The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-08-15
Stlert Storg.
THE PROFESSOR AND THE HARPT
From CornhiU Magazine.
CHAPTER L.

THE PROFESSOR And THE HARPY.
From CoynhiH Magazine
CHAPTER l.
Mother Church, who in bygone ages
sheltered all the learning of the land be-
meath her broad wings, and who, even after
this monopoly had passed away from her,
continued to provide for learners and learn
ed in munifcent fashion, has in these
latter times been sadly shorn of wealth and
patronage by the relentless march of pro-
gress and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
Yet there is balm in Gilead Here and
there sinecure has been suffered to remain
for the benefit of those whose wLfk is not
altogether of the tangible kind so dear to
the nineteenth century Here and there
a Reverend Jack Horner, putting his
thumb into the diminished pie of Church
preferment, can pull out plumb, and,
sitting down under the shadow of some
gray cathedral tower, can draw soothing
deductions after the manner of his juvenile
prototype. A bishopric may no longer be
a post of dignifed ease, archdeacons may
be men doomed to perpetual hurry and
worry, wealthy pluralists may have become
an extinct class, but Canon of Lichbury
Cathedral is still a parsonage whose dwell
ing and comfortable income are rather the
acknowledgement of past distinction than
the equivalent of any present labor. Not,
of course, that the Dean and Chapter of
Lichbury are body Of worn-out pensioners.
It is by no means in that light that they
are accustomed to regard themselves; nor,
indeed, are they so regarded by any except
the ignorant and irreverent. If repose and
competence have been bestowed upon
them, it is not only because they have al
ready enriched the world with the results
of literary research, but that they may
have more leisure to continue doing so.
Some of them have achieved renown as
authors of theological treatises, others are
deeply versed in classical lore; while some
like Canon Stanwick hold university pro-
fessorships.
The latter divine was understood to owe
his canonry (Which had been conferred
upon him at comparatively early age) to
that celebrated work-''The Life and
Times of the Emperor Julian, in which
an interesting character and an interesting
period of history had been so exhaustiyely
and impartially treated as to leave no room
for further exploration of the same ground.
Whether, as his admirers declared, the
Professor had surpassed Gibbon as trium-
phantly in the handling Of his subject as
Gibhon surpassed Voltaire and other earlier
writers, and whether in the course of his
well-weighed observations he had made out
as good case for the church which he
represented as was possible and desirable,
are questions which need not be discussed
here One consequence, at all events, OF
his accomplished task, had been to place
him ia the front rank of living historians,
and another had been his appointment to
a vacant stall in Lichbury Cathedral.
This last reward of merit should have
been especially grateful to him. for he was
a bachelor of retired habits, whose life had
been spent among his books, and to whom
life had little left to offer in the way of
attraction save increased opportunities for
study; and, in fact, he was, as a general
thing, very we'll satisfied with his lot.
Nevertheless, as he paced up and down his
smooth lawn one morning in August, he
was in less contented frame of mind than
usual. The whispering Of the summer
breeze in the old elms, the cawing of the
rocks, the occasional deliberate ding-dong
of the cathedral clock far overhead, check
ing off the slumberous quarters and half
hours-all these familiar sounds had failed
to produce upon him that sense of calm
which is so conducive to thought; he had
been compelled to lay aside the opening
chapter of his new work "The Rise of the
Papacy," and to take to walking to and
fro in the garden, with his hands behind
his back, and has gray head sunk beneath
shoulders which were somewhat premature
ly bowed.
The truth was that the Professor, like
other professors, had once been young, and
that the days of his youth had been wildly
and unexpectedly brought back to him the
night before This is always disturbing
thing to happen to a man, and what made
it particularly so in Canon Stanwick's
case was that his youth had been marked
by trouble which he had taken terribly
to heart at the time of its occurrence. To
be Tilted is no such rare experience, and to
get over it with great rapidity is the ordi-
nary lot of the Tilted one; but some few
strangely constituted mortals there are who
never get over it, and of these Canon Stan
wick happened to be one Certainly, at the
age of fifty-fve he had long ceased to think
with any bitterness of the shallow-hearted
Julia to whom he had become engaged
Immediately after taking orders, and who
had thrown him over in favor of man of
much greater wealth and higher position;
he had, indeed, ceased to think about her
at ALL But none the less was it her con-
duct which had shaped the course of his
life. BY it he had been driven into deep
study, into an Oxford professorship, and
finally into canonry; by it also he had
been driven out of society, for which the
treachery of one member of the sex had
mbued him with a strong grepugnance. At
Oxford where he had resided up to the
time of his recent preferment, the ladies
had quite given him up. 1t had been un-
derstood there that he did not care for the
reiqxation of dinner parties and tea parties;
and it was a somewhat singular coincidence
that, having from sense of duty consented
to break through his long-standing rule and
dine with the Dean of Lichbury, he should
have found himself seated opposite to his