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
I have a considerable list of instances in which the reaction from
an error on one side of the line of right, lands in error equally
distant from the line of right on the other side: but it is needless
to go on to illustrate these at length; the mere mention of them
will suffice to suggest many thoughts to the intelligent reader. A
primary vulgar error, to which very powerful minds have frequently
shown a strong tendency, is bigoted intolerance: intolerance in
politics, in religion, in ecclesiastical affairs, in morals, in
anything. You may safely say that nothing but most unreasonable
bigotry would lead a Tory to say that all Whigs are scoundrels,
or a Whig to Bay that all Tories are bloated tyrants or crawling
sycophants. I must confess that, in severe reason, it is impossible
entirely to justify the Churchman who holds that all Dissenters
are extremely bad; though (so does inveterate prepossession warp
the intellect) I have also to admit that it appears to me that for
a Dissenter to hold that there is little or no good in the Church
is a great deal worse. There is something fine, however, about
a heartily intolerant man: you like him, though you disapprove of
him. Even if I were inclined to Whiggery, I should admire the downright
dictum of Dr. Johnson, that the devil was the first Whig. Even if
I were a Nonconformist, I should like Sydney Smith the better for
the singular proof of his declining strength which he once adduced:
'I do believe,' he said, 'that if you were to put a knife into my
hand, I should not have vigour enough to stick it into a Dissenter!'
The secondary error in this respect is a latitudinarian liberality
which regards truth and falsehood as matters of indifference.
Genuine liberality of sentiment is a good thing, and difficult as
it is good: but much liberality, political and religious, arises
really from the fact, that the liberal man does not care a rush
about the matter in debate. It is very easy to be tolerant in a
case in which you have no feeling whatever either way. The Churchman
who does not mind a bit whether the Church stands or falls, has no
difficulty in tolerating the enemies and assailants of the Church.
It is different with a man who holds the existence of a national
Establishment as a vital matter. And I have generally remarked
that when clergymen of the Church profess extreme catholicity of
spirit, and declare that they do not regard it as a thing of the
least consequence whether a man be Churchman or Dissenter, intelligent
Nonconformists receive such protestations with much contempt, and
(possibly with injustice) suspect their utterer of hypocrisy. If
you really care much about any principle; and if you regard it as
of essential importance; you cannot help feeling a strong impulse
to intolerance of those who decidedly and actively differ from you.
Here are some further vulgar errors, primary and secondary:
Primary--Idleness, and excessive self-indulgence;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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