{"id":31698,"date":"2020-11-28T21:40:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?page_id=31698"},"modified":"2020-11-28T22:59:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T05:59:50","slug":"ignorance-and-want","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/dickens-in-days\/ignorance-and-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 14 – Ignorance and Want"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dickens<\/a>It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the Christmas<\/a> Holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of it, until they left a children\u2019s Twelfth Night party, when, looking at the Spirit as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair was grey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre spirits\u2019 lives so short?\u201d asked Scrooge.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life upon this globe, is very brief,\u201d replied the Ghost. \u201cIt ends to-night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo-night!\u201d cried Scrooge.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo-night at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cForgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,\u201d said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit\u2019s robe, \u201cbut I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,\u201d was the Spirit\u2019s sorrowful reply. \u201cLook here.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!\u201d exclaimed the Ghost.<\/p>\n

They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpirit! are they yours?\u201d Scrooge could say no more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are Man\u2019s,\u201d said the Spirit, looking down upon them. \u201cAnd they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!\u201d cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. \u201cSlander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave they no refuge or resource?\u201d cried Scrooge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre there no prisons?\u201d said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. \u201cAre there no workhouses?\u201d<\/p>\n

The bell struck twelve.<\/p>\n

Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the Christmas Holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, clearly older. Scrooge had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":31663,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"pageWithContainerAndSidebar.php","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":23,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31698","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31698\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}