d take
the thought of me so far.

And _for_ me, no, and yet yes,--I _will_ say this much; that I am not
inclined to do you injustice, but justice, when you come here--the
justice of wondering to myself how you can possibly, possibly, care to
come. Which is true enough to be _unanswerable_, if you please--or I
should not say it. '_As I began, so I shall end_--' Did you, as I hope
you did, thank your sister for Flush and for me? When you were gone,
he graciously signified his intention of eating the cakes--brought the
bag to me and emptied it without a drawback, from my hand, cake after
cake. And I forgot the basket once again.

And talking of Italy and the cardinals, and thinking of some cardinal
points you are ignorant of, did you ever hear that I was one of

'those schismatiques
of Amsterdam'

whom your Dr. Donne would have put into the dykes? unless he meant the
Baptists, instead of the Independents, the holders of the Independent
church principle. No--not '_schismatical_,' I hope, hating as I do
from the roots of my heart all that rending of the garment of Christ,
which Christians are so apt to make the daily week-day of this
Christianity so called--and caring very little for most dogmas and
doxies in themselves--too little, as people say to me sometimes, (when
they send me 'New Testaments' to learn from, with very kind
intentions)--and believing that there is only one church in heaven and
earth, with one divine High Priest to it; let exclusive religionists
build what walls they please and bring out what chrisms. But I used to
go with my father always, when I was able, to the nearest dissenting
chapel of the Congregationalists--from liking the simplicity of that
praying and speaking without books--and a little too from disliking
the theory of state churches. There is a narrowness among the
dissenters which is wonderful; an arid, grey Puritanism in the clefts
of their souls: but it seems to me clear that they know what the
'liberty of Christ' _means_, far better than those do who call
themselves 'churchmen'; and stand altogether, as a body, on higher
ground. And so, you see, when I talked of the sixteen points of my
discourse, it was the foreshadowing of a coming event, and you have
had it at last in the whole length and breadth of it. But it is not my
fault if the wind began to blow so that I could not go out--as I
intended--as I shall do to-morrow; and that you have received my
dulness in a full