ets in the Sanctuary at
Westminster?"

"That depends on the evidence, uncle!"

"No, sir; like all noble truths, it depends upon faith. Men, nowadays,"
continued my uncle, with a look of ineffable disgust, "actually require
that truths should be proved."

"It is a sad conceit on their part, no doubt, my dear uncle; but till a
truth is proved, how can we know that it is a truth?"

I thought that in that very sagacious question I had effectually caught
my uncle. Not I. He slipped through it like an eel.

"Sir," said he, "whatever in Truth makes a man's heart warmer and his
soul purer, is a belief, not a knowledge. Proof, sir, is a handcuff;
belief is a wing! Want proof as to an ancestor in the reign of King
Richard? Sir, you cannot even prove to the satisfaction of a logician
that you are the son of your own father. Sir, a religious man does not
want to reason about his religion; religion is not mathematics. Religion
is to be felt, not proved. There are a great many things in the religion
of a good man which are not in the catechism. Proof!" continued my
uncle, growing violent--"Proof, sir, is a low, vulgar, levelling,
rascally Jacobin; Belief is a loyal, generous, chivalrous gentleman! No,
no; prove what you please, you shall never rob me of one belief that has
made me--"

"The finest-hearted creature that ever talked nonsense," said my father,
who came up, like Horace's deity, at the right moment. "What is it you
must believe in, brother, no matter what the proof against you?"

My uncle was silent, and with great energy dug the point of his cane
into the gravel.

"He will not believe in our great ancestor the printer," said I,
maliciously.

My father's calm brow was overcast in a moment. "Brother," said the
Captain, loftily, "you have a right to your own ideas; but you should
take care how they contaminate your child."

"Contaminate!" said my father, and for the first time I saw an angry
sparkle flash from his eyes; but he checked himself on the instant.
"Change the word, my dear brother."

"No, sir, I will not change it! To belie the records of the family!"

"Records! A brass plate in a village church against all the books of the
College of Arms!"

"To renounce your ancestor, a knight who died in the field!"

"For the worst cause that man ever fought for!"

"On behalf of his king!"

"Who had murdered his nephews!"

"A knight! with our crest on his helmet."

"And no brains underneath it, or he wou