A NOBLE SACRIFICE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 52, 2 October 1891, Page 31

A NOBLE SACRIFICE.

LONDON, July 19.— Lady Barton has just given to the world the ■tory of her burning of a certain manuscript, from which account we (Catholic Review) give the concluding paragraphs : —

My husband bad beea colkctiog for fourteen years information materials on a certain subject. His last volume of the " Supplemental Nights " had beea finished and out oa November 13, 1883. He then gave himself up entirely to the writing of this book, which was called the " Scented Garden," a translation from the Arabic. It treated of a certain passion. Do not let any one suppose for a moment thai Richard Barton ever wrote a thing from the impure point of view. H? dissected a passion from every point of view, as a doctor may dissect a body, showing its source, its origin, its evil, and its good ; and its proper uses, as designed by Providence and Nature, as the great Academician Watts paints them. In private life he was the most pure, the most refined and modest man that ever lived, and he was so guileless himself that he could never be brought to believe that othei men read or used these things from any other standpoint. I, m a woman, think differently. The day before he died he called me into his room and showed me half a page of Arabic manuscript upon which be was working, and he said : "To-morrow I shall have finished this, and I promise you after this I will never write another book upon this subject. I will take to our biography." I told him it would be a happy day when he left off that subject, and that the only thing that reconciled me to it was, that the doctors had said that it was so fortunate, with his partial loss of health, that he conld find something to interest and occupy hia days. He said : " This is to be your jointure, and the proceeds are to be, set apart for an annuity for you " ; and I said : " I hope not, I hope you will live to spend it lika the other." He said : " I am afraid it will make a great row in England, because the ' Arabian Nights " was a baby tale in comparison to this, and I am in communication with several men in England about it." The next morning, at 7 a.nj.. he had ceased to exis*. Some days later, when I locked myself up in bis rooms, and sorted and examined the manuscripts, I read this one. No promise had been exacted from me, because the end had been so unforeseen, and I remained for three days in a state of perfect torture as to what I ought to do about it. During that timci I received an offar (from a man whose name shall be always kept private) of 6,000 guineas for it. He said : " I know from 1,600 to two thousand men who will buy it at four guineas, ie., at two guineas the volume ; and as 1 shall not restrict myself to numbers, but supply ali applicants on payment, 1 shall probably make £2,000 out of it." I said to myself : " Oat of 1,500 men, fifteen will probably read it in the spirit of Bcience in which it was written, the other 1,485 will read it for filth's sake, and pass it to their friends, and the harm done may be incalculable." " Bury it," said one adviser ; " don't decide." " That means digging it up again and reproducing at will." Gat a man to do it for you," eaid No 2 ; " don't appear in it." 1 said, "1 can take in the world, but I cannot deceive God Almighty, Who holdß my husband's soul in His nan Ib.' 1 tested one man who was very earnest about it. '' Lat us go and consult so and so " ; but he, with a lit le sbiiek of horror, said : '' Oh, pray don't let ma have anything to do with it, doa't le: my name gat mixed up in it ; but it is a beautiful book 1 know." I sat down on the fljor before the fire at dark to consult my owa heart, my owa head. How I wanted a brother t My head told me that sin is the only rolling stone that gathers moss : that what a gentleman, a scholar, a man of tie world may write whan living, hu would see very differently from what the poor soul would ccc standing naked before its God, with its good or evil deed? alone to answer for, and their consequences visible to it for the first moment, roll in lT onto the end of time. O for a friend on earth to stop and check them 1 What would he care for th 3 applause of 1,500 men now — for the whole world's praise— and God offended. My heart said : " You can have 6,000 guineas ; your huabanl worked for you, kept you in a happy hotna with honour and respajt for thirty years. Hctv are you going to reward him? That your wratchel bidy miy bj feianl clothed and warmed for a few miserable months or years, will you let that soul, what is part of your soul, ba left out in cold and darkness till the end of tims, till all those sins which may have baen committed on account of reaiiog those writings have been expiated, or passed away perhap3 for evjr ? Why, it would bj just parallel with the original thirty pieces of silver 1" I fetched the MS. and laid it on the ground before me — two large volumes worth. Still my thoughts were, " Was it a Sicrilege ?" It was his magnum opus, his last work that he was so proud of, that was to have been finished on the awful morrow — that never came. Will he rise up in his grave ani curse me or blesi me 7 The thought will haunt me to death ; but m Badi and El Shaykh el Nafzawih, who were pagans, begged pardon ' of God and prayed not to be cast into hell fire for having written the originals, and implored their friends to pray for them to the Lord that Ha would have mercy on them. And then I said : " Not only not for 6,000 guineas, but not for 6,000,000 guineas will I risk it." Sorrowfully, reverently, and in fear and trembling, I burnt sheet after sheet until the whole of the volumes were consumed.

It is my belief that by this act, if my husband's soul were weighted down, the cords were cut and it was left free to soar to its native heaven. As we had received no money in advance, I was mistress of the situation. If any judge otherwise, and deem ma unworthy of their friendship, I mast bear it in silence. Good-bye, kind and beautiful world 1 lam not going morbidly to shnt myself up, but still we sball not meet. I shall be jogging by your side, suffering, silent, praying, working— you feasting and giving in marriage— until wo ghie into the Great Secret, Good-bye, thank you and good-bye I"