e would finish
giving me her views of the religious state of England. A portion of the
letter that she wrote me in reply I insert, as being very characteristic
in many respects:--

'Various causes have been assigned for the decaying state of the
English Church; which seems the more strange, because the clergy have
improved, morally and intellectually, in the last twenty years. Then
why should their influence be diminished? I think it is owing to the
diffusion of a spirit of free enquiry.

'Doubts have arisen in the minds of many who are unhappily bound by
subscription not to doubt; and, in consequence, they are habitually
pretending either to believe or to disbelieve. The state of Denmark
cannot but be rotten, when to seem is the first object of the
witnesses of truth.

'They may lead better lives, and bring forward abler arguments; but
their efforts are paralysed by that unsoundness. I see the High
Churchman professing to believe in the existence of a church, when the
most palpable facts must show him that no such church exists; the
"Low" Churchman professing to believe in exceptional interpositions
which his philosophy secretly questions; the "Broad" Churchman
professing as absolute an attachment to the Established Church as the
narrowest could feel, while he is preaching such principles as will at
last pull it down.

'I ask you, my friend, whether there would not be more faith, as well
as earnestness, if all would speak out. There would be more unanimity
too, because they would all agree in a certain basis. Would not a
wider love supersede the creed-bound charity of sects?

'I am aware that I have touched on a point of difference between us,
and I will not regret it; for I think the differences of mind are
analogous to those differences of nature, which, in the most
comprehensive survey, are the very elements of harmony.

'I am not at all prone to put forth my own opinions; but the tone in
which you have written to me claims an unusual degree of openness on
my part. I look upon creeds of all kinds as chains,--far worse chains
than those you would break,--as the causes of much hypocrisy and
infidelity. I hold it to be a sin to make a child say, "I believe."
Lead it to utter that belief spontaneously. I also consider the
institution of an exclusive priesthood, though having been of service
in some r