Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 1).pdf/223

 wandered over of a Sunday morning before she had eaten of the tree of knowledge, she chanted: ‘O ye Sun and Moon O ye Stars  ye Green Things upon the Earth  ye Fowls of the Air  Beasts and Cattle  Children of Men  bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for ever!’

She suddenly stopped and murmured: ‘But perhaps I don’t quite know the Lord as yet.’

And probably the half-unconscious rhapsody was a Fetichistic utterance in a Monotheistic falsetto; women whose chief companions are the forms and forces of outdoor Nature retain in their souls far more of the Pagan fantasy of their remote forefathers than of the systematized religion taught their race at later date. However, Tess found at least approximate expression for her feelings in the old Benedicite that she had lisped from infancy; and it was enough. Such high contentment with such a slight and initial performance as that of having started towards a means of independent living was a part of the Durbeyfield temperament. Tess really wished to walk uprightly, while her father did nothing of the kind; but she resembled him in being con-