"
"I am very fond of work," said Lady Marney, "and I talk to
them always about it."
"Ah! you are fortunate, I never could work; and Joan and Maud,
they neither of them work. Maud did embroider a banner once
for her brother; it is in the hail. I think it beautiful; but
somehow or other she never cultivated her talent."
"For all that has occurred or may occur," said Mr St Lys to
Egremont, "I blame only the Church. The church deserted the
people; and from that moment the church has been in danger and
the people degraded. Formerly religion undertook to satisfy
the noble wants of human nature, and by its festivals relieved
the painful weariness of toil. The day of rest was
consecrated, if not always to elevated thought, at least to
sweet and noble sentiments. The church convened to its
solemnities under its splendid and almost celestial roofs amid
the finest monuments of art that human hands have raised, the
whole Christian population; for there, in the presence of God,
all were brethren. It shared equally among all its prayer,
its incense, and its music; its sacred instructions, and the
highest enjoyments that the arts could afford."
"You believe then in the efficacy of forms and ceremonies?"
"What you call forms and ceremonies represent the divinest
instincts of our nature.
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