I am possibly, after all, a man of
small mind, content with small pleasures. So much the better for me.
Meanwhile, I can understand your surprise, though you cannot
understand my content. You have played a greater game than mine;
have lived a life, perhaps more fit for an Englishman; certainly more
in accordance with the taste of our common fathers, the Vikings, and
their patron Odin 'the goer,' father of all them that go ahead. You
have gone ahead, and over many lands; and I reverence you for it,
though I envy you not. You have commanded a regiment--indeed an
army, and 'drank delight of battle with your peers;' you have ruled
provinces, and done justice and judgment, like a noble Englishman as
you are, old friend, among thousands who never knew before what
justice and judgment were. You have tasted (and you have deserved to
taste) the joy of old David's psalm, when he has hunted down the last
of the robber lords of Palestine. You have seen 'a people whom you
have not known, serve you. As soon as they heard of you, they obeyed
you; but the strange children dissembled with you:' yet before you,
too, 'the strange children failed, and trembled in their hill-forts.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149