Through Night to Light. from the Germ. by Mrs. Faber (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 Excerpt: ... knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" a text which he said was the most precious, the deepest, the most full of suggestive thought of any in the Bible. For in it, he said, marriage was described as a remedial institution. Two people were united that they might mutually aid each other in attaining the true object of life, the perfection of man's sole worth, indeed that they might secure it. And the gravity of the moment was such, Sam said as though the two officers of the "Dispatch" had been coming to a conclusion respecting the peculiar laws of such conflicting assurances. The sumptuous repast which in its course grew more and more gay and hilarious, and which was still far from its conclusion, even when, according to English custom, the table had been cleared and the brightly polished table of Indian wood was covered with wines of every kind in bottles of curious shapes, crooked, square, and crane-necked, and the men had closed together to drink whilst the ladies had gone upstairs, this repast was suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted. An alarm of fire was heard. Certainly nothing unusual in so large a city as London. But before one could feel at ease it was necessary to know where the fire was. In civil advancement, in the conditions of social life, London was in advance of every city in the world, except perhaps Pekin. But the means of extinguishing fires were still so scanty that it was not rare for an entire quarter of the city to be in flames, and conflagrations increased to such a degree as to have attained a mournful celebrity in the annals of that city. London was lighted even at this time. At every tenth house a light glimmered from a lantern made of thick glass in a convex form. Thus, even then, in looking out of...