Ideala

act to say that I both doubt and believe at one and the same time. I go indifferently to either church, Protestant or Catholic, and am thankful when any note of music, or thrill o

han man, to whom man is nevertheless all in all, and to whom we may look for comfort in all times of our tribulation, and for sympathy in all times of our wealth! To be able to give thanks to God when one is happy is the most rapturous, and to be able to

epticism; but when I cannot believe in the existence of a God, and a Beyond, I fee

believing right, and set morality above faith; but I think she

xpressed itself better-as in the days when it carved itself in harmonies of solid stone, and wrote itself in tint and tone on glowing canvases, and learnt to speak in thundering mass and mighty hymns of praise! There are people who think these new shoots good as a sign of life in the tree, and this consideration mi

ve occurred to any one. I mean the fact that the Church, by its narrow views about education, and its most unspiritual ambition for itself, has retarded the world's progress for centuries b

expediency, or the latitude they allow themselves on the score of expediency-I don't quite know how they put it-but it has much to answer for. I never find that my Roman Catholic friends are true, as my Protestant friends are. There is always a something kept back, a reservation; a want of straightforwardness, even when there is no positive deception-I can't describe the thing I mean, but it is quite perceptible, and causes an uneasy feeling of distrust, which is all th

tried to catch Ideala'

next her broke out t

wrong. You cannot hav

e not u

od for individuals. There is pleasure in it, and help and comfort for them. But then it is death to the progress of nations, and the quest

pped, seeing at last t

vening?" she asked me afterwards. "Mrs.

" I answered; "and h

a gro

he had entered the Catholic Church. "I had, in fact,

ant of common honesty is a part of the religion; and yo

n this subject, detailing the worthlessness of all earthly pleasures, with which he seemed to be intimately acquainted-his appearance making one suspect that he had not even yet exhausted them all

ohicans minus the feathers in his hair; but a good man, with nice, soft, velvety brown eyes-preached most impressively. He told us that the Lord was there-there on that very altar, ready to answer our prayers; and, oh dear! when I came to think of it, there were so many of my prayers waiting to be answered! I 'felt like' presenting them all over again, it seemed such a good opportunity. And then they sang the O salutaris Hostia divinely- so divinely that I thought if the Lord really had been there He would certainly have made them sing it again-and I could not pray any more after that. You call this rank

ect. "I suppose it is a fine idea," she said; "but while minds run in so many different grooves, it seems

d views about what

. "We must have new powers of perception, and new pleasures provided for us, such, for instance, as Mr. Andrew Lang suggests in an exquisite

sunset, moth

light on th

flames as a fl

our and loose

*

wers' perfume t

r over mo

ng, grown fain

ent on the

n one passage in particular which I remember word for word, I think, it gives me such pleasure to recall it-'I can see no reason for supposing that some such insight would be impossible to the quickened faculties of a higher development. With a nature material so far as the existence of those faculties might require, but spiritual to the highest degree in their exercise and enjoyment: under physical conditions which might render us practically independent of space, and actually free from the host of physical evils to which we are now exposed, we might well attain a consummation of happiness, generally

*

n, I tried to comfort her by talking of the different people whose l

ay. But, now I think of it, I did receive two other scraps of religious training. My governess taught me the Ten Commandments by making me say them after her when I was eating bread and sugar for breakfast before going to church on Sunday. The thought of them always brings back the flavour of bread and sugar. And the other scrap I got from a clergyman to whom I was sent on a single occasion when I was thought old enough to be confirmed. He asked me which was the commandment with promise, and I

nd although she made light of it in this way, she had suffered a good deal and bee

ral revelation the world had ever known; but when she saw that legal ri

curious reason: she said the idea of it nauseated her. She felt that the elements were unnatural food, and therefore she could not touch them-and this feeling never left her but once, when she was dangerously ill, and yearned,

and a man is neither to be praised nor blamed for it; and she was always ready to acknowledge with Sir Philip Sidney that "Rea

ave it so; but something always fell from her sooner or later which showed that the old trouble was rankling still-as when she told me once: "I have never heard the Divine voice which has called you and all my fri

the dear human love was given to her in pity to help her to know something of that which is Divine. And then, I hope, abo