The Recreations of a Country ParsonBoyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison
General
The Recreations of a Country Parson
Boyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison
Clergy -- Anecdotes; Country life -- England; Rural clergy -- England
For the forms of unsoundness in those who are mental screws
of the commonplace order; they are endless. You sometimes meet an
intellectual defect like that of the conscientious blockhead James
II., who thought that to differ from him in opinion was to doubt his
word and call him a liar. An unsoundness common to all uneducated
people is, that they cannot argue any question without getting
into a rage and roaring at the top of their voice. This unsoundness
exists in a good many educated men too. A peculiar twist of some
minds is this--that instead of maintaining by argument the thesis
they are maintaining, which is probably that two and two make five,
they branch off and begin to adduce arguments which do not go to
prove that, but to prove that the man who maintains that two and two
make four is a fool, or even a ruffian. Some good men are subject
to this infirmity--that if you differ from them on any point
whatever, they regard the fact of your differing from them as
proof, not merely that you are intellectually stupid, but that you
are morally depraved. Some really good men and women cannot let
slip an opportunity of saying anything that may be disagreeable.
And this is an evil that tends to perpetuate itself; for when Mr.
Snarling comes and says to you something uncomplimentary of yourself
or your near relations, instead of your doing what you ought to
do, and pitying poor Snarling, and recommending him some wholesome
medicine, you are strongly tempted to retort in kind: and thus you
sink yourself to Snarling's level, and you carry on the row. Your
proper course is either to speak kindly to poor Snarling, or not
to speak to him at all. There is something unsound about the man
whom you never heard say a good word of any mortal, but whom you
have heard say a great many bad words of a great many mortals. There
is unsoundness verging on entire insanity in the man who is always
fancying that all about him are constantly plotting to thwart his
plans and damage his character. There is unsoundness in the man
who is constantly getting into furious altercations with his fellow
passengers in steamers and rail-ways, or getting into angry and
lengthy correspondence with anybody in the newspapers or otherwise.
There is unsoundness in the man who is ever telling you amazing
stories which he fancies prove himself to be the bravest, cleverest,
swiftest of mankind, but which (on his own showing) prove him to
be a vapouring goose. There is unsoundness in the man or woman who
turns green with envy as a handsome carriage drives past, and then
says with awful bitterness that he or she would not enter such a
shabby old conveyance. There is unsoundness in the mortal whose memory
is full to repletion of contemptible little stories going to prove
that all his neighbours are rogues or fools. There is unsoundness
in the unfortunate persons who are always bursting into tears and
bahooing out that nobody loves them. Nobody will, so long as they
bahoo.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account