My gentlest words serve only to carry
him toward the contrary quarter, as the south wind bloweth a ship
northward."
"Youth," said Sir Thomas, smiling most benignly, "I find, and well
indeed might I have surmised, thy utter ignorance of winds,
equinoxes, and tides. Consider now a little! With what propriety
can a wind be called a south wind if it bloweth a vessel to the
north? Would it be a south wind that blew it from this hall into
Warwick market-place?"
"It would be a strong one," said Master Silas unto me, pointing his
remark, as witty men are wont, with the elbow-pan.
But Sir Thomas, who waited for an answer, and received none,
continued, -
"Would a man be called a good man who tended and pushed on toward
evil?"
WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.
"I stand corrected. I could sail to Cathay or Tartary {46a} with
half the nautical knowledge I have acquired in this glorious hall.
"The devil impelling a mortal to wrong courses, is thereby known to
be the devil. He, on the contrary, who exciteth to good is no
devil, but an angel of light, or under the guidance of one. The
devil driveth unto his own home; so doth the south wind, so doth the
north wind.
"Alas! alas! we possess not the mastery over our own weak minds when
a higher spirit standeth nigh and draweth us within his influence.
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