The History Of The Life Of The Late Mr. Jonathan Wild The Great(Fiscle Part 3), Henry Fielding [most read books in the world of all time .txt] 📗
- Author: Henry Fielding
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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
Book 3 Chapter 2 Pg 90Educating 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.
Book 3 Chapter 3 Pg 91
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."
Book 3 Chapter 3 Pg 92The Young Gentleman, Who Was No Descendant Of Solomon, Or, If He
Was, Did Not, Any More Than Some Other Descendants Of Wise Men,
Inherit The Wisdom Of His Ancestor, Greatly Approved Wild's
Ingenuity, And, Thanking Him For His Information, Declared He
Would Follow His Example When He Returned Into The Country; By
Which Means He Proposed To Save The Premium Commonly Taken For The
Remittance. Wild Had Then No More To Do But To Inform Himself
Rightly Of The Time Of The Gentleman's Journey, Which He Did With
Great Certainty Before They Separated.
At His Arrival In Town He Fixed On Two Whom He Regarded As The
Most Resolute Of His Gang For This Enterprise; And, Accordingly,
Having Summoned The Principal, Or Most Desperate, As He Imagined
Him, Of These Two (For He Never Chose To Communicate In The
Presence Of More Than One), He Proposed To Him The Robbing And
Murdering This Gentleman.
Mr. Marybone (For That Was The Gentleman's Name, To Whom He
Applied) Readily Agreed To The Robbery, But He Hesitated At The
Murder. He Said, As To Robbery, He Had, On Much Weighing And
Considering The Matter, Very Well Reconciled His Conscience To It;
For, Though That Noble Kind Of Robbery Which Was Executed On The
Highway Was, From The Cowardice Of Mankind, Less Frequent, Yet The
Baser And Meaner Species, Sometimes Called Cheating, But More
Commonly Known By The Name Of Robbery Within The Law, Was In A
Manner Universal. He Did Not Therefore Pretend To The Reputation
Of Being So Much Honester Than Other People; But Could By No Means
Satisfy Himself In The Commission Of Murder, Which Was A Sin Of
The Most Heinous Nature, And So Immediately Prosecuted By God's
Judgment That It Never Passed Undiscovered Or Unpunished.
Wild, With The Utmost Disdain In His Countenance, Answered As
Follows: "Art Thou He Whom I Have Selected Out Of My Whole Gang
For This Glorious Undertaking, And Dost Thou Cant Of God's Revenge
Against Murder? You Have, It Seems, Reconciled Your Conscience (A
Pretty Word) To Robbery, From Its Being So Common. Is It Then The
Novelty Of Murder Which Deters You? Do You Imagine That Guns, And
Pistols, And Swords, And Knives, Are The Only Instruments Of
Death? Look Into The World And See The Numbers Whom Broken
Fortunes And Broken Hearts Bring Untimely To The Grave. To Omit
Those Glorious Heroes Who, To Their Immortal Honour, Have
Massacred Nations, What Think You Of Private Persecution,
Treachery, And Slander, By Which The Very Souls Of Men Are In A
Manner Torn From Their Bodies? Is It Not More Generous, Nay, More
Good-Natured, To Send A Man To His Rest, Than, After Having
Plundered Him Of All He Hath, Or From Malice Or Malevolence
Deprived Him Of His Character, To Punish Him With A Languishing
Death, Or, What Is Worse, A Languishing Life? Murder, Therefore,
Is Not So Uncommon As You Weakly Conceive It, Though, As You Said
Of Robbery, That More Noble Kind Which Lies Within The Paw Of The
Law May Be So. But This Is The Most Innocent In Him Who Doth It,
And The Most Eligible To Him Who Is To Suffer It. Believe Me, Lad,
The Tongue Of A Viper Is Less Hurtful Than That Of A Slanderer,
Book 3 Chapter 3 Pg 93And The Gilded Scales Of A Rattle-Snake Less Dreadful Than The
Purse Of The Oppressor. Let Me Therefore Hear No More Of Your
Scruples; But Consent To My Proposal Without Further Hesitation,
Unless, Like A Woman, You Are Afraid Of Blooding Your Cloaths, Or,
Like A Fool, Are Terrified With The Apprehensions Of Being Hanged
In Chains. Take My Word For It, You Had Better Be An Honest Man
Than Half A Rogue. Do Not Think Of Continuing In My Gang Without
Abandoning Yourself Absolutely To My Pleasure; For No Man Shall
Ever Receive A Favour At My Hands Who Sticks At Anything, Or Is
Guided By Any Other Law Than That Of My Will."
Wild Then Ended His Speech, Which Had Not The Desired Effect On
Marybone: He Agreed To The Robbery, But Would Not Undertake The
Murder, As Wild (Who Feared That, By Marybone's Demanding To
Search The Gentleman's Coat, He Might Hazard Suspicion Himself)
Insisted. Marybone Was Immediately Entered By Wild In His Black-
Book, And Was Presently After Impeached And Executed As A Fellow
On Whom His Leader Could Not Place Sufficient Dependance; Thus
Falling, As Many Rogues Do, A Sacrifice, Not To His Roguery, But
To His Conscience.
Book 3 Chapter 3 Pg 94
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