hat why
the same hand that painted a certain dreamy, lovely sandy shore, now in
the Dublin Municipal Gallery, could with great rapidity fill many canvases
with poetical commonplace; and why, after writing _Homeward Songs by the
Way_, where all is skilful and much exquisite, he would never again write
a perfect book? Was it precisely because in Swedenborg alone the conscious
and the sub-conscious became one, as in that marriage of the angels, which
he has described as a contact of the whole being, that Coleridge thought
Swedenborg both man and woman?

Russell's influence, which was already great, had more to support it than
his versatility, or the mystery that surrounded him, for his sense of
justice, and the daring that came from his own confidence in it, had made
him the general counsellor. He would give endless time to a case of
conscience, and no situation was too difficult for his clarity; and
certainly some of the situations were difficult. I remember his being
summoned to decide between two ladies who had quarrelled about a
vacillating admirer, and called each other, to each other's faces, the
worst names in our somewhat anaemic modern vocabulary; and I have heard of
his success on an occasion when I think no other but Dostoievsky's idiot
could have avoided offence. The Society was very young, and, as its
members faced the world's moral complexities as though they were the first
that ever faced them, they drew up very vigorous rules. One rule was that
if any member saw a fault growing upon any other member, it was his duty
to point it out to that member. A certain young man become convinced that
a certain young woman had fallen in love with him; and, as an unwritten
rule pronounced love and the spiritual life incompatible, that was a heavy
fault. As the young man felt the delicacy of the situation, he asked for
Russell's help, and side by side they braved the offender, who, I was
told, received their admonishment with surprised humility, and promised
amendment. His voice would often become high, and lose its self-possession
during intimate conversation, and I especially could put him in a rage;
but the moment the audience became too large for intimacy, or some
exciting event had given formality to speech, he would be at the same
moment impassioned and impersonal. He had, and has, the capacity, beyond
that of any man I have known, to put with entire justice not only the
thoughts, but the emotions, of the most opposi