My neighbor Sykes covered up his well after his child
was drowned in it, and was very busy down at the Old Farm bringing up
buckets of water after every stick of the house had been burned; one of
these days, he'll be for making his will when he can't hold a pen, and
he'll be trying to repent of his sins when his senses are going.
FAULTS.
He who boasts of being perfect is perfect in folly. I have been a good
deal up and down in the world, and I never did see either a perfect
horse or a perfect man, and I never shall till two Sundays come
together. You can not get white flour out of a coal sack, nor perfection
out of human nature; he who looks for it had better look for sugar in
the sea. The old saying is, "Lifeless, faultless;" of dead men we should
say nothing but good; but as for the living, they are all tarred more or
less with the black brush, and half an eye can see it. Every head has a
soft place in it, and every heart has its black drop. Every rose has its
prickles, and every day its night. Even the sun shows spots, and the
skies are darkened with clouds. Nobody is so wise but he has folly
enough to stock a stall at Vanity Fair. Where I could not see the fool's
cap, I have nevertheless heard the bells jingle. As there is no sunshine
without some shadows, so is all human good mixed up with more or less of
evil; even poor-law guardians have their little failings, and parish
beadles are not wholly of heavenly nature.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165