was foliated and exquisitely
carved in a manner that pleased Ruskin. On the outer side, the side
toward the people and not the side toward the Presence of God, it was
entirely plain and unornamented!

The friendship of Thomas [`a] Kempis I owe to George Eliot. Emerson might
easily perish; Plato might go, and even Horace be drowned in his last
supply of Falernian; Marcus Aurelius and even Rudyard Kipling might
exist only in tradition; but the loss of all their works would be as
nothing compared to the loss of that little volume which is a marvellous
guide to life. The translations of Thomas [`a] Kempis into English vary in
value. Certain dissenters have cut out the very soul of [`A] Kempis in
deleting the passages on the Holy Eucharist. Think of Bowdlerizing
Thomas [`a] Kempis! He was, above all, a mystic, and all the philosophy of
his love of Christ limps when the mystical centre of it, the Eucharist,
is cut out. If that meeting in the upper room had not taken place during
the paschal season, if Christ had not offered His body and blood, soul
and divinity to his amazed, yet reverent, disciples, Thomas [`a] Kempis
would never have written "The Following of Christ." The Bible, even the
New Testament, is full of sayings which, as St. James says of St. Paul's
Epistles, are not easy sayings, but what better interpretation of the
doctrines of Christ as applied to everyday life can there be found than
in this precious little book?

You may talk of Marcus Aurelius and gather what comfort you can from the
philosophy of Thoreau's "Walden"--which might, after all, be more
comfortable if it were more pagan. The Pan of Thoreau was a respectable
Pan, because he was a Unitarian; you may find some comfort in Keble's
"Christian Year" if you can; but [`A] Kempis overtops all! It is strange,
too, what an appeal this great mystic has to the unbelievers in
Christianity. It is a contradiction we meet with every day. And George
Eliot was a remarkable example of this, for, in spite of her habitual
reverence, she cannot be said to have accepted orthodox dogmas. Another
paradox seems to be in the fact that Thomas [`a] Kempis appeals so directly
and consciously to the confirmed mystic and to those who have secluded
themselves from the world. At first, I must confess that I found this a
great obstacle to my joy in having found him.

If Montaigne frequently drove me to [`A] Kempis, [`A] Kempis almost as
frequently in the beginning drove me back