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Bates, Arlo, 1850-1918

"The Puritans"


"It isn't of much use to argue the matter, I suppose," were her words.
"It seems to me as if in talking to you I see my old mental self in a
mirror, if you'll pardon me for saying so. When we come out from any
conviction, and most of all from a religious belief, it seems to us a
profound misfortune that any man should still believe what we have
decided is false. By and by I think you will see that the chief point
is that a man shall believe. What he believes doesn't so much matter.
It must be the thing that best suits his temperament."
"Then to outgrow a dogma is to weaken our power. It certainly weakens
our faith in general."
"Yes," she assented, "that is the price we must pay for freedom; but if
Philip can still believe, I have long ago passed the place where I
should regret it. Perhaps he is to be envied."
Maurice shook his head.
"We may feel like that in some moods," he concluded with a smile, "but
certainly nothing would induce you to change places with him." "Oh,
no," she cried; "certainly not. But that is mere womanly lack of
logic!"

XXXIII

A MINT OF PHRASES IN HIS BRAIN
Love's Labor's Lost, i.


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