The father, Mr. Duckinton, was a man of some fortune, whose delight
was in travelling, and who preferred Italy to all other countries.
Being a whimsical person he had a fancy for naming each of his
children, after the place where it happened to be born. One daughter
therefore was baptized by the fair name of Florence, Mrs. Horseman,
was christened Venetia, like the wife of Sir Kenelm Digby, whose
husband was more careful of her complexion than of her character.
Fortunate it was that he had no daughter born at Genoa or at Nantes,
for if he had, the one must have concealed her true baptismal name
under the alias of Jenny; and the other have subscribed herself Nancy,
that she might not be reproached with the brandy cask. The youngest of
his children was a son, and if he had been born in the French capital
would hardly have escaped the ignominious name of Paris, but as Mr.
Duckinton had long wished for a son, and the mother knowing her
husband's wishes had prayed for one, the boy escaped with no worse
name than Deodatus.
* * * * *
FRAGMENT OF INTERCHAPTER.
Kissing has proverbially been said to go by favour. So it is but too
certain, that Preferment does in Army and Navy, Church and State; and
so does Criticism.
That Kissing should do so is but fair and just; and it is moreover in
the nature of things.
That Promotion should do so is also in the nature of things—as they
are. And this also is fair where no injustice is committed. When other
pretensions are equal, favour is the feather which ought to be put
into the scale. In cases of equal fitness, no wrong is done to the one
party, if the other is preferred for considerations of personal
friendship, old obligations, or family connection; the injustice and
the wrong would be if these were overlooked.
To what extent may favour be reasonably allowed in criticism?
If it were extended no farther than can be really useful to the person
whom there is an intention of serving, its limits would be short
indeed. For in that case it would never proceed farther than truth and
discretion went with it. Far more injury is done to a book and to an
author by injudicious or extravagant praise, than by intemperate or
malevolent censure.
Some persons have merrily surmised that Job was a reviewer because he
exclaimed “Oh that mine enemy had written a book!” Others on the
contrary have inferred that reviewing was not known in his days,
because he wished that his own words had been printed and published.
* * * * *
[The timbers were laid for a Chapter on wigs, and many notes and
references were collected.—This Fragment is all that remains.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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