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

Child's Play 229
accept so much else, as a piece of the in-
explicable conduct of his elders ; and like a
wise young gentleman, he would waste no
wonder on the subject. Those elders, who
care so little for rational enjoyment, and are
even the enemies of rational enjoyment for
others, he had accepted without understanding
and without complaint, as the rest of us
accept the scheme of the universe.
We grown people can tell ourselves a
story, give and take strokes until the bucklers
ring, ride far and fast, marry, fall, and die ;
all the while sitting quietly by the fire or
lying prone in bed. This is exactly what a
child cannot do, or does not do, at least,
when he can find anything else. He works
all with lay figures and stage properties.
When his story comes to the fighting, he
must rise, get something by way of a sword
and have a set-to with a piece of furniture,
until he is out of breath. When he comes
to ride with the king's pardon, he must
bestride a chair, which he will so hurry and
belabour and on which he will so furiously