My, what a pull that was. Thinks I to myself, "Friend, if that don't
take the wrinkles out of the parchment case of your conscience, then I
don't know nothin', that's all." Oh dear, how all America is overrun
with such cattle as this; how few teach religion, or practise it
right. How hard it is to find the genuine article. Some folks keep the
people in ignorance, and make them believe the moon is made of green
cheese; others, with as much sense, fancy the world is. One has old
saints, the other invents new ones. One places miracles at a distance,
t'other makes them before their eyes, while both are up to mesmerism.
One says there is no marryin' in Paradise, the other says, if that's
true, it's hard, and it is best to be a mormon and to have polygamy
here. Then there is a third party who says, neither of you speak
sense, it is better to believe nothin' than to give yourself up to be
crammed. Religion, Squire, ain't natur, because it is intended to
improve corrupt natur, it's no use talkin' therefore, it can't be left
to itself, otherwise it degenerates into something little better than
animal instinct. It must be taught, and teaching must have authority
as well as learning. There can be no authority where there is no power
to enforce, and there can be no learning where there is no training.
If there must be normal schools to qualify schoolmasters, there must
be Oxfords and Cambridges to qualify clergymen.
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