He suggested that the letters
were forgeries. He alleged that Charke was in the habit of boasting, and
telling enormous falsehoods about his gambling transactions, especially in
his letters. He reminded the world how often men affect high animal spirits
at the very moment of meditating suicide. He alluded, in a manly and
graceful way, to his family and their character. He took a high and
menacing tone with his adversaries, and he insisted that what they dared to
insinuate against him was physically impossible.'
I asked in what form this vindication appeared.
'It was a letter, printed as a pamphlet; everybody admired its ability,
ingenuity, and force, and it was written with immense rapidity.'
'Was it at all in the style of his letters?' I innocently asked.
My cousin laughed.
'Oh, dear, no! Ever since he avowed himself a religious character, he had
written nothing but the most vapid and nerveless twaddle. Your poor dear
father used to send his letters to me to read, and I sometimes really
thought that Silas was losing his faculties; but I believe he was only
trying to write in character.
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