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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In Which A Young Hero, Of Wonderful Good Promise, Makes His First
Appearance, With Many Other Great Matters.
Our Hero Next Applied Himself To Another Of His Gang, Who
Instantly Received His Orders, And, Instead Of Hesitating At A
Single Murder, Asked If He Should Blow Out The Brains Of All The
Passengers, Coachman And All. But Wild, Whose Moderation We Have
Before Noted, Would Not Permit Him; And Therefore, Having Given
Him An Exact Description Of The Devoted Person, With His Other
Necessary Instructions, He Dismissed Him, With The Strictest
Orders To Avoid, If Possible, Doing Hurt To Any Other Person.
The Name Of This Youth, Who Will Hereafter Make Some Figure In
This History, Being The Achates Of Our Aeneas, Or Rather The
Hephaestion Of Our Alexander, Was Fireblood. He Had Every
Qualification To Make Second-Rate Great Man; Or, In Other Words,
He Was Completely Equipped For The Tool Of A Real Or First-Rate
Book 3 Chapter 3 Pg 95Great Man. We Shall Therefore (Which Is The Properest Way Of
Dealing With This Kind Of Greatness) Describe Him Negatively, And
Content Ourselves With Telling Our Reader What Qualities He Had
Not; In Which Number Were Humanity, Modesty, And Fear, Not One
Grain Of Any Of Which Was Mingled In His Whole Composition.
We Will Now Leave This Youth, Who Was Esteemed The Most Promising
Of The Whole Gang, And Whom Wild Often Declared To Be One Of The
Prettiest Lads He Had Ever Seen, Of Which Opinion, Indeed, Were
Most Other People Of His Acquaintance; We Will However Leave Him
At His Entrance On This Enterprize, And Keep Our Attention Fixed
On Our Hero, Whom We Shall Observe Taking Large Strides Towards
The Summit Of Human Glory.
Wild, Immediately At His Return To Town, Went To Pay A Visit To
Miss Laetitia Snap; For He Had That Weakness Of Suffering Himself
To Be Enslaved By Women, So Naturally Incident To Men Of Heroic
Disposition; To Say The Truth, It Might More Properly Be Called A
Slavery To His Own Appetite; For, Could He Have Satisfied That, He
Had Not Cared Three Farthings What Had Become Of The Little Tyrant
For Whom He Professed So Violent A Regard. Here He Was Informed
That Mr. Heartfree Had Been Conveyed To Newgate The Day Before,
The Writ Being Then Returnable. He Was Somewhat Concerned At This
News; Not From Any Compassion For The Misfortunes Of Heartfree,
Whom He Hated With Such Inveteracy That One Would Have Imagined He
Had Suffered The Same Injuries From Him Which He Had Done Towards
Him. His Concern Therefore Had Another Motive; In Fact, He Was
Uneasy At The Place Of Mr. Heartfree's Confinement, As It Was To
Be The Scene Of His Future Glory, And Where Consequently He Should
Be Frequently Obliged To See A Face Which Hatred, And Not Shame,
Made Him Detest The Sight Of.
To Prevent This, Therefore, Several Methods Suggested Themselves
To Him. At First He Thought Of Removing Him Out Of The Way By The
Ordinary Method Of Murder, Which He Doubted Not But Fireblood
Would Be Very Ready To Execute; For That Youth Had, At Their Last
Interview, Sworn, D--N His Eyes, He Thought There Was No Better
Pastime Than Blowing A Man's Brains Out. But, Besides The Danger
Of This Method, It Did Not Look Horrible Nor Barbarous Enough For
The Last Mischief Which He Should Do To Heartfree. Considering,
Therefore, A Little Farther With Himself, He At Length Came To A
Resolution To Hang Him, If Possible, The Very Next Session.
Now, Though The Observation--How Apt Men Are To Hate Those They
Injure, Or How Unforgiving They Are Of The Injuries They Do
Themselves, Be Common Enough, Yet I Do Not Remember To Have Ever
Seen The Reason Of This Strange Phaenomenon As At First It
Appears. Know Therefore, Reader, That With Much And Severe
Scrutiny We Have Discovered This Hatred To Be Founded On The
Passion Of Fear, And To Arise From An Apprehension That The Person
Whom We Have Ourselves Greatly Injured Will Use All Possible
Endeavours To Revenge And Retaliate The Injuries We Have Done Him.
An Opinion So Firmly Established In Bad And Great Minds (And Those
Who Confer Injuries On Others Have Seldom Very Good Or Mean Ones)
Book 3 Chapter 3 Pg 96That No Benevolence, Nor Even Beneficence, On The Injured Side,
Can Eradicate It. On The Contrary, They Refer All These Acts Of
Kindness To Imposture And Design Of Lulling Their Suspicion, Till
An Opportunity Offers Of Striking A Surer And Severer Blow; And
Thus, While The Good Man Who Hath Received It Hath Truly Forgotten
The Injury, The Evil Mind Which Did It Hath It In Lively And Fresh
Remembrance.
As We Scorn To Keep Any Discoveries Secret From Our Readers, Whose
Instruction, As Well As Diversion, We Have Greatly Considered In
This History, We Have Here Digressed Somewhat To Communicate The
Following Short Lesson To Those Who Are Simple And Well Inclined:
Though As A Christian Thou Art Obliged, And We Advise Thee, To
Forgive Thy Enemy, Never Trust The Man Who Hath Reason To Suspect
That You Know He Hath Injured You.
Book 3 Chapter 4 Pg 97
More And More Greatness, Unparalleled In History Or Romance.
In Order To Accomplish This Great And Noble Scheme, Which The Vast
Genius Of Wild Had Contrived, The First Necessary Step Was To
Regain The Confidence Of Heartfree. But, However Necessary This
Was, It Seemed To Be Attended With Such Insurmountable
Difficulties, That Even Our Hero For Some Time Despaired Of
Success. He Was Greatly Superior To All Mankind In The Steadiness
Of His Countenance, But This Undertaking Seemed To Require More Of
That Noble Quality Than Had Ever Been The Portion Of A Mortal.
However, At Last He Resolved To Attempt It, And From His Success I
Think We May Fairly Assert That What Was Said By The Latin Poet Of
Labour, That It Conquers All Things, Is Much More True When
Applied To Impudence.
When He Had Formed His Plan He Went To Newgate, And Burst
Resolutely Into The Presence Of Heartfree, Whom He Eagerly
Embraced And Kissed; And Then, First Arraigning His Own Rashness,
And Afterwards Lamenting His Unfortunate Want Of Success, He
Acquainted Him With The Particulars Of What Had Happened;
Concealing Only That Single Incident Of His Attack On The Other's
Wife, And His Motive To The Undertaking, Which, He Assured
Book 3 Chapter 4 Pg 98Heartfree, Was A Desire To Preserve His Effects From A Statute Of
Bankruptcy.
The Frank Openness Of This Declaration, With The Composure Of
Countenance With Which It Was Delivered; His Seeming Only Ruffled
By The Concern For His Friend's Misfortune; The Probability Of
Truth Attending It, Joined To The Boldness And Disinterested
Appearance Of This Visit, Together With His Many Professions Of
Immediate Service At A Time When He Could Not Have The Least
Visible Motive From Self-Love; And Above All, His Offering Him
Money, The Last And Surest Token Of Friendship, Rushed With Such
United Force On The Well-Disposed Heart, As It Is Vulgarly Called,
Of This Simple Man, That They Instantly Staggered And Soon
Subverted All The Determination He Had Before Made In Prejudice Of
Wild, Who, Perceiving The Balance To Be Turning In His Favour,
Presently Threw In A Hundred Imprecations On His Own Folly And
Ill-Advised Forwardness To Serve His Friend, Which Had Thus
Unhappily Produced His Ruin; He Added As Many Curses On The Count,
Whom He Vowed To Pursue With Revenge All Over Europe; Lastly, He
Cast In Some Grains Of Comfort, Assuring Heartfree That His Wife
Was Fallen Into The Gentlest Hands, That She Would Be Carried No
Farther Than Dunkirk, Whence She Might Very Easily Be Redeemed.
Heartfree, To Whom The Lightest Presumption Of His Wife's Fidelity
Would Have Been More Delicious Than The Absolute Restoration Of
All His Jewels, And Who, Indeed, Had With The Utmost Difficulty
Been Brought To Entertain The Slightest Suspicion Of Her
Inconstancy, Immediately Abandoned All Distrust Of Both Her And
His Friend, Whose Sincerity (Luckily For Wild's Purpose) Seemed To
Him To Depend On The Same Evidence. He Then Embraced Our Hero, Who
Had In His Countenance All The Symptoms Of The Deepest Concern,
And Begged Him To Be Comforted; Saying That The Intentions, Rather
Than The Actions Of Men, Conferred Obligations; That As To The
Event Of Human Affairs, It Was Governed Either By Chance Or Some
Superior Agent; That Friendship Was Concerned Only In The
Direction Of Our Designs; And Suppose These Failed Of Success, Or
Produced An Event Never So Contrary To Their Aim, The Merit Of A
Good Intention Was Not In The Least Lessened, But Was Rather
Entitled To Compassion.
Heartfree However Was Soon Curious Enough To Inquire How Wild Had
Escaped The Captivity Which His Wife Then Suffered. Here Likewise
He Recounted The Whole Truth, Omitting Only The Motive To The
French Captain's Cruelty, For Which He Assigned A Very Different
Reason, Namely, His Attempt To Secure Heartfree's Jewels. Wild
Indeed Always Kept As Much Truth As Was Possible In Everything;
And This He Said Was Turning The Cannon Of The Enemy Upon
Themselves.
Wild, Having Thus With Admirable And Truly Laudable Conduct
Achieved The First Step, Began To Discourse On The Badness Of The
World, And Particularly To Blame The Severity Of Creditors, Who
Seldom Or Never Attended To Any Unfortunate Circumstances, But
Without Mercy Inflicted Confinement On The Debtor, Whose Body The
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