--for he would even read
Voltaire--the remark, that priests "have something cat-like in their
nature," he laid down the book and was heard to mutter, "Then, I
suppose, I have something dog-like in mine."

It must be remembered that the priests--Lutheran and Calvinist, as well
as Catholic--had vigorously combated the new "Devil Boat," and had
persecuted its inventor. To be a sort of revolutionist in the art of
navigation, to introduce a spirit of progress in the Norman Archipelago,
to disturb the peace of the poor little island of Guernsey with a new
invention, was in their eyes, as we have not concealed from the reader,
an abominable and most condemnable rashness. Nor had they omitted to
condemn it pretty loudly. It must not be forgotten that we are now
speaking of the Guernsey clergy of a bygone generation, very different
from that of the present time, who in almost all the local places of
worship display a laudable sympathy with progress. They had embarrassed
Lethierry in a hundred ways; every sort of resisting force which can be
found in sermons and discourses had been employed against him. Detested
by the churchmen, he naturally came to detest them in his turn. Their
hatred was the extenuating circumstance to be taken into account in
judging of his.

But it must be confessed that his dislike for priests was, in some
degree, in his very nature. It was hardly necessary for them to hate him
in order to inspire him with aversion. As he said, he moved among them
like the dog among cats. He had an antipathy to them, not only in idea,
but in what is more difficult to analyse, his instincts. He felt their
secret claws, and showed his teeth; sometimes, it must be confessed, a
little at random and out of season. It is a mistake to make no
distinctions: a dislike in the mass is a prejudice. The good Savoyard
cure would have found no favour in his eyes. It is not certain that a
worthy priest was even a possible thing in Lethierry's mind. His
philosophy was carried so far that his good sense sometimes abandoned
him. There is such a thing as the intolerance of tolerants, as well as
the violence of moderates. But Lethierry was at bottom too good-natured
to be a thorough hater. He did not attack so much as avoid. He kept the
church people at a distance. He suffered evil at their hands; but he
confined himself to not wishing them any good. The shade of difference,
in fact, between his aversion and theirs, lay in the fact that they