eece and Rome, pagan and Christian, of
mediaeval England and modern Brittany helped him with many apt
illustrations. Topready stuck out his chin and kept bravely to
his two points the danger of materialism and the menace to the
spiritual cults and festas of Holy Church as by law established
in the England of to-day.

'All right,' said the Bishop, 'let us have no Harvest
Thanksgiving for the tillage of African earth. That is to say not
this year. But keep an open mind.' Topready promised dubiously.

That struggle and waiving of victory had put the Bishop on his
mettle. He had thought out the subject to some purpose before
they met again.

Here are some pages from his English diary:

Sept. 21. Preached at a Thanksgiving in Essex. 'Happy harvest
fields,' quiet tints in the Vicarage garden. A sun that seemed to
make better use of a short day than an African sun would of a
long one. What a festival Topready might have just about this
time if he only liked. The masasas tinted with copper, crimson;
mauve, and pink, and other leaves showing faery green and gold.

Saint Matthew's Day. The festival of the foolery of riches when
Spring is everywhere and the sun is shining.

Oct. (date illegible). Preached at the blessing of the boats in a
small Sussex harbor the herring season just beginning. What
glorious girls' names some of the boats had that we prayed for
'Diana Elizabeth,' for instance, might have sailed out of the
'Faerie Queene.'

Nov. 1 (All Saints'). Went to church at Saint Paul's in a side
chapel.

Nov. 2 (All Souls'). Went to pray in a cemetery chapel.

Both were misty mornings, but the sun each day came out before we
had done, and broke through the dingy windows in a carnage of
color. How fine a side of death, November, the month of the dead,
presents here. Damp and fog and fall of the leaf doubtless the
sorryness of the bad business of decay and punishment but on the
other hand what bravery of sunlight at times, and what colors for
the sun to shine upon. In Africa it's so different. There the
month is a spring month. The gay side of death as a release from
Africa's plentiful curses and bondages is happily prominent. All
Saints' Day our May Day our Feast of Flora and the Rosa Mystica!
What a day for converts suckled in animism! Let us commemorate
the African Saints with garlands of spring flowers as well as
with palms in their hands. Have written to Topready to suggest a
May-Day Festival with African drum