the human mind expand as
it may, it will never go beyond the elevation and moral culture of
Christianity as it shines and gleams in the Gospel!

"But the more effectually we Protestants advance in our noble
development, so much the more rapidly will the Catholics follow. As soon
as they feel themselves caught in the current of enlightenment, they
must go on to the point where all is but one.

"The mischievous sectism of Protestantism will also cease, and with it
alienation between father and son, brother and sister. For as soon as
the pure teaching and love of Christ, as they really are, are
comprehended and consistently practised, we shall realise our humanity
as great and free, and cease to attach undue importance to mere outward
form.

"Furthermore, we shall all gradually advance from a Christianity of word
and faith to one of feeling and action."

The conversation next turned on the question how far God is influencing
the great natures of the present world. Said Goethe, "If we notice how
people talk, we might almost believe them to be of opinion that God had
withdrawn into silence since that old time before Christ, and that man
was now placed on his own feet, and must see how he can get on without
God. In religious and moral matters a divine influence is still
admitted, but in matters of science and art it is insisted that they are
merely earthly, and nothing more than a product of pure human powers.

"But now let anyone only attempt with human will and human capabilities
to produce something comparable with the creations that bear the names
of Mozart, Raphael, or Shakespeare. I know right well that these three
noble men are not the only ones, and that in every department of art
innumerable excellent minds have laboured, who have produced results as
perfectly good as those mentioned. But, if they were as great as those,
they transcended ordinary human nature, and were in just the same degree
divinely gifted."

Goethe was silent, but I cherished his great and good words in my heart.

* * * * *

THOMAS GRAY

Letters

Thomas Gray, the poet and author of the "Elegy written in a
Country Churchyard," was born on December 26, 1716, in London,
and was the only survivor of twelve children. At Eton he
formed friendships with Horace Walpole, Thomas Ashton, and
Richard West, who were later his chief correspondents. At
Cambridge, where Gray took