."

"Well, somehow that doesn't strike me," said Sheffield.

"Now there was Vincent at the end of term, after you had gone down,"
continued Charles; "you know I stayed up for Littlego; and he was very
civil, very civil indeed. I had a talk with him about Oxford parties,
and he pleased me very much at the time; but afterwards, the more I
thought of what he said, the less was I satisfied; that is, I had got
nothing definite from him. He did not say, 'This is true, that is
false;' but 'Be true, be true, be good, be good, don't go too far, keep
in the mean, have your eyes about you, eschew parties, follow our
divines, all of them;'--all which was but putting salt on the bird's
tail. I want some practical direction, not abstract truths."

"Vincent is a humbug," said Sheffield.

"Dr. Pusey, on the other hand," continued Charles, "is said always to be
decisive. He says, 'This is Apostolic, that's in the Fathers; St.
Cyprian says this, St. Augustine denies that; this is safe, that's
wrong; I bid you, I forbid you.' I understand all this; but I don't
understand having duties put on me which are too much for me. I don't
understand, I dislike, having a will of my own, when I have not the
means to use it justly. In such a case, to tell me to act of myself, is
like Pharaoh setting the Israelites to make bricks without straw.
Setting me to inquire, to judge, to decide, forsooth! it's absurd; who
has taught me?"

"But the Puseyites are not always so distinct," said Sheffield; "there's
Smith, he never speaks decidedly in difficult questions. I know a man
who was going to remain in Italy for some years, at a distance from any
English chapel,--he could not help it,--and who came to ask him if he
might communicate in the Catholic churches; he could not get an answer
from him; he would not say yes or no."

"Then he won't have many followers, that's all," said Charles.

"But he has more than Dr. Pusey," answered Sheffield.

"Well, I can't understand it," said Charles; "he ought not; perhaps they
won't stay."

"The truth is," said Sheffield, "I suspect he is more of a sceptic at
bottom."

"Well, I honour the man who builds up," said Reding, "and I despise the
man who breaks down."

"I am inclined to think you have a wrong notion of building up and
pulling down," answered Sheffield; "Coventry, in his 'Dissertations,'
makes it quite clear that Christianity is not a religion of doctrines."

"Who is Coventry?"

"Not know Coventr