Egremont's point of view was, strictly, the aesthetic; he aimed at replacing religious enthusiasm, as commonly understood, by aesthetic.

The loveliness of the Christian legend--from that he started.

He dealt with the New Testament very much as he had formerly dealt with the Elizabethan poets.

He would have no appeal to the vulgar by aggressive rationalists.

Let rationalism filter down in the course of time; the vulgar were not prepared for it as yet.
It was bad that they should be superstitious, but worse, far worse, that they should be brutally irreverent, and brutal irreverence inevitably came of atheism preached at the street corner.