not obliged to
blindly obey, if moreover, this obedience accord with my sentiments?"

"St! st!" exclaimed the little girl playfully, and the dog ran barking
towards the door, and could only be silenced by his master's whistling
to him. "Is it not true," said Eveline, "that Hector is entirely of the
true faith, for he might be so easily set upon the Camisards?"

"Silly child!" exclaimed Edmond reddening with anger, the father shook
his head at her, but she continued: "Edmond said even now that he would
give his heart to Hector to eat, therefore I may well consider him a
very peculiar sort of dog." "Come Hector, they always do us injustice;"
thus saying, she took the dog by the collar and both went into the
garden.

"I understand you not, my father," commenced Edmond after a pause, "you
are religious, you visit the church with devotion, I must consider you
attached to it, however often a suspicion to the contrary may occur to
me, and yet can you contemplate it with composure, that destruction
threatens this our church, and does she not in the most gracious manner
fulfil all the desires and yearnings of our hearts? I feel ever
incensed, when many priests urge so strenuously the necessity of good
works, virtue and morality; Heathens can teach us that, and our very
reason exacts it from us; however much these must be respected, it is
the progressive development and formation of the miraculous that I
perceive in history which always so powerfully affect my heart. In the
distance lies the first miracle dark and indistinct; but veiled
entirely in love. The gift of prophecy was not withdrawn after the
apostles; saints and martyrs followed in the steps of the departed, and
fulfilled that which the former predicted, the mystery of love is
interminable, and can only be explained by a new mystery. That the
explanation of the holy sacrament should be sanctioned by decrees of
the church, disturbs me not, while to the worldly only it appears a
mere temporal event; for in the insignificant germ lie already
concealed the blossom and sweetness of the fruit, which become ripe
only by that which we call time. Thus it happened that at a later
period the forebodings of the soul were fulfilled, and she, who had
given birth to the Saviour was worshipped as heavenly; festivals were
celebrated in her honour. Thus the prophetic song from the mouth of one
prophet descends through all ages, and is never silent, even to
futurity. Festival follows