ritual meditation, he
could not be more devoted to the things of earth if he had married as
many wives as Solomon, and had as many children as Priam. Finally, have
not half the mistakes in the world arisen from a separation between the
spiritual and the moral nature of man? Is it not, after all, through his
dealings with his fellow-men that man makes his safest 'approach to the
angels'? And is not the moral system a very muscular system? Does it not
require for healthful vigour plenty of continued exercise, and does it
not get that exercise naturally by the relationships of family, with
all the wider collateral struggles with life which the care of family
necessitates?

"I put these questions to you with the humblest diffidence. I expect to
hear such answers as will thoroughly convince my reason, and I shall be
delighted if so. For at the root of the controversy lies the passion of
love. And love must be a very disquieting, troublesome emotion, and has
led many heroes and sages into wonderful weaknesses and follies."

"Gently, gently, Mr. Chillingly; don't exaggerate. Love, no doubt,
is--ahem--a disquieting passion. Still, every emotion that changes life
from a stagnant pool into the freshness and play of a running stream is
disquieting to the pool. Not only love and its fellow-passions, such as
ambition, but the exercise of the reasoning faculty, which is always at
work in changing our ideas, is very disquieting. Love, Mr. Chillingly,
has its good side as well as its bad. Pass the bottle."

KENELM (passing the bottle).--"Yes, yes; you are quite right in
putting the adversary's case strongly, before you demolish it: all good
rhetoricians do that. Pardon me if I am up to that trick in argument.
Assume that I know all that can be said in favour of the abnegation of
common-sense, euphoniously called 'love,' and proceed to the demolition
of the case."

THE REV. DECIMUS ROACH (hesitatingly).--"The demolition of the case?
humph! The passions are ingrafted in the human system as part and parcel
of it, and are not to be demolished so easily as you seem to think.
Love, taken rationally and morally by a man of good education and sound
principles, is--is--"

KENELM.--"Well, is what?"

THE REV. DECIMUS ROACH.--"A--a--a--thing not to be despised. Like the
sun, it is the great colourist of life, Mr. Chillingly. And you are so
right: the moral system does require daily exercise. What can give that
exercise to a solitary man, wh