To Be Read at Dusk; And Other Stories, Sketches and Essays

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1898. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... ROCHESTER AND CHATHAM. [fr0m One Man 1n A D0ckyard J I Am a man of good average size and strength; John Strongitharm by name; five feet eight, in my shoes; and able to lift a hundred-weight and a half, without turning purple in the face. The last time I had a tussle with Peter Briggs, I sent him clean into the back parlour, from the front dining-room (all in an amicable way), and my weight is barely eleven stone, while Peter weighs at least fourteen. I consider myself, therefore, as neither weak nor helpless. But of what use on earth, is a single man? I mean-- of how small an amount of practical labour is an individual capable, when he compares his powers, not only with the entire magnitude of great public works, but with one of the countless number of subordinate parts, nay, one of the mere temporary details and preliminaries. I stand in the evening looking up at St. Paul's--a small dark object in the broad shade of its huge sombre walls. My eye ascends the darkness, and wanders round the great black dome, and then slowly returns by way of the roof of one of its great porticoes, and finds its way down one of the large dark pillars. What are my strength and weight compared with that one pillar? Could I have set it up there--could I have moved one tenth part of it, or a twentieth part of it, no as it lay upon the ground? I can throw Peter Briggs, who weighs fourteen stone, but there is a cornice up there which I could not stir if I had it before my feet, but which, if it fell upon me, would exterminate me. I often have this feeling in gazing at large edifices. I took a stroll about the town of Chatham, the other day, and almost everything I looked at there, engendered it in an unusual degree. There was Rochester Castle, to begin with. I surveyed that m...