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Article PENCILLINGS PROM THE SKETCH-BOOK OE A MA... ← Page 4 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pencillings Prom The Sketch-Book Oe A Ma...
to drop my Individuality , and merge my own adventures by a sort of prosopopoeia into those of another—to transfer them to an " alter ego "—in the story of Indian life which I am about to present to your notice . What has been written , I wish you to understand , is but a preparatory episode to what is to follow .
Behold , then , with the rapidity of a dissolving view in a panorama a change occurs , and I step at once from the ground of autobiography to wander upon the field of fiction ; of fiction , however , founded upon fact ; though , to calm down the apprehensions of the numerous tribe of Whites , Blacks , Joneses , and Browns , Johnsons and Thompsons , names which exist " as plenty as blackberries" in
all professions , let me add here that , in admitting to my pages incidents which have occurred in the course of my experience , I am but holding " the mirror up to nature" in the scenes I depict , while at the same time I disavow all personality , and state that I herein sketch no character which , viewed in its entirety , might justly be set down as the prototype of any defunct or existing individual .
A dissolving view f all suggestive of melting moments , and therefore characteristic of the climate of India , which , if it does not work wonders in creating an aspiring hero , turns a man , at least , into a perspiring one \ < " ¦ It is then within a year or two subsequent to my own arrival in
India , whence the tale , which forms the subject-matter of the following pages , dates its commencement . A large party of gentlemen cadets were now at the quarters , increased , on a burning day in July , by the advent of three young men , who will figure here by the names of Hugh Eitzallan , Aylmer St . George , and Mason Hoi wood .
The two former were of a very gentlemanly stamp , rather goodlooking , and in all respects , both as regards mind and body , pretty well gifted by nature ; but Eitzallan , in addition to the advantages he possessed of a fine person and a stature exceeding six feet , while his companion was several inches less in height , had received that of a university education for a time , when St . George was but a youth at a large grammar-school , from the trammels of which he had been
but just released previous to sailing for India . They were known to each other in England ; both were high-spirited , and a similarity of feeling existed between them , which ripened into friendship ; they had occupied the same cabin on the voyage out , and were determined , if possible , to enter the same regiment in India . Eitzallan , the elder by three years , without assuming the place of a monitor , had much influence over St . George , who was not only disposed to look up to
his friend as his superior in age , hut also because he felt that in Eitzallan he saw a man he could esteem—one more matured in intellect than himself , and a collegian . The father of Eitzallan , a
private gentleman in Shropshire , had at one period of his life been a wealthy landed proprietor , but a lawsuit had ruined him ; the son and heir , no longer able to prepare himself for the bar nor bear the expenses of an Oxford undergraduate , was obliged to quit college , and a cadet ^ hip having been kindly offered him by an East-India
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pencillings Prom The Sketch-Book Oe A Ma...
to drop my Individuality , and merge my own adventures by a sort of prosopopoeia into those of another—to transfer them to an " alter ego "—in the story of Indian life which I am about to present to your notice . What has been written , I wish you to understand , is but a preparatory episode to what is to follow .
Behold , then , with the rapidity of a dissolving view in a panorama a change occurs , and I step at once from the ground of autobiography to wander upon the field of fiction ; of fiction , however , founded upon fact ; though , to calm down the apprehensions of the numerous tribe of Whites , Blacks , Joneses , and Browns , Johnsons and Thompsons , names which exist " as plenty as blackberries" in
all professions , let me add here that , in admitting to my pages incidents which have occurred in the course of my experience , I am but holding " the mirror up to nature" in the scenes I depict , while at the same time I disavow all personality , and state that I herein sketch no character which , viewed in its entirety , might justly be set down as the prototype of any defunct or existing individual .
A dissolving view f all suggestive of melting moments , and therefore characteristic of the climate of India , which , if it does not work wonders in creating an aspiring hero , turns a man , at least , into a perspiring one \ < " ¦ It is then within a year or two subsequent to my own arrival in
India , whence the tale , which forms the subject-matter of the following pages , dates its commencement . A large party of gentlemen cadets were now at the quarters , increased , on a burning day in July , by the advent of three young men , who will figure here by the names of Hugh Eitzallan , Aylmer St . George , and Mason Hoi wood .
The two former were of a very gentlemanly stamp , rather goodlooking , and in all respects , both as regards mind and body , pretty well gifted by nature ; but Eitzallan , in addition to the advantages he possessed of a fine person and a stature exceeding six feet , while his companion was several inches less in height , had received that of a university education for a time , when St . George was but a youth at a large grammar-school , from the trammels of which he had been
but just released previous to sailing for India . They were known to each other in England ; both were high-spirited , and a similarity of feeling existed between them , which ripened into friendship ; they had occupied the same cabin on the voyage out , and were determined , if possible , to enter the same regiment in India . Eitzallan , the elder by three years , without assuming the place of a monitor , had much influence over St . George , who was not only disposed to look up to
his friend as his superior in age , hut also because he felt that in Eitzallan he saw a man he could esteem—one more matured in intellect than himself , and a collegian . The father of Eitzallan , a
private gentleman in Shropshire , had at one period of his life been a wealthy landed proprietor , but a lawsuit had ruined him ; the son and heir , no longer able to prepare himself for the bar nor bear the expenses of an Oxford undergraduate , was obliged to quit college , and a cadet ^ hip having been kindly offered him by an East-India