The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
"Oh, are you going into theological mysteries, too?" said Remington,
with a laugh in which none of us joined; "what care you, Lulu, for the
quiddities of Absolute Illimitation and Infinite Illimitation? After
all, what matters it whether one believes in a God, who you allow to be
the personation of all excellence, if only one endeavors to act up to
the highest conceivable standard of perfection,--I mean of human
perfection,--leaving, of course, a liberal margin for human frailties
and defects? One wouldn't like to leave out mercy, you know."
Whatever might be the real sentiments of the man, there was an air of
levity in his mode of treating the most important subjects of thought
which displeased me, especially when he said, "You adore the
Incomprehensible; I am contented to adore, with silent reverence, the
lovely works of His hand." He pointed his remark without hesitation at
LuLu, who sat looking into the fire, and did not notice him or it.
"You are quite right, Mr. Prince, and my cousin, is quite wrong," said
she, looking up with a docile, childlike expression, at the minister.
"One feels that all through, though one may not be able to reason or
argue about it."
"And the best evidence of all truth, my dear," answered the delighted
Dominie, "is that intuition which is before all reasoning, and by which
we must try reasoning itself. The moral is before the intellectual; and
that is why we preachers continually insist on faith as an illuminator
of the reason."
"You mean that we should cultivate faith," I said.
"Yes: not the faith that is blind, but the faith that sees, that is
positive; that which leads, not that which follows; the faith that
weighs argument and decides on it; in short, the native intuitions which
are a necessary part of the mind."
"I see, and I shall remember," said Lulu. "I shall never forget all you
say, Mr. Prince."
It was this sweet frankness, and the clearness with which her lately
developed intellect acted, that made us begin to respect Lulu as well as
to love her. She seemed to be getting right-minded at last.
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