342 GBOEGE JOHN EOMANBS 1894 



These months were made very happy to him by 

 the fact that three friends, Mrs. and Miss Church 

 and the Eev. E. C. Moberly/ were staying in the 

 same hotel. He often alludes in his letters to the 

 intense pleasure these friends gave him, and speaks of 

 how much he owed to their tenderness and sympathy, 

 and to their perception when to come and when to 

 stay away. 



Many books were heard and read by him. Mr. 

 Gore's Bampton Lectures were read aloud to him, 

 and he liked them even better than when he heard 

 them preached. Several other theological books were 

 read, and of all these the one which bears marks of 

 most careful study is Pascal's ' Pensees.' He used 

 Mr. C. Kegan Paul's translation. The copy he had 

 at Costebelle, which used to lie by his bedside, is 

 marked and annotated. It is the last book he 

 read to himself in his own careful and student- 

 like fashion. He also wrote some notes of advice 

 to his boys. 



At this time he began to make notes for a work 

 which he intended to be a supplement or an answer 

 to the ' Candid Examination of Theism.' As he went 

 on, his notes grew — so it seemed to one who read 

 them — increasingly nearer Faith, but of them the 

 world can now judge. 



He said one day, while scribbling down notes, 'If 

 anything happens to me before I can work them up 

 into a book, give them to Gore. He will understand.' 



Nothing can be more erroneous than to suppose 

 that the change in point of view was sudden, or due 

 to any fear of death, or that it caused mental suffer- 

 ing to the author of ' Thoughts on Eeligion,' or that 

 he was influenced by anyone, priest or layman. 



There will always be unconscious influence, and it 

 probably was not altogether in vain that two or three 



' Eegius Professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford. 



