Prev | Current Page 410 | Next

Walpole, Hugh, Sir, 1884-1941

"The Captives"


"I don't know," he answered. "I can't tell, but I know all my
happiness here is coming to an end, and I don't know what I shall
do. If I were a strong man I would go out and find all the other
treasure hunters, all the vicious ones, and the diseased, and the
drunkards and the perverted, and I would try to found some kind of a
society so that they should recognise one another all the world over
and shouldn't feel so lonely and deserted and hopelessly done for. I
don't mean a society for improving them, mind you, or warning them
or telling them they'll go to prison if they don't do better, that's
none of my business. But it seems to be a solemn fact that you
aren't a treasure hunter until there's something wrong with you,
until you've got a sin that's stronger than you are, or until you've
done something that's disgraceful in the eyes of the world--not that
I believe in weakness or in giving way to things. No one admires the
strong and the brave more than I do. I think a man's a fool if he
doesn't fight as hard as he can. But there's a brotherhood of the
dissatisfied and the uneasy and the anxious-hearted, and I believe
it's they who will discover the Grail in the end if it's ever going
to be discovered at all.


Pages:
398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422