Godliness;
he wished to know on which side it was to stand, and concluded by exhorting
Simeonites to a freer use of the tub. I cannot commend my hero's humour in this
matter; his tract is not brilliant, but I mention the fact as showing that at
this time he was something of a Saul, and took pleasure in persecuting the elect
- not, as I have said, that he had any hankering after skepticism, but because,
like the farmers in his father's village, though he would not stand seeing the
Christian religion made light of, he was not going to see it taken seriously if
he could help it. Ernest's friends thought his dislike for Simeonites was due to
his being the son of a clergyman who, it was known, bullied him; it is more
likely, however, that it rose from an unconscious sympathy with them, which, as
in St. Paul's case, in the end drew him into the ranks of those whom he had most
despised and hated.
 

                                   Chapter 48

Once recently, when he was down at home after taking his degree, his mother had
had a short conversation with him about his becoming a clergyman - set on
thereto by Theobald, who shrank from the subject himself. (This time it was
during a turn taken in the garden, and not on the sofa - which was reserved for
supreme occasions.)
    »You know, my dearest boy,« she said to him, »that papa« (she always called
Theobald papa, when talking to Ernest) »is so anxious you should not go into the
church blindly, and without fully realising the difficulties of a clergyman's
position. He has considered all of them himself, and has been shewn how small
they are, when they are faced boldly, but he wishes you too to feel them as
strongly and completely as possible before committing yourself to irrevocable
vows, so that you may never, never, have to regret the step you will have
taken.«
    This was the first time Ernest had heard that there were any difficulties,
and he not unnaturally enquired in a vague way after their nature.
    »That, my dear boy,« rejoined Christina, »is a question which I am not
fitted to enter upon either by nature or education. I might easily unsettle your
mind without being able to settle it again. Oh no! Such questions are far better
avoided by women, and, I should have thought, by men, but papa wished me to
speak to you upon the subject so that there might be no