midst an infinity of rubbish,
the statement of certain 'spiritual' truths which, and which alone,
you recognize."

"Certainly."

"But you do not acknowledge that these are derived from the New
Testament."

"Heaven forbid; they are indigenous to the heart of man, and are
anterior to all Testaments, old or new."

"Very well; then speak of them as your heart dictates, and do not,
unless you would have the world think you a hypocrite, willing to
cajole it with the idea that you are a believer in the New
Testament, while you in fact reject it, or one of the most barren
uninventive of all human beings, or fanatically fond of mystical
language,--do not, I say, affect this very unctuous way of talking.
And, for another reason, do not. I beseech you, adopt the phraseology
of men who, according to your view, must surely have been either the
most miserable fanatics or the most abominable impostors; for if they
believed all that system of miracle and doctrine they professed, and
this were not true, they were certainly the first; and if they did
not believe it. They were as certainly the second."

"Pardon me; I believe them to have been eminently holy men,--full of
spiritual wisdom and of a truly sublime faith, though conjoined with
much ignorance and credulity, which it is unworthy of us to tolerate."

"Whether it could be ignorance and credulity on your theory," retorted
Harrington, "is to my mind very doubtful. Whether any men can untruly
affirm that they saw and did the things the Apostles say they saw and
did, and yet be sincere fanatics, I know not; but even were it so,
since it shows (as do also the mystical doctrines you reject as false)
that they could be little less than out of their senses; and as you
further say that the spiritual sentiments you retain in common with
them were no gift of theirs, but are yours and all mankind's, by
original inheritance, uttered by the oracle of the human heart before
any Testaments were written,--why, speak your thoughts in your
own language."

"Ay, but how do we know that these original Christians said that
they had seen and done the things you refer to? which of course they
never did see and do, because they were miraculous. How do we know
what additions and corruptions as to fact, and what disguises of
mystical doctrine, 'the idealizing biographers and historians' (as
Strauss truly calls them) may have accumulated upon their
simple utterances?"

"And how do you know, then,