rch or
temple as though it had presented itself to his mind in the same light
in which the City of London appeared to Blucher--as something to loot.
The other idea, that a priest was a person to hang, is one which is
also often observable in the British brain. On one occasion, when we
were endeavouring to enlighten our minds on the Greek question, as it
had presented itself to a naval officer whose vessel had been
stationed in Greek and Adriatic waters during our occupation of Corfu
and the other Ionian Isles, we could only elicit from our informant
the fact that one morning before breakfast he had hanged seventeen
priests."

The second passage which I store in these notes for future use, is the
supremely magnificent one, out of a book full of magnificence,--if truth
be counted as having in it the strength of deed: Alphonse Karr's "Grains
de Bon Sens." I cannot praise either this or his more recent
"Bourdonnements" to my own heart's content, simply because they are by a
man utterly after my own heart, who has been saying in France, this
many a year, what I also, this many a year, have been saying in England,
neither of us knowing of the other, and both of us vainly. (See pages 11
and 12 of "Bourdonnements.") The passage here given is the sixty-third
clause in "Grains de Bon Sens."

"Et tout cela, monsieur, vient de ce qu'il n'y a plus de croyances--de
ce qu'on ne croit plus a rien.

"Ah! saperlipopette, monsieur, vous me la baillez belle! Vous dites
qu'on ne croit plus a rien! Mais jamais, a aucune epoque, on n'a cru a
tant de billevesees, de bourdes, de mensonges, de sottises,
d'absurdites qu'aujourd'hui.

"D'abord, on _croit_ a l'incredulite--l'incredulite est une croyance,
une religion tres exigeante, qui a ses dogmes, sa liturgie, ses
pratiques, ses rites! ...son intolerance, ses superstitions. Nous
avons des incredules et des impies jesuites, et des incredules et des
impies jansenistes; des impies molinistes, et des impies quietistes;
des impies pratiquants, et non pratiquants; des impies indifferents et
des impies fanatiques; des incredules cagots et des impies hypocrites
et tartuffes.--La religion de l'incredulite ne se refuse meme pas le
luxe des heresies.

"On ne croit plus a la bible, je le veux bien, mais on _croit_ aux
'ecritures' des journaux, on croit au 'sacerdoce' des gazettes et
carres de papier, et a leurs 'oracles' quotidiens.

"On _croit_ au 'bapteme' de la police correctionnelle et de la Cou