ght a new confidence in religion, a new trust in
the moral motives of life. In this way George Eliot presents the social
basis of the higher life in man, and her theory that it cannot be broken
off from its traditional surroundings without grave injury to the finer
elements of our nature. The law of retribution manifests itself clearly in
these pages. Godfrey deserts wife and child. In after years he would fain
restore the child to its rightful place, but he finds it has grown up under
conditions which alienate it from any sympathy with him. He pronounces his
own condemnation:

"There's debts we can't pay like money debts, by paying extra for the
years that have slipped by. While I've been putting off and putting
off, the trees have been growing--it's too late now. Marner was in the
right in what he said about a man's turning away a blessing from his
door: it falls to somebody else. I wanted to pass for childless once,
Nancy--I shall pass for childless now against my wish."

A pure moral tone, a keen ethical instinct, mark all these earlier novels
by George Eliot. Quite as noticeable is their spiritual atmosphere and
their high place assigned to the religious life. Their teaching in these
directions has a conservative tendency, and it is based on the most
vigorous convictions.

XIV.

ROMOLA.

Whatever differences there may exist between George Eliot's earlier and
later books are due rather to the materials used than to any change in
purpose, methods or beliefs. In writing of the distinction drawn between
her earlier and later books, she said,--

Though I trust there is some growth in my appreciation of others and in
my self-distrust, there has been no change in the point of view from
which I regard our life since I wrote my first fiction, the _Scenes of
Clerical Life_. Any apparent change of spirit must be due to something
of which I am unconscious. The principles which are at the root of my
effort to paint Dinah Morris are equally at the root of my effort to
paint Mordecai.

Her later books grow more out of conscious effort and deliberate study than
the earlier, are more carefully wrought out, and contain less of
spontaneity. The spiritual and ethical purpose, however, is not more
distinct and conscious in _Daniel Deronda_ than in _The Mill on the Floss_,
in _Romola_ than in _Adam Bede_. The ethical purpose may be more apparent
in _Daniel Deronda_ than