He permitted
him to retain all his literary fame to the very last--his literary
fame for which he cared nothing; but what became of the sweetness
of life, his fine house, his grand company, and his entertainments?
The grand house ceased to be his; he was only permitted to live in
it on sufferance, and whatever grandeur it might still retain, it
soon became as desolate a looking house as any misanthrope could
wish to see--where were the grand entertainments and the grand
company? there are no grand entertainments where there is no money;
no lords and ladies where there are no entertainments--and there
lay the poor lodger in the desolate house, groaning on a bed no
longer his, smitten by the hand of God in the part where he was
most vulnerable. Of what use telling such a man to take comfort,
for he had written the "Minstrel" and "Rob Roy,"--telling him to
think of his literary fame? Literary fame, indeed! he wanted back
his lost gentility:-
"Retain my altar,
I care nothing for it--but, oh! touch not my BEARD."
PORNY'S War of the Gods.
He dies, his children die too, and then comes the crowning judgment
of God on what remains of his race and the house which he had
built. He was not a Papist himself, nor did he wish any one
belonging to him to be Popish, for he had read enough of the Bible
to know that no one can be saved through Popery, yet had he a
sneaking affection for it, and would at times in an underhand
manner, give it a good word both in writing and discourse, because
it was a gaudy kind of worship, and ignorance and vassalage
prevailed so long as it flourished--but he certainly did not wish
any of his people to become Papists, nor the house which he had
built to become a Popish house, though the very name he gave it
savoured of Popery; but Popery becomes fashionable through his
novels and poems--the only one that remains of his race, a female
grandchild, marries a person who, following the fashion, becomes a
Papist, and makes her a Papist too.
Pages:
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570