Anglicans From The United Kingdom

"The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith; and Faith is an Act of Reason."

"At their parting they say [A Boy! merry meet, merry part.]"

"The Understanding also hath its Idiosyncrasies, as well as other faculties."

"The ancient authors, who founded the Science of History, whose names remain household words amongst us still, such as Herodotus or Xenophon, have transmitted to modern times some far-off echoes of the fame of . Many scattered references in classical writers serve to show the impression that its wealth and power had made on the Greek imagination. Aeschylus and Aristophanes, Aristotle and others, will be recalled. After Alexander the Great had included it in his conquests, a closer acquaintance with its still marvellous remains and magnificent traditions enhanced its interest for many writers less generally known: Arrian, , Pausanias may be named."

"At Susa, the ancient , named 'Shushan the Palace' in the Book of Daniel, situated in Persia, once the ancient capital of Elam, the excavators, working under the direction of for the , found three large pieces of black , which when fitted together formed a monolith , about 2.25 metres high, tapering upwards from 1.9 to 1.65 metres. The stone itself is in the in Paris, but a beautiful reproduction of it stands in the Babylonian Room of the . At the top of the stela is engraved in low bas-relief a representation of Hammurabi himself receiving his laws from a seated god, usually taken to be the sun-god , who was regarded in Babylonia as the supreme judge of gods and men, whose children or attendants were and or Rectitude and Right."

"As the study of paved the way for those changes of thought which went to form the and remade Europe, so now the study of the languages and literature of ancient Egypt and Babylonia is likely to revolutionize our views of the Bible."

"Some of the greatest difficulties which beset the western mind in attempting to study the Bible are due to the fact that it is an eastern book. The biblical student has to learn to think orientally. Now a prolonged study of the Bible, especially if it is the only book much read, will produce an oriental cast of thought, as it did among our pious forefathers. For it is the unrivaled mediator between East and West. Yet such an unconscious is apt to be true to neither, because it recognizes neither, historically nor scientifically. The modern student will find it difficult to avoid misunderstanding unless he enters into the spirit of the East consciously and deliberately, sympathetically, but without losing his foothold on firm ground. To do this, he must familiarize himself with things oriental, ways of thought and speech, and the whole eastern man's outlook on life. To visit the in a modern city is a revelation to many. ... To make even a short tourist's trip in Palestine will present us with a fifth gospel. ... The unchanging East has sent back many a traveler with a new Bible."

"In Herodotus (I. 7) , the mythical founder of , appears as the son of , the mythical founder of Babylon. It is an interesting but not very profitable occupation to seek to interpret the statements of the Greek writers by comparison with the facts that may have suggested their stories. Their chief value is the eloquent testimony they bear to the lasting impression of greatness which left upon the imagination of the peoples of , from whom the Greeks drew their information. It is somewhat different with the statements of , who, though he wrote in Greek, was himself a Babylonian priest, and had access to ancient and authentic sources of history. Wherever his statements admit of verification they have been found to be reliable, subject to such modifications as are usually necessary in dealing with ancient historians. Unfortunately his writings are only known to us from the extracts which Eusebius and later writers made from more ancient authorities who had quoted from him."

"The value to a great Empire, such as that of , or of , of an accurate record of the available population, its resources and occupations, must always have been appreciated. We now know that from very early times (the third millenium B. C.) ample material existed for such a . Estates were carefully surveyed and the areas of the fields estimated from actual measurements, correct to the last finger-breadth. The boundaries, names of neighbours, of roads, canals, streets, or public buildings, adjoining, were exactly stated. The class of land, corn-field, vineyard, orchard, or pasture, the names of the tenants or serfs and the average yield were set down. Boundary stones engraved with the minutest details of the adjoining estate, and often bearing a short abstract of its recent history, were erected. So many of these monuments have already found their way to European Museums that it is perhaps not too much to say that were an accurate survey now made of Babylonia, with a notice of the landmarks and boundary stones still in situ, and probably easily to be recovered, we should be able to map out every town and village, road and canal, and most of the fields in that ancient centre of the world's history."

"The residuum of truth, or at any rate the important conviction of the ancient writers, which remains after their stories are sifted, is the character of the . On this point, Strabo, , and Arrian are agreed. The manners of the Parthians had, they tell us, much that was Scythic in them. ... Their language was half-Scythic, half-. ... They armed themselves in the Scythic fashion. ... They were, in fact, Scyths in descent, in habits, in character."

"... There is an essential antagonism between European and Asiatic ideas and modes of thought, such as seemingly to preclude the possibility of Asiatics appreciating a European civilisation. The ns must have felt towards the ns much as the Mahometans of India feel towards —they may have feared and even respected them—but they must have very bitterly hated them. Nor was the rule of the such as to overcome by its justice or its wisdom the original antipathy of the dispossessed lords of Asia towards those by whom they had been ousted. The ial system, which these monarchs lazily adopted from their predecessors, the s, is one always open to great abuses, and needs the strictest superintendence and supervision. There is no reason to believe that any sufficient watch was kept over their s by the , or even any system of checks established, such as the Achæmenidæ had, at least in theory, set up and maintained. ... The Greco-Macedonian governors of provinces seem to have been left to themselves almost entirely, and to have been only controlled in the exercise of their authority by their own notions of what was right or expedient. Under these circumstances, abuses were sure to creep in ..."

"... All over Western Europe we see the barbarous races which overran and crushed the settling down into a less wild and savage life, adopting the arts as well as the of the conquered, and gradually emulating or surpassing the civilization which at their first coming they destroyed. In our own time, and before our eyes, a civilizing process is going on in Russia and in Turkey; disappears; nomadic tribes become settled ; the arts, the habits, even the dress, of neighbouring nations, are in course of adoption ; and the Muscovite and Turkic hordes are becoming scarce distinguishable from other Europeans. But, while this is the more ordinary process, or at any rate the one which most catches the eye when it roves at large over the historic field, there are not wanting indications that the process is occasionally reversed. Herodotus tells us of the , ... a Greek people, who, having been expelled from the cities on the northern coast of the , had retired into the interior, and there lived in wooden huts, and spoke a language "half Greek, half ." By the time of this people had become completely barbarous, and used the skins of those slain by them in battle as coverings for themselves and their horses. ... A gradual degradation of the is apparent in the series of their coins, which is extant ..."

""I'll live tomorrow," 'tis not wise to say:'Twill be too late tomorrow—live today."

"Dear Tom, this brown jug that now foams with mild ale, (In which I will drink to sweet Nan of the Vale) Was once Toby Filpot, a thirsty old soul As e'er drank a bottle, or fathomed a bowl."

"I protest, for about the hundredth time, against the slipshod method of quoting a mere author’s name, without any indication of the work of that author in which the alleged quotation may be found. Let us have accurate quotations and exact references, wherever such are to be found. [...] A quotation without a reference is like a geological specimen of unknown locality."

"Every single act of cruelty contributes something towards generating in the mind an habit of cruelty."

"Animals are endued with a capability of perceiving pleasure and pain; and from the abundant provision which we perceive in the world for the gratification of their several senses, we must conclude that the Creator wills the happiness of these his creatures, and consequently that humanity towards them is agreeable to him, and cruelty the contrary. This, I take it, is the foundation of the Rights of animals, as far as they can be traced independently of scripture; and is, even by itself, decisive on the subject, being the same sort of argument as that on which moralists found the Rights of Mankind, as deduced from the Light of Nature."

"[I]t is our duty to cultivate humanity towards animals […] not content merely to rescue animals from pain but to leave them still more abundantly gratified."

"[E]very experiment is cruel which gives pain to an animal, without having for its object the leading to some great and public good."

"A man who has made a tolerable progress in humanity, will adopt, and ever bear in mind, the principle of increasing, as far as lies within his power, the quantity of pleasure in the world, and diminishing that of pain: he will establish this to himself as a constant and inviolable rule of action, and in carrying it into practice he will not overlook one created thing that is endowed with faculties capable of perceiving pleasure and pain. He will reflect on who it was that gave these faculties and remember that they were not given to be sported with. He will not esteem the meanest of animals beneath the notice of his humanity because, in the meanest of them, the wisdom and power of the all-benevolent Being are displayed. This is the Being without whom not a single sparrow shall fall to the ground and whose bounty feeds the young ravens that call upon him. His sensibility will be tremblingly alive to the sensations of all animated nature, and he will feel for everything that is capable of feeling: he will look upon pity, kindness, and mercy toward his own species as the weightier matters of humanity, but at the same time, he will consider the humane treatment of animals as more than the tithe of the anise and cummin of it. He will scrupulously do his duty in the former, and in the latter, he will not leave it undone."

"In offering to the public a book on Humanity to Animals, I am sensible that I lay myself open to no small portion of ridicule; independent of all the common dangers to which authors are exposed. To many, no doubt, the subject which I have chosen will appear whimsical and uninteresting, and the particulars into which it is about to lead me ludicrous and mean. From the reflecting, however, and the humane I shall hope for a different opinion and of these the number, I trust, among my countrymen is by no means inconsiderable. The exertions which have been made to diminish the sufferings of the prisoners, and to better the condition of the poor, the flourishing state of charitable institutions; the interest excited in the nation by the struggles for the abolition of the slave-trade; the growing detestation of religious persecution—all these and other circumstances induce me to believe that we have not been retrograding in Humanity during the present century: and I feel the more inclination and encouragement to execute the task to which I have set myself, inasmuch as humanity to animals presents itself to my mind as having an important connection with humanity towards mankind."

"...to all those who have an interest in the art of governing subject races who have hearts to love them , and sympathies wide enough to care for their best interests , moral , material and spiritual."

"What is now required is a carefully and scientifically edited Dictionary or Gazetteer of the Castes, and Tribes, and social distinctions of British India, arranged alphabetically under the leading name, but carefully giving all the synonyms, and alternative names, carefully transliterated in the Roman Character, and given also in the local Indian Character. It is an idle war to fight against Caste, which exists in the atmosphere of India. The English is but an additional Caste to the previously existing catalogue. There are also many compensating advantages. All secret societies of a dangerous political character are impossible in a population, which is honeycombed with deep, though innocent, fissures: the panchayet of the Caste is a welcome and powerful ally to a just Ruler: the old Roman proverb applies, Divide et impera. Difference of Religion and language, great as they are, are scarcely so operative as difference of Caste. Then, again, the necessity of a general poor law to relieve the indigent is obviated by the existence of Caste. The respectability of a community is maintained by the enforcement of wise Caste-rules: they are felt, though not written, by Europeans in their own country. The English Government has steadily ignored Caste, as far as the administration of public affairs is concerned, but respected the private rights of every class of its subjects, and the Civil Courts will give a remedy for any wanton outrage of the feelings of the meanest of its subjects; while, on the other hand, any attempt to monopolize the use of wells, or other places of public convenience, or to place any section of the community under a ban, causing injury to person or property, is sternly repressed. I am glad to hear that there is a prospect of an Ethnological Survey of British India."

"An old chief had killed a female, and the body was thrown into the sea. Crowds of people were seen to run where the corpse was thrown, when presently two bands of furious wretches appeared and gave vent to the most unearthly sounds. When they came where the body lay, they rushed at it like so many angry wolves. Finally they seized it, dragged it out of the water, laid it on the beach and a couple of the fiends commenced to tear it in pieces with their teeth. The two bands of men surrounded them and hid their frightful work. In a few minutes the crowd dispersed, when each of the naked cannibals appeared with half of the body in his hands. Separating a few steps from each other, the two men finished amid horrid yells their still more horrid feast."

"As for the British churchman, he goes to church as he goes to the bathroom, with the minimum of fuss and with no explanation if he can help it."

"An industrial worker would sooner have a £5 note but a countryman must have praise."

"I love him not; but shew no reason can Wherefore, but this, I do not love the man."

"For every marriage then is best in tune, When that the wife is May, the husband June."

"In the merry month of May, In a morn by break of day, Forth I walk’d by the wood-side Whenas May was in his pride: There I spièd all alone Phillida and Coridon."

"Come little babe, come silly soul, Thy father’s shame, thy mother’s grief, Born as I doubt to all our dole, And to thyself unhappy chief: Sing lullaby, and lap it warm, Poor soul that thinks no creature harm."

"We rise with the lark and go to bed with the lamb."

"I wish my deadly foe, no worse Than want of friends, and empty purse."

"Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet."

"You have hissed all my mystery lectures. You have tasted a whole worm. Please leave Oxford on the next town drain."

"Is the bean dizzy?"

"It is a perfect little landscape, like a Constable, and that is the kind of thing that Kilvert can do on every page. More often, he is rendering life, from close-up observation and with the tenderest, most exquisite sympathy for every sort of human being... It is a world of rural deans, and tea on rectory lawns under the trees, and, after tea, archery or croquet, or picking flowers in the flowery meads of Wiltshire for decorating the church, of pretty Victorian girls looking over the parapet of the bridge while the river flows by. And all the while there is one, a little apart, watching life itself flowing by, trying to catch it on the wing, to ensnare a momentary aspect of its beauty, with what quivering sensibility, with what nostalgia for what is passing, even as it passes, in a paragraph, a sentence, a phrase."

"You have deliberately tasted two worms and you can leave Oxford by the town drain."

"It gives an extraordinarily sensitive and observant picture of country life in the seventies, mostly of Radnorshire and central Wales, where Kilvert was a curate, but also of the west country, for his home was in Wiltshire, and during this year, 1870–1, he visited a good deal in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset. But, more important, he wrote like an angel; his gift was for prose rather than verse — though his verses are quite charming too. The result is an addition to literature."

"He was certainly not a man wrapped up in himself, and perhaps the chief merit of the Diary is that it afford a detailed and objective picture of life in a remote and beautiful part of the country about seventy years ago."

"I should place his Diary among the best half-dozen or dozen ever written in England. It is the quintessence of England, and the English attitude to life, to the country, to people, even though most of it, and the best part of it too, was written against that beautiful background of central Wales, the Breconshire Beacons, the lovely mountains and valleys in view."

"The point about Kilvert is that he was the master of a most exquisite and lovely prose, and the Diary that he kept is not merely a revealing document of the social life of the countryside in his time — it is certainly that — but one of the first half-dozen diaries, and that not the least moving, in our literature."

"He's so bright-eyed it makes one unconscionably glad to be alive."

"He was a man—however obscure until now—of remarkable personality: a man with a natural feeling for the best things, for religion, for literature, for the countryside, for birds and flowers, above all for wayfaring men and women and specially children. Moreover he had a sense of humour."

"I remember your name perfectly, but I just can't think of your face."

"It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain."

"The Vicar of St Ives says the smell of fish there is sometimes so terrific as to stop the church clock."

"An angel satyr walks these hills."

"’Mid toil and tribulation, And tumult of her war, She waits the consummation Of peace for evermore; Till with the vision glorious Her longing eyes are blest, And the great Church victorious Shall be the Church at rest."

"Yet Saints their watch are keeping, Their cry goes up, ‘How long?’ And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song."

"Of all noxious animals, too, the most noxious is a tourist. And of all tourists the most vulgar, ill-bred, offensive and loathsome is the British tourist."