It looked as if Nature no longer contained the breed of nobler bloods, but stood on her last toes.
They believed in the progress of the race and the triumph of the nobler elements.
In many cases the apparent cause may be of a nobler character, but historians have seldom been content to accept the allegations of those who have claimed to carry on war from disinterested motives.
At York he renewed Paulinus's old church, roofing it with lead and furnishing it with glass windows; at Ripon he built an entirely new basilica with columns and porches; at Hexham in honour of St Andrew he reared a still nobler church, over which Eddius grows eloquent.
Side by side with this public life, which wearied her with its shadowy power, occasionally crossed by a desire to be recognised as queen, she passed a nobler and sweeter private existence as the foundress of St Cyr.