incurring debt. He generally thought twice before he risked owing even
the most trifling bill; and when the bill came in, if it left him
penniless, it was paid. And, now, what reckless extravagance! The best
apartments! dinner, tea, in the first hotel of the town! half-a-crown to
a porter! That lavish mode of life renewed with the dawning sun! not a
care for the morrow; and I dare not conjecture how few the shillings in
that purse. What aggravation, too, of guilt! Bills incurred without
means under a borrowed name! I don't pretend to be a lawyer; but it
looks to me very much like swindling. Yet the wretch sleeps. But are we
sure that we are not shallow moralists? Do we carry into account the
right of genius to draw bills upon the Future? Does not the most prudent
general sometimes burn his ships? Does not the most upright merchant
sometimes take credit on the chance of his ventures? May not that
peaceful slumberer be morally sure that he has that argosy afloat in his
own head, which amply justifies his use of the "Saracen's"? If his plan
should fail? He will tell you that is impossible! But if it should
fail, you say. Listen; there runs a story-I don't vouch for its truth:
I tell it as it was told to me--there runs a storv that in the late
Russian war a certain naval veteran, renowned for professional daring and
scientific invention, was examined before some great officials as to the
chances of taking Cronstadt. "If you send me," said the admiral, "with
so many ships of the line, and so many gunboats, Cronstadt of course will
be taken." "But," said a prudent lord, "suppose it should not be taken?"
"That is impossible: it must be taken!" "Yes," persisted my lord, "you
think so, no doubt; but still, if it should not be taken,--what then?"
"What then?--why, there's an end of the British fleet!" The great men
took alarm, and that admiral was not sent. But they misconstrued the
meaning of his answer. He meant not to imply any considerable danger to
the British fleet. He meant to prove that one hypothesis was impossible
by the suggestion of a counter-impossibility more self-evident. "It is