‘Humpty,’ I said. ‘Do you know how to remove an infected tusk from a full-grown elephant?’
Humpty peered inquiringly over his glasses at me. Sometimes he’s quite professorial.
‘I do,’ I said.
Amongst the less common events in our orderly and sanitised world must surely be such an operation. I know all about it. Thanks to Clare Balding and her television crew I had a ring-side seat at such proceedings. It completely trumps the stories I once heard from a vet I followed into the ministry. He was a small man with a large heart who became a missionary – and an archdeacon to boot – in South America.
In all our dealings with animals we have to remember that we are each of us one of them. We have our instincts driving us to survive, to eat, to reproduce. Sometimes those instincts lead us wildly into conflict with what we know to be our duty. Our faith has to come to terms with this.
A gifted theologian, novelist and rector of Eversley in Hampshire, Charles Kingsley, is a key figure in recognising our animal nature. In the hotbed that was Victorian England he was associated with the Christian Socialist movement and also with what became known as 'muscular Christianity'. He brilliantly portrayed in ‘Hypatia’ the conflict between early Christianity and Greek philosophy in Alexandria. His political views upset people who mattered in Victoria's England but his distinctive brand of down-to-earth Christian faith was immensely influential in public schools like Thomas Arnold's Rugby. Muscular Christianity and Stoicism became a customary part of the educational agenda. This gifted man Kingsley is perhaps best remembered for 'The Water Babies' and 'Alton Locke', books that brought Christianity down from the ivory towers and into the arena.
As he said ’For men must work, and women must weep, And there’s little to earn, and many to keep …’ He lived, remember, before the days of political correctness.
Kingsley’s reputation is high-lighted in Devon, the county in which he grew up. An independent school in Bideford is named after him. It recently came into the hands of a Chinese investment company along with a clutch of other such schools.
Humpty was putting the lead on to his dog.
‘And watch out for that Westie round the corner,’ I called out. But I was too late. The barking medley made that quite clear.
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