IRECTION OF HIS
COUNTRY

There is at times in the hearts of all men of active life a vivid wild
moment or two of dramatic dialogue between the veteran antagonists,
Nature and Circumstance, when they, whose business it should be to be
joyfully one, furiously split; and the Dame is up with her shrillest
querulousness to inquire of her offspring, for the distinct original
motive of his conduct. Why did he bring her to such a pass! And what is
the gain? If he be not an alienated issue of the great Mother, he will
strongly incline to her view, that he put himself into harness to join
with a machine going the dead contrary way of her welfare; and thereby
wrote himself donkey, for his present reading. Soldiers, heroes, even
the braided, even the wearers of the gay cock's feathers, who get
the honours and the pocket-pieces, know the moment of her electrical
eloquence. They have no answer for her, save an index at the machine
pushing them on yet farther under the enemy's line of fire, where they
pluck the golden wreath or the livid, and in either case listen no more.
They glorify her topping wisdom while on the march to confound it.
She is wise in her way. But, it is asked by the disputant, If we had
followed her exclusively, how far should we have travelled from our
starting-point? We of the world and its prizes and duties must do her
an injury to make her tongue musical to us, and her argument worthy of
attention. So it seems. How to keep the proper balance between those two
testy old wranglers, that rarely pull the right way together, is as much
the task for men in the grip of the world, as for the wanton youthful
fry under dominion of their instincts; and probably, when it is done,
man will have attained the golden age of his retirement from service.

Why be scheming? Victor asked. Unlike the gallant soldiery, his question
was raised in the blush of a success, from an examination of the
quality of the thing won; although it had not changed since it was first
coveted; it was demonstrably the same: and an astonishing dry stick
he held, as a reward for perpetual agitations and perversions of his
natural tastes. Here was a Dudley Sowerby, the direct issue of the
conception of Lakelands; if indeed they were not conceived together
in one; and the young gentleman had moral character, good citizen
substance, and station, rank, prospect of a title; and the grasp of him
was firm. Yet so far was it from hearty, that when hearing a pro