DOI article:
Johnson, Lionel Pigot: Tobacco clouds
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27812#0154
Tobacco Clouds
id°
Smiter of the Firstborn were travelling through the households.
There is the Catholic chapel, in its Georgian, quaint humility ;
recalling an age of beautiful, despised simplicity; the age of
French emigrant old priests and vicars-apostolic, who stood for
the Supreme Pontiff, in grey wigs. The sweet limes are swaying
against its singular, umbered windows, with their holy saints and
prophets in last-century design ; ruffled, querulous persons looking
very bluff and blown. I wonder, how it would be inside ; I
suppose, night has a little weakened that lingering smell of daily
incense, which seems so immemorial and so sad. Wonderful
grace of the mighty Roman Church ! This low square place,
where the sanctuary is poor and open, without any mystical touch
of retirement and of loftiness, has yet the unfailing charm, the
venerable mystery, which attend the footsteps of the Church ; the
same air of command, the same look of pleading, fill this homely,
comfortable shrine, which simple country gentlemen set up for the
ministrations of harassed priests, in an age of no enthusiasm. I like
to think that this quiet chapel, in the obedience of Rome, in
communion with that supreme apostolate, is always open to me
upon this winding little by-street; it Alls me with perfect
memories, and it seems to bless me.
But here is a benediction of light ! the quick sun, reddening
half the heavens, and rising gloriously. In the valley, clusters of
elm rock and swing with the breeze, quivering for joy : far away,
the bare uplands roll against the sunrise, calm and pastoral; <?&?<&?
of the morning. Surely the hours have gone well, and according
to my preference ; one dying into another, as the tobacco clouds
die. My meditations, too, have been peaceful enough ; and,
though solitary, I have had Ane companions. What would the
moral philosophers, those puzzled sages, think of me ? An harm-
less hedonist ? An amateur in morals, who means well, though
meaning
id°
Smiter of the Firstborn were travelling through the households.
There is the Catholic chapel, in its Georgian, quaint humility ;
recalling an age of beautiful, despised simplicity; the age of
French emigrant old priests and vicars-apostolic, who stood for
the Supreme Pontiff, in grey wigs. The sweet limes are swaying
against its singular, umbered windows, with their holy saints and
prophets in last-century design ; ruffled, querulous persons looking
very bluff and blown. I wonder, how it would be inside ; I
suppose, night has a little weakened that lingering smell of daily
incense, which seems so immemorial and so sad. Wonderful
grace of the mighty Roman Church ! This low square place,
where the sanctuary is poor and open, without any mystical touch
of retirement and of loftiness, has yet the unfailing charm, the
venerable mystery, which attend the footsteps of the Church ; the
same air of command, the same look of pleading, fill this homely,
comfortable shrine, which simple country gentlemen set up for the
ministrations of harassed priests, in an age of no enthusiasm. I like
to think that this quiet chapel, in the obedience of Rome, in
communion with that supreme apostolate, is always open to me
upon this winding little by-street; it Alls me with perfect
memories, and it seems to bless me.
But here is a benediction of light ! the quick sun, reddening
half the heavens, and rising gloriously. In the valley, clusters of
elm rock and swing with the breeze, quivering for joy : far away,
the bare uplands roll against the sunrise, calm and pastoral; <?&?<&?
of the morning. Surely the hours have gone well, and according
to my preference ; one dying into another, as the tobacco clouds
die. My meditations, too, have been peaceful enough ; and,
though solitary, I have had Ane companions. What would the
moral philosophers, those puzzled sages, think of me ? An harm-
less hedonist ? An amateur in morals, who means well, though
meaning