New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-03-07
A LOVER OF ALL MANKIND.

There was no cruelty in Burtcn's disposition.
He loved all mankind, wild peoples best OF all.
His heart failed him when 1t came to shooting
monkeys because their manner Of dying was so
human. Nothing could have been further from
his disposition than to kill a man in cold blood.
Nevertheless he brought a repute for cruelty
upon himself He loved eccentrcites in dress
and rough ways in speech; he hated fnesse and
conventionalty Apparently there race
of people whom he less understood than the
one TO which he belonged by right OF birth. The
man who could travel all over Southern Asia
and be welcomed by the natives Of every kind
as one of themselves. who could enter Mecca
and pepetrate to Harrar overawe the wild
tribesmen of indian. and threaten the tyrant OF
Dahor,ev in his own castle must have known
something about human nature. But, il Is said,
this insight failed him in England His new
bioerapher insists that he was deficient in his
studv of character unless he was stimulated 10
a,ertness by necessity. His very life. she OBJ
serves depended upon his accurately noting
the individual traits OF the half-savage or
wholly-savage people among whom he travelled
in Asia and Africa But when he returned TO
civilization his vigilance was RENTED. Men
and women both. she says. abused his con-
fidence showing a friendly face. but virulently
hateful when his back turned. All this
has its bearing on one Of the points where there
is much dispute about Buttons conduct. Lady
Burton it must be remembered. was an ardent
Romar Catholic. while Burtons family were
steady Church Of England people. Everything
goes to show that Burton himself was as in
different to these matters as the famous Winck-
emann. historian OF art: who turned Catholic to
study his subject in Rome. and If he had lived
would have turned Mahometan in CONSTANT
nope for the same purpose. 1t gave Lady Bur
ton a certain kind OF comfort to believe and to
say that Burton admitted to the Catholic
Church by Portuguese priest al Goa. on the
other hand. this story is a very unpleasant one
TO Burton's niece. and she mentions various in
cidents In his career to show that he cherished
a downright dislike for Catholicism. But. after
all. these prove little in the case OF a man like
Burton. who was incredibly eager to know every
thing that could be learned from the study OF
books or Of mankind, and who deemed any
stratagem that injured nobody legitimate, If 1t
served his one great purpose In life. Cathol-
icsm cxpounded by q brown priest In distant
Goa must have seemed very different thing
from Catholicism in italy or England. In the
one place it was something for an ethnologist II
study: in the others II was already in the hands
OF theological experts. II Burton saw chance
for learning anything by accepting the form OF
Catholicism at Goa il is not easy to think OF his
throwing away the chance. But 1t is next TO
impossible to think Of him with any of those
pre1udices that common between people who
differ in religion The idea that a scandal
could be made out OF such materials would only
have amused him-until he felt the effects Of
the scandal. On the other hand, supposing the
story to be untrue. there is still much reason
for Burton to tell 1t on himself as that he
should have accused himself OF cannibalism or
the wholesale abduction Of other mems wives
Lady Burtons biography in general showed
that he was just as ready TO perpetrate joke
on her as on anybody else.
For the books Burton wrote he had in a GER
tain sense lived. and by them he will live as
long as men read with pleasure the romance Of
Oriental civilization. If there Is any religious
prediction I'm these books. books that touch on
life in every continent except Australia readers
Will find IL. and by that the author will be
Judged II IL TO be imagined that the Judgment
OF men will vary somewhat with individual
prejudices. What is the modern world TO do
with a man who rather favored polygamy who
cultivated Oriental mysticism, who apparently
encouraged the hope that base metals may yet