John Bunyan [followed by] the Gipsies / [James Simson].

  • Simson, James, 1826-
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: John Bunyan [followed by] the Gipsies / [James Simson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/18 (page 13)
    of him ; while in Scotland the hum¬ blest native will say that he “ would as soon take a toad to his bosom as marry a tinkler.” In my Contributions to Natural History, etc., I said that the subject of the Gipsies “ presents little inter¬ est to the world if it means only a certain style of life that may cease at any moment” (p. 153). “The real interest, in the higher sense of the word, attaching to this people is centred in the relation in which it stands to others around it, with refer¬ ence to intermarriage and the destiny of the mixed progeny and that of the tribe generally, especially in English- speaking countries ”(p. 200). In The Scottish Churches and the Gipsies I said :—“Who originated this idea of the Gipsies ‘ ceasing to be Gipsies ’ it is unnecessary particularly to en¬ quire ; it is of more importance to say that it has acquired the strength almost of truth, and illustrates how careful people should be in making assertions that may cause much evil and more labour in setting them aside” (p. 5). The Gipsies being a question of race cannot be affected by a change of habits of any kind, which led me to speak of the so- called “ ceasing to be Gipsies ” as il¬ lustrative of the “ vagaries of the human mind and to ask, “ What could two Scotch Gipsies propagate in body and mind but Gipsies ? They certainly could not give origin to Jews or common Scotch ; but Gipsy Scotch or Scotch Gipsy would infal¬ libly follow.”* In regard to this subject 1 entered very fully into it in my Dis¬ quisition on the Gipsies and asked :— “ What is to be the future of the Gipsy race ? A reply to this question will be found in the history of it during the past, as described; for it resolves itself into two very simple matters of fact. In the first place we have a foreign race deemed by itself to be, as indeed it is, universal, introduced into Scotland, for example, taken root there, * The Scottish Churches and the Gipsies, p. 19. spread and flourished ; a race that rests upon a basis the strongest imaginable. On the other hand there is the preju¬ dice of caste towards the name, which those bearing it escape only by assum¬ ing an incognito among their fellow- creatures. These two principles, act¬ ing upon beings possessing the feelings, of men will of themselves produce that state of things which will consti¬ tute the history of the Gipsies during all time coming, whatever may be the changes that may come over their character and condition.How~ can we imagine this race, arriving in Europe so lately as the fifteenth cen¬ tury, and in Scotland the century fol¬ lowing, with an origin so distinct from the rest of the world, and so treated by the world, can possibly have lost a consciousness of nationality in its de¬ scent in so short a time after arrival ? .... This sensation in the minds of the Gipsies of the perpetuity of their race creates in a great measure its im¬ mortality ” (p. 441). In The Gipsies as illustrated, etc., I said :—“ Hence the natural feeling on the part of the Gipsies for their origin, tribe and lan¬ guage pulled very strongly in that di¬ rection, while the prejudice of the natives pushed them from them in the same direction. The result has been two currents in society, or a double nationality—the Gipsy one and the ordinary one of the country. A com¬ plete amalgamation with the natives, so that the Gipsy element and feeling would disappear was thus in the nature of things impossible ” (p. 6). In the Disquisition I said :— “ A Gipsy’s life is like a continual, conspiracy towards the rest of the world ; he has always a secret upon his- mind, and from his childhood to his old age he is so placed as if he were, in a negative sense, engaged in some gun¬ powder plot, or as if he had commit¬ ted a crime, let his character be as good as it possibly may. Into what¬ ever company he may enter he natural¬ ly remarks to himself, ‘ I wonder if there are any of us here ? ’ That is the position which the mixed and better kind of Gipsy occupies generally and passively ” (p. 453). I have compared this phenomenon to “an essence her¬ metically sealed. Keep it in that posi¬ tion and it retains its inherent qualities