hopes, and thus concludes:

'When, too, shall I not feel the soothing recollection of those dear
years which I spent in retirement, in preparation for my deliverance
from Egypt, asking for light, and by degrees getting it, with less of
temptation in my heart and sin on my conscience than ever before?'

But the passage is sad as well as exquisite, showing to us, as it
does, one who from his earliest days has rejoiced in a faith in God,
intense, unwavering, constant; harassed by distressing doubts, he
carries them all, in the devotion of his faith, the warmth of his
heart, and the purity of his life, to the throne where Truth sits in
state; living, he tells us, in retirement, and spending great portions
of every day on his knees; and yet--we ask the question with all
reverence--what did Dr. Newman get in exchange for his prayers?

'I think it impossible to withstand the evidence which is brought for
the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples, or for the
motion of the eyes of the pictures of the Madonna in the Roman States.
I see no reason to doubt the material of the Lombard Cross at Monza,
and I do not see why the Holy Coat at Treves may not have been what it
professes to be. I firmly believe that portions of the True Cross are
at Rome and elsewhere, that the Crib of Bethlehem is at Rome, and the
bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul; also I firmly believe that the
relics of the Saints are doing innumerable miracles and graces daily.
I firmly believe that before now Saints have raised the dead to life,
crossed the seas without vessels, multiplied grain and bread, cured
incurable diseases, and stopped the operations of the laws of the
universe in a multitude of ways.'