Cyril monologue — Intentions

That is certainly a very grave qualification, but I must say that I think you are rather unfair in some of your strictures. I like _The Deemster_, and _The Daughter of Heth_, and _Le Disciple_, and _Mr. Isaacs_, and as for _Robert Elsmere_, I am quite devoted to it. Not that I can look upon it as a serious work. As a statement of the problems that confront the earnest Christian it is ridiculous and antiquated. It is simply Arnold’s _Literature and Dogma_ with the literature left out. It is as much behind the age as Paley’s _Evidences_, or Colenso’s method of Biblical exegesis. Nor could anything be less impressive than the unfortunate hero gravely heralding a dawn that rose long ago, and so completely missing its true significance that he proposes to carry on the business of the old firm under the new name. On the other hand, it contains several clever caricatures, and a heap of delightful quotations, and Green’s philosophy very pleasantly sugars the somewhat bitter pill of the author’s fiction. I also cannot help expressing my surprise that you have said nothing about the two novelists whom you are always reading, Balzac and George Meredith. Surely they are realists, both of them?