160 GEOEGE JOHN ROMANES issi- 



as his sonnets to Amiens, and Christ Church, Oxford, 1 

 testify, and for sculpture he had a real love. 



In May 1885 came the first marked public utter- 

 ance which showed that Mr. Eomanes was now in a 

 very different mental attitude to that in which he 

 wrote his ' Candid Examination of Theism.' 



He delivered the Eede Lecture at Cambridge, and 

 in it he criticises the materialistic position. (It must 

 be remembered that his anti-Theistic book was pub- 

 lished anonymously, and at that time he had no 

 intention of ever referring to it.) 



The reaction set in very soon after the i Candid 

 Examination ' was published. 



He was severe, as it seemed often to those who 

 knew him best, unduly severe with himself, and often 

 described himself as utterly agnostic when possibly 

 ' bewildered ' would have better described him. 



Through these years, underneath all the outward 

 happiness, the intense love for scientific work, there 

 was the same longing and craving for the old belief, 

 and before his eyes was always the question, * Is 

 Christian faith possible or intellectually justifiable in 

 the face of scientific discovery ? ' 



These years between 1879 and 1890 were years of 

 frequent despondency, of almost despair, but also of 

 incessant seeking after truth, and year after year he 

 grew gradually nearer Christian belief. 



The letters which follow will be interesting in 

 this place. They arose out of a correspondence in 

 1 Nature.' 2 



1 See sonnets, The Bible of Amiens, and Christ Church, Oxford. 



2 See Nature, January 25, 1883. 



