William Dodd

“ In more modern times, when capital flowed abundantly into the lap of the Italian States, the poet, the sculptor, the painter, again felt its invigorating spirit, and threw life, beauty, and imagination over the gross realities of existence. Religion, the instinct of our nature, arose, adorned in all the captivating luxury of genius. But where is now this instinctive feeling—this love of the Deity, that prompts to noble deeds? We ask not for the form which shows where it is not. Why does the admiration of man live upon the achievements of the past? ”

“ They who have lived in perpetual regularity of duty, and are free from any gross or visible transgressions, are yet but unprofitable for wants: What then are we whose crimes are hastening us to the grave before our time? Let us work with fear and trembling, but still let us endeavour to work out our salvation. Let us hope with out presumption; let us fear without desperation; and let our faith animate us to that which we were to consider. ”

“ Capital may have given the soft pillow to your head, and a flowery path to your footsteps; to us it has made an easy transition from the factory to the prison and the poor-house! The doctrine, "that capital owes no allegiance to the soil," is one of the finest illustrations that ever presented itself to the mind, of the gross principle of selfishness pervading the thoughts, feelings, and visions of the millocracy. Capital has increased beyond the means of profitable employment—it has increased to overflowing ”

“ Stand on the quays of Ireland, and see the full freighted vessels leaving her noble rivers and coves. You will there see, that, so far from Ireland being utterly, radically and incurably poor, barren and unprofitable, she is one of the great feeders of England; nay, its chief purveyor. Ireland does this out of her poverty, besides feeding, after a manner, an immense population. It is this that adds so painful an interest to her miserable state; that she should 'make many rich,' and yet remain herself so poor, and be the author of an abundance which she is not permitted herself to enjoy. ”

“ Faith is a full and undoubting conscience in the declarations made by God in the holy scriptures; a sincere reception of the doctrines taught by our blessed Saviour, with a firm assurance that he died to take away the sins of the world, and that we have, each of us, a part in the boundless benefits of the universal sacrifice. To this faith we must have recoursed at all times, but particularly if we find ourselves tempted to despair. If thoughts arise in our minds which suggest that we have sinned beyond the hope of pardon, and that therefore it is vain to seek for reconciliation by repentence ”

“ The thought—the thought alone brings tears!
⁠They labor—they, the darlings of our lives!
⁠The flowers and sunbeams of our fleeting years;
⁠From whom alone our happiness derives
⁠A lasting strength, which every shock survives;
⁠The green young trees beneath whose arching boughs
⁠ (When failing Energy no longer strives,)
⁠Our wearied age shall find a cool repose;—
They toil in torture!—No—the painful picture close.
XLIII.
⁠Ye shudder,—nor behold the vision more! ”

“ When, in the review of the times which we have past, any offence arises to our thoughts, let us humbly implore forgiveness; and for those faults (and many they are and must be) which we cannot recollect, let us solicit mercy in general petitions. But it must be a constant care, that we pray, not merely with our lips; but that when we lament our sins, we are really humbled in self-abhorance; and that, when we call for mercy, we raise out thoughts to hope and trust in the goodness of God, and the merits of our blessed saviour, Jesus Christ. ”

“ The busy world lay outside the workhouse gates, and those he was seldom permitted to pass. He was too young to understand the necessity of the restraint to which he was subjected. Like a bird newly caged, that flutters from side to side, and beats its little wings against its prison walls, in hope of obtaining its liberty; so young Smith, weary of confinement, and anxious to be free, often watched the gates of the house, in the vain hope that some favorable opportunity might facilitate his escape. ”

“ The reception of the holy sacrament, to which we shall be called, in the most solemn manner, perhaps a few hours before we die, is the highest act of christian worship. At that awful moment it will become us to drop for ever all worldly thoughts; to fix our hopes solely upon Christ whose death is represented; and to consider our selves as no longer connected with mortality. And possibly, it may please God to afford us some consolation, some secret intimations of acceptance and forgiveness. ”

“ Thus we behold in a Christian country, a land which boasts of being the glory and admiration of the world, thousands of human beings, mutilated and crippled, emaciated, ruined in health, their spirits broken, their minds and reasoning powers toppling from their seats, and many of them catching, like drowning men, at straws, to save themselves from what would be a happy release from their miserable situation ”

“ I repent that I have attempted to injure my fellow creatures, and I repent that I have brought disgrace upon my order, and discredit upon religion, but my offences against God are without mane or number, and can admit only general confession and a general repentance.———Grant, Almightly God, for the sake of Jesus Christ that my repentance, however late, however imperfect, may not be in vain.
The little good that now remains in my power, is to warn others against those temptations by which I have always sinned against conviction; my principles have never been shaken ”

“ Prayer—slumber—fondness—smiles—and hours of rosy mirth.
VIII.
⁠And therefore when we hear the shrill faint cries
⁠Which mark the wanderings of the little sweep;
⁠Or when, with glittering teeth and sunny eyes,
⁠The boy-Italian's voice, so soft and deep,
⁠Asks alms for his poor marmoset asleep;
⁠They fill our hearts with pitying regret,
⁠Those little vagrants doomed so soon to weep—
⁠As though a term of joy for all was set,
And that their share of Life's long suffering was not yet.
IX.
⁠Ever a toiling child doth make us sad ”

“ Wean our thought and affections, good Lord, from all the vain and delusive enjoyments of this transitory world, that we may not only with patient resignation submit to the appointed stroke of death, but that our faith and hope may be so elevated that we may conceive a longing desire to be dissolved from these our earthly tabernacles, and to be with Christ, which is far better than all the happiness we can wish for besides! ”

“ In ancient times, when capital abounded, the fine arts sprang into vigorous existence. The statuary made the marble all but breathe. The painter with his exquisite art, touched the canvass into life. The philosopher taught his spiritual and humanizing doctrines. The poet, fresh from nature and glowing with divine conceptions, awoke impassioned eloquence in the listening crowd. Capital produced these effects! Capital was encouragement, and owned an allegiance to every thing that was grand, refined, or elevated in nature. ”

“ Salvation is promised to us Christians on the terms of faith, obedience, and repentence. I shall therefore endeavour to shew how, in the short interval between this moment and death, we may exert faith, perform obedience, and excercise repentence, in a manner which our heavenly Father may, in his infinite mercy, vouch safe to accept.
1. Faith is the foundation of all Christian virtue. It is that without which it is impossible to please God. I shall therefore consider, first, how Faith is to be particularly exerted by us in our present state. ”

“ A person going through a silk mill, and viewing the operations of the various branches of the manufacture, would suppose that no human beings could be deformed and crippled by such light, clean, and beautiful work; consisting of little more than knotting threads of silk, clipping the edges of ribbon, and other things, which seem to a casual observer, more suitable for a lady's parlor than a factory. But when we look more narrowly into the matter, we find causes for the awful effects of factory labor in silk mills. ”

“ TO the words of dying men regard has always been paid. I am brought hither to suffer death for an act of fraud, which I confess myself guilty with shame, such as my former state of life naturally produces, and I hope with such sorrow as he, to whom the heart is known, will not disregard. ”

“ A factory conducted thus was not a very desirable place to train up a child in, and many a time did it grieve the heart of his mother to hear him, in answer to her inquiries as to how he had come by a bruise or cut on the head or back, tell how he had been beat by the overlooker or spinner, and how he swore he would kill him if he did not work faster. Anxiously did she inquire of her friends for some more suitable employment, for her boy; but on account of his deformity, which had become now quite conspicuous, none could be found. ”