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'This carding of wool, however, did in those days bring with
it much profit, so that our ancient friend, when dying, was
declared, in whatever slang then prevailed, to cut up exceeding
well. For sons and daughters there was ample sustenance with
assistance of due industry; for friends and relatives some relief
for grief at this great loss; for aged dependents comfort in
declining years. This was much for one old man to get done
in that dark fifteenth century. But this was not all: coming
generations of poor wool-carders should bless the name of this
rich one; and a hospital should be founded and endowed with
his wealth for the feeding of such of the trade as could not, by
diligent carding, any longer duly feed themselves.
''Twas thus that an old man in the fifteenth century did his
godlike work to the best of his power, and not ignobly, as
appears to me.
'We will now take our godly man of latter days. He shall
no longer be a wool-carder, for such are not now men of mark.
We will suppose him to be one of the best of the good, one who
has lacked no opportunities. Our old friend was, after all, but
illiterate; our modern friend shall be a man educated in all
seemly knowledge; he shall, in short, be that blessed being--
a clergyman of the Church of England!
'And now, in what perfectest manner does he in this
lower world get his godlike work done and put out of hand?
Heavens! in the strangest of manners. Oh, my brother! in
a manner not at all to be believed, but by the most minute
testimony of eyesight. He does it by the magnitude of his
appetite--by the power of his gorge; his only occupation is
to swallow the bread prepared with so much anxious care for
these impoverished carders of wool--that, and to sing
indifferently through his nose once in the week some psalm more
or less long--the shorter the better, we should be inclined to say.
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