"I am sure you will not say any thing that will give me just cause for offence, my friend, and so I promise not to be offended." "Well then, sir, you know I have always lived amongst Dissenters, so I know pretty well who and what they are. You will agree with me, that there are many excellent people among them, and there are some learned people among them; but generally they have but little learning. Very often their attention has been almost solely directed to _a single point of doctrine_ which itself forms the ground of their dissent from the Church--just as with me; though I do not think the Church is quite right on some other matters, yet I should not separate from it could I be persuaded that the Church was right about _Baptism_. That has always been _my one_ great stumbling-block. But I think, sir, speaking with all respect for yourself, that there is _one great cause_ in the Church ministers themselves which has kept the Dissenters from coming back to the Church. I know that this has more to do with the _past_ than the _present_; I know too that it could not of itself justify any one in separating from the Church. But, sir, look at the class of people Dissenters are of, in this country; their whole strength lies in the middle and the small-trade class. There are among them comparatively very few rich and educated, very few poor. You will say the love of the power and position which those people obtain for themselves in the meeting-house, but which they could not possess, in the same way, in the Church, naturally draws them to the Dissenters. That is no doubt partly true; giving them also credit--as I am sure you do, sir--for higher motives. But I see another reason; and that is, the wide difference between the Church ministers and the people." "I see what you mean," said the Vicar: "the difference in their social position. I admit that the social position of the dissenting preacher is more on a level with that class of which, as you say, Dissenters are chiefly composed than is that of the Clergy. But then, Mr. Dole, the Church does not only retain its hold on the upper and the educated classes, but also on the poor (of course I speak generally; for there are, alas! a large number of these which are beyond the reach of any religious ministrations whatever)."