Brother Jacob | Page 4

medium than that
of candied sugars, conserves, and pastry. Say what you will about the
identity of the reasoning process in all branches of thought, or about the
advantage of coming to subjects with a fresh mind, the adjustment of
butter to flour, and of heat to pastry, is NOT the best preparation for the
office of prime minister; besides, in the present imperfectly- organized
state of society, there are social barriers. David could invent delightful
things in the way of drop-cakes, and he had the widest views of the
sugar department; but in other directions he certainly felt hampered by
the want of knowledge and practical skill; and the world is so
inconveniently constituted, that the vague consciousness of being a fine
fellow is no guarantee of success in any line of business.
This difficulty pressed with some severity on Mr. David Faux, even
before his apprenticeship was ended. His soul swelled with an
impatient sense that he ought to become something very remarkable--
that it was quite out of the question for him to put up with a narrow lot
as other men did: he scorned the idea that he could accept an average.
He was sure there was nothing average about him: even such a person
as Mrs. Tibbits, the washer-woman, perceived it, and probably had a
preference for his linen. At that particular period he was weighing out
gingerbread nuts; but such an anomaly could not continue. No position
could be suited to Mr. David Faux that was not in the highest degree

easy to the flesh and flattering to the spirit. If he had fallen on the
present times, and enjoyed the advantages of a Mechanic's Institute, he
would certainly have taken to literature and have written reviews; but
his education had not been liberal. He had read some novels from the
adjoining circulating library, and had even bought the story of Inkle
and Yarico, which had made him feel very sorry for poor Mr. Inkle; so
that his ideas might not have been below a certain mark of the literary
calling; but his spelling and diction were too unconventional.
When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in his
own country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes; and
David's imagination circled round and round the utmost limits of his
geographical knowledge, in search of a country where a young
gentleman of pasty visage, lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be
likely to be received with the hospitable enthusiasm which he had a
right to expect. Having a general idea of America as a country where
the population was chiefly black, it appeared to him the most propitious
destination for an emigrant who, to begin with, had the broad and easily
recognizable merit of whiteness; and this idea gradually took such
strong possession of him that Satan seized the opportunity of
suggesting to him that he might emigrate under easier circumstances, if
he supplied himself with a little money from his master's till. But that
evil spirit, whose understanding, I am convinced, has been much
overrated, quite wasted his time on this occasion. David would
certainly have liked well to have some of his master's money in his
pocket, if he had been sure his master would have been the only man to
suffer for it; but he was a cautious youth, and quite determined to run
no risks on his own account. So he stayed out his apprenticeship, and
committed no act of dishonesty that was at all likely to be discovered,
reserving his plan of emigration for a future opportunity. And the
circumstances under which he carried it out were in this wise. Having
been at home a week or two partaking of the family beans, he had used
his leisure in ascertaining a fact which was of considerable importance
to him, namely, that his mother had a small sum in guineas painfully
saved from her maiden perquisites, and kept in the corner of a drawer
where her baby-linen had reposed for the last twenty years--ever since
her son David had taken to his feet, with a slight promise of bow-legs

which had not been altogether unfulfilled. Mr. Faux, senior, had told
his son very frankly, that he must not look to being set up in business
by HIM: with seven sons, and one of them a very healthy and
well-developed idiot, who consumed a dumpling about eight inches in
diameter every day, it was pretty well if they got a hundred apiece at
his death. Under these circumstances, what was David to do? It was
certainly hard that he should take his mother's money; but he saw no
other ready means of getting any, and it was not to be expected that a
young man of his merit should put up