| Popis: |
There is a strong temptation to hold up the lives of brothers Manoah and Ebenezer Sibly for comparison—they make plausible stock characters: the good brother and the bad one. The bare evidence of their lives readily suggests this simplistic reading. Manoah was described by his eulogist as “quiet, steady, tolerant, patient, and above all, trustworthy.” Manoah was a steady husband and devoted father, a responsible shorthand recorder employed by the Old Bailey, a long-time employee of the Bank of England, and for fifty years, a Swedenborgian minister. He seems the antithesis to the flighty, insincere, deceptive Ebenezer. But Manoah was not a simple character. In the 1780s, he and Ebenezer worked jointly on astrological projects, embroiling Manoah in legal and spiritual compromises that brought some very public criticism, endangering Manoah’s reputation within the New Church. |
