This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo pgaldarondonetTHE RECREATIONS OF A COUNTRY PARSONSECOND SERIESA K H BOYDBOSTON1862CONTENTSCHAPTER I CONCERNING THE PARSONS CHOICECHAPTER II CONCERNING DISAPPOINTMENT AND SUCCESSCHAPTER III CONCERNING SCYLLA AND CHARYBDISCHAPTER IV CONCERNING CHURCHYARDSCHAPTER V CONCERNING SUMMER DAYSCHAPTER VI CONCERNING SCREWSCHAPTER VII CONCERNING SOLITARY DAYSCHAPTER VIII CONCERNING GLASGOW DOWN THE WATERCHAPTER IX CONCERNING MAN AND HIS DWELLINGPLACECHAPTER X LIFE AT THE WATERCURECHAPTER XI CONCERNING FRIENDS IN COUNCILCHAPTER XII CONCERNING THE PULPIT IN SCOTLANDCHAPTER XIII CONCERNING FUTURE TEARSCHAPTER XIV CONCLUSIONCHAPTER ICONCERNING THE PARSONS CHOICE BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRYOne very happy circumstance in a clergymans lot is that he issaved from painful perplexity as regards his choice of the scenein which he is to spend his days and years I am sorry for theman who returns from Australia with a large fortune and with nofurther end in life than to settle down somewhere and enjoy itFor in most cases he has no special tie to any particular placeand he must feel very much perplexed where to go Should any personwho may read this page cherish the purpose of leaving me a hundredthousand pounds to invest in a pretty little estate I beg thathe will at once abandon such a design He would be doing me nokindness I should be entirely bewildered in trying to make up mymind where I should purchase the property I should be rent asunderby conflicting visions of rich English landscape and heathery Scottishhills of seaside breezes and inland meadows of horsechestnutavenues and dark stern pinewoods And after the estate had beenbought I should always be looking back and thinking I might havedone better So on the whole I would prefer that my reader shouldhimself buy the estate and bequeath it to me and then I couldsoon persuade myself that it was the prettiest estate and thepleasantest neighbourhood in BritainNow as a general rule the Great Disposer says to the parson Hereis your home here lies your work through life go and reconcileyour mind to it and do your best in it No doubt there are men inthe Church whose genius popularity influence or luck is suchthat they have a bewildering variety of livings pressed upon thembut it is not so with ordinary folk and certainly it was not sowith me I went where Providence bade me go which was not whereI had wished to go and not where I had thought to go Many whoknow me through the pages which make this and a preceding volumehave said written and printed that I was specially cut out fora country parson and specially adapted to relish a quiet countrylife Not more believe me reader than yourself It is in everyman who sets himself to it to attain the selfsame characteristicsIt is quite true I have these now but a few years since neverwas mortal less like them No cockney set down near Sydney Smithat FostonleClay no fish suddenly withdrawn from its nativestream could feel more strange and cheerless than did I when Iwent to my beautiful country parish where I have spent such happydays and which I have come to love so muchI have said that the parson is for the most part saved the labourof determining where he shall pitch his tent his place and hispath in life are marked out for him But he has his own specialperplexity and labour quite different from those of the man towhom the hundred thousand pounds to invest in land are bequeathedstill as some perhaps would think no less hard His work is toreconcile his mind to the place where God has set him Every mortalmust in many respects face one of these two trials There is allthe world before you where to choose and then the struggle tomake a decided choice with which you shall on reflection remainentirely satisfied  Or there is no choice at all the Hand abovegives you your place and your work and then there is the struggleheartily and cheerfully to acquiesce in the decree as to which youwere not consultedAnd this is not always an easy thing though I am sure that theman who honestly and Christianly tries to do it will never fail tosucceed at last How curiously people are set down in the Churchand indeed in all other callings whatsoever You find men in thelast places they would have chosen in the last places for whichyou would say they are suited You pass a pretty country churchwith its parsonage hardby embosomed in trees and bright withroses  Perhaps the parson of that church had set his heart on anentirely different kind of charge perhaps he is a disappointedman eager to get away and the very worst possible policy tryingfor every vacancy of which he can hear You think as you pass byand sit down on the churchyard wall how happy you could be in soquiet and sweet a spot well if you are willing to do a thingit is pleasant but if you are struggling with a chain you cannotbreak it is miserable The pleasantest thing becomes painfulif it is felt as a restraint What can be cosier than the warmenvironment of sheet and blanket which encircles you in your snugbed Yet if you awake during the night at some alarm of peril andby a sudden effort try at once to shake yourself clear of thesetrammels you will for the halfminute before you succeed feelthat soft restraint as irksome as iron fetters Let your will leadwhither necessity would drive said Locke and you will alwayspreserve your liberty No doubt it is wise advice but how to doall thatWell it can be done but it costs an effort Great part of thework of the civilized and educated man consists of that which thesavage and even the uneducated man would not regard as work atall The things which cost the greatest effort may be done perhapsas you sit in an easy chair with your eyes shut And such an effortis that of making up our mind to many things both in our own lotand in