1870 LETTER TO MATTHEW ARNOLD 11 



on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and 

 wound up every morning before I got out of bed, I should 

 instantly close with the offer. The only freedom I care 

 about is the freedom to do right ; the freedom to do 

 wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to 

 any one who will take it of me. 



This was the latest of the essays included in Lay 

 Sermons, Addresses and Reviews, which came out, with 

 a dedicatory letter to Tyndall, in the summer of 

 1870, and, whether on account of its subject matter 

 or its title, always remained his most popular volume 

 of essays. 



To the same period belongs a letter to Matthew 

 Arnold about his book St. Paul and Protestantism. 



MY DEAR ARNOLD Many thanks for your book 

 which I have been diving into at odd times as leisure 

 served, and picking up many good things. 



One of the best is what you say near the end about 

 science gradually conquering the materialism of popular 

 religion. 



It will startle the Puritans who always coolly put the 

 matter the other way ; but it is profoundly true. 



These people are for the most part mere idolaters with 

 a Bible-fetish, who urgently stand in need of conversion 

 by Extra-christian Missionaries. 



It takes all one's practical experience of the import- 

 ance of Puritan ways of thinking to overcome one's feel- 

 ing of the unreality of their beliefs. I had pretty well 

 forgotten how real to them " the man in the next street" 

 is, till your citation of their horribly absurd dogmas 

 reminded me of it. If you can persuade them that Paul 

 is fairly interpretable in your sense, it may be the 

 beginning of better things, but I have my doubts if Paul 



