Online Casino Players.com

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

 CHAPTER XI. page 67

`Much of this would do for a patriot and philanthropist of the
highest class--for a Pym, a Hampden, or a Wilberforce; or, we
could fancy, a son of Andrew Marvell, vowing over his grave "to
endeavour to imitate the virtues and emulate the self-sacrificing
patriotism of so estimable a parent, and so good a man." But we
can hardly fancy, we cannot leave, a son of Duncombe in such a
frame of mind. We cannot say to _HIM_--

Macte nova virtute, puer; sic itur ad astra.
"In virtue renewed go on; thus to the skies we go."

We are unfeignedly reluctant to check a filial effusion, or to
tell disagreeable truths; but there are occasions when a sense of
public duty imperatively requires them to be told.

`Why did this exemplary parent die poor? When did he abandon the
allurements of a patrician circle? He died poor because he
wasted a fine fortune. If he abandoned a patrician circle,
it was because he was tired of it, or thought he could make a
better thing of democracy. If he conquered his passions, it was,
like St Evremond--by indulging them.

page 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79