indeed, yes; but our
reflections! Man, forsooth, prides himself on his consciousness. We boast that
we differ from the winds and waves and falling stones, and plants, which grow
they know not why, and from the wandering creatures which go up and down after
their prey, as we are pleased to say without the help of reason. We know so well
what we are doing ourselves, and why we do it, do we not? I fancy that there is
some truth in the view which is being put forward nowadays, that it is our less
conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our own
lives and the lives of those who spring from us.
 

                                   Chapter 6

Mr. Pontifex was not the man to trouble himself much about his motives; people
were not so introspective then as we are now; they lived more according to a
rule of thumb. Dr. Arnold had not yet sown that crop of earnest thinkers which
we are now harvesting, and men did not see why they should not have their own
way if no evil consequences to themselves seemed likely to follow upon their
doing so. Then as now, however, they sometimes let themselves in for more evil
consequences than they had bargained for.
    Like other rich men at the beginning of this century he ate and drank a good
deal more than was enough to keep him in health. Even his excellent constitution
was not proof against a prolonged course of overfeeding, and what we should now
consider overdrinking. His liver would not unfrequently get out of order, and he
would come down to breakfast looking yellow about the eyes. Then the young
people knew that they had better look out: it is not as a general rule the
eating of sour grapes that causes the children's teeth to be set on edge;
well-to-do parents seldom eat many sour grapes; the danger to the children lies
in the parents eating too many sweet ones.
    I grant that at first sight it seems very unjust, that the parents should
have the fun and the children be punished for it, but young people should
remember that for many years they were part and parcel of their parents and
therefore had a good deal of the fun in the person of their parents. If they
have forgotten the fun now, that is no more than people do who have a headache
after having been tipsy overnight. The man with a headache does not pretend to
be a different person from the man who got drunk, and claim that it is his self
of the preceding night and not his self of this morning who should be punished