k a General Council
infallible, _when_, but not _before_, the Pope has ratified it;
Bellarmine, I think, gives a list of General Councils which have erred.
And I never have been able to make out the Romish doctrine of
Indulgences."

Charles thought over this; then he said, "Perhaps the case is as you
say, that I ought to know the matter of fact more exactly before
attempting to form a judgment on the subject; but, my dear Carlton, I
protest to you, and you may think with what distress I say it, that if
the Church of Rome is as ambiguous as our own Church, I shall be in the
way to become a sceptic, on the very ground that I shall have no
competent authority to tell me what to believe. The Ethiopian said, 'How
can I know, unless some man do teach me?' and St. Paul says, 'Faith
cometh by hearing.' If no one claims my faith, how can I exercise it? At
least I shall run the risk of becoming a Latitudinarian; for if I go by
Scripture only, certainly there is no creed given us in Scripture."

"Our business," said Carlton, "is to make the best of things, not the
worst. Do keep this in mind; be on your guard against a strained and
morbid view of things. Be cheerful, be natural, and all will be easy."

"You are always kind and considerate," said Charles; "but, after all--I
wish I could make you see it--you have not a word to say by way of
meeting my original difficulty of subscription. How am I to leap over
the wall? It's nothing to the purpose that other communions have their
walls also."

They now neared home, and concluded their walk in silence, each being
fully occupied with the thoughts which the conversation had suggested.

CHAPTER IX.

The Vacation passed away silently and happily. Day succeeded day in
quiet routine employments, bringing insensible but sure accessions to
the stock of knowledge and to the intellectual proficiency of both our
students. Historians and orators were read for a last time, and laid
aside; sciences were digested; commentaries were run through; and
analyses and abstracts completed. It was emphatically a silent toil.
While others might be steaming from London to Bombay or the Havannah,
and months in the retrospect might look like years, with Reding and
Sheffield the week had scarcely begun when it was found to be ending;
and when October came, and they saw their Oxford friends again, at first
they thought they had a good deal to say to them, but when they tried,
they found it did but c