“There are many pharisees in literature as well as in religion, wrapped up in the garments of self-idolatry, and making their very deficiencies the ground of their highest complacency. There are many blind wanderers through unbounded fields of instruction, who can discover nothing but nakedness—nothing but barrenness around them. Fertility itself offers no attractions to them—how much less can they understand the power of that benign principle which makes the waters gush forth, fresh, pure, and sparkling, from the very rocks of the desert.”

— John Bowring , Cheskian Anthology

[Bowring, John, 1832, Cheskian Anthology, Preface, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cheskian_Anthology/Preface, Rowland Hunter, London]

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John Bowring 3

4th Governor of Hong Kong 1792–1872

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Source: Except from a speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1883/apr/26/second-reading-adjourned-debate-second in the House of Commons (26 April 1883) in support of the atheist Charles Bradlaugh being permitted to take his seat in Parliament.

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John Bowring 3

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