‘You were feeling, I judge, somewhat as Wordsworth did when he wrote the _Ode on Immortality._ This is, I think, how the matter stands. When we are young, we think that perfection, _i.e._ the ideal, can be found on earth—we set up, perhaps, some earthly idol, and endow it with every excellence. Then we find that we have been in a measure mistaken. What shall we do? Doubtless there does then come upon us the shadow of a great darkness, as we find how much evil there is, and we are tempted to believe the lying word of Satan, that the kingdoms of the world are his. Shall we then lower our ideal, say we will conform to that which is, or believe the heavenly proclamation—“the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ”—and work on to make this as true as we can for our own souls, and for those near us? We see that the ideals cannot be realised on earth, because this is a place of discipline. Many make a worldly marriage because they give up their ideal, and conform to what is, instead of ever striving to bring about what ought to be—nothing can make that right. But on the other hand we must be content to be the companions of those who, like ourselves, are “compassed about with infirmities,” to arm them for the fight with evil, and to love those who are not perfect, as Britomart did the Red Cross Knight. What I want you all to keep before you is that one day the ideal will be realised, as the Bible and our own hearts assure us, and to join the army of light and go right on, confident of eventual victory. You have, my dear child, a somewhat heavy burden of responsibility for your age, and you miss the sustaining hand, but you must not look down, but up! Take our first Cambridge Room motto: “As the soar falcon, so I strive to fly, In contemplation of the immortal sky.” There we may look for the realisation of our earthly endeavours, as Abt Vogler teaches. I wonder if you read Browning. I wish you had a Browning Society.—With much sympathy, ...’ To one who had written of the ‘Intolerance of Church people’:— ‘_July 1884._