s not an Oberlin or a Tillotson, than at the deeds
of heroes whom I shall never know except by hearsay, or at the sublimest
abstract of all clerical graces that was ever conceived by an able
novelist.

And so I come back to Mr. Irwine, with whom I desire you to be in
perfect charity, far as he may be from satisfying your demands on the
clerical character. Perhaps you think he was not--as he ought to have
been--a living demonstration of the benefits attached to a national
church? But I am not sure of that; at least I know that the people
in Broxton and Hayslope would have been very sorry to part with their
clergyman, and that most faces brightened at his approach; and until it
can be proved that hatred is a better thing for the soul than love,
I must believe that Mr. Irwine's influence in his parish was a more
wholesome one than that of the zealous Mr. Ryde, who came there twenty
years afterwards, when Mr. Irwine had been gathered to his fathers. It
is true, Mr. Ryde insisted strongly on the doctrines of the Reformation,
visited his flock a great deal in their own homes, and was severe
in rebuking the aberrations of the flesh--put a stop, indeed, to the
Christmas rounds of the church singers, as promoting drunkenness and
too light a handling of sacred things. But I gathered from Adam Bede, to
whom I talked of these matters in his old age, that few clergymen could
be less successful in winning the hearts of their parishioners than Mr.
Ryde. They learned a great many notions about doctrine from him, so
that almost every church-goer under fifty began to distinguish as well
between the genuine gospel and what did not come precisely up to that
standard, as if he had been born and bred a Dissenter; and for some time
after his arrival there seemed to be quite a religious movement in that
quiet rural district. "But," said Adam, "I've seen pretty clear, ever
since I was a young un, as religion's something else besides notions. It
isn't notions sets people doing the right thing--it's feelings. It's the
same with the notions in religion as it is with math'matics--a man may
be able to work problems straight off in's head as he sits by the fire
and smokes his pipe, but if he has to make a machine or a building, he
must have a will and a resolution and love something else better than
his own ease. Somehow, the congregation began to fall off, and people
began to speak light o' Mr. Ryde. I believe he meant right at bottom;
but, you see,