'The system is not ours, but Divine.'
'There was a Divine system in the Wilderness, but with how many did it succeed?'
'According to that,' said Clement, 'nothing would be anybody's fault.'
'And,' said Geraldine, 'did it not succeed with all the mighty men who overlived Joshua?'
'True; but even of that generation, who had never seen Egypt, there were many who lacked faith to drive out the Canaanites. It is the same story over and over again. People who have been led out of something like Egypt, are apt to think those secure who have never been from under the shadow of the Cloud, and have known no bread but manna. We forget how much depends on being "mixed with faith in the hearers."'
'Faith cannot be given from without,' said Clement.
'Certainly not; but looking back at our dealing with our earlier pupils, I suspect that we worked away with the peculiarities we had newly discovered, rather than with the great universal foundations. I am sure we did so with you, Underwood: though happily there was stuff enough beneath to prevent us from doing more than make you unnecessarily priggish.'
'Geraldine can testify that that was done to your hand, Sir,' said Clement, laughing. 'I believe I should have made any place I cared for odious in the ears of my family.'
'We did not know how much party spirit we infused, fancying that once in our groove all must go right. Now, I believe Angela ought to have been held back. She would have done better in a commonplace well-principled school.'
'I don't think her teachers were deceived in her,' said Cherry.