4. CHAPTER IV.
Containing two letters in very different stiles
"MY WORTHY FRIEND,-
"I informed you in my last that I was forbidden
the use of the waters, as they were found by experience rather to
increase than lessen the symptoms of my distemper. I must now acquaint
you with a piece of news, which, I believe, will afflict my friends
more than it hath afflicted me. Dr. Harrington and Dr. Brewster have
informed me that there is no hopes of my recovery.
"I have somewhere read, that the great use of philosophy is to
learn to die. I will not therefore so far disgrace mine, as to show
any surprize at receiving a lesson which I must be thought to have
so long studied. Yet, to say the truth, one page of the Gospel teaches
this lesson better than all the volumes of antient or modern
philosophers. The assurance it gives us of another life is a much
stronger support to a good mind, than all the consolations that are
drawn from the necessity of nature, the emptiness or satiety of our
enjoyments here, or any other topic of those declamations which are
sometimes capable of arming our minds with a stubborn patience in
bearing the thoughts of death, but never of raising them to a real
contempt of it, and much less of making us think it is a real good.
I would not here be understood to throw the horrid censure of atheism,
or even the absolute denial of immortality, on all who are called
philosophers. Many of that sect, as well antient as modern, have, from
the light of reason, discovered some hopes of a future state; but in
reality, that light was so faint and glimmering, and the hopes were so
incertain and precarious, that it may be justly doubted on which
side their belief turned. Plato himself concludes his Phaedon with
declaring, that his best arguments amount only to raise a probability;
and Cicero himself seems rather to profess an inclination to
believe, than any actual belief in the doctrines of immortality. As to
myself, to be very sincere with you, I never was much in earnest in
this faith till I was in earnest a Christian.
"You will perhaps wonder at the latter expression; but I assure you
it hath not been till very lately that I could, with truth, call
myself so. The pride of philosophy had intoxicated my reason, and
the sublimest of all wisdom appeared to me, as it did to the Greeks of
old, to be foolishness. God hath, however, been so gracious to show me
my error in time, and to bring me into the way of truth, before I sunk
into utter darkness for ever.
"I find myself beginning to grow weak, I shall therefore hasten to
the main purpose of this letter.
"When I reflect on the actions of my past life, I know of nothing
which sits heavier upon my conscience than the injustice I have been
guilty of to that poor wretch, your adopted son. I have, indeed, not
only connived at the villany of others, but been myself active in
injustice towards him. Believe me, my dear friend, when I tell you, on
the word of a dying man, he hath been basely injured. As to the
principal fact, upon the misrepresentation of which you discarded him,
I solemnly assure you he is innocent. When you lay upon your
supposed deathbed, he was the only person in the house who testified
any real concern; and what happened afterwards arose from the wildness
of his joy on your recovery; and, I am sorry to say it, from the
baseness of another person (but it is my desire to justify the
innocent, and to accuse none). Believe me, my friend, this young man
hath the noblest generosity of heart, the most perfect capacity for
friendship, the highest integrity, and indeed every virtue which can
ennoble a man. He hath some faults, but among them is not to be
numbered the least want of duty or gratitude towards you. On the
contrary, I am satisfied, when you dismissed him from your house,
his heart bled for you more than for himself.
"Worldly motives were the wicked and base reasons of my concealing
this from you so long: to reveal it now I can have no inducement but
the desire of serving the cause of truth, of doing right to the
innocent, and of making all the amends in my Power for a past offence.
I hope this declaration, therefore, will have the effect desired,
and will restore this deserving young man to your favour; the
hearing of which, while I am yet alive, will afford the utmost
consolation to,
Sir,
Your most obliged,
obedient humble servant,
"THOMAS SQUARE"
The reader will, after this, scarce wonder at the revolution so
visibly appearing in Mr. Allworthy, notwithstanding he received from
Thwackum, by the same post, another letter of a very different kind,
which we shall here add, as it may possibly be the last time we
shall have occasion to mention the name of that gentleman.
"SIR,
"I am not at all surprized at hearing form your worthy nephew a fresh
instance of the villany of Mr. Square the atheist's young pupil. I
shall not wonder at any murders he may commit; and I heartily pray
that your own blood may not seal up his final commitment to the
place of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
"Though you cannot want sufficient calls to repentance for the many
unwarrantable weaknesses exemplified in your behaviour to this wretch,
so much to the prejudice of your own lawful family, and of your
character, I say, though these may sufficiently be supposed to prick
and goad your conscience at this season, I should yet be wanting to my
duty, if I spared to give you some admonition in order to bring you to
a due sense of your errors. I therefore pray you seriously to consider
the judgment which is likely to overtake this wicked villain; and
let it serve at least as a warning to you, that you may not for the
future despise the advice of one who is so indefatigable in his
prayers for your welfare.
"Had not my hand been withheld from due correction, I had scourged
much of this diabolical spirit out of a boy, of whom, from his
infancy, I discovered the devil had taken such entire possession.
But reflections of this kind now come too late.
"I am sorry you have given away the living of Westerton so hastily. I
should have applied on that occasion earlier, had I thought you
would not have acquainted me previous to the disposition.-- Your
objection to pluralities is being righteous over-much. If there were
any crime in the practice, so many godly men would not agree to it. If
the vicar of Aldergrove should die (as we hear he is in a declining
way), I hope you will think of me, since I am certain you must be
convinced of my most sincere attachment to your highest welfare- a
welfare to which all worldly considerations are as trifling as the
small tithes mentioned in Scripture are, when compared to the
weighty matters of the law.
"I am, sir,
Your faithful humble servant,
"ROGER THWACKUM"
This was the first time Thwackum ever wrote in this authoritative
stile to Allworthy, and of this he had afterwards sufficient reason to
repent, as in the case of those who mistake the highest degree of
goodness for the lowest degree of weakness. Allworthy had indeed never
liked this man. He knew him to be proud and ill-natured; he also
knew that his divinity itself was tinctured with his temper, and
such as in many respects he himself did by no means approve; but he
was at the same time an excellent scholar, and most indefatigable in
teaching the two lads. Add to this, the strict severity of his life
and manners, an unimpeached honesty, and a most devout attachment to
religion. So that, upon the whole, though Allworthy did not esteem nor
love the man, yet he could never bring himself to part with a tutor to
the boys, who was, both by learning and industry, extremely well
qualified for his office; and he hoped, that as they were bred up in
his own house, and under his own eye, he should be able to correct
whatever was wrong in Thwackum's instructions.