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160 our contemplation in books and in life. Have I, then, any time to spend on things that never existed?"

She wrote a religious poem (not, in our judgment, a good one), in which, when bidding farewell to the things of earth, she implies an expectation that she will take the Bible (apostrophised as "blest volume!") to heaven with her – a sentiment objected to by the editor of the 'Christian Observer,' in which the stanzas appeared, because, he said, there would be no need of a Bible there. A more prosaic but still devout occupation was the construction of a chart of ecclesiastical history, which she only gave up on finding her plan forestalled. Nevertheless, while still apparently imbued with the faith she had held so firmly and almost aggressively from childhood, it is certain that she had already passed from the receptive to the critical stage of religion, and that her analytical faculty was already at work on the influences which had so controlled her conduct and daily life, for she was reading controversial works, and was much exercised about "the nature of the visible Church." The change of opinion which was impending, and perhaps in any case inevitable, was hastened by an important event which now took place in her life. Her brother married, and it had been agreed that he should occupy Griff, while his father and sister removed to a house near Coventry. Here she found next-door neighbours who, besides being cultivated people, were philosophical sceptics, and who did something more with their views than merely to entertain them. Mr Bray, an ardent phrenologist, had written on 'The Philosophy of Necessity,' and had married a sister of Mr Hennell, who had just published 'An Inquiry concerning the Origin of Christianity,' which had been translated into German, with a preface written by Strauss. Miss Evans was at first invited to their house as a person whose ability and fervent religious views might be useful in bringing back Mr Bray to the fold of the Church. Although, after her arrival at the new house, she wrote to her friend Miss Lewis in the former religious strain, yet her views of the subject must have been already shifting, for a complete change in them presently took place.

"It will be seen," says the biographer, "from subsequent letters, how greatly Miss Evans was interested in this book [Mr Hennell's] – how much she admired it; and the reading of it, combined with the association with her new friends – with the philosophical speculations of Mr Bray, and with Mrs Bray's sympathy in her brother's critical and sceptical standpoint – no doubt hastened the change in her attitude towards the dogmas of the old religion."

She seems to have made the acquaintance of these neighbours just ten days before the date of a letter to Miss Lewis, in which she says: –

"My whole soul has been engrossed in the most interesting of all inquiries for the last few days, and to what result my thoughts may lead I know not – possibly to one that will startle you; but my only desire is to know the truth, my only fear to cling to error. I venture to say our love will not decompose under the influence of separation, unless you excommunicate me for differing from you in opinion."

A month later, the intended reclaimer of the stray sheep, Mr Bray, "was so uneasy in an equivocal position that she determined to give up going to church." This nearly led to a rupture with her father, who talked