,transcribed from the #aiac ,jarrold ,sons edition by ,david ,price1 email ccx#jgdpglaf4org4 ,many thanks to the ,norfolk and ,norwich ,millennium ,library1 ,,uk1 for kindly supplying the images from which this transcription was made4 ,,george ,,borrow ,a ,,sermon ,,preached ,,in ,,norwich ,,cathedral ,,on 33 33 ,,july #f1 #aiac 33 33 ,,by ,h4 ,c4 ,,beeching1 ,d4,d41 ,d4,,litt4 ,,dean ,,of ,,norwich ,,london ,,jarrold ,,sons ,,publishers ,as for me1 ,i would seek unto ,god1 which doeth great things and unsearchable2 marvellous things without number4--,job v4 #h4 ,you may desire some explanation of why we in this ,cathedral1 have thought it right to take part with the city in the public commemoration of ,george ,borrow4 ,it is not1 of course1 merely because he was a devoted lover of our ancient house1 though for that we are not ungrateful4 ,nor again is it merely because he was for the most active years of his life a zealous servant of the ,bible ,society2 and our ,church has taken a special interest in that society since the day when ,bishop ,bathurst1 first of his episcopal brethren1 appeared upon its platforms side by side with ,joseph ,john ,gurney4 ,nor again is it merely because he was an accomplished man of letters4 ,religion and literature indeed have much that is common in their purpose4 ,the ,church exists to propagate a certain interpretation of the world and human life4 ,literature also exists to interpret life1 and the great literatures of the world have never in their interpretations shown themselves antagonistic to religion2 on the contrary1 they have always tended to discover more and more elements of permanent value in human life1 confirming the ,church's message of its ,divine origin and destiny4 ,but1 unhappily1 there have always been1 and are still1 men of letters whom the ,church cannot honour1 because their books1 although technically meritorious1 take a view of life which is in our judgment against good morals1 or in some other way mischievous4 ,if1 then1 we in this ,mother ,church claim our share in the commemoration of ,george ,borrow1 it is because he was1 as we think1 a true seer and interpreter2 because he opened to us fresh springs of delight in the natural world2 because he aroused new and living interest in the lives of men of many kindreds and tongues2 and because he held up to our own nation an ideal of conduct which could not but benefit those whom it attracted4 ,let me1 as shortly as ,i can1 remind you of some characteristics of that ideal4 ,every reader of the ,old ,testament is familiar with the two great types which the early ,israelitish civilisation sets before us again and again in ,cain and ,abel1 ,isaac and ,ishmael1 ,esau and ,jacob--the contrast of the wild and vagabond hunter and the plain man1 dwelling in tents4 ,these types as they appear in the ,bible have in them a characteristically ,semitic element1 but they have still more of our common humanity4 ,we observe the two types among our own children1 and it is a contrast that interests us all4 ,our affections perhaps go out to the romantic ,esau rather than to his business-like brother2 while at the same time we recognise that the future of civilisation must lie not with the child of impulse1 but with him who can forecast the future and rank something higher than his momentary whim4 ,it was this fundamental contrast that was so interesting to ,borrow4 ,he studied it in the cities and in the wildernesses of this and many other lands2 and because he studied it he was not content to accept the easy verdict of civilisation that finds nothing but profanity in ,esau1 or the equally easy paradox of a return-to- nature philosophy1 which finds all virtue in the noble savage4 ,borrow studied ,esau in his wandering life with interested eyes1 and won his confidence and a glimpse of his secret2 and he studied ,jacob in his counting house and workshop with no less understanding1 if with a less degree of sympathy2 and then he exhibited to his countrymen an ideal which at the time vexed and disquieted them1 because there were elements in it drawn from both4 ,look first at those which he drew from his intercourse with the gipsies4 ,he was puzzled by the problem of their wonderful persistence4 ,what could be its cause8 ,their faults were proverbs4 ,they lived by drawing fools into a circle and cheating them4 ,stealing and lying were first principles in their code of life4 ,and yet because ,borrow held that ,nature did not forgive faults1 much less allow men to profit by them1 he could not but ask whether those gipsies were so thoroughly vicious as was supposed4 ,one day1 in a conversation with a gipsy girl under a hedge--one of the strangest talks in the chronicle of literature--he elicited the fact that domestic honour was held among them to be a primary law1 and female unchastity an unpardonable offence4 ,and he left that conversation on record for our admonition4 ,that1 you will say1 is no new ideal to ,english women4 ,as an ideal1 no4 ,but our ,english practice is something very different4 ,and we have lived to see literature challenge even the ideal4 ,and then there was the secret1 an open one indeed1 but hidden from many ,englishmen of ,borrow's generation1 though it had been recently proclaimed by the gentle and thoughtful poet who lay buried in ,borrow's native town of ,dereham1 that though civilisation arose from life in cities1 yet the joy of life was apt to escape the city liver4 ,the vagabond gipsy had something which man was the better for having1 a delight in the sun and air and wind and rain4 ,we in ,norwich are not likely to forget those magical words put into the mouth of the gipsy on ,mousehold ,heath1 ,there's night and day1 brother1 both sweet things2 sun1 moon1 and stars1 brother1 all sweet things2 there's likewise a wind on the heath4 ,life is very sweet1 brother4 ,allied with this love of nature was a keen satisfaction in manly exercises1 walking1 riding1 boxing1 swimming1 which ,borrow contrasted somewhat scornfully with the baser sports of dog fighting and cock fighting1 then in vogue among gentlemen4 ,and as a consequence of this love of the open air and the open country ,borrow found in the gipsies a sense of freedom and independence1 and so a self- respect1 which he compared unfavourably with the mingled arrogance and servility of many city-bred people4 ,here then we have some of the elements of the ideal1 largely drawn from the despised gipsies1 which ,borrow held up before his generation4 ,he does not indeed promulgate it as the whole duty of man1 though we who have learned the lesson may think he is apt to over-emphasise it4 ,he does not ignore other qualities of manliness4 ,he holds that from the root of a self-respecting freedom1 if the environment be but favourable1 as with the gipsies it was not1 other manly qualities will spring4 ,from the strength of self-respect should spring the courage of truthfulness1 and justice1 and tenderness1 and perseverance4 ,on the love of truth and justice ,i need not dwell2 they are conspicuous in every page that ,borrow wrote4 ,perseverance is still more emphasised1 because it was the main contribution of ,jacob to the human ideal1 the quality most lacking in ,esau4 ,tenderness may seem to be less evident2 and ,i know it is a common opinion that ,borrow's ideal of life was too self-absorbed to allow of much sympathy with others4 ,i think this view is mistaken4 ,there was undoubtedly a strong stress laid on the duty of protecting one's own life and personality from outside influence1 and a corresponding stress on the duty of respect for the independence of others2 but where there was a claim1 whether of blood1 or friendship1 or need1 ,borrow's ideal admitted it to the full4 ,i have wished to confine myself this morning to the ideal of conduct which ,borrow offers us in his books1 because it was a conscious and reasoned ideal1 and he wrote to propagate it4 ,the question how far he himself attained to his own standard we are right in passing by unless there was any conspicuous contrast between his theory and his practice4 ,but there was no such contrast4 ,so far as our information goes1 ,borrow lived by his ideal resolutely4 ,his truthfulness and perseverance and love of justice cannot be questioned2 and on the point of tenderness it is not those who knew him best--his mother1 or his wife1 or his friends--who have found him wanting4 ,let me pass on to indicate how this ideal connected itself with religion4 ,the fundamental dogma of ,borrow's religion was the providence of ,god4 ,so far as ,i know1 he did not formulate his notion of the purpose of the world2 he accepted the view of ,st4 ,paul1 that the creation is moving to some divine event2 and that within the great scheme there are numberless subservient ends which man is being urged by ,divine admonition to fulfil4 ,such admonitions come to men in many ways2 we speak of them as modes of inspiration2 and even those who question the inspiration of prophets do not refuse the word in speaking of poets and musicians4 ,borrow did not question prophetic inspiration in the past1 because he believed in it as a present fact4 ,he believed that to the man who by prayer kept himself in touch with the ,divine ,spirit intimations were vouchsafed of the ,divine will1 which brought clear light into the dark places of life4 ,he somewhat shocked the good but precise secretary of the ,bible ,society by declaring in a letter from ,spain that he had been very passionate in prayer during the last two or three days1 and in consequence1 as he thought1 saw his way with considerable clearness3 on another occasion1 by saying that he was what the world calls exceedingly superstitious because he had changed some plan in consequence of a dream2 and again by saying1 ,my usual wonderful good fortune accompanied me4 ,for the last expression he apologised2 but1 whatever the particular expression used1 there can be no doubt that ,borrow was a firm believer in what our fathers called particular providences1 leadings of the ,divine ,spirit4 ,he believed1 for example1 that he was doing the will of ,god in circulating the ,bible1 and he also believed that ,god made his way plain for so doing4 ,we have known since ,borrow another great ,englishman who held a similar faith1 ,charles ,gordon2 and the lives of both supply so many instances of what look like acts of special protection1 that the question will present itself to the student of their lives whether there may not be some such connexion between faith and miracle1 as our ,saviour asserted4 ,at any rate1 we shall never understand ,borrow if we exclude from our notion of religion the idea of the miraculous1 meaning by that word not the contravention of natural law1 but the providential guidance of events4 ,there is one special side of this doctrine of ,providence which must be referred to specially1 because ,borrow himself calls attention to it in the curious commentary which he annexed to ,the ,romany ,rye2 the doctrine so familiar to the last generation in the poems of ,browning1 that trouble1 to which man is born1 as the sparks fly upward1 is ordained by the ,creator as a stimulus to endeavour1 because where least man suffers1 longest he remains4 ,some of you may remember that he argues in that appendix that the old man who had learnt ,chinese to distract his mind would have played but a sluggard's part in life if no affliction had befallen him1 since he had never taken the pains to learn how to tell the time from a clock4 ,nothing but extreme agony1 says ,borrow1 could have induced such a man to do anything useful4 ,and every one will recall the passage in ,lavengro where he speaks of the fit of horrors that attacked his hero1 may we not say himself1 when recovering from an illness4 ,in the recollection and prospect of such woe1 he asks1 ,is it not lawful to exclaim1 ',better that ,i had never been born'8 ,and he replies1 ,fool1 for thyself thou wast not born1 but to fulfil the inscrutable decrees of thy ,creator2 and how dost thou know that this dark principle is not1 after all1 thy best friend2 that it is not that which tempers the whole mass of thy corruption8 ,it may be1 for what thou knowest1 the mother of wisdom and of great works1 it is the dread of the horror of the night that makes the pilgrim hasten on his way4 ,when thou feelest it nigh1 let thy safety word be ',onward6' ,if thou tarry1 thou art overwhelmed4 ,courage6 ,build great works2 'tis urging thee4 ,in the passage just quoted ,borrow speaks of ,god's inscrutable decrees4 ,after sitting as a young man at the feet of ,william ,taylor and learning from him some philosophy and much scepticism1 he had come back to the old ,hebrew idea that in religion reverence was the beginning of wisdom4 ,this did not mean that he had discarded ,western science1 or put a bridle upon his own insatiable curiosity4 ,no man was more ready to learn what could anyhow or anywhere be learned4 ,it meant that when all had been learned that science could teach1 the really vital questions remained still without an answer1 because natural science can throw no light on what nature itself really is4 ,the only clue within our reach to that first and last problem lay1 in his judgment1 with the simple-hearted and lowly- minded1 those in whom this wonderful world still aroused wonder4 ,in thus calling to the soul of man not to lose its power of wonder1 ,borrow is in sympathy with the deepest thought of our time4 ,for ah6 how surely1 ,how soon and surely will disenchantment come1 ,when first to herself she boasts to walk securely1 ,and drives the master spirit away from his home2 ,seeing the marvellous things that make the morning ,are marvels of every day1 familiar1 and some ,have lost with use1 like earthly robes1 their adorning1 ,as earthly joys the charm of a first delight1 ,and some are fallen from awe to neglect and scorning4 #ab ,let us say then with the ancient seer3 ,as for me1 ,i would seek unto ,god2 which doeth great things and unsearchable1 marvellous things without number4 ,footnotes3 #ab ,robert ,bridges1 ,prometheus the ,firegiver1 #hbd4