Then I looked across at him suddenly as he lay there leering above his goatlike beard; and for the moment I thought he was not Pan but the Devil. No mortal words can express the immense, the insane incongruity and unnatural perversion of thought involved in saying such a thing at such a moment and in such a place. For one moment I was in the mood in which men burned witches; and then a sense of absurdity equally enormous seemed to open about me like a dawn. “Why, of course,” I said after a moment’s reflection, “if it hadn’t been for phallic worship, they would have built the spire pointing downwards and standing on its own apex.” I could have sat in that field and laughed for an hour. My friend did not seem offended, for indeed he was never thin-skinned about his scientific discoveries. I had only met him by chance and I never met him again, and I believe he is now dead; but though it has nothing to do with the argument, it may be worth while to mention the name of this adherent of Higher Thought and interpreter of primitive religious origins; or at any rate the name by which he was known. It was Louis de Rougemont.
Esa imagen demente de la iglesia de Kent apoyada sobre la punta de su aguja, como en algún viejo cuento rústico al revés, siempre vuelve a mi imaginación cuando oigo decir estas cosas sobre los orígenes paganos; y acude en auxilio de mi risa de gigantes. Entonces siento tanta cordialidad y caridad hacia todos los demás investigadores científicos, críticos superiores y autoridades en religión antigua y moderna, como hacia el pobre Louis de Rougemont. Pero el recuerdo de ese inmenso absurdo permanece como una especie de medida y freno con el cual mantenerme cuerdo, no sólo en cuanto a las iglesias cristianas, sino también en cuanto a los templos paganos. Ahora bien, muchísima gente ha hablado de los orígenes paganos tal como el distinguido viajero habló de los orígenes cristianos. En efecto,