seen an infidel might well be pardoned for supposing that he must
always be wickedly blind.

About a dozen of these tracts settled the infidel and the whole mass of
unbelief from the time of Celsus downwards. The President's task was
all the easier because he knew nothing of German literature; and,
indeed, the word "German" was a term of reproach signifying something
very awful, although nobody knew exactly what it was.

Systematic theology was the next science to which the President
directed us. We used a sort of Calvinistic manual which began by
setting forth that mankind was absolutely in God's power. He was our
maker, and we had no legal claim whatever to any consideration from
Him. The author then mechanically built up the Calvinistic creed, step
by step, like a house of cards. Systematic theology was the great
business of our academical life. We had to read sermons to the
President in class, and no sermon was considered complete and proper
unless it unfolded what was called the scheme of redemption from
beginning to end.

So it came to pass that about the Bible, as I have already said, we
were in darkness. It was a magazine of texts, and those portions of it
which contributed nothing in the shape of texts, or formed no part of
the scheme, were neglected. Worse still, not a word was ever spoken to
us telling us in what manner to strengthen the reason, to subdue the
senses, or in what way to deal with all the varied diseases of that
soul of man which we were to set ourselves to save. All its failings,
infinitely more complicated than those of the body, were grouped as
"sin," and for these there was one quack remedy. If the patient did
not like the remedy, or got no good from it, the fault was his.