To become alive to our danger is the one way to escape from it.

But the danger is at present felt rather than known.

The class of men we are considering are conscious, as Mr.Matthew Arnold says, '_of a void that mines the breast_;' but each thinks that this is a fancy only, and hardly dares communicate it to his fellows.
Here and there, however, by accident, it is already finding unintended expression; and signs come to the surface of the vague distrust and misgiving that are working under it.

The form it takes amongst the general masses that are affected by it is, as might be expected, practical rather than analytical.

They are conscious of the loss that the loss of faith is to them; and more or less coherently they long for its recovery.