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349
The Journal of a Disappointed Man
·
W. N. P. Barbellion
298
"After
the
morning
has
been
occupied
with
the
labours
of
the
library,
I
wish
to
unbend
rather
than
exercise
my
mind;
and
in
the
interval
between
tea
and
supper,
I
am
far
from
disdaining
the
innocent
amusement
of
a
game
of
cards."
How
Jane
Austen
would
have
laughed
at
him!
The
passage
reminds
me
of
the
Rev.
Mr.
Collins
saying:
"Had
I
been
able
I
should
have
been
only
too
pleased
to
give
you
a
song,
for
I
regard
music
as
a
harmless
diversion
and
perfectly
compatible
with
the
profession
of
a
clergyman."
"When
I
contemplate
the
common
lot
of
mortality,"
Gibbon
writes,
"I
must
acknowledge
I
have
drawn
a
high
prize
in
the
lottery
of
life,"
and
he
goes
on
to
count
up
all
his
blessings
with
the
most
offensive
delight--his
wealth,
the
good
fortune
of
his
birth,
his
ripe
years,
a
cheerful
temper,
a
moderate
sensibility,
health,
sound
and
peaceful
slumbers
from
infancy,
his
valuable
friendship
with
Lord
Sheffield,
his
rank,
fame,
etc.,
etc.,
ad
nauseam.
He
rakes
over
his
whole
life
for
things
to
be
grateful
for.
He
intones
his
happiness
in
a
long
recitative
of
thanksgiving
that
his
lot
was
not
that
of
a
savage,
of
a
slave,
or
a
peasant;
he
washes
his
hands
with
imaginary
soap
on
reflecting
on
the
bounty
of
Nature
which
cast
his
birth
in
a
free
and
civilised
country,
in
an
age
of
science
and
philosophy,
in
a
family
of
honourable
rank
and
decently
endowed
with
the
gifts
of
fortune--sleek,
complacent,
oleaginous
and
salacious
old
gentleman,
how
I
would
love
to
have
bombed
you
out
of
your
self-satisfaction!
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