How we cite our quotes: Possession: A Romance. London: Vintage Books, 1991.
Quote #4
That there may be wandering spirits I grant you, earth-bubbles, exhalations, creatures of the air, who occasionally cross our usual currents of apprehension, proceeding on their own unseen errands. That agonised reminiscence of some kind in some mental form does inhere in some terrible places there is some evidence. There are indeed more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. (6.36)
There's nothing like a shout-out to Hamlet to help a guy prove his point. In this letter to Priscilla Penn Cropper, Mortimer Cropper's late great-grandmother, we catch our first glimpse of Randolph Henry Ash's distaste for the nineteenth century's growing fascination with spiritualism. Though he doesn't dismiss the possibility of communications from beyond the grave, he thinks of most spiritualist practices as showmanship and trickery.
Quote #5
You are to know too—or maybe you are not—how should I say this, to you with whom my acquaintance is so recent—and yet if not to you, to whom—and I have just written, one must keep truth, and this is so central a truth—you are to know then, after all, for I must take my courage in my hands—that your great poem Ragnarök was the occasion of quite the worst crisis in the life of my simple religious faith, that I have ever experienced, or hope to experience. (10.7)
Early on in their correspondence, Christabel LaMotte confesses to Randolph Henry Ash that his epic poem Ragnarök produced a religious crisis in her life. This admission marks the beginning of their intimate exchange of ideas about God, Christianity, and life after death.
Quote #6
Ragnarök was written in all honesty in the days when I did not myself question Biblical certainties—or the faith handed down by my fathers and theirs before them. It was read differently by some—the lady who was to become my wife was included in these readers—and I was at the time startled and surprised that my Poem should have been construed as any kind of infidelity—for I meant it rather as a reassertion of the Universal Truth of the living presence of Allfather (under whatever Name) and of the hope of Resurrection from whatever whelming disaster in whatever form. (10.22)
As Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte continue to correspond, we readers begin to get a deeper sense of Randolph's own religious doubt. As he says here, he started out by trusting the faith of his fathers. That began to change as he grew older and continued to read, reflect, and write.