A full and happy hour passed away in Harley's questions and Leonard's
answers,--the dialogue that naturally ensued between the two, on the
first interview after an absence of years so eventful to the younger man.
The history of Leonard during this interval was almost solely internal,
the struggle of intellect with its own difficulties, the wanderings of
imagination through its own adventurous worlds.
The first aim of Norreys, in preparing the mind of his pupil for its
vocation, had been to establish the equilibrium of its powers, to calm
into harmony the elements rudely shaken by the trials and passions of the
old hard outer life.
The theory of Norreys was briefly this: The education of a superior human
being is but the development of ideas in one for the benefit of others.
To this end, attention should be directed,--1st, To the value of the
ideas collected; 2dly, To their discipline; 3dly, To their expression.
For the first, acquirement is necessary; for the second, discipline; for
the third, art. The first comprehends knowledge purely intellectual,
whether derived from observation, memory, reflection, books, or men,
Aristotle or Fleet Street. The second demands training, not only
intellectual, but moral; the purifying and exaltation of motives; the
formation of habits; in which method is but a part of a divine and
harmonious symmetry, a union of intellect and conscience. Ideas of
value, stored by the first process; marshalled into force, and placed
under guidance, by the second,--it is the result of the third, to place
them before the world in the most attractive or commanding form. This
may be done by actions no less than words; but the adaptation of means to
end, the passage of ideas from the brain of one man into the lives and
souls of all, no less in action than in books, requires study. Action
has its art as well as literature. Here Norreys had but to deal with the
calling of the scholar, the formation of the writer, and so to guide the
perceptions towards those varieties in the sublime and beautiful, the
just combination of which is at once CREATION. Man himself is but a
combination of elements. He who combines in nature, creates in art.
Such, very succinctly and inadequately expressed, was the system upon
which Norreys proceeded to regulate and perfect the great native powers
of his pupil; and though the reader may perhaps say that no system laid
down by another can either form genius or dictate to its results, yet
probably nine-tenths at least of those in whom we recognize the
luminaries of our race have passed, unconsciously to themselves (for
self-education is rarely conscious of its phases), through each of these
processes. And no one who pauses to reflect will deny, that according to
this theory, illustrated by a man of vast experience, profound knowledge,
and exquisite taste, the struggles of genius would be infinitely
lessened, its vision cleared and strengthened, and the distance between
effort and success notably abridged.
Norreys, however, was far too deep a reasoner to fall into the error of
modern teachers, who suppose that education can dispense with labour. No
mind becomes muscular without rude and early exercise. Labour should be
strenuous, but in right directions. All that we can do for it is to save
the waste of time in blundering into needless toils.
The master had thus first employed his neophyte in arranging and
compiling materials for a great critical work in which Norreys himself
was engaged. In this stage of scholastic preparation, Leonard was
necessarily led to the acquisition of languages, for which he had great
aptitude; the foundations of a large and comprehensive erudition were
solidly constructed. He traced by the ploughshare the walls of the
destined city. Habits of accuracy and of generalization became formed
insensibly; and that precious faculty which seizes, amidst accumulated
materials, those that serve the object for which they are explored,--that
faculty which quadruples all force, by concentrating it on one point,--
once roused into action, gave purpose to every toil and quickness to each
perception. But Norreys did not confine his pupil solely to the mute
world of a library; he introduced him to some of the first minds in arts,
science, and letters, and active life. "These," said he, "are the living
ideas of the present, out of which books for the future will be written:
study them; and here, as in the volumes of the past, diligently amass and
deliberately compile."
By degrees Norreys led on that young ardent mind from the selection of
ideas to their aesthetic analysis,--from compilation to criticism; but
criticism severe, close, and logical,--a reason for each word of praise
or of blame. Led in this stage of his career to examine into the laws of
beauty, a new light broke upon his mind; from amidst the masses of marble
he had piled around him rose the vision of the statue.
And so, suddenly, one day Norreys said to him, "I need a compiler no
longer,--maintain yourself by your own creations." And Leonard wrote,
and a work flowered up from the seed deep buried, and the soil well
cleared to the rays of the sun and the healthful influence of expanded
air.
That first work did not penetrate to a very wide circle of readers, not
from any perceptible fault of its own--there is luck in these things; the
first anonymous work of an original genius is rarely at once eminently
successful. But the more experienced recognized the promise of the book.
Publishers, who have an instinct in the discovery of available talent,
which often forestalls the appreciation of the public, volunteered
liberal offers. "Be fully successful this time," said Norreys; "think
not of models nor of style. Strike at once at the common human heart,--
throw away the corks, swim out boldly. One word more,--never write a
page till you have walked from your room to Temple Bar, and, mingling
with men, and reading the human face, learn why great poets have mostly
passed their lives in cities."
Thus Leonard wrote again, and woke one morning to find himself famous.
So far as the chances of all professions dependent on health will permit,
present independence, and, with foresight and economy, the prospects of
future competence were secured.
"And, indeed," said Leonard, concluding a longer but a simpler narrative
than is here told,--" indeed, there is some chance that I may obtain at
once a sum that will leave me free for the rest of my life to select my
own subjects, and write without care for remuneration. This is what I
call the true (and, perhaps, alas! the rare) independence of him who
devotes himself to letters. Norreys, having seen my boyish plan for the
improvement of certain machinery in the steam engine, insisted on my
giving much time to mechanics. The study that once pleased me so greatly
now seemed dull; but I went into it with good heart; and the result is,
that I have improved so far on my original idea, that my scheme has met
the approbation of one of our most scientific engineers: and I am assured
that the patent for it will be purchased of me upon terms which I am
ashamed to name to you, so disproportioned do they seem to the value of
so simple a discovery. Meanwhile, I am already rich enough to have
realized the two dreams of my heart,--to make a home in the cottage where
I had last seen you and Helen--I mean Miss Digby; and to invite to that
home her who had sheltered my infancy."
"Your mother, where is she? Let me see her."
Leonard ran out to call the widow, but to his surprise and vexation
learned that she had quitted the house before L'Estrange arrived.
He came back, perplexed how to explain what seemed ungracious and
ungrateful, and spoke with hesitating lip and flushed cheek of the
widow's natural timidity and sense of her own homely station. "And so
overpowered is she," added Leonard, "by the recollection of all that we
owe to you, that she never hears your name without agitation or tears,
and trembled like a leaf at the thought of seeing you."
"Ha!" said Harley, with visible emotion. "Is it so?" And he bent down,
shading his face with his hand. "And," he renewed, after a pause, but
not looking up--"and you ascribe this fear of seeing me, this agitation
at my name, solely to an exaggerated sense of--of the circumstances
attending my acquaintance with yourself?"
"And, perhaps, to a sort of shame that the mother of one you have made
her proud of is but a peasant."
"That is all?" said Harley, earnestly, now looking up and fixing eyes in
which stood tears upon Leonard's ingenuous brow.
"Oh, my dear Lord, what else can it be? Do not judge her harshly."
L'Estrange arose abruptly, pressed Leonard's hand, muttered something not
audible, and then drawing his young friend's arm in his, led him into the
garden, and turned the conversation back to its former topics.
Leonard's heart yearned to ask after Helen, and yet something withheld
him from doing so, till, seeing Harley did not volunteer to speak of her,
he could not resist his impulse. "And Helen--Miss Digby--is she much
changed?"
"Changed, no--yes; very much."
"Very much!" Leonard sighed.
"I shall see her again?"
"Certainly," said Harley, in a tone of surprise. "How can you doubt it?
And I reserve to you the pleasure of saying that you are renowned. You
blush; well, I will say that for you. But you shall give her your
books."
"She has not yet read them, then?--not the last? The first was not
worthy of her attention," said Leonard, disappointed. "She has only just
arrived in England; and, though your books reached me in Germany, she was
not then with me. When I have settled some business that will take me
from town, I shall present you to her and my mother." There was a
certain embarrassment in Harley's voice as he spoke; and, turning round
abruptly, he exclaimed, "But you have shown poetry even here. I could
not have conceived that so much beauty could be drawn from what appeared
to me the most commonplace of all suburban gardens. Why, surely, where
that charming fountain now plays stood the rude bench in which I read
your verses."
"It is true; I wished to unite all together my happiest associations. I
think I told you, my Lord, in one of my letters, that I had owed a very
happy, yet very struggling time in my boyhood to the singular kindness
and generous instructions of a foreigner whom I served. This fountain is
copied from one that I made in his garden, and by the margin of which
many a summer day I have sat and dreamed of fame and knowledge."
"True, you told me of that; and your foreigner will be pleased to hear of
your success, and no less so of your grateful recollections. By the way,
you did not mention his name."
"Riccabocca."
"Riccabocca! My own dear and noble friend!--is it possible? One of my
reasons for returning to England is connected with him. You shall go
down with me and see him. I meant to start this evening."
"My dear Lord," said Leonard, "I think that you may spare yourself so
long a journey. I have reason to suspect that Signor Riccabocca is my
nearest neighbour. Two days ago I was in the garden, when suddenly
lifting my eyes to yon hillock I perceived the form of a man seated
amongst the brushwood; and though I could not see his features, there was
something in the very outline of his figure and his peculiar posture,
that irresistibly reminded me of Riccabocca. I hastened out of the
garden and ascended the hill, but he was gone. My suspicions were so
strong that I caused inquiry to be made at the different shops scattered
about, and learned that a family consisting of a gentleman, his wife, and
daughter had lately come to live in a house that you must have passed in
your way hither, standing a little back from the road, surrounded by high
walls; and though they were said to be English, yet from the description
given to me of the gentleman's person by one who had noticed it, by the
fact of a foreign servant in their employ, and by the very name
'Richmouth,' assigned to the newcomers, I can scarcely doubt that it is
the family you seek."
"And you have not called to ascertain?"
"Pardon me, but the family so evidently shunning observation (no one but
the master himself ever seen without the walls), the adoption of another
name too, led me to infer that Signor Riccabocca has some strong motive
for concealment; and now, with my improved knowledge of life, and
recalling all the past, I cannot but suppose that Riccabocca was not what
he appeared. Hence, I have hesitated on formally obtruding myself upon
his secrets, whatever they be, and have rather watched for some chance
occasion to meet him in his walks."
"You did right, my dear Leonard; but my reasons for seeing my old friend
forbid all scruples of delicacy, and I will go at once to his house."
"You will tell me, my Lord, if I am right."
"I hope to be allowed to do so. Pray, stay at home till I return. And
now, ere I go, one question more: You indulge conjectures as to
Riccabocca, because he has changed his name,--why have you dropped your
own?"
"I wished to have no name," said Leonard, colouring deeply, "but that
which I could make myself."
"Proud poet, this I can comprehend. But from what reason did you assume
the strange and fantastic name of Oran?"
The flush on Leonard's face became deeper. "My Lord," said he, in a low
voice, "it is a childish fancy of mine; it is an anagram."
"Ah!"
"At a time when my cravings after knowledge were likely much to mislead,
and perhaps undo me, I chanced on some poems that suddenly affected my
whole mind, and led me up into purer air; and I was told that these poems
were written in youth by one who had beauty and genius,--one who was in
her grave,--a relation of my own, and her familiar name was Nora--"
"Ah," again ejaculated Lord L'Estrange, and his arm pressed heavily upon
Leonard's.
"So, somehow or other," continued the young author, falteringly, "I
wished that if ever I won to a poet's fame, it might be to my own heart,
at least, associated with this name of Nora; with her whom death had
robbed of the fame that she might otherwise have won; with her who--"
He paused, greatly agitated.
Harley was no less so. But, as if by a sudden impulse, the soldier bent
down his manly head and kissed the poet's brow; then he hastened to the
gate, flung himself on his horse, and rode away.