Vice in its Proper Shape Read online

  CHAP. VI.

  _The dismal Transmigration of Master_ TOMMY FILCH _into the Body of aWolf._

  As soon as we had lifted up the latch to enter into the next apartment,we were immediately alarmed by a horrid howling; which upon opening thedoor we discovered to be the savage musick of a lusty young wolf, wholooked as fierce as if he would have torn every one of us to pieces.But a strong chain confined his fury to one corner of the room; so thatwe could venture pretty near him without any danger of feeling thestrength of his jaws. "This plundering and voracious animal, said theBramin, who has been accustomed to gratify his appetite at the expenseof all the farmers in the neighbourhood, is inhabited by the soul ofthe late Master _Filch_, who, as you will find by the sequel of thestory, is now placed in a station which is perfectly suitable to hischaracter. His very infancy was disgraced by a natural propensity tofraud and rapine; for as soon as he could talk plain enough to beunderstood, the chief employment of his tongue was to tell as manystories as his little head was capable of inventing; and that his handsmight come in for their share of mischief, he never failed to make aproperty of all the sugar, fruit, tarts, &c. which the carelessness ofthe servants had left within his reach. If his parents had been wiseenough to chastise him for his little roguery, they might have nippedit in the bud; but they were so imprudently fond, that they not onlyneglected to administer the discipline of the rod, but made hisfalsehood and pilferings the constant subject of their merriment. Theyconsidered his faults as trivial, because they were the faults of achild; not reflecting that if the seeds of vice are suffered to grow,they will in a shorter time than is commonly imagined, take such deeproot in the heart, that it will be scarcely possible to eradicate them.Experience, however, soon undeceived them; for when little _Filch_ waseight or nine years old, though he had plenty of fruit at home, theyhad the mortification to be informed that he was making dailyincursions into every poor man's garden in the neighbourhood. Theconsequence of these repeated complaints was sometimes a severereprimand, and sometimes as severe a flogging; but neither the one northe other were able to produce a reformation, though it is veryprobable, that if they had been applied in time, they might have beenapplied to better purpose. From robbing orchards he soon proceeded tothe raising private contributions on his school fellows. Sometimes hedefrauded them at play: sometimes he picked their pockets; and veryfrequently he stole their books, or money, out of their desks andboxes: and, as it is the study of every wicked boy to maintain theappearance of honesty as long as he is able, as soon as the robbery wasdiscovered he was the first person to exclaim against it, which he didin the bitterest terms, and to prevent a long and circumstantialinquiry after the author of it (which he suspected would not terminatein his favour) he impudently pretended to have been an eye witness ofthe fact, and then boldly charged it upon one or another of his schoolmates, who he knew had neither skill nor spirit enough to contradicthis evidence in a satisfactory manner. By this means the bashfulinnocent was frequently punished instead of the guilty. But as bad boysare seldom able to conceal their faults long from the eye of justice,young _Filch_ was soon detected in his wickedness, and being consideredas a dangerous person, whose bad example might have a pernicious effectupon his play fellows, he was first corrected with all the severity hedeserved, and then sent home to his parents. In this disgraceful mannerhe was dismissed from every school in the country, 'till at last,though he was only thirteen years old, there was not a single academyinto which he could be admitted upon any terms whatever. But this wasnot the worst effect of the ill character he had acquired: for as noone is willing to introduce a lad of bad reputation into his house,there was not a tradesman of any credit to be found who would ventureto take him as an apprentice, though a large premium was offered forthat purpose. His parents, therefore, were under the disagreeablenecessity of keeping him at home; but having little or nothing for himto do, he soon fell into bad company, who in as short a time gave him aperfect relish for the scandalous and expensive amusement of gaming andtippling. His finances, though sufficiently plentiful for a youth ofhis age, were by these destructive means so much encumbered with littledebts, that to maintain a worthless credit among his worthlesscompanions, he formed the wicked resolution of taking money from hisfather and mother without their knowledge. The success of his firstattempt (in which he was not discovered, because he was not suspectedto be capable of so much baseness) encouraged him to a second; and thesuccess of his second attempt encouraged him to greater extravagancesand more expensive risk than he had ventured upon before. But hiswickedness, which in the former instances had been wrongfully chargedupon the servants of the family, being at last detected, and hisparents taking him very severely to task on account of such anabandoned and depraved conduct, he left them in a fit of anger andremorse, and became a thoughtless and unhappy wanderer; in thissituation falling one evening into a company whose mirth and gaietygreatly delighted him, and whose genteel appearance led him to supposethey were gentlemen, though in reality they were no other thanhighwaymen, he was prevailed on in an unguarded moment, when heatedwith liquor, to make an incursion with this infamous banditti, andactually stopped a gentleman and demanded his money; fortunately,however for this unhappy youth, the gentleman was an old school fellow,and making himself known to him, with much intreaty prevailed on himimmediately to leave the company of those desperate adventurers, andtotally to abandon a mode of life so shockingly wicked in itself, andso dreadfully fatal in its consequences.

  "But from the idle and dissipated manner in which he had spent histime, he had contracted an unconquerable habit of indolence, and arooted aversion to business; in this frame of mind, the army became hislast resource, into which he entered as a common soldier, but after ashort time his itch for pilfering returning, he could not refrain frommaking free with some money with which he was intrusted by his officer;being detected, he was punished with that rigorous severity with whichthefts in the army usually are, and being afterwards thrown into theSavoy prison, to prevent a repetition of his crime, he died there in afew days of his wounds in the utmost misery. When the Bramin hadfinished this melancholy tale, the poor wolf, as if he was conscioushow nearly it concerned him, heightened the horrour with which it hadfilled us by such a mournful and terrifying howl, as made us heartilyglad to quit the room."