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Untitled Article
tion in my memory , as something which would tell well in a book . I sought them not—I was thrown into them . Certainly I should never have thought of them as ' ink and paper * matter , if I had not been so repeatedly told they were 4 passing strange . ' Strange or not , they are true . And though * I have promised a few kind friends , ' and threatened ink and paper . for years , I could not * screw my courage to that sticking place , ' the first sentence of my eventful history .
I now sit down to write , resolutely—as I glance through the retrospect . My feelings , I expect , will be kindled as the facts are revivified , and by the ideal creation of persons and scenes . And from these feelings my language will , consequently , take its tone . Excursive and discursive I know I shall be ; for echoes , contrasts , and reflections , in my early pages , will force themselves upon my attention—and I may
be gentle , mirthful , perhaps splenetic , perhaps sarcastic and bitter , denunciative—perhaps I may seem venomous , while I am really innocuous . Sometimes I shall belie my name , and at others give proof that no other could fit me so exactly . Yet I will not exaggerate facts ; I shall * nothing extenuate * of that which I relate of myself . I may "be a little merciful to others . Memory will be my guide—I can rely on its direction- ^ - ! need no tables of reference—I have wandered
through twenty-two years in various parts of the globe—in Europe , Asia , Africa , andiAmerica—and , by a concatenation of circumstances , I can in a few moments say where I was , almost to a day , certainly never with the error of one weuek , any time during that twenty-two years . A journal I never had method nor perseverance to keep ; ail
my attempts at such regularity have but led me into confusion . I have brooded and meditated over my past life in many an hour , week , and month of solitude . I had an eager desire to be a skilful moral anatomist ; I have applied my scalpel and probe to many subjects . Myself I have dissected a thousand times . No , no , I shall not be at a loss because my data are not written on paper .
I have acquaintances in either c half of the world / From Australia to Hudson ' s Bay , from Ceylon to the Carribee Islands are scattered those who think they know me . If they read these memoirs they will be astonished at their error . I have deceived them by concealing from them those truths which I am now about to avow to the world—I did not by falsehoods or insinuations attempt to mislead them—I was silent .
Autobiography will be imperfect if birth and parentage be not set forth . My parents were of the humblest class—the poorest of the poor : my father ' s weekly earnings being all he ever possessed , with them he struggled to provide sustenance for himself and his family . Here is a stigma , a foul stain to adhere to me through life , and to posterity ; should ever fame throw a brilliance round my head , living
or in death , the light will serve to exhibit the stain . Should fortune enable me to descend from my garret to a first-floor lodging , this blot upon my reputation will remain : this brand of the worst of criminalities will grin on my front—deep , ineradicable , and everlasting . A mountain split in two by an earthquake shall have its sides drawn together b y a diachylon plaster as easily as this brand shall be effaced . I did not choose my parents : but will ask , what has exalted
Untitled Article
324 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/36/
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