74 EVIDENCE AND EXAMPLES. 



The religious propensity (avoiding psychological 

 deeps) rests mainly on two factors veneration and an 

 ideal. Circumstance has much to do with the (super- 

 natural or natural) ideal. The religious man clothes 

 this ideal with his inherent goodness and veneration. 

 In one man reverence predominates ; in another good- 

 ness. Mr. Gladstone's goodness is a large item, but 

 his veneration, in its extent, is quite colossal. Hence 

 it is that his religion savours more of the older 

 scrupulous observance and precise formula than of the 

 newer philanthropic and social effort, or of the still 

 newer metaphysical religion which, by an act of reason, 

 professes to be independent of reason. Where the 

 instinct of veneration is excessive that of conservatism 

 is never slight. Mr. Gladstone's deeply-rooted con- 

 servatism may be hampered and dwarfed in politics, 

 but unquestionably it revels in religion. He lives in- 

 deed in two worlds ; in one he believes and reveres ; 

 in the other he harangues and guides. 



It is sometimes said, and on obvious grounds, that 

 Mr. Gladstone would have been more effective as a 

 bishop than as a politician. It is true that in the other 

 world he will be more at home in the society of Becket 

 and Laud and Newman than in that of Walpole or Pitt 

 or Bright ; he would moreover at any time be happy in 

 writing an essay on "The Precession of the Holy 

 Ghost/' and unhappy in leading an attack on the 

 church in Wales. Nevertheless he lacks the reticence 

 and prudence and moderation which the English 

 bishops of our time so fittingly possess. One is tempt- 

 ed to think that he has missed not only his vocation 

 but his century and his country also. He would have 

 gained las ti ng fame as a bishop say in Alexandria or 

 Constantinople in the fourth or fifth centuries. Gibbon 



