mind; and although she
often knelt before her own little ivory crucifix, she had never supposed
any could be so ignorant as to confound the mere material representation
of the sacrifice it was meant to portray with the divine
expiation itself.

"It is decent to use proper vestments at the altar," she replied; "and
its servants ought not to be clad like other men. We know it is the
heart, the soul, that must be touched, to find favor with God; but this
does not make the outward semblance of respect that we show even to each
other the less necessary. As to worshipping images--that would be
idolatry; and as bad as the poor heathens themselves."

Ithuel looked mystified; for he never doubted in the least that the
worshipping of images was a material part of Catholic devotion; and, as
for the Pope and the cardinals, he deemed them all as indispensable to
the creed of this church, as he fancied it important in his own that the
priests should not wear gowns, and that the edifices in which they
worshipped should have square-topped windows. Absurd as all this may
seem to-day, and wicked as it will probably appear a century hence, it
formed, and forms, no small part of sectarian belief, and entered into
the animosities and jealousies of those who seem to think it necessary
to quarrel for the love of God. Could we but look back at our own
changes of opinion, it would render us less confident of the justice of
our sentiments; and, most of all, one would think that the American who
has lived long enough to witness the somersets that have been thrown in
the practices and creeds of most of the more modern sects of his own
country, within the last quarter of a century, would come to have
something like a suitable respect for the more stable and venerable
divisions of the Christian world.

"Proper vestments!" repeated Ithuel, with contempt; "what vestments are
wanting in the eyes of the Supreme Being? No; if I _must_ have
religion--and I know it's necessary and whullsom'--let it be a pure,
_naked_ religion that will stand to reason. Is not that your way of
thinking, Monsieur Rule?"

"_Ma foi, oui_. Reason before all things, Ghita; and, most of all,
reason in religion."

"Ah, Raoul! this it is which misleads and betrays you," returned the
girl, earnestly. "Faith and a meek dependence is what makes a proper
state of feeling; and yet you demand a reason of Him who created the
Universe and breathed into you the breath of life!"

"Ar