t least, one of the greatest men in England--possibly
the greatest. As a controversialist, and I suppose by that you
mean on religious questions, he is certainly as good as his cause.
Few men can better defend the indefensible than Mr. Gladstone.
Few men can bring forward more probabilities in favor of the
impossible, then Mr. Gladstone. He is, in my judgment, controlled
in the realm of religion by sentiment; he was taught long ago
certain things as absolute truths and he has never questioned them.
He has had all he can do to defend them. It is of but little use
to attack sentiment with argument, or to attack argument with
sentiment. A question of sentiment can hardly be discussed; it is
like a question of taste. A man is enraptured with a landscape by
Corot; you cannot argue him out of his rapture; the sharper the
criticism the greater his admiration, because he feels that it is
incumbent upon him to defend the painter who has given him so much
real pleasure. Some people imagine that what they think ought to
exist must exist, and that what they really desire to be true is
true. We must remember that Mr. Gladstone has been what is called
a deeply religions man all his life. There was a time when he
really believed it to be the duty of the government to see to it
that the citizens were religious; when he really believed that no
man should hold any office or any position under the government
who was not a believer in the established religion; who was not a
defender of the parliamentary faith. I do not know whether he has
ever changed his opinions upon these subjects or not. There is
not the slightest doubt as to his honesty, as to his candor. He
says what he believes, and for his belief he gives the reasons that
are satisfactory to him. To me it seems impossible that miracles
can be defended. I do not see how it is possible to bring forward
any evidence that any miracle was ever performed; and unless miracles
have been performed, Christianity has no basis as a system. Mr.
Hume took the ground that it was impossible to substantiate a
miracle, for the reason that it is more probable that the witnesses
are mistaken, or are dishonest, than that a fact in nature should
be violated. For instance: A man says that a certain time, in a
certain locality, the attraction of gravitation was suspended; that
there were several moments during which a cannon ball weighed
nothing, during which when dropped from the hand, or