“Why not?” demanded Alwyn..  “Why should not clerics be told, once and for all, how ill they perform their sacred mission?  Look at the wilderness of spreading Atheism to-day! ... and look at the multitudes of men and women who are hungering and thirsting for a greater comprehension of spiritual things than they have hitherto had!—­and yet the preachers trudge drowsily on in the old ruts they have made for themselves, and give neither sympathy nor heed to the increasing pain, feverish bewilderment, and positive want of those they profess to guide.  Concerning science, too, what is the good of telling a toiling, more or less suffering race, that there are eighteen millions of suns in the Milky Way, and that viewed by the immensity of the Universe, man is nothing but a small, mean, and perishable insect?  Humanity hears the statement with dull, perplexed brain, and its weight of sorrow is doubled,—­ it demands at once, why, if an insect, its insect life should be at all, if nothing is to come of it but weariness and woe?  The marvels of scientific discovery offer no solace to the huge Majority of the Afflicted, unless we point the lesson that the Soul of Man is destined to live through more than these wonders; and that the millions of planetary systems in the Milky Way are but the Alpha Beta of the sublime Hereafter which is our natural heritage, if we will but set ourselves earnestly to win it.  Moreover, we should not foolishly imagine that we are to lead good lives merely for the sake of some suggested reward or wages,—­no, —­but simply because in practising progressive good we are equalizing ourselves and placing ourselves in active working harmony with the whole progressive good of the Creator’s plan.  We have no more right to do a deliberately evil thing, than a musician has a right to spoil a melody by a false note on his instrument.  Why should we willfully jar God’s music, of which we are a part?  I tell you that religion, as taught to-day, is rather one of custom and fear than love and confidence,—­men cower and propitiate, when they should be full of thankfulness and praise,—­ and as for any reserve on these matters, I have none,—­in fact, I fail to see why truth, . . spiritual truth, . . should not be openly proclaimed now, even as it is sure to be proclaimed hereafter.”

His manner had warmed with his words, and he lifted his head with an involuntary gesture of eloquent resolve, his eyes flashing splendid scorn for all things hypocritical and mean.  Villiers looked at him, feeling curiously moved and impressed by his fervent earnestness.

“Well, I was right in one thing, at any rate, Alwyn”—­he said softly.. “you are changed,—­there’s not a doubt about it!  But it seems to me the change is distinctly for the better.  It does my heart good to hear you speak with such distinct and manly emphasis on a subject, which, though it is one of the burning questions of the day, is too often treated irreverently, or altogether dismissed with a few sentences of languid banter or cheap sarcasm.