For a few minutes, he traversed ground already covered in these pages, then, continuing, he said:—
“Last Sunday, when, in all the pride of my office, I preached—preached in my unconscious unbelief—I quoted those lines of the poet:—
“‘They pass me like shadows, crowds on crowds,
Dim ghosts of men, that hover to and fro,
Hugging their bodies round them like their shrouds
Wherein their souls were buried long ago;
They trampled on their youth, and faith and love,
With Heaven’s clear messages they madly strove,
And conquered—and their spirits turned to clay....
Alas! poor fools, the anointed eye may trace