The Mysteries of London, Vol. IV — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

aS : | S f « s, . G THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, : in somo secluded spot. The old gentleman is worn {| duce sincere repentance and excite a permancnt re- down and spirij-broken ; and Rosomond states that | morse, by extending their irain to a long, long sho is afraid he is oppressed with some secret caro | period. If a night of afew short hours’ duration beyond. these with which sho is acquainted.” would produce a very partial and limited effect upon —~t{nd your man Jeffreys?” said Lascelles, inter- | the mind of a criminal, I reasoned—why not make rogativoly. a a night of many weeks, and hope for a proportion- “Tho next time you visit Hackney, doctor,— | ately grand and striking result? Accordingly, I should your professional avocations take you to | resolved to subject those six prisoners to the test ; that suburb,” replied the Blackamdor, “forget not | and I will now give you a detailed account of tho to Jook out for the most decent grocer’s shop in | consequences.” . Maro Street ; and over the door you will sce the “ Proceed,” said the physician: “Iam becoming nani of Joun Jerrrers. We enterod the establish- | deeply interested.” ment only, 2 few days ago; and I beliove he is a * Tho six prisoners were each placed in a sepa~ reformed man. I tried his fidelity as well as his | rato cell, and not allowed any light in the first stendiness in many ways, during the last two | instance,” continued the Blackamoor. “ Hach dun- months ; and I havo every reason to entertain the | geon was plainly but comfortably furnished ; and best hopes relative to him. At all events, ho has | every ovening they were supplied with a sufficiency overy chanco of carning an honest and good living ; | of food for four-and-twenty hours. ‘They were for ho has purchased an old-cstablished business, | ordered to. perform their ablutions regularly under which Wilion previously ascertained to be a profit- | pain of having their meat stopped; and you may able concom.” _{| be sure that they did not fail to obey the com- . ‘Have you heard or seen anything lately of our | mond. ‘Tiwice a week the men were shaved by friend Sir Christopher Blunt?” inquired the phy- | one of my people ; and twice a week also they sician, langhing as he spoke. were supplied with clean linen, The woman was “J havo not seen bim since that memorable | of course provided with additional changes; and night when he fulfilled tho duties of a magistrate {as her health was more likely to suffer than that in this room,” answered the Black, smiling ; “but I | of the men, I allowed her to walk up and down have occasionally heard of him. Ho is so puffed the long subterranean for two hours each day, up with prido in consequence of the importance watched by Wilton so that she might not commupi- which ho derived from his adventuro here, that he | cate with either.of tho prieoners. But Iam now looks upon himself as a perfect demigod. By the about to enter on details connected with cach indi- bye, I saw an advertisement in this day’s papers, vidual.” announcing the speedy publication of the ‘ Zhe The physician drew his chair a little closer to the Life and Limes of Sir Christopher Blunt. By Jerc- | Black. ° miah Lykspittal, Zésq. With numerous Portraits; “Tidmarsh was the first who showed any signs and containing @ mass of interesting covrespondence | of contrition,” resumed the latter. ‘‘He could not between the Subject of the Biography and the most endure that one, long, endless night into which Eminent Deceased Men of the present Century” SojI had plunged him,—a night interrupted only ran the advertis¢ment.” by the short and regular visits of myself and tt At which you of courso laughed heartily,” ex~ | my people. He was ever alone with his own claimed the doctor. ‘But here is Cesar, with tho { thoughts, which no intervals of a long day broke wine—and long enough he has been in fetching it in upon: the impression created by his thoughts up, too.” syas over in his mind—the continuous night kept The Ind made some excuse, placed the decanters } that impression there! By degrees he began to, and glasses on the table, and then withdrow. seo the error of his ways—and, when his “ Now for the promised explanations, my friend,” | thoughts were on one occasion intolerable, and cried tho physician, as he helped himself to the his imagination was filled with frightful images, he purple juice of Bordeaux. had recourse to prayer. The next time I visited " Pirst,” began the Blackamoor, “I shall speak | him he assured me that his prayers had relioved ‘to you of tho six prisoners gencrally—or rather of | him, but that he could not sufficiently settle his wy system, as applied to them. Ay bolief originally | mind to pray so often as he desired. That was the svas that bad men should become to a certain ex~ moment to give this man a light, and I did so. At tent the reformers of themselves through the medium | the same timo L offered him his choice between the of thoi own thoughts. It is not sufficieut, I rea- Biblo and a Tale-book 5 and he choso, the former soned within myself, that criminals should be merely with unaffected readiness. Had he selected tho placed each night in a situation to think and reflect | latter, I should have seen that he craved for amuse- aud then enjoy the light of the glorious day again, | ment only—and he would have had neither lamp A night’s meditations may be poignant and provo- | vor books until he had gone through a farther ordeal cativo bf a remorse of a salutary kind: but when | of his lonely thoughts in utter darkness. Well— the day diawns, the mind becomes hardened again, this Tidmarsh, by the aid of the light, was enabled and all disntxeenble reflections fly away. ; The | to study the Bible and settle his soul to prayer. But most guilty wretvhes fear not spectres in the day- | & continual and unvaried perusal of the Biblo is timo: ‘tis in the datkness and silence uf tho night calculated to render the mind morbid, and convert that phantoms haunt them. In a word,. then, the | @ sinner into a grossly superstitious fanatic. Ac- natural night is: not long enough to make an im- | cordingly, when I saw that Tidmarsh began to grow pression so deep that the ensuing day ean not easily gloomy—which wasin 2 very few days—I gave him obliterate it.” on books of Travels and Voyages: and his soul was re- “Good!” exclaimed tho physicidns: “I follow freshed by the change. The improvement in that | - you attentively.” man was far more rapid than I could have possibly « “These considerations,” resumed ho Black, “led | anticipated. During wy visits to him, I tested his mo to the conclusion that a wicked man’s thoughts | sincerity in a variety of ways,—by means of ques- could only be rendered available as a ineans to in- tions so artfully contrived as to admit of two kinds 4 > ° gy pe ger eh er ea By me ee A“ ie Rt AEE NE SE OA OP I I Pn AAT OL I Aa RNS IMO Or OL red rR Oa EON BOP ESET SAC eterno aL TRE PP Ne CORnnicoooks.€© 5} >