Section 29 Honesty
Mr.1 Denham had been in business at Bristol, had failed2, compounded, and gone3 to America. There4, by a close application to business as a merchant, he acquired a plentiful5 fortune in a few years. Returned6 to England, he invited his old creditors to an entertainment, at which he thanked them for the easy7 terms (S. 16, N. 10) they had favoured8 him with, and, though the guests had expected nothing but a good treat, every9 man, at the first remove, found to his astonishment a cheque under his plate for10 the full amount of the unpaid remainder, with interest.—Dr. B. Franklin.
Notes
1 ‘Mr. — Bristol’, translate ‘Mr. D. had had a business at (in) B.’, and place the object after the adverbial circumstance of place.
2 to fail (in business) fallieren; to compound, accordieren. Verbs from the Latin with the termination ieren do not admit of the prefix or augment ge in the Past Participle, but follow in all other respects the weak or modern form of conjugation.
3 Say ‘and was gone to America’. The verb gehen is always construed with sein, which auxiliary is especially used with Intransitive Verbs denoting a Passive State of the subject, a change from one State into another, or a Motion, if the place to which the motion is directed, or from which it proceeds, is either expressed or understood.
4 The words ‘he acquired’ (erlangen) should, in an inverted form (App. § 14), follow the adverb ‘There’; ‘by — merchant’, durch unablässige kaufmännische Thätigkeit.
5 plentiful = great. For the position of the object see App. § 9.
6 Nach England zurückgekehrt; entertainment = meal; at which, wobei.
7 bequem; terms, Bedingungen.
8 to favour a person with something, einem etwas gewähren (v. tr.); nothing but, nur; treat, Schmaus, m.
9 every — plate, fand doch ein jeder nach dem ersten Gange zu seinem Erstaunen unter dem Teller einen Wechsel vor.
10 for — interest = which was issued (ausstellen) for (auf) the full amount of the remaining (rückständig) debt with (nebst) interest.