Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

^s Triplex. 167
perate in such a picture. It seems not credible
that respectable married people, with umbrellas,
should find appetite for. a bit of supper within
quite a long distance of a fiery mountain ; ordi-
nary life begins to smell of high-handed debauch
when it is carried on so close to a catastrophe ;
and even cheese and salad, it seems, could
hardly be relished in such circumstances with-
out something like a defiance of the Creator.
It should be a place for nobody but hermits
dwelling in prayer and maceration, or mere
born-devils drowning care in a perpetual ca-
rouse.
And yet, when one comes to think upon it
calmly, the situation of these South American
citizens forms only a very pale figure for the
state of ordinary mankind. This world itself,
travelling blindly and swiftly in overcrowded
space, among a million other worlds travelling
blindly and swiftly in contrary directions, may
very well come by a knock that would set it