CHAP, xviii. DR. SHEARER. 307 



versations on many subjects. But there was one subject 

 on which George Shearer was particularly anxious to 

 know Dick's opinion ; and that was his views as to the 

 Mosaic Cosmogony. 



Accordingly, he wrote to him from Edinburgh on the 

 subject. But Dick was not to be " drawn " by a person 

 so much his inferior in years and knowledge. He re- 

 plied : " As to your religious queries, my answer is 

 On religious matters we are not equal. I am within 

 three months of being fifty-three years of age. Wait 

 until you are as old, and wearing spectacles, and then 

 we will discuss those matters. Meantime, as you can- 

 not rest, you will probably be writing a commentary on 

 the Eomans. My advice to you is, 'Tak' tent; let 

 sleepin' dogs lie ! ' " 



This reminds one of a story told of the late poet 

 Rogers. When asked by a lady what was his religion, 

 he replied, " I am of the religion of all sensible men." 

 "And what is that?" asked the lady. "All sensible 

 men," replied Rogers, " keep that to themselves." 



Dr. Shearer, many years after, when grown to man- 

 hood, said that Dick must then have thought him some- 

 what of a prig. " I took his reply," he says, " in excellent 

 part. I felt that, when he wrote it, he thought that the 

 unthinking may easily be orthodox, and that the loudest 

 professors were sometimes the shabbiest actors in the 

 drama of life." 



Dick was of opinion that dogmatism in interpretation, 

 was equally out of place in geology as in divinity. He 

 thought that man's proper work at present was to search 



