A Tale of Two Cities

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct toHeaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like thepresent period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for goodor for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne ofEngland; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne ofFrance. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves ofloaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritualrevelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott hadrecently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private inthe Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangementswere made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghosthad been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits ofthis very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Meremessages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved moreimportant to the human race than any communications yet received through any of thechickens of the Cock-lane brood