ble people can tolerate. Strictly speaking, there is only one
place, one time, one action, and one individual or thing; of this thing
or individual each one of us is a part. It is perplexing, but it is
philosophy; and modern philosophy, like modern music, is nothing if it is
not perplexing.

A simple verification of the autumnal character of rhubarb may, at first
sight, appear to be found in Covent Garden Market, where we can actually
see the rhubarb towards the end of October. But this way of looking at
the matter argues a fatal ineptitude for the pursuit of true philosophy.
It would be "the most serious error" to regard the rhubarb that will
appear in Covent Garden Market next October as belonging to the autumn
then supposed to be current. Practically, no doubt, it does so, but
theoretically it must be considered as the first-fruits of the autumn (if
any) of the following year, which begins before the preceding summer (or,
perhaps, more strictly, the preceding summer but one--and hence, but any
number), has well ended. Whether this, however, is so or no, the rhubarb
can be seen in Covent Garden, and I am afraid it must be admitted that to
the philosophically minded there lurks within it a theory of evolution,
and even Pantheism, as surely as Theism was lurking in Bishop Berkeley's
tar-water.

To return, however, to Calonico. The _curato_ was very kind to me. We
had long talks together. I could see it pained him that I was not a
Catholic. He could never quite get over this, but he was very good and
tolerant. He was anxious to be assured that I was not one of those
English who went about distributing tracts, and trying to convert people.
This of course was the last thing I should have wished to do; and when I
told him so, he viewed me with sorrow but henceforth without alarm.

All the time I was with him I felt how much I wished I could be a
Catholic in Catholic countries, and a Protestant in Protestant ones.
Surely there are some things which like politics are too serious to be
taken quite seriously. _Surtout point de zele_ is not the saying of a
cynic, but the conclusion of a sensible man; and the more deep our
feeling is about any matter, the more occasion have we to be on our guard
against _zele_ in this particular respect. There is but one step from
the "earnest" to the "intense." When St. Paul told us to be all things
to all men he let in the thin end of the wedge, nor did he mark it to say
how far