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The adventures of Caleb Williams; or, Things as they are
The adventures of Caleb Williams or Things as they are Author:William Godwin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: .!.: CHAP. III. From the moment he entered upon the execution of this purpose, dictated as it probably was by an unaffected principle of duty, his misfortunes... more » took their commencement. All I have further to state of his history is the uninterrupted persecution of a malignant destiny, a series of adventures that seemed to take their rise in various accidents, but pointing to one termination. Him they overwhelmed with an anguish he was of all others least qualified to bear ; and these waters of bitterness, extending beyond him, pour- ; ed their deadly venom upon others, I being myself the most unfortunate of their victims. The person in whom these calamities originated, was Mr. Falkland's nearest neighbour, a man of estate equal to hisown, by name, Barnabas Tyrrel. This man one might at first have supposed of all others least qualified from instruction or inclined by the habits of his life, to disturb the enjoyments of a mind soehlv endowed as that of Mr. Falkland. Mr. Tyrrel might have passed for a true model of the English squire. He was early left under the tuition of his mother, a woman of narrow capacity, and who had no other child. The only remaining member of the family it may be necessary to notice, was Miss Emily Melville, the orphan daughter of Mr. Tyrrel's paternal aunt; who now resided in the family mansion, and was wholly dependent on the benevolence of its proprietors. Mrs. Tyrrel appeared to think that -. there was nothing in the world soprecious as her hopeful Barnabas. Every thing must give way to his accommodation and advantage ; every one must yield the sacst servile obedience to his commands He must not be teased or restricted byany forms of instruction ; and of consequence his proficiency, even in the arts of writing and reading, was extremely slender. F...« less