grades of intelligence just as there are grades of creation; you cannot instruct a caterpillar as you instruct a man.  Now there are many human beings who are of the caterpillar quality of brain—­what are you to do with them?  They would not understand God as manifested in the solar system, but they would try to please some favourite Saint by good conduct.  Is it not better that they should believe in the Saint than in nothing?”

“I cannot think it well for anyone to believe in a lie,” said Aubrey slowly, taken aback despite himself by Gherardi’s sudden gentleness, “There is a magnificent simplicity in truth;—­truth which, the more it is tested, the truer it proves.  Where is there any necessity of falsehood?  Surely the marvels of nature could be explained with as much ease as the supposed miracles of a Saint?”

“I doubt it!” answered Gherardi smiling, “You must admit, my dear sir, that our scientific men are a great deal too abstruse for the majority;—­in some cases they are almost too abstruse for themselves!  You spoke just now of the priests of Egypt;—­the oracles of Memphis were clear reading compared to the involved sentences of some of our modern scientists!  Scientific books are hard nuts to crack even for the highly educated; but for the uneducated, believe me, the personality of a Saint is much more consoling than the movements of a star.  Besides, Humanity must have something human to love and to revere.  The infinite gradations of the Mind of God through Matter, appeal to none but those of the very highest intellectual capability.”

Aubrey was silent a moment, then he said,

“But even the most ignorant can understand Christ,—­Christ as He revealed Himself to the world in perfect beauty and simplicity as ’a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.’  There needs no Vatican, no idolatry of the Pope, no superstitious images, no shrines of healing and reliquaries to explain His sublime intention!”

“I am afraid, Mr. Leigh, you entertain a very optimistic view of mankind,” said Gherardi, “Unfortunately Christ is not enough for many people.  Christ was an Incarnation of God, and though He became Man he ‘knew not sin.’  He therefore stands apart; an Example, but not a Companion.  There are a certain class of sinners who like to think of Saints;—­human beings constituted like themselves, who have committed errors, even crimes, and repented of them.  This is a similar spirit to that of the child who catches hold of any convenient support he can find to guide his first tottering steps across the floor to his mother,-the Saint helps the feeble-footed folk to totter their way towards Christ.  I assure you, our Church considers everything that is necessary for the welfare of its weakest brethren.”

“Yes,—­I grant you that it is full of subtle means for approaching and commanding the ignorant,” said Aubrey.  “But to the intellectual forces it offers no progress.”