The leafless
tree may pray for the time of buds and blossoms; will the time come the
sooner? Perhaps not, but it will come."
"I must confess," she said on another occasion, "that I do have moments
of pure scepticism; but when I cannot believe in the existence of a
God, and a Beyond, I feel as if the sky were nearer, and weighed upon
me, so that I could not lift my head."
She thought religion consisted much more in doing right than in
believing right, and set morality above faith; but I think she had a
leaning towards the Roman Catholic religion nevertheless.
"It is a grand old faith," she said, "only it has certain ramifications
with which I should always quarrel, notably that of the Sacred Heart
with which Catholics deface their lovely Lady in the churches. I always
feel that such bad art cannot be good religion. When the Roman Catholic
religion commanded respect it expressed itself better--as in the days
when it carved itself in harmonies of solid stone, and wrote itself in
tint and tone on glowing canvases, and learnt to speak in thundering
mass and mighty hymns of praise! There are people who think these new
shoots good as a sign of life in the tree, and this consideration might
perhaps make their appearance welcome; but a great deal of strength is
expended on their production, and it would be just as well to lop them
off again.
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