Wait till, like me, you have blighted your fairest hopes--have
endured humiliation and sorrow--poverty and insult--before you pretend
to judge of their effect on you!
endured humiliation and sorrow--poverty and insult--before you pretend
to judge of their effect on you!
Byron
]
[177] ["'And who,' said he, 'has entitled you to brand thus with
ignominious epithets a being you do not know? Who . . . has taught you
that it would be safe even for my son to insult me? '--'It is not
necessary to know the person of a ruffian,' replied Conrad, indignantly,
'to give him the appellation he merits:--and what is there in common
between my father and such a character? '--'_Everything_,' said
Siegendorf, bitterly,--'for that ruffian was your father! '"--Ibid. , p.
204. ]
[178] {382}["'Conrad . . . before you thus presume to chastise me with your
eye, learn to understand my actions! Young, and inexperienced in the
world--reposing hitherto in the bosom of indulgence and luxury, is it
for _you_ to judge of the impulse of the passions, or the temptations of
misery?
Wait till, like me, you have blighted your fairest hopes--have
endured humiliation and sorrow--poverty and insult--before you pretend
to judge of their effect on you! Should that miserable day ever
arrive--should you see the being at your mercy who stands between you
and everything that is dear or noble in life! --who is ready to tear from
you your name--your inheritance--your very life itself--congratulate
your own heart, if, like me, you are content with petty plunder, and are
not tempted to exterminate a serpent, who now lives, perhaps to sting us
all. '"--_Canterbury Tales_, by Sophia and Harriet Lee, 1838, ii. 204,
205. ]
[179] {383}["'You do not know this man,' continued he; 'I do! --I believe
him to be mean--sordid--deceitful! You will conceive yourself safe,
because you are young and brave! Learn, however, . . . none are so secure
but desperation or subtilty may reach them! Stralenheim, in the palace
of a prince, was in my power! My knife was held over him--a single
moment would have swept him from the face of the earth, and with him all
my future fears:--I forbore--and I am now in his. --Are you certain that
you are not so too? Who assures you he does not know you?
[177] ["'And who,' said he, 'has entitled you to brand thus with
ignominious epithets a being you do not know? Who . . . has taught you
that it would be safe even for my son to insult me? '--'It is not
necessary to know the person of a ruffian,' replied Conrad, indignantly,
'to give him the appellation he merits:--and what is there in common
between my father and such a character? '--'_Everything_,' said
Siegendorf, bitterly,--'for that ruffian was your father! '"--Ibid. , p.
204. ]
[178] {382}["'Conrad . . . before you thus presume to chastise me with your
eye, learn to understand my actions! Young, and inexperienced in the
world--reposing hitherto in the bosom of indulgence and luxury, is it
for _you_ to judge of the impulse of the passions, or the temptations of
misery?
Wait till, like me, you have blighted your fairest hopes--have
endured humiliation and sorrow--poverty and insult--before you pretend
to judge of their effect on you! Should that miserable day ever
arrive--should you see the being at your mercy who stands between you
and everything that is dear or noble in life! --who is ready to tear from
you your name--your inheritance--your very life itself--congratulate
your own heart, if, like me, you are content with petty plunder, and are
not tempted to exterminate a serpent, who now lives, perhaps to sting us
all. '"--_Canterbury Tales_, by Sophia and Harriet Lee, 1838, ii. 204,
205. ]
[179] {383}["'You do not know this man,' continued he; 'I do! --I believe
him to be mean--sordid--deceitful! You will conceive yourself safe,
because you are young and brave! Learn, however, . . . none are so secure
but desperation or subtilty may reach them! Stralenheim, in the palace
of a prince, was in my power! My knife was held over him--a single
moment would have swept him from the face of the earth, and with him all
my future fears:--I forbore--and I am now in his. --Are you certain that
you are not so too? Who assures you he does not know you?
