FLASK, BOTTLE, AND DEMIJOHN
[NOTE.—This chapter, in its first shape, was given some currency under the title of “The Evil Beast.” I have, however, so revised and added to that Lecture, that, as here given, it is essentially a new presentation of the dreadful…
THE HOUSE OF BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS
Men like to hear the frailties and faults of others chastised. With what blandness and placidity they sit and hear the religious teacher excoriate the ambition of Ahab, the treachery of Judas, the treason of Athaliah, and the wickedness of…
THE GUN THAT KICKS OVER THE MAN WHO SHOOTS IT OFF
Blasphemy is a crime that aims at God, but does its chief harm to the one that fires it off. So I compare it to a piece of imperfect firearms to which the marksman puts his eye, and, pulling the…
LIES: WHITE AND BLACK
There are ten thousand ways of telling a lie. A man's entire life may be a falsehood, while with his lips he may not once directly falsify. There are those who state what is positively untrue, but afterwards say, "may…
A GOOD TIME COMING
As on some bitter cold night, while threshing our hands about to keep our thumbs from freezing, we have looked up and seen the northern lights blazing along the sky, the windows of heaven illumined at the news of some…