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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 323
paid him a visit at his lodgings in the Faubourg St. Germain, Philip
affably offered his Lordship a comet of fried potatoes, with which,
and plentiful tobacco of course, Philip and one or two of his friends
were regaling themselves when Lord Ringwood chanced to call on
his kinsman.
A crust and a carafon of small beer, a correspondence with a
weekly paper, and a remuneration such as that we have mentioned
—was Philip Firmin to look for no more than this pittance, and
not to seek for more permanent and lucrative employment ? Some
of his friends at home were rather vexed at what Philip chose to
consider his good fortune; namely, his connection with the newspaper,
and the small stipend it gave him. He might quarrel with
his employer any day. Indeed no man was more likely to fling
his bread and butter out of window than Mr. Philip. He was
losing precious time at the bar; where he, as hundreds of other
poor gentlemen had done before him, might make a career for
himself. For what are colonies made? Why do bankruptcies
occur] Why do people break the peace and quarrel with policemen,
but that barristers may be employed as judges, commissioners,
magistrates? A reporter to a newspaper remains all his life a
newspaper reporter. Philip, if he would but help himself, had
friends in the world who might aid effectually to advance him. So
it was we pleaded with him, in the language of moderation, urging
the dictates of common sense. As if moderation and common sense
could be got to move that mule of a Philip Firmin; as if any
persuasion of ours could induce him to do anything but what he
liked to do best himself!
" That you should be worldly, my poor fellow " (so Philip wrote
to his present biographer)—" that you should be thinking of money
and the main chance, is no matter of surprise to me. You have
suffered under that curse of manhood, that destroyer of generosity
in the mind, that parent of selfishness—a little fortune. You have
your wretched hundreds " (my candid correspondent stated the sum
correctly enough ; and I wish it were double or treble ; but that
is not here the point :) " paid quarterly. The miserable pittance
numbs your whole existence. It prevents freedom of thought and
action. It makes a screw of a man who is certainly not without
generous impulses, as I know, my poor old Harpagon: for hast thou
not offered to open thy purse to me ? I tell you I am sick of the
way in which people in London, especially good people, think about
money. You live up to your income's edge. You are miserably
poor. You brag and flatter yourselves that you owe no man anything
; but your estate has creditors upon it as insatiable as any