Stranica 84 [84]
92
“What made you tell the magistrate your
name was Tom White?"
*“T never told him .so, sir,” returned
Oliver in amazement.
This sounded so like a falsehood, that
the old gentleman looked somewhat sternly
in Oliver’s face. It was impossible to
doubt him; there was truth in every one
of its thin and sharpened lineaments.
c Some mistake,” said Mr. Brownlow.
But, although his motive for looking stea¬
dily at Oliver no longer existed, the old
idea of the resemblance between his fea¬
tures and some familiar face came upon
him so strongly that he could not with¬
draw his gaze.
6 IT hope you are not angry with me,
sir,” said Oliver, raising his eyes beseech¬
ingly.
“ No, no,” replied the old gentleman.—
‘*Gracious God, what’s this! Bedwin,
look, look, there !”
As he spoke, he pointed hastily to the
picture above Oliver’s head, and then to
the boy’s face. There was its living copy,
the eyes, the head, the mouth; every fea¬
ture was the same. ‘The expression was
for the instant so precisely alike, that the
minutest line seemed copied with an ac¬
curacy which was perfectly unearthly.
Oliver knew not the cause of this sud¬
den exclamation, for he was not strong
enough to bear the start it gave him, and
he fainted away.
CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH
Reverts to the merry old gentleman and his youth¬
ful friends, through whom a new acquaintance
is introduced to the intelligent reader, and con¬
nected with whom various pleasant matters are
related appertaining to this history.
WHEN the Dodger and his accomplished
friend Master Bates joined in the hue and
cry which was raised at Oliver’s heels, in
consequence of their executing an illegal
conveyance of Mr. Brownlow’s personal
property, as hath been already described
with great perspicuity in a foregoing chap¬
ter, they were actuated, as we therein
took occasion to observe, by a very lauda¬
ble and becoming regard for themselves:
and forasmuch as the freedom of the sub¬
ject and the liberty of the individual are
among the first and proudest boasts of a
true-hearted Englishman, so [ need hardly
veg the reader to observe that this action
must tend to exalt them in the opinion of
u!l public and patriotic men, in almost as
great a degree as this strong proof of their
anxiety for their own preservation and
safety goes to corroborate and confirm the
little code of laws which certain profound
and sound-judging philosophers have laid
down as the mainsprings of all Madam
Nature’s deeds and actions; the said phi¬
losophers very wisely reducing the good
and theory, and, by a very neat and pretty
compliment to her exalted wisdom and
understanding, putting entirely out of
sight any considerations of heart, or gene¬
rous impulse and feeling, as matters total¬
ly beneath a female who is acknowledged
by universal admission to be so far beyond
the numerous little foibles and weaknesses
of her sex.
If I wanted any further proof of the
strictly philosophical nature of the con¬
duct of these young gentlemen in their
very delicate predicament, I should at
once find it in the fact (also recorded in a
foregoing part of this narrative) of their
quitting the pursuit when the general at¬
tention was fixed upon Oliver, and making
immediately for their home by the short¬
est possible cut; for although I do not
mean to assert that it is the practice of re¬
nowned and learned sages at al! to shorten
the road to any great conclusion, their
course indeed being rather to lengthen
the distance by various circumlocutions
and discursive staggerings, like those in
which drunken men under the pressure
of a too mighty flow of ideas are prone to
indulge, still I do mean to say, and do say
distinctly, that it is the invariable practice
of all mighty philosophers, in carrying out
their theories, to evince great wisdom and
foresight in providing against every possi¬
ble contingency which can be supposed at
all likely to affect themselves. Thus, to do
a great right, you may do a little wrong,
and you may take any means which the
end to be attained will justify ; the amount
of the right or the amount of the wrong,
or indeed the distinction between the two,
being left entirely to the philosopher con¬
cerned: to be settled and: determined by
his clear, comprehensive, and impartial
view of his own particular case.
It was not until the two boys had scour
ed with great rapidity through a most in¬
tricate maze of narrow streets and courts,
that they ventured to halt by common
consent beneath a low and dark archway.
Having remained silent here, just long
enough to recover breath to speak, Master
Bates uttered an exclamation of amuse¬
ment and delight, and, bursting into an un¬