This is all the religion I have ever known. I
have been brought up with the conviction that most creeds are
tolerable, but that my own is the most fashionable, and it is
certainly an easy one to live by, so I have never questioned it much.
I should not care to fast or abstain or kneel as much as you Catholics
do. I should abhor accusing myself, in sincere humility, of my
wrong-doing, or making amends for every trifling misdemeanor, and as
my religion does not ask me to do anything I dislike, I cannot quarrel
with it."
"Certainly not, if you are happy in it" I put in quietly.
"I am not happy in it" she answered snappishly "but I could be I dare
say, if it only assumed an authority over me; if it commanded where it
counsels; if it exacted where it approves only, if it bound me under
pain of grievous sin as yours does."--
"Ah! if it did! if it did, it would be no longer the same religion. It
would lose nine-tenths of its present advocates. However, it is not my
intention to enter upon a religious dissertation. I would not disturb
your present convictions deliberately for the world, but if you wanted
my assistance or asked it, I should be glad to give it to you. One
thing I will tell you, however, before I go" I added, rising and
confronting her, "it is a deep wrong you do your soul in allowing it
to be assailed by so many doubts which you do not take the trouble to
satisfy. There are many like you, Alice, I know a dozen whose souls
are riding the unstable surface of a religious speculation.
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