第57章

``But I am unconscious of possessing such powers,'' said Lovel, somewhat impatiently.``I ask nothing of society but the permission of walking innoxiously through the path of life, without jostling others, or permitting myself to be jostled.Iowe no man anything--I have the means of maintaining, myself with complete independence; and so moderate are my wishes in this respect, that even these means, however limited, rather exceed than fall short of them.''

``Nay, then,'' said Oldbuck, removing his hand, and turning again to the road, ``if you are so true a philosopher as to think you have money enough, there's no more to be said--I cannot pretend to be entitled to advise you;--you have attained the _acm_--the summit of perfection.And how came Fairport to be the selected abode of so much self-denying philosophy?

It is as if a worshipper of the true religion had set up his staff by choice among the multifarious idolaters of the land of Egypt.There is not a man in Fairport who is not a devoted worshipper of the Golden Calf--the mammon of unrighteousness.

Why, even I, man, am so infected by the bad neighbourhood, that I feel inclined occasionally to become an idolater myself.''

``My principal amusements being literary,'' answered Lovel, ``and circumstances which I cannot mention having induced me, for a time at least, to relinquish the military service, I have pitched on Fairport as a place where I might follow my pursuits without any of those temptations to society which a more elegant circle might have presented to me.''

``Aha!'' replied Oldbuck, knowingly,--``I begin to understand your application of my ancestor's motto.You are a candidate for public favour, though not in the way I first suspected,--you are ambitious to shine as a literary character, and you hope to merit favour by labour and perseverance?''

Lovel, who was rather closely pressed by the inquisitiveness of the old gentleman, concluded it would be best to let him remain in the error which he had gratuitously adopted.

``I have been at times foolish enough,'' he replied, ``to nourish some thoughts of the kind.''

``Ah, poor fellow! nothing can be more melancholy; unless, as young men sometimes do, you had fancied yourself in love with some trumpery specimen of womankind, which is indeed, as Shakspeare truly says, pressing to death, whipping, and hanging all at once.''

He then proceeded with inquiries, which he was sometimes kind enough to answer himself.For this good old gentleman had, from his antiquarian researches, acquired a delight in building theories out of premises which were often far from affording sufficient ground for them; and being, as the reader must have remarked, sufficiently opinionative, he did not readily brook being corrected, either in matter of fact or judgment, even by those who were principally interested in the subjects on which he speculated.He went on, therefore, chalking out Lovel's literary career for him.

``And with what do you propose to commence your debut as a man of letters?--But I guess--poetry--poetry--the soft seducer of youth.Yes! there is an acknowledging modesty of confusion in your eye and manner.And where lies your vein?

--are you inclined to soar to the, higher regions of Parnassus, or to flutter around the base of the hill?''

``I have hitherto attempted only a few lyrical pieces,'' said Lovel.

``Just as I supposed--pruning your wing, and hopping from spray to spray.But I trust you intend a bolder flight.

Observe, I would by no means recommend your persevering in this unprofitable pursuit--but you say you are quite independent of the public caprice?''

``Entirely so,'' replied Lovel.

``And that you are determined not to adopt a more active course of life?''

``For the present, such is my resolution,'' replied the young man.

``Why, then, it only remains for me to give you my best advice and assistance in the object of your pursuit.I have myself published two essays in the Antiquarian Repository,--and therefore am an author of experience, There was my Remarks on Hearne's edition of Robert of Gloucester, signed _Scrutator;_ and the other signed _Indagator,_ upon a passage in Tacitus.I might add, what attracted considerable notice at the time, and that is my paper in the Gentleman's Magazine, upon the inscription of lia Lelia, which I subscribed _dipus._So you see I am not an apprentice in the mysteries of author-craft, and must necessarily understand the taste and temper of the times.And now, once more, what do you intend to commence with?''

``I have no instant thoughts of publishing.''

``Ah! that will never do; you must have the fear of the public before your eyes in all your undertakings.Let us see now: A collection of fugitive pieces; but no--your fugitive poetry is apt to become stationary with the bookseller.It should be something at once solid and attractive--none of your romances or anomalous novelties--I would have you take high ground at once.Let me see: What think you of a real epic?

--the grand old-fashioned historical poem which moved through twelve or twenty-four books.We'll have it so--I'll supply you with a subject--The battle between the Caledonians and Romans--The Caledoniad; or, Invasion Repelled;--let that be the title--it will suit the present taste, and you may throw in a touch of the times.''

``But the invasion of Agricola was _not_ repelled.''

``No; but you are a poet--free of the corporation, and as little bound down to truth or probability as Virgil himself--You may defeat the Romans in spite of Tacitus.''

``And pitch Agricola's camp at the Kaim of--what do you call it,'' answered Lovel, ``in defiance of Edie Ochiltree?''