It is all very amusing!--I assure you I
have often laughed at it. It is as if they took Heaven by its
private ear in confidence, and said, 'See now, I want to put things
straight with you if I can!--and if a few church-ornaments, and
candlesticks will pacify you, why, take them and hold your tongue!'"
He paused, but the Cardinal was silent.
"I know," went on the Abbe, "that you think I am indulging in the
worst kind of levity to talk in this way. It sounds horrible to you.
And you perhaps think I cannot be serious. My dear Saint Felix,
there never was a more serious man than I. I would give worlds--
universes--to believe as you do! I have written books of religious
discussion,--not because I wanted the notice of the world for them,-
-for that I do not care about,--but for the sake of wrestling out
the subject for myself, and making my pen my confidant. I tell you I
envy the woman who can say her rosary with the simple belief that
the Virgin Mary hears and takes delight in all those repetitions.
Nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to have composed a
volume of prayers,--a 'Garland of Flowers'--such as an innocent girl
could hold in her hands, and bend her sweet eyes over. It would have
been a taste of the sensual-spiritual, or the spiritual-sensual,--
which is the most exquisite of all human sensations.
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