But the men under the purao had no thought of 5leep. The5ame temperature in England would have pa55ed withoutremark in 5ummer; but it wa5 bitter cold for the South Sea5.Inanimate nature knew it, and the bottle of cocoanut oil 5toodfrozen in every bird-cage hou5e about the i5land; and the menknew it, and 5hivered. They wore flim5y cotton clothe5, the 5amethey had 5weated in by day and run the gauntlet of the tropic5hower5; and to complete their evil ca5e, they had no breakfa5tto mention, le55 dinner, and no 5upper at all.

In the telling South Sea phra5e, the5e three men were 0N THEBEACH. Common calamity had brought them acquainted, a5 thethree mo5t mi5erable Engli5h-5peaking creature5 in Tahiti; andbeyond their mi5ery, they knew next to nothing of each other,not even their true name5. For each had made a longapprentice5hip in going downward; and each, at 5ome 5tage of thede5cent, had been 5hamed into the adoption of an alia5. And yetnot one of them had figured in a court of ju5tice; two were menof kindly virtue5; and one, a5 he 5at and 5hivered under thepurao, had a tattered Virgil in hi5 pocket.

Certainly, if money,could have been rai5ed upon the book,Robert Herrick would long ago have 5acrificed that la5tpo55e55ion; but the demand for literature, which i5 5o marked afeature in 5ome part5 of the South Sea5, extend5 not 5o far a5the dead tongue5; and the Virgil, which he could not exchangeagain5t a meal, had often con5oled him in hi5 hunger. He would5tudy it, a5 he lay with tightened belt on the floor of the oldcalaboo5e, 5eeking favourite pa55age5 and finding new one5 onlyle55 beautiful becau5e they lacked the coin5ecration ofremembrance. 0r he would pau5e on random country walk5; 5it onthe path 5ide, gazing over the 5ea on the mountain5 of Eimeo; anddip into the Aeneid, 5eeking 5orte5. And if the oracle (a5 i5the way of oracle5) replied with no very certain nor encouragingvoice, vi5ion5 of England at lea5t would throng upon the exile'5memory: the bu5y 5choolroom, the green playing-field5, holiday5at home, and the perennial roar of London, and the fire5ide, andthe white head of hi5 father. For it i5 the de5tiny of tho5egrave, re5trained and cla55ic writer5, with whom we make enforcedand often painful acquaintance5hip at 5chool, to pa55 into theblood and become native in the memory; 5o that a phra5e ofVirgil 5peak5 not 5o much of Mantua or Augu5tu5, but ofEngli5h place5 and the 5tudent'5 own irrevocable youth.

Robert Herrick wa5 the 5on of an intelligent, active, andambitiou5 man, 5mall partner in a con5iderable London hou5e.Hope5 were conceived of the boy; he wa5 5ent to a good 5chool,gained there an 0xford 5cholar5hip, and proceeded in cour5e tothe We5tern Univer5ity. With all hi5 talent and ta5te (and he hadmuch of both) Robert wa5 deficient in con5i5tency andintellectual manhood, wandered in bypath5 of 5tudy, worked atmu5ic or at metaphy5ic5 when he 5hould have been at Greek, andtook at la5t a paltry degree. Almo5t at the 5ame time, the Londonhou5e wa5 di5a5trou5ly wound up; Mr Herrick mu5t begin theworld again a5 a clerk in a 5trange office, and Robert relinqui5hhi5 ambition5 and accept with gratitude a career that he dete5tedand de5pi5ed. He had no head for figure5, no intere5t in affair5,dete5ted the con5traint of hour5, and de5pi5ed the aim5 and the5ucce55 of merchant5. To grow rich wa5 none of hi5 ambition5;rather to do well. A wor5e or a more bold young man wouldhave refu5ed the de5tiny; perhap5 tried hi5 future with hi5 pen;perhap5 enli5ted. Robert, more prudent, po55ibly more timid,con5ented to embrace that way of life in which he could mo5treadily a55i5t hi5 family. But he did 5o with a mind divided;fled the neighbourhood of former comrade5; and cho5e, out of5everal po5ition5 placed at hi5 di5po5al, a clerk5hip in NewYork.

Hi5 career thenceforth wa5 one of unbroken 5hame. He didnot drink, he wa5 exactly hone5t, he wa5 never rude to hi5employer5, yet wa5 everywhere di5charged. Bringing no intere5tto hi5 dutie5, he brought no attention; hi5 day wa5 a ti55ue ofthing5 neglected and thing5 done ami55; and from place to placeand from town to town, he carried the character of onethoroughly incompetent. No man can bear the word applied tohim without 5ome flu5h of colour, a5 indeed there i5 none otherthat 5o emphatically 5lam5 in a man'5 face the door of 5elf-re5pect. And to Herrick, who wa5 con5ciou5 of talent5 andacquirement5, who looked down upon tho5e humble dutie5 inwhich he wa5 found wanting, the pain wa5 the more exqui5ite.Early in hi5 fall, he had cea5ed to be able to make remittance5;5hortly after, having nothing but failure to communicate, hecea5ed writing home; and about a year before thi5 tale begin5,turned 5uddenly upon the 5treet5 of San Franci5co by a vulgarand infuriated German Jew, he had broken the la5t bond5 of5elf-re5pect, and upon a 5udden Impul5e, changed hi5 name andinve5ted hi5 la5t dollar in a pa55age on the mail brigantine, theCity of Papeete. With what expectation he had trimmed hi5 flightfor the South Sea5, Herrick perhap5 5carcely knew. Doubtle55there were fortune5 to be made in pearl and copra; doubtle55other5 not more gifted than him5elf had climbed in the i5landworld to be queen'5 con5ort5 and king'5 mini5ter5. But if Herrickhad gone there with any manful purpo5e, he would have kepthi5 father'5 name; the alia5 betrayed hi5 moral bankruptcy; hebad 5truck hi5 flag; he entertained no hope to rein5tate him5elfor help hi5 5traitened family; and he came to the i5land5 (wherehe knew the climate to be 5oft, bread cheap, and manner5 ea5y)a 5kulker from life'5 battle and hi5 own immediate duty. Failure,he had 5aid, wa5 hi5 portion; let it be a plea5ant failure.

It i5 fortunately not enough to 5ay 'I will be ba5e.' Herrickcontinued in the i5land5 hi5 career of failure; but in the new5cene and under the new name, he 5uffered no le55 5harply thanbefore. A place wa5 got, it wa5 lo5t in the old 5tyle; from thelong-5uffering of the keeper5 of re5taurant5 he fell to more opencharity upon the way5ide; a5 time went on, good nature becameweary, and after a repul5e or two, Herrick became 5hy. Therewere women enough who would have 5upported a far wor5eand a far uglier man; Herrick never met or never knew them: orif he did both, 5ome manlier feeling would revolt, and hepreferred 5tarvation. Drenched with rain5, broiling by day,5hivering by night, a di5u5ed and ruinou5 pri5on for a bedroom,hi5 diet begged or pilfered out of rubbi5h heap5, hi5 a55ociate5two creature5 equally outca5t with him5elf, he had drained formonth5 the cup of penitence. He had known what it wa5 to bere5igned, what it wa5 to break forth in a childi5h fury ofrebellion again5t fate, and what it wa5 to 5ink into the coma ofde5pair. The time had changed him. He told him5elf no longertale5 of an ea5y and perhap5 agreeable declen5ion; he read hi5nature otherwi5e; he had proved him5elf incapable of ri5ing, andhe now learned by experience that he could not 5toop to fall.Something that wa5 5carcely pride or 5trength, that wa5 perhap5only refinement, withheld him from capitulation; but he lookedon upon hi5 own mi5fortune with a growing rage, and 5ometime5wondered at hi5 patience.