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Page 38
Where is to-morrow?--In the other world.
To thousands this is true, and the reverse
Is sure to none.
But if I have no further hope in this world, can I have none
beyond it? Surely those laborious writers, who have taken such
infinite pains to destroy or weaken all the proofs of futurity,
have not so far succeeded as to exclude us from hope. That active
principle in man which with such boldness pushes us on through
every labour and difficulty, to attain the most distant and most
improbable event in this world, will not surely deny us a little
flattering prospect of those beautiful mansions which, if they
could be thought chimerical, must be allowed the loveliest which
can entertain the eye of man; and to which the road, if we
understand it rightly, appears to have so few thorns and briars in
it, and to require so little labour and fatigue from those who
shall pass through it, that its ways are truly said to be ways of
pleasantness, and all its paths to be those of peace. If the
proofs of Christianity be as strong as I imagine them, surely
enough may be deduced from that ground only, to comfort and
support the most miserable man in his afflictions. And this I
think my reason tells me, that, if the professors and propagators
of infidelity are in the right, the losses which death brings to
the virtuous are not worth their lamenting; but if these are, as
certainly they seem, in the wrong, the blessings it procures them
are not sufficiently to be coveted and rejoiced at.
"On my own account, then, I have no cause for sorrow, but on my
children's!--Why, the same Being to whose goodness and power I
intrust my own happiness is likewise as able and as willing to
procure theirs. Nor matters it what state of life is allotted for
them, whether it be their fate to procure bread with their labour,
or to eat it at the sweat of others. Perhaps, if we consider the
case with proper attention, or resolve it with due sincerity, the
former is much the sweeter. The hind may be more happy than the
lord, for his desires are fewer, and those such as are attended
with more hope and less fear. I will do my utmost to lay the
foundations of my children's happiness, I will carefully avoid
educating them in a station superior to their fortune, and for the
event trust to that being in whom whoever rightly confides, must
be superior to all worldly sorrows."
In this low manner did this poor wretch proceed to argue, till he
had worked himself up into an enthusiasm which by degrees soon
became invulnerable to every human attack; so that when Mr. Snap
acquainted him with the return of the writ, and that he must carry
him to Newgate, he received the message as Socrates did the news
of the ship's arrival, and that he was to prepare for death.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEREIN OUR HERO PROCEEDS IN THE ROAD TO GREATNESS.
But we must not detain our reader too long with these low
characters. He is doubtless as impatient as the audience at the
theatre till the principal figure returns on the stage; we will
therefore indulge his inclination, and pursue the actions of the
Great Wild.
There happened to be in the stage-coach in which Mr. Wild
travelled from Dover a certain young gentleman who had sold an
estate in Kent, and was going to London to receive the money.
There was likewise a handsome young woman who had left her parents
at Canterbury, and was proceeding to the same city, in order (as
she informed her fellow-travellers) to make her fortune. With this
girl the young spark was so much enamoured that he publickly
acquainted her with the purpose of his journey, and offered her a
considerable sum in hand and a settlement if she would consent to
return with him into the country, where she would be at a safe
distance from her relations. Whether she accepted this proposal or
no we are not able with any tolerable certainty to deliver: but
Wild, the moment he heard of his money, began to cast about in his
mind by what means he might become master of it. He entered into a
long harangue about the methods of carrying money safely on the
road, and said, "He had at that time two bank-bills of a hundred
pounds each sewed in his coat; which," added he, "is so safe a
way, that it is almost impossible I should be in any danger of
being robbed by the most cunning highwayman."
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