Spirit of Chambers's Journal : $b Original tales, essays, and sketches, selected from that work — John Shaqi
Spirit of Chambers's Journal : $b Original tales, essays, and sketches, selected from that workChambers, Robert
General
Spirit of Chambers's Journal : $b Original tales, essays, and sketches, selected from that work
Chambers, Robert
English literature -- Scottish authors
Our tale now draws to a conclusion, and may be summed up in a few
words. William Douglas soon settled in business as a writer to the
signet, and found no obstacle on the part of either his parent or his
mistress in uniting himself to that amiable young lady. It was known
to a few, and suspected by more, that under the decent habit he now
wore was concealed the very person who knocked down two of Gardener’s
dragoons in the Luckenbooths, and braved all Edinburgh to single
combat. But he was never molested on this account; and he therefore
continued to practise in the Court of Session for upwards of half a
century, with the success and with the credit of a respectable citizen.
REMOVALS.
“Three removes are as bad as a fire.”
“A rolling stone gathers no fog.”
_Poor Richard._
There is an allegory in the Spectator, called, if I recollect rightly,
“The Mountain of Miseries.” It narrates how the human race were once
summoned by a good Genius to a particular spot, and each permitted to
cast down the misery which most afflicted him, taking up some one which
had belonged to a fellow-creature, and which he thought he should be
more able to endure. Some cast down diseased limbs, some bad wives,
and so forth; but the end of the story is, that after the exchange had
been made, all felt themselves a great deal more uneasy under their
adopted evils than they had ever felt under their natural ones, and,
accordingly, had to petition the Genius for permission to take back
each his own proper original misery. I have often thought that the
practice of removing from one house to another, in the hope of finding
better ease and accommodation, was not much unlike this grand general
interchange of personal distresses; and often on a Whitsunday in
Scotland, when I have seen people flying in all directions with old
tables and beds, that would have looked a great deal better in their
native homes than on the street, I have mentally compared the scene to
that which is so graphically described by Addison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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