“Possibly it may he called philosophy”—­returned Alwyn—­“It is not Christianity.”

“Oh, Christianity!”—­and the gentleman gave a portentous sniff of contempt—­“That is a system of faith that is rapidly dying out; fast falling into contempt!—­In fact, with the scientific and cultured classes, it is already an exploded doctrine.”

“Indeed!”—­Alwyn’s glance swept over him with a faint, cold scorn —­“And what religion do the scientific and cultured classes propose to invent as a substitute?”

“There’s no necessity for any substitute,”—­said the gentleman rather impatiently..  For those who want to believe in something supernatural, there are plenty of different ideas afloat, Esoteric Buddhism for example,—­and what is called Scientific Religion and Natural Religion,—­any, or all, of these are sufficient to gratify the imaginative cravings of the majority, till they have been educated out of imagination altogether:—­but, for advanced thinkers, religion is really not required at all.” [Footnote:  The world is indebted to Mr. Andrew Lang for the newest “logical” explanation of the Religious Instinct in Man:—­namely, that the very idea of God first arose from the terror and amazement of an ape at the sound of the thunder!  So choice and soul-moving a definition of Deity needs no comment!]

“Nay, I think we must worship something!” retorted Alwyn, a fine satire in his rich voice, “if it be only self!—­Self is an excellent deity!—­accommodating, and always ready to excuse sin,—­ why should we not build temples, raise altars, and institute services to the glory and honor of self?—­Perhaps the time is ripe for a public proclamation of this creed?—­It will be easily propagated, for the beginnings of it are in the heart of every man, and need very little fostering!”

His thrilling tone, together with the calm, half-ironical persuasiveness of his manner, sent a sudden hush down the table.  Every one turned eagerly toward him,—­some amused, some wondering, some admiring, while Villiers felt his heart beating with uncomfortable quickness,—­he hated religious discussions, and always avoided them, and now here was Alwyn beginning one, and he the centre of a company of persons who were for the most part avowed agnostics, to whose opinions his must necessarily be in direct and absolute opposition!  At the same time, he remembered that those who were sure of their faith never lost their temper about it,—­and as he glanced at his friend’s perfectly serene and coldly smiling countenance, he saw there was no danger of his letting slip, even for a moment, his admirable power of self-command.  The Duc de la Santoisie, meanwhile, settling his mustache, and gracefully waving one hand, on which sparkled a large diamond ring, bent forward a little with a courteous, deprecatory gesture.

“I think”—­he said, in soft, purring accents,—­“that my friend, Dr. Mudley”—­here he bowed toward the saturnine looking individual who had entered into conversation with Alwyn—­“takes a very proper, and indeed a very lofty, view of the whole question.  The moral sense”—­and he laid a severely weighty emphasis on these words,—­“the moral sense of each man, if properly trained, is quite sufficient to guide him through existence, without any such weakness as reliance on a merely supposititious Deity.”