 is in a very solitary
position, Mr. Overton,« continued the publisher; »he has formed no alliances,
and has made enemies not only of the religious world but of the literary and
scientific brotherhood as well. This will not do nowadays. If a man wishes to
get on he must belong to a set, and Mr. Pontifex belongs to no set - not even to
a club.«
    I replied, »Mr. Pontifex is like Othello, but with a difference - he hates
not wisely but too well. He would dislike the literary and scientific swells if
he were to come to know them, and they him; there is no natural solidarity
between him and them, and if he were brought into contact with them his last
state would be worse than his first. His instinct tells him this, so he keeps
clear of them, and attacks them whenever he thinks they deserve it - in the
hope, perhaps, that a younger generation will listen to him more willingly than
the present.«
    »Can anything,« said the publisher, »be conceived more impracticable and
imprudent?«
    To all this Ernest replies with one word only - »Wait.«
    Such is my friend's latest development. He would not, it is true, run much
chance at present of trying to found a college of Spiritual Pathology, but I
must leave the reader to determine whether there is not a strong family likeness
between the Ernest of the college of Spiritual Pathology and the Ernest who will
insist on addressing the next generation rather than his own. He says he trusts
that there is not, and takes the sacrament duly once a year as a sop to Nemesis
lest he should again feel strongly upon any subject. It rather fatigues him, but
»no man's opinions,« he sometimes says, »can be worth holding unless he knows
how to deny them easily and gracefully upon occasion in the cause of charity.«
In politics he is a Conservative as far as his vote and interest are concerned.
In all other respects he is an advanced Radical. His father and grandfather
could probably no more understand my hero's state of mind than they could
understand Chinese, but those who know him intimately do not know that they wish
him greatly different from what he actually is.
 
Feb. 7. 1883
&amp; July 28. 1883
Ap. 28. 1884

