Now it's more than a hundred years ago since Smollett wrote, but his
men and women were taken from real life, his sailors from the navy,
his attorneys from the jails and criminal courts, and his fops and
fine ladies from the herd of such cattle that he daily met with. Well,
they are read now; I have 'em to home, and laugh till I cry over them.
Why? Because natur is the same always. Although we didn't live a
hundred years ago, we can see how the folks of that age did; and,
although society is altered, and there are no Admiral Benbows, nor
Hawser Trunnions, and folks don't travel in vans with canvas covers,
or wear swords, and frequent taverns, and all that as they used to did
to England; still it's a pictur of the times, and instructin' as well
as amusin'. I have learned more how folks dressed, talked, and lived,
and thought, and what sort of critters they were, and what the state
of society, high and low, was then, from his books and Fielding's than
any I know of. They are true to life, and as long as natur remains the
same, which it always will, they will be read. That's my idea at
least.
Some squeamish people turn up the whites of their peepers at both
those authors and say they are coarse. How can they be otherwise?
society was coarse. There are more veils worn now, but the devil still
lurks in the eye under the veil. Things ain't talked of so openly, or
done so openly, in modern as in old times.
Pages:
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438