MIDDLEMARCH (Completed)

Chapter 29

"I found that no genius in another could please me. My

unfortunate paradoxes had entirely dried up that source of

comfort."--GOLDSMITH.

One morning, some weeks after her arrival at Lowick, Dorothea--

but why always Dorothea? Was her point of view the only possible

one with regard to this marriage? I protest against all our interest,

all our effort at understanding being given to the young skins that

look blooming in spite of trouble; for these too will get faded,

and will know the older and more eating griefs which we are helping

to neglect. In spite of the blinking eyes and white moles objectionable

to Celia, and the want of muscular curve which was morally painful

to Sir James, Mr. Casaubon had an intense consciousness within him,

and was spiritually a-hungered like the rest of us. He had done

nothing exceptional in marrying--nothing but what society sanctions,

and considers an occasion for wreaths and bouquets. It had occurred

to him that he must not any longer defer his intention of matrimony,

and he had reflected that in taking a wife, a man of good position

should expect and carefully choose a blooming young lady--the younger

the better, because more educable and submissive--of a rank

equal to his own, of religious principles, virtuous disposition,

and good understanding. On such a young lady he would make handsome

settlements, and he would neglect no arrangement for her happiness:

in return, he should receive family pleasures and leave behind him

that copy of himself which seemed so urgently required of a man--

to the sonneteers of the sixteenth century. Times had altered

since then, and no sonneteer had insisted on Mr. Casaubon's leaving

a copy of himself; moreover, he had not yet succeeded in issuing

copies of his mythological key; but he had always intended to acquit

himself by marriage, and the sense that he was fast leaving the

years behind him, that the world was getting dimmer and that he

felt lonely, was a reason to him for losing no more time in overtaking

domestic delights before they too were left behind by the years.

And when he had seen Dorothea he believed that he had found even

more than he demanded: she might really be such a helpmate to him

as would enable him to dispense with a hired secretary, an aid

which Mr. Casaubon had never yet employed and had a suspicious

dread of. (Mr. Casaubon was nervously conscious that he was

expected to manifest a powerful mind.) Providence, in its kindness,