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at school , are invariably the butts of ridicule to his companions , and his days and minutes would be all misery but for his own self-sustaining kindness ; however , his companions commonly succeed in teaching him a little of their * manliness . ' These things are results of the
system , which , in its profound wisdom , crushes the affections and passions instead of guiding them . Why , I should have become an incarnate fiend by this time if I had not turned myself out of the world , ' or I should have mounted one of the many , the thousands of gibbets it has erected , by way of finger-posts . But ' I carry up and
down a discontented and repining spirit . ' Do I , indeed ! Hark , sir reader ; I have had no dinner to-day , I had none yesterday , I shall fare as sumptuously to-morrow , although I shall walk twenty-two
miles for the poor chance of earning one for the next day , and if the weather of this day continue , a sweltering walk I shall have ; ( this is Tuesday , May 7 , 1833 , and a blazing day it is ;) yet I shall be as cheerful as if I drove to an inn with carriage and four , and landlord , landlady , and a troop of waiters , &c . ran out bobbing and curtsying in their best bibs and tuckers , to show their servility . Against my
dining there is a persuasive argument—I am positively too poor to pay for a dinner ; a good jest this , reader , is it not ? And don ' t you think I am a base and contemptible fellow ? I have no money to pay for a dinner ! Yet I am as contented , and I think much happier , ( as far as that matter affects me , ) as is the owner of the great house and park which I see across the valley from the back parlour window of the Griffin at Danbury , in Essex , at this present writing . I have perilled the charges of a crust of bread and cheese ; my pipe is in my mouth , my pen is in my hand , and I am much more contented than he is , for at this moment he , probably , is perplexed as he endeavours to trim his conscience into the shape that shall fit the 4 ay' or ' * which he has determined to give at the close of this evening ' s battle of the tongues in St . Stephen's chapel . Conscience is as * aisy as an ould glove' to some of the battlers ; it will twist into any shape . It
is the mansion of Sir John Tyrrel which I see yonder ; hithervvards , in the valley , is another hugeous house , the residence or property of one of his kith or kin . Danbury Park lies a point on my larboard bow ; ahead of me , at the extremity of the beautiful vale which is robed in green and silver , and looks love and fertility , distant about four miles , is a town famous for piety , petty sessions , prisons , and paupers . What are they at with the common on my starboard bow ?
I e 3 py symptoms of a , disposition to squeeze it into narrower limits . There is on its upper , northern boundary , a young wood or copse , which looks at it with a greedy eye . Keep off , sir ; no swallowing up ; no demolition of the russet moss , brown heath , and blossomed furze . The blades of grass in the meadow before the window , the daisies and the cowslips , the trunks , branches , and foliage of the
trees , are objects of my affection . The chirrupings of the birds which dance on my tympanum , are voices that sympathize with and reciprocate my lore of creation . There is no humbug in them , and I need not falsify my feelings ; my tongue is not twisted into the necessity of belying my thoughts , when I say I love them all , and they delight me . We do not pause on ceremonial forms , nor exchange hollow compliments from the vocabulary of politeness . I can gaze on them in
Untitled Article
994 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 394, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/34/
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