" St. Paul attempted an obviously
hopeless task (as the Church of Rome very well understands) when he tried
to put down seasonarianism. People must and will go to church to be a
little better, to the theatre to be a little naughtier, to the Royal
Institution to be a little more scientific, than they are in actual life.
It is only by pulsations of goodness, naughtiness, and whatever else we
affect that we can get on at all. I grant that when in his office, a man
should be exact and precise, but our holidays are our garden, and too
much precision here is a mistake.
Surely truces, without even an _arriere pensee_ of difference of opinion,
between those who are compelled to take widely different sides during the
greater part of their lives, must be of infinite service to those who can
enter on them. There are few merely spiritual pleasures comparable to
that derived from the temporary laying down of a quarrel, even though we
may know that it must be renewed shortly. It is a great grief to me that
there is no place where I can go among Mr. Darwin, Professors Huxley,
Tyndal, and Ray Lankester, Miss Buckley, Mr. Romanes, Mr. Grant Allen and
others whom I cannot call to mind at this moment, as I can go among the
Italian priests. I remember in one monastery (but this was not in the
Canton Ticino) the novice taught me how to make sacramental wafers, and I
played him Handel on the organ as well as I could.
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