Till thou comest all is dark and dreary; but at thy advent the
noontide sun shines out, the earth gives forth her increase; the deep
bowels of the rocks render up their tribute. Forms which were dull
and hideous become endowed with grace and beauty, and vegetable
existence rises to the scale of celestial life. Then, too, Genius
appears clad in a panoply of translucent armour, grasping in his
hand the whole terrestrial surface, and making every rood of earth
subservient to his purposes;--Genius, the child of Civilization, the
mother of the Arts!" The last little bit, taken from the "Pedigree
of Progress," had a great success, and all Barchester went to work
with its hands and feet;--all Barchester, except that ill-natured
aristocratic front-row together with the three arm-chairs at the
corner of it. The aristocratic front row felt itself to be too
intimate with civilization to care much about it; and the three
arm-chairs, or rather that special one which contained Mrs.
Proudie, considered that there was a certain heathenness, a pagan
sentimentality almost amounting to infidelity, contained in the
lecturer's remarks, with which she, a pillar of the Church, could not
put up, seated as she was now in public conclave.
"It is to civilization that we must look," continued Mr.
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