ls
laughs at you; and, false as it may be, is still stronger than you."

"And your sect," retorted Fellowes, rather warmly, "if you come to
that, is it not the smallest of all? Is that likely to find favor
in the eyes of mankind?"

"Why, no," said Harrington, with provoking coolness; "but then it
makes no pretensions to any thing of the kind. It were strange if it
did; for as the sceptic doubts if any truth can be certainly attained
by man on those subjects on which the 'rational' or the 'spiritual'
deist dogmatizes, it of course professes to be incapable of
constructing any thing."

"And does construct nothing," retorted Fellowes.

"Very true," said Harrington, "and therein keeps its word; which is
more, I fear, than can be said with your more ambitious spiritualists,
who profess to construct, and do not."

"But you must give the school of spiritualism time: it is only just
born. You seem to me to be confounding the school of the old, dry,
logical deism with the young, fresh, vigorous, earnest school' which
appeals to 'insight' and 'intuition.'"

"No," said Harrington, "I think I do not confound. The first and
the best of our English deists derived his system as immediately
from intuitions as Mr. Parker or you. You know how it sped--or, if
you do not, you may easily discover--with his successors: they
continually disputed about it, curtailed it, added to it, altered
it, agreed in nothing but the author's rejection of Christianity,
and forgot more and more the decency of his style. So will it be with
your Mr. Newman and his successors. They will acquiesce in his
rejection Christianity; depend upon it, in nothing more. He may get
his admirers to abandon the Bible, but they will have naught to do
with the 'loves, and joys, and sorrows, and raptures, which he
describes in the 'Soul'; they would just as soon read the
'Canticles.'"

"I really cannot admit," said Fellowes, "that we modern spiritualists
are to be confounded with Lord Herbert."

"Not confounded with him, certainly," replied Harrington, "but
identified with him you may be; except to be sure, that he was convinced
of the immortality of man as one of the few articles of all religion;
while many of you deny, or doubt it. The doctrines--"

"Call them sentiments, rather; I like that term better."

"O, certainly, if you prefer it; only be pleased to observe that a
sentiment felt is a fact, and a fact is a truth, and a truth may
surely be expressed in a p