not hesitate to say, that there were
many cases which had not been provided for at all!

I was so amused with this last disastrous attempt to construct a
revelation, that I laughed outright, and in so doing awoke. I found
that my lamp was fast going out; so, dismissing the innocent volume
of Leibnitz which had suggested all these incongruities, I went to
bed; firmly convinced that the shadows of men in the "Paradise of
Fools" are about as wise and ingenious as are men themselves.
____

July 28. I had this morning some curious, and, if it had not been
for the grave importance of the subject, amusing conversation with
Mr. Fellowes on his views, or rather his no views, respecting a
"future life." He said he wished he could make up his mind whether
the doctrine was true; also whether, as some of his favorite writers
supposed, it was of no "spiritual" importance to decide it. I said it
certainly did seem of some importance. I reminded him of Pascal's
saying, that he could excuse men's contented ignorance with any thing
rather than that. "They are not obliged," says he, "to examine the
Copernican system; but it is vital to the whole of existence to
ascertain whether the soul is mortal or not."

"Mr. Newman," said Fellowes, "thinks very differently: but then his
whole mind is differently constituted from Pascal's."

I admitted it, of course.

"Mr. Newman's views," he continued, "on the subject, certainly do not
quite satisfy me; and yet they are very sublime. If he has any hope in
this matter, (of which he appears not absolutely destitute,) it is from
the sheer strength of a 'faith' which triumphs over all obstacles, or
rather hangs upon nothing. He ridicules all intellectual proofs, and
at the same time declares that his 'spiritual insight' deserts him.
It is a faith pure from all reason, and from all 'insight' too. As to
insight in this matter, I must agree with him, that, to ascertain the
fact of a future life by 'direct vision,' is 'to me hitherto impossible.'"

Harrington, who was sitting by, smiled: "You speak of your 'insight' and
'direct vision' much as a Highlander might talk of his 'second sight.'
As to your present difficulty, do you remember the advice of Ranald of
the Mist to Allan M'Aulay, when the 'vision' obstinately averted its face
from him? 'Have you reversed your own plaid,' said Ranald, 'according to
the rule of the experienced seers in such cases?' You do not wear a plaid,
George, but suppose you t