Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/336

 276 EARLY REMINISCENCES find in it an utter absence of the religious tone that sweetens and soothes in Tennyson's In Memoriam ; no reference in it is to Him Who is the Resurrection and the Life. Pattison's mind had turned sour over disappointments, like beer under thunder, and with equal inability to recover. He harboured grievances against every one, even against his father. His saintly sister Dora was an especial object of his dislike and contempt. Another visitor was Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop, first of Oxford, and then of Winchester. He was there one All Sa'nts' Eve, and in the Procession walked last with his chaplain. As the choir wound singing through the cloister it reached the ante-chapel, destined to be a beer-cellar eventually, and had to be descended into by two or three steps, and traversed, before the brilliantly illumined chapel was entered. The Bishop saw his occasion, and when he preached he likened the Church to a procession passing on from age to age, singing the praises of God, then all descended into the dark crypt of the grave, but—beyond was the glorious light of Paradise and the song of the Redeemed and the Presence of Christ. The Bishop was not averse from telling anecdotes against himself. I recall one he related at breakfast. He was walking abroad one day, when an urchin threw a stone that hit him in the back. The Bishop was sufficiently alert to catch the fellow, and holding him at arm's length administered a reprimand. " I didn't do it," said the boy sulkily. " Not do it ? I know that you did." " You didn't see me fling the stone." " No, I did not; but God saw you." " Hah ! Does God see everything that we do ? " " Yes, everything," said the Bishop solemnly. " Did He see what I was about last Saturday afternoon in mother's backyard ? " " Certainly He did." " Get along, you bloke," exclaimed the urchin, poking the Bishop in the ribs, " mother ain't got no backyard." The Bishop went out of i>is way to be gracious to every one, and to express himself in courteous and sympathetic terms, but next moment forgot with whom he had been in converse. This obtained