ite know what
it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power
against evil--widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with
darkness narrower."

Whether Lactantius was etymologically right or wrong, there is no doubt
that he was right substantially when he defined Religion as that which
binds the soul to God. And religion thus conceived naturally divides
itself into two parts: duty and doctrine, practice and theory, conduct
and theology. Both elements are presented to us in the Bible. Of the one
it is written: "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."
Of the other: "Which things the angels desire to look into." Even the
respective functions of the Synoptists and St. John seem to accommodate
themselves to this natural division. Following the line thus indicated,
we shall consider Arnold's influence on Religion under the two heads of
Conduct and Theology. The passage from _Middlemarch_ which stands at
the head of this chapter seems in a way to express his attitude towards
the religious problems of his time. It would be impossible for a
convinced believer in the faith of the Christian Church, as
traditionally received, to profess that Arnold "knew what was perfectly
good" in the domain of religion; but beyond all question he "desired" it
with an even passionate desire, and attained far more closely to it than
many professors of a more orthodox theology.

Of him it might be truly said, as of his favourite poet, that he "saw
life steadily and saw it whole." And of life he declared that Conduct
was three-fourths. For all the infinite varieties and contradictions of
mere opinion he had the largest tolerance, knowing that no opinion, as
such, is culpable. For people thinking so diversely as Wordsworth,
Bunsen, Clough, and Palgrave; Church and Temple, Lake and Stanley; Lord
Coleridge, William Forster, and John Morley, he had equally warm regard,
and, in some ways, sympathy. It was only when the sphere of conduct was
approached that his judgment became severe and his sympathy dried up. In
Politics--levity, time-serving, mob-pleasing, the spirit which prefers
partisanship to patriotism, were the faults which he could not pardon.
His imperfect sympathy with Mr. Gladstone, a deplorable but undeniable
fact, was due not so much to dissent from Gladstone's theory of the
public good as to disapproval of his character. "Respect is the very
last feeling he excites in me; he has too little soli