 | The fiend's delight |  |
Flogging.
It may justly be demanded of the essayist that
he shall give some small thought to the question of
corporal punishment by means of the “cat,” and
“ground-ash.” We have given the subject the
most elaborate attention; we have written page
aftr page upon it. Day and night we have toiled
and perspired over that distressing problem.
Through Summer's sun and Winter's snow, with an
unfaltering purpose, we have strung miles of ink
upon acres of paper, weaving wisdom into eloquence
with the tireless industry of a silkworm fashioning
his cocoon. We have refused food, scorned sleep,
and endured thirst to see our work grow beneath
our cunning hand. The more we wrote the wiser
we became; the opinions of one day were rejected
the next; the blind surmising of yesterday ripened
into the full knowledge of to-day, and this matured
into the superhuman omniscience of this evening.
We have finally got so infernally clever that we
work, and determined to make it a compendium
of everything that is accurately known up to date,
and the bearing of this upon flogging in general.
To other, and inferior, writers it is most fortunate
that our design has taken so wide a scope. These
can go on with their perennial wrangle over the
petty question of penal and educational flagellation,
while we grapple with the higher problem,
and unfold the broader philosophy of an universal
walloping.
| The fiend's delight | |