The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel BurtonBurton, Isabel, Lady
History
The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel Burton
Burton, Isabel, Lady
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Scholars -- Great Britain -- Biography
"It has at least seemed good to those who are set in authority over us
to do something for that accomplished, indefatigable, and patriotic
Englishman, Sir Richard Burton. No man has in his way done more for
the country than this intrepid traveller and humane man. Yet his
reward hitherto has been simply that worthless title which is flung
as a bone to a hungry dog, to those Court lackeys who assist in the
establishment of Imperial institutes, or emerging from the digger
and sheep-washing stage, amass a pile in Australia, and, returning
to their native land, put a price on their loyalty or their party
services. In honouring a man like Sir Richard Burton, the nation
reflects honour upon itself."
_Whitehall Review_, July 15th.
"Sir Richard Burton, K.C.M.G., is at present in London, on one of
those rare, brief visits which are the special delight of all who
have the fortune to be acquainted with Al-Haji Abdullah. Friends
and admirers of the famous pilgrim will hear with pleasure that Sir
Richard is in excellent health, and that, with the indefatigable
energy which is characteristic of this modern amalgamation of the
wanderer and the scholar, of Odysseus and Aristotle, he is rapidly
bringing to a conclusion his famous translation of the 'Arabian
Nights,' and organizing the issue of a popular edition of the
same, adapted for the lasses and lads of the Latin lyrist. Sir
Richard is, however, we regret to say, one further victim of the
administrative blunders of the existing--if it can now be called
existing--Government. As every one knows, Sir Richard Burton is
without a peer in his knowledge of the languages, manners, customs,
habits, and thoughts of the great races of the East. He has been in
places where but half a dozen Europeans have ever penetrated, he has
perilled his life again and again in the pursuit of knowledge, he
has amassed more stories of information on all things Oriental than
probably a single scholar or any six scholars ever gained before, he
has enriched literature with some of its most valued works on Eastern
subjects. He is the very man to be employed in some of our great
Eastern dependencies, but he has been kept in Trieste, where his
special talents are of little avail, for long enough; and now, when
he is especially desirous of obtaining the Marocco Legation, he is
passed over, and the place given to an obscure official. It is simply
a scandal.
"It is true that we are a stiff-necked, narrow-minded race. We require
to have genius cried out from the house-tops before we would recognize
it amongst us; and, as usual, such recognition comes too late,
regretfully. 'You must teach us better things.'"
_Evening Post_, November 1st, 1888.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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