Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papersshalt not be drowned: thou shalt have a fever only; aknowledge of thy danger; and a chance—ever so smalla chance—of repentance.” I wonder whether he did repentwhen he found himself in the yellow-fever, in Virginia?The probability is, he fancied that his son hadinjured him very much, and forgave him on his deathbed.Do you imagine there is a great deal of genuineright-down remorse in the world? Don’t people ratherfind excuses which make their minds easy; endeavor toprove to themselves that they have been lamentablybelied and misunderstood; and try and forgive the persecutorswho will present that bill when it is due; andnot bear malice against the cruel ruffian who takes themto the police-office for stealing the spoons? Years ago Ihad a quarrel with a certain well-known person (I believeda statement regarding him which his friends impartedto me, and which turned out to be quite incorrect).To his dying day that quarrel was never quitemade up. I said to his brother, “Why is your brother’ssoul still dark against me? It is I who ought to be angryand unforgiving: for I was in the wrong.” In the regionwhich they now inhabit (for Finis has been set to thevolumes of the lives of both here below), if they takeany cognizance of our squabbles, and tittle-tattles, andgossips on earth here, I hope they admit that my littleerror was not of a nature unpardonable. If you havenever committed a worse, my good sir, surely the scoreagainst you will not be heavy. Ha, dilectissimi fratres!It is in regard of sins not found out that we may say orsing (in an undertone, in a most penitent and lugubriousminor key), Miserere nobis miseris peccatoribus.Among the sins of commission which novel-writersnot seldom perpetrate, is the sin of grandiloquence, ortall-talking, against which, for my part, I will offer up aspecial libera me. This is the sin of schoolmasters, governesses,critics, sermoners, and instructors of young orold people. Nay (for I am making a clean breast, andliberating my soul), perhaps of all the novel-spinnersnow extant, the present speaker is the most addicted topreaching. Does he not stop perpetually in his storyand begin to preach to you? When he ought to be engagedwith business, is he not for ever taking the Muse240