His mind, too,
was essentially plain. He was perfect in his loyalty to duty; he
was, as we have seen, very good in business matters, had a clear
head, and could give shrewd advice upon any solid, matter-of-fact
difficulty, but the spiritual world was non-existent for him. He
attended chapel regularly, for he was a Dissenter, but his reasons
for going, so far as he had any, were very simple. There was a
great God in heaven, against whom he had sinned and was perpetually
sinning. To save himself from the consequences of his
transgressions certain means were provided and he was bound to use
them. On Monday morning chapel and all thoughts connected with it
entirely disappeared, but he said his prayers twice a day with great
regularity. There are very few, however, of God's creatures to whom
the supernatural does not in some way present itself, and no man
lives by bread alone. To Tom, Catharine was miracle, soul,
inspiration, religion, enthusiasm, patriotism, immortality, the
fact, essentially identical, whatever we like to call it, which is
not bread and yet is life. He never dared to say anything to her.
He felt that she lived in a world beyond him, and he did not know
what kind of a world it was. He knew that she thought about things
which were strange to him, and that she was anxious upon subjects
which never troubled him. She was often greatly depressed when
there was no cause for depression so far as he could see, and he
could not comprehend why a person should be ill when there was
nothing the matter.
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