. . . Break their teeth, O God, in their
mouths; smite the jaw-bones of the lions, O Lord: let them fall away
like water that runneth apace; and when they shoot their arrows let them
be rooted out."
Nothing in Susan's experience at all corresponded with this, and as she
had no love of language she had long ceased to attend to such remarks,
although she followed them with the same kind of mechanical respect with
which she heard many of Lear's speeches read aloud. Her mind was still
serene and really occupied with praise of her own nature and praise of
God, that is of the solemn and satisfactory order of the world.
But it could be seen from a glance at their faces that most of the
others, the men in particular, felt the inconvenience of the sudden
intrusion of this old savage. They looked more secular and critical as
then listened to the ravings of the old black man with a cloth round his
loins cursing with vehement gesture by a camp-fire in the desert. After
that there was a general sound of pages being turned as if they were in
class, and then they read a little bit of the Old Testament about making
a well, very much as school boys translate an easy passage from the
_Anabasis_ when they have shut up their French grammar. Then they
returned to the New Testament and the sad and beautiful figure
of Christ. While Christ spoke they made another effort to fit his
interpretation of life upon the lives they lived, but as they were all
very different, some practical, some ambitious, some stupid, some wild
and experimental, some in love, and others long past any feeling except
a feeling of comfort, they did very different things with the words of
Christ.
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