Fiction > Book editions > New York, 1885 - Dynamiter

PROLOGUE. 9
" The proposition is perhaps excessive," said
Challoner ; ' ' for hitherto I own I have regarded
it as of all dirty, sneaking and ungentlemanly
trades," the least and lowest."
" To defend society ?" asked Somerset ; "to
stake one' s life for others % to deracinate
occnlt and powerful evil % I appeal to Mr.
Godall. He, at least, as a philosophic looker-on
at life, will spit upon such philistine opinions.
He knows that the policeman, as he is called
upon continually to face greater odds, and that
both worse equipped and for a better cause, is
in form and essence a more noble hero than the
soldier. Do you, by any chance, deceive your-
self, by supposing that a general would either
ask or expect, from the best army ever mar-
shaled, and on the most momentous battle-
field, the conduct of a common constable at
Peckham Rye."'
"I did not understand we were to join the
force," said Challoner.
' Hereupon the Arabian author enters on one of his di-
gressions. Fearing, apparently, that the somewhat eccen-
tric views of Mr. Somerset should throw discredit on a part
of truth, he calls upon the English People to remember
with more gratitude the services of the police ; to what
unobserved and solitary acts of heroism they are called ;
against what odds of numbers and of arms, and for how
small a reward, either in fame or money ; matter, it has
appeared to the translators, too serious for this place.