You know my favourite superstition, which I set too high a value upon to have it torn from me by chaffy reasonings. As, for instance, when an 'esprit fort' shrugs up his shoulder, (if he does not venture to turn up his nose in my face,) or a well-anointed priest says, "It is extraordinary to see how inconsistently many men refuse to believe in religion, (by which parsons always mean _their_ Church and its ordinances,) and yet give way to the utmost credulity in the greatest absurdities." "But, reverend Sir," I ask in reply, "in what then do these absurdities consist?" "Why, the belief in sympathies, in dreams, in the influence of the stars, and so on." "But, most respected Sir, I see no inconsistency in the matter. Every reflecting man must confess that there are a number of mysterious powers in nature,--influences, and attractions, both of our earth, and of the system to which it belongs, of which many that formerly passed for fables have been discovered; others that as yet we do but suspect or divine, and cannot ascertain. It is therefore by no means contrary to reason to make one's own hypothesis concerning them, and to believe in these more or less. I do not, therefore, contest your miracles, nor your symbols;--I contest only certain other things, which many of you teach, and which are equally incomprehensible to the understanding and repugnant to the heart: for instance, a God more passionate and partial than the frailest man; infinite torments appointed by infinite love, for finite sins; arbitrarily-predestined forgiveness or damnation,--and so on. Such things can be possible only when two and two shall make five, and no superstition can approach the insanity of such a belief." _February 22nd._ I am just returned from a grand Almack's fancy ball, where everybody was either in some fantastic outlandish dress, or in uniform,--a 'mélange' which does not seem to me in very good taste, nor very respectful to the latter. You may imagine that my friend the Highland chieftain did not fail to appear in his national costume. It is really very handsome; in the highest degree rich, picturesque, and manly: the only thing that does not please me is the shoes with the large buckles. The sword is just in the form of one of our student's rapiers; and besides that, there is a dagger, pistols, and cartouche-box. The arms are set with precious stones; and an eagle's feather, the badge of a chieftain, adorns the cap.