Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

Ordered Sotttk 133
sence, instead of travelling hourly farther
abroad.
It is only after he is fairly arrived and
settled down in his chosen corner, that the
invalid begins to understand the change that
has befallen him. Everything about him is
as he had remembered, or as he had antici-
pated. Here, at his feet, under his eyes, are
the olive gardens and the blue sea. Nothing
can change the eternal magnificence of form
of the naked Alps behind Mentone ; nothing,
not even the crude curves of the railway, can
utterly deform the suavity of contour of one
bay after another along the whole reach of the
Riviera. And of all this, he has only a cold
head knowledge that is divorced from enjoy-
ment. He recognises with his intelligence
that this thing and that thing is beautiful,
while in his heart of hearts he has to confess
that it is not beautiful for him. It is in vain
that he spurs his discouraged spirit ; in vain
that he chooses out points of view, and
stands there, looking with all his eyes, and
waiting for some return of the pleasure that