nd unto man he said, The fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom"--and the prayer in the Litany "Give us an
heart to love and dread thee." It lasted three-quarters of
an hour.

One can imagine how he would have treated the subject. The views which
he held on the subject of reverence were, so at least it appears to
me, somewhat exaggerated; they are well expressed in a letter which he
wrote to a friend of his, during the year, and which runs as
follows:--

Dear--, After changing my mind several times, I have at
last decided to venture to ask a favour of you, and to trust
that you will not misinterpret my motives in doing so.

The favour I would ask is, that you will not tell me any
more stories, such as you did on Friday, of remarks which
children are said to have made on very sacred subjects--
remarks which most people would recognise as irreverent, if
made by _grown-up people_, but which are assumed to be
innocent when made by children who are unconscious of any
irreverence, the strange conclusion being drawn that they
are therefore innocent when _repeated_ by a grown-up person.

The misinterpretation I would guard against is, your
supposing that I regard such repetition as always _wrong_ in
any grown-up person. Let me assure you that I do _not_ so
regard it. I am always willing to believe that those who
repeat such stories differ wholly from myself in their views
of what is, and what is not, fitting treatment of sacred
things, and I fully recognise that what would certainly be
wrong in _me_, is not necessarily so in _them_.

So I simply ask it as a personal favour to myself. The
hearing of that anecdote gave me so much pain, and spoiled
so much the pleasure of my tiny dinner-party, that I feel
sure you will kindly spare me such in future.

One further remark. There are quantities of such anecdotes
going about. I don't in the least believe that 5 per cent.
of them were ever said by _children_. I feel sure that most
of them are concocted by people who _wish_ to bring sacred
subjects into ridicule--sometimes by people who _wish_ to
undermine the belief that others have in religious truths:
for there is no surer way of making one's beliefs _unreal_
than by learning to associate them with ludicrous ideas.

Forgive the freedom with which I have said all this.

Sincerely yours,