One who is born with
such congenital incapacity that nothing can make a gentleman of him is
entitled, not to our wrath, but to our profoundest sympathy. But as we
cannot help hating the sight of these people, just as we do that of
physical deformities, we gradually eliminate them from our society,--we
love them, but open the window and let them go. By the time decent people
reach middle age they have weeded their circle pretty well of these
unfortunates, unless they have a taste for such animals; in which case, no
matter what their position may be, there is something, you may be sure, in
their natures akin to that of their wretched parasites.
----The divinity-student wished to know what I thought of affinities, as
well as of antipathies; did I believe in love at first sight?
Sir,--said I,--all men love all women. That is the _prima-facie_ aspect of
the case. The Court of Nature assumes the law to be, that all men do so;
and the individual man is bound to show cause why he does not love any
particular woman. A man, says one of my old black-letter law-books, may
show divers good reasons, as thus; He hath not seen the person named in
the indictment; she is of tender age, or the reverse of that; she hath
certain personal disqualifications,--as, for instance, she is a
blackamoor, or hath an ill-favored countenance; or, his capacity of loving
being limited, his affections are engrossed by a previous comer; and so of
other conditions.
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