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All this may be very true , and very witty , respectable reader , I reply . But understand that I only hint at this unhappy condition of mine , that yon may be prepared for something that may be perceived loose about my impartments . However , have patience , and my experience of signs—metaphysic and otherwise— -may profit you .
Whether this world be a sham or not , is neither your affair nor mine , my good friend , so long as we can both live in it . This , for my part , I have found difficult , I assure you . But despise me not on that account ; though I regret , almost as soon as it is said , that I made you my confidant about it . However , I shall succeed one of
these days . I am waiting , as well for money as for the discovery of most other unknown things , until I can mount some philosophical windmill , —that which shall raise me fairly out of and over the world , and , taken upon whose arms , shall whirl wonderfully , —perhaps very foolishly , but very profitably .
It had long occurred to me , that most of the characters with which we meet in this turnpike and trading world of ours , are mere outlines , which toother man ' s mind , itself , fills in . In the last century , when London was literally a more open-hearted place than it is now , and when really people ' s characters stood distinct outside , it was the fashion , all through the streets , to hang signs . You had no number , then , to
your door , —you had a sign over it . This , letting alone the pictorial effect , was the honestest way of informing people what sort of folk the indwellers were . It was your public advertisement , and saved professions . Yon did your hypocrisy by paintedwood;—and savedmuch . For who , under the " Lion" —white , black , or red—would expect to meet , at the door , a very lamb of a man—innocent , submissive ,
ready to black your shoes , and a water-drinker ?—only a tyrant to his own wife ;—only , perhaps , lordly and compelling where he had a chance—to poor puss behind the door . Or who , between the windows of a first-floor descrying the sign or symbol of the " Three Cups , " or the " Infant Bacchus , " squeezing his grapes and galloping a butt to
utter flying off of staves—who , I say , seeing such a sign of top-heaviness or topsyfcurviness — would expect to meet , as the withinside owner , Master Peter Muggleton ; he who , with lean jaws , sings psalms , and indulgeth in starched Puritan band , and black most unmistakably Calvinistic coif ? Mountains are not always in labour , nor find you always mice of heart under the " Castle , " termagants in the cloak of the " Patient G-rissel , " very dwarfs behind the shield of
the " Goliath of Gath , " or much pity , dropping to earth like heavendescended rain , from the " Angel . " No , men—and they were wise too for it—chose their signs as they did their wives ! This for something conformable to themselves . They turned their hearts inside out , and hung these pictures as
something answering to their own notions of what was right , as something , therefore , respondent to themselves . These they endeavoured to make explanatory and indicative of their own natures ; or , at least , of their own ideas of their natures . Thus society , in the days of signs , was more candid , more honest , more truth-telling , more
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
All this may be very true , and very witty , respectable reader , I reply . But understand that I only hint at this unhappy condition of mine , that yon may be prepared for something that may be perceived loose about my impartments . However , have patience , and my experience of signs—metaphysic and otherwise— -may profit you .
Whether this world be a sham or not , is neither your affair nor mine , my good friend , so long as we can both live in it . This , for my part , I have found difficult , I assure you . But despise me not on that account ; though I regret , almost as soon as it is said , that I made you my confidant about it . However , I shall succeed one of
these days . I am waiting , as well for money as for the discovery of most other unknown things , until I can mount some philosophical windmill , —that which shall raise me fairly out of and over the world , and , taken upon whose arms , shall whirl wonderfully , —perhaps very foolishly , but very profitably .
It had long occurred to me , that most of the characters with which we meet in this turnpike and trading world of ours , are mere outlines , which toother man ' s mind , itself , fills in . In the last century , when London was literally a more open-hearted place than it is now , and when really people ' s characters stood distinct outside , it was the fashion , all through the streets , to hang signs . You had no number , then , to
your door , —you had a sign over it . This , letting alone the pictorial effect , was the honestest way of informing people what sort of folk the indwellers were . It was your public advertisement , and saved professions . Yon did your hypocrisy by paintedwood;—and savedmuch . For who , under the " Lion" —white , black , or red—would expect to meet , at the door , a very lamb of a man—innocent , submissive ,
ready to black your shoes , and a water-drinker ?—only a tyrant to his own wife ;—only , perhaps , lordly and compelling where he had a chance—to poor puss behind the door . Or who , between the windows of a first-floor descrying the sign or symbol of the " Three Cups , " or the " Infant Bacchus , " squeezing his grapes and galloping a butt to
utter flying off of staves—who , I say , seeing such a sign of top-heaviness or topsyfcurviness — would expect to meet , as the withinside owner , Master Peter Muggleton ; he who , with lean jaws , sings psalms , and indulgeth in starched Puritan band , and black most unmistakably Calvinistic coif ? Mountains are not always in labour , nor find you always mice of heart under the " Castle , " termagants in the cloak of the " Patient G-rissel , " very dwarfs behind the shield of
the " Goliath of Gath , " or much pity , dropping to earth like heavendescended rain , from the " Angel . " No , men—and they were wise too for it—chose their signs as they did their wives ! This for something conformable to themselves . They turned their hearts inside out , and hung these pictures as
something answering to their own notions of what was right , as something , therefore , respondent to themselves . These they endeavoured to make explanatory and indicative of their own natures ; or , at least , of their own ideas of their natures . Thus society , in the days of signs , was more candid , more honest , more truth-telling , more