Granting the necessity of pastimes and recreation for most persons,
specially the young, there opened the doubtful, because ever-
varying, question of the kind and the quantity to be promoted or
sanctioned, lest restraint should lead to reaction, and lest
abstinence should change from purity and spirituality to moroseness
or hypocrisy. And if Julius found one end of the scale represented
by his wife and his junior curate, his sister-in-law and his senior
curate were at the other. Yet the old recluse was far more inclined
to toleration than he had been in principle himself, though the spur
of the occasion had led him to relaxations towards others in the
individual cases brought before him, when he had thought opposition
would do more harm than the indulgence. His conscience had been
uneasy at this divergence, till he could discuss the subject.
The higher the aspiration of the soul, the less, of course, would be
the craving for diversion, the greater the shrinking from those evil
accompaniments that soon mar the most innocent delights. Some
spirits are austere in their purity, like Anne; some so fervent in
zeal, as to heed nothing by the way, like Mr.
Pages:
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300