_The dismal Transmigration of Master_ TOMMY FILCH _into the Body of a
Wolf._
As soon as we had lifted up the latch to enter into the next apartment,
we were immediately alarmed by a horrid howling; which upon opening the
door we discovered to be the savage musick of a lusty young wolf, who
looked as fierce as if he would have torn every one of us to pieces.
But a strong chain confined his fury to one corner of the room; so that
we could venture pretty near him without any danger of feeling the
strength of his jaws. "This plundering and voracious animal, said the
Bramin, who has been accustomed to gratify his appetite at the expense
of all the farmers in the neighbourhood, is inhabited by the soul of
the late Master _Filch_, who, as you will find by the sequel of the
story, is now placed in a station which is perfectly suitable to his
character. His very infancy was disgraced by a natural propensity to
fraud and rapine; for as soon as he could talk plain enough to be
understood, the chief employment of his tongue was to tell as many
stories as his little head was capable of inventing; and that his hands
might come in for their share of mischief, he never failed to make a
property of all the sugar, fruit, tarts, &c. which the carelessness of
the servants had left within his reach. If his parents had been wise
enough to chastise him for his little roguery, they might have nipped
it in the bud; but they were so imprudently fond, that they not only
neglected to administer the discipline of the rod, but made his
falsehood and pilferings the constant subject of their merriment. They
considered his faults as trivial, because they were the faults of a
child; not reflecting that if the seeds of vice are suffered to grow,
they will in a shorter time than is commonly imagined, take such deep
root in the heart, that it will be scarcely possible to eradicate them.
Experience, however, soon undeceived them; for when little _Filch_ was
eight or nine years old, though he had plenty of fruit at home, they
had the mortification to be informed that he was making daily
incursions into every poor man's garden in the neighbourhood. The
consequence of these repeated complaints was sometimes a severe
reprimand, and sometimes as severe a flogging; but neither the one nor
the other were able to produce a reformation, though it is very
probable, that if they had been applied in time, they might have been
applied to better purpose. From robbing orchards he soon proceeded to
the raising private contributions on his school fellows. Sometimes he
defrauded them at play: sometimes he picked their pockets; and very
frequently he stole their books, or money, out of their desks and
boxes: and, as it is the study of every wicked boy to maintain the
appearance of honesty as long as he is able, as soon as the robbery was
discovered he was the first person to exclaim against it, which he did
in the bitterest terms, and to prevent a long and circumstantial
inquiry after the author of it (which he suspected would not terminate
in his favour) he impudently pretended to have been an eye witness of
the fact, and then boldly charged it upon one or another of his school
mates, who he knew had neither skill nor spirit enough to contradict
his evidence in a satisfactory manner. By this means the bashful
innocent was frequently punished instead of the guilty. But as bad boys
are seldom able to conceal their faults long from the eye of justice,
young _Filch_ was soon detected in his wickedness, and being considered
as a dangerous person, whose bad example might have a pernicious effect
upon his play fellows, he was first corrected with all the severity he
deserved, and then sent home to his parents. In this disgraceful manner
he was dismissed from every school in the country, 'till at last,
though he was only thirteen years old, there was not a single academy
into which he could be admitted upon any terms whatever. But this was
not the worst effect of the ill character he had acquired: for as no
one is willing to introduce a lad of bad reputation into his house,
there was not a tradesman of any credit to be found who would venture
to take him as an apprentice, though a large premium was offered for
that purpose. His parents, therefore, were under the disagreeable
necessity of keeping him at home; but having little or nothing for him
to do, he soon fell into bad company, who in as short a time gave him a
perfect relish for the scandalous and expensive amusement of gaming and
tippling. His finances, though sufficiently plentiful for a youth of
his age, were by these destructive means so much encumbered with little
debts, that to maintain a worthless credit among his worthless
companions, he formed the wicked resolution of taking money from his
father and mother without their knowledge. The success of his first
attempt (in which he was not discovered, because he was not suspected
to be capable of so much baseness) encouraged him to a second; and the
success of his second attempt encouraged him to greater extravagances
and more expensive risk than he had ventured upon before. But his
wickedness, which in the former instances had been wrongfully charged
upon the servants of the family, being at last detected, and his
parents taking him very severely to task on account of such an
abandoned and depraved conduct, he left them in a fit of anger and
remorse, and became a thoughtless and unhappy wanderer; in this
situation falling one evening into a company whose mirth and gaiety
greatly delighted him, and whose genteel appearance led him to suppose
they were gentlemen, though in reality they were no other than
highwaymen, he was prevailed on in an unguarded moment, when heated
with liquor, to make an incursion with this infamous banditti, and
actually stopped a gentleman and demanded his money; fortunately,
however for this unhappy youth, the gentleman was an old school fellow,
and making himself known to him, with much intreaty prevailed on him
immediately to leave the company of those desperate adventurers, and
totally to abandon a mode of life so shockingly wicked in itself, and
so dreadfully fatal in its consequences.
"But from the idle and dissipated manner in which he had spent his
time, he had contracted an unconquerable habit of indolence, and a
rooted aversion to business; in this frame of mind, the army became his
last resource, into which he entered as a common soldier, but after a
short time his itch for pilfering returning, he could not refrain from
making free with some money with which he was intrusted by his officer;
being detected, he was punished with that rigorous severity with which
thefts in the army usually are, and being afterwards thrown into the
Savoy prison, to prevent a repetition of his crime, he died there in a
few days of his wounds in the utmost misery. When the Bramin had
finished this melancholy tale, the poor wolf, as if he was conscious
how nearly it concerned him, heightened the horrour with which it had
filled us by such a mournful and terrifying howl, as made us heartily
glad to quit the room."