“Alas, yes! But what the impulse of genius is to the great, the instinct of vocation is to the mediocre. In every man there is a magnet; in that thing which the man can do best there is a loadstone.”
“Papae!” said my father, opening his eyes; “and are no loadstones to be found for you nearer than the Great Australasian Bight?”
“Ah,—sir, if you resort to irony I can say no more!” My father looked down on me tenderly as I hung my head, moody and abashed.
“Son,” said he, “do you think that there is any real jest at my heart when the matter discussed is whether you are to put wide seas and long years between us?” I pressed nearer to his side, and made no answer.
“But I have noted you of late,” continued my father, “and I have observed that your old studies are grown distasteful to you; and I have talked with Roland, and I see that your desire is deeper than a boy’s mere whim. And then I have asked myself what prospect I can hold out at home to induce you to be contented here, and I see none; and therefore I should say to you, ‘Go thy ways, and God shield thee,’—but, Pisistratus, your mother!”
“Ah, sir, that is indeed the question; and there indeed I shrink! But, after all, whatever I were,—whether toiling at the Bar or in some public office,—I should be still so much from home and her. And then you, sir, she loves you so entirely that—”
“No,” interrupted my father; “you can advance no arguments like these to touch a mother’s heart. There is but one argument that comes home there: is it for your good to leave her? If so, there will be no need of further words. But let us not decide that question hastily; let you and I be together the next two months. Bring your books and sit with me; when you want to go out, tap me on the shoulder, and say ‘Come.’ At the end of those two months I will say to you ‘Go’ or ‘Stay.’ And you will trust me; and if I say the last, you will submit?”
“Oh yes, sir, yes!”
(1) Hohler’s translation.
(2) Words coined by Mr. Caxton from (Greek word), “disposed to roaming,” and (Greek word), “to export, to alienate.”