human
An' ye do? Well, I'm glad I please ye there. Och! yes! the Bible's a mighty comfort; for it says as much that the rich man shall not inter the kingdom of Heaven! There's a truth for you, that makes the poor folk's heart chirp like a cricket--ho! ho! I sits by the imbers of a night, and I thinks and thinks as how I shall see you all burning; and ye'll ask me for a drop o' water, and I shall laugh thin from my pleasant seat with the angels. Och--it's a book for the poor that!
gpt
And you think then that with envy, malice, and all uncharitableness at your heart, you are certain of Heaven? For shame! Pluck the mote from your own eye!
human
What sinnifies praching? Did not the Blessed Saviour come for the poor? Them as has rags and dry bread here will be ixalted in the nixt world; an' if we poor folk have malice as ye calls it, whose fault's that? What do ye tache us? Eh?--answer me that. Ye keeps all the larning an' all the other fine things to yoursel', and then ye scould, and thritten, and hang us, 'cause we are not as wise as you. Och! there is no jistice in the Lamb, if Heaven is not made for us; and the iverlasting Hell, with its brimstone and fire, and its gnawing an' gnashing of teeth, an' its theirst, an' its torture, and its worm that niver dies, for the like o' you.
gpt
Come! come away,
human
And if, said Aram, pausing,
gpt
Umph, returned the hag,
human
and she approached, and familiarly, laid her bony finger on the student's arm;
gpt
I have, woman!
human
Och ye have thin! And did ye not sit and gloat, and eat up your oun heart, an' curse the sun that looked so gay, an' the winged things that played so blithe-like, an' scowl at the rich folk that niver wasted a thought on ye? till me now, your honour, till me!
gpt
I never forgot, even in want, the love due to my fellow-sufferers; for, woman, we all suffer,--the rich and the poor: there are worse pangs than those of want!
human
Ye think there be, do ye? that's a comfort, umph! Well, I'll till ye now, I feel a rispict for you, that I don't for the rest on 'em; for your face does not insult me with being cheary like their's yonder; an' I have noted ye walk in the dusk with your eyes down and your arms crossed; an' I have said,--that man I do not hate, somehow, for he has something dark at his heart like me!
gpt
The lot of earth is woe, answered Aram calmly, yet shrinking back from the crone's touch;
human
Thank your honour: an' what think you I'll do with the money?
gpt
What?
human
Drink, drink, drink! cried the hag fiercely;
gpt
sinking her voice into a whisper,
human
I thinks thin that I have my foot on the billies of the rich folks, and my hands twisted about their intrails, and I hear them shriek, and--thin I'm happy!
gpt
Go home! said Aram, turning away,
human
That is a strange person, Aram; scarcely a favourable specimen of the happy English peasant;
gpt
Yet they say, added Madeline,
human
Ay, said Aram,
gpt
Why, replied Madeline, slightly blushing to find herself made the narrator of a story,
human
Oh! said Aram, in a low, but deep tone,
gpt
Can legislators, or the moralists that instruct legislators, do so little, then, towards universal good?
human
Why? what can they do but forward civilization? And what is civilization, but an increase of human disparities? The more the luxury of the few, the more startling the wants, and the more galling the sense, of poverty. Even the dreams of the philanthropist only tend towards equality; and where is equality to be found, but in the state of the savage? No; I thought otherwise once; but I now regard the vast lazar- house around us without hope of relief:--Death is the sole Physician!
gpt
Ah, no! said the high-souled Madeline, eagerly;