“You would not then persecute a man or woman with ridicule for believing more than you do?” said Lady Delacour.
“Those who persecute, to overturn religion, can scarcely pretend to more philosophy, or more liberality, than those who persecute to support it,” said Dr. X——.
“Perhaps, doctor, you are only speaking popularly?”
“I believe what I now say to be true,” said Dr. X——, “and I always endeavour to make truth popular.”
“But possibly these are only truths for ladies. Doctor X—— may be such an ungallant philosopher, as to think that some truths are not fit for ladies. He may hold a different language with gentlemen.”
“I should not only be an ungallant but a weak philosopher,” said Dr. X——, “if I thought that truth was not the same for all the world who can understand it. And who can doubt Lady Delacour’s being of that number?”
Lady Delacour, who, at the beginning of this conversation, had spoken guardedly, from the fear of lowering the doctor’s opinion of her understanding, was put at her ease by the manner in which he now spoke; and, half laying aside the tone of raillery, she said to him, “Well, doctor! seriously, I am not so illiberal as to condemn all chaplains for one, odious as he was. But where to find his contrast in these degenerate days? Can you, who are a defender of the faith, and so forth, assist me? Will you recommend a chaplain to my lord?”
“Willingly,” said Dr. X——; “and that is what I would not say for a world of fees, unless I were sure of my man.”
“What sort of a man is he?”
“Not a buck parson.”