DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0311
SINGULAR NARRATIVE OF MATTHEW LOVAT. 275
forcibly smitten with the view of the easy and comfortable
lives of the rector and his curate, who were the only persons
in the whole parish, exempted from the labours of the field,
and who engrossed all the power and consequence, which
the little world in which Matthew lived, had presented to
his eyes, that he was carried, by the principle of imitation,
as some philosophers would express it, to make an effort to
prepare himself for the priesthood. With this design, he
placed himself under the tuition of the curate, who taught
him to read and to write a little; but the poverty of his family
rendered it quite impossible for him to follow his plan ; he
was obliged to renounce study for ever, and to betake him-
self to the trade of a shoemaker.
“ Disappointment in the choice of a profession, which would
fix a man’s destiny for fife, has often revolted the soundest
understandings, and not unfrequently produced the most
fatal consequences : think, then, what a shock must have
been inflicted upon the brain of poor Lovat, by this opposi-
tion to his wishes, and defeat of his hopes, Hine prima
mali labes. Having become shoemaker, of necessity, he
never succeeded, either as a neat or a powerful workman
the ordinary fate of those who are employed contrary to
their inclinations. The sedentary life, and the silence to
which apprentices are condemned in the shops of their mas-
ters, formed in him the habit of meditation, and rendered
him gloomy and taciturn. As his age increased, he became
subject, in the spring, to giddiness in his head, and erup-
tions of a leprous appearance shewed themselves on his face
and hands. Shall I be allowed to entertain the suspicion
that these evils were occasioned by leprosy? You know, my
dear learned friend, that these are the symptoms of that
cruel malady, the existence of which, in several of our pro-
vinces, is but too well confirmed by the ravages which it
has made in them, sensium sine sensu; and I observed, in
fact, upon the person of whom I am now writing, while
n n 2
forcibly smitten with the view of the easy and comfortable
lives of the rector and his curate, who were the only persons
in the whole parish, exempted from the labours of the field,
and who engrossed all the power and consequence, which
the little world in which Matthew lived, had presented to
his eyes, that he was carried, by the principle of imitation,
as some philosophers would express it, to make an effort to
prepare himself for the priesthood. With this design, he
placed himself under the tuition of the curate, who taught
him to read and to write a little; but the poverty of his family
rendered it quite impossible for him to follow his plan ; he
was obliged to renounce study for ever, and to betake him-
self to the trade of a shoemaker.
“ Disappointment in the choice of a profession, which would
fix a man’s destiny for fife, has often revolted the soundest
understandings, and not unfrequently produced the most
fatal consequences : think, then, what a shock must have
been inflicted upon the brain of poor Lovat, by this opposi-
tion to his wishes, and defeat of his hopes, Hine prima
mali labes. Having become shoemaker, of necessity, he
never succeeded, either as a neat or a powerful workman
the ordinary fate of those who are employed contrary to
their inclinations. The sedentary life, and the silence to
which apprentices are condemned in the shops of their mas-
ters, formed in him the habit of meditation, and rendered
him gloomy and taciturn. As his age increased, he became
subject, in the spring, to giddiness in his head, and erup-
tions of a leprous appearance shewed themselves on his face
and hands. Shall I be allowed to entertain the suspicion
that these evils were occasioned by leprosy? You know, my
dear learned friend, that these are the symptoms of that
cruel malady, the existence of which, in several of our pro-
vinces, is but too well confirmed by the ravages which it
has made in them, sensium sine sensu; and I observed, in
fact, upon the person of whom I am now writing, while
n n 2