George Borrow: A Sermon Preached in Norwich Cathedral on July 6, 1913 (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from George Borrow: A Sermon Preached in Norwich Cathedral on July 6, 1913 Let me, as shortly as I can, remind you of some characteristics of that ideal. Every reader of the Old Testament is familiar with the two great types which the early Israelitish civili sation sets before us again and again in Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Esau and Jacob - the con trast of the wild and vagabond hunter and the plain man, dwelling in tents. These types as they appear in the Bible have in them a characteristically Semitic element, but they have still more of our common humanity. We observe the two types among ourown children, and it is a contrast that interests us all. Our affections perhaps go out to the romantic Esau rather than to his business-like brother while at the same time we recognise that the future of civilisation must lie not with the child of impulse, but with him who can forecast the future and rank something higher than his momentary whim. It was this fundamental contrast that was so interesting to Borrow. He studied it in the cities and in the wildernesses of this and many other lands; and because he studied it he was not content to accept the easy verdict of civilisation that finds nothing but profanity in Esau, or the equally easy paradox of a return-to-nature philosophy, which finds all virtue in the noble savage. Borrow studied Esau in his wandering life with interested eyes, and won his confidence and a glimpse of his secret and he studied Jacob in his counting house and workshop with no less understanding, if with a less degree of sympathy; and then he exhibited to his country men an ideal which at the time vexed and disquieted them, because there were elements in it drawn from both. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.