'Jongeant à ce qu'il faut qu'on oublie, On s'en souvient.'
"The mind of man is easily corrupted, and clings with tenacity to what it were better to forget. Believe me, that whatever we desire to keep a stranger from the heart should not be familiarized to the imagination. Vice is so alluring, that all the penalties appended to its indulgence by the laws of God and man, are found unequal to its suppression; but if the charms of wit and humour be employed to palliate its criminality, and trifle with its punishment, we may anticipate the conclusion, and expect to see the day when its progress will be unresisted. Do not fancy that there is any class of men exempt from the danger of infection. The stately quarto, like a whited sepulchre, may hide its contents under a splendid covering, but death and destruction are its inmates: rank and wealth confer no privilege, and afford no amulet to preserve from the contamination of immorality, alike fatal in its effects to high and low—rich and poor; but though I would guard you from giving yourself up to such a pilot through Parnassus as Lord Byron, I love poetry too well myself to withhold its enjoyment from my young friends. I am an old bachelor, but I hope that you will not find me a severe ascetic; all things in their season—buds in spring, blossoms in summer, and the fruit to crown our autumn board. Youth is the natural period in which Hope and Fancy delight to weave their golden tissues, and life is too changeful a scene to make it necessary that we should voluntarily abridge its harmless gratifications. We must not, however, sit here all day, while such a brilliant sun is inviting us to walk; I have a great deal to shew you, and we shall have many opportunities, I hope, for conversation."
We were soon in the fields. After seeing a great deal of well-kept and tastefully disposed pleasure-ground immediately contiguous to the house, excellent kitchen garden, and admirable farm-yard, stables, &c. we visited an inclosure, called here the paddock, where were at least a dozen old horses, which were turned to graze as superannuated pensioners. "When any of these my old and faithful servants," said Phil., "can enjoy life no longer, I have him despatched by a friendly bullet." "But, sir, you might get money for these; they do not seem by any means past their labour." "Not quite, perhaps, but they have worked diligently, and shall now have a holyday while they live." From the paddock we proceeded to a line of neat cottages, furnished each with a strip of garden at the back, and ornamented in front by a little rustic paling, thickened into a fence impervious to pigs and dogs, by privet, sweet brier, and roses. "Here are some of your tenants' houses, Mr. Otway, I suppose." "Why not exactly tenants in the usual sense: these are poor people, who, like my old horses, have seen their best days in my service, and it is fair that they too should rest from their labours."
Showers of blessings were shed from these humble dwellings as we passed along, which were repaid by kind greetings from their benefactor. With one poor soul who sat in an arm-chair made of straw at her door, and who was blind, the good Phil. shook hands, and said aloud, "Mr. Howard, this is Kate Sullivan, the Queen of Pastime Row, which is the name given by your cousin Fanny to this line of houses." Old Kate appeared to feel as much delighted by this distinguishing compliment, as an autocrat of the proudest empire could be in seeing all the nations of the earth paying homage to his supremacy.
"God bless Miss Fanny, and all the misses of the Glynn," cried old Cathleen; "they are the Lord's own children; and glory, honour, and praise be to his holy name; he will make a wide gap for 'em whenever they are going into heaven; and Maaster Arthur, my heart (for 'tis I that very well has a right to know that you're he, and nobody else), if his honour would'nt be after telling you the maining of Miss Fanny's concait, why, sir, 'tis, that she's a pleasant, funny craiture in herself, and she have a double aim in wording the houses; for pastime they say is all as one as games, and sport-like; and it mains too, that (God be praised for all things) we are going down the hill, as I may say, and past our time for being any good-for."
I charmed this old soul as much by laughing heartily, and entering with spirit into Fanny's humour, as if I had presented her with fifty pounds. She called an aged man from the next door to hobble out and join in the merriment, which I dare say ran before it stopped, like an electric stream through every conductor of the whole series. As we walked on, "I perceive," said I, "that her majesty of pastime, is a Protestant, by her assurance that my cousins are all travelling the high road to heaven." "You are mistaken my dear fellow,—Kate has an ave for every bead in her paddreen, which is the Hibernian version of Corona, or Coronach; and blind as she is, is conveyed by one of my paddock horses annually on the eve of St. John, to a holy well, not far distant from Lisfarne. This little journey is all the work that the queen and her cattle are able to accomplish; and the same beast, that 'roan barbary' which came up to welcome us at the gate, has drawn Kate and her truckle for so many years, that were True-penny to die, I believe that blind as is his mistress, she would find out that she had lost him, and be uneasy till the priest was sent for, to shrive and anoint her, in the full persuasion that her hour was also come."
"Well, you really do surprise me, but to confess the truth, you deal in nothing but miracles in this county of Kerry. In less than a week I have seen some strange things, which had any one presumed, ere I beheld them, to say were existing realities, I should have laughed as the king of Pegu is said to have done when he heard of nations being governed without a monarch. I have seen Blue-stockings without pedantry, refinement that has never been learned in the world of fashion, religion free from cant, retirement unaccompanied by ennui; and now, as my list goes on increasing like the story of the house that Jack built, here is the Roman Catholic creed divested of bigotry; in the shape of an old woman too, who fully expects, though a Papist herself, to meet a Protestant family in the skies."
"Aye, my boy, and I hope that you will soon cease to wonder at any of these things. The poor people of this island are brim-full of intelligence and feeling; qualities which are of adjective character, and increase the measure of good or bad exactly as they happen to be associated. Were our peasantry fairly dealt with, the tables would speedily be turned, and instead of that cold-hearted sarcasm which would seem to be 'the badge and sufferance of all their kind,' you would see their accusers glad to steal away, and hide their diminished heads."
"But, sir, this is peculiarly the age of reason, and you will soon be able to bring your assertion to the proof. All the world is mad now upon the subject of education, and I suppose the light of modern liberality, which scorns the narrow principle of a churlish exclusion, has with the eagle eye of truth, borne down and pierced the shades of prejudice that may have hung upon your sea-girt Isle. Have you not schools at Lisfarne, and Glenalta? and if you will let me ask one question allied to the last, may I venture to enquire why you, whom I should imagine of all men, the last to countenance ignorance and superstition, should abet them both by sending old Kate upon her pilgrimage of folly, instead of endeavouring to open her mind to the sun of knowledge?" Otway smiled, and taking me by the hand, jocosely said, "why, Arthur, thou art fit for a senator; we must have you in the House of Commons; you are an orator:" then, resuming his usual expression of features, "you will despise me perhaps," added he, "if I tell you that I am not bitten with the fashionable school mania to the extent which you deem requisite to constitute a liberal. I have two schools,—one of them, and by far the most numerously attended, is for works of industry exclusively. To the other I only admit such children as by a previous discipline in moral conduct, and regularity of demeanor, earn the reward of being taught to read. To this promotion there are two conditions annexed, which form a sine qua non of admission. The first is, that the scriptures without note or comment, should be read daily, the master selecting, according to my instruction, such parts as are best adapted to the age and capacity of his pupils; the second, that each child should bring a penny per week, to create a fund for winter clothing, books, or whatever occasion may require. In this way I endeavour to prevent the abuse of letters, by preparing the soil for their introduction. Respect for learning is increased, when it costs something to obtain it; and I find a test of sincerity is established to a certain degree by this small pecuniary condition, as people never pay for what they do not really desire to possess. Though the money thus collected returns whence it came, it goes back in another form. Like the dew, it rises in imperceptible vapour, and falls in palpable, and refreshing showers. It requires a slight degree of self-denial, even to allot a penny per week in this manner; and there is a feeling of independence connected with every benefit which exercises individual frugality in its acquisition, while gratitude is still kept alive towards the fostering hands which deal out the fund so husbanded for general good. Then again, by not offering gratuitous teaching, I prevent many from coming, who would not turn their learning to good account, while I may always provide for an exception to my rule in supplying a worthy object who is too poor to qualify, with means of contributing the appointed mite."
"Then, sir, I conclude that you think education may be spread too widely."