ism and
Christianity, on which my own youth was nourished. And in this
sense I have no antagonism towards any religious belief, but a
strong outflow of sympathy. Every community met to worship the
highest Good (which is understood to be expressed by God) carries
me along in its main current; and if there were not reasons
against my following such an inclination, I should go to church
or chapel, constantly, for the sake of the delightful emotions of
fellowship which come over me in religious assemblies--the very
nature of such assemblies being the recognition of a binding
belief or spiritual law, which is to lift us into willing
obedience and save us from the slavery of unregulated passion or
impulse. And with regard to other people, it seems to me that
those who have no definite conviction which constitutes a
protesting faith, may often more beneficially cherish the good
within them and be better members of society by a conformity
based on the recognised good in the public belief, than by a
nonconformity which has nothing but negatives to utter. _Not_, of
course, if the conformity would be accompanied by a consciousness
of hypocrisy. That is a question for the individual conscience to
settle. But there is enough to be said on the different points of
view from which conformity may be regarded, to hinder a ready
judgment against those who continue to conform after ceasing to
believe in the ordinary sense. But with the utmost largeness of
allowance for the difficulty of deciding in special cases, it
must remain true that the highest lot is to have definite beliefs
about which you feel that 'necessity is laid upon you' to declare
them, as something better which you are bound to try and give to
those who have the worse (iii. 215-217).

These volumes contain many passages in the same sense--as, of course,
her books contain them too. She was a constant reader of the Bible, and
the _Imitatio_ was never far from her hand. 'She particularly enjoyed
reading aloud some of the finest chapters of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and St.
Paul's Epistles. The Bible and our elder English poets best suited the
organ-like tones of her voice, which required for their full effect a
certain solemnity and majesty of rhythm.' She once expressed to a
younger friend, who shared her opinions, her sense of the loss which
th