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CHAPTER LIII . It is but a shallow haste which concludeth insincerity from what outsiders call inconsistency — putting a dead mechanism of “ ifs ” and “ therefores ” for the living myriad of hidden suckers whereby the belief and the conduct are wrought into mutual sustainment . Mr . Bulstrode , when he was hoping to acquire a new interest in Lowick , had naturally had an especial wish that the new clergyman should be one whom he thoroughly approved ; and he believed it to be a chastisement and admonition directed to his own shortcomings and those of the nation at large , that just about the time when he came in possession of the deeds which made him the proprietor of Stone Court , Mr . Farebrother “ read himself ” into the quaint little church and preached his first sermon to the congregation of farmers , laborers , and village artisans . It was not that Mr . Bulstrode intended to frequent Lowick Church or to reside at Stone Court for a good while to come : he had bought the excellent farm and fine homestead simply as a retreat which he might gradually enlarge as to the land and beautify as to the dwelling , until it should be conducive to the divine glory that he should enter on it as a residence , partially withdrawing from his present exertions in the administration of business , and throwing more conspicuously on the side of Gospel truth the weight of local landed proprietorship , which Providence might increase by unforeseen occasions of purchase . A strong leading in this direction seemed to have been given in the surprising facility of getting Stone Court , when every one had expected that Mr . Rigg Featherstone would have clung to it as the Garden of Eden . That was what poor old Peter himself had expected ; having often , in imagination , looked up through the sods above him , and , unobstructed by perspective , seen his frog - faced legatee enjoying the fine old place to the perpetual surprise and disappointment of other survivors . But how little we know what would make paradise for our neighbors ! We judge from our own desires , and our neighbors themselves are not always open enough even to throw out a hint of theirs . The cool and judicious Joshua Rigg had not allowed his parent to perceive that Stone Court was anything less than the chief good in his estimation , and he had certainly wished to call it his own . But as Warren Hastings looked at gold and thought of buying Daylesford , so Joshua Rigg looked at Stone Court and thought of buying gold . He had a very distinct and intense vision of his chief good , the vigorous greed which he had inherited having taken a special form by dint of circumstance : and his chief good was to be a moneychanger . From his earliest employment as an errand - boy in a seaport , he had looked through the windows of the moneychangers as other boys look through the windows of the pastry - cooks ; the fascination had wrought itself gradually into a deep special passion ; he meant , when he had property , to do many things , one of them being to marry a genteel young person ; but these were all accidents and joys that imagination could dispense with .
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