English fiction -- 19th century; Walker, Robert, 1710-1802
He was indeed most zealously attached to the doctrine and frame of the
Established Church. We have seen him congratulating himself that he had
no dissenters in his cure of any denomination. Some allowance must be
made for the state of opinion when his first religious impressions were
received, before the reader will acquit him of bigotry, when I mention,
that at the time of the augmentation of the cure, he refused to invest
part of the money in the purchase of an estate offered to him upon
advantageous terms, because the proprietor was a Quaker;—whether from
scrupulous apprehension that a blessing would not attend a contract
framed for the benefit of the Church between persons not in religious
sympathy with each other; or, as a seeker of peace, he was afraid of the
uncomplying disposition which at one time was too frequently conspicuous
in that sect. Of this an instance had fallen under his own notice; for,
while he taught school at Loweswater, certain persons of that
denomination had refused to pay annual interest due under the title of
Church-stock; {xxxix} a great hardship upon the incumbent, for the curacy
of Loweswater was then scarcely less poor than that of Seathwaite. To
what degree this prejudice of his was blameable need not be
determined;—certain it is, that he was not only desirous, as he himself
says, to live in peace, but in love, with all men. He was placable, and
charitable in his judgments; and, however correct in conduct and rigorous
to himself, he was ever ready to forgive the trespasses of others, and to
soften the censure that was cast upon their frailties.—It would be
unpardonable to omit that, in the maintenance of his virtues, he received
due support from the Partner of his long life. She was equally strict in
attending to a share of their joint cares, nor less diligent in her
appropriate occupations. A person who had been some time their servant
in the latter part of their lives, concluded the panegyric of her
mistress by saying to me, “she was no less excellent than her husband;
she was good to the poor, she was good to every thing!” He survived for
a short time this virtuous companion. When she died, he ordered that her
body should be borne to the grave by three of her daughters and one
grand-daughter; and, when the corpse was lifted from the threshold, he
insisted upon lending his aid, and feeling about, for he was then almost
blind, took hold of a napkin fixed to the coffin; and, as a bearer of the
body, entered the Chapel, a few steps from the lowly Parsonage.
What a contrast does the life of this obscurely-seated, and, in point of
worldly wealth, poorly-repaid Churchman, present to that of Cardinal
Wolsey!
“O ’tis a burthen, Cromwell, ’tis a burthen,
Too heavy for a man who hopes for heaven!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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