登陆注册
5254300000042

第42章

Tess had not at this hour the curiosity to ask why the present Mr Clare was not made a parson like his brethren, and gradually fell asleep again, the words of her informant coming to her along with the smell of the cheeses in the adjoining cheese-loft, and the measured dripping of the whey from the wrings downstairs.

Chapter 18 Angel Clare rises out of the past not altogether as a distinct figure, but as an appreciative voice, a long regard of fixed, abstracted eyes, and a mobility of mouth somewhat too small and delicately lined for a man's, though with an unexpectedly firm close of the lower lip now and then; enough to do away with any inference of indecision.Nevertheless, something nebulous, preoccupied, vague, in his bearing and regard, marked him as one who probably had no very definite aim or concern about his material future.Yet as a lad people had said of him that he was one who might do anything if he tried.

He was the youngest son of his father, a poor parson at the other end of the county, and had arrived at Talbothays Dairy as a six months' pupil, after going the round of some other farms, his object being to acquire a practical skill in the various processes of farming, with a view either to the Colonies, or the tenure of a home-farm, as circumstances might decide.

His entry into the ranks of the agriculturists and breeders was a step in the young man's career which had been anticipated neither by himself nor by others.

Mr Clare the elder, whose first wife had died and left him a daughter, married a second late in life.This lady had somewhat unexpectedly brought him three sons, so that between Angel, the youngest, and his father the vicar there seemed to be almost a missing generation.Of these boys the aforesaid Angel, the child of his old age, was the only son who had not taken a University degree, though he was the single one of them whose early promise might have done full justice to an academical training.

Some two or three years before Angel's appearance at the Marlott dance, on a day when he had left school and was pursuing his studies at home, a parcel came to the vicarage from the local bookseller's, directed to the Reverend James Clare.The vicar having opened it and found it to contain a book, read a few pages; whereupon he lumped up from his seat and went straight to the shop with the book under his arm.

`Why has this been sent to my house?' he asked peremptorily, holding up the volume.

`It was ordered, sir.'

`Not by me, or any one belonging to me, I am happy to say.' The shopkeeper looked into his order-book.

`Oh, it has been misdirected, sir,' he said.`It was ordered by Mr Angel Clare, and should have been sent to him.'

Mr Clare winced as if he had been struck.He went home pale and dejected, and called Angel into his study.

`Look into this book, my boy,' he said.`What do you know about it?'

`I ordered it,' said Angel simply.

`What for?'

`To read.'

`How can you think of reading it?'

`How can I? Why - it is a system of philosophy.There is no more moral, or even religious, work published.'

`Yes - moral enough; I don't deny that.But religious! - and for you , who intend to be a minister of the Gospel!'

`Since you have alluded to the matter, father,' said the son, with anxious thought upon his face, `I should like to say, once for all, that I should prefer not to take Orders.I fear I could not conscientiously do so.Ilove the Church as one loves a parent.I shall always have the warmest affection for her.There is no institution for whose history I have a deeper admiration; but I cannot honestly be ordained her minister, as my brothers are, while she refuses to liberate her mind from an untenable redemptive theolatry.'

It had never occurred to the straightforward and simple-minded Vicar that one of his own flesh and blood could come to this! He was stultified, shocked, paralyzed.And if Angel were not going to enter the Church, what was the use of sending him to Cambridge? The University as a step to anything but ordination seemed, to this man of fixed ideas, a preface without a volume.He was a man not merely religious, but devout; a firm believer - not as the phrase is now elusively construed by theological thimble-riggers in the Church and out of it, but in the old and ardent sense of the Evangelical school: one who could Indeed opine That the Eternal and Divine Did, eighteen centuries ago In very truth...Angel's father tried argument, persuasion, entreaty.

`No, father: I cannot underwrite Article Four (leave alone the rest), taking it "in the literal and grammatical sense" as required by the Declaration;and, therefore, I can't be a parson in the present state of affairs,' said Angel.`My whole instinct in matters of religion is towards reconstruction;to quote your favourite Epistle to the Hebrews, " the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain ".'

His father grieved so deeply that it made Angel quite ill to see him.

`What is the good of your mother and me economizing and stinting ourselves to give you a University education, if it is not to be used for the honour and glory of God?' his father repeated.

`Why, that it may be used for the honour and glory of man, father.'

Perhaps if Angel had persevered he might have gone to Cambridge like his brothers.But the Vicar's view of that seat of learning as a stepping-stone to Orders alone was quite a family tradition; and so rooted was the idea in his mind that perseverance began to appear to the sensitive son akin to an intent to misappropriate a trust, and wrong the pious heads of the household, who had been and were, as his father had hinted, compelled to exercise much thrift to carry out this uniform plan of education for the three young men.

`I will do without Cambridge,' said Angel at last.`I feel that I have no right to go there in the circumstances.'

The effects of this decisive debate were not long in showing themselves.

同类推荐
  • 轩辕黄帝传

    轩辕黄帝传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 鹿门子

    鹿门子

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 利州北佛龛前重于去

    利州北佛龛前重于去

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 埋忧集

    埋忧集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 马关议和中之伊李问答

    马关议和中之伊李问答

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 老子解畧

    老子解畧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 凡心问道录

    凡心问道录

    古语有云:天地混沌如鸡子,盘古生其中,万八千岁,天地开辟,阳清为天,阴浊为地。而后又不知多少千万载岁月,盘古陨落化作万千桃林,山崖,深海,岩石…天之涯畔,盘古残灵化作灵气,滋养大地,万物初生。万物若能开悟,便可化灵为己用,有所神通,功至大成,便可幻化无形,飞仙而去…莫一帆因为一场旅行误入南天绝境,被卷入时间缝隙之中,待他从深谷里走出,面对强者为尊的新世界他又将何去何从?苍茫大地,谁主沉浮,且看少年如何翻云覆雨,超脱无形,只身傲世群雄。
  • 国际刑事司法中的程序与正义

    国际刑事司法中的程序与正义

    《国际刑事司法中的程序与正义:国际刑事法院诉讼程序专题研究》以专题的形式对以下国际刑事司法问题进行了研究。(1)国际刑事法院诉讼程序的模式;(2)国际刑事法院最具代表性的基本原则和制度;(3)国际刑事法院诉讼程序公正性最引起争议的三个问题:被告人不在场甚至未归案的情况下被确认指控或者被宣告有罪,是否侵犯了被告人审判时?
  • 佛说月光童子经

    佛说月光童子经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 护国嘉济江东王灵签

    护国嘉济江东王灵签

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 危栏

    危栏

    本书是把普通人带入了官场。这是一位长期耽于官场又不适应官场而又坚持要在仁途上走下去的主人公。表现了他独特的生命体验与悲情诉求,表现了他的生存境遇中的独特的生命的变异与内在的疼痛。我读后心中有些难受,有一种不是滋味的滋味,有一些不寒而栗的感觉。这说明小说已达到了它的目的。作者把主人公带入了其设定的结构之中,接受“水与火”的灵魂的拷问。本书故事性强,线条简洁而又推进迅速,这种故事性强而又晓畅好看的小说,也是因为它有着与读者的前意识相一致的预设的结构。
  • 嫡女有毒:青青姊衿

    嫡女有毒:青青姊衿

    一句藏在心里十八年的喜欢,一次浴火复仇的预谋重逢,一场手段悬殊的感情较量......她,是国公府最不受宠的嫡小姐,被迫选为殉葬皇妃,却得上苍眷顾,死里逃生。桃花盛放,她以新的身份浴火归来,脱胎换骨。他,是国公府备受宠爱的天之骄子,眉眼如画,才华无双,却只对她一人倾情,万千温柔。---------------------------------------------------------------------------------腹黑毒女vs纯白少年,本文系姐弟恋宠虐交加文,好这一口的小仙女们做好入坑准备啊~哦嘻嘻
  • 心态比黄金更重要(畅销精读本)

    心态比黄金更重要(畅销精读本)

    好的心态至关重要,它是我们迈向成功人生的第一步,也是通往完满人生至关重要的一步。本书从人际、职场、管理、事业、生活等方面入手,总结了人在成功路上应具备的空杯心态、共赢心态、务实心态、创新心态、平和心态等多种黄金心态,并提供了培养、塑造这些黄金心态的方法。它们就像是一盏盏指路明灯,给我们的生活注入了希望,为我们的未来保驾护航。阅读本书,读者可以磨砺自我,修炼成功者的心态和素质,以积极乐观的黄金心态应对人生中的各种问题,从而打造一个完美的人生。
  • 突然成为兽语者

    突然成为兽语者

    林月芽从未想过她的副业,有一天会和动物有着剪不断理还乱的关系(本文为练笔文,更新不定但会完本,做到有始有终,会尽量逐步改进,为了能将后面开的新文写的更好。)
  • 诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家短诗精品

    诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家短诗精品

    《诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家短诗精品》共收录了1901年至2010年诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家短诗精品80余篇,为所有读者提供一份供学习、欣赏、借鉴的短诗经典之作。该书1995年12月初版,此次为修订后再版。