fe, in the kindest and most gracious manner, an ornament to his
rank--the question as to the use and propriety of the order is not in
the least affected one way or other. There it is, extant among us, a
part of our habits, the creed of many of us, the growth of centuries,
the symbol of a most complicated tradition--there stand my lord the
bishop and my lord the hereditary legislator--what the French call
transactions both of them,--representing in their present shape
mail-clad barons and double-sworded chiefs (from whom their lordships
the hereditaries, for the most part, don't descend), and priests,
professing to hold an absolute truth and a divinely inherited power,
the which truth absolute our ancestors burned at the stake, and denied
there; the which divine transmissible power still exists in print--to
be believed, or not, pretty much at choice; and of these, I say, I
acquiesce that they exist, and no more. If you say that these schemes,
devised before printing was known, or steam was born; when thought was
an infant, scared and whipped; and truth under its guardians was gagged,
and swathed, and blindfolded, and not allowed to lift its voice, or to
look out or to walk under the sun; before men were permitted to meet, or
to trade, or to speak with each other--if any one says (as some faithful
souls do) that these schemes are for ever, and having been changed
and modified constantly are to be subject to no further development or
decay, I laugh, and let the man speak. But I would have toleration for
these, as I would ask it for my own opinions; and if they are to die,
I would rather they had a decent and natural than an abrupt and violent
death."

"You would have sacrificed to Jove," Warrington said, "had you lived in
the time of the Christian persecutions."

"Perhaps I would," said Pen, with some sadness. "Perhaps I am a
coward,--perhaps my faith is unsteady; but this is my own reserve.
What I argue here is that I will not persecute. Make a faith or a dogma
absolute, and persecution becomes a logical consequence; and Dominic
burns a Jew, or Calvin an Arian, or Nero a Christian, or Elizabeth or
Mary a Papist or Protestant; or their father both or either, according
to his humour; and acting without any pangs of remorse,--but, on the
contrary, notions of duty fulfilled. Make dogma absolute, and to inflict
or to suffer death becomes easy and necessary; and Mahomet's soldiers
shouting, 'Paradise! Paradise!' and dying on t