第47章

'Sometimes?-not daily?-that is to be regretted.What profession dost thou make?-I mean to what religious denomination dost thou belong,my young friend.'

'Church?'

'It is a very good profession-there is much of Scripture contained in its liturgy.Dost thou read aught besides the Scriptures?'

'Sometimes.'

'What dost thou read besides?'

'Greek,and Dante.'

'Indeed!then thou hast the advantage over myself;I can only read the former.Well,I am rejoiced to find that thou hast other pursuits beside thy fishing.Dost thou know Hebrew?'

'No.'

'Thou shouldst study it.Why dost thou not undertake the study?'

'I have no books.'

'I will lend thee books,if thou wish to undertake the study.I live yonder at the hall,as perhaps thou knowest.I have a library there,in which are many curious books,both in Greek and Hebrew,which I will show to thee,whenever thou mayest find it convenient to come and see me.Farewell!I am glad to find that thou hast pursuits more satisfactory than thy cruel fishing.'

And the man of peace departed,and left me on the bank of the stream.Whether from the effect of his words,or from want of inclination to the sport,I know not,but from that day I became less and less a practitioner of that 'cruel fishing.'I rarely flung line and angle into the water,but I not unfrequently wandered by the banks of the pleasant rivulet.It seems singular to me,on reflection,that I never availed myself of his kind invitation.I say singular,for the extraordinary,under whatever form,had long had no slight interest for me;and I had discernment enough to perceive that yon was no common man.Yet I went not near him,certainly not from bashfulness or timidity,feelings to which I had long been an entire stranger.Am I to regret this?perhaps,for I might have learned both wisdom and righteousness from those calm,quiet lips,and my after-course might have been widely different.As it was,I fell in with other guess companions,from whom I received widely different impressions than those I might have derived from him.When many years had rolled on,long after I had attained manhood,and had seen and suffered much,and when our first interview had long since been effaced from the mind of the man of peace,I visited him in his venerable hall,and partook of the hospitality of his hearth.And there I saw his gentle partner and his fair children,and on the morrow he showed me the books of which he had spoken years before by the side of the stream.In the low quiet chamber,whose one window,shaded by a gigantic elm,looks down the slope towards the pleasant stream,he took from the shelf his learned books,Zohar and Mishna,Toldoth Jesu and Abarbenel.'I am fond of these studies,'said he,'which,perhaps,is not to be wondered at,seeing that our people have been compared to the Jews.In one respect I confess we are similar to them;we are fond of getting money.I do not like this last author,this Abarbenel,the worse for having been a money-changer.

I am a banker myself,as thou knowest.'

And would there were many like him,amidst the money-changers of princes!The hall of many an earl lacks the bounty,the palace of many a prelate the piety and learning,which adorn the quiet quaker's home!