saw them, or believed them to have been seen; and those who doubt
the divinity of your prophets mission are those who doubt their ever
having been seen.'

'The whole army saw and attested them, sir, and that is evidence
enough for us; and those who saw them, and were not satisfied, must
have had their hearts hardened to unbelief.'

'And you think, Nawab Sahib, that a man is not master of his own
belief or disbelief in religions matters; though he is rewarded by an
eternity of bliss in paradise for the one, and punished by an
eternity of scorching in hell for the other?

'I do, sir, faith is a matter of feeling; and over our feelings we
have no control. All that we can do is to prevent their influencing
our actions, when these actions would be mischievous. I have a desire
to stretch out this arm, and crush that fly on the table, I can
control the act, and do so; but the desire is not under my control.'

'True, Nawab Sahib; and in this life we punish men not for their
feelings, which are beyond their control, but for their acts, over
which they have no control; and we are apt to think that the Deity
will do the same.'

'There are, sir,' continued the Nawab, 'three kinds of certainty--the
moral certainty, the mathematical, and the religious certainty, which
we hold to be the greatest of all--the one in which the mind feels
entire repose. This repose I feel in everything that is written in
the Koran, in the Bible, and, with the few known exceptions, in the
New Testament.[67] We do not believe that Christ was the son of God,
though we believe him to have been a great prophet sent down to
enlighten mankind; nor do we believe that he was crucified. We
believe that the wicked Jews got hold of a thief, and crucified him
in the belief that he was the Christ; but the real Christ was, we
think, taken up into heaven, and not suffered to be crucified.'

'But, Nawab Sahib, the Sikhs have their book, in which they have the
same faith.'

'True, sir, but the Sikhs are unlettered, ignorant brutes; and you do
not, I hope, call their "Granth" a book--a thing written only the
other day, and full of nonsense. No "book" has appeared since the
Koran came down from heaven; nor will any other come till the day of
judgement. And how', said the Nawab, 'have people in modern days made
all the discoveries you speak of in astronomy?'

'Chiefly, Nawab Sahib, by means of the telescope, which is an
instrument of modern invention.'

'And do yo