rant you most of the paradoxes you mention; but a sceptic
is not to be startled by paradoxes, I trow; alas! they prove nothing."

"Prove nothing! nay, I think you do your system injustice; I think it
is entitled to the distinction of making great discoveries. You confess
that the only truth on these subjects is, that there is no truth; that
to act on this truth necessitates a conduct opposed to nature, to
prudence, to happiness; that it is a knowledge worse than ignorance;
that it is a truth that is worse than error; that it never did, will,
or can be embraced by many, and that it makes the few who embrace it
miserable; you admit further, with me, that men generally believe as
they wish. Why, then, do you not fly from so hideous a monster, on
the very ground (only in this case it is stronger) on which you doubt
all religious systems,--that is, on account of the supposed paradoxes
they involve? It may be but a little argument with you, who seem to
demand demonstration of religious truth; but for myself, I feel that,
whatever be the truth, such a chimera as scepticism, bristling all
over with paradoxes, must be--a lie."

"Well," he replied, "but then which religion is the true?"

"Nay," I said, "that is an after consideration; if you can but be
brought to believe that any is true, I know you will believe but one."

"You touched just now," he replied, "on the very difficulty. I shall
believe as soon as any one gives me what you truly say I ask,--
demonstration of the truth of some one of the thousand and one religious
systems which men have believed."

"And that, demonstration," said I, "you cannot have; for God has not
granted demonstration to man on that or any other subject in which
duty is involved."

"But why might I not have had it? and should I not have had it, if it
had been incumbent on me to believe it?"

We had now come to the very knot of the whole argument.

"Incumbent on you to believe! I suppose you mean, if there had been
any system which you could not but believe; which you must believe
whether you would or not. No doubt, in that case, the requisite
evidence would have been such that scepticism would have been
impossible; that word 'incumbent' implies duty; and that word duty
is the key to the whole mystery, for it implies the possibility of
resisting its claims. We do not speak of its being incumbent on a man
to run out of a burning house, or to swim, if he can, when thrown
into deep water. He ca