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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
tbpusaju } leagues in foreign lands , and over distant seas ; I b * d medir t&ted in wildernesses of myrtle ; I had walked in regions of the vine , and groves of orange * and woods of olives ; I bad been alone in thm jungles of Asia ; the solitude of the entangled mazes pf Guiana , I had enjoyed without a disturbing companion ; and I bad though ; myself put of misery into happiness , as I stepped through sun-j in pervious
forests in the valley of Mississipi . J had gazed on nature ia h * r terrific grandeur , and in her richest beauty , and they all taught me to look bacfc with deeper affection on that spot , In the danger of battles , storm ., and shipwreck , I had participated ; death had waylaid me , and I had evaded him . He had placed himself in a hundred attitudes to strike jne , and I was drawn aside from the falling blow , He bad
repeatedly invited me to his embrace , and alluring was the invitation , but I wag enabled tp resist . A motive for resistance flashed across me , and I was strong again . What was that motive ? Turn over every human cause for human action which you can find in the roetaphysi * cian ' s catalogue , and guess beyond it : you are still at a Ipss . I shall not in direct words inform you what has been , and is the motive ; this
binding to resolute endurance : read—watch , and you may trace it in the meandering ** of my story . I ^ et rue go on , hear more ; I had been borne alpng on a torrent of prosperity , and suddenly dashed back upon utter worldly ruin . I had been astonished at my own success , where efforts seemed to many powerlegft , and the bare entertainment of the design was ridiculed by others as insanity . This is rigid truth * While lifting my foot to take the loftiest point of earthly bliss , I have
been hurled down to a gulf of misery ; I had fled on hope ' s wings to within a hair ' s t >* eadfb pf my goal , triumph—to be blown away into distance , doubled by failure ; it was not strength that I lacked , there was mancsuvnpg necessary in laying hold , and I would not take a circuit . Without 3 friend to recommend , or patronage to encourage him , a poor boy , with no more than a pauper ' s education , has been the acquaintance , sometimes the companion , perhaps not the despised
one—true , they did not know his origin—of intelligence , wealth , and station , how superior to his I But through all , he never ceased togroaa in secret , at his beggarly origin , the stings which poverty thrust into his heart . He was stabbed hourly , without the stabbers dreaming that he was their victim , fie saw , he felt , he knew he should be despised , scorned ; soothed with words , but sneered and scoffed at in practice . Gay equipages have drawn up in the streets , and sparkling eyes ,
smiling lips , and music voices have echoed and reflected the delicate touch of the hand , which was held out in congratulation of my success . Success I was sure it wa » not , but never so spoke . I have stood trembling with weakness from hunger as I heard this , and bowed accept * auce as those voices have given me invitation to dinner . Frequently thq only food I had tasted for the day has been crude peas , gathered by m *
in the fields , while during that day twenty tongues have drummed into my ears eulogies on my * talents . ' And I wr at that time hoardipg shillings by literally starving myself to pay debts which I had incurred , not in supporting existence , hut in labours by which only I could hope ta obtain bread ; and this too was accompanied by the blissful conviction , that I was all the while considered by my creditor , and not him only , as an unprincipled' individual / for not paying my debts honour-
Untitled Article
Autobiography of Pd . Verjuice . Ml
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/43/
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