| | 61 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Monikins  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Providence brought us together for more purposes than
were, at first, apparent. I have long hesitated about publishing
the accompanying narrative, for in England there is
a disposition to cavil at extraordinary facts, but the distance
of America from my place of residence will completely save
me from ridicule. The world must have the truth, and I see
no better means than by resorting to your agency. All I ask
is that you will have the book fairly printed, and that you
will send one copy to my address, Householder-hall, Dorsetshire,
England, and another to Capt. Noah Poke, Stonington,
Connecticut, in your own country. My Anna prays for you,
and is ever your friend. Do not forget us. Dear Sir,—Your favour is come to hand, and found me
in good health, as I hope these few lines will have the same
advantage with you. I have read the book, and must say
there is some truth in it, which, I suppose, is as much as befalls
any book, the Bible, the Almanac, and the State Laws,
excepted. I remember Sir John well, and shall gainsay nothing
he testifies to, for the reason that friends should not
contradict each other. I was also acquainted with the four
Monikins he speaks of, though I knew them by differentnames.
Miss Poke says she wonders if it's all true, which I wunt tell
her, seeing that a little unsartainty makes a woman rational.
As to my navigating without geometry, that's a matter that
was'n't worth booking, for it's no cur'osity in these parts,
bating a look at the compass once or twice a day, and so I
take my leave of you, with offers to do any commission for
you among the Sealing Islands, for which I sail to-morrow,
wind and weather permitting. The philosopher who broaches a new theory is
bound to furnish, at least, some elementary proofs
of the reasonableness of his positions, and the historian
who ventures to record marvels that have
hitherto been hid from human knowledge, owes it
to a decent regard to the opinions of others, to produce
some credible testimony in favor of his veracity.
I am peculiarly placed in regard to these
two great essentials, having little more than its
plausibility to offer in favor of my philosophy, and
no other witness than myself to establish the important
facts that are now about to be laid before the
reading world, for the first time. In this dilemma,
I fully feel the weight of responsibility under which
I stand; for there are truths of so little apparent
probability as to appear fictions, and fictions so like
the truth that the ordinary observer is very apt to
affirm that he was an eye-witness to their existence:
two facts that all our historians would do
well to bear in mind, since a knowledge of the circumstances
might spare them the mortification of
having testimony that cost a deal of trouble, discredited
in the one case, and save a vast deal of
painful and unnecessary labor, in the other. Thrown
upon myself, therefore, for what the French call les
pièces justîficatives of my theories, as well as of
my facts, I see no better way to prepare the reader
to believe me, than by giving an unvarnished narrative
of my descent, birth, education and life, up
to the time I became a spectator of those wonderful
facts it is my happiness to record, and with
which it is now his to be made acquainted. I have this moment heard of your being in town, and
am exceedingly rejoiced to learn it. A long intimacy with
your late excellent and most loyal father, justifies my claiming
you for a friend, and I waive all ceremony, (official, of
course, is meant, there being no reason for any other between
us,) and beg to be admitted for half an hour. I met your old neighbor —, this morning, on the
boulevards, and during an interview of an hour we did little
else but talk of thee. Although it has been my most ardent
and most predominant wish to open my heart to the whole
species, yet, Anna, I fear I have loved thee alone! Absence,
so far from expanding, appears to contract my affections, too
many of which centre in thy sweet form and excellent virtues.
The remedy I proposed is insufficient, and I begin to
think that matrimony alone can leave me master of sufficient
freedom of thought and action, to turn the attention I ought
to the rest of the human race. Thou hast been with me in
idea, in the four corners of the earth, by sea and by land,
in dangers and in safety, in all seasons, regions and situations,
and there is no sufficient reason why those who are
ever present in the spirit, should be materially separated.
Thou hast only to say a word, to whisper a hope, to breathe
a wish, and I will throw myself, a repentant truant, at thy
feet, and implore thy pity. When united, however, we will
not lose ourselves in the sordid and narrow paths of selfishness,
but come forth again, in company, to acquire a new
and still more powerful hold on this beautiful creation, of
which, by this act, I acknowledge thee to be the most divine
portion. Thy letter was put into my hands yesterday. This is
the fifth answer I have commenced, and you will therefore
see that I do not write without reflection. I know thy excellent
heart, John, better than it is known to thyself. It has
either led thee to the discovery of a secret of the last importance
to thy fellow-creatures, or it has led thee cruelly
astray. An experiment so noble and so praiseworthy, ought
not to be abandoned, on account of a few momentary misgivings
concerning the result. Do not stay thy eagle flight,
at the instant thou art soaring so near the sun! Should
we both judge it for our mutual happiness, I can become thy
wife at a future day. We are still young, and there is no
urgency for an immediate union. In the mean time, I will
endeavor to prepare myself to be the companion of a philanthropist,
by practising on thy theory, and, by expanding my
own affections, render myself worthy to be the wife of one
who has so large a stake in society, and who loves so many
and so truly. “At a full and overflowing meeting of the most
monikinized of the monikin race, holden at the house
of Peleg Pat, (we still used the human appellations,
at that epoeh,) in the year of the world 3,007, and
of the monikin era 317, Plausible Shout was called
to the chair, and Ready Quill was named secretary. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 62 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Monikins | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We soon secured rooms, ordered dinner, brushed
our clothes, and made the other little arrangements
that it was necessary to observe for the credit of
the species. Everything being ready, we left the
inn, and hurried towards the “Palais des Arts et des
Sciences.” We had not got out of sight of the inn,
however, before one of its garçons was at our heels
with a message from his mistress. He told us, in
very respectful tones, that his master was out, and
that he had taken with him the key of the strong-box;
that there was not actually money enough in
the drawer to furnish an entertainment for such
great persons as ourselves, and she had taken the
liberty to send us a bill receipted, with a request
that we would make a small advance, rather than
reduce her to the mortification of treating such distinguished
guests in an unworthy manner. The
bill read as follows:— “Sir,” said I, pulling off my hat with a profound
reverence, “I was not aware to whom I had the
honor of speaking. You appear to fill a variety
of employments, and I make no doubt, with equal
skill.” The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
of the North-Western Leaplow Confederate Union,
has the honor to inform the Secretary of State, that our interests
in this portion of the earth are, in general, on the best
possible footing; our national character is getting every day
to be more and more elevated; our rights are more and more
respected, and our flag is more and more whitening every
sea. After this flattering and honorable account of the state
of our general concerns, I hasten to communicate the following
interesting particulars. AFFIDAVIT. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 63 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Homeward Bound, Or, the Chase | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The coast of England, though infinitely finer than our
own, is more remarkable for its verdure, and for a general
appearance of civilisation, than for its natural beauties.
The chalky cliffs may seem bold and noble to the American,
though compared to the granite piles that buttress the
Mediterranean they are but mole-hills; and the travelled
eye seeks beauties instead, in the retiring vales, the leafy
hedges, and the clustering towns that dot the teeming island.
Neither is Portsmouth a very favourable specimen of a
British port, considered solely in reference to the picturesque.
A town situated on a humble point, and fortified
after the manner of the Low Countries, with an excellent
haven, suggests more images of the useful than of the
pleasing; while a background of modest receding hills
offers little beyond the verdant swales of the country. In
this respect England itself has the fresh beauty of youth,
rather than the mellowed hues of a more advanced period
of life; or it might be better to say, it has the young freshness
and retiring sweetness that distinguish her females, as
compared with the warmer tints of Spain and Italy, and
which, women and landscape alike, need the near view to
be appreciated. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 64 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Homeward Bound, Or, the Chase | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | for he hoped to be back again in the course of the succeeding
day. No time was to be lost, he knew, the return of the
Arabs being hourly expected, and the tranquillity of the open
sea being at all times a matter of the greatest uncertainty.
With the declared view of making quick work, and with the
secret apprehension of a struggle with the owners of the
country, the captain took with him every officer and man in
his ship that could possibly be spared, and as many of the
passengers as he thought might be useful. As numbers might
be important in the way of intimidation, he cared almost as
much for appearances as for any thing else, or certainly he
would not have deemed the presence of Mr. Dodge of any
great moment; for to own the truth, he expected the editor
of the Active Inquirer would prove the quality implied by
the first word of the title of his journal, as much in any
other way as in fighting. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 65 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Mercedes of Castile, Or, the Voyage to Cathay | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Whether we take the pictures of the inimitable Cervantes,
or of that scarcely less meritorious author from
whom Le Sage has borrowed his immortal tale, for our
guides; whether we confide in the graver legends of history,
or put our trust in the accounts of modern travellers,
the time has scarcely ever existed when the inns of Spain
were good, or the roads safe. These are two of the blessings
of civilization which the people of the peninsula would
really seem destined never to attain; for, in all ages, we
hear, or have heard, of wrongs done the traveller equally by
the robber and the host. If such are the facts to-day, such
also were the facts in the middle of the fifteenth century,
the period to which we desire to carry back the reader in
imagination. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 66 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Mercedes of Castile, Or, the Voyage to Cathay | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The slumbers of Columbus were of short duration.
While his sleep lasted it was profound, like that of a man
who has so much control over his will as to have reduced
the animal functions to its domination, for he awoke regularly
at short intervals, in order that his watchful eye might
take a survey of the state of the weather, and of the condition
of his vessels. On this occasion, the admiral was on
deck again, a little after one, where he found all things
seemingly in that quiet and inspiring calm that ordinarily
marks, in fine weather, a middle watch at sea. The men
on deck mostly slumbered, the drowsy pilot, and the steersman,
with a look-out or two, alone remaining erect and
awake. The wind had freshened, and the caravel was
ploughing her way ahead, with an untiring industry, leaving
Ferro and its dangers, at each instant, more and more
remote. The only noises that were audible, were the gentle
sighing of the wind among the cordage, the wash of the
water, and the occasional creaking of a yard, as the breeze
forced it, with a firmer pressure, to distend its tackle and to
strain its fittings. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 67 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Pathfinder, Or, the Inland Sea | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The sublimity connected with vastness is familiar to every
eye. The most abstruse, the most far-reaching, perhaps the
most chastened of the poet's thoughts, crowd on the imagination
as he gazes into the depths of the illimitable void. The expanse
of the ocean is seldom seen by the novice with indifference,
and the mind, even in the obscurity of night, finds a parallel
to that grandeur, which seems inseparable from images
that the senses cannot compass. With feelings akin to this admiration
and awe—the offspring of sublimity—were the different
characters with which the action of this tale must open,
gazing on the scene before them. Four persons in all—two
of each sex—they had managed to ascend a pile of trees,
that had been uptorn by a tempest, to catch a view of the
objects that surrounded them. It is still the practice of the
country to call these spots wind-rows. By letting in the
light of heaven upon the dark and damp recesses of the
wood, they form a sort of oases in the solemn obscurity of
the virgin forests of America. The particular wind-row of
which we are writing, lay on the brow of a gentle acclivity,
and, though small, it had opened the way for an extensive
view to those who might occupy its upper margin, a rare
occurrence to the traveller in the woods. As usual, the spot
was small, but owing to the circumstances of its lying on the
low acclivity mentioned, and that of the opening's extending
downward, it offered more than common advantages to the
eye. Philosophy has not yet determined the nature of the
power that so often lays desolate spots of this description:
some ascribing it to the whirlwinds that produce water-spouts
on the ocean; while others again impute it to sudden and
violent passages of streams of the electric fluid; but the effects
in the woods are familiar to all. On the upper margin
of the opening to which there is allusion, the viewless influence
had piled tree on tree, in such a manner as had not only
enabled the two males of the party to ascend to an elevation
of some thirty feet above the level of the earth, but, with a
little care and encouragement, to induce their more timid
companions to accompany them. The vast trunks that had
been broken and driven by the force of the gust, lay blended
like jack-straws, while their branches, still exhaling the
fragrance of wilted leaves, were interlaced in a manner to
afford sufficient support to the hands. One tree had been
completely uprooted, and its lower end, filled with earth,
had been cast uppermost, in a way to supply a sort of
staging for the four adventurers, when they had gained the
desired distance from the ground. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 68 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Pathfinder, Or, the Inland Sea | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | As the day advanced, that portion of the inmates of the
vessel which had the liberty of doing so, appeared on deck.
As yet, the sea was not very high, from which it was inferred,
that the cutter was still under the lee of the islands; but
it was apparent to all who understood the lake, that they
were about to experience one of the heavy autumnal gales
of that region. Land was nowhere visible; and the horizon,
on every side, exhibited that gloomy void, which lends to all
views, on vast bodies of water, the sublimity of mystery.
The swells, or, as landsmen term them, the waves, were
short and curling, breaking of necessity sooner than the
longer seas of the ocean; while the element itself, instead of
presenting that beautiful hue, which rivals the deep tint of
the southern sky, looked green and angry, though wanting
in the lustre that is derived from the rays of the sun. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 69 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Two Admirals | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Well, Sir Jarvy,” said Galleygo, following on the
heels of the two admirals, as the latter entered the dressing-room
of the officer addressed; “it has turned out just as I
thought; and the County of Fair-villian has come out of his
hole, like a porpoise coming up to breathe, the moment our
backs is turned! As soon as we gives the order to squareaway
for England, and I sees the old Planter's cabin windows
turned upon France, I foreseed them consequences.
Well, gentlemen, here's been a heap of prize-money made
in this house, without much fighting. We shall have to give
the young lieutenant a leave, for a few months, in order that
he may take his swing ashore, here, among his brother
squires!” “My dear Oakes:—Since we parted, my mind has undergone
some violent misgivings as to the course duty requires
of me, in this great crisis. One hand—one heart—
one voice even, may decide the fate of England! In such
circumstances, all should listen to the voice of conscience,
and endeavour to foresee the consequences of their own acts.
Confidential agents are in the west of England, and one of
them I have seen. By his communications I find more depends
on myself than I could have imagined, and more on
the movements of M. de Vervillin. Do not be too sanguine
—take time for your own decisions, and grant me time; for
I feel like a wretch whose fate must soon be sealed. On no
account engage, because you think this division near enough
to sustain you, but at least keep off until you hear from me
more positively, or we can meet. I find it equally hard to
strike a blow against my rightful prince, or to desert my
friend. For God's sake act prudently, and depend on seeing
me in the course of the next twenty-four hours. I shall
keep well to the eastward, in the hope of falling in with you,
as I feel satisfied de Vervillin has nothing to do very far
west. I may send some verbal message by the bearer, for
my thoughts come sluggishly, and with great reluctance. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 70 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Satanstoe, or, The Littlepage manuscripts | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It is easy to foresee that this country is destined to undergo
great and rapid changes. Those that more properly
belong to history, history will doubtless attempt to record,
and probably with the questionable veracity and prejudice
that are apt to influence the labours of that particular muse;
but there is little hope that any traces of American society,
in its more familiar aspects, will be preserved among us,
through any of the agencies usually employed for such purposes.
Without a stage, in a national point of view at least,
with scarcely such a thing as a book of memoirs that relates
to a life passed within our own limits, and totally without
light literature, to give us simulated pictures of our manners
and the opinions of the day, I see scarcely a mode by which the
next generation can preserve any memorials of the distinctive
usages and thoughts of this. It is true, they will have traditions
of certain leading features of the colonial society,
but scarcely any records; and, should the next twenty years
do as much as the last, towards substituting an entirely new
race for the descendants of our own immediate fathers, it is
scarcely too much to predict that even these traditions will
be lost in the whirl and excitement of a throng of strangers.
Under all the circumstances, therefore, I have come to a determination
to make an effort, however feeble it may prove,
to preserve some vestiges of household life in New York,
at least; while I have endeavoured to stimulate certain
friends in New Jersey, and farther south, to undertake similar
tasks in those sections of the country. What success
will attend these last applications, is more than I can say;
but, in order that the little I may do myself shall not be lost
for want of support, I have made a solemn request in my
will, that those who come after me will consent to continue
this narrative, committing to paper their own experience, as
I have here committed mine, down as low at least as my
grandson, if I ever have one. Perhaps, by the end of the
latter's career, they will begin to publish books in America,
and the fruits of our joint family labours may be thought
sufficiently matured to be laid before the world. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 71 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The redskins, or, Indian and Injin | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In a minute or two the tumult ceased, and a singular
scene presented itself. The church had four separate groups
or parties left in it, besides the Injins, who crowded the
main isle. The chairman, secretary, two ministers and lecturer,
remained perfectly tranquil in their seats, probably
understanding quite well they had nothing to fear from the
intruders. Mr. Warren and Mary were in another corner,
under the gallery, he having disdained flight, and prudently
kept his daughter at his side. My uncle and myself were
the pendants of the two last named, occupying the opposite
corner, also under the gallery. Mr. Hall, and two or three
friends who stuck by him, were in a pew near the wall, but
about half way down the church, the former erect on a seat,
where he had placed himself to speak. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 72 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The crater, or, Vulcan's Peak | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | There is nothing in which American Liberty, not always
as much restrained as it might be, has manifested a more
decided tendency to run riot, than in the use of names.
As for Christian names, the Heathen Mythology, the Bible,
Ancient History, and all the classics, have long since been
exhausted, and the organ of invention has been at work
with an exuberance of imagination that is really wonderful
for such a matter-of-fact people. Whence all the strange
sounds have been derived which have thus been pressed
into the service of this human nomenclature, it would
puzzle the most ingenious philologist to say. The days
of the Kates, and Dollys, and Pattys, and Bettys, have
passed away, and in their stead we hear of Lowinys,
and Orchistrys, Philenys, Alminys, Cythérys, Sarahlettys,
Amindys, Marindys, &c. &c. &c. All these last appellations
terminate properly with an a, but this unfortunate vowel,
when a final letter, being popularly pronounced like y, we
have adapted our spelling to the sound, which produces a
complete bathos to all these flights in taste. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 73 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The crater, or, Vulcan's Peak | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The building of the houses, and of the schooner, was
occupation for everybody, for a long time. The first were
completed in season to escape the rains; but the last was
on the stocks fully six months after her keel had been laid.
The fine weather had returned, even, and she was not yet
launched. So long a period had intervened since Waally's
visit to Rancocus Island without bringing any results, that
the council began to hope the Indians had given up their
enterprises, from the consciousness of not having the
means to carry them out; and almost every one ceased to
apprehend danger from that quarter. In a word, so
smoothly did the current of life flow, on the Reef and at
Vulcan's Peak, that there was probably more danger of
their inhabitants falling into the common and fatal error
of men in prosperity, than of anything else; or, of their
beginning to fancy that they deserved all the blessings that
were conferred on them, and forgetting the hand that bestowed
them. As is to recall them to a better sense of
things, events now occurred which it is our business to
relate, and which aroused the whole colony from the sort
of pleasing trance into which they had fallen, by the united
influence of security, abundance, and a most seductive
climate. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 78 | Author: | Poe
Edgar Allan
1809-1849 | Add | | | Title: | Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Antiochus Epiphanes is very generally looked
upon as the Gog of the prophet Ezekiel. This honor
is, however, more properly attributable to Cambyses,
the son of Cyrus. And, indeed, the character of the
Syrian monarch does by no means stand in need of
any adventitious embollishment. His accession to
the throne, or rather his usurpation of the sovereignty,
a hundred and seventy-one years before the coming
of Christ—his attempt to plunder the temple of
Diana at Ephesus—his implacable hostility to the
Jews—his pollution of the Holy of Holies, and his
miserable death at Taba, after a tumultuous reign of
eleven years, are circumstances of a prominent kind,
and therefore more generally noticed by the historians
of his time than the impious, dastardly, cruel,
silly, and whimsical achievements which make up
the sum total of his private life and reputation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 79 | Author: | Sedgwick
Catharine Maria
1789-1867 | Add | | | Title: | A New-england Tale, Or, Sketches of New-england Character and Manners | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Mr. Elton was formerly a flourishing trader,
or, in country phrase, a merchant, in the village
of—. In the early part of his life he had
been successful in business; and having a due portion
of that mean pride which is gratified by pecuniary
superiority, he was careful to appear quite
as rich as he was. When he was at the top of
fortune's wheel, some of his prying neighbours
shrewdly suspected, that the show of his wealth
was quite out of proportion to the reality; and
their side glances and prophetic whispers betrayed
their contempt of the offensive airs of the
purse-proud man. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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