BADLY CONSTRUCTED

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3439, 5 March 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

BADLY CONSTRUCTED

Men are usually found to be a sort of beings very badly constructed, as they are generally more easily provoked than reconciled, more disposed to do mischief to each other than to make reparation, much more easily deceived than undeceived, and having more pride and even pleasure in killing than in begetting one another; for without a blush they will assemble in great armies at noonday to destroy, and when they have killed as many as they can they exaggerate the number to augment the fancied glory. In what light we are viewed by superior beings may be gathered from a piece of late West Indian news. A young angel of distinction being sent down to this world for the first time, had an old courier-spirit assigned him as a guide. They arrived over the seas of Martinoco, in the middle of the long day of obstinate fight between the fleets of Rodney and De Grasse. When, through the clouds of smoke, he saw the fire of the guns, the decks covered with mangled limbs, and bodies dead or dying; the ships sinking, burning, or blown "into the air; and the quantity of pain, misery, and destruction the crews yet alive were thus with so much eagerness dealing round to one another, he turned angrily to his guide and said: "You blundering blockhead, you are ignorant of your business; you undertook to conduct me to the earth, and you have brought me into hell!." "No, sir," said the guide, "I have made no mistake; this is really the earth, and these men. Devils never treat one another in this cruel manner; they have more sense, and more of what men (vainly) call humanity:"