526 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT-I 



most of you will forget all the counsels I have given you 

 and remember nothing save that you have to-day heard a 

 sermon from an Indian.&quot; The point of interest really 

 was that this preacher, Eleazar Williams, though he gave 

 no hint of it on this occasion, believed himself, and was 

 believed by many, to be the lost Dauphin of France, 

 Louis XVII, and that decidedly skilful arguments in fa 

 vor of his claims were published by the Kev. Mr. Hanson 

 and others. One of the most intelligent women I have 

 ever known believes to this hour that Eleazar Williams, 

 generally known as a half-breed Indian born in Canada, 

 was the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and that 

 his portly form and Bourbon face were convincing addi 

 tions to other more cogent testimonies. 



At various times I sought light from new sources, and, 

 finding on the family shelves a series of books called the 

 &quot;Evangelical Family Library, &quot; I read sundry replies to 

 Hume, Gibbon, and other deists; but the arguments of 

 Hume and Gibbon and those who thought with them 

 seemed to me, to say the least, quite as forcible as those in 

 answer to them. These replies simply strengthened my 

 tendency to doubt, and what I heard at church rather in 

 creased the difficulty ; for the favorite subjects of sermons 

 in the Episcopal Church of those days, after the &quot;Apos 

 tolical Succession&quot; and &quot;Baptismal Eegeneration, &quot; were 

 the perfections of the church order, the beauty of its ser 

 vices, and the almost divine character of the Prayer-book. 

 These topics were developed in all the moods and tenses ; 

 the beauties of our own service were constantly con 

 trasted with the crudities and absurdities of the worship 

 practised by others ; and although, since those days, left to 

 my own observation, I have found much truth in these 

 comparisons, they produced upon me at that time anything 

 but a good effect. It was like a beautiful woman coming 

 into an assemblage ; calling attention to the perfections of 

 her own face, form, and garments ; claiming loudly to be 

 the most beautiful person in the room ; and so, finally, be 

 coming the least attractive person present. 



