y fields and behind the
blossoming orchards; and the sound of the gurgling brook, if you came
close to one spot behind a small bush, would be mingled for your ear
with a despairing human sob. No wonder man's religion has much sorrow
in it; no wonder he needs a Suffering God.

The remedy for this sorrow, even in the pages of _Adam Bede_, is not the
atoning love of Christ or the blessedness of a divine forgiveness, but the
altruistic compassion of man for man. There is, however, a, deeper
recognition in this novel of Christian belief than in any other by George
Eliot. The prayer and sermon of Dinah Morris have a truly Christian tone
and thought. This is not the case with the teachings of Savonarola, who is
always much more an altruist than a Christian, and into whose mouth
Christian phrases are put, while it is very evident the Christian spirit in
its wholeness was not put into his heart. Sorrow and suffering are regarded
in _Adam Bede_ as the means of baptism into a larger life of sympathy, as
the means of purification from selfishness and individual aims. Along with
this teaching goes the cognate one, that feeling is the true test of the
religious life. A feeling that draws us close to others in helpfulness is
worth more than knowledge, culture and refinement of taste.

The doctrine of retribution is presented as distinctly and positively in
_Adam Bede_ as in any subsequent book George Eliot wrote. It is given the
form of distinct statement, and it is developed fully in the working out of
the plot. Parson Irwine speaks the thought of the author in these words:

"There is no sort of wrong deed of which a man can bear the punishment
alone; you can't isolate yourself, and say that the evil which is in
you shall not spread. Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each
other as the air they breathe; evil spreads as necessarily as disease.
I know, I feel the terrible extent of suffering this sin of Arthur's
has caused to others; but so does every sin cause suffering to others
besides those who commit it."

The tendency of selfishness and wrong to develop misery is fully unfolded.
The terrible law of moral cause and effect is made apparent throughout the
whole work. The folly of Arthur and the vanity of Hetty work them terrible
consequences of evil and bitterness. Many others are made to suffer with
them. The fatal Nemesis is unmasked in these revelations of human nature.

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