harge? It would be a fair trial of your faith in him;
and if he were able in the event satisfactorily to rebut it, I don't
think he would thank you, should you have waited for his explanation
before you took his part, instead of knowing him too well to suspect it.
If, then, I come to the Church with faith in her, whatever I see there,
even if it surprises me, is but a trial of my faith."

"That is true," said Charles; "but there must be some ground for faith;
we do not believe without reason; and the question is, whether what the
Church does, as in worship, is not a fair matter to form a judgment
upon, for or against."

"A Catholic," said Willis, "as I was when I was abroad, has already
found his grounds, for he believes; but for one who has not--I mean a
Protestant--I certainly consider it is very uncertain whether he will
take _the_ view of Catholic worship which he ought to take. It may
easily happen that he will not understand it."

"Yet persons have before now been converted by the sight of Catholic
worship," said Reding.

"Certainly," answered Willis: "God works in a thousand ways; there is
much in Catholic worship to strike a Protestant, but there is much which
will perplex him; for instance, what Bateman has alluded to, our
devotion to the Blessed Virgin."

"Surely," said Bateman, "this is a plain matter; it is quite impossible
that the worship paid by Roman Catholics to the Blessed Mary should not
interfere with the supreme adoration due to the Creator alone."

"This is just an instance in point," said Willis; "you see you are
judging _a priori_; you know nothing of the state of the case from
experience, but you say, 'It must be; it can't be otherwise.' This is
the way a Protestant judges, and comes to one conclusion; a Catholic,
who acts, and does not speculate, feels the truth of the contrary."

"Some things," said Bateman, "are so like axioms, as to supersede trial.
On the other hand, familiarity is very likely to hide from people the
real evil of certain practices."

"How strange it is," answered Willis, "that you don't perceive that this
is the very argument which various sects urge against you Anglicans! For
instance, the Unitarian says that the doctrine of the Atonement _must_
lead to our looking at the Father, not as a God of love, but of
vengeance only; and he calls the doctrine of eternal punishment immoral.
And so, the Wesleyan or Baptist declares that it is an absurdity to
suppose any one c