Such as composed this section, finding themselves
in opposition, not only to the orthodox proprietary creed, but even to
their own legal rights, had been driven to an attitude of almost blatant
freedom. Like all folk in opposition, they were bound, as a simple
matter of principle, to disagree with those in power, to view with a
contemptuous resentment that majority which said, "I believe the thing
is mine, and mine it shall remain"--a majority which by force of
numbers made this creed the law. Unable legally to, be other than the
proprietors of wife or husband, as the case might be, they were
obliged, even in the most happy unions, to be very careful not to become
disgusted with their own position. Their legal status was, as it were,
a goad, spurring them on to show their horror of it. They were like
children sent to school with trousers that barely reached their knees,
aware that they could neither reduce their stature to the proportions
of their breeches nor make their breeches grow. They were furnishing an
instance of that immemorial "change of form to form" to which Mr. Stone
had given the name of Life. In a past age thinkers and dreamers and
"artistic pigs" rejecting the forms they found, had given unconscious
shape to this marriage law, which, after they had become the wind, had
formed itself out of their exiled pictures and thoughts and dreams.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323