13, 14.
Here, in the tutor's answer to Hewson, we come on the moral of the
poem, a moral to be pursued through commonplace lowliness of station
and through high rank, into the habit of life which would be, in the
one, not petty,--in the other, not overweening,--in any, calm and
dignified.
"'You are a boy; when you grow to a man, you'll find things alter.
You will learn to seek the good, to scorn the attractive,
Scorn all mere cosmetics, as now of rank and fashion,
Delicate hands, and wealth, so then of poverty also,
Poverty truly attractive, more truly, I bear you witness.
Good, wherever found, you will choose, be it humble or stately,
Happy if only you find, and, finding, do not lose it.'"--p. 14.
When the discussion is ended, the party propose to separate, some
proceeding on their tour; and Philip Hewson will be of these.
"'Finally, too,' from the kilt and the sofa said Hobbes in conclusion,
'Finally Philip must hunt for that home of the probable poacher,
Hid in the Braes of Lochaber, the Bothie of what-did-he-call-it.
Hopeless of you and of us, of gillies and marquises hopeless,
Weary of ethic and logic, of rhetoric yet more weary,
There shall he, smit by the charm of a lovely potatoe-uprooter,
Study the question of sex in the Bothie of what-did-he-call-it.
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