Page:Heroines of freethought (IA cu31924031228699).pdf/332

324 or have a passionate belief in the solidarity of mankind.”

‘His belief in these moments of dread was, that if he spontaneously did something right, God would save him from the consequences of wrongdoing. For religion can only change when the emotions which fill it are changed, and the religion of personal fear remains nearly at the level of the savage.”

...“Does any one suppose that private prayer is necessarily candid—necessarily goes to the roots of actions? Private prayer is inaudible speech, and speech is representative. Who can represent himself just as he is, even in his own reflections.”

One of George Eliot’s critics has said that “her nature is decidedly religious,” and I am inclined to agree with him in this opinion. But the religion of a nature like hers is not the religion which is usually understood by that word —it is the higher, broader, profounder “religion of humanity”; which cares nothing for sects, or