'[from Mary Arnold, later Ward's diary] "Read Uncle Matt's [Matthew Arnold's] Essay on Pagan and Medieval Religious Sentiment. Compares the religious feeling of Pompei and Theocritus with the religious feeling of St Francis and the German Reformation. Contrasts the religion of sorrow as he is pleased to call Christianity with the religion of sense, giving to the former for the sake of propriety a slight pre-eminence over the latter". She does not like the famous "Preface" at all. "The 'Preface' is rich and has the fault which the author professes to avoid, that of being amusing. as for the seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight charms and Romeo and Juliet character, I think Uncle Matt is slightly inclined to ride the high horse whenever he approaches the subject".'