A little later in the same story is a bit of "eloquent and consoling philosophy" on a happy juxtaposition of the meat and the eaters.[1]
"A thing has come to pass which we feel to be right! The
machinery of the world, then, is not entirely dislocated: there
is harmony, on one point, among the mysterious powers who
have to do with us."
Another deeply meditative young man is Algernon Blancove.
On the very point of turning over a new leaf, he has
the misfortune to lose a wager of a thousand pounds,—which
he did not have in the first place.[2]
"A rage of emotions drowned every emotion in his head, and
when he got one clear from the mass, it took the form of a bitter
sneer at Providence, for cutting off his last chance of reforming
his conduct and becoming good. What would he not have
accomplished, that was brilliant, and beautiful, and soothing,
but for this dead set against him!"
With a gentler touch Clotilde is pictured, on hearing of
the disaster to Alvin, as venting the "laugh of the tragic
comedian."[3]
"She laughed. The world is upside down—a world without
light, or pointing finger, or affection for special favorites, and
therefore bereft of all mysterious and attractive wisdom, a
crazy world, a corpse of a world—if this be true!"
One more angle has Meredith from which to view this
subject, and this shows up the absurdity of the opposite
type,—the superior philosopher who disdains to apply the
