ticism. How many worthy, noble, truly inspired, loving minds have I also known among the Huguenots and how many harsh and pitiless ones in my own church. It is now indeed a woeful time in our country, and moreover, we see as yet no end to the misery."
Edmond had recovered from his surprise and embarrassment, and said: "Is it though right, to remain thus indifferent and irresolute as you appear to me to be? Yet, perhaps, at a later period of life I shall also feel thus, for my father, to my sorrow, spoke almost as you do."
"You do not know me yet," answered the priest, "and I may well assert, without pretention, that sentence ought not to be pronounced so hastily and so readily on a man, who has had such experience of himself and of the world, who has reflected and really lived. In religious affairs particularly, my brain whirls in agony, when I see how so many place the whole tenor of a profound mystery in a book, an expression, a phrase, or even a syllable, and weigh the
