England -- Fiction; Imaginary wars and battles -- Fiction
"You're a fine fellow, Dunbar, sure enough," said Campbell; "and I
believe you'll be a newspaper proprietor in five years. You've got your
finger on the pulse. Can you look me in the face and say you believe?"
Dunbar smiled in his knowing way and wobbled. "I certainly believe it's
a good thing to go to church occasionally," he said.
"And I believe you'll make a fortune in Fleet Street, my son."
"Well, in my humble opinion," said Kelly, "the trouble with you people
in England is not so much that you don't believe; a good many believe,
in a kind of a way, like they believe in ventilation, without troubling
to act on it. They believe, but they don't think about it; they don't
care, it isn't real. The poor beggars 'ld go crazy with fear of
hell-fire, if the sort of armchair belief they have was real to 'em. It
isn't real to 'em, like business, and money, and that, or like
patriotism is in Japan."
"Well, it really is a rum thing," said Brown, with an affectation of
pathos, "that in all this Christian country I shouldn't know a single
believer of my generation."
"It's a devilish bad thing for the country," said Campbell. And even
then, with all my fundamentally rotten sociological nostrums, I had a
vague feeling that the Scotchman was right there.
"Well, then, that's why it's good to go to church," said Dunbar, with an
air of finality.
"I still don't see the connection," murmured Brown.
"Because it still isn't there. But, of course, it's perfectly obvious.
That's why Dunbar sees it, and why he'll presently run a paper." Then
Campbell turned to Dunbar, and added slowly, as though speaking to a
little child: "You see, my dear, it's not their not going to church
that's bad; it's their not believing."
If I remember rightly, Mr. Pierce ended the conversation, through his
telephone, by assigning to Brown the task of reporting a clerical
gathering at Exeter Hall. Brown was credited with having a particularly
happy touch in the reporting of religious meetings. He certainly had an
open mind, for I remember his saying that day that he thought
Christianity was perhaps better adapted to a skittish climate like ours
than Buddhism, and that Ju-Ju worship in London would be sure to cause
friction with the County Council.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account