There is an ingenious instrument used in testing the condition
of railroads whereby every slight deviation in the width or
levelness of the track, every defect of the rails, and even the
quality of the steel and manufacture are registered.
Is not a well-instructed and carefully cultivated conscience just such
a dynograph?
(537)
* * * * *
“Conscience makes cowards of us all.” The following rather amusing
incident well illustrates this hackneyed observation of Shakespeare:
On one of Landseer’s early visits to Scotland the great painter
stopt at a village and took a great deal of notice of the dogs,
jotting down rapidly sketches of them on a piece of paper.
Next day, on resuming his journey, he was horrified to find
dogs suspended from trees in all directions or drowning in the
rivers, with stones around their necks. He stopt a weeping
urchin, who was hurrying off with a pet pup in his arms, and
learned to his dismay that he was supposed to be an excise
officer who was taking notes of all the dogs he saw in order to
prosecute the owners for unpaid taxes. (Text.)
(538)
* * * * *
The religious ferment of the age made a tremendous impression on
Bunyan’s sensitive imagination. He went to church occasionally,
only to find himself wrapt in terrors and in torments by some
fiery itinerant preacher; and he would rush violently away from
church to forget his fears by joining in Sunday sports on the
village green. As night came on the sports were forgotten, but
the terrors returned, multiplied like the evil spirits of the
parable. Visions of hell and the demons swarmed in his brain.
He would groan aloud in his remorse, and even years afterward
he bemoans the sins of his early life. When we look for them
fearfully, expecting some shocking crimes and misdemeanors, we
find that they consisted of playing ball on Sunday and swearing.
The latter sin, sad to say, was begun by listening to his father
cursing some obstinate kettle which refused to be tinkered,
and it was perfected in the Parliamentary army. One day his
terrible swearing scared a woman, “a very loose and ungodly
wretch,” as he tells us, who reprimanded him for his profanity.
The reproach of the poor woman went straight home, like the
voice of a prophet. All his profanity left him; he hung down
his head with shame. “I wished with all my heart,” he says,
“that I might be a little child again, that my father might
learn me to speak without this wicked way of swearing.” With
characteristic vehemence Bunyan hurls himself upon a promise of
Scripture, and instantly the reformation begins to work in his
soul. He casts out the habit, root and branch, and finds to his
astonishment that he can speak more freely and vigorously than
before. Nothing is more characteristic of the man than this
sudden seizing upon the text, which he had doubtless heard many
times before, and being suddenly raised up or cast down by its
influence.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”
(539)
See EYE, THE SEARCHING; MISSIONARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS.