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possibly some readers may think that the passages I have chosen from the "Imitation" do not fairly represent its general spirit. Well, let such readers judge for themselves. It will be an easy and profitable task for them to go carefully through the two books, comparing them for themselves. For myself I will say, whatever risks I may thereby run of being accused of undue partiality, or want of critical insight, that I believe the comparison will nowhere be found disadvantageous to Traherne, while it will be in many points much in his favour. I could easily prove this by quoting other parallel passages : but I will not further pursue the subject. I can well imagine that some readers, to whom the "Imitation" has been endeared by long use, and who have derived much spiritual benefit from it, will not be pleased at the manner in which I have spoken of it : but I hope they will not on that account, refuse to make themselves acquainted with Traherne's "Meditations," since it is not he who is responsible for what is said herein.

Of Traherne's theological opinions, and of the sound- ness or otherwise of his teaching, I must, as I have intimated, leave others to speak. My own interest is rather in the man himself than in his beliefs. The latter he shared with many dull and uninspired theologians of his time, though with the difference that his was a living and burning faith while theirs was a matter of custom and convention. It is hardly possible that any one can now believe in the Christian faith (as it was then understood) as Traherne and his contemporaries believed in it. But this, I think, matters not, or matters

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