Moreover,
and this is very characteristic, he had copied out for her
use a little volume of his own devotional letters to other
women.
(1) Works, vi. 532.
This is the end of the roll, unless we add to it Mrs.
Adamson, who had delighted much in his company "by reason
that she had a troubled conscience," and whose deathbed is
commemorated at some length in the pages of his history. (1)
(1) Works, i. 246.
And now, looking back, it cannot be said that Knox's
intercourse with women was quite of the highest sort. It is
characteristic that we find him more alarmed for his own
reputation than for the reputation of the women with whom he
was familiar. There was a fatal preponderance of self in all
his intimacies: many women came to learn from him, but he
never condescended to become a learner in his turn. And so
there is not anything idyllic in these intimacies of his; and
they were never so renovating to his spirit as they might
have been. But I believe they were good enough for the
women. I fancy the women knew what they were about when so
many of them followed after Knox. It is not simply because a
man is always fully persuaded that he knows the right from
the wrong and sees his way plainly through the maze of life,
great qualities as these are, that people will love and
follow him, and write him letters full of their "earnest
desire for him" when he is absent.
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