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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"

I cordially agree with the teaching of the Church of
England in most respects, but she says one thing and does another, and
until excommunication--yes, and wholesale excommunication--be resorted
to, I cannot call her a Christian institution. I should begin with
our Rector, and if I found it necessary to follow him up by
excommunicating the Bishop, I should not flinch even from this.
"The present London Rectors are hopeless people to deal with. My own
is one of the best of them, but the moment Pryer and I show signs of
wanting to attack an evil in a way not recognised by routine, or of
remedying anything about which no outcry has been made, we are met
with, 'I cannot think what you mean by all this disturbance; nobody
else among the clergy sees these things, and I have no wish to be the
first to begin turning everything topsy-turvy.' And then people call
him a sensible man. I have no patience with them. However, we know
what we want, and, as I wrote to Dawson the other day, have a scheme
on foot which will, I think, fairly meet the requirements of the case.
But we want more money, and my first move towards getting this has not
turned out quite so satisfactorily as Pryer and I had hoped; we shall,
however, I doubt not, retrieve it shortly.


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