better read than
himself. He considered, too, that, if Willis had been at all shaken in
his new faith when he was abroad, it was by the practical
exemplification which he had before his eyes of the issue of its
peculiar doctrines when freely carried out. Moreover, to tell the truth,
our good friend had not a very clear apprehension how much doctrine he
held in common with the Church of Rome, or where he was to stop in the
several details of Pope Pius's Creed; in consequence, it was evidently
safer to confine his attack to matters of practice.

"You see, Willis," he said, as they sat down to table, "I have given you
abstinence food, not knowing whether you avail yourself of the
dispensation. We shall eat meat ourselves; but don't think we don't fast
at proper times; I don't agree with Campbell at all; we don't fast,
however, on Sunday. That is our rule, and, I take it, a primitive one."

Willis answered that he did not know how the primitive usage lay, but he
supposed that both of them allowed that matters of discipline might be
altered by the proper authority.

"Certainly," answered Bateman, "so that everything is done consistently
with the inspired text of Scripture;"--he stopped, itching, if he could,
to bring in some great subject, but not seeing how. He saw he must rush
_in medias res_; so he added,--"with which inspired text, I presume,
what one sees in foreign churches is not very consistent."

"What? I suppose you mean antependia, rere-dosses, stone altars, copes,
and mitres," said Willis innocently; "which certainly are not in
Scripture."

"True," said Bateman; "but these, though not in Scripture, are not
inconsistent with Scripture. They are all very right; but the worship of
Saints, especially the Blessed Virgin, and of relics, the gabbling over
prayers in an unknown tongue, Indulgences, and infrequent communions, I
suspect are directly unscriptural."

"My dear Bateman," said Willis, "you seem to live in an atmosphere of
controversy; so it was at Oxford; there was always argument going on in
your rooms. Religion is a thing to enjoy, not to quarrel about; give me
a slice more of that leg of mutton."

"Yes, Bateman," said Reding, "you must let us enjoy our meat. Willis
deserves it, for I believe he has had a fair walk to-day. Have you not
walked a good part of the way to Seaton and back? a matter of fourteen
miles, and hilly ground; it can't be dry, too, in parts yet."

"True," said Bateman; "take a gla