and we were left alone, Mr. Fellows,
turning to me, said, "You lay great stress on the origination of
such a character as Christ. But can we make its reality a literary
problem? May it not have been imaginary? As Mr. Newman says, Human
nature is often portrayed in superhuman dignity; Why not in
superhuman goodness?

"That the origination;" said I, "of such a Moral Ideal, in so
peculiar a form, by such men as Galilean Jews, is unaccountable
enough, I fancy all will admit; but it is, you observe, only one of
the numberless points which are unaccountable; neither do I make
this one feature, or any of the other singular characteristics of
the New Testament, merely a literary problem. The whole, you see,
is a vast literary, moral, intellectual, spiritual, and historical
problem. But it is too much the way with you objectors to say, 'This
may, perhaps, be got over,' and 'That may be got over'; the question
is, as Bishop Butler says, whether all can be got over; for if all
the arguments for it be not false, Christianity is true.

"You charge us with the very conduct," retorted Fellowes, "which Mr.
Newman objects to Christians. They, says he, affirm that this objection
is of little weight, and that is of little weight; whereas altogether
they amount to considerable weight."

"I admit it," said I; "and those are very unfair who deny it. But
still, since there are these things of weight on both sides, the
argument returns, on which side does the balance on the sum-total of
evidence lie?"

"But," said Fellowes, "how few are competent to compute that!"

"You are really pleasant, Mr. Fellowes," I replied; "I thought the
question we were arguing was as to the truth or the falsehood of
Christianity, not whether the bulk of mankind are fully competent to
form an independent and profound judgment on its evidences: very
few are competent to do so either on this or any other complex subject;
certainly not (as our differences show) on the subject of your
'spiritualism.' But the incompetency of the great bulk of mankind to
deal with complicated evidence makes a thing neither true nor false;
perhaps on this, as on so many other subjects, the few must thoroughly
sift the matter for the many. If your present objection were of force,
what would become of truth in politics, law, medicine, in all which
the great majority must trust much to the conclusions of their wiser
fellow-creatures? Your observation is no confutation of the evidences