Ille potens sui           laetusque deget, cui licet in diem
          dixisse, Vixi: eras vel atra
          nube polum pater occupato,
          vel sole puro: non tamen irritum
          quodcumque retro est, efficiet; neque
          diffinget infectumque reddet,
          quod fugiens semel hora vexit.
          —Hor. Carm. iii. 29.
 
          Happy the man, and happy he alone,
          He who can call to-day his own:
          He who, secure within, can say,
          To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived to-day.
          Be storm, or calm, or rain, or shine,
          The joys I have possessed¹ in spite of fate are mine.
          Not heaven itself upon the past has power,
          But what has been has been, and I have had my hour.
          —Dryden.
A large party was assembled at the Grange. Among them were some of the young ladies who were to form the chorus; one elderly spinster, Miss Ilex, who passed more than half her life in visits, and was everywhere welcome, being always good-humoured, agreeable in conversation, having much knowledge of society, good sense in matters of conduct, good taste and knowledge in music; sound judgment² in dress, which alone sufficed to make her valuable to young ladies; a fair amount of reading, old and new; and on most subjects an opinion of her own, for which she had always something to say; Mr. MacBorrowdale, an old friend of Mr. Gryll, a gentleman who comprised in himself all that Scotland had ever been supposed to possess of mental, moral, and political philosophy; 'And yet he bore it not about'; not 'as being loth to wear it out,'{1} but because he held that there was a time for all things, and that dinner was the time for joviality³, and not for argument; Mr. Minim, the amateur composer of the music for the comedy; Mr. Pallet, the amateur painter of the scenery; and last, not least, the newly-made acquaintance, Lord Curryfin.
 
          1 We grant, although he had much wit,
          H. was very shy of using it,
          As being loth to wear it out;
          And therefore bore it not about,
          Except on holidays or so,
          As men their best apparel do.
          Hudibras.
Lord Curryfin was a man on the younger side of thirty, with a good person, handsome features, a powerful voice, and an agreeable delivery. He had a strong memory, much power of application, and a facility of learning rapidly whatever he turned his mind to. But with all this, he valued what he learned less for the pleasure which he derived⁴ from the acquisition, than from the effect which it enabled him to produce on others. He liked to shine in conversation, and there was scarcely a subject which could be mooted⁵ in any society, on which his multifarious attainments⁶ did not qualify him to say something. He was readily taken by novelty in doctrine⁷, and followed a new lead with great pertinacity⁸; and in this way he had been caught by the science of pantopragmatics, and firmly believed for a time that a scientific organisation⁹ for teaching everybody everything would cure all the evils of society. But being one of those 'over sharp wits whose edges are very soon turned,' he did not adhere to any opinion with sufficient earnestness to be on any occasion betrayed into intemperance¹⁰ in maintaining it. So far from this, if he found any unfortunate opinion in a hopeless minority of the company he happened to be in, he was often chivalrous¹¹ enough to come to its aid, and see what could be said for it. When lecturing became a mania¹², he had taken to lecturing; and looking about for an unoccupied subject, he had lighted on the natural history of fish, in which he soon became sufficiently¹³ proficient¹⁴ to amuse the ladies, and astonish the fishermen in any seaside place of fashionable resort. Here he always arranged his lecture-room, so that the gentility of his audience could sit on a platform, and the natives in a gallery above, and that thus the fishy¹⁵ and tarry odours which the latter were most likely to bring with them might ascend¹⁶ into the upper air, and not mingle¹⁷ with the more delicate fragrances¹⁸ that surrounded the select company below. He took a summer tour to several watering-places, and was thoroughly¹⁹ satisfied with his success. The fishermen at first did not take cordially to him; but their wives attended from curiosity, and brought their husbands with them on nights not favourable²⁰ to fishing; and by degrees he won on their attention, and they took pleasure in hearing him, though they learned nothing from him that was of any use in their trade. But he seemed to exalt²¹ their art in the eyes of themselves and others, and he told them some pleasant anecdotes²² of strange fish, and of perilous²³ adventures of some of their own craft, which led in due time to the crowding of his gallery. The ladies went, as they always will go, to lectures, where they fancy they learn something, whether they learn anything or not; and on these occasions, not merely to hear the lecturer, but to be seen by him. To them, however attractive the lecture might have been, the lecturer was more so. He was an irresistible²⁵ temptation to matrons with marriageable daughters, and wherever he sojourned he was overwhelmed with invitations. It was a contest who should have him to dinner, and in the simplicity²⁷ of his heart, he ascribed to admiration²⁸ of his science and eloquence²⁹ all the courtesies and compliments with which he was everywhere received. He did not like to receive unreturned favours, and never left a place in which he had accepted many invitations, without giving in return a ball and supper on a scale of great munificence³⁰; which filled up the measure of his popularity, and left on all his guests a very enduring impression of a desire to see him again.
 
So his time passed pleasantly, with a heart untouched by either love or care, till he fell in at a dinner party with the Reverend Doctor Opimian. The doctor spoke³¹ of Gryll Grange and the Aristophanic comedy which was to be produced at Christmas, and Lord Curryfin, with his usual desire to have a finger in every pie, expressed an earnest wish to be introduced to the squire³². This was no difficult............