Was Egremont about to preach a pietistic revival?
'I have very few acquaintances,' he answered, 'but I know that religion has no hold upon intelligent working men in London.' 'That is the admission I wanted.

For good or for evil, it has passed; no one will ever restore it.

And yet it is a religious spirit that we must seek to revive.

Dogma will no longer help us.

Pure love of moral and intellectual beauty must take its place.' Gilbert smiled at a thought which came to him.
'The working man's Bible,' he said, 'is his Sunday newspaper.' 'And what does he get out of it?
The newspaper is the very voice of all that is worst in our civilisation.