2 August 1875 – 8 August 1875

C, the Dr. and I walk. C. : ' Michelet — very wise and truthful — a curious kind of historian — puts in a good deal of strulduddery.' Bradlaugh and Kenealy — Newman's ' Primitive Christianity ' (article in Fraser). ' I could not read it. I know Primitive Christianity was some sort of high and holy enthusiasm. I do not in the least believe that God came down upon earth and was a joiner and made chairs and hog-troughs ; or came down at any time more than He comes down now into the soul of every devout man. There is no use in saying anything more in the matter. Let it rest here.' A. — ' People are still busy with the old dogmas, and they still interfere with life, individual and social.' C. — ' I don't want to see Christianity falling all away to ruin — a bit faster than it is doing.' J. S. Mill on Religion — C. : * It is like the last mew of a drowning kitten ! people speak as if " Comfort " were the one thing ; as if Divine Providence had not intended a man to go through many things and learn much thereby, by labour and self-denial and mis- fortune and even misery — John Mill wasted away his soul.'