GODOLPHIN’S SOLILOQUY.--HE BECOMES A MAN OF PLEASURE AND A PATRON OF
THE ARTS.--A NEW CHARACTER SHADOWED FORTH; FOR AS WE ADVANCE, WHETHER IN
LIFE OR ITS REPRESENTATIONS, CHARACTERS ARE MORE FAINT AND DIMLY DRAWN
THAN IN THE EARLIER PART OF OUR CAREER.
“Yes,” said Godolphin, the next morning, as he soliloquised over his
lonely breakfast-table--lonely, for the hours of the restless Constance
were not those of the luxurious and indolent Godolphin, and she was
already in her carriage, nay, already closeted with an intriguing
ambassadress--“yes, I have passed two eras of life--the first of
romance, the second of contemplation; once my favourite study was
poetry--next philosophy. Now, returned to my native country, rich,
settled, yet young, new objects arise to me; not that vulgar and
troublous ambition (which is to make a toil of life) that Constance
suggests, but a more warm and vivid existence than that I have lately
dreamed away. Let luxury and pleasure now be to me what solitude and
thought were. I have been too long the solitary, I will learn to be
social.”
Agreeably to this resolution, Godolphin returned with avidity to the
enjoyment of the world; he found himself courted, he courted society in
return. Erpingham House had been for years the scene of fascination: who
does not recollect the yet greater refinement which its new lord threw
over its circles? A delicate and just conception of the fine arts
had always characterised Godolphin. He now formed that ardour for
collecting, common to the more elegant order of minds. From his beloved
Italy he imported the most beautiful statues--his cabinets were filled
with gems--his walls glowed with the triumphs of the canvas--the showy
but heterogeneous furniture of Erpingham House gave way to a more
classic and perfect taste. The same fastidiousness which, in the affairs
of the heart, had characterised Godolphin’s habits and sentiments,
characterised his new pursuits; the same thirst for the Ideal, the same
worship of the Beautiful, and aspirations after the Perfect.
It was not in Constance’s nature to admit this smaller ambition; her
taste was pure but not minute; she did not descend to the philosophy of
detail. But she was glad still to see that Godolphin could be aroused to
the discovery of an active object; and, although she sighed to perceive
his fine genius fritted away on the trifles of the virtuoso--although
she secretly regretted the waste of her great wealth (which afforded to
political ambition so High an advantage) on the mute marble, and
what she deemed, nor unjustly, frivolous curiosities--she still never
interfered with Godolphin’s caprices, conscious that, to his delicacy,
a single objection to his wishes on the score of expense would have
reminded him of what she wished him most to forget--viz., that the means
of this lavish expenditure were derived from her. She hoped that his
mind, once fairly awakened, would soon grow sated with the acquisition
of baubles, and at length sigh for loftier objects; and, in the
meanwhile, she plunged into her old party plots and ambitions intrigues.
Erpingham House, celebrated as ever for the beauty of its queen and for
the political nature of its entertainments, received a new celebrity
from its treasures of art, and the spiritual wit and grace with which
Godolphin invested its attractions. Among the crowd of its guests there
was one whom its owners more particularly esteemed--Stainforth Radclyffe
was still considerably under thirty, but already a distinguished man. At
school he had been distinguished; at college distinguished, and now in
the world of science distinguished also. Beneath a quiet, soft, and cold
exterior, he concealed the most resolute and persevering ambition; and
this ambition was the governing faculty of his soul. His energies were
undistracted by small objects; for he went little into general society,
and he especially sought in his studies those pursuits which nerve and
brace the mind. He was a profound thinker, a deep political economist,
an accurate financier, a judge of the intricacies of morals and
legislation--for to his mere book studies he added an instinctive
penetration into men; and when from time to time he rejoined the
world, he sought out those most distinguished in the sciences he had
cultivated, and by their lights corrected his own. In him there
was nothing desultory or undetermined; his conduct was perpetual
calculation. He did nothing but with an eye to a final object; and
when, to the superficial, he seemed most to wander from the road their
prudence would have suggested, he was only seeking the surest and
shortest paths. Yet his ambition was not the mere vulgar thirst for
getting on in the world; he cared little for the paltry place, the petty
power which may reward what are called aspiring young men. His clear
sight penetrated to objects that seemed wrapped in shade to all others;
and to those only--distant, but vast and towering,--he deigned to attach
his desires. He cared not for small and momentary rewards; and while
always (for he knew its necessity) uppermost on the tide of the hour,
he had neither joy nor thought for the petty honours for which he was
envied, and by which he was supposed to be elated. Always occupied and
always thoughtful, he went, as I have just said, very little into the
gay world, and was not very well formed to shine in it when there; for
trifles require the whole man as much as matters of importance. He did
not want either wit or polish, but he tasked his powers too severely on
great subjects not to be sometimes dull upon small ones: yet, when he
was either excited or at home, he was not without--what man of genius
is?--his peculiar powers of conversation. There was in this young dark,
brooding, stern man, that which had charmed Constance at first sight;
she thought to recognise a nature like her own, and Radclyffe’s
venturous spirit exulted in a commune with hers. Their politics were
the same; their ultimate ends not very unlike; and their common ambition
furnished them with an eternity of topics and schemes. Radclyffe was
Constance’s guest;--but Godolphin soon grew attached to the young
politician, though he shrugged his shoulders at his opinions. In youth,
Godolphin had been a Tory--now, if anything, he was a Tory still. Such
a political creed was perhaps the natural result of his philosophical
belief. Constance, Whig by profession, ultra-Liberal in reality, still
however gave the character to the politics of the house; and the easy
Godolphin thought politics the veriest of all the trifles which a man
could leave to the discretion of the lady of his household. We may
judge, therefore, of the quiet, complacent amusement he felt in the
didactics of Radclyffe or the declamations of Constance.
“That is a dangerous, scheming woman, believe me,” said the Duchess of
---- to her great husband, one morning, when Constance left her Grace.
“Nonsense! women are never dangerous.”