text:  It may have been that in considering my faults as those of the degenerate age in which I lived--which age however be it known lived afterwards to recover its character and to be held up as a model of propriety and virtue to the succeeding generation--the merciful doctor was willing to merge my chastisement in that which he bestowed daily upon the unfortunate object of his contempt and pity or possibly he desired to inflict no punishment at all but simply to perform a duty incumbent upon his years and station