In an effort to educate myself, I am reading The Oxford Book of Essays, chosen and edited by John Gross. [copies for sale here] There’s 142 of the blighters, so it will take me all year. To make this “stick” I am going to blog each essay.
This essay is online
Who was the author:
Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English writer and judge known for the use of humour and satire in his works.[1] His 1749 comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was a seminal work in the genre. Along with Samuel Richardson, Fielding is seen as the founder of the traditional English novel. He also played an important role in the history of law enforcement in the United Kingdom, using his authority as a magistrate to found the Bow Street Runners, London’s first professional police force.
What happened the year they were born (and the C02 ppm): 1707
The Big Events they were alive for: xx
What happened in the year they died (and the C02 ppm): 1754
My awareness of/appreciation of this author (if any): That he wrote Tom Jones. That’s it.
What’s the essay?
The essay is called “The Poor and their Betters.” It’s 5 pages long. For me, the key take-aways were that everyone knows that the upper crust is just a bunch of crumbs sticking together
Best line(s)
“For the poor having been deceived into an opinion (for monstrous as it is, such an opinion hath prevailed) that the rich are their betters, have been taught to honour, and of consequence, to imitate the examples of those whom they ought to have despised; while the rich on the contrary are misled into a false contempt of what they ought to respect…
“When a man was punished for his crimes the Greeks said that he gave justice. Now this is a gift almost totally confined to the poor, and it is a gift which they very seldom fail of making as often as theory is any very pressing occasion. Who can remember to have seen a rich man whipt at the cart’s tail! And how seldom (I am sorry to say it) are such exalted to the pillory, or sentenced to transportation.
Stuff I had to look up
xx
Stuff worth thinking about.
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Stuff to look up
xxx
Connects to (watch this space – if there are later essays that resonate with this one, I’ll come back and add a link to the post for that essay).
marchudson.net 
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