no case exactly parallel with that of
Ireland; but there are some in great measure analogous, and it is
the Liberals who have listened to the voice of other countries,
some of them our own dependencies, in their national aspirations or
their desire for Parliaments of their own, expressed by
Constitutional majorities. I admire the Unionists for standing by
their own convictions with regard to Home Rule, and always have
done so; but I cannot call it "devotion to the Union _and to_
Liberal principles," and I am not aware of there being a single
Home Ruler not a Liberal. The Unionists, especially those in
Parliament, have been, and are, in a very dangerous position, and
have yielded too readily to the temptation of a sudden transference
of party loyalty upon almost every question from Liberal to Tory
leaders. But for those, whether in or out of Parliament, who have
remained Liberals--and I know several such--I don't see why, after
Home Rule is carried, they should not be once more merged in the
great body of Liberals, and have their chances, like others, of
being chosen to serve their country in Parliament and in office....

I am reading a book by Grant Allen, "Science in Arcady." ... He
brings wit and originality into these essays on plants, lakes,
spiders, etc.

_Lady Russell to Lady Agatha Russell_

PEMBROKE LODGE, _September_ 22, 1893

... With regard to the modern attraction of ugly subjects
(_not_ when the wish to remedy gross evils makes it a duty to
study and live among them; but as common talk between young men and
young women), I feel very strongly that the contemplation of God,
and all that is God-like in the souls that He has created, is our
best safeguard against evil, and that the contemplation of the
spirit of evil, and all the hideous variety of its works, gradually
taints us and weakens our powers of resistance.

_Lady Russell to Lady Agatha Russell_

PEMBROKE LODGE, _October_ 21, 1893

... I entirely agree with you, that poetry and music "teach us of
the things that are unseen" as nothing else can do. Music
especially, which is an unseen thing, not the product of man at
all, but found from man as a gift from God's own hand. I don't know
what at some periods of my life I should have done without these
blessed sympathizers and outlets and uplifti