Meanwhile, this
man, in his short evening snatches at his fireside, saw the demon
Ignorance arise there, and take his children to itself. He saw his
daughter perverted into a heavy, slatternly drudge; he saw his son
go moping down the ways of low sensuality, to brutality and crime;
he saw the dawning light of intelligence in the eyes of his babies
so changing into cunning and suspicion, that he could have rather
wished them idiots.
"I don't understand this any the better," said he; "but I think it
cannot be right. Nay, by the clouded Heaven above me, I protest
against this as my wrong!"
Becoming peaceable again (for his passion was usually short-lived,
and his nature kind), he looked about him on his Sundays and
holidays, and he saw how much monotony and weariness there was, and
thence how drunkenness arose with all its train of ruin. Then he
appealed to the Bigwig family, and said, "We are a labouring people,
and I have a glimmering suspicion in me that labouring people of
whatever condition were made--by a higher intelligence than yours,
as I poorly understand it--to be in need of mental refreshment and
recreation. See what we fall into, when we rest without it. Come!
Amuse me harmlessly, show me something, give me an escape!"
But, here the Bigwig family fell into a state of uproar absolutely
deafening.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86