Ancient Christianity, and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts

Ancient Christianity, and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts

Taylor, Isaac

Philadelphia: Hooker, 1840

Internet Archive

1840

George Eliot to Maria Lewis, 12 August 1840. "The Epistle to the Colossians is preeminently rich in the colouring with which it portrays the Divine fulness contained in the Saviour contrasted with the beggarly elements that a spirit of self-righteousness would in some way mingle with the light of life, the filthy rags it would tack round the "fine raiment" of His righteousness. I have been reading it in connexion with a train of thought suggested by the reading of "Ancient Christianity and the Oxford Tracts," by Isaac Taylor, one of the most eloquent, acute, and pious of writers. Five numbers only have yet appeared. Have you seen them? If not I should like to send you an abstract of his argument. I have gulped it (pardon my coarseness) in a most reptile-like fashion; I must chew it thoroughly to facilitate its assimilation with my mental frame. You will think me interminably loquacious, and still worse you will be ready to compare my scribbled sheet to the walls of an Egyptian tomb for mystery, and determine not to imitate certain wise antiquaries or antiquarian wiseacres who "waste their precious years, how soon to fail?" in deciphering information which has only the lichen and moss of age to make it more valuable than the facts graphically conveyed by an upholsterer's pattern book." GEL 1: 63-4.

Taylor, Isaac, Ancient Christianity, and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57684

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