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Article REFLECTIONS ON HISTORY. ← Page 2 of 2 Article ON THE POWER OF HABIT. Page 1 of 3 →
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Reflections On History.
But History is often deficient in this respect , as the actions of men do not always meet with their due recompence in this life . There we see the cowardly and cruel Octavius ( raised to the empire by a series of craft and dissimulation , dignified with the pompous title of Augustus , and loaded with all the fulsome flatteries which the learned parasites of his court could invent ) sit triumphant on the ruins of his country ' s freedom : a CatoBrutusand Leonidasare there
likewise-, , , seen , falling in defence of the liberty of their country . _ The aid of Romance , therefore , was called in to supply the deficiencies of History ; and , whereas the noblest characters " have often great blemishes , which , were they silently passed over , would arraign the veracity of an historian ; in Romance the writer is at liberty to draw the most perfect character his imagination can formto revvard
; , the good , and punish ihe bad ; to draw virtue in an amiable , and vice in an odious , light . When these ends are observed , fictitious are , in this respect , preferable to real histories : for the hitter can onl y shew us what men are ; the former , what they ought to be . But , in our modern novels , the fashionable levities are applauded , * and the uncout hness of rigid virtue ridiculed : there the superannu-*
ated debauchee transmits the most licentious actions of hislife , for the imitation of posterity : there , too , the most abandoned prostitute stalks forth , triumphant , the Julia , or Messalina , of her age . That the bulk of our present Romances are written on these principles , is too evident to every impartial reader ; and that , instead of exhibiting examples worthy of imitation , they tend to deprave the taste , and infect the morals , of the rising generation . Aug . 2 , 179 6 . 33 .
On The Power Of Habit.
ON THE POWER OF HABIT .
To ihe EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE . sis , T HAVE been thirty-five years in pursuit of happiness , and , like x most other mortals engaged in the same chace , find myself thrown out it and distant from the object at first
, as were , as as my starting . 'You must know , Sir , that , at the age of ' eighteen , I came to tins great metropolis , consigned to the care of a rich uncle in a wholesale way of business . My attention and assiduity recommended me to his favour ; and , after the expiration of eight years , during which time J h < id served him with diligence and fidelity , he took the resolution , being then in his 6 ad yearof retiring into the countryand
, , put me in possession of his trade and warehouse . For twenty years I pursued his steps with all the care , and ( as the fashionable word is ) ( economy , that I was master of . During these twenty years of labour and fatigue , J was constantly envying the happy situation of my uncle ' s retirement , and painted ' in my mind ten thousand beau-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reflections On History.
But History is often deficient in this respect , as the actions of men do not always meet with their due recompence in this life . There we see the cowardly and cruel Octavius ( raised to the empire by a series of craft and dissimulation , dignified with the pompous title of Augustus , and loaded with all the fulsome flatteries which the learned parasites of his court could invent ) sit triumphant on the ruins of his country ' s freedom : a CatoBrutusand Leonidasare there
likewise-, , , seen , falling in defence of the liberty of their country . _ The aid of Romance , therefore , was called in to supply the deficiencies of History ; and , whereas the noblest characters " have often great blemishes , which , were they silently passed over , would arraign the veracity of an historian ; in Romance the writer is at liberty to draw the most perfect character his imagination can formto revvard
; , the good , and punish ihe bad ; to draw virtue in an amiable , and vice in an odious , light . When these ends are observed , fictitious are , in this respect , preferable to real histories : for the hitter can onl y shew us what men are ; the former , what they ought to be . But , in our modern novels , the fashionable levities are applauded , * and the uncout hness of rigid virtue ridiculed : there the superannu-*
ated debauchee transmits the most licentious actions of hislife , for the imitation of posterity : there , too , the most abandoned prostitute stalks forth , triumphant , the Julia , or Messalina , of her age . That the bulk of our present Romances are written on these principles , is too evident to every impartial reader ; and that , instead of exhibiting examples worthy of imitation , they tend to deprave the taste , and infect the morals , of the rising generation . Aug . 2 , 179 6 . 33 .
On The Power Of Habit.
ON THE POWER OF HABIT .
To ihe EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE . sis , T HAVE been thirty-five years in pursuit of happiness , and , like x most other mortals engaged in the same chace , find myself thrown out it and distant from the object at first
, as were , as as my starting . 'You must know , Sir , that , at the age of ' eighteen , I came to tins great metropolis , consigned to the care of a rich uncle in a wholesale way of business . My attention and assiduity recommended me to his favour ; and , after the expiration of eight years , during which time J h < id served him with diligence and fidelity , he took the resolution , being then in his 6 ad yearof retiring into the countryand
, , put me in possession of his trade and warehouse . For twenty years I pursued his steps with all the care , and ( as the fashionable word is ) ( economy , that I was master of . During these twenty years of labour and fatigue , J was constantly envying the happy situation of my uncle ' s retirement , and painted ' in my mind ten thousand beau-