The Ball and The Cross

ot up out of the grass and fern in which he had been lying,

he said shor

answered MacIan. "What

t looks so-I don't know what the word is-so sensible. Don't fancy I'm under any illusions about Arcadian virtue and the innocent villagers. Men make beasts of themselves there with drink, but they don't d

ceremonial. One has to get t

of what?" a

lied Turnbull. "Perhaps it is the South S

also lifted his large limbs off the

he said, "but... I always though

individual, and Nature loving the strongest, and

ey eyes stood open wit

we, the Free-thinkers, that Bradlaugh, or Holyoake, or Ingersoll, b

cIan calmly. "It seems to me

o mortal combat, and tied a tradesman up with ropes, and chased an Oxford Fellow across five

usual mildness; "but I admit that I know litt

ite suddenly, and set o

village. Come down to the nearest decent

follow you," sai

we go a step farther. Do you know that an idea has just struck me of great simplicity and of some cogency. Do not by any means let us drop our intentions of settling our d

," answered MacIan with tranqui

ng down the steep road to the v

the hill. The upper of these two roads was decorated with a big public house, a butcher's shop, a small public house, a sweetstuff shop, a very small public house, and an illegible signpost. The lower of the two roads boasted a horse-pond, a post office, a gentleman's garden with very high hedges,

in regarding the Inn, the seat and the sitter in it, as alike parts of a pure and marmoreal antiquity. And in the Valencourt Arms festivity itself had some solemnity and decorum; and beer was drunk with reverence, as it ought to be. Into the principal parlour of this place entered two strangers, who found themselves, as is al

be friends made us want to go on fighting. It is only natural that the

ut of it by twos and threes, crying clamorous good nights to a solitary old toper that rem

ot uncommon with him. "I am to understand, then

in nature, just as I do not believe in Odin. She is a myth. It is not merely that I do

s monotonous way, settling

e of grass began to tear up the earth and eat it; it was interfering with nature, if there is any nature. The first wild ox began to tear up the grass and eat it; he was interferin

mily, "the superhuman, the supernatural is jus

ead out of his pewt

ite another thing; the case of the supernatura

same about the natural. If the natural does not exist the supe

all I know. But everyone does know that there is a division between the things that as a matter of

MacIan sleepily. Turnbull struc

in heaven!"

t exist," mu

to sit there and say that you, like anybody else, would not recognize the difference between a natu

ting up. "One can't talk of this kind of thing under a ceilin

of evening and they stepped out into

I want to talk; and I will try to talk so that you understand. For at present you

or a second or tw

I was wrong. Yes, there is a real difference between the natural and the supernatural: if you flew up into that blue sky this

y boring the point of his swo

ble than the natural; for the supernatural is a direct message from God, who is reason. I was taught that some things are natural and some things divine. I mean that

urnbull truculently.

e was a difference between the grass and a man's will; and the difference was that

!" said

man's free will isn't supernatural, why

he began to speak, but MacIan continued

ve in a part of it? It was all one thing to me. God had authority because he was God. Man had authority because he was man. You cannot prove that

approve of it," said Turn

mly; "that man who talked

about common morality, from the same people, in the same way. And you mean to say that if one may be disputed, so may the other. Well, let that pass for the moment. But let me ask you a question in turn. Did not this system of yours, which y

road, down which the last straggle

hief and us did exist; but it was never anything like the distinction between the human and the divin

said T

was s

"what's the matter with yo

Ian at last, "at that wh

ll in a tired way, "I

MacIan, shaking hi

alf-tipsy yokel who was

mean?" aske

hen he sings a song. All your philosophies and political systems are young compared to him. All your hoary cathedrals, yes, even the Eternal Church

o his feet with a

you goin

im," cried MacIan, "

f laugh. "Ask that intoxicat

image of God; and you talk of every man being a citizen and enlightened enough to govern. But if every man typifies God, there is God.

ander whirled away into the grey twilight, T

William, who (it appeared) lived in London town and who after the second rise vanished rather abruptly from the train of thought. The rest was almost entirely about beer and was thick with

emarkable rustic physiognomy in which it seems that all the features stand out independently from t

ons, opened the question without delay. He explained the philosophic position in words as short and simple as possible. But the singular old ma

. "Atheists! I know their sort, master. Athe

rk and confused; but they were evidently suff

that a man should be connected with th

uivering stick in the di

Grassley old church that is. Pulled down

, "that you think that there should be

"Priests! I know 'un. What they want in England

t you," s

mitive innocence does not seem very successful. Let me try. What you want, my friend, is y

o speak. I'm a man, I am. I don't want no votin' nor priests. I say a man's a man; that's what I say. If a man a'

aid Turnbull,

ly, stopping and striking his stick on the

cIan, falling like a sword. "And you have kept close

d ni

nt on wildly singi

l; "he didn't seem able to get much

ot beyond it?"

uriously. "Are you turni

Catholics have only in that sense got as far as realizing that man is a man. But yo