Agnostic

An Agnostic's Progress from the Known to the Unknown

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884. Excerpt: ... called " hells;" but in a higher sphere men talked of their debts of honour. The wretched boozing dens of Beer Street and Gin Lane had representatives in fine streets or palace-like buildings, where richer men might drink to excess. Poor pawnshops, where the reckless and the destitute pledged their scanty possessions at ruinous rates of interest, had first cousins of an outwardly decent character in better localities. While low bullies, and burglars, and pickpockets made a precarious living with violence and cunning fingers, and were in the end generally severely punished by a law which showed little mercy to the poorer classes of criminals, gigantic swindlers, singly or in bands, appeared to rob whole communities unchecked and unpunished. While Meretrix stood nightly under the gas with painted cheeks and tawdry finery, Hetaira, richly dressed, rolled in a luxurious carriage in the parks, or had an elegant establishment in a pretty suburb of the city. Still, the longer I watched my pilgrim in his life-work in this whirling, seething, vortex of Vanity Fair, the more I could see that he learned, marked, and inwardly digested. Though in the mass the whole of society seemed selfish and corrupt, individuals, when he came to know them, won upon him. In spite of the sneers of the powerful, and the dissuasions of those who had either no hope, or believed in a different panacea for the evils of the place than Quaester's one of simple truth, justice, and sincerity, he saw profit of his labours. He grew stronger, too, through his conflict and his victory. He lost his limp altogether, and walked about swift and vigorous and helpful. All his own struggles with error and superstition aided him in his work; he was quick to see and keen to feel where others were blinded ...