Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-10-03
ARsoN IN LITERATURE.
,cter Net at All Neglected by the
la' NOyeliStD.


..,racter Net at All Neglected. by the
cha NovclistD.
,rer it may have been with the
b y, IN general, says writer in the
Vrlu - that part of it which We call
l ,.arv has always found the parson in
era .;,,a, As parsonage he has dis
te,' aJ sharp contrast to the rest of
perez n;.v. and has not been without
pnla ',1ictions in himself which are
PETITE aa|le for purposes of. the novelist's
a'" Nearly every great writer of fic-
has used him as a foil; and when
l - a subjects of ridicule and sarcasm
~ the clergyman remains an ever
',snt resource. As rule, we do not
| aim ! him in the drama except in carica-
-. " even Shakespeare creating
T., t. the great prelate, the ecclesiastic
.ba sides of his relation to the State.
!. s's since the novel has driven the
ana NO ont of the literary field, fiction
held the mirror up to every phase
clerical character, and from the i'm
lar;lent Vicar of Wakefield, in whom
t,1smith reflected so much of his per-
|pali;v, to the Dean Maitlands and
trsrend Apostates, the Robert Ellis
res and John Wards of our own day.
me would think of accusing Haw-
orne CT churchy inclinations, and yet
| foct remains that no human product
ems to have the fascination for his
! nd which he found in that unique in
f;lual the New England minister of
keutury ago.
Even George Eliot, with her secular
tendencies, rarely failed, in novel,
ay her respects to a profession
! ich must have appealed to her only
+ On the literary side: nor was her
guar catholic mind wanting in q
hume and tender appreciation of the
fculties as we'll as the ideal aspects
the minister's work. How, too, Troll
e delighted in clergymen, reveling
the retty details of curate existence
( Ii he shared that absorption in their
tson and function which is ascribed
women Of uncertain prospects and a
timental turn of mind! And what a
peless figure that same novelist
hid have made in a new world like
:, without any religious establish
ht. and o social life conditioned in it's
d monotonies!
b the field of actual literary achieve
BIT, also should We not miss that gem
lover Of the fields, Gilbert White, of
borne, who knew so we'll how to
Re men in the double capacity of nat
lst and pastor? George Crabbe
not be great poet, but it is pleas
to think OF him, after his safe anch.
&c in the church, as solacing his
life, if'not compelling the attention
liter ages with the respectable medi-
ty of his verse. Who does not like
axe the road with preaching, fight
gypsying George Borrow, whose
1t always spoke in Romany, what
language might be on his lips!
have done more to enliven our lit
lure than Dean Swift and Sydney
th, to say nothing of that laughter
ng Mr.. Ingoldsby, who was known
lam. Not every one recalls that the
best drinking songs in the language
written by clergymen = *T6e
VII Jug, by the Rev. Francis
likes, and that g Drinking Song" by
Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells
be sixteenth century, which Whar-
calls the first chanson a boire of anv
it in the English tongue.
hat saving quality Of reaction
Feis in the humor and playful aban-
Of such divines as Mather Byles,
man Mcleod and James Hanning-
as if, uncompromising and devoted
they are, their very seriousness
them capable of a boyishness de-
TO the rest of mankind! One
es, moreover, that under the level
conditions of democracy the type
not be losing somewhat of its vari-
and becoming less picturesque and
resting to the unprecedented OBJ