He is remembered for this quote, and it would make a fitting epitaph. Prof. Tim Spaulding of Boston has this description: <Adventurer, linguist, swordsman, rogue genius - he possessed wild monstrous talents and was burdened by defects nearly as grave. Continually at odds with the sentiments of his times, his translations of the Kama Sutra and the Arabian Nights scandalized Victorian society.> Burton was expelled from Trinity College over an escapade at the horse races, although a threat to duel a student at Oxford was considered a lesser infraction. He enlisted in the army in 1842 and saw action in Sind where he quickly earned the monicker "Ruffian Dick" for his 'demonic ferocity' in battle. Named consul to Damascus in 1869, he was dismissed soon after, accused of inciting an insurrection in the country. Preoccupied with Eastern sexual mores, it dominated much of his publications, although doubts about his own leanings persisted to the end of his life. At various times a formal convert to Tantric religion, Hinduism, Roman Catholicism and Islam, he told a priest he was proud to admit to every sin in the decalogue: he had been suspected of the murder of an Arab who spotted his Afghan disguise, in Mecca. He lived his convictions: " The noblest lives and the noblest dies who makes his self- made laws." Selma - visit his mausoleum in London, a gift from his wealthy Catholic wife. A ladder allows a window view of a wooden casket and a Bombay Cavalry helmet. Drop a posie, for me. Eric Pinto.
