"MacDONALD, George - The Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacDonald George)

Now in this castle there dwelt a large family of brothers and sisters. They had
never seen their father or mother. The younger had been educated by the elder,
and these by an unseen care and ministration, about the sources of which they
had, somehow or other, troubled themselves very little-for what people are
accustomed to, they regard as coming from nobody; as if help and progress and
joy and love were the natural crops of Chaos or old Night. But Tradition said
that one day-it was utterly uncertain when-their father would come, and leave
them no more; for he was still alive, though where he lived nobody knew. In the
meantime all the rest had to obey their eldest brother, and listen to his
counsels.
But almost all the family was very fond of liberty, as they called it; and liked
to run up and down, hither and thither, roving about, with neither law nor
order, just as they pleased. So they could not endure their brother's tyranny,
as they called it. At one time they said that he was only one of themselves, and
therefore they would not obey him; at another, that he was not like them, and
could not understand them, and therefore they would not obey him. Yet,
sometimes, when he came and looked them full in the face, they were terrified,
and dared not disobey, for he was stately and stern and strong. Not one of them
loved him heartily, except the eldest sister, who was very beautiful and silent,
and whose eyes shone as if light lay somewhere deep behind them. Even she,
although she loved him, thought him very hard sometimes; for when he had once
said a thing plainly, he could not be persuaded to think it over again. So even
she forgot him sometimes, and went her own ways, and enjoyed herself without
him. Most of them regarded him as a sort of watchman, whose business it was to
keep them in order; and so they were indignant and disliked him. Yet they all
had a secret feeling that they ought to be subject to him; and after any
particular act of disregard, none of them could think, with any peace, of the
old story about the return of their father to his house. But indeed they never
thought much about it, or about their father at all; for how could those who
cared so little for their brother, whom they saw every day, care for their
father whom they had never seen?-One chief cause of complaint against him was
that he interfered with their favourite studies and pursuits; whereas he only
sought to make them give up trifling with earnest things, and seek for truth,
and not for amusement, from the many wonders around them. He did not want them
to turn to other studies, or to eschew pleasures; but, in those studies, to seek
the highest things most, and other things in proportion to their true worth and
nobleness. This could not fail to be distasteful to those who did not care for
what was higher than they. And so matters went on for a time. They thought they
could do better without their brother; and their brother knew they could not do
at all without him, and tried to fulfil the charge committed into his hands.
At length, one day, for the thought seemed to strike them simultaneously, they
conferred together about giving a great entertainment in their grandest rooms to
any of their neighbours who chose to come, or indeed to any inhabitants of the
earth or air who would visit them. They were too proud to reflect that some
company might defile even the dwellers in what was undoubtedly the finest palace
on the face of the earth. But what made the thing worse, was, that the old
tradition said that these rooms were to be kept entirely for the use of the
owner of the castle. And, indeed, whenever they entered them, such was the
effect of their loftiness and grandeur upon their minds, that they always
thought of the old story, and could not help believing it. Nor would the brother