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George Borrow - The Man and His Books by Edward Thomas
page 254 of 365 (69%)
his way; he does not become a Captain in the Life Guards, it is true, nor
does he get into Parliament, nor does the last chapter conclude in the
most satisfactory and unobjectionable manner, by his marrying a dowager
countess, as that wise man Addison did, or by his settling down as a
great country gentleman, perfectly happy and contented, like the very
moral Roderick Random, or the equally estimable Peregrine Pickle; he is
hack author, Gypsy, tinker, and postillion, yet, upon the whole, he seems
to be quite as happy as the younger sons of most earls, to have as high
feelings of honour; and when the reader loses sight of him, he has money
in his pocket honestly acquired, to enable him to commence a journey
quite as laudable as those which the younger sons of earls generally
undertake. Surely all this is a manifestation of the kindness and
providence of God: and yet he is not a religious person; up to the time
when the reader loses sight of him, he is decidedly not a religious
person; he has glimpses, it is true, of that God who does not forsake
him, but he prays very seldom, is not fond of going to church; and,
though he admires Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms, his admiration
is rather caused by the beautiful poetry which that version contains than
the religion; yet his tale is not finished--like the tale of the
gentleman who touched objects, and that of the old man who knew Chinese
without knowing what was o'clock; perhaps, like them, he is destined to
become religious, and to have, instead of occasional glimpses, frequent
and distinct views of his God; yet, though he may become religious, it is
hardly to be expected that he will become a very precise and strait-laced
person; it is probable that he will retain, with his scholarship,
something of his Gypsyism, his predilection for the hammer and tongs, and
perhaps some inclination to put on certain gloves, not white kid, with
any friend who may be inclined for a little old English diversion, and a
readiness to take a glass of ale, with plenty of malt in it, and as
little hop as may well be--ale at least two years old--with the aforesaid
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