This result was most satisfactory to all the best elements in the country, and great hopes were entertained that the 1909.
In bringing about this " fall," however, Parsons the Jesuit appears to have had a considerable share; at least Lord Sheffield has recorded that on the only occasion on which Gibbon talked with him on the subject he imputed the change in his religious views principally to that vigorous writer, who, in his opinion, had urged all the best arguments in favour of Roman Catholicism.
Pavilliard's description of the " thin little figure, with a large head, disputing and arguing, with the greatest ability, all the best arguments that had ever been used in favour of popery."
It contains all the best land in Berar; it is full of deep, rich, black alluvial soil, of almost inexhaustible fertility, and it undulates sufficiently to maintain a natural system of drainage, but there is nothing picturesque about this broad strip of champaign country.
Nearly all the best writers are characterized by a certain naive and earnest piety which is attractive, and not infrequently display a force of moral indignation which arrests attention.
