Chapter 9 Bookworm (1)

Captivity Waite never approved of my fondness for fairy tale writing.But she can share the enthusiasm I show whenever I mention Robinson Crusoe: Defoe's adventures just happen to have enough gravitas and enough piety to evoke Captivate Waite. A certain sympathy in a religious temperament.Once the dabbled in novels that included witches and monsters and such nonsense, Captivity got tired of it, and the little Puritan resented it. But I have written evidence that the Captive Viti ancestors (both male and female) were considered lowly servants of superstition during the heyday of the colony.The Waiters of Salem were once known as persecutors of witches.Sinai Higginbotham (a distant ancestor of the Captive Widow family) was Cotton Mather [Cotton Mather (1663-1728), New England Puritan and theologian, who founded Yale University and worked hard to promote Vaccination against smallpox.At the same time, he is also a writer, author of "Prose Collection for Good" and other books. ]'s friend, rode around the gallows with the theologian for the memorable occasion when five young women were hanged because Danforth accused them of using the damned art of magic Torture young children.The human mind is like a giant pendulum: always swinging from one extreme to the other.Over the span of five generations, we find that the Puritan was first a staunch believer in ghost theology and magic, and later a scoffer who scoffed at everything, including the games of fantasy.

I was hard on Captivity Waite once, but now I have no ill will toward her.On the contrary, at that distant hour, when our sympathy has been fully united, when our life's journey has trod the path of youth in a friendship sanctified by innocence, fidelity, and childhood honesty , I recall the past, my heart is full of tenderness.Indeed, I am sure that the impressions of early friendships will last a long time in my life.I have thought of Captivity Waite many, many times, and I have often wondered how I could remember her without the book of fairy tales that Uncle Cephas gave me. She was a very beautiful child, and as she matured, her beauty and her tenderness were not lost at all.These made a big impression on me when I came back from college.She also completed her studies and believes that obtaining a good education is necessary.She completed four years at South Holyoke and graduated from Mrs. Willard's seminary in Troy. "Now," said her father, with special New England tenderness and respect for young ladies, "it is time for you to return to the quiet of the home and learn to take on the greater responsibilities under your mother's tutelage. These Responsibility to fulfill your gender roles and fulfill the sacred mission of human life."

Three or four years ago, a handsome young man came up to me with a letter of introduction from his mother.My God, he was Captivity Waite's son!Captive Widow is a widow now, still living in the same state, twenty miles from where she was born.Her husband, Colonel Parker, left her a large fortune when he died, and she was well-known locally for her charity.She founded a country library, and several times she wrote to me about the books she was going to buy. I don't mind telling you that in a letter I wrote to her some time ago, it was with malicious pleasure that I suggested to her the past thus: "My dear friend," I wrote, "I have browsed your In a recent catalog of the collections of the country library, I found eleven volumes of Tribe and six of The Twins in Heaven, among those recurring works of fiction in modern schools. The writer Georges du Maurier's novel. "The Heavenly Twins" is the work of the British female writer Sarah Grant.]. I also noticed that several works were not included, and their influence on my early life was so great. so deep that I venture to send you a few volumes in the sincere hope that you will be kind enough to accept them and have them appear in your library. Green's Family Stories."

At twenty-three, I had just graduated from university and was reading Villon [François Villon (1431-1463), considered the most original French poet.His satirical poems are mainly collected in "Small Last Words Collection" and "Big Last Words Collection". ]'s poems, Rousseau's and Boswell [James Boswell (1740-1795), a famous British biographer, his "Johnson Biography" is considered a model of biographical literature. ]'s "The Life of Johnson", I am sure that I have understood all the wisdom of mankind, everything worth knowing.It would be, I am sure, a marvel of knowledge and wisdom if I could understand now--I am seventy-two now--what I thought I knew when I was twenty-three.

I set about preparing to be a philosopher.Grandma died when I was a sophomore in college, leaving me with a pretty decent fortune, and every thread that connects me to my grandma's hope that I'll be an evangelist Bonds and emotional debts, too, are severed by death.When I was sure I knew everything, I had an idea to open my eyes, since I had no travel experience and knew very few people. On the advice of Uncle Cephas, I traveled to Europe and devoted two years to broaden my horizons and acquaint myself with the people and customs of foreign countries.Nine months of the trip were spent in Paris, which was then a chaotic and motley city, and besides, quite as wicked as it is now.I rented a flat in the Latin Quarter, and, in a kind of generous nature, I gave a good deal of my income to support a few artists and students, whose talents and time almost all went to Have fun.

And so, after dedicating a tangible fortune to support the parasites, I stumbled across the man who became a close friend of mine.Judge Methuen was a tourist in Paris, and we became pleasant companions.It was he who rescued me from that swarm of parasites, and rekindled my ambitious passions, which had been nearly extinguished by the evil influence of Villon and Rousseau.Judge Methuen was a year older than me, and his rich father gave him financial support for his intellectually virtuous tastes.We both went to London together, and it was during our stay in London that I began my career as a bibliophile.In all fairness, I am eternally grateful to my benefactor, my dear friend Methuen, for the enlightenment which led me on a path full of sweet surprises and rich rewards.