He has some imaginations of his own, I believe, which he mistakes for
religion. I do not know him intimately; I do not wish to. I believe he
has some sort of desire to do what is right; but that, you know, is a
house built upon the sand, unless it is founded upon the desire for
instruction as to what _is_ right. Every one cries up his generosity;
for instance, one of my church-wardens tells him that we need a new
organ in the church and the people won't give a penny-piece towards it,
so Toyner says, with his benevolent smile, 'They must be taught to give.
Tell them I will give half if they will give the other half.' But if the
Roman Catholic priest or a Methodist goes to him the next day for a
subscription, he gives just as willingly if, as is likely, he thinks the
object good. What can you do with a man like that, who has no principle?
It's impossible to have much respect for him."

Now I myself am a school-master, versed in the lore of certain books
ancient and modern, but knowing very little about such a practical
matter as applied theology; nor did I know very much then concerning the
classification of Christians among themselves: but I think that I am not
wrong in saying that this young man belonged to that movement in the
Anglican Church which fights strongly for a visible unity and for Church
tradition. I am so made that I always tend to agree with the man who is
speaking, so my companion was encouraged by my sympathy.

He went on: "I can do with a man that is out-and-out anything. I can
work with a Papist; I can work with a Methodist, as far as I can
conscientiously meet him on common ground, and I can respect him if he
conscientiously holds that he is right and I am wrong: but these
fellows that are neither one thing nor the other--they are as dangerous
as rocks and shoals that are just hidden under the water. You never know
when you have them."

We were upon the broad wooden side-walk of an avenue leading from the
central street of the town to a region of outstanding gardens and
pleasure-grounds, in which the wooden villas of the citizens stood among
luxuriant trees. It is a characteristic of Fentown that the old trees
about the place have been left standing.

A new companion came to my side, and he, as fate would have it, was
another clergyman. He was an older man, with a genial, bearded face. I
think he belonged to that party which takes its name from the Evangel of
whose purity it professes itself the gu