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

146 Orde7^ed South
fact, this be veritably nightfall, he will not
wish greatly for the continuance of a twilight
that only strains and disappoints the eyes,
but steadfastly await the perfect darkness.
He will pray for Medea : when she comes,
let her either rejuvenate or slay.
And yet the ties that still attach him to
the world are many and kindly. The sight
of children has a significance for him such
as it may have for the aged also, but not for
others. If he has been used to feel humanely,
and to look upon life somewhat more widely
than from the narrow loophole of personal
pleasure and advancement, it is strange how
small a portion of his thoughts will be changed
or embittered by this proximity of death.
He knows that already, in English counties,
the sower follows the ploughman up the face
of the field, and the rooks follow the sower ;
and he knows also that he may not live to
go home again and see the corn spring and
ripen, and be cut down at last, and brought
home with gladness. And yet the future of
this harvest, the continuance of drought or