That such a man could have a family, or
family affections, or friendships, or any sense of duty or honor, was to
him a thing incomprehensible; and when he passed the wicket for the
first time into the vestibule of the old Park Theatre, the very usher in
the corridor had to his eye a look like the Giant Dagon, and he
conceived of him as mumbling, in his leisure moments, the flesh from
human bones. And when at last the curtain rose, and the damp air came
out upon him from behind the scenes as he sat in the pit, and the play
began with some wonderful creature in tight bodice and painted cheeks,
sailing across the stage, it seemed to him that the flames of Divine
wrath might presently be bursting out over the house, or a great
judgment of God break down the roof and destroy them all.
But it did not; and he took courage. It is so easy to find courage in
those battles where we take no bodily harm! If conscience, sharpened by
the severe discipline he had known, pricked him awkwardly at the first,
he bore the stings with a good deal of sturdiness. A sinner, no
doubt,--that he knew long ago: a little slip, or indeed no slip at all,
had ranked him with the unregenerate.
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