Charlemont; Or, The Pride of the Village. a Tale of KentuckySimms, William Gilmore
General
Charlemont; Or, The Pride of the Village. a Tale of Kentucky
Simms, William Gilmore
Kentucky -- Fiction
A pretty condition of things it would be, if stars, suns, and systems,
were to shoot madly from their spheres on such occasions! Well might the
devil laugh if such were the case! How he would chuckle to behold globes
and seas, and empires, fall into such irreverend antics because some
poor earthling, be he kingling or common sodling, goes into desuetude,
either by the operation of natural laws, or the sharp application of
steel or shot! Verily, it makes precious little difference to the Great
Reaper, by what process we finally become harvested. He is sure of us,
though no graves gape, no stars fall, no comets rush out, like young
colts from their stables, flinging their tails into the faces of
the more sober and pacific brotherhood of lights. But, denied the
satisfaction of chuckling at such sights as these, his satanic majesty
chuckles not the less at the human vanity which looks for them. Nay, he
himself is very likely to suggest this vanity. It is one of his forms of
temptation--one of his manoeuvres; and we take leave, by way of warning,
to hint to those worthy people, who judge of to-morrow's providence
by the corns of their great toe, or their periodical lumbago, or the
shooting of their warts, or the pricking of their palms, that it is in
truth the devil which is at the bottom of all this, and that the Deity
has nothing to do in the business. It is the devil instilling his
vanities into the human heart, in that form which he thinks least likely
to prove offensive, or rouse suspicion. The devil is most active in
your affairs, Mrs. Thompson, the moment you imagine that there must be
a revolution on your account in the universal laws of nature. At such a
moment your best policy will be to have blood let, take physic, and go
with all diligence to your prayers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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