The night side of London / by J. Erving Ritchie.

  • Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing), 1820-1898.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The night side of London / by J. Erving Ritchie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    what a change from Cheapside or from noisy manu- factories still more confined ! By this light the scene is almost a fairy one. Can there be danger here ? Is there here nothing artistic—nothing refined—nothing appealing to the imagination ? Come here, Mrs. Stowe, and judge. You will scandalize, I know, that portion of the religious public that never yet has looked at man and society honestly in the face, but you will better under- stand the frightful hypocrisies of our domestic life; you will better understand how it is that a religion which we pay so much for, and to which we render so much outward homage, has so little hold upon the heart and life. There is no harm in Cremorne, if man is born merely to enjoy himself —to eat, drink, he merry, and die. I grant it is rather inconvenient for a young man who has his way to fight in life to indulge a taste for pleasure, to launch out into expenses beyond his means, to mix with company that is more amusing than moral and to keep late hours; and young fellows who go to Cremorae must run all these risks. It may do you, my good sir, no harm to go there. You have arrived at an age when the gaieties of life have