Page:Diary, reminiscences, and correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, Volume 1.djvu/26



xxii lays the foundations of all truth deeper than the external and visible world; if religious feeling lie in humble submission to the unknown Infinite Being, who produced all things, and in a deep sense of the duty of striving to act and live in conformity with the will of that Being; if, further, Christianity consist in acknowledging the Christian Scriptures as the exposition of the Divine will, and the guide of human conduct then, surely, he may boldly claim to be a member of that true Christian Catholic church, according to his own definition of it—'An association of men for the cultivation of knowledge, the practice of piety, and the promotion of virtue.'"

Mr. Robinson was an earnest thinker on the profoundest and most difficult religious subjects. This was especially the case in his old age. As we like to look up to the stars, though we may not be able to tell their magnitude or their distance, and to behold the majesty of the sea, though we may not be able to fathom its depths, so he seemed to be attracted to the great problems of religion, as if he liked to feel their infinitude, rather than hoped to find their solution. He stated as his experience, that "Religion in age supplies the animal spirits of youth." His old age had its pathetic side, as, indeed, every old age must have.

Those who, in his later years, met him in society, and saw how full of life he was, with what zest and animation he told his old stories, merely requiring, now and then, help as to a name or a date, may easily have imagined his strength greater than it really was.