Specimen
A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was heavy, thick, warm, sluggish. On silvery sandbanks, hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daught
The Time Traveller began his story with a sudden energy. You must follow me carefully. I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted. The geometry, for instance, that they taught you at school is founded on a misconception. It is not the real geometry. You know, of course, that a mathematical line, a line of thickness nil, has no real existence. They taught you that. Neither has a mathematical plane. These things are mere abstractions.
The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the center of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance. The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age and who for many years of his life had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration in his home. For to supply her loss, he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the Norland estate and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it. In the society of his nephew and niece and their children, the old gentleman's days were comfortably spent. His attachment to them all increased. The constant attention of Mr. and Mrs. Dashwood to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from interest but from goodness of heart, gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive. The cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence. By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son; by his present lady, three daughters.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of one of their daughters. My dear Mr. Bennet, said his lady one day, have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last. Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. But it is, returned she, for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it. Mr. Bennet made no answer. Do not you want to know who has taken it, cried his wife impatiently. You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it, said he with a calm expression. This was invitation enough. Why, my dear, you must know Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England. He came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately. He is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week. What is his name. Bingley. Is he married or single. Oh, single, my dear, to be sure. A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls. How so. How can it affect them. My dear Mr. Bennet, how can you be so tiresome. You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of reprobating pleasure and extolling pain arose. To do so, I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted.
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of reprobating pleasure and extolling pain arose. To do so, I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
Echo
Great
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Radiant
Sunshine
Adventure
Workspaces
Breakthrough
Trustworthiness
Oversimplifications
Luminous Reflections
Revolutionary Imagination
Shimmering glass reflections
Jubilant echoes across canyons
Autumn leaves drifting on quiet waters
Ethereal melodies floating through canyons
Whispering breezes weaving through narrow streets
Boundless oceans stretching endlessly toward the horizon
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