Through the whole dismal year, with plague and fire raging
around him, he sticks to his post and does his work as thoroughly as the
disorganised circumstances of his life allow. If we could get back to
the point of view of those who thought about Pepys and formed a judgment
of him before his Diary had been made public, we should be confronted
with the figure of a man as different from the diarist as it is possible
for two men to be. His contemporaries took him for a great Englishman, a
man who did much for his country, and whose character was a mirror of
all the national and patriotic ideals. His public work was by no means
unimportant, even in a time so full of dangers and so critical for the
destinies of England. Little did the people who loved and hated him in
his day and afterwards dream of the contents of that small volume, so
carefully written in such an unintelligible cipher, locked nightly with
its little key, and hidden in some secure place. When at last the
writing was deciphered, there came forth upon us, from the august and
honourable state in which the Navy Commissioner had lain so long, this
flood of small talk, the greatest curiosity known to English literature.
Pages:
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192