Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard.pdf - Planet eBook

eturned to the giver with a more open and exquisite displayof tenderness.He left her to walk down the hill, and directly he foundhimself alone he became sober. That irreparable changea death makes in the course of our daily thoughts can befelt in a vague and poignant discomfort of mind. It hurtCharles Gould to feel that never more, by no effort of will,would he be able to think of his father in the same way heused to think of him when the poor man was alive. Hisbreathing image was no longer in his power. This consideration,closely affecting his own identity, filled his breastwith a mournful and angry desire for action. In this his instinctwas unerring. Action is consolatory. It is the enemyof thought and the friend of flattering illusions. Only inthe conduct of our action can we find the sense of masteryover the Fates. For his action, the mine was obviously theonly field. It was imperative sometimes to know how to disobeythe solemn wishes of the dead. He resolved firmly tomake his disobedience as thorough (by way of atonement)as it well could be. The mine had been the cause of an absurdmoral disaster; its working must be made a serious andmoral success. He owed it to the dead man’s memory. Suchwere the—properly speaking—emotions of Charles Gould.His thoughts ran upon the means of raising a large amountof capital in San Francisco or elsewhere; and incidentallythere occurred to him also the general reflection that thecounsel of the departed must be an unsound guide. Not oneof them could be aware beforehand what enormous changesthe death of any given individual may produce in the very