on of his own
time, or of any past one; above the affectation of the obsolete,
above slavery to the present, and above that strange mixture of both
which some display, who weep because the beautiful visions of the
Past are departed, and admire themselves for being able to weep over
them--and dispense with them. His reverence for the Bible should
make him feel that we most realise our own personality when we most
connect it with that of our fellow-men; that acts are not to be
contemplated apart from the actor; that more of what is acceptable
to the God of Truth may come forth in men striving with infinite
confusion, and often uttering words like the east-wind, than in
those who can discourse calmly and eloquently about a righteousness
and mercy, which they know only by hearsay. The belief which a
minister of God has in the eternity of the distinction between right
and wrong should especially dispose him to recognise that
distinction apart from mere circumstance and opinion. The
confidence which he must have that the life of each man, and the
life of this world, is a drama, in which a perfectly Good and True
Being is unveiling His own purposes, and carrying on a conflict with
evil, which must issue in complete victory, should make him eager to
discover in every portion of history, in every biography, a divine
'Morality' and 'Mystery'--a morality, though it deals with no
abstract personages--a mystery, though the subject of it be the
doings of the most secular men.

The subject of this Play is certainly a dangerous one, it suggests
questions which are deeply interesting at the present time. It
involves the whole character and spirit of the Middle Ages. A
person who had not an enthusiastic admiration for the character of
Elizabeth would not be worthy to speak of her; it seems to me, that
he would be still less worthy, if he did not admire far more
fervently that ideal of the female character which God has
established, and not man--which she imperfectly realised--which
often exhibited itself in her in spite of her own more confused,
though apparently more lofty, ideal; which may be manifested more
simply, and therefore more perfectly, in the England of the
nineteenth century, than in the Germany of the thirteenth. To enter
into the meaning of self-sacrifice--to sympathise with any one who
aims at it--not to be misled by counterfeits of it--not to be unjust
to the truth which may be mixed with those counterfeits--is a