The Philistines

Arlo Bates

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• Publié par: enfa
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 30
• Langue: English

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by Arlo Bates
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Title: The PhilistinesAuthor: Arlo Bates
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8570] [This file
was first posted on July 24, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK, THE PHILISTINES ***
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THE PHILISTINES
BY
ARLO BATES
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, goodand ill together. All's Well that Ends Well; iv.—
3DEDICATION.
To my three friends who, by generously acting as
amanuenses, have made it possible that the book
should be finished, I take pleasure in gratefully
dedicating
"This is no square temple to the gate of which
thou canst
arrive precipitately; this is no mosque to which
thou canst come
with tumult but without knowledge."
Persian Religious Hymn.CONTENTS. CHAPTER
I. IN PLACE AND IN ACCOUNT NOTHING II.
SOME SPEECH OF MARRIAGE III. IN WAY OF
TASTE IV. NOW HE IS FOR THE NUMBERS V.
'TWAS WONDROUS PITIFUL VI. THE INLY
TOUCH OF LOVE VII. THIS DEED UNSHAPES
ME VIII. A NECESSARY EVIL IX. THIS IS NOT A
BOON X. THE BITTER PAST XI. THE GREAT
ASSAY OF ART XII. WHOM THE FATES HAVE
MARKED XIII. THIS "WOULD" CHANGES XIV.
THE SHOT OF ACCIDENT XV. LIKE COVERED
FIRE XVI. WEIGHING DELIGHT AND DOLE XVII.
THE HEAVY MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT XVIII. HE
SPEAKS THE MERE CONTRARY XIX. HOW
CHANCES MOCK XX. VOLUBLE AND SHARP
DISCOURSE XXI. A MINT OF PHRASES IN HIS
BRAIN XXII. HIS PURE HEART'S TRUTH XXIII.
AS FALSE AS STAIRS OF SAND XXIV. THERE
BEGINS CONFUSION XXV. AFTER SUCH A
PAGAN CUT XXVI. O, WICKED WIT AND GIFT
XXVII. UPON A CHURCH BENCH XXVIII.
BEDECKING ORNAMENTS OF PRAISE XXIX.
CRUEL PROOF OF THIS MAN'S STRENGTH
XXX. THE WORLD IS STILL DECEIVED XXXI.
PARTED OUR FELLOWSHIP XXXII. HEART-
BURNING HEAT OF DUTY XXXIII. A BOND OF
AIR XXXIV. WHAT TIME SHE CHANTED XXXV.
HEARTSICK WITH THOUGHT XXXVI.
FAREWELL AT ONCE, FOR ONCE, FOR ALL
AND EVER XXXVII. A SYMPATHY OF WOETHE PHILISTINES
I
IN PLACE AND IN ACCOUNT
NOTHING.
I Henry IV.; v.—I.
When Arthur Fenton, the most outspoken of all
that band of protesting spirits who had been so well
known in artistic Boston as the Pagans, married
Edith Caldwell, there had been in his mind a
purpose, secret but well defined, to turn to his own
account his wife's connection with the Philistine art
patrons of the town. Miss Caldwell was a niece of
Peter Calvin, a wealthy and well-meaning man
against whom but two grave charges could be
made,—that he supposed the growth of art in this
country to depend largely upon his patronage, and
that he could never be persuaded not to take
himself seriously. Mr. Calvin was regarded by
Philistine circles in Boston as a sort of re-
incarnation of Apollo, clothed upon with modern
enlightenment, and properly arrayed in respectable
raiment. Had it been pointed out that to make this
theory probable it was necessary to conceive of
the god as having undergone mentally much the
same metamorphosis as that which had
transformed his flowing vestments into trousers,
his admirers would have received the remark as
highly complimentary to Mr. Peter Calvin. Toassume identity between their idol and Apollo
would be immensely flattering to the son of Latona.
Fenton understood perfectly the weight and extent
of Calvin's influence, yet, in determining to profit by
it, he did not in the least deceive himself as to the
nature of his own course.
"Honesty," he afterward confessed to his friend
Helen Greyson, who scorned him for the
admission, "is doubtless a charming thing for
digestive purposes, but it is a luxury too expensive
for me. The gods in this country bid for shams, and
shams I purpose giving them."
So well did he carry out his intention, that in a few
years he came to be the fashionable portrait-
painter of the town; the artist to whom people went
who rated the worth of a picture by the amount
they were required to pay for it, and the reputation
of the painter in conventional circles; the man to
whom a Boston society woman inevitably turned
when she wished the likeness of her charms
preserved on canvas, and when no foreigner was
for the moment in vogue and on hand.
The steps by which Fenton attained to this proud
eminence were obvious enough. In the first place,
he persuaded Mr. Calvin to sit to him. Mr. Calvin
always sat to the portrait painters whom he
endorsed. This was a sort of official recognition,
and the results, as seen in the needlessly
numerous likenesses of the gentleman which
adorned his Beacon Hill mansion, would haveafforded a cynic some amusement, and not a little
food for reflection. Once launched under
distinguished patronage, Fenton was clever
enough to make his way. He really was able to
paint well when he chose, a fact which was, on the
whole, of less importance in his artistic career than
were the adroitness of his address, and his ready
and persuasive sympathy. The qualifications of a
fashionable doctor, a fashionable clergyman, and a
fashionable portrait-painter are much the same; it
is only in the man-milliner that skill is demanded in
addition to the art of pleasing.
As usually happens in such a case, Fenton's old
friends avoided him, or found themselves left in the
distance by his rapid strides toward fame and
fortune. Then such of them as still came in contact
with him made his acquaintance in a new
character, and learned to accept him as a wholly
different man from the one they had supposed
themselves to know in the days when he was
never weary of pouring forth tirades against the
Philistinism he had now embraced. They admired
the skill with which he painted stuffs and gowns,
but among themselves they agreed that the old-
time vigor and sincerity were painfully lacking in his
work; and if they grumbled sometimes at the prices
he got, it is only just to believe that it was seldom
with any real willingness to pay, in the sacrifice of
convictions and ideals, the equivalent which he had
given for his popularity.
Fenton was one morning painting, in his luxuriously
appointed studio, the portrait of a man who was in