"Of course it is inadequate," she answered. "When men know nothing, how can they teach, especially about Him,
... 'Who, though vast and strange
When with intellect we gaze,
Yet close to the heart steals in
In a thousand tender ways.'"
"O my dear sister, I am so miserable!"
"My dear Ian, when we withdraw ourselves from that circle within which the Bible is a definite authority, we must be miserable."
"Why?"
"We have then only a negative religion, and pray what is there between us and the next lower down negation? And I assure you it would become easy to repeat this descending movement again and again. Indeed, there could be no reason for making a stand at any point, until——"
"Until?"
"The end!"
"Then?"
"There might come the dread of sliding away toward the brink—and over the brink—of the precipice."