We know so well what we are
doing ourselves and why we do it, do we not? I fancy that there is some
truth in the view which is being put forward nowadays, that it is our
less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould
our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.
CHAPTER VI
Mr Pontifex was not the man to trouble himself much about his motives.
People were not so introspective then as we are now; they lived more
according to a rule of thumb. Dr Arnold had not yet sown that crop of
earnest thinkers which we are now harvesting, and men did not see why
they should not have their own way if no evil consequences to themselves
seemed likely to follow upon their doing so. Then as now, however, they
sometimes let themselves in for more evil consequences than they had
bargained for.
Like other rich men at the beginning of this century he ate and drank a
good deal more than was enough to keep him in health. Even his excellent
constitution was not proof against a prolonged course of overfeeding and
what we should now consider overdrinking. His liver would not
unfrequently get out of order, and he would come down to breakfast
looking yellow about the eyes.
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