Something In This System Of Household Ministers
Of Religion Reminds One Of The Welcome And Reverence Said To Be Extended
In The East To The Priests, Who Take Up Their Residence Indefinitely, And
Are Treated As Visible Incarnations Of The Deity Whose Appetites It Is
Meritorious To Satisfy.
Indeed, these young men, who have perhaps been
trained as missionaries, often discourse of Buddha with a very long and
unctuous 'Boo.'
The ancient Roman censor who tried by laws and persuasions to induce the
inhabitants of Rome to marry, yet could not succeed in inducing them to
submit to what they considered a sacrifice for the benefit of the state,
would have been delighted with the marrying tendencies of the chapel
people. A venerable old gentleman - a great pillar of the body - after the
decease of his first wife married her sister, and again, upon her
removal, married his cook. Another great prop - elderly indeed, but still
upright and iron-grey, a most powerfully made man, who always spoke as if
his words were indeed law - rule-of-thumb law - has married three sisters
in succession, and has had offspring by all. Their exact degrees of
consanguinity I cannot tell you, or whether they call each other brothers
and sisters, or cousins. This is certain, however, that whether such
marriages be legal or not, they are as such regarded and as such accepted
in every sense by the society to which these gentlemen belong. Another
gentleman now has his fourth wife, and he, too, is a most strenuous
believer, and not his bitterest enemy can rake up the smallest accusation
against his character.
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