AN ILL USTRA TION. 405 



least, that to the human comprehension, the absurdities 

 of false religions and the mysteries of Christianity are 

 placed on a similar level. Between what cannot be 

 understood because it has no meaning, and what cannot 

 be understood because it surpasses the grasp of our 

 minds, there not only obtains an infinite difference, but a 

 difference fully cognizable by the human intellect. The 

 scribblings of a child and the abstruser calculations of a 

 Newton or La Place would not appear equally unmean- 

 ing to an attentive observer, however humble his 

 powers ; he could not but see now and then little breaks 

 of sense in the mysteries of the one and wonderful effects 

 produced by them, which would most effectually distin- 

 guish them from the nothingness of the other. And it 

 is thus with Christianity. We get occasional glimpses 

 of its meaning, and see instances of its power that may 

 well enable us to distinguish between it and the Shaster 

 and Koran. Its adaptation to the nature of man is truly 

 exquisite. There is a pretty story in Kames' Art of 

 Thinking, introduced by the philosopher for a very 

 different purpose, w r hich will in part enable us to conceive 

 of this. Two men who fought in the wars of Queen 

 Anne the one a petty officer, the other a private 

 soldier had been friends and comrades for years, but 

 quarrelling on some unlucky love affair, they became bitter 

 enemies. The officer made a natural though ungenerous 

 use of his authority, in continually annoying and per- 

 secuting the other, whom he almost fretted into madness, 

 and who was often heard to swear that he would die to 

 be avenged on him. Both were men of known bravery, 

 and on an occasion of some dangerous service, both were 

 chosen to be of the party selected to attempt it. But the 

 attempt was unsuccessful, and the officer was struck 

 down by a ball in the retreat ; ' Ah, and will you leave 



