34 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



nologists, then, was to close the eye of faith ; &quot; if you accept 

 phrenology as truth, you deny God. If the Bible is true, 

 phrenology is false ; if phrenology is true, the Bible is a lie 

 Phrenology is infidelity.&quot; 



&quot; Then,&quot; exclaimed he, &quot; / am an infidel, for I know as 

 well as the nose on my face, that phrenology is true.&quot; He 

 forthwith began to study infidel books, soon so scandalized 

 his church, that he was publicly expelled from it, and thence 

 forth he had looked upon the Bible only as a block in the 

 road, over which every man must leap before he can become 

 free to truth. As the great barrier to the progress of his 

 race, he set himself diligently to searching out every cranny 

 of error and crevice of inconsistency from which he could 

 proudly poke the dust, and expose to reasoners equally shal 

 low with himself; unconscious, poor fellow, that he was merely 

 picking into blind traditions, uninspired translations, and hard- 

 squeezed interpretations ; rubbish of mortal church-builders 

 and vain-glorious creed-idolaters, accumulating for nineteen 

 centuries over the real under-laying adamant of divine truth. 



He had even yet, while with us, all the zeal and activity 

 in this purpose that characterizes the young convert to any 

 faith ; talked to every one that would listen to him, and 

 lugged in his &quot; cause&quot; most pertinaciously with every com 

 pany he joined, no matter what might be the subject of con 

 versation before he entered. There was little use to argue 

 with him, for he would shift his ground as fast as it was 

 weakened under him, and by changing the question, never 

 knew that he failed to sustain himself. He would insist on 

 making the Bible responsible for every ridiculous notion that 

 foolish or designing men have ever professed to ground upon 

 it, and constantly insisted on taking part in those quarrels, it 

 was little matter to him on which side, which, like the fierce 

 little disputes one often hears in a family, only show the real 



