Etc. [pp. 378-380]

E TC.
ETC.
Joviality.
Despite a general opinion to the contrary,
the most miserable and misery-creating of
men upon earth is the jovial man. We remember him at school; his expressive arch
lips, his handsome ever-changing face, his
bright swift eyes always seeking for the applause they were so sure to win. A merry
dog, a sad dog from his mother's knee, he
led us upon all those jolly truant rambles
which afterward cost so dear; he produced
and fostered that contempt for earnest plodding industry which has cost too many of us
dearer still. Cold fidelity and patience and
ambition melted like snow under the hot
sunbeams of his genial raillery. The youth
was as the boy. His glorious, health-brimming presence, the readiness and versatility
of his talents, made him the pride and envy
of his fellows in the college or in the office,
and the petted darling of all girls fortunate
enough to know him. Conquering and to
conquer, like a new Apollo, he lashed forward his horses of the sun; so generous, so
open - hearted, there was no one but wished
him God-speed, no one but gave him the
hearty cheer he looked back for over the
dust of his whirling wheels. Too many
leaped up beside him to enjoy his triumph
and be in with him at the goal-and his goal
is generally the goal of Phaeton. For it is
about now that the first crash must come,
not always, not even often, an immediately
fatal one-sometimes, thank God, it is even
his ultimate worldly salvation, and, with a
right eye plucked out or a right arm cut off,
he enters heaven. But this is a thing so
sadly rare as to be not worth talking of; the
fatal gift of pleasing and dazzling easily can
not be parted with, and its possessor having
lost the respect of his fellows, and disenchanted many of his followers, picks himself
up from the dust, and begins his race again.
Woe now for all that are connected with the
dazzling fellow by ties of blood or marriage;
seven woes for her whose bond is the latter!
He, he loves her well-he hates none but
him he can not make laugh; he loves her
with a big - hearted love, as he loves all the
world; he only loves her a little less than he
loves his ease, and the laughter and applause of his admirers. And who does not
still admire-ay, love him-beautiful and
kind and radiant as he is? Who does not
help again and again and again to drag him
out of the sloughs into which his fascinating
carelessness of all earthly things and duties
beguiles him? Gods! what a hard and bitter world it is, that this bright creature, who
is a joy to us all, should also become slowly
a nuisance and a thing that we can not away
with, and to himself and those nearest to him
a shame and a cause of reproach. For the
end approaches slowly and surely, and the
earnest pitiless laws of the universe grind into his soul. The laugh becomes more and
more infrequent; lines of care, care that will
not be mocked away, begin to mar that genial face. The indecision about the mouth
gives place to a fixed weariness and even
bitterness. Harlequin becomes Pantaloon.
His occupation's gone. He begins to be
pitied; and then-then, the sooner he shuffles off the stage, the better, God help him!
for himself and all the world.
Success.
To succeed is not so much to do many
things well as to do nothing ill. One ridiculous failure will cast suspicion on all we
claim to have accomplished, on all we
claim to be able to accomplish. The very
calm still waiting and watching, and ever refusing to display one's self at a disadvantage,
is itself not the least impressive of qualities.
The opponent who can not be tempted to
lunge, until by careful and progressive exper iment he has felt that his ground is sure, that
arm, sword, and volition go well together,
has inspired a dread by the very deliberation
and method of his attack that goes far to
378
[OCT.