which I am anxious to have solved for me. I beg your pardon; I know, what you are going to say. There are plenty of books upon the subject, of course, but I have neither time nor attention for the study of them. There are, also, many learned men, who could enlighten me, but it so happens that I am by no means desirous of losing my fair fame, and perhaps my heart also, by closeting myself with them. No, no; you need not appeal again to Conny. It was she herself who told me that you should prove to me how the self-same person can be a sensible and a sincere Roman Catholic. This demonstration you are now to afford forthwith, as it was for no other purpose, than fully to arouse the Popish spirit within you, that I lent you your new Cardinal's appeal, which, by-thebye, I have not yet had time to read. Come, tell us at once, do you believe in the blinking Virgin or not? You know that I am sure to carry my point in the end."

"I know it, indeed, my dear Lady Templedale," answered Cécile, smiling despite her unfeigned anxiety ; "but I have already replied, that I really have no opinion on the subject."

Nonsense, child; you must have some standard by which to test these questions."

"May I first ask, Lady Templedale, what

"Certainly not; you will have quite enough to do, I can tell you, to vindicate your own little idolatrous self, without attempting to perplex others. Come, what is your standard, respecting the credibility of miracles?"

"The decision of the Church in each special

"So that if the Pope were to declare that the eyes winked, you would believe that they did wink?"

"And you say, Conny, that we are not to call that superstition?"

"I say nothing, dear Lady Templedale," replied the afore-named little personage, somewhat perplexed.

Superstition!" resumed Cécile, pensively; "will you define that term, at least, Lady Templedale ?"

"No; but you may.”

"If I say that it is the belief in what may not be proved to our own senses by their natural and customary evidences, will that do ?"

"I suppose the definition may pass, for want of a better."

"Well then, Lady Templedale, should not we all, who are not absolute and professed rationalists, be careful how we invidiously apply the term to our neighbours' faith? You reverently adhere to a religion which has its mysteries, as obscure, as supernatural as our own; you reject, as absolutely as we do, the test of human and individual reason; you are assailed, as bitterly as we are, by its votaries. Can you show too much indulgence to a principle which is the very groundwork of your belief, as of ours?"

"Take care, my dear, take care," observed Lady Templedale. "Remember that we have

forsworn, as unworthy of reverence, those very points which we have regarded as unduly and immoderately taxing the credulity of the laity."

Which you, as a sect, have considered as such, dear Lady Templedale; but how will you preserve those very articles of faith which you

still uphold from a precisely similar doom at the hands of others? Looking merely to the doctrines which we as yet profess in commonthe fearful penalty entailed, by the disobedience of one, upon unborn generations, the Triple Nature of the Godhead, the whole mystery of Redemption, nay, even the belief in Divine Revelation itself-are they not also daily and hourly rejected, by countless sects, as taxing overmuch the credulity of the vulgar? Would you kindly lend me for a moment the book which I was reading just now? the very passage that I had under my eyes, when you entered, will partly bear me out in what I am stating.”

"Your book, my dear? here it is. Gracious Heaven! it is the 'Emile' of Rousseau! Are you allowed to read such works as these?"

"I am, Lady Templedale."

"That is very strange.”

"Not so strange as you may think.

Had it

been my fate to live in some of those neighbouring lands, where my faith would be that of all who have one, and assailed by infidelity alone, how content should I have been meekly to have joined in the universal worship and reverence, without attempting to reconcile my

M

reason to its to its appointed subjection. It is

otherwise here. When all that I and the Catholic World hold to be most sacred is constantly derided and reviled by the greatest, the most respected, the most devout, I could not have felt what I feel, and have remained all-unconscious and all-impassive. I was driven, in mere self-defence, to inquire, to study, to judge more far more than is usual at my age or in my creed. It has been an evil, no doubt, but I trust the lesser in the choice."

is

"I hope that it may prove so, my dear; here your book."

66

'I was saying," resumed Cécile, "that the fundamental doctrine of all religion, that of Divine Revelation, is rejected too often by the very principle and in the very terms which you have applied to what you deem to be my credulity. See how that doctrine is discussed here:

66 6

Apôtres de la vérité, qu'avez-vous donc à me dire dont je ne reste pas le juge? Dieu lui-même a parlé: écoutez sa révélation. C'est autre chose. Dieu a parlé. Voilà certes un grand mot. Et à qui a-t-il parlé? Il a parlé aux hommes. Pourquoi donc n'en ai-je rien.