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is its accident, and not its essential and that we could do away with the institution and yet retain the religion. In the same way, if we should sure find, what was formerly found in France, that the clergy were tyrannical, this would exact in us an opposition not to Christianity, but merely to the external form which Christianity assumed. So long as our clergy confine themselves to the beneficent duties of their calling, to the alleviation of pain and distress, either bodily or mental, so long will we respect them as the ministers of peace and charity. But if they should ever again entrench on the rights of the laity, -if they should ever again interfere with an authoritative voice in the government of the state,-it will then be for the people to enquire, whether the time has not come to effect a revision of the ecclesiastical constitution of the country. This, therefore, is the manner in which we now view these things. What we think of the clergy will depend upon themselves; but will have no connection with what we think of Christianity. We look on the clergy as a body of men who, not withstanding their disposition to intolerance, and not withstanding a certain narrowness incidental to their  profession, do undoubtedly form a part of a vast and noble institution, by which the manners of men have been softened, their sufferings assuaged, their distress relieved. As long as this institution performs it functions, we are well content to let it stand. If, however, it should be out of repair, or if it should be found inadequate to the shifting circumstances of our advancing society, we retain both the power and the right of remedying its faults; we may if need be remove some of its parts; but we should not, we dare not, tamper with those great religious truths which are altogether independent of it; truths which comfort the mind of man, raise him above the instincts of the hour and infuse into him those lofty aspirations which, revealing to him his own immortality, are the measure and the symptom of a future life.

"Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore;
Per che si fa gentil ciò ch'ella mira;
Ov'ella passa, ogni uom ver lei si gira,
E cui saluta fa tremar lo core.

Sicchè, bassando il viso, tutto amore,
E d'ogni suo difetto sospira:
Fuggore dinanzi a lei Superbia ed Ira;
Aiutatemi, donne, a farle onore.

Ogni dolcezza, ogni pensiero umile
Nasce nel core a chi parlar la sento;
Ond'è beato chi prima la vide.

Quel ch'ella par quand'un poco sorride
Non si può dicer, nè tener a mente,
Sì è nuovo miracolo gentile."  Dante


[[margin note]]1st gent[[/margin note]]
Where lies the power, there let the blame lie too:

[[margin note]]2nd gent[[/margin note]]Nay, power is relative; you cannot fright the coming pest with border fortresses,Or catch your carp with subtle argument.
All force is twain in one; cause is not cause unless effect be then; and action's self must needs contain a passion. So command exists but with obedience.
  

Transcription Notes:
Not a poem: Middlemarch by George Eliot.