Man has been studied proudly, contemptuously, rather, from the point of view supposed to be authoritatively settled.The self-sufficiency of egotistic natures was never more fully shown than in the expositions of the worthlessness and wretchedness of their fellow-creatures given by the dogmatists who have "gone back," as the vulgar phrase is, on their race, their own flesh and blood.Did you ever read what Mr.Bancroft says about Calvin in his article on Jonathan Edwards? --and mighty well said it is too, in my judgment.Let me remind you of it, whether you have read it or not."Setting himself up over against the privileged classes, he, with a loftier pride than theirs, revealed the power of a yet higher order of nobility, not of a registered ancestry of fifteen generations, but one absolutely spotless in its escutcheon, preordained in the council chamber of eternity." I think you'll find I have got that sentence right, word for word, and there 's a great deal more in it than many good folks who call themselves after the reformer seem to be aware of.The Pope put his foot on the neck of kings, but Calvin and his cohort crushed the whole human race under their heels in the name of the Lord of Hosts.Now, you see, the point that people don't understand is the absolute and utter humility of science, in opposition to this doctrinal self-sufficiency.I don't doubt this may sound a little paradoxical at first, but I think you will find it is all right.You remember the courtier and the monarch,--Louis the Fourteenth, wasn't it? --never mind, give the poor fellows that live by setting you right a chance."What o'clock is it?" says the king."Just whatever o'clock your Majesty pleases," says the courtier.I venture to say the monarch was a great deal more humble than the follower, who pretended that his master was superior to such trifling facts as the revolution of the planet.It was the same thing, you remember, with King Canute and the tide on the sea-shore.The king accepted the scientific fact of the tide's rising.The loyal hangers-on, who believed in divine right, were too proud of the company they found themselves in to make any such humiliating admission.But there are people, and plenty of them, to-day, who will dispute facts just as clear to those who have taken the pains to learn what is known about them, as that of the tide's rising.They don't like to admit these facts, because they throw doubt upon some of their cherished opinions.We are getting on towards the last part of this nineteenth century.What we have gained is not so much in positive knowledge, though that is a good deal, as it is in the freedom of discussion of every subject that comes within the range of observation and inference.How long is it since Mrs.Piozzi wrote,--"Let me hope that you will not pursue geology till it leads you into doubts destructive of all comfort in this world and all happiness in the next"?
The Master paused and I remained silent, for I was thinking things Icould not say.
--It is well always to have a woman near by when one is talking on this class of subjects.Whether there will be three or four women to one man in heaven is a question which I must leave to those who talk as if they knew all about the future condition of the race to answer.
But very certainly there is much more of hearty faith, much more of spiritual life, among women than among men, in this world.They need faith to support them more than men do, for they have a great deal less to call them out of themselves, and it comes easier to them, for their habitual state of dependence teaches them to trust in others.
When they become voters, if they ever do, it may be feared that the pews will lose what the ward-rooms gain.Relax a woman's hold on man, and her knee-joints will soon begin to stiffen.Self-assertion brings out many fine qualities, but it does not promote devotional habits.
I remember some such thoughts as this were passing through my mind while the Master was talking.I noticed that the Lady was listening to the conversation with a look of more than usual interest.We men have the talk mostly to ourselves at this table; the Master, as you have found out, is fond of monologues, and I myself--well, I suppose I must own to a certain love for the reverberated music of my own accents; at any rate, the Master and I do most of the talking.But others help us do the listening.I think I can show that they listen to some purpose.I am going to surprise my reader with a letter which I received very shortly after the conversation took place which I have just reported.It is of course by a special license, such as belongs to the supreme prerogative of an author, that I am enabled to present it to him.He need ask no questions: it is not his affair how I obtained the right to give publicity to a private communication.I have become somewhat more intimately acquainted with the writer of it than in the earlier period of my connection with this establishment, and I think I may say have gained her confidence to a very considerable degree.
