Volume I Part 23 (1/2)
”And yet if it _should_ be true, my lord?” The minister said this in a tone that made the listener start. He bit his lips. But the feeling had subsided, as, with a sharp and hurried accent, he exclaimed--
”Why this pause? I am prepared to listen.”
”These stones,” continued the divine, ”were, of necessity, well known as public monuments existing at the time when these writings were first rehea.r.s.ed in the ears of all the people, because they are here referred to as testimonials of the event. But supposing them to have been set up on some unknown occasion, as you say, and that designing men in after-ages invented the book of Joshua, affirming it was written at the time of that imaginary event by Joshua himself, adducing this pile of stones in evidence of its truth, what is the answer which every one who heard it must have made to this witless falsehood? 'We know this pile of stones,' they would say; 'but of such an origin as thou hast related we have, not heard, nor even of this book of Joshua. Where has it been concealed, and from whence was it brought forth? Besides, it solemnly inculcates that this miraculous event, our fathers' pa.s.sage over Jordan, should be taught their children and children's children from that day forward, who were to be shown and carefully instructed as to the meaning and design of this very monument; but of this we have not so much as heard, nor has thy history been handed down to us from our forefathers.
It is a lying testimony, therefore, and we cannot receive it.' Yet do we find the children of Israel commemorating, handing down, and instructing their children from age to age into the meaning and design of these memorials, which instruction must at some time or another have had a beginning, having its commencement with the very events to which they refer, which events it would then have been impossible to make the people believe against the plain evidence of their senses. Is the chain complete, my lord?”
”But what has all this to do with thy religion?--a system far different, methinks, from the primitive inst.i.tutions of these remote ages.”
”The self-same reasoning will apply, and in precisely the same mode, to the miracles of our Lord and His apostles, together with their transmission by records from their times. The histories of the Old and New Testaments could not have been received at the time they were written, if they had not been true, because the priesthoods of Levi and of Christ,--the observance of the Sabbath, the pa.s.sover, and circ.u.mcision,--the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, are there represented as descending by uninterrupted succession from the time of their respective inst.i.tution. It would have been as impossible to persuade men in after-ages that they had been circ.u.mcised or baptized, had celebrated pa.s.sovers and Sabbaths under the ministration of a certain order of priests, if it were not so, as to make them believe they had gone through the seas dryshod, seen the dead raised, and so forth. But without such a persuasion neither the law nor gospel could have been received.”
”Yet, methinks, if I were the founder of a new religion, and had all the stores of Nature and Omnipotence at my command--those boasted attributes of thy Law-giver--I would not have left it liable to doubt, to the sneers and cavils of any one who might question my pretensions, or my right to control their belief. The truths of Omnipotence should be clear as the sun's beam, and unquestioned as his existence.”
”'If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe though one should rise from the dead.' 'Tis not for lack of proof; 'tis for lack of will. 'Tis not for lack of testimony, one t.i.the of which would have gained a ready a.s.sent to any of the drivelling absurdities of heathen mythology,--'tis for lack of inclination; 'tis a wish that these revelations may not be true; and where the heart inclines, the judgment is easily bia.s.sed.”
”True, 'as the fool thinks.' The proverb is somewhat stale. I marvel thou findest not its application to thine own bias, perdie!”
”At any rate, if I am fooled, I am none the worse for my belief, if my creed be not true; but if man, as thou wouldest fain hope, is like the beasts that perish, I am still at quits with thee. And if this dream of thine should prove but a dream, and thou shouldest awake--to the horrors of the pit, and the torments of the worm that dieth not!”
”Peace, thou croaker! I did not send for thee to prophesy, but to prove; I would break a lance and hold a tilt at thine argument. Now, I have a weapon in reserve which shall break down thy defences--the web of thy reasoning shall vanish. The fear of punishment, and the hope of future reward, held out as a bait to the cowardly and the selfish, shall be of no avail when the object of my research is accomplished. Hast thou not heard of the supreme elixir--the pabulum of life, which, if a man find, he may renew his years, and bid defiance alike to time and the destroyer? Then what will become of thy boasted system of opinions, begotten by priesthood and nurtured by folly?”
”And this phantasma, which man has never seen; which exists not upon the least shadow of evidence--which has not even the lowest dictates of sense and plausibility in its favour--on this _Ignis fatuus_, eluding the grasp, and for ever mocking the folly of its pursuers, thou canst build thine hopes, because it flatters thy wishes and thy fears?”
”My fears!” said the Baron, rising: ”and who speaks of my _fears_? I would chastise thee, thou insolent priest, wert thou not protected by the laws of courtesy.”
”Yes, _thy_ fears, Baron Monteagle,” said this undaunted minister of the truth. ”Thou wouldest not care to face thy lady's cousin! His blood yet crieth from the ground!”
”And who dares whisper, even to the walls, that I murdered John Harrington?” cried the astonished adept, trembling with ill-suppressed rage. ”Methinks he holdeth his life too cheap who doth let this foul suspicion even rest upon his thoughts.” He drew his sword as he spoke; but the minister stood undaunted, surveying his adversary with a look of pity and commiseration.
”Put up thy sword. Thou hast enow of sins to repent thee of without an old man's blood added to the number.”
”How hast thou dared this insult? By my ”----
”Nay, spare your oaths, my lord; they are better unspoken than unkept.”
”Have I sent for thee to make sport? To gibe and taunt me even to my face?”
”I'll tell thee for what cause thou didst crave my presence,” replied the other, firmly. ”Thou hast misgivings lest thine own hopes should not be true; lest thou shouldest perchance depart with a lie in thy right hand. Thou didst send for me, an unworthy minister to the faith which I profess, that by thy subtlety thou mightest deceive thyself; that by overthrowing my arguments thine own might be strengthened, for truly 'tis a comfortable thing to have our opinions confirmed through the weakness of an opponent.”
”And daredst thou, with such apprehensions upon thy stomach, to commit thyself alone to my mercy and my keeping? Suppose I should reward thee according to thine own base suspicions. Understandest thou me?”
”Yes, proud and guilty man, too well! But I fear thee not!”
”What! holdest thou a charmed life? Thou mayest fall into a broil as well as other men. And who shall require thy blood at my hands?”
”Ere I left,” said the divine, warily, ”I whispered a word in your cousin Beaumont's ear. Should I not return, he will be here anon.
Peradventure I am not misunderstood. Thou hadst need be careful of my life, otherwise thine own may be in jeopardy!”
A fierce and terrible brightness, like the lurid flashes from his own torment, burst from his eye. The very anger and malice he strove to quell made it burn still hotter. His visage gathered blackness, cloud hurrying on cloud, like the grim billows of the storm across a glowing atmosphere. Rapid was the transition. Rage, apprehension, abhorrence,--all that hate and malignity could express, threw their appalling shadows over his features. Still the dark hints uttered by his visitor seemed to hold him in check. Chafed, maddened, yet not daring to execute the vengeance he desired, he strode through the apartment with an uneasy and perturbed gait. He paused at times, darting a look at the minister as if about to address him. Suddenly he stood still, nerving his spirit to some awful question.
”My cousin John Harrington died in his own chamber. In this house, G.o.d wot. Thou didst shrive him at his last s.h.i.+ft, and how sayest thou he was poisoned?”