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Page 21
I thanked the doctor; and after consulting Bainbridge, said I would
avail myself of the offer to return at once to Bellevue. I appreciated
that it would be Bainbridge and not I who would have to manage Peters.
It was a disappointment to think of missing Peters' story at first-hand;
but I hoped to return by the middle of the afternoon, and I knew that
Bainbridge could repeat with accuracy all that the old sailor should
say. I doubted whether Bainbridge could extract very much from the old
man's senile intellect before my return, as the aged voyager was, both
in mind and body, quite feeble, and of little endurance. Besides, when
once started and warmed to his subject--and very little information
could be gained till he was so started--he would no doubt be garrulous.
Doctor Castleton and I started for town at a brisk trot, the doctor
having parted from Bainbridge in the best of humors. His last words,
shouted back as we drove off, were, "Don't forget the calomel at
nine-thirty, doctor; and add to the treatment whatever you may think
best. I trust you implicitly. Send me word if you need help."
Strange man! So pleasant, and so harsh; so grand, and so ignoble; so
great, and so small; so broad, and so narrow; so kind, and so unkind. As
my mind ran along in this channel, I wondered how one and the same man
could express the views that he had proclaimed in connection with his
medical association, and yet speak of life and death as he had spoken to
me on the day preceding. What did he really believe? Could the
actor-temperament, displaying itself on most occasions, in connection
with a display at times of his natural self, as we say, account for all
his eccentricities?
As we fairly flew along the forest road, nearing our destination by a
mile in each three minutes, we came to the only hill on the entire route
which was considerable, both in extent and in degree of gradient. Doctor
Castleton allowed the gait of his horses to slacken into a slow walk;
and--ever nervous, ever active--he reached into the side pocket of his
linen duster, and drew forth a small book, apparently fresh from the
publisher.
"'The Mistakes of the Gods, and Other Lectures,'" he said, looking at
the back of the volume, and reading its title. "Ah, 'The Gods.' The
title, sir, almost tells the whole story; and so far as you and I are
concerned, it is almost a waste of time for us to open the book--and a
crime against themselves for ignorant men to do so."
"The author must be one of your 'holy terrors' that I hear mentioned," I
said. "A Western 'bad man' no doubt. Sad! sad! is it not?"
"Oh, no, no; the author is not a cowboy--he's a perfect gentleman--as
polished as I am; and there's nothing very sad in the book. It contains
several lectures in the line of agnostic agitation, which were from time
to time delivered by a very talented, but, as I think, mistaken man.
When I say mistaken, I do not mean mistaken in the sense that our church
people might apply the term to him; for our church people seem to
misunderstand him, almost as greatly as he misapprehends the purposes of
nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon Christian workers. But mark my words,
sir, you will soon, in England, hear of this young 'infidel' lecturer;
for with his keen brain, his invincible logic, his concise and beautiful
rhetoric, he will soon be recognized as the most popular living
agnostic. His home is not far distant from Bellevue, and I have
frequently heard him lecture. I think him the best platform orator I
have ever listened to, though I have twice been charmed by the eloquence
of Phillips, and a dozen times by that of Beecher. I shall not outrage
your own and my own manhood by alluding to anything which the more
partisan church people say of this brilliant agnostic; and I say what I
do, only because in your distant home you may some day wonder just what
is behind an agnostic demonstration such as he is leading up to, and
which is certain to centralize the dissatisfied spirit of the country
into an anti-church propaganda of no mean proportions. I am opposed to
such a movement; but I believe in truth as the only durable weapon, and
I love truth for truth's sake--I should refuse to enter the gateway of
heaven if liars were admitted. I cannot go into the history of this man,
but this much is fact: There are reasons which cause him to believe that
in striking at Christianity he is performing a highly praiseworthy
action. In this belief he is as sincere and as enthusiastic in his cold
logical way, as is any Christian in _his_ belief. If duplicity were
possible to this man--or if he could have found it consistent with his
sense of right even to keep silence concerning his opinion on religious
subjects--he would by this time have been Governor of Illinois; and,
with his ability, there is no elective office in the country to which he
might not aspire with reasonable certainty of success. He himself is
aware of all this, as are all who know him. At the early age of
thirty-three, before his views were generally known, he was our
Attorney-General. No political party will ever again dare to nominate
him for an office."
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