WATCH Hot Elisha Cuthbert Showing All  CLICK HERE for Instant Access Elisha Cuthbert Photos |
Elisha Cuthbert Photos Books: Martin Eden The Pickwick Papers The Sea Wolf |
to you and all that you could have written would have been about
what you did not know of the scheme of existence. But cheer up, Martin,
my boy. Youll write yet. You know a little, a very little, and youre
on the right road now to know more. Some day, if youre lucky, you may
come pretty close to knowing all that may be known. Then you will
write."
He brought his great discovery to Ruth, sharing with her all his joy and
wonder in it. But she did not seem to be so enthusiastic over it. She
tacitly accepted it and, in a way, seemed aware of it from her own
studies. It did not stir her deeply, as it did him, and he would have
been surprised had he not reasoned it out that it was not new and fresh
to her as it was to him. Arthur and Norman, he found, believed in
evolution and had read Spencer, though it did not seem to have made any
vital impression upon them, while the young fellow with the glasses and
the mop of hair, Will Olney, sneered disagreeably at Spencer and repeated
the epigram, "There is no god but the Unknowable, and Herbert Spencer is
his prophet."
But Martin forgave him the sneer, for he had begun to discover that Olney
was not in love with Ruth. Later, he was dumfounded to learn from
various little happenings not only that Olney did not care for Ruth, but
that he had a positive dislike for her. Martin could not understand
this. It was a bit of phenomena that he could not correlate with all the
rest of the phenomena in the universe. But nevertheless he felt sorry
for the young fellow because of the great lack in his nature that
prevented him from a proper appreciation of Ruths fineness and beauty.
They rode out into the hills several Sundays on their wheels, and Martin
had ample opportunity to observe the armed truce that existed between
Ruth and Olney. The latter chummed with Norman, throwing Arthur and
Martin into company with Ruth, for which Martin was duly grateful.
Those Sundays were great days for Martin, greatest because he was with
Ruth, and great, also, because they were putting him more on a par with
the young men of her class. In spite of their long years of disciplined
education, he was finding himself their intellectual equal, and the hours
spent with them in conversation was so much practice for him in the use
of the grammar he had studied so hard. He had abandoned the etiquette
books, falling back upon observation to show him the right things to do.
Except when carried away by his enthusiasm, he was always on guard,
keenly watchful of their actions and learning their little courtesies and
refinements of conduct.
The fact that Spencer was very little read was for some time a source of
surprise to Martin. "Herbert Spencer," said the man at the desk in the
library, "oh, yes, a great mind." But the man did not seem to know
anything of the content of that great mind. One evening, at dinner, when
Mr. Butler was there, Martin turned the conversation upon Spencer. Mr.
Morse bitterly arraigned the English philosophers agnosticism, but
confessed that he had not read "First Principles"; while Mr. Butler
stated that he had no patience with Spencer, had never read a line of
him, and had managed to get along quite well without him. Doubts arose
in Martins mind, and had he been less strongly individual he would have
accepted the general opinion and given Herbert Spencer up. As it was, he
found Spencers explanation of things convincing; and, as he phrased it
to himself, to give up Spencer would be equivalent to a navigator
throwing the compass and chronometer overboard. So Martin went on into a
thorough study of evolution, mastering more and more the subject himself,
and being convinced by the corroborative testimony of a thousand
independent writers. The more he studied, the more vistas he caught of
fields of knowledge yet unexplored, and the regret that days were only
twenty-four hours long became a chronic complaint with him.
One day, because the days were so short, he decided to give up algebra
and geometry. Trigonometry he had not even attempted. Then he cut
chemistry from his study-list, retaining only Martin Eden page 52 Martin Eden page 54 |