| | 101 | Author: | Tucker
Beverley
1784-1851 | Add | | | Title: | George Balcombe  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We now approached the seat of justice for
— county, and as we mingled in the crowd of
countrymen flocking to the same point, our conversation
was necessarily interrupted. I soon saw
that Balcombe was distinguished, and that he was
an object of interest and curiosity, which was
painful to me. By him it seemed to be unmarked,
and he moved on with a countenance of
quiet serenity, as a man familiar with notoriety,
and secure of himself “Your extraordinary communication of the 15th
ultimo is before me. In answering it I find myself
under the necessity of adverting to much
more than it contains; and I shall do so fully, because
I find it necessary to make you understand
distinctly the relation between us. “Let me indulge a hope that the sight of my
name at the bottom of this letter may not prevent
you from reading it. Having hitherto received
nothing at my hands but what, to you at least, appeared
to be injustice, I cannot expect to engage
your attention to what I am about to say, without
first assuring you that the purpose of this letter is
altogether friendly. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 102 | Author: | Tucker
Beverley
1784-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The partisan leader | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Poor Arthur! B— had predicted too truly that
his heart would have some hankerings at the thought
of leaving the house where he had, of late, spent so
many pleasant hours. It is so long that I have said
nothing about him, that the reader may think him
forgotten, or may, himself, have forgotten that there
was such a person. He had, in truth, no part in the
transactions of which we have been speaking. He
was at that time of life when the mind, chameleon
like, takes its hue from surrounding objects. He
was too young to be advised with, or trusted with
important secrets. I have already mentioned that,
on the day of the election, he had been detained at
home by indisposition. But he had heard of the occurrences
of that day; and he was, moreover, unconsciously
exposed to influences from every member of
the family, all tending to the same point. Least apparent,
but not least efficacious, was that of his cousin
Lucia. They were of that age when hearts, soft
and warm, grow together by mere contact. With
thought of love, but without thinking of it, they had
become deeply enamored of each other. The thing
came about so simply and so naturally, that the result
alone needs to be told. Sir: I have the honor to lay before your Excellency
an account of the operations of the troops
under my command, since the date of my last despatch. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 103 | Author: | Tuckerman
Henry T.
(Henry Theodore)
1813-1871 | Add | | | Title: | Isabel, or, Sicily | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | There is, perhaps, no approach to the old world
more impressive to the transatlantic voyager, than
the Straits of Gibraltar. The remarkable promontory
which rises abruptly before him, is calculated to
interest his mind, wearied with the monotony of sea-life,
not less as an object of great natural curiosity
than from the historical circumstances with which it
is associated. Anciently deemed the boundary of
the world, it was fabled, that at this point Europe
and Africa were united until riven asunder by Hercules,
forming the south-western extremity of Andalusia,
and long occupied as a Moorish fortress, it
awakens the many romantic impressions which embalm
the history of Spain; constituting, as it were,
the gate of the Mediterranean, the comer from the
new world cannot pass its lofty and venerable form,
without feeling that he has left the ocean whose
waters lave his native shore, and entered a sea
hallowed by the annals of antiquity, and renowned
for scenes of southern luxuriance and beauty. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 104 | Author: | Tyler
Royall
1757-1826 | Add | | | Title: | The Algerine captive, or, The life and adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | MINISTER OF THE UNITED STATES AT THE
COURT OF LISBON, $C. I derive my birth from one
of the first emigrants to New England,
being lineally descended from Captain
John Underhill, who came into the Massachusetts
in the year one thousand six
hundred and thirty; of whom honourable
mention is made by that elegant, accurate,
and interesting historian, the Reverend
Jeremy Belknap, in his History of New
Hampshire. Remembrin my kind love to Mr. Hilton,
I now send you some note of my
tryalls at Boston.—Oh that I may come
out of this, and al the lyke tryalls, as
goold sevene times puryfyed in the furnice. Them there very extraordinary pare
of varses, you did yourself the onner to
address to a young lada of my partecling
acquaintance calls loudly for explination.
I shall be happy to do myself
the onner of wasting a few charges of
powder with you on the morro morning
precisely at one half hour before sun rose
at the lower end of — wharff. We saluted the castle with
seven guns, which was returned with
three, and then entered within the immense
pier, which forms the port. The
prisoners, thirty in number, were conveyed
to the castle, where we were received
with great parade by the Dey's
troops or cologlies, and guarded to a
heavy strong tower of the castle. The
Portuguese prisoners, to which nation
the Algerines have the most violent antipathy,
were immediately, with every
mark of contempt, spurned into a dark
dungeon beneath the foundations of the
tower, though there were several merchants
of eminence, and one young nobleman,
in the number. The Spaniards,
whom the Dey's subjects equally detest,
and fear more, were confined with me in
a grated room, on the second story. We
received, the same evening, rations similar
to what, we understood, were issued
to the garrison. The next day, we were
all led to a cleansing house, where we
were cleared from vermin, our hair cut
short, and our beards close shaved; thence
taken to a bath, and, after being well
bathed, we were clothed in coarse linen
drawers, a strait waistcoat of the same
without sleeves, and a kind of tunic or
loose coat over the whole, which, with a
pair of leather slippers, and a blue cotton
cap, equipped us, as we were informed,
to appear in the presence of the Dey,
who was to select the tenth prisoner from
us in person. The next morning, the
dragomen or interpreters, were very busy
in impressing upon us the most profound
respect for the Dey's person and
power, and teaching us the obeisance necessary
to be made in our approaches to this
august potentate. Soon after, we were
paraded; and Captain Hamed presented
each of us with a paper, written in a base
kind of Arabic, describing, as I was informed,
our persons, names, country, and
conditions in life; so far as our captors
could collect from our several examinations.
Upon the back of each paper was
a mark or number. The same mark was
painted upon a flat oval piece of wood,
somewhat like a painter's palette, and suspended
by a small brass chain to our
necks, hanging upon our breasts. The
guards then formed a hollow square.
We were blind folded until we passed
the fortifications, and then suffered to
view the city, and the immense rabble,
which surrounded us, until we came to
the palace of the Dey. Here, after much
military parade, the gates were thrown
open, and we entered a spacious court
yard, at the upper end of which the Dey
was seated, upon an eminence, covered
with the richest carpeting fringed with
gold. A circular canopy of Persian silk
was raised over his head, from which
were suspended curtains of the richest
embroidery, drawn into festoons by silk
cords and tassels, enriched with pearls.
Over the eminence, upon the right and
left, were canopies, which almost vied in
B 2
riches with the former, under which stood
the Mufri, his numerous Hadgi's, and
his principal officers, civil and military;
and on each side about seven hundred
foot guards were drawn up in the form
of a half moon. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 105 | Author: | Tyler
Royall
1757-1826 | Add | | | Title: | The Yankey in London | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | ACCEPT my warmest thanks for the
letters of introduction you presented me
at parting, and for those transmitted me
by the ship Union; and suffer me, through
you, to make my grateful acknowledgments
to Mr. G. for his very friendly
proffer of making me known to some
“excellent English friends.”—I do assure
you, very few of our countrymen have
left in London such favourable impressions
of the American character as that
gentleman. Indeed, all our United States'
agents have done honour to our national
diplomacy: among them Mr. K. and Mr.
G. will be long distinguished; the former
for the classical elegance of his bureau
address, the latter for his commercial
science—and both for that dignified, polished
demeanour which European gentlemen
will hardly admit can be attained
without the tour of that continent. I
ought, in justice, to observe, that our present
envoy is a gentleman highly esteemed
for the suavity of his manners, and respected
for his adherence to the commercial
rights of his nation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 107 | Author: | Ware
William
1797-1852 | Add | | | Title: | Letters of Lucius M. Piso, from Palmyra, to his friend Marcus Curtius at Rome | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | As I returned from the worship of the Christians to
the house of Gracchus, my thoughts wandered from the
subjects which had just occupied my mind, to the condition
of the country, and the prospect now growing more
and more portentous of an immediate rupture with
Rome. On my way I passed through streets of more
than Roman magnificence, exhibiting all the signs of
wealth, taste, refinement, and luxury. The happy, lighthearted
populace were moving through them, enjoying at
their leisure the calm beauty of the evening, or hastening
to or from some place of festivity. The earnest tone of
conversation, the loud laugh, the witty retort, the merry
jest, fell upon my ear from one and another as I passed
along. From the windows of the palaces of the merchants
and nobles, the rays of innumerable lights
streamed across my path, giving to the streets almost the
brilliancy of day; and the sound of music, either of
martial instruments, or of the harp accompanied by the
voice, at every turn arrested my attention, and made me
pause to listen. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 108 | Author: | Ware
William
1797-1852 | Add | | | Title: | Probus, or, Rome in the third century | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The record which follows, is by the hand of me,
Nichomachus, once the happy servant of the great Queen
of Palmyra, than whom the world never saw a queen
more illustrious, nor a woman adorned with brighter virtues.
But my design is not to write her eulogy, nor recite
the wonderful story of her life. That task requires
a stronger and a more impartial hand than mine. The
life of Zenobia by Nichomachus, would be the portrait
of a mother and a divinity, drawn by the pen of a child
and a worshipper. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 109 | Author: | Ware
William
1797-1852 | Add | | | Title: | Probus, or, Rome in the third century | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Marcus and Lucilia are inconsolable. Their grief,
I fear, will be lasting as it is violent. They have no
resource but to plunge into affairs and drive away memory
by some active and engrossing occupation. Yet
they cannot always live abroad; they must at times
return to themselves and join the company of their own
thoughts. And then memory is not to be put off; at
such moments this faculty seems to constitute the mind
more than any other. It becomes in a manner the mind
itself. The past rises up in spite of ourselves, and overshadows
the present. Whether its scenes have been
prosperous or afflictive, but especially if they have been
shameful, do they present themselves with all the vividness
of the objects before us and the passing hour, and
minister to our joy or increase our pains. We in vain
attempt to escape. We are prisoners in the hands of a
giant. To forget is not in our power. The will is impotent.
The effort to forget is often but an effort to remember.
Fast as we fly, so fast the enemy of our peace
pursues. Memory is a companion who never leaves us
— or never leaves us long. It is the true Nemesis.
Tartarean regions have no worse woes, nor the Hell of
Christians, than memory inflicts upon those who have
done evil. My friends struggle in vain. They have
not done evil indeed, but they have suffered it. The
sorest calamity that afflicts mortals has overtaken them;
their choicest jewel has been torn from them; and they
can no more drown the memory of their loss than they
can take that faculty itself and tear it from their souls.
Comfort cannot come from that quarter. It can come
only from being re-possessed of that which has been lost
hereafter and from enjoying the hope of that felicity now.
See how Marcus writes. After much else he says, | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 110 | Author: | Ware
William
1797-1852 | Add | | | Title: | Julian, or Scenes in Judea | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Praise to the God of Abraham. The locusts
are flown. The land which they found flourishing
and verdant as a garden, they have
changed to the barrenness of a desert. The
cities and the villages, but now so full of people,
are become the region of desolation and
death. Even the very city and house of God
are level with the dust, and the ploughshare
has gone over them. And here, upon the hill
of Olives, I sit, a living witness of the ruin.
By reason of the wonderful compassions of God,
which never fail, I am escaped as a bird from
the net of the fowler. Yet I take little joy in
this. For why should the days of one like me
be lengthened out, when the mighty and excellent
of the land are cut off? I rather rejoice
in this, that the spoiler is gone; the armies of
the alien have ceased to devour; and they
who are fled, and hidden in caves and dens
of the rocks, may come forth again to inhabit
the land and build up the waste places.
A multitude, which no man could number, have
fallen before the edge of the sword, or by famine,
and the air is full of the pestilential vapors
that steam up from their rotting carcases. But
a greater multitude remains; and it may well
be that ere many years have passed, they shall
fill the land as before, and gathered into one by
him who, though long delaying, will come, pay
back, and more, the measure they have received.
That time will surely come. Even as the
Assyrian could not finally destroy, but the hand
of the Almighty was put forth, and the city
and the temple grew again from their ruins
to a greater glory than before, so shall it be now.
The Roman triumph shall be short. Messiah
shall yet appear; and Jerusalem clothed in her
beautiful garments shall sit upon her hills, the
joy and crown of the whole earth. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 111 | Author: | Whittier
John Greenleaf
1807-1892 | Add | | | Title: | Leaves from Margaret Smith's journal in the province of Massachusetts Bay, 1678-9 | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Dear Friend: I salute thee with much love from
this new Countrie, where the Lord hath spread a table
for us in the Wilderness. Here is a goodlie companie
of Friends, who doe seek to know the mind of Truth,
and to live thereby, being held in favor and esteem by
the Rulers of the Land, and soe left in Peace to worship
God according to their consciences. The whole
Countrie being covered with Snow, and the Weather
being extreme cold, we can scarce say much of the
natural gifts and advantages of our new Home; but it
lyeth on a small River, and there be fertile Meadowes
and old Cornfields of the Indians, and good Springs of
Water, soe that I am told it is a desirable and pleasing
place in the warm season. My soul is full of Thankfulness;
and a sweet inward Peace is my portion.
Hard things are made easie to me; this desert place,
with its lonelie Woods and wintry Snows, is beautiful
in mine eyes. For here we be no longer gazing-stocks
of the rude Multitude, we are no longer haled from our
Meetings, and rayled upon as Witches and possessed
People. Oh! how often have we been called upon
heretofore to repeat the prayer of one formerlie —
`Let me not fall into the hands of man.' Sweet,
beyond the power of words to express, hath been the
change in this respect; and in view of the Mercies
vouchsafed unto us, what can we do but repeat the
language of David? — `Praise is comelie; yea, a joyful
and pleasant thing it is to be thankful. It is a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing praises unto
thy Name, O Most High! to show forth thy loving
kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every
night.' | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 112 | Author: | EDITED BY N. P. WILLIS. | Add | | | Title: | The legendary | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | `It is, I believe, or should be, a maxim of the
true church, that confession of a sin is the first step
towards its expiation. `When you receive this letter, your three sons will
be no more. Frederic de Lancey is the bearer of it.
He has done our dear Edward a signal service, and I
have thought him trustworthy to convey to Alice the
picture of my mother. My heart bleeds when I think
of you, without one prop for your old age, save our innocent
and helpless sister. We are all satisfied De
Lancey would be a faithful son to you if you will permit
him to be. In case of his death tomorrow—and the
chances of war are alike to all—he has bequeathed to
us all he is worth, and it is the earnest wish of my
brothers as well as myself, that if he should be the only
survivor, you would adopt him; and if he and sister
Alice should fancy each other, that he may become a
son in reality. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 113 | Author: | EDITED BY N. P. WILLIS. | Add | | | Title: | The legendary | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | `Have you ever read Undine, Tom? Did you conceive
of a river of wondrous and perfect beauty?
Was it fringed with all manner of stooping trees, and
kissed to the very lip by clover? Did it wind constantly
in and out, as if both banks were enamoured of its flow
and enticed it from each other's bosoms? Was it hidden
sometimes by thick masses of leaves meeting over
it, and sometimes by the swelling of a velvet slope that
sent it rippling away into shadow? and did it steal out
again like a happy child from a hiding place, and flash
up to your eye till you would have sworn it was living
and intelligent? Did the banks lean away in a rich,
deep verdure, and were the meadows sleeping beneath
the light, like a bosom in a silk mantle? and when
your ear had drank in the music of the running water,
and the loveliness of color and form had unsettled the
earthliness within you, did you believe in your heart
that a strip of Eden had been left unmarred by the angel? `She who brings you this letter is my only child—
all the treasure I possess in this world. Therefore, I
trust her to you, relying on your honor. If the walls of
Soleure fall, I shall be buried under their ruins; but if
you grant your protection to my daughter, I shall have
no more anxiety for her. Give me some token that
you grant my petition, and you will receive your reward
from that Being who watches over the innocent, and
who knows our hearts. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 116 | Author: | McHenry
James
1753-1816 | Add | | | Title: | The wilderness, or, Braddock's times | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Let melancholy spirits talk as they please concerning
the degeneracy and increasing miseries of
mankind, I will not believe them. They have
been speaking ill of themselves, and predicting
worse of their posterity, from time immemorial;
and yet, in the present year, 1823, when, if the
one hundreth part of their gloomy forebodings
had been realized, the earth must have become
a Pandemonium, and men something worse than
devils, (for devils they have been long ago,
in the opinion of these charitable denunciators,)
I am free to assert, that we have as many honest
men, pretty women, healthy children, cultivated
fields, convenient houses, elegant kinds of furniture,
and comfortable clothes, as any generation
of our ancestors ever possessed. “I am glad you are come back so soon.—
My sister—your wife—was cast down in your absence.
But I could not blame her—for I remember
when Shanalow, my husband, went first to
hunt, after our marriage, I was disconsolate, and
dreamed every night of evil till he returned. He
is now gone to his fathers, and shall never more
return. But he died of a breast-wound fighting
the Otawas, and our whole tribe has praised
him. The warning which Tonnaleuka had given
Charles to be circumspect in regard to the enemy,
was not lost upon him. He employed Paddy
Frazier as a scout to hover round the French station
at Le Bœuf in order to watch their motions
and give him the earliest intelligence of their
design. He also kept four or five of his men
constantly employed in ranging on horseback,
those quarters of the country from which he could
be suddenly attacked, while the whole of the remainder
were busily engaged in digging trenches,
and preparing long pointed stakes to fix in the
ground to form their stoccade fortification. From
the friendly Indians he at first rceived considerable
aid in forwarding his works; but in a few
days he began to perceive their ardour in his behalf
to diminish; and suspecting that they had
imbided some unfriendly feeling towards him, he
thought proper to visit king Shingiss, and expostulate
with him on the subject. “My persuading you to submit, at this time,
to a residence in a dark subterraneous cell, is a
proof how anxious I am for your safety. You
will, no doubt, feel your situation lonely and disagreeable;
but I hope the necessity for it will not
be of long continuance; and, in the meanwhile,
in order to relieve its tediousness as much as possible,
I shall send you a supply of such books as I
possess, best suited for your entertainment. You
may be also assured, that our family will let you
want for nothing in their power to afford you
comfort. “We, the officers of the Virginia regiment, are
highly sensible of the particular mark of distinction
with which you have honoured us in returning
your thanks for our behaviour in the late action;
and cannot help testifying our grateful acknowledgments
for your “high sense” of what we
shall always esteem a duty to our country and the
best of kings. “Dear Sir—The progress we have made in the
transaction, in which your son and my niece were
to be the parties disposed of, had induced me to
hope for a speedy and final settlement of the affair;
but I am sorry to say, that owing to some
misadventure on the part of your son, the bargain
is likely to fail on your side. My niece,
which was the part of the concern for which I
stood engaged, is still substantial and ready for delivery,
when the equivalent shall be forthcoming,
and the demand made. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 117 | Author: | Morris
George Pope
1802-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The little Frenchman and his water lots, with other sketches of the times | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | How much real comfort every one might enjoy,
if he would be contented with the lot in which
heaven has cast him, and how much trouble would
be avoided if people would only “let well alone.”
A moderate independence, quietly and honestly
procured, is certainly every way preferable even to
immense possessions achieved by the wear and tear
of mind and body so necessary to procure them.
Yet there are very few individuals, let them be
doing ever so well in the world, who are not always
straining every nerve to do better; and this is one
of the many causes why failures in business so
frequently occur among us. The present generation
seem unwilling to “realize” by slow and sure
degrees; but choose rather to set their whole hopes
upon a single cast, which either makes or mars them
for ever! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 118 | Author: | Neal
John
1793-1876 | Add | | | Title: | The Down-easters, &c. &c. &c | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | We were on our way from Philadelphia to Baltimore,
in the beautiful month of May, 1814; our boat
crowded with passengers, the oddest collection you
ever saw, and the British lying not far off in considerable
force; and yet, so assured were we of our ability to
escape, as not even to be kept awake by our dangerous
neighborhood. The war, chess, politics, flirting,
pushpin, tetotum, and jackstraws, (cards being prohibited,)
newspapers and religious tracts, had all been
tried, and all in vain to relieve the insipidity of a
pleasant passage, and keep off the drowsiness that
weighed upon our spirits like the rich overloaded
atmosphere of a spice-island, breathing about a soft
summer sea. Even the huge negroes felt and enjoyed
the delicious warmth, as they lay stretched out, heads
and points, over the piles of split wood, with their fat
shiny faces turned up to the sky, and their broad feet
stiffening in the shadow. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 119 | Author: | Neal
John
1793-1876 | Add | | | Title: | The Down-easters, &c. &c. &c | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Such was the “terrible letter”! such the very
words of a part which fell upon me, with a power
which no language can describe. And yet, I do believe
I showed no emotion before the girl who brought
me the message of death—I mean what I say—the
message of death; I believe too that I spoke in my usual
voice, and I know that I did not shed a tear, and that
I have not shed a tear since—I hope never to shed
one while I breathe, for the perfidy of that woman.
It was not—oh no!—it was not the losing a
marriage with her, it was not even the losing of her
heart, for I could have borne both, I believe, with a
smile, if she had treated me as I deserve to be treated
by those I love—no—no!—it was neither—it was
the losing of my faith in her that I was ready to worship—and
now I remember a passage in her letter
which I had forgotten before—“I know that you love
me,” said she. “This will be a terrible blow, for you
had set up an image in your heart for worship”—and
so I had! and she broke that image to pieces; and
with it, every hope I had on earth, for every hope I
had on earth was connected in some way or other
with my belief in her exalted virtue, her generosity,
and her truth. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 120 | Author: | Neal
Joseph C.
(Joseph Clay)
1807-1847 | Add | | | Title: | Peter Ploddy, and other oddities | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Let no one be unjust to Ploddy—to Peter Ploddy,
once “young man” to Mr. Figgs, the grocer, and now
junior partner of the flourishing firm of Figgs and
Ploddy. Though addicted a little to complaint, and apt
to institute comparisons unfavourable to himself, it would
be a harsh judgment to set him down as ever having
been envious, in the worst sense of the word. It is true,
no doubt, that at the period of his life concerning which
we are now called upon to speak, a certain degree of
discontent with his own position occasionally embittered
his reflections; but he had no wish to deprive others of
the advantage they possessed, nor did he hate them on
the score of their supposed superiority. It was not his
inclination to drag men down, let them be situated as
loftily as they might; and whatever of vexation or perplexity
he experienced in contemplating their elevation, arose
altogether from the fact that he could not clearly understand
why he should not be up there too. It was not
productive of pleasurable sensations to Ploddy, to see
folks splashed who were more elegantly attired than himself.
He never laughed from a window over the disastrous
results of a sudden shower; nor could he find it in
his heart to hope it would rain when his neighbours set
gayly forth on a rural excursion. It is a question, indeed,
whether it had been a source of satisfaction to him to see
any one's name on a list of bankrupts. The sheriff's advertisements
of property “seized and taken in execution,”
were never conned over with delight by Peter Ploddy;
and when the entertainments given in his section of the
town were as splendid as luxury and profusion could
make them, it was yet possible for Peter to turn in his bed
at the sound of the music and of the merriment, without
a snarl about “there you go,” and without a hint that
there are headaches in store for the gentlemen, with a
sufficient variety of coughs and colds for the ladies. He
never said, because an invitation had not been addressed
to Ploddy, that affairs of this sort make work for the
doctors. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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