plification of the difficulty of
reconciling domestic and political engagements. The case is one that
scarcely admits of compromise; the least that is required in order to
the fulfilment of one's duty is constant bodily presence in London until
the fag-end of the session is fairly reached.'

Here are a few examples of the passing days:--

_March 12th_, 1841.--_Tracts for the Times_, No. 90; ominous.
_March 13th._--Went to see Reform Club. Sat to Bradley 21/2-4. London
Library committee. Carlton Library committee. Corrected two
proof-sheets. Conversed an hour and a half with Mr. Richmond, who
came to tea, chiefly on my plan for a picture-life of Christ. Chess
with C. [his wife]. _March 14th_ (_Sunday_).--Communion (St.
James's), St. Margaret's afternoon. Wrote on Ephes. v. 1, and read
it aloud to servants. _March 20th._--City to see Freshfield.
Afternoon service in Saint Paul's. What an image, what a crowd of
images! Amidst the unceasing din, and the tumult of men hurrying
this way and that for gold, or pleasure, or some self-desire, the
vast fabric thrusts itself up to heaven and firmly plants itself on
soil begrudged to an occupant that yields no lucre. But the city
cannot thrust forth its cathedral; and from thence arises the
harmonious measured voice of intercession from day to day. The
church praying and deprecating continually for the living mass that
are dead while they live, from out of the very centre of that
mass; silent and lonesome is her shrine, amidst the noise, the
thunder of multitudes. Silent, lonesome, motionless, yet full of
life; for were we not more dead than the stones, which built into
that sublime structure witness continually to what is great and
everlasting,--did priest or chorister, or the casual worshipper but
apprehend the grandeur of his function in that spot,--the very
heart must burst with the tide of emotions gathering within it. Oh
for speed, speed to the wings of that day when this glorious
unfulfilled outline of a church shall be charged as a hive with the
operations of the Spirit of God and of His war against the world;
when the intervals of space and time within its walls, now
untenanted by any functions of that holy work, shall be thickly
occupied; and when the glorious sights and sounds which shall
arrest the passenger in his ha