Beilby Porteus

Bishop of Chester; Bishop of London

Rt Rev Beilby Porteus, DD, Bishop of Chester and London (May 8, 1731May 13, 1809) was an Anglican reformer and leading abolitionist. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously challenge the Church's position on slavery.

Beilby Porteus

Quotes

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  • He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over.

Death: A Poetical Essay (1759)

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  • In sober state,
    Through the sequestered vale of rural life,
    The venerable patriarch guileless held
    The tenor of his way.
    • Line 108. Compare: "They kept the noiseless tenor of their way" (alternately quoted as "the even tenor of their way"), Thomas Gray, Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Stanza 19, line 4.
  • One murder made a villain,
    Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
    To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
    • Line 154. Compare: "One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame", Edward Young, "Love of Fame", Satire vii, line 55.
  • War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.
    • Line 178.
  • Teach him how to live,
    And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.
    • Line 316. Compare: "There taught us how to live; and (oh, too high
      The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die", Thomas Tickell, On the Death of Mr. Addison (1721), line 81.; "He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live", Michel de Montaigne, Essay, book i. chap. ix.; "I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to live; and I will show you in a very short time how to die", Sandys, Anglorum Speculum, p. 903.
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