The Romany Rye: A Sequel to 'Lavengro'Borrow, George
General
The Romany Rye: A Sequel to 'Lavengro'
Borrow, George
Adventure stories; England -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
and the mouthings, bellowing, turnings round, and above all, the penances
of the followers of Buddh with those of Roman devotees. But he is not
going to dwell here on this point; it is dwelt upon at tolerable length
in the text, and has likewise been handled with extraordinary power by
the pen of the gifted but irreligious Volney; moreover, the _elite_ of
the Roman priesthood are perfectly well aware that their system is
nothing but Buddhism under a slight disguise, and the European world in
general has entertained for some time past an inkling of the fact.
And now a few words with respect to the motives of the writer for
expressing a hatred for Rome.
This expressed abhorrence of the author for Rome might be entitled to
little regard, provided it were possible to attribute it to any
self-interested motive. There have been professed enemies of Rome, or of
this or that system; but their professed enmity may frequently be traced
to some cause which does them little credit; but the writer of these
lines has no motive, and can have no motive, for his enmity to Rome, save
the abhorrence of an honest heart for what is false, base, and cruel. A
certain clergyman wrote with much heat against the Papists in the time of
---, {321a} who was known to favour the Papists, but was not expected to
continue long in office, and whose supposed successor, the person,
indeed, who did succeed him, was thought to be hostile to the Papists.
This divine, who obtained a rich benefice from the successor of ---,
{321b} who during ---'s {321c} time had always opposed him in everything
he proposed to do, and who, of course, during that time affected to be
very inimical to Popery--this divine might well be suspected of having a
motive equally creditable for writing against the Papists, as that which
induced him to write for them, as soon as his patron, who eventually did
something more for him, had espoused their cause; but what motive, save
an honest one, can the present writer have, for expressing an abhorrence
of Popery? He is no clergyman, and consequently can expect neither
benefices nor bishoprics, supposing it were the fashion of the present,
or likely to be the fashion of any future administration, to reward
clergymen with benefices or bishoprics, who, in the defence of the
religion of their country write, or shall write, against Popery, and not
to reward those who write, or shall write, in favour of it, and all its
nonsense and abominations.
'But if not a clergyman, he is the servant of a certain society, which
has the overthrow of Popery in view, and therefore,' etc. This
assertion, which has been frequently made, is incorrect, even as those
who have made it probably knew it to be. He is the servant of no society
whatever. He eats his own bread, and is one of the very few men in
England who are independent in every sense of the word.
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