human
I don't profess the arts you mention; but I doubt the reality of your spectre. I think it is an _illusion_, depending on an undue excitement in the organ of self-esteem, quite to be dispelled by restoring the healthy action of those other organs--of common sense. Seriously, I'm not competent to advise gentlemen, young or old, in their perplexities, real or fancied; but I certainly would say to any one who had set before him an object of ambition, the attainment of which he thought would be injurious to him,--be manly, have done with it, let it go, give it to the winds. Besides, you know that half the objects which young men set before them, the ambitions which they cherish, are the merest castles in the air, and that all but themselves can see the ridicule of their aspirations.
gpt
You must not go, Miss Fanshawe; you have hot seen the carving you came here to look at. Here is the old church chest; but--but suppose the _patient_--let us call him--knows that the object of his--his _ambition_ is on all accounts the best and noblest he could possibly have set before him. What then?
human
What then! echoed Miss Fanshawe.
gpt
How can any one possibly tell--but the patient, as you call him, himself--what he should do. Your patient does not interest me; he wearies me. Let us look at this carving.
human
Do you think he should despair because there is no present answer to his prayers, and his idol vouchsafes no sign or omen?
gpt
I don't think, she replied, with a cold impatience,
human
Well, no; I _don't_ think so. He is not an unreal person; I know him, and I know that his good opinion of himself is humbled, and that he adores with an entire abandonment of self the being whom he literally worships.
gpt
Very adoring, perhaps, but rather--that's a great dog like a wolf-hound in that panel, and it has got its fangs in that pretty stag's throat,
human
Yes--but you were saying 'Very adoring, but rather'--what?
gpt
Rather silly, don't you think? What business have people adoring others of whom they know nothing--who may not even like _them_--who may possibly _dis_like them extremely? I am tired of your good genius--I hope I'm not very rude--and of your friend's folly--tired as _you_ must be; and I think we should both give him very much the same advice, _I_ should say to him, pray don't sacrifice yourself; you are much too precious; consider your own value, and above all, remember that even should you make up your mind to the humiliation of the altar and the knife, the ceremonial may prove a fruitless mortification, and the opportunity of accomplishing your sacrifice be denied you by your divinity. And I think that's a rather well-rounded period: don't you?
human
I'm ashamed to say I have been actually amusing myself here with my accounts. We have seen, I think, nearly everything now in this building. I should so like to visit the ruins at the other side of the court-yard.
gpt
I shall be only too happy to be your guide, if you permit me,
human
Does she dislike me? Or is she engaged? What can her odd speeches mean, if not one or other of these things? She warns me off, and seems positively angry at my approach. She took care that I should quite understand her ironies, and there was no mistaking the reality of her unaccountable resentment.