There is a
consciousness, not perhaps expressed or even actually realised, of
condescension, of gratification at one from so different a sphere
coming among us, sharing our problems, offering us, however
unobtrusively, sympathy and fellow-feeling. It's very human, very
human," said the Vicar, "and that's a large word! But among all the
blessings which I say you have brought us, of course my dear girl's
happiness must come first in my regard; and there I hardly know how
to express what a marvellous difference you have made! And then I
feel that I, too, have come in for some crumbs from the feast, like
the dogs under the table mentioned so eloquently in Scripture--
sustenance unregarded and unvalued, no doubt, by yourself--cast out
inevitably and naturally as light from the sun! It is not only the
actual dicta," said the Vicar, "though these alone are deeply
treasured; it's the method of thought, the reserve, the refinement,
which I find insensibly affecting my own mental processes. Before I
was a mere collector of details. Now I find myself saying, 'What is
the aim of all this? What is the synthesis? Where does it come in?
Where does it tend to?' I have not as yet found any very definite
answer to these self-questionings, but the new spirit, the
synthetic spirit, is there; and I find myself too concentrating my
expression; I have become conscious in your presence of a certain
diffuseness of talk--I used, I think, to indulge much in synonyms
and parallel clauses--a characteristic, I have seen it said, of our
immortal Shakespeare himself--but I have found myself lately
considering the aim, the effect, the form of my utterances, and
have practised--mainly in my sermons--a certain economy of
language, which I hope has been perceptible to other minds besides
my own.
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