To the man who has habitually contemplated Christianity as interesting all rational finite beings, as the very
spirit of truth
, the application of the prophecies as so many fortune-tellings and soothsayings to particular events and persons, must needs be felt as childish — like faces seen in the moon, or the sediments of a teacup. But reverse this, and a Pope and a Buonaparte can never be wanting, — the molehill becomes an Andes. On the other hand, there are few writers whose works could be so easily defecated as More's. Mere omission would suffice; and perhaps one half (an unusually large proportion) would come forth from the furnace pure gold; if but a fourth, how great a gain!
[Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness]
Dedication.
Servorum illius omnium indignissimus.
Servus indignissimus,
or