which trembled
violently, held it with such a grip that there was no getting
possession of it. With difficulty Grail perceived that it was a
religious tract.

'Why, there's no great harm done,' he said. 'The children can't read,
can they?'

'Jack can! The boy can! I'm teaching him myself.'

He raved. The sight of that propagandist document affected him, to use
the old simile, as scarlet does a bull. Gilbert knew the man's
prejudices, but, in his own more cultured mind, could not have
conceived such frenzy of hatred as this piece of Christian doctrine
excited in Bunce. For five minutes the poor fellow was possessed; sweat
covered his face; he was shaken as if by bodily anguish. He read scraps
aloud, commenting on them with scornful violence. Last of all he flung
the paper to the ground and trampled it into shreds. Gilbert had at
first difficulty in refraining from laughter; then he sat down and
waited with some impatience for the storm to spend itself.

'Come, come, Bunce,' he said, when he could make himself heard,
'remember Mr. Egremont's lecture on those things. I think pretty much
as you do about Christianity--about the dogmas, that is; but we've no
need to fear it in this way. Let's take what good there is in it, and
have nothing to do with the foolish parts.'

Bunce seated himself, exhausted. Not a few among the intelligent
artisans of our time are filled with that spirit of hatred against all
things Christian; in him it had become a mania. Egremont's eirenicon
had been a hard saying to him; he had tried to think it over, because
of his respect for the teacher, but as yet it had resulted in no
sobering. His mind was not sufficiently prepared for lessons of wisdom;
had Egremont witnessed this scene, he might well have groaned in spirit
over the ineffectualness of his prophesying.

Gilbert spoke with earnestness. To him his friend's teaching had come
as true and refreshing, and he could not lose such an opportunity as
this of pushing on the work. He insisted on the beauty there was in the
Christian legend, on its profound spiritual significance, on the
poverty of all religious schemes which man had devised to replace it.

'We want no religion!' cried Bunce angrily. 'It's been the curse of the
world. Look at the Inquisition! Look at the religious wars! Look at the
Jesuits!'

He was primed with such historic instances out of books and pamphlets
spread broadcast by the contemporary apostles of 'free thought.'