HIGHLAND PEASANTRY. 131 



bigot in the Queen of England, who worships so 

 modestly in the village kirk." 



" Bravo, Hope ! you are not such a Eadical after all." 



" I a Eadical ! bless the man. I ! game-preserver, 



Church of England pillar, and most loyal subject ! 



a bit of a grumbler, it may be, but that is an 



English habit. Yet, Major, I do not go in with 



the eternal tinkering spirit of some in Parliament, 



their calling for statistics of pen-wipers and 



sneezes from Irish snuff." 



" Hyperbole yet virtuous thy instincts, my boy. 

 Still, you must take a definite side by-and-by : 

 individual crotchets don't work." 



"But would it not be nice if individual feelings 

 were enough ? " 



"A Christian world, you would say?" 



"Yes, if distinguished from a theological. No- 

 thing seems plainer than one's duties ; but men vary 

 infinitely as to what is orthodox." 



"Do you hold no merit in faith, you hetero- 

 doxical trout- slayer ? " 



" Not quite as some do : for in mere belief 

 conditions are hardly equal ; some are soft and 

 credulous, and others as hard and logical." 



" Then whence the virtue of faith ? " 



K2 



