The catastrophe in the City again
brought father and son together somewhat, and the vindictiveness of both
was roused by Barnes's treason. Time was when the Colonel himself would
have viewed his kinsman more charitably, but fate and circumstance had
angered that originally friendly and gentle disposition; hate and
suspicion had mastered him, and if it cannot be said that his new life
had changed him, at least it had brought out faults for which there had
hitherto been no occasion, and qualities latent before. Do we know
ourselves, or what good or evil circumstance may bring from us? Did Cain
know, as he and his younger brother played round their mother's knee,
that the little hand which caressed Abel should one day grow larger, and
seize a brand to slay him? Thrice fortunate he, to whom circumstance is
made easy: whom fate visits with gentle trial, and kindly Heaven keeps
out of temptation.
In the stage which the family feud now reached, and which the biographer
of the Newcomes is bound to describe, there is one gentle moralist who
gives her sentence decidedly against Clive's father; whilst on the other
hand a rough philosopher and friend of mine, whose opinions used to have
some weight with me, stoutly declares that they were right.
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