contra mundum
“The school had been chosen for Charles because, at the age of eleven, he had had a “religious phase” and told his father that he wished to become a priest.
“Good heavens,” his father said; “or do you mean a parson?”
“A priest of the Anglican Church,” said Charles precisely.
“That’s better. I thought you meant a Roman Catholic. Well, a parson’s is not at all a bad life for a man with a little money of his own. They can’t remove you except for flagrant immorality. Your uncle has been trying to get rid of his fellow at Boughton for ten years—a most offensive fellow but perfectly chaste. He won’t budge. It’s a great thing in life to have a place you can’t be removed from—too few of them.”
But the “phase” had passed and lingered now only in Charles’s love of Gothic architecture and breviaries.”
- Charles Ryder’s Schooldays
“Good heavens,” his father said; “or do you mean a parson?”
“A priest of the Anglican Church,” said Charles precisely.
“That’s better. I thought you meant a Roman Catholic. Well, a parson’s is not at all a bad life for a man with a little money of his own. They can’t remove you except for flagrant immorality. Your uncle has been trying to get rid of his fellow at Boughton for ten years—a most offensive fellow but perfectly chaste. He won’t budge. It’s a great thing in life to have a place you can’t be removed from—too few of them.”
But the “phase” had passed and lingered now only in Charles’s love of Gothic architecture and breviaries.”
- Charles Ryder’s Schooldays