His conscience and his shackles
hang up together, and are made very near of the same metal, saving that
the one is harder than the other and hath one property above iron, for
that never melts. He distils money out of the poor men's tears, and
grows fat by their curses. No man coming to the practical part of hell
can discharge it better, because here he does nothing but study the
theory of it. His house is the picture of hell in little, and the
original of the letters patent of his office stands exemplified there. A
chamber of lousy beds is better worth to him than the best acre of
corn-land in England. Two things are hard to him (nay, almost
impossible), viz., to save all his prisoners that none ever escape, and
to be saved himself. His ears are stopped to the cries of others, and
God's to his; and good reason, for lay the life of a man in one scale
and his fees on the other, he will lose the first to find the second. He
must look for no mercy if he desires justice to be done to him, for he
shows none; and I think he cares the less, because he knows heaven hath
no need of such tenants--the doors there want no porters, for they stand
ever open. If it were possible for all creatures in the world to sleep
every night, he only and a tyrant cannot. That blessing is taken from
them, and this curse comes in the stead, to be ever in fear and ever
hated: what estate can be worse?
WHAT A CHARACTER IS.
If I must speak the schoolmaster's language, I will confess that
character comes of this infinitive mood, [Greek: charassen], which
signifies to engrave, or make a deep impression.
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