f their voluminous folios
seems alone sufficient to have occupied a long life?"

"The method," said I, "which they adopted, of saying every thing that
could be said on all topics, and exhausting them to the very dregs,
though it may and does tire the patience of the reader, yet it never
leaves him ignorant; and of two evils, had not an author better be
tedious than superficial? From an overflowing vessel you may gather more
indeed than you want, but from an empty one you can gather nothing."

"It appears to me," said Mr. Tyrrel, "that you wish to make a clergyman
every thing but a Christian, and to bestow upon him every requisite
except faith."

"God forbid that I should make any comparison between human learning and
Christian principle," replied Mr. Stanley; "the one is indeed lighter
than the dust of the balance, when weighed against the other. All I
contend for is, that they are not incompatible, and that human
knowledge, used only in subserviency to that of the Scriptures, may
advance the interests of religion. For the better elucidation of those
Scriptures, a clergyman should know not a little of ancient languages.
Without some insight into remote history and antiquities, especially the
Jewish, he will be unable to explain many of the manners and customs
recorded in the sacred volume. Ignorance on some of these points has
drawn many attacks on our religion from skeptical writers. As to a
thorough knowledge of ecclesiastical history, it would be superfluous to
recommend that, it being the history of his own immediate profession. It
is therefore requisite, not only for the general purposes of
instruction, but that he may be enabled to guard against modern
innovation, by knowing the origin and progress of the various heresies
with which the Church in all ages has been infested."

"But," said Mr. Tyrrel, "he may be thoroughly acquainted with all this,
and not have one spark of light."

"He may indeed," said the Doctor; "with deep concern I allow it. I will
go further. The pride of learning, when not subdued by religion, may
help to extinguish that spark. Reason has been too much decried by one
party and too much deified by the other. The difference between reason
and revelation seems to be the same as between the eye and the light;
the one is the organ of vision, the other the source of illumination."

"Take notice, Stanley," observed Mr. Tyrrel, "that if I can help it,
I'll never attend your accomplished clergym