The Romany Rye

dian One - Image-Worship - Shakespea

formation in his power; that he had come to the dingle, not so much for the sake of the good cheer which I was in the habit of giving him, as in the hope of inducing me

the truly sensible people of this world were the priests, who, without caring a straw for religion for its own sake, made use of it as a cord by which to draw the simpletons after them; that there were many religions in this world, all of which had been turned to excellent account by the priesthood; but that the one the best adapted for the purposes of priestcraft was the popish, which, he said, was the oldest in the world and the best calculated t

rank,' said I, 'but, however frank you

t missionaries to the East were not slow in discovering and telling to their brethren that our religion and the great Indian one were identical, no more difference between them than between Ram and Rome. Priests, convents, beads, prayers, processions, fastings, penances, all the same, not forgetting anchorites, and vermin, he! he! The Pope they found under t

find Chris

e; He is considered in India as a pure kind of being, and on that accoun

ery mysterious

sure, and so are most of those of Rome, that modern Rome had its

w?' I d

a very learned man, once told me - I do not mean Mezzofanti, who has not five ideas - this brother once told me that a

e religion

in black; 'and now follow different

re not image-wor

ve against it, but they will only work themselves to an oil; how did it fare with that Greek Emperor, the Iconoclast, what was his name, Leon the Isaurian? Did not his image-breaking cost him Italy, the

I; 'I have an abhorrence of idolatry - t

' said Belle, who

peare?' said the man in black, addressin

I ever did,' said I, 'b

you are going to say,' he cried, interrupting me as I was about to speak. 'You don't make his image in order to pay it Divine honours, but only to look at it, and think of Shakespeare; but this looking at a thing in order to think of a person is the very basis of

t Shakespeare's works would

an his works, and will be looked at, and perhaps adored, when they are forgotten.

oses strove against image-worship, should not his doing so be conclusive as to the

, the adoption was merely a sham one, as it never paid the slightest attention to them? No, no, the Church was never led by Moses, nor by one mightier than he, whose doctrine it has equally nullified - I allude to Krishna in his second avatar; the Church, it is true, governs in his name, but not unfrequently give

their names b

ant fellow of the very ignorant order to which he belonged, the Augustine. Christ might err as a m

have troubled yourselves w

dness; it was followed by books which were never much regarded, as they contained little of insanity; but the name! what fury that breathed into people! the books were about peace and gentleness, but the name was the most horrible of war-cries - those who wished to uphold old names at first strove to oppose it, but their efforts were feeble, and they had no good war-cry; what was M

ttle time ago that the Popish religio

absolutely maddened people's minds, and the people would call themselves his children; we will not belong to Jupiter any longer, we will belong to Krishna; and they did belong to

rds, and endeavour to practise wha

rejects a good bodily image. Why, the very negro barbarians of High Barbary could give you a lesson on that point; they hav

d I; 'I know all a

about him?' said the man in bla

said I, 'though we live in dingles, ar

but, in connection with this Mumbo Jumbo, I could relate to you a c

I; 'I would much sooner hear you tal

faithful would have placed his image before his words; for what a

casionally quote

he man in black;

, 'upon this rock I w

in black; 'you must r

some difficulty in ge

lack; 'faith can remove mountains,

could derive from perverting those words of Scriptur

e meaning of the text, you speak ignorantly, Mr. Tinker. When He whom you call the Saviour gave His followers the sop and bade them eat i

hat He intended they shou

of the dead was a heathenish custom, practised by the heirs and legatee

to do with heathen customs,' s

theologians, not forgetting their Tinkers, though I confess some of the latter have occasionally surprised us - for example, Bunyan. The New Testament is crowded with allusions

e no

amongst us - those, too, who do not pretend to be philologists - who know what "amen" is, and, moreover, how we got it. We got it from

meaning of the

Buddh or Brahma. A foolish practice, you will say, but are you heretics much wiser, who are continually sticking amen to the end of your prayers, little knowing when you do so that you are consigning yourselves to the r

votees,' said I; 'I dare say that they use them nonsensically enough, but in p

only a few words of it remembered by dim tradition without being understood. How strange if, after the lapse of four thousand years, the Hindoos should damn themselves to the blindness so dear to their present masters, even as the

nk quite enough, and talked more than enough, and to

aid I; 'consider the obl

using it. Were this place not Mumpers' Dingle, and consequently

r help yourself,' said I, addressing myself to

h me, I am not so with her, and shall be always proud to wait up