" The doctrine that neither contrition nor sacrifice can ap-
pease Nemesis or avert the consequences of our wrong-doing
from ourselves or others, filled a very large space indeed in
her scheme of life and literature. Jfrom the bare diagram of
Brother Jacob to the profound and finished picture of ' Middle-
march,' retribution is the constant theme and motive of her
art. It helped to determine her religious attitude, for it ia
only partly true that want of evidence was her only objection
to Christianity. She was firmly persuaded that the postpone-
ment of the reckoning blunts the edge of remorse, and that
repentance, which ought to be submission to just punishment,
proved by the test of confession, means more commonly the
endeavour to elude it. She thought that the world would
be infinitely better and happier if men could be made to feel
that there is no escape from the inexorable law that we reap
what we have sown."



FORGIVENESS 193

(13.) This beautiful though comparatively little known hymn
is by a famous Oongregationalist of the last generation, the
Eev. Thomas Binney.
(14.) Creighton's " Lite," vol. ii. p. 408 :—

"Scepticism narrows the real problem, refuses to face the
actual facts, substitutes energy in reforming the world tor
power to deal with it as it is. I can sympathise with all that
it has to say and all that it tries to do : but there is so much
beyond."



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