196 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



reverse of mine, by Scripture quotations, I told him that 

 I considered the Bible and Alcoran as of equal authority. 

 I made use of some other imprudent and impious ex- 

 pressions at that time, which I still remember and 

 now heartily regret. G. was so much scandalized at 

 what he then heard, that he threatened to inform my 

 uncles and other friends, nay more, every one who was 

 in the least acquainted with me, of my scepticism. This 

 alarmed me, for I had wisdom enough to see that though 

 the "religious" be no numerous or formidable body, the 

 prejudiced are ; and that men who were no better 

 Christians than myself would look upon the professed 

 atheist with horror and detestation. Notwithstanding 

 his threat he was silent on the subject of our conversa- 

 tions, but the recollection of it and the anticipation of its 

 consequences, had the effect of making me so prudent, 

 that is, so hypocritical, that whenever religion became a 

 subject of conversation in any company of which I 

 formed one, I gave a passive assent to whatever was 

 said in its favour. 



'About the end of the year 1820 I had a fearful 

 dream, which for the time had the effect of converting 

 me into a kind of believer a believer of I knew not 

 what. I dreamed I was wandering through a solitary 

 and desert country that I was alone, restless and 

 unhappy. All at once the skies became dark and 

 overcast, and a gloom like that of a stormy winter's 

 evening seemed to settle over the face of nature. By 

 one of those changes so common in dreams, the country 

 appeared no longer unpeopled, but the figures I saw were 

 so dark, so indistinct, so silent, that in my terror I re- 

 garded them not as men, but spirits who were wandering 

 about in unhappiness until the time came in which they 

 were to reanimate the bodies in which they once dwelt. 



