened. Men should be forced to do nothing. Bigotry, and
intolerance, and persecution were the objects of his decided
disapprobation; resembling, in this particular, all the great and good
men who have ever existed, who have invariably maintained this
opinion so long as they have been in the minority.
Popanilla appeared once more in the world.
'Dear me! is that you, Pop?' exclaimed the ladies. 'What have you been
doing with yourself all this time? Travelling, I suppose. Every one
travels now. Really you travelled men get quite bores. And where did
you get that coat, if it be a coat?'
Such was the style in which the Fantaisian females saluted the long
absent Popanilla; and really, when a man shuts himself up from the
world for a considerable time, and fancies that in condescending to
re-enter it he has surely the right to expect the homage due to a superior
being, these salutations are awkward. The ladies of England peculiarly
excel in this species of annihilation; and while they continue to drown
puppies, as they daily do, in a sea of sarcasm, I think no true
Englishman will hesitate one moment in giving them the preference for
tact and manner over all the vivacious French, all the self-possessing
Italian, and all the tolerant German women. This is a claptrap, and I
have no doubt will sell the book.

Popanilla, however, had not re-entered society with the intention of
subsiding into a nonentity; and he therefore took the opportunity, a few
minutes after sunset, just as his companions were falling into the dance,
to beg the favour of being allowed to address his sovereign only for one
single moment.
'Sire!' said he, in that mild tone of subdued superciliousness with which
we should always address kings, and which, while it vindicates our
dignity, satisfactorily proves that we are above the vulgar passion of
envy, 'Sire!' but let us not encourage that fatal faculty of oratory so
dangerous to free states, and therefore let us give only the 'substance of
Popanilla's speech.' * He commenced his address in a manner
somewhat resembling the initial observations of those pleasing
pamphlets which are the fashion of the present hour; and which, being
intended to diffuse information among those who have not enjoyed the
opportunity and advantages of study, and are consequently of a gay and
cheerful disposition, treat of light subjects in a light and polished style.
Popanilla, therefore, spoke of man