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CHAPTER XVIII . “ Oh , sir , the loftiest hopes on earth Draw lots with meaner hopes : heroic breasts , Breathing bad air , run risk of pestilence ; Or , lacking lime - juice when they cross the Line , May languish with the scurvy . ” Some weeks passed after this conversation before the question of the chaplaincy gathered any practical import for Lydgate , and without telling himself the reason , he deferred the predetermination on which side he should give his vote . It would really have been a matter of total indifference to him — that is to say , he would have taken the more convenient side , and given his vote for the appointment of Tyke without any hesitation — if he had not cared personally for Mr . Farebrother . But his liking for the Vicar of St . Botolph’s grew with growing acquaintanceship . That , entering into Lydgate’s position as a new - comer who had his own professional objects to secure , Mr . Farebrother should have taken pains rather to warn off than to obtain his interest , showed an unusual delicacy and generosity , which Lydgate’s nature was keenly alive to . It went along with other points of conduct in Mr . Farebrother which were exceptionally fine , and made his character resemble those southern landscapes which seem divided between natural grandeur and social slovenliness . Very few men could have been as filial and chivalrous as he was to the mother , aunt , and sister , whose dependence on him had in many ways shaped his life rather uneasily for himself ; few men who feel the pressure of small needs are so nobly resolute not to dress up their inevitably self - interested desires in a pretext of better motives . In these matters he was conscious that his life would bear the closest scrutiny ; and perhaps the consciousness encouraged a little defiance towards the critical strictness of persons whose celestial intimacies seemed not to improve their domestic manners , and whose lofty aims were not needed to account for their actions . Then , his preaching was ingenious and pithy , like the preaching of the English Church in its robust age , and his sermons were delivered without book . People outside his parish went to hear him ; and , since to fill the church was always the most difficult part of a clergyman’s function , here was another ground for a careless sense of superiority . Besides , he was a likable man : sweet - tempered , ready - witted , frank , without grins of suppressed bitterness or other conversational flavors which make half of us an affliction to our friends . Lydgate liked him heartily , and wished for his friendship . With this feeling uppermost , he continued to waive the question of the chaplaincy , and to persuade himself that it was not only no proper business of his , but likely enough never to vex him with a demand for his vote . Lydgate , at Mr . Bulstrode’s request , was laying down plans for the internal arrangements of the new hospital , and the two were often in consultation . The banker was always presupposing that he could count in general on Lydgate as a coadjutor , but made no special recurrence to the coming decision between Tyke and Farebrother . When the General Board of the Infirmary had met , however , and Lydgate had notice that the question of the chaplaincy was thrown on a council of the directors and medical men , to meet on the following Friday , he had a vexed sense that he must make up his mind on this trivial Middlemarch business .
Назад Сторінка 132 з 637 Сторінка 132 з 637 Вперед Читайте далі з перекладом Створіть безкоштовний акаунт: 7 днів Pro, далі 20 перекладів слів на день або платний тариф.
