Not that I look for arbitrary punishment or reward (the last least, certainly.

I would no more impute merit to the human than your Spurgeon would), but that I believe in a perpetual sequence, according to God's will, and in what has been called a 'correspondence' between the natural world and the spiritual.
Here I stop myself with a strong rein.

It is fatal, dear Mr.Ruskin, to write letters on New Year's day.

One can't help moralising; one falls on the metaphysical vein unaware.
Forgive me.
We are in Rome you see.

We have been very happy and found rooms swimming all day in sunshine, when there is any sun, and yet not ruinously dear.
I was able to go out on Christmas morning (a wonderful event for me) and hear the silver trumpets in St.Peter's.