tailieunhanh - A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS

There are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve suffering or to wreck an empire. Julius Csar and John Howard are not the only heroes who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme adaptation of means to an end there is a constant nobility, for neither ambition nor virtue is the essential of a perfect action. How shall you contemplate with indifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance has compelled to exercise his peculiar skill, to indulge his finer aptitudes? A masterly theft rises in its claim to respect high above the reprobation of the moralist. The scoundrel, when once. | 1 PROJECT GUTENBERG A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS Charles Whibley A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS by CHARLES WHIBLEY To the Greeks FOOLISHNESS I desire to thank the Proprietors of the National Observer the New Review the Pall Mall Gazette and Macmillan s Magazine for courteous permission to reprint certain chapters of this book. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CAPTAIN HIND MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD I. MOLL CUTPURSE II. JONATHAN WILD III. A PARALLEL RALPH BRISCOE GILDEROY AND SIXTEEN-STRING JACK I. GILDEROY 2 II. SIXTEEN-STRING JACK III. A PARALLEL THOMAS PURENEY SHEPPARD AND CARTOUCHE I. JACK SHEPPARD II. LOUIS-DOMINIQUE CARTOUCHE III. A PARALLEL VAUX GEORGE BARRINGTON THE SWITCHER AND GENTLEMAN HARRY I. THE SWITCHER II. GENTLEMAN HARRY III. A PARALLEL DEACON BRODIE AND CHARLES PEACE I. DEACON BRODIE II. CHARLES PEACE III. A PARALLEL THE MAN IN THE GREY SUIT MONSIEUR L ABB E INTRODUCTION There are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve suffering or to wreck an empire. Julius C ae sar and John Howard are not the only heroes who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme adaptation of means to an end there is a constant nobility for neither ambition nor virtue is the essential of a perfect action. How shall you contemplate with indifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance has compelled to exercise his peculiar skill to indulge his finer aptitudes A masterly theft rises in its claim to respect high above the reprobation of the moralist. The scoundrel when once justice is quit of him has a right to be appraised by his actions not by their effect and he dies secure in the knowledge that he is commonly more distinguished if he be less loved than his virtuous contemporaries. While murder is wellnigh as old as life property and the pocket invented theft late-born among the arts. It was not until avarice had devised many a cunning trick for the protection of wealth until civilisation had multiplied the forms of portable property that thieving became a liberal and an