Arthur Mervyn

Arthur Mervyn

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Arthur Mervyn, by Charles Brockden
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Title: Arthur Mervyn Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793
Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Release Date: June 5, 2006 [EBook #18508]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ARTHUR MERVYN;
OR,
MEMOIRS OF THE YEAR 1793.

BY
CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN.
"Fielding, Richardson, and Scott occupied pedestals. In a niche was
deposited the bust of our countryman, the author of 'Arthur Mervyn.'"
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
PHILADELPHIA: DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER,
23 SOUTH NINTH STREET. 1889.

PREFACE.
The evils of pestilence by which this city has lately been afflicted will
probably form an era in its history. The schemes of reformation and
improvement to which they will give birth, or, if no efforts of human
wisdom can avail to avert the periodical visitations of this calamity, the
change in manners and population which they will produce, will be, in
the highest degree, memorable. They have already supplied new and
copious materials for reflection to the physician and the political
economist. They have not been less fertile of instruction to the moral
observer, to whom they have furnished new displays of the influence of
human passions and motives.
Amidst the medical and political discussions which are now afloat in
the community relative to this topic, the author of these remarks has
ventured to methodize his own reflections, and to weave into an
humble narrative such incidents as appeared to him most instructive
and remarkable among those which came within the sphere of his own
observation. It is every one's duty to profit by all opportunities of
inculcating on mankind the lessons of justice and humanity. The
influences of hope and fear, the trials of fortitude and constancy, which
took place in this city in the autumn of 1793, have, perhaps, never been
exceeded in any age. It is but just to snatch some of these from oblivion,
and to deliver to posterity a brief but faithful sketch of the condition of

this metropolis during that calamitous period. Men only require to be
made acquainted with distress for their compassion and their charity to
be awakened. He that depicts, in lively colours, the evils of disease and
poverty, performs an eminent service to the sufferers, by calling forth
benevolence in those who are able to afford relief; and he who portrays
examples of disinterestedness and intrepidity confers on virtue the
notoriety and homage that are due to it, and rouses in the spectators the
spirit of salutary emulation.
In the following tale a particular series of adventures is brought to a
close; but these are necessarily connected with the events which
happened subsequent to the period here described. These events are not
less memorable than those which form the subject of the present
volume, and may hereafter be published, either separately or in addition
to this.
C.B.B.

ARTHUR MERVYN.
CHAPTER I.
I was resident in this city during the year 1793. Many motives
contributed to detain me, though departure was easy and commodious,
and my friends were generally solicitous for me to go. It is not my
purpose to enumerate these motives, or to dwell on my present
concerns and transactions, but merely to compose a narrative of some
incidents with which my situation made me acquainted.
Returning one evening, somewhat later than usual, to my own house,
my attention was attracted, just as I entered the porch, by the figure of a
man reclining against the wall at a few paces distant. My sight was
imperfectly assisted by a far-off lamp; but the posture in which he sat,
the hour, and the place, immediately suggested the idea of one disabled
by sickness. It was obvious to conclude that his disease was pestilential.
This did not deter me from approaching and examining him more

closely.
He leaned his head against the wall; his eyes were shut, his hands
clasped in each other, and his body seemed to be sustained in an
upright position merely by the cellar-door against which he rested his
left shoulder. The lethargy into which he was sunk seemed scarcely
interrupted by my feeling his hand and his forehead. His throbbing
temples and burning skin indicated a fever, and his form, already
emaciated, seemed to prove that it had not been of short duration.
There was only one circumstance that hindered me from forming an
immediate determination in what manner this person should be