Thursday, March 28, 2024
A Gentleman's Books
Austin Dobson (1840-1921), "A Gentleman of the Old School," Collected Poems, 9th ed. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd, 1914), pp. 9-13 (at 11-12):
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We read—alas, how much we read!
The jumbled strifes of creed and creed
With endless controversies feed
Our groaning tables;
His books—and they sufficed him—were
Cotton's "Montaigne," "The Grave" of Blair,
A "Walton"—much the worse for wear—
And "Æsop's Fables."
One more,—"The Bible." Not that he
Had searched its page as deep as we;
No sophistries could make him see
Its slender credit;
It may be that he could not count
The sires and sons to Jesse's fount,—
He liked the "Sermon on the Mount,"—
And more, he read it.
