there ought not to be any, and the
attempt to keep hold of it is godless. Still worse is it to spread
calamity by the influence of wealth. Thus then I administer mine, so
as to help my neighbours, to find work for the poor, care and remedies
for the sick; and by an ever-increasing activity I strive to bring
things into such a state, that as many as possible shall eat their
bread without tears and anguish, shall gather pleasure from their
children and their occupations, and that, so far as my eye and arm can
reach, the creation may not be the object of as many curses here, as
in other villages and towns."

"The blessings you diffuse," Edward threw in, "must make you also
happy."

"Blessings!" repeated the old man and shook his head. "It is all a
mere drop in the ocean. How short is the time within which even the
child that is now sucking at the breast must needs die! This time,
these hundreds and thousands of years, how they mock at our frail
edifices! how Oblivion triumphs in every part of the earth, with ruins
crumbling beneath her feet! and Destruction, while with unfeeling
malignity she tramples every form of life in the dust! I have just
been comforting my good Elizabeth today. But can I really comfort her?
She is for ever haunted by the thought of her destiny, of her life, of
her lost youth, of her having flung herself away on a worthless being,
of her having brought a tiger as her son into the world. In her dreams
she is visited by the feeling, whether asleep or waking it pursues
her, and thrills through every fibre, that she once loved me, perhaps
loves me still; and so her heart has to bear my wretchedness along
with her own. True she may now and then relish a morsel somewhat
better; she may now and then forget herself, perhaps over some silly
book, delighting in the good fortune of others, and feeling interest
in afflictions which are merely faint shadows of her own; and this
sentimental folly may help her over half a dozen minutes a little more
at her ease. Verily it is a grand achievement that I have been able to
do this for her. The consciousness however, that neither her husband
nor her son, the offspring of her own blood and body, and surely of
her soul too, is to know anything of my bounty, as it would be called,
or else her sufferings will increase--do you not perceive how pitiful
this, and the whole of life is? But let us break off, and tell me
instead what news you have heard."

Edward informed him