‘So you agreed all the time,’ said Claude.
‘But,’ added Lily, ‘I never liked to know it; for it always seemed to be explaining away the Bible, and I cannot bear not to regard that lovely bow as a constant miracle.’
‘You will remember,’ said Claude, ‘that some commentators say it should be, “I have set my bow in the cloud,” which would make what already existed become a token for the future.
‘I don’t like that explanation,’ said Lily.
‘Others say,’ added Claude, ‘that there might have been no rain at all till the windows of heaven were opened at the flood, and, in that case, the first recurrence of rain must have greatly alarmed Noah’s family, if they had not been supported and cheered by the sight of the rainbow.’
‘That is reasonable,’ said Maurice.
‘I hate reason applied to revelation,’ said Lily.
‘It is a happier state of mind which does not seek to apply it,’ said Claude, looking at Phyllis, who had dried her tears, and stood in the window gazing at him, in the happy certainty that he was setting all right. Maurice respected Claude for his science as much as his character, and did not make game of this observation as he would if it had been made by one of his sisters, but he looked at him with an odd expression of perplexity. ‘You do not think ignorant credulity better than reasonable belief?’ said he at length.
‘It is not I only who think most highly of child-like unquestioning faith, Maurice,’ said Claude—‘faith, that is based upon love and reverence,’ added he to Lily. ‘But come, the shower is over, and philosophers, or no philosophers, I invite you to walk in the wood.’
‘Aye,’ said Maurice, ‘I daresay I can find some of the Arachne species there. By the bye, Claude, do you think papa would let me have a piece of plate-glass, eighteen by twenty, to cover my case of insects?’