"I am not viewing the question as one of faith," said the
stranger. "It is not as a matter of religion, but as a matter
of right, that I am considering it: as a matter, I should say,
of private right and public happiness. You might have changed
if you thought fit the religion of the abbots as you changed
the religion of the bishops: but you had no right to deprive
men of their property, and property moreover which under their
administration so mainly contributed to the welfare of the
community."
"As for community," said a voice which proceeded neither from
Egremont nor the stranger, "with the monasteries expired the
only type that we ever had in England of such an intercourse.
There is no community in England; there is aggregation, but
aggregation under circumstances which make it rather a
dissociating, than an uniting, principle."
It was a still voice that uttered these words, yet one of a
peculiar character; one of those voices that instantly arrest
attention: gentle and yet solemn, earnest yet unimpassioned.
With a step as whispering as his tone, the man who had been
kneeling by the tomb, had unobserved joined his associate and
Egremont. He hardly reached the middle height; his form
slender, but well proportioned; his pale countenance, slightly
marked with the small pox, was redeemed from absolute ugliness
by a highly-intellectual brow, and large dark eyes that
indicated deep sensibility and great quickness of
apprehension.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128