Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/98



HAVE long been of a settled Conviction that an unfeigned and Sincere Abhorrence of Violence is among the most admirable Ornaments of a worthy Man; and even that it constitutes in itself so notable a Claim upon our Respect and Esteem as to pass for a Proof of Worth. The Spectacle of a peaceful and moderate Man surrounded by Violence and Demonstrativeness, of which he still quietly endures the attacks, is of all Spectacles at once the noblest and the most encouraging to Persons of Virtue.

My old and esteemed Friend Sir Ogre de Covetous (of whom I lately had Occasion to speak) affords a noble Example of such a Case; and, indeed, inasmuch as all Men around him appear to hold him in most huge Disfavour, I take it they must need be of an exceeding evil Disposition, and, by consequence, he himself may with great Justice be accounted a Martyr.

One Day lately, when he had bidden me pass away a few Days in a Visit to his Country Mansion, I took the Occasion to compliment him upon the extensive and pleasing Prospect before his Windows; whereupon I could not but observe with some Anxiety an Expression of Regret that passed upon his Countenance.

"I will not conceal from you," said he, "that there is for me in this Prospect no little Cause of Sorrow and Chagrin, seeing that, by Reason of its being Visible from my Windows, it ought naturally to belong to me; for I hold that, as a freehold Estate reaches by Law to the Centre of the Earth, so in like Manner it ought to extend in all directions over that Hemisphere, or Half of the Earth, of which it is the Central Point."