The Life and Works of George Eliot, Vol. 5 Scenes of Clerical Life, And, Jane's Repentance (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Life and Works of George Eliot, Vol. 5: Scenes of Clerical Life, And, Jane's Repentance Immense improvement! Says the well-regu lated mind, which unintermittingly re J oices in the New Police, the Tithe Commutation Act, the penny-post, and all guarantees of human advancement, and has no moments when con servative-reforming intellect takes a nap, while imagination does a little Toryism by the sly, revelling in regret that dear, old, brown, crum bling, picturesque inefficiency is everywhere giving place to spick-and-span, new-painted, new-varnished efficiency, which will yield endless diagrams, plans, elevations, and sections, but, alas! No picture. Mine, I_ fear, is not a well regulated mind. It has an occasional tenderness for old abuses it lingers with a certain fondness over the days of nasal clerks and top -booted parsons, and has a sigh for the departed shades of vulgar errors. So it is not surprising that I recall with a fond sadness Shepperton Church as it was in the old days, with its outer coat of rough stucco, its red-tiled roof, its heterogeneous windows patched with desultory bits of painted glass, and its little flight of steps with their wooden rail running up the outer wall, and lead ing to the schoolchildren's gallery. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.