Just then his eye fell upon the two enormous buildings, our national theatres.
"Look at those vast edifices, so vast where space is such an object! There, while weeping for sorrows which are not, laughing at the light jest or the ludicrous misadventure, how little is remembered of the want which makes fear the only bond that binds the living to life!"
This current of reproach was, however, interrupted by the recollection, that, after all, this very relaxation gave support to many; and that, in the case of the majority who enjoyed it, it had been fairly earned by toil, which, like the bow, needed to be unbent. His imagination, too, warmed with the thought of what glorious triumphs those roofs had witnessed—the passionate creation of the poet, the living personification of the actor: he remembered the eloquent words that stir the noblest fountains of our being, and decided on the general right to enjoy such generous pleasure.
"Good and evil! good and evil!" thought he; "ye are mingled inextricably in the web of our being; and who may unthread the darker yarn?"
He was here jostled at once from his reverie and his side of the pavement. He had wandered through many streets, and now found himself under one of the piazzas of Covent Garden: it was no place for an idle person; all were hurrying to and fro; all was employment and business. On he went into the market. How fresh, how sweet every thing, and
