Daily Dose

From The Letters of William Makepeace Thackeray, Volume II, 1841 - 1851, edited by Gordon N. Ray

ATTENDING A REVEREND'S LECTURE

"It was about the origins of nations he spoke -- one of those big themes on which a man may talk eternally and with a never-ending outpouring of words, and he talked magnificently about the Arabs for the most part, and tried to prove that because the Arabs acknowledge their descent from Ishmael or Esau, therefore the Old Testament History was true, but the Arabs may have had Esau for a father, & yet the bears may not have eaten up the little children for quizzing Elisha's bald head -- and yet Joshua may not have received Divine orders to slaughter man woman & child; and yet -- but never mind the horrid story of hatred murder bigotry and persecution."

From a letter to Mrs. Brookfield, dated December, 19 - 22, 1848