the conviction, but in vain. Again and again she
argued with him, and was vanquished,--or, at least, what is far
better, made to see how many different sides there are to every
question. All appeals to authority he answered with a contemptuous
smile. 'The best authorities?' he used to say. 'On what question
do not the best authorities flatly contradict each other? And why?
Because every man believes just what it suits him to believe. Don't
fancy that men reason themselves into convictions; the prejudices
and feelings of their hearts give them some idea or theory, and then
they find facts at their leisure to prove their theory true. Every
man sees facts through narrow spectacles, red, or green, or blue, as
his nation or his temperament colours them: and he is quite right,
only he must allow us the liberty of having our spectacles too.
Authority is only good for proving facts. We must draw our own
conclusions.' And Argemone began to suspect that he was right,--at
least to see that her opinions were mere hearsays, picked up at her
own will and fancy; while his were living, daily-growing ideas. Her
mind was beside his as the vase of cut flowers by the side of the
rugged tree, whose roots are feeding deep in the mother earth. In
him she first learnt how one great truth received into the depths of
the soul germinates there, and bears fruit a thousandfold;
explaining, and connecting, and glorifying innumerable things,
apparently the most unlike and insignificant; and daily she became a
more reverent listener, and gave herself up, half against her will
and conscience, to the guidance of a man whom she knew to be her
inferior in morals and in orthodoxy. She had worshipped intellect,
and now it had become her tyrant; and she was ready to give up every
belief which she once had prized, to flutter like a moth round its
fascinating brilliance.

Who can blame her, poor girl? For Lancelot's humility was even more
irresistible than his eloquence. He assumed no superiority. He
demanded her assent to truths, not because they were his opinions,
but simply for the truth's sake; and on all points which touched the
heart he looked up to her as infallible and inspired. In questions
of morality, of taste, of feeling, he listened not as a lover to his
mistress, but rather as a baby to its mother; and thus, half
unconsciously to himself, he taught her where her true kingdom lay,-
-that the h