Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ...Evalina flew to her with a cry of self-reproach for her abruptness, hesitated, and then retreated a step or two and stood regarding her with an awe-stricken gaze. Beatrice was in the habit of repeating daily the prescribed formulas of praise and supplication, --perfunctorily for the most part, but with occasional flashes of mental questioning as to the real purpose and efficacy of it all. She was familiar with the Christian doctrines as they are usually set forth in quiet country places, by quiet country priests, where habit takes the place of belief, and where the majestic church service, mumbled Sunday after Sunday by a drowsy congregation, becomes as commonplace as any of the marvellous, steadily recurring phenomena of Nature. It was her impression, or theory, --if a child's vague, incoherent ideas may be construed as a theory, --that Christianity was one of society's most elaborate and august conventionalities, too splendid and remote for practical application to every-day life; to be taken au grand serieux in a way, but not positively believed in, any more than the geometrical birds and trees stitched into our grandmothers' samplers. The Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer were a kind of moral sampler, patterns of the thought and conduct and culture of by-gone generations. She had, however, a very real reverence for sacred emblems and for customs consecrated by the faith and practice of the long Past, --due, perhaps, to Evalina's gentle but decided influence. Life--the life of the world--was becoming more practical and more artistic and more vitally religious. It was past the seed-time, and in the blossom. Squares of neatly embroidered canvas were not needed as vouchers for young ladies' skill in needle-work. Their tast
