He said he would take me into the office, and pay me
according to the business I performed and the manner in which I
deported myself; but he could take no man into Her Majesty's
printing office upon a regular engagement who could not produce
the most respectable references with regard to morals.
I could not but despise the man in my heart who laid such a stress
upon morals, leaving grace out of the question; and viewed it as a
deplorable instance of human depravity and self-conceit; but, for
all that, I was obliged to accept of his terms, for I had an inward
thirst and longing to distinguish myself in the great cause of
religion, and I thought, if once I could print my own works, how I
would astonish mankind, and confound their self-wisdom and
their esteemed morality--blow up the idea of any dependence on
good works, and morality, forsooth! And I weened that I might
thus get me a name even higher than if I had been made a general
of the Czar Peter's troops against the infidels.
I attended the office some hours every day, but got not much
encouragement, though I was eager to learn everything, and could
soon have set types considerably well.
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