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Question: What does this passage of "A Tale of Two Cities" mean!?
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-five!. Spiritual revelations were
conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this!.
Mrs!. Southcott had recently attained her five-andtwentieth
blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in
the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by
announcing that arrangements were made for the
swallowing up of London and Westminster!. Even the
Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of
years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this
very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality)
rapped out theirs!. Mere messages 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 more important to the
human race than any communications yet received
through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Joanna Southcott was a self-described religious prophetess!. She was originally a Methodist, but about 1792, becoming persuaded that she possessed supernatural gifts, she wrote and dictated prophecies in rhyme, and then announced herself as the woman spoken of in Revelations!.
The story of the Cock Lane ghost attracted mass public attention in eighteenth-century England before being exposed as a hoax!.
So Dickens is saying that people were giving spiritualists and the supernatural more attention than the revolutionary rumblings from American colonists!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I think it's just supposed to help establish setting!. Dickens' original audience would have been more familiar with the events mentioned here than we are!.
If you're reading this book for school, I feel your pain =( If not, well, have fun with that!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
is this for english class!?Www@QuestionHome@Com