And what work,
among others, was he elaborating at this time, but the
notorious "First Blast"? So that he may have rolled out in
his big pulpit voice, how women were weak, frail, impatient,
feeble, foolish, inconstant, variable, cruel, and lacking the
spirit of counsel, and how men were above them, even as God
is above the angels, in the ears of his own wife, and the two
dearest friends he had on earth. But he had lost the sense
of incongruity, and continued to despise in theory the sex he
honoured so much in practice, of whom he chose his most
intimate associates, and whose courage he was compelled to
wonder at, when his own heart was faint.
(1) Works, iv. 220.
(2) IB. iii. 380.
(3) IB. iv. 220.
(4) Works, iii. 380.
(5) Works, iv. 238.
(6) Works, iv. 240.
We may say that such a man was not worthy of his fortune; and
so, as he would not learn, he was taken away from that
agreeable school, and his fellowship of women was broken up,
not to be reunited. Called into Scotland to take at last
that strange position in history which is his best claim to
commemoration, he was followed thither by his wife and his
mother-in-law. The wife soon died. The death of her
daughter did not altogether separate Mrs. Bowes from Knox,
but she seems to have come and gone between his house and
England. In 1562, however, we find him characterised as "a
sole man by reason of the absence of his mother-in-law, Mrs.
Pages:
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380