‘If he did err in this way, sir, which I hardly think, I ascribe it to the spirit of the time. The real cause of the evil you complain of, which to a certain extent I admit, was, I take it, the religious movement of the last century, beginning with Wesleyanism, and culminating at last in Puseyism. This over-excitation of the religious sense, resulting in this irrational, almost animal irritability of consciences, was, in many ways, as foreign to Arnold as it is proper to——’
‘Well, well, my dear nephew, if you like to make a theory of it, pray write it out for yourself nicely in full; but your poor old uncle does not like theories, and is moreover sadly sleepy.’
‘Good night, dear uncle, good night. Only let me say you six more verses.’
DIPSYCHUS CONTINUED.
A FRAGMENT.
[An interval of thirty years.]
Scene I.—In London. Dipsychus in his Study.
Dipsychus. O God! O God! and must I still go on
Doing this work—I know not, hell’s or thine;