In 1840 he wrote, in answering an
invitation to the Opera:--
"Thy servant is threescore-and-ten years old; can he hear the sound of
singing men and singing women? A Canon at the Opera! Where have you
lived? In what habitations of the heathen? I thank you, shuddering."
Although the Canon would not go to the Opera, his general faculty of
enjoyment was unimpaired, and, as always, he loved a gibe at the clergy. On
the 30th of November 1841, Samuel Wilberforce wrote to a friend about
George Augustus Selwyn,[140] Missionary Bishop of New Zealand:--
"Selwyn is just setting out. Sydney Smith says it will make quite a
revolution in the dinners of New Zealand. _Tete d'Eveque_ will be the
most _recherche_ dish, and the servant will add, 'And there is _cold
clergyman_ on the side-table.'"
But this is Sydney's own version of the joke:--
"The advice I sent to the Bishop of New Zealand, when he had to
receive the cannibal chiefs there, was to say to them, 'I deeply
regret, sirs, to have nothing on my own table suited to your tastes,
but you will find plenty of cold curate and roasted clergyman on the
sideboard'; and if, in spite of this prudent provision, his visitors
should end their repast by eating him likewise, why, I could only add,
'I sincerely hoped he would disagree with them.'"
In spite of increasing years and decreasing health--"I have," he said,
"seven distinct diseases, but am otherwise pretty well"--the indefatigable
pamphleteer had not yet done with controversy.
Pages:
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247