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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"

They were
nice people, but more absolute vacancy I never saw upon the countenances
of human beings.
Theobald began by reading a few verses from the Old Testament, according
to some system of his own. On this occasion the passage came from the
fifteenth chapter of Numbers: it had no particular bearing that I could
see upon anything which was going on just then, but the spirit which
breathed throughout the whole seemed to me to be so like that of Theobald
himself, that I could understand better after hearing it, how he came to
think as he thought, and act as he acted.
The verses are as follows--
"But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in
the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul
shall be cut off from among his people.
"Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken His
commandments, that soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall
be upon him.
"And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a
man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.
"And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and
Aaron, and unto all the congregation.


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