enough as it is, and if he were
not afraid of hell, what would become of him!" (I write from memory,
and cannot answer for the words, but I can for their purport.)

[A] _Physical_ damnation, I should have said. It is strange
how seldom pain of heart is spoken of as a possible element
of future, or as the worst of present pain.

50. Now, my friend, I am afraid that I must incur the charge of such
presumption as may be involved in variance from _both_ these systems
of teaching.

I do not merely _believe_ there is such a place as hell. I _know_
there is such a place; and I know also that when men have got to the
point of believing virtue impossible but through dread of it, they
have got _into_ it.

I mean, that according to the distinctness with which they hold such a
creed, the stain of nether fire has passed upon them. In the depth of
his heart Mr. Keble could not have entertained the thought for an
instant; and I believe it was only as a conspicuous sign to the
religious world of the state into which they were sinking, that this
creed, possible in its sincerity only to the basest of them, was
nevertheless appointed to be uttered by the lips of the most tender,
gracious, and beloved of their teachers.

51. "Virtue impossible but for fear of hell"--a lofty creed for your
English youth--and a holy one! And yet, my friend, there was something
of right in the terrors of this clerical conclave. For, though you
should assuredly be able to hold your own in the straight ways of God,
without always believing that the Devil is at your side, it is a state
of mind much to be dreaded, that you should not _know_ the Devil when
you _see_ him there. For the probability is that when you do see him,
the way you are walking in is not one of God's ways at all, but is
leading you quite into other neighborhoods than His. On His way,
indeed, you may often, like Albert Duerer's Knight, see the Fiend
behind you, but you will find that he drops always farther and farther
behind; whereas, if he jogs with you at your side, it is probably one
of his own bypaths you are got on. And, in any case, it is a highly
desirable matter that you should know him when you set eyes on him,
which we are very far from doing in these days, having convinced
ourselves that the graminivorous form of him, with horn and tail, is
extant no longer. But in fearful truth, the Presence and Power of Him
_is_ here; in the world, with us, and within us, mock a