Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
The streets of the city of old were said to be kept cleansed by each citizen scouring the pavement before his own front door . So every one of these virtuous citizens set before himself that a steady application to the achievement of one object , which may be described as the conversion of every threepence three farthings into a groat , was the one great sole , worthy , dignified aim of each individual life . Tom Hood limns the creatures thus , —
" Of the very metal of merit they told , And praised her for being as good as gold , Till she grew , like a peacock , haughty ; Of money they talked the whole day round , And weighed dessert , like grapes , by the pound , Till she thought at last from the very sound That people with naught were naughty !" Enough of the contemplation of this loathsome tribe . Let me dismiss mentor .
my The steady application of his principles enabled him to make a fortune . Persistent adherence to them lost it . But what then ? The calamity . He invested his accumulated capital in an estate , bought for comparatively a song . He snugly chuckled at the idea of evading the conveyancer ' s expenses , of investigating the title , and , behold , a flaw , and ejectment , and lawyers' expenses , a hundredfold the amount originally saved , ancl consequent loss of prestigeandperhapsself-respectbut certainlwhat he regarded as
, , , , y far more important , purchase-money . But again , what then ! The calamity need not necessarily close a career . He was scarcely past middle life . Whatever he had sacrificed , he still retained the habits that had originally achieved for him comparative opulence . At two o ' clock in the afternoon the dismayed aide-de-camp announced to Marmont that the battle was lost . " What matter ? " was the Marshal ' s reply , " before nightfall there is time to win another ! "
oome shrewd observer has pointed out that in whatever locality we find a poison , beneficent Nature has , on the very spot , provided also an easily accessible antidote . About the'time the aforementioned teachings were rife—I had almost . Written popular , but that they never were , the great heart of the nation is too sound for that—certain voices arose , crying aloud in the wilderness , and proclaiming energetically that though the teachers we had of old been accustomed to revere might not have "known
everything down in Judee , " there was nevertheless a " something " in the inculcation of selfabnegation which those simple fishermen and handicraftsmen had propounded . These zealots wholly declined to subscribe , miy , even earnestly denied the article de fidei , that immediate result was the sole measure of value . They even assumed to contemplate the practicability of a kind of sentimental investment , ancl went so far as to assert their belief that it was not wholly impossible that it might—oh supreme test of logical proof in the nineteenth century—pay ! Notwithstanding prevalent faith in the settlement of all things by " the higgling of the market , " they propounded the heresy that , —
" Gentle words and kindly deeds are never thrown away , But bring unlooked for harvest on some cloudy autumn day . " As they say—only it is a myth , more ' s the pity—that the mangoose , when bitten by the viper , resorts to some wholly fabulous plant , and by eating thereof counteracts the inoculated venom , so I found my antidote ready to my hand . Reader , you possess it also . In the pure literature of your country . In the allegorical lore that has produced
a Tom Pinch , a MarkTapley , a Major Dobbin , a Colonel Newcome , you have a standard ever applicable . Not to inculcate folly—not to panegyrize recklessness—not to discourage thrift . Thank God , the days when the Charles Surfaces and Lovelaces of society were its heroes ancl desiderated models , if ever they really were , are gone for ever . We live in an age when prudence and sobriety are no longer regarded as incompatible with philanthropy and conviviality ; we seek to reconcile temperance with mirfchfulness , industry with benevolence . " This should ye do , and not leave the other undone . " Observation of the world , then , a moderately extensive acquaintance with our literature , taught me very early in life ' s career that some creed , some cult , was needed
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
The streets of the city of old were said to be kept cleansed by each citizen scouring the pavement before his own front door . So every one of these virtuous citizens set before himself that a steady application to the achievement of one object , which may be described as the conversion of every threepence three farthings into a groat , was the one great sole , worthy , dignified aim of each individual life . Tom Hood limns the creatures thus , —
" Of the very metal of merit they told , And praised her for being as good as gold , Till she grew , like a peacock , haughty ; Of money they talked the whole day round , And weighed dessert , like grapes , by the pound , Till she thought at last from the very sound That people with naught were naughty !" Enough of the contemplation of this loathsome tribe . Let me dismiss mentor .
my The steady application of his principles enabled him to make a fortune . Persistent adherence to them lost it . But what then ? The calamity . He invested his accumulated capital in an estate , bought for comparatively a song . He snugly chuckled at the idea of evading the conveyancer ' s expenses , of investigating the title , and , behold , a flaw , and ejectment , and lawyers' expenses , a hundredfold the amount originally saved , ancl consequent loss of prestigeandperhapsself-respectbut certainlwhat he regarded as
, , , , y far more important , purchase-money . But again , what then ! The calamity need not necessarily close a career . He was scarcely past middle life . Whatever he had sacrificed , he still retained the habits that had originally achieved for him comparative opulence . At two o ' clock in the afternoon the dismayed aide-de-camp announced to Marmont that the battle was lost . " What matter ? " was the Marshal ' s reply , " before nightfall there is time to win another ! "
oome shrewd observer has pointed out that in whatever locality we find a poison , beneficent Nature has , on the very spot , provided also an easily accessible antidote . About the'time the aforementioned teachings were rife—I had almost . Written popular , but that they never were , the great heart of the nation is too sound for that—certain voices arose , crying aloud in the wilderness , and proclaiming energetically that though the teachers we had of old been accustomed to revere might not have "known
everything down in Judee , " there was nevertheless a " something " in the inculcation of selfabnegation which those simple fishermen and handicraftsmen had propounded . These zealots wholly declined to subscribe , miy , even earnestly denied the article de fidei , that immediate result was the sole measure of value . They even assumed to contemplate the practicability of a kind of sentimental investment , ancl went so far as to assert their belief that it was not wholly impossible that it might—oh supreme test of logical proof in the nineteenth century—pay ! Notwithstanding prevalent faith in the settlement of all things by " the higgling of the market , " they propounded the heresy that , —
" Gentle words and kindly deeds are never thrown away , But bring unlooked for harvest on some cloudy autumn day . " As they say—only it is a myth , more ' s the pity—that the mangoose , when bitten by the viper , resorts to some wholly fabulous plant , and by eating thereof counteracts the inoculated venom , so I found my antidote ready to my hand . Reader , you possess it also . In the pure literature of your country . In the allegorical lore that has produced
a Tom Pinch , a MarkTapley , a Major Dobbin , a Colonel Newcome , you have a standard ever applicable . Not to inculcate folly—not to panegyrize recklessness—not to discourage thrift . Thank God , the days when the Charles Surfaces and Lovelaces of society were its heroes ancl desiderated models , if ever they really were , are gone for ever . We live in an age when prudence and sobriety are no longer regarded as incompatible with philanthropy and conviviality ; we seek to reconcile temperance with mirfchfulness , industry with benevolence . " This should ye do , and not leave the other undone . " Observation of the world , then , a moderately extensive acquaintance with our literature , taught me very early in life ' s career that some creed , some cult , was needed