12. CHAPTER XII.
Containing what the reader may, perhaps, expect to find in it
In all bargains, whether to fight or to marry, or concerning any
other such business, little previous ceremony is required to bring the
matter to an issue when both parties are really in earnest. This was
the case at present, and in less than a month the captain and his lady
were man and wife.
The great concern now was to break the matter to Mr. Allworthy;
and this was undertaken by the doctor.
One day, then, as Allworthy was walking in his garden, the doctor
came to him, and, with great gravity of aspect, and all the concern
which he could possibly affect in his countenance, said, "I am come,
sir, to impart an affair to you of the utmost consequence; but how
shall I mention to you what it almost distracts me to think of!" He
then launched forth into the most bitter invectives both against men
and women; accusing the former of having no attachment but to their
interest, and the latter of being so addicted to vicious
inclinations that they could never be safely trusted with one of the
other sex. "Could I," said he, "sir, have suspected that a lady of
such prudence, such judgment, such learning, should indulge so
indiscreet a passion! or could I have imagined that my brother- why
do I call him so? he is no longer a brother of mine-"
"Indeed but he is," said Allworthy, "and a brother of mine too."
"Bless me, sir!" said the doctor, "do you know the shocking affair?"
"Look'ee, Mr. Blifil," answered the good man, "it hath been my
constant maxim in life to make the best of all matters which happen.
My sister, though many years younger than I, is at least old enough to
be at the age of discretion. Had he imposed on a child, I should
have been more averse to have forgiven him; but a woman upwards of
thirty must certainly be supposed to know what will make her most
happy. She hath married a gentleman, though perhaps not quite her
equal in fortune; and if he hath any perfections in her eye which
can make up that deficiency, I see no reason why I should object to
her choice of her own happiness; which I, no more than herself,
imagine to consist only in immense wealth. I might, perhaps, from
the many declarations I have made of complying with almost any
proposal, have expected to have been consulted on this occasion; but
these matters are of a very delicate nature, and the scruples of
modesty, perhaps, are not to be overcome. As to your brother, I have
really no anger against him at all. He hath no obligations to me,
nor do I think he was under any necessity of asking my consent,
since the woman is, as I have said, sui juris, and of a proper age to
be entirely answerable only to herself for her conduct."
The doctor accused Mr. Allworthy of too great lenity, repeated his
accusations against his brother, and declared that he should never
more be brought either to see, or to own him for his relation. He then
launched forth into a panegyric on Allworthy's goodness; into the
highest encomiums on his friendship; and concluded by saying, he
should never forgive his brother for having put the place which he
bore in that friendship to a hazard.
Allworthy thus answered: "Had I conceived any displeasure against
your brother, I should never have carried that resentment to the
innocent: but I assure you I have no such displeasure. Your brother
appears to me to be a man of sense and honour. I do not disapprove the
taste of my sister; nor will I doubt but that she is equally the
object of his inclinations. I have always thought love the only
foundation of happiness in a married state, as it can only produce
that high and tender friendship which should always be the cement of
this union; and, in my opinion, all those marriages which are
contracted from other motives are greatly criminal; they are a
profanation of a most holy ceremony, and generally end in disquiet and
misery: for surely we may call it a profanation to convert this most
sacred institution into a wicked sacrifice to lust or avarice: and
what better can be said of those matches to which men are induced
merely by the consideration of a beautiful person, or a great fortune?
"To deny that beauty is an agreeable object to the eye, and even
worthy some admiration, would be false and foolish. Beautiful is an
epithet often used in Scripture, and always mentioned with honour.
It was my own fortune to marry a woman whom the world thought
handsome, and I can truly say I liked her the better on that
account. But to make this the sole consideration of marriage, to
lust after it so violently as to overlook all imperfections for its
sake, or to require it so absolutely as to reject and disdain
religion, virtue, and sense, which are qualities in their nature of
much higher perfection, only because an elegance of person is wanting:
this is surely inconsistent, either with a wise man or a good
Christian. And it is, perhaps, being too charitable to conclude that
such persons mean anything more by their marriage than to please their
carnal appetites; for the satisfaction of which, we are taught, it was
not ordained.
"In the next place, with respect to fortune. Worldly prudence
perhaps, exacts some consideration on this head; nor will I absolutely
and altogether condemn it. As the world is constituted, the demands of
a married state, and the care of posterity, require some little regard
to what we call circumstances. Yet this provision is greatly
increased, beyond what is really necessary, by folly and vanity, which
create abundantly more wants than nature. Equipage for the wife, and
large fortunes for the children, are by custom enrolled in the list of
necessaries; and to procure these, everything truly solid and sweet,
and virtuous and religious, are neglected and overlooked.
"And this in many degrees; the last and greatest of which seems
scarce distinguishable from madness;- I mean where persons of immense
fortunes contract themselves to those who are, and must be,
disagreeable to them- to fools and knaves- in order to increase an
estate already larger even than the demands of their pleasures. Surely
such persons, if they will not be thought mad, must own, either that
they are incapable of tasting the sweets of the tenderest
friendship, or that they sacrifice the greatest happiness of which
they are capable to the vain, uncertain, and senseless laws of
vulgar opinion, which owe as well their force as their foundation to
folly."
Here Allworthy concluded his sermon, to which Blifil had listened
with the profoundest attention, though it cost him some pains to
prevent now and then a small discomposure of his muscles. He now
praised every period of what he had heard with the warmth of a young
divine, who hath the honour to dine with a bishop the same day in
which his lordship hath mounted the pulpit.