The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and Other TalesMore, Hannah
General
The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and Other Tales
More, Hannah
Christian life -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Short stories
_Bragwell._ O, if you mean my turning off my nephew Tom, the
plowboy, you must not blame me for that, it was all my wife's fault.
He was as good a lad as ever lived to be sure, and my own brother's
son; but my wife could not bear that a boy in a carter's frock
should be about the house, calling her aunt. We quarreled like dog
and cat about it; and when he was turned away she and I did not
speak for a week.
_Worthy._ Which was a fresh breach of the commandment; a worthy
nephew turned out of doors, and a wife not spoken to for a week, are
no very convincing proofs of your observance of the fifth
commandment.
_Bragwell._ Well, I long to come to the sixth, for you don't think I
commit murder, I hope.
_Worthy._ I am not sure of that.
_Bragwell._ Murder! what, I kill any body?
_Worthy._ Why, the laws of the land, indeed, and the disgrace
attending it, are almost enough to keep any man from actual murder;
let me ask, however, do you never give way to unjust anger, and
passion, and revenge? as for instance, do you never feel your
resentment kindle against some of the politicians who contradict you
on a Sunday night? and do you never push your animosity against
somebody that has affronted you, further than the occasion can
justify?
_Bragwell._ Hark'ee, Mr. Worthy, I am a man of substance, and no man
shall offend me without my being even with him. So as to injuring a
man, if he affronts me first, there's nothing but good reason in
that.
_Worthy._ Very well! only bear in mind, that you willfully break
this commandment, whether you abuse your servant, are angry at your
wife, watch for a moment to revenge an injury on your neighbor, or
even wreak your passion on a harmless beast; for you have then the
seeds of murder working in your breast; and if there were no law, no
gibbet, to check you, and no fear of disgrace neither, I am not sure
where you would stop.
_Bragwell._ Why, Mr. Worthy, you have a strange way of explaining
the commandments; so you set me down for a murderer, merely because
I bear hatred to a man who has done me a hurt, and am glad to do him
a like injury in my turn. I am sure I should want spirit if I did
not.
_Worthy._ I go by the Scripture rule, which says, "he that hateth
his brother is a murderer," and again, "pray for them that
despitefully use you and persecute you." Besides, Mr. Bragwell, you
made it a part of your boast that you said the Lord's prayer every
day, wherein you pray to God to forgive you your trespasses as you
forgive them that trespass against you. If therefore you do not
forgive them that trespass against you, in that case you daily pray
that your own trespasses may never be forgiven. Now own the truth;
did you last night lie down in a spirit of forgiveness and charity
with the whole world?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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