Page:Angels of Mons second edition.pdf/104

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THE ANGELS OF MONS

The two varieties of the cleric have this one mark in common: that neither is at heart a cleric at all.

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The French abbé approximated to the French layman of his time; he was a Parisian in canonicals. And so with us, we have or had many ecclesiastics whose chief interests are not ecclesiastical. There was Dr. King, for example, ordained on his Fellowship; he really lived for Roman antiquities and Gnostic gems. I had an uncle, vicar of Llantrisant, who was sedulous in parochial visits—in that part of his parish where there were two or three limestone quarries. To these, after somewhat perfunctory ghostly work, he would carry his leather wallet and his hammers, and be happy; for he was a geologist rather than a priest.

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