And thus her spirits, and her thankfulness, and her hopes, rose

higher and higher. She tried several ballads, but found them

inadequate; till, recollecting the psalter that her eyes had so often

wandered over of a Sunday morning before she had eaten of the tree

of knowledge, she chanted: "O ye Sun and Moon ... O ye Stars ... ye

Green Things upon the Earth ... ye Fowls of the Air ... Beasts and

Cattle ... Children of Men ... bless ye the Lord, praise Him and

magnify Him for ever!"

She suddenly stopped and murmured: "But perhaps I don't quite know

the Lord as yet." And probably the half-unconscious rhapsody was a Fetishistic

Advertisement..

utterance in a Monotheistic setting; women whose chief companions

are the forms and forces of outdoor Nature retain in their souls far

more of the Pagan fantasy of their remote forefathers than of the

systematized religion taught their race at later date. However, Tess

found at least approximate expression for her feelings in the old

Benedicite that she had lisped from infancy; and it was enough.

Such high contentment with such a slight initial performance as that

of having started towards a means of independent living was a part of

the Durbeyfield temperament. Tess really wished to walk uprightly,

while her father did nothing of the kind; but she resembled him in

being content with immediate and small achievements, and in having no

mind for laborious effort towards such petty social advancement as

could alone be effected by a family so heavily handicapped as the

once powerful d'Urbervilles were now.

There was, it might be said, the energy of her mother's unexpended

family, as well as the natural energy of Tess's years, rekindled

after the experience which had so overwhelmed her for the time. Let

the truth be told--women do as a rule live through such humiliations,

and regain their spirits, and again look about them with an

interested eye. While there's life there's hope is a conviction not

so entirely unknown to the "betrayed" as some amiable theorists would

have us believe. Tess Durbeyfield, then, in good heart, and full of zest for life,

descended the Egdon slopes lower and lower towards the dairy of her

pilgrimage. The marked difference, in the final particular, between the rival

vales now showed itself. The secret of Blackmoor was best discovered

from the heights around; to read aright the valley before her it was

necessary to descend into its midst. When Tess had accomplished this

feat she found herself to be standing on a carpeted level, which

stretched to the east and west as far as the eye could reach.




Most Popular