ng."

"I can only aspire to it," said the doctor.

It sounded mere common compliment, the silliest thing between man and
woman, and Mrs. Wingfold divined nothing more: she was not quick in such
matters. Had she suspected, she might, not knowing the mind of the lady
have been a little perplexed. As it was, she did not leave the room, and
presently the curate entered, with a newspaper in his hand.

"They're still at it, Faber," he said, "with their heated liquids and
animal life!"

"I need not ask which side you take," said the doctor, not much inclined
to enter upon any discussion.

"I take neither," answered the curate. "Where is the use, or indeed
possibility, so long as the men of science themselves are disputing
about the facts of experiment? It will be time enough to try to
understand them, when they are agreed and we know what the facts really
are. Whatever they may turn out to be, it is but a truism to say they
must be consistent with all other truth, although they may entirely
upset some of our notions of it."

"To which side then do you lean, as to the weight of the evidence?"
asked Faber, rather listlessly.

He had been making some experiments of his own in the direction referred
to. They were not so complete as he would have liked, for he found a
large country practice unfriendly to investigation; but, such as they
were, they favored the conclusion that no form of life appeared where
protection from the air was thorough.

"I take the evidence," answered the curate, "to be in favor of what they
so absurdly call spontaneous generation."

"I am surprised to hear you say so," returned Faber. "The conclusions
necessary thereupon, are opposed to all your theology."

"Must I then, because I believe in a living Truth, be myself an unjust
judge?" said the curate. "But indeed the conclusions are opposed to no
theology I have any acquaintance with; and if they were, it would give
me no concern. Theology is not my origin, but God. Nor do I acknowledge
any theology but what Christ has taught, and has to teach me. When, and
under what circumstances, life comes first into human ken, can not
affect His lessons of trust and fairness. If I were to play tricks with
the truth, shirk an argument, refuse to look a fact in the face, I
should be ashamed to look Him in the face. What he requires of his
friends is pure, open-eyed truth."

"But how," said the doctor, "can you grant spontaneous generation, and
believe in a