Guy Rivers: A Tale of GeorgiaSimms, William Gilmore
History
Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia
Simms, William Gilmore
Georgia -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Fiction; Gold mines and mining -- Fiction
travelling miles for that single object, to gape and gaze upon the last
agonizing pangs and paroxsyms of a fellow-creature--not regarding for an
instant the fatigue of their position, the press of the crowd, or the
loss of a dinner--totally insusceptible, it would seem, of the several
influences of heat and cold, wind and rain, which at any other time
would drive them to their beds or firesides. The same motive which
provokes this desire in the spectator, is the parent, to a certain
extent, of the very crime which has led to the exhibition. It is the
morbid appetite, which sometimes grows to madness--the creature of
unregulated passions, ill-judged direction, and sometimes, even of the
laws and usages of society itself, which is so much interested in the
promotion of characteristics the very reverse. It may be that I have
more of this perilous stuff about me than the generality of mankind; but
I am satisfied there are few of them, taught as I have been, and the
prey of like influences, whose temper had been very different from mine.
The early and operating circumstances under which I grew up, all tended
to the rank growth and encouragement of the more violent and vexing
passions. I was the victim of a tyranny, which, in the end, made me too
a tyrant. To feel, myself, and exercise the temper thus taught me, I had
to acquire power in order to secure victims; and all my aims in life,
all my desires, tended to this one pursuit. Indifferent to me, alike,
the spider who could sting, or the harmless butterfly whose only
offensiveness is in the folly of his wearing a glitter which he can not
take care of. I was a merciless enemy, giving no quarter; and with an
Ishmaelitish spirit, lifting my hand against all the tribes that were
buzzing around me."
"I believe you have spoken the truth, Guy, so far as your particular
qualities of temper are concerned; for, had I undertaken to have spoken
for you in relation to this subject, I should probably have said, though
not to the same degree, the same thing; but the wonder with me is, how,
with such feelings, you should have so long remained in quiet, and in
some respects, perfectly harmless."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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