The Hedge School; The Midnight Mass; The Donagh: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
History
The Hedge School; The Midnight Mass; The Donagh: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
announce to you that I have gained repeated victories, and consigned to
oblivion the hydra-headed monster, Intemperance; and in consequence of
which, have been consigned from poverty and misery, to affluence and
happiness, possessing 'ready rino,' or ample pecuniary means to make one
comfortable and happy thereby enjoying 'the feast of reason and the
flow of soul,' i.e.,--an honest, cozy warm, comfortable cup of tea, to
consign my drooping, sober, and cheerful spirits into the flow of soul,
and philosophy of pleasure. I, therefore, do feel I hid no occasion to
speak a word in vindication of my conduct and character. A conspiracy
in embryo, formed by a triumvirate, was brought to maturity by as
experienced a calumniator, as Canty, the Hangman from Cork, was in the
discharge of his functions, when in the situation of municipal officer;
and the hoary-headed cadman and crack-brained Pedagogue was appointed
a necessary evil vehicle for industriously circulating said maniac
calumny. Why did not this base Plebeian, anterior to his giving
publicity to the tartaric nausea that rankled at his gloomy heart,
forward the corroding philippic, and bid defiance to my contradiction?
No, no; he knew full well that with his scanty stock of English
ammunition scattered over the sterile floor of his literary magazine, he
could not have the effrontery, impudence, or presumption to enter
the list of philosophical and scientific disputation with one who has
traversed the thorny paths of literature, explored its mazy windings,
and who is thoroughly and radically fortified, as being encompassed
with the impenetrable shield of genuine science. This red, hot, fiery,
unguarded locust, in the inanity of his mind's incomprehensibleness, has
not only incurred my displeasure by his satirical dogged Lampoons, etc.,
but the abhorrence, animosity, and holy indignation of many who move in
the high circle, as well as the ineffable contempt of the majority
of those good and useful members of society, who are engaged in the
glorious and delightful task of 'teaching the young idea how to shoot,'
and forming the mind to rectitude of conduct; and whose labors
are tremendous--I speak from long and considerable experience in
scholastic pursuits. I am as perfectly aware as any man of the friendly
intercourse, urbanity, and social reciprocation of kindness and demeanor
that ought to exist among Teachers;--and, in a word, that they should
be like the sun and moon--receptacles of each other's light. But these
malicious, ignorant, callous-hearted traducers finding it perfectly
congenial to their usual habits, and perhaps feeling no remorse
of conscience in departing from those principles which must always
accompany men of education, carry into effect their scheme of wanton,
atrocious, and deliberate falsehood. And accordingly, in pursuance of
their infernal piece of villainy, one of them being sensible of
being held in contempt and ridicule by an enlightened public--whose
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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