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Untitled Article
little to boast of beyond an empty name . Some " They-say would announce that such or such a man was surrounded b y ruined creditors , deserted wives , and abandoned children ; his name was accordingl y entered upon the black book of the eabal , amid the seraphic expression of upraised eyes , and the
oscillation of amazed heads ; for much as they continually discovered of human turpitude , their own innocent hearts could not cease to wonder and to wail over every new instance In any other court of inquiry save this , against such dark assertions would have been weighed the singularity of the circumstances thai sucli a man should neither be declared a
bankrupt , nor transported for bigamy : — as for the alleged unfortunate children , nothing need be thought of their overlooking them—the new Poor Law Act is the libertine ' s charter , and in this instance , as in many others , law has only Brennuslike , cast its sword into that scale which was alread y overweighed .
Dean Swift says that a critic over a book is like a dog at a feast—he snarls most when there are fewest bones . This is precisely the principle upon which a gossip gnaws a character . Faults , faults , faults ( no matter how suppositious , for he has a
boundless imagination for the base ) , faults , they form the food for his hideous appetite—he is the crow of mankind , feeding upon the carrion that the purer and the prouder bird loathes and avoids : —he is the scavenger of society , raking together nothing but dirt .
Mr . Clackman was sitting one morning at breakfast , when a letter was put into his hand . Tis a wonder that , like David ' s " cut-and-thrust pistols ; " it did not go off—Mr . Clackman very nearly did the moment that he discovered the nature of its contents , for the letter was nothing less than a challenge .
Now though Mr . Clackman exulted in the name of Bob , it was not "fighting Bob . " His valour , like that of Acres , did not " ooze out at his toes , " for not an iota , moral or p hysical , had ever entered into the compounds of his soul or body , and it may be perceived that those who are the most capable of stabbing another in the back , are ever the least able to even look another
in the face . Mr . Clackman , scarcely able to draw his breath , handed the terrific scrawl to his wife , who , though surprised , was infinitely less moved than himself—it is to be recollected that she was
not called on to stand an enemy ' s fire , and a satirist has said , u I never knew anyone in my life but could bear another ' s misfortunes perfectly like a Christian " Mrs . Clackman read the letter with a sort of mumble ; but the words satisfaction for the manner in which you have *? Comedy of " TH * RiraW
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17 & Sketches < f Domestic life .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 176, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/48/
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