Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

ThackerayAm I wrong, dear brethren, in supposing that youexpect a preacher to say a seasonable word on deathhere? If you don’t, I fear you are but little familiar withthe habits of preachers, and are but lax hearers of sermons.We might contrast the vault where the warrior’sremains lie shrouded and coffined, with that in whichhis worldly provision of wine is stowed away. Spain andPortugal and France—all the lands which supplied hisstore—as hardy and obedient subaltern, as resolutecaptain, as colonel daring but prudent—he has visitedthe fields of all. In India and China he marches alwaysunconquered; or at the head of his dauntless Highlandbrigade he treads the Crimean snow; or he rides fromconquest to conquest in India once more; succoring hiscountrymen in the hour of their utmost need; smitingdown the scared mutiny, and trampling out the embersof rebellion; at the head of an heroic army, a consummatechief. And now his glorious old sword is sheathed,and his honors are won: and he has bought him a house,and stored it with modest cheer for his friends (thegood old man put water in his own wine, and a glass ortwo sufficed him)—behold the end comes, and his legateeinherits these modest possessions by virtue of acodicil to his lordship’s will, written, “strange to say,upon a sheet of paper, bearing the ‘Athenaeum Club’mark.”It is to this part of the text, my brethren, that I proposeto address myself particularly, and if the remarks Imake are offensive to any of you, you know the doorsof our meeting-house are open, and you can walk outwhen you will. Around us are magnificent halls andpalaces frequented by such a multitude of men as noteven the Roman Forum assembled together. Yonder arethe Martium and the Palladium. Next to the Palladiumis the elegant Viatorium, which Barry gracefully stolefrom Rome. By its side is the massive Reformatorium:and the—the Ultratorium rears its granite columns beyond.Extending down the street palace after palacerises magnificent, and under their lofty roofs warriorsand lawyers, merchants and nobles, scholars and seamen,the wealthy, the poor, the busy, the idle assemble.Into the halls built down this little street and its neigh-309