Trivia | Page 7

had a Seat in Parliament, would be given a Seat in the
Cabinet when his party next came in; another was a Bishop with a Seat
in the House of Lords; a third was a Barrister who was soon, it was said,
to be raised to the Bench.
But in spite of my good intentions, my real wish to find, before it is too
late, some career or other for myself (and the question is getting
serious), I am far too much at the mercy of ludicrous images. Front

Seats, Episcopal, Judicial, Parliamentary Benches--were all the ends
then, I asked my self, of serious, middle-aged ambition only things to
sit on?

Lord Arden
"If I were Lord Arden," said the Vicar, "I should shut up that great
House; it's too big--what can a young unmarried man...?"
"If I were Lord Arden," said the Vicar's wife (and Mrs. La Mountain's
tone showed how much she disapproved of that young Nobleman), "if I
were Lord Arden, I should live there, and do my duty to my tenants and
neighbours."
"If I were Lord Arden," I said; but then it flashed vividly into my mind,
suppose I really were this opulent young Lord? I quite forgot to whom I
was talking; my memory was occupied with the names of people who
had been famous for their enormous pleasures; who had filled their
Palaces with guilty revels, and built Pyramids, Obelisks, and half-acre
Tombs, to soothe their Pride. My mind kindled at the thought of these
Audacities. "If I were Lord Arden!" I cried....

The Starry Heaven
"But what are they really? What do they say they are?" the small young
lady asked me. We were looking up at the Stars, which were quivering
that night in splendid hosts above the lawns and trees.
So I tried to explain some of the views that have been held about them.
How people first of all had thought them mere candles set in the sky, to
guide their own footsteps when the Sun was gone; till wise men, sitting
on the Chaldean plains, and watching them with aged eyes, became
impressed with the solemn view that those still and shining lights were
the executioners of God's decrees, and irresistible instruments of His
Wrath; and that they moved fatally among their celestial Houses to
ordain and set out the fortunes and misfortunes of each race of newborn
mortals. And so it was believed that every man or woman had, from the
cradle, fighting for or against him or her, some great Star, Formalhaut,
perhaps, Aldebaran, Altaïr: while great Heroes and Princes were more
splendidly attended, and marched out to their forgotten battles with
troops and armies of heavenly Constellations.

But this noble old view was not believed in now; the Stars were no
longer regarded as malignant or beneficent Powers; and I explained
how most serious people thought that somewhere--though just where
they did not know--above the vault of Sky, was to be found the final
home of earnest men and women; where, as a reward for their right
views and conduct, they were to rejoice forever, wearing those
diamonds of the starry night arranged in glorious crowns. This notion,
however, had been disputed by Poets and Lovers: it was Love,
according to these young astronomers, that moved the Sun and other
Stars; the Constellations being heavenly palaces, where people who had
adored each other were to meet and live always together after Death.
Then I spoke of the modern and real immensity of the unfathomed
Skies. But suddenly the vast meaning of my words rushed into my
mind; I felt myself dwindling, falling through the blue. And yet, in
these silent seconds, there thrilled through me in the cool sweet air and
night no chill of death or nothingness; but the taste and joy of this Earth,
this orchard-plot of earth, floating unknown, far away in unfathomed
space, with its Moon and meadows.

My Map
The "Known World" I called the map which I amused myself making
for the children's schoolroom. It included France, England, Italy,
Greece, and all the old shores of the Mediterranean; but the rest I
marked "Unknown"; sketching into the East the doubtful realms of
Ninus and Semiramis; changing back Germany into the Hyrcanian
Forest; and drawing pictures of the supposed inhabitants of these
unexplored regions, Dog-Apes, Satyrs, Cannibals, and Misanthropes,
Cimmerians involved in darkness, Amazons, and Headless Men. And
all around the Map I coiled the coils, and curled the curling waves of
the great Sea _Oceanum_, with the bursting cheeks of the four Winds,
blowing from the four imagined hinges of the Universe.

The Snob
As I paced in fine company on that Terrace, I felt chosen, exempt, and
curiously happy. There was a glamour in the air,