Katherine, Chapters XXIX-XXXI [pp. 104-120]

1885.] KATHARJKE. 113
in general confirms what my knowledge of myself had previously taught me."
"Happy man!' said Giddings, smiling. "The sweet in~
genuousness of your boyhood flourishes in perennial bloom, I
see. Supposing your contention to be true-perhaps it may be,
in the long run, though I greatly doubt it-why should you
rouse bad blood by refusing to let what is, on your own showing, well enough alone? You want men to be honest and industrious, good fathers and good citizens, and so does your next
neighbor, who pounds the cushion of his pulpit and shouts himself hoarse in denouncing hell-fire on those who persistently refuse to live up to that programme. ~Vhich of you gets the
larger audience and produces the more immediate and permanent effect?"
"If that is your test, why not leave the cushion~banger at
the~outset and go on to his still more successful rival, the priest?
I doubt if all the churches in the city, putting their forces t~
gether, could muster on a wet Sunday such a throng as I have
seen overflowing the cathedral here and kneeling uncovered
in the rain at six o'clock of a cold, winter morning. I have a certain respect, too, for the priest, for his creed, his methods, and
his results, which I find it impossible to entertain for these
others, who hate him with only one more degree of energy than
they do me. I laugh to scorn his premises, which are pretty
nearly identical with theirs, but he is at least consistent in what
he attempts to build upon them."
"He does seem to touch some springs which ~sthetic ethics
might possibly fail to reach, doesn't he?"
~Vell, you, at least, have what looks like a substantial reason for thinking so. Something of the same kind, though on an
infinitesimally smaller scale, happened, I remember, dunng my
earliest experiences in housekeeping, with an Irish servant to the
fore in the kitchen. Some of our belongings which had my steriously disappeared d~ring her reign below-stairs reappeared
again, at least as mysteriously, except on the supposition that
she had been enjoined to return them, after her departure. A
bundle was thrust into the area and the bell rung, one dark
night, and there were our missing spoons, enveloped in a hit herto unmissed blanket. But what can you argue from that, except
that there are a good many ignorant and vicious people in the
world, and that coarse means are best adapted to them until thc
day when they can be reached by something finer?"
"I might argue," said his friend, "if I were concerned to de
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