O! utinam præsens verba observare legentis
Et frontis possem signa notare.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The names of several Bishops next occur, forming a separate class of those, who, whatever they are, or may have been, certainly exhibit examples of individuals whose ultimate success in life was disproportionate to their first expectations on entering the great theatre of the world.
The fair and reasonable presumption is, in the clerical profession, as in that of the law—certain offices must be filled, to which it is natural to suppose that the most eligible will be appointed. Moreover, the longer the catalogue may happen to be, of ecclesiastics who have risen to the most exalted stations from humble beginnings, the stronger the argument will be, to disprove the assertion generally made, and too universally believed, that such stations are only to be obtained by political interest or intrigue.
Of these distinguished personages, many have before been more or less circumstantially mentioned. The following is merely a sort of recapitulation, bearing upon the single point of extraordinary success in the procurement of worldly honours.
The circumstances and causes which led to the elevation of the late venerable Archbishop Moore, are too well known to require repetition, and the dignity which he obtained was too well merited to excite discontent, or provoke invidious remark. His Grace’s ultimate station in life must however far, very far, have exceeded his most sanguine expectations, when first entering the world.
The honours also of the excellent Bishop Porteus, however well deserved and beneficially exercised, beyond doubt, much exceeded all the possible calculations and hopes of his early life. The successes of such an individual command the greater admiration, because they were not obtained by any interposition of the great, by any political connection, or indeed by the exertion of interest of any kind. They were the result of a zealous, pious, uninterrupted attention to the general duties of his profession, with a particular regard to those of the stations, which he immediately filled. He may nevertheless, with strict propriety, be introduced in the class of those, who have eminently been distinguished by good fortune.