登陆注册
5246000000022

第22章 Chapter 2

Religious cautions against showing too much favour to bastards;and a great discovery made by Mrs. Deborah Wilkins Eight months after the celebration of the nuptials between Captain Blifil and Miss Bridget Allworthy, a young lady of great beauty, merit, and fortune, was Miss Bridget, by reason of a fright, delivered of a fine boy. The child was indeed to all appearances perfect; but the midwife discovered it was born a month before its full time.

Though the birth of an heir by his beloved sister was a circumstance of great joy to Mr. Allworthy, yet it did not alienate his affections from the little foundling, to whom he had been godfather, had given his own name of Thomas, and whom he had hitherto seldom failed of visiting, at least once a day, in his nursery.

He told his sister, if she pleased, the newborn infant should be bred up together with little Tommy; to which she consented, though with some little reluctance: for she had truly a great complacence for her brother; and hence she had always behaved towards the foundling with rather more kindness than ladies of rigid virtue can sometimes bring themselves to show to these children, who, however innocent, may be truly called the living monuments of incontinence.

The captain could not so easily bring himself to bear what he condemned as a fault in Mr. Allworthy. He gave him frequent hints, that to adopt the fruits of sin, was to give countenance to it. He quoted several texts (for he was well read in Scripture), such as, He visits the sins of the fathers upon the children; and the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and children's teeth are set on edge, &c.

Whence he argued the legality of punishing the crime of the parent on the bastard. He said, "Though the law did not positively allow the destroying such base-born children, yet it held them to be the children of nobody; that the Church considered them as the children of nobody; and that at the best, they ought to be brought up to the lowest and vilest offices of the commonwealth."Mr. Allworthy answered to all this, and much more, which the captain had urged on this subject, "That, however guilty the parents might be, the children were certainly innocent: that as to the texts he had quoted, the former of them was a particular denunciation against the jews, for the sin of idolatry, of relinquishing and hating their heavenly King; and the latter was parabolically spoken, and rather intended to denote the certain and necessary consequences of sin, than any express judgment against it. But to represent the Almighty as avenging the sins of the guilty on the innocent, was indecent, if not blasphemous, as it to represent him acting against the first principles of natural justice, and against the original notions of right and wrong, which he himself had implanted in our minds; by which we were to judge not only in all matters which were not revealed, but even of the truth of revelation itself." He said he knew many held the same principles with the captain on this head; but he was himself firmly convinced to the contrary, and would provide in the same manner for this poor infant, as if a legitimate child had had fortune to have been found in the same place.

While the captain was taking all opportunities to press these and such like arguments, to remove the little foundling from Mr.

Allworthy's, of whose fondness for him he began to be jealous, Mrs.

Deborah had made a discovery, which, in its event, threatened at least to prove more fatal to poor Tommy than all the reasonings of the captain.

Whether the insatiable curiosity of this good woman had carried her on to that business, or whether she did it to confirm herself in the good graces of Mrs. Blifil, who, notwithstanding her outward behaviour to the foundling, frequently abused the infant in private, and her brother too, for his fondness to it, I will not determine; but she had now, as she conceived, fully detected the father of the foundling.

Now, as this was a discovery of great consequence, it may be necessary to trace it from the fountain-head. We shall therefore very minutely lay open those previous matters by which it was produced; and for that purpose we shall be obliged to reveal all the secrets of a little family with which my reader is at present entirely unacquainted; and of which the oeconomy was so rare and extraordinary, that I fear it will shock the utmost credulity of many married persons.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 释迦牟尼如来像法灭尽之记

    释迦牟尼如来像法灭尽之记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上灵宝玉匮明真大斋忏方仪

    太上灵宝玉匮明真大斋忏方仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 孀妹殊遇

    孀妹殊遇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 带队伍:中基层管理者战斗力法则

    带队伍:中基层管理者战斗力法则

    《带队伍(中基层管理者战斗力法则)》主要从员工激励方式出发,通过分析当下管理者面临的挑战,层次清楚、条理分明地阐述了如何唤起团队激情、描绘团队愿景,并介绍了改变团队现状、设定团队目标的方法,在帮助管理者看到自身角色重要性的同时,还为管理者提供了打造阶段性成果、明确内部责任和利用期望信任激励等实际工具。
  • 女鬼大人跟我走

    女鬼大人跟我走

    点背不能怨社会,谁特么的想到房子墙里还能遇见腐尸!我发誓我关于这尸体毛都不知道!可是尸体被带走后,床上多出的小美女是怎么回事……我连女鬼都上了,还有什么不敢的…
  • 力量全集

    力量全集

    本书讲述的是一套开发人体潜能的方法。这套方法可以开发人体内蕴含的一种神奇力量,历史上的许多伟人如达芬奇、爱迪生、爱默生、牛顿、苏格拉底、歌德、雨果等都曾凭借这种力量取得了前所未有的成就。在过去的千百年间,这种获取力量的方法一直鲜为人知。而本书中告诉你的,恰恰就是获取这种神秘力量的方法。它可以激发你的潜能,帮助你得到你想要的东西一一财富、健康、幸福以及成功。通过学习这本集量子物理学、心理学、宇宙学、精神学、玄秘学的惊世之作,你将获得主宰人生的强大力量。
  • 少年中国说

    少年中国说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 我的爱在这里

    我的爱在这里

    全新的生活,全新的开始,告别了大山,再次来到都市的上官婉君突然感觉有些不太适应的看着矗立在城市的各个角落的高楼大厦。这跟大山里的砖瓦平方相比,简直就是一擎冲天的摩天之塔。独属夏日的那烈阳光,向四周散落了难以逝去的浮热。这座城,那栋房,记载着属于她们的故事。
  • 重生之九龙寨主

    重生之九龙寨主

    【自荐新书:重生武林大至尊】至于此书,小生因经验不足所造成的毒点较多,无心再续。以后会以同样剧情,另开一本以了九龙寨主之名。如果我说这本不是重生文,你们肯定不相信……没错,这就是一本重生武侠,讲述天才韩风穿越之后的雄霸故事。酒在池中三分温,剑在江湖三尺长!书友群:我不告诉你,嘤嘤嘤。
  • 你是暮光里的伊始

    你是暮光里的伊始

    我可以为你放下文笔,化身痞子,也可以为你内敛痞气,写诗作对。可最后才发现,动了情的痞子,竟再无提刀的勇气。