Rustad

Om min motdebattör mot all förmodan skulle visa sig sitta på bättre argument än jag på torsdag, så innebär det naturligtvis inte att jag kommer stå handfallen för det, sådana petitesser är ju inte mycket att gråta blod över.

Jag pekar naturligtvis om så bara lite med hela handen och slänger in det här lättsamma och oemotsägliga lilla stycket i sammanfattningen, så är ju saken fixad:


This tongue is a devouring fire, a world of iniquity, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. And behold what I would have applied to the tongue of this evil-speaker, had I undertaken to give you a just and natural idea of all the enormity of his vice: I would have said that the tongue of this slanderer is a devouring fire which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain, equally as on the chaff; on the profane, as on the sacred; which, wherever it passes, leaves only desolation and ruin; digs even into the bowels of the earth, and fixes itself on things the most hidden; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before had appeared to us so precious and brilliant; acts with more violence and danger than ever in the time when it was apparently smothered up and almost extinct; which blackens what it can not consume, and sometimes sparkles and delights before it destroys.