ly that inspiration is
preternatural; that every 'holy thought,' every 'lofty and sublime
conception,' all 'truth and excellence,' in any man, come from the
'Father of lights,' and are to be ascribed to him; that, as Mr. Parker
and Mr. Foxton affirm on this point, the inspiration of Paul or Milton,
or even of Christ and of Benjamin Franklin, is of the same nature,
and in an intelligible sense from the same source,--differing only
in degree. Can you deem less, then, of that great conception by which
Mr. Newman has released you, and possibly many more, from that
bondage to a 'book-revelation' in which you were brought up, and
in which, by your own confession, you might have been still enthralled?
Can you think less of this than that it is an 'inspired' voice which
has proclaimed 'liberty to the captive,' and made known to you
'spiritual freedom'? If any thing be divine about Mr. Newman's
system, surely it must be this. Ought you not to thank God that he
has been thus pleased to 'open your eyes,' and to turn you from
'darkness to light,'--to raise up in these last days such an apostle
of the truth which had lain so long 'hidden from ages and generations'?
Can you do less than admire the divine artifice by when it was
impossible for God directly to tell man that he could directly tell
him nothing, He raised up his servant Newman to perform the office?"

"For my part," said Fellowes, "I am not ashamed to say, that I think
I ought to thank God for such a boon as Mr. Newman has, in this
instance at least, been the instrument of conveying to me: I
acknowledge it most momentous truth, without which I should still
have been in thraldom to the 'letter.'"

"Very well; then the book-revelation of Mr. Newman is, as I say, in
some sort to you, perhaps to a divine 'book-revelation.'"

"Well, in some sense, it is so."

"So that now we have, in some sense, a divine book-revelation to
prove that a divine book-revelation is impossible."

"You are pleased to jest on the subject," said Fellowes.

"I never was more serious in my life. However, I will not press
this point any further. You shall be permitted to say (what I
will not contradict) that, though Mr. Newman may be inspired, for
aught I know, in that modified sense in which you believe in any
phenomenon,--inspired as much (say) as the inventor of Lucifer
matches,--yet that his book is not divine,--that it is purely human;
and even, if you please, that God has had nothing to do w