telegraph. It was not a growth of that age.

Milverton. I do not know. You have Cardinal Pole and the Earl of
Essex, both tolerant men in the midst of bigots.

Ellesmere. Well, as you said, Milverton, we shall never push off,
if we once get aground on this subject.

Dunsford. I am in fault: so I will take upon myself to bring you
quite away from the Reformation. I have been thinking of that
comparison in the essay of the present with the past. Such
comparisons seem to me very useful, as they best enable us to
understand our own times. And, then, when we have ascertained the
state and tendency of our own age, we ought to strive to enrich it
with those qualities which are complementary to its own. Now with
all this toleration, which delights you so much, dear Milverton, is
it not an age rather deficient in caring about great matters?

Milverton. If you mean great speculative matters, I might agree
with you; but if you mean what I should call the greatest matters,
such as charity, humanity, and the like, I should venture to differ
with you, Dunsford.

Dunsford. I do not like to see the world indifferent to great
speculative matters. I then fear shallowness and earthiness.

Milverton. It is very difficult to say what the world is thinking
of now. It is certainly wrong to suppose that this is a shallow age
because it is not driven by one impulse. As civilisation advances,
it becomes more difficult to estimate what is going on, and we set