[17] Cf. F. Myers's 'Essay on George Eliot,' Modern Essays, p. 269.
[18] Cf. 'Life and Letters of Dean Church,' p. 154.
[19] 'Buying up the Opportunity,' a sermon by the Rev. C. Gore, preached before the University of Oxford, and published by the S.P.C.K.
[20] 'Rugby Chapel', M. Arnold.
[21] Now republished in a book called 'Mind and Motion.'
[22] And forasmuch as I am far from being able to agree with those who affirm that the twilight doctrine of the 'new faith' is a desirable substitute for the waning splendour of 'the old,' I am not ashamed to confess that with this virtual negation of God the universe to me has lost its soul of loveliness; and although from henceforth the precept to 'work while it is day' will doubtless but gain an intensified force from the terribly intensified meaning of the words that 'the night cometh when no man can work,' yet when at times I think, as think at times I must, of the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it, at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible. For whether it be due to my intelligence not being sufficiently advanced to meet the requirements of the age, or whether it be due to the memory of those sacred associations which to me at least were the sweetest that life has given, I cannot but feel that for me, and for others who think as I do, there is a dreadful truth in those words of Hamilton, philosophy having become a meditation not merely of death but of annihilation, the precept know thyself has become transformed into the terrific oracle to Œdipus—
'Mayest thou ne'er know the truth of what thou art.'
[23] He was engaged to be married.