Free e-text of "A Book of Scoundrels" by Charles Whibley.
A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS
By Charles Whibley
To the Greeks FOOLISHNESS
I desire to thank the Proprietors of the 'National Observer,' the 'New Review,' the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' and 'Macmillan's Magazine,' for courteous permission to reprint certain chapters of this book.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CAPTAIN HIND
MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD
I. MOLL CUTPURSE
II. JONATHAN WILD
III. A PARALLEL
RALPH BRISCOE
GILDEROY AND SIXTEEN-STRING JACK
I. GILDEROY
II. SIXTEEN-STRING JACK
III. A PARALLEL
THOMAS PURENEY
SHEPPARD AND CARTOUCHE
I. JACK SHEPPARD
II. LOUIS-DOMINIQUE CARTOUCHE
III. A PARALLEL
VAUX
GEORGE BARRINGTON
THE SWITCHER AND GENTLEMAN HARRY
I. THE SWITCHER
II. GENTLEMAN HARRY
III. A PARALLEL
DEACON BRODIE AND CHARLES PEACE
I. DEACON BRODIE
II. CHARLES PEACE
III. A PARALLEL
THE MAN IN THE GREY SUIT
MONSIEUR L'ABBE
INTRODUCTION
There are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve suffering or to wreck an empire. Julius Caesar and John Howard are not the only heroes who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme adaptation of means to an end there is a constant nobility, for neither ambition nor virtue is the essential of a perfect action. How shall you contemplate with indifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance has compelled to exercise his peculiar skill, to indulge his finer aptitudes? A masterly theft rises in its claim to respect high above the reprobation of the moralist. The scoundrel, when once justice is quit of him, has a right to be appraised by his actions, not by their effect; and he dies secure in the knowledge that he is commonly more distinguished, if he be less loved, than his virtuous contemporaries.