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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz, Volume II

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Atrocities, Duels, Suicides, And Execution Of Gamblers

DR WILLIAM DODD.

Le Sage, in his 'Gil Blas,' says that 'the devil has a particular
spite against private tutors;' and he might have added, against
popular preachers. By popular preachers I do not mean such grand
old things as Bossuet, Massillon, and Bourdaloue. All such men
were proof against the fiery darts of the infernal tempter. From
their earliest days they had been trained to live up to the Non
nobis Domine, 'Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name, give
glory.' All of them had only at heart the glory of their church-
cause; though, of course, the Jesuit Bourdaloue worked also for
his great Order, then culminating in glory.

The last-named, too, was another La Fontaine in simplicity,
preparing for his grandest predications by sorrily rasping on an
execrable fiddle. So, if the devil had lifted him up to a high
mountain, showing him all he would give him, he would have simply
invited him to his lonely cell, to have a jig to the tune of his
catguts.

Your popular preachers in England have been, and are, a different
sort of spiritual workers. They have been, and are,
individualities, perpetually reminded of the fact, withal; and
fiercely tempted accordingly. The world, the flesh, and the
devil, incessantly knock at their door. If they fall into the
snare it is but natural, and much to be lamented.

Dr Dodd had many amiable qualities; but his reputation as a
scholar, and his notoriety as a preacher, appear to have entirely
turned his head.

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