"Whether it is your new faith," said the other, "makes you happy,
--whether you were not as happy in your old faith--whether there are
not thousands of Christians who are as happy with their faith (they
would say much happier, and I should say so too, if they not only
say they believe it, but believe it and practise it.), I will not
inquire; that my want of faith does not make me happy is a sad truth,
which I do not think it worth while to deny; though I must confess
that there have been many who have shared in my scepticism who have
not shared in my misery. It is just because they have not realized
what they did not believe; even as there are thousands of soi-disant
Christians who do not realize what they say they do believe; neither
the one nor the other are the happier or the more sorrowful for their
pretended tenets. This is simply because they stand in no need of
the admirable correctives supplied by your new theology; the present
engrosses their solicitudes and affections; and the mere talk of the
belief or the no-belief suffices to hush and tranquillize the heart
in relation to those most momentous subjects, on which if man has
not thought at all, he is a fool indeed. In either case the 'future'
and the 'eternal' seem so far removed that they seem to be an 'eternal
futurity.' Such parties look at that distant future much as children
at the stars; it is a point, an invisible speck, in the firmament.
A sixpence held near the eye appears larger; and brought sufficiently
close shuts out the universe altogether. But let us also forget the
future, and have a little talk of the past."

They resumed their conversation on subjects indifferent as far as this
journal is concerned, and I bade them good night.

---