character. He did not merely say, as any of us can say so fluently,
that he craved reality in human relations, that distinctions of rank
and post count for nothing, that our lives are in our own hands and
ought not to be blown hither and thither by outside opinion and words
heedlessly scattered; that our faith, whatever it may be, is the most
sacred of our possessions, organic, indissoluble, self-sufficing; that
our passage across the world, if very short, is yet too serious to be
wasted in frivolous disrespect for ourselves, and angry disrespect for
others. All this was actually his mind. And hence the little
difficulty he had in keeping his retort to the archbishop, as to his
other antagonists, on a worthy level.

Only once or twice does his sense of the reckless injustice with which
he had been condemned, and of the persecution which was inflicted on
him by one government after another, stir in him a blaze of high
remonstrance. "You accuse me of temerity," he cried; "how have I
earned such a name, when I only propounded difficulties, and even that
with so much reserve; when I only advanced reasons, and even that with
so much respect; when I attacked no one, nor even named one? And you,
my lord, how do you dare to reproach with temerity a man of whom you
speak with such scanty justice and so little decency, with so small
respect and so much levity? You call me impious, and of what impiety
can you accuse me--me who never spoke of the Supreme Being except to
pay him the honour and glory that are his due, nor of man except to
persuade all men to love one another? The impious are those who
unworthily profane the cause of God by making it serve the passions of
men. The impious are those who, daring to pass for the interpreters of
divinity, and judges between it and man, exact for themselves the
honours that are due to it only. The impious are those who arrogate to
themselves the right of exercising the power of God upon earth, and
insist on opening and shutting the gates of heaven at their own good
will and pleasure. The impious are those who have libels read in the
church. At this horrible idea my blood is enkindled, and tears of
indignation fall from my eyes. Priests of the God of peace, you shall
render an account one day, be very sure, of the use to which you have
dared to put his house.... My lord, you have publicly insulted me:
you are now convicted of heaping calumny upon me. If you were a
private person like myself