And having relieved my conscience by this declaration, I was able to go on, and, speaking more currently and clearly than my wont, to show him that I had a mind to keep to my reformed creed; the more I saw of Popery the closer I clung to Protestantism; doubtless there were errors in every church, but I now perceived by contrast how severely pure was my own, compared with her whose painted and meretricious face had been unveiled for my admiration. I told him how we kept fewer forms between us and God; retaining, indeed, no more than, perhaps, the nature of mankind in the mass rendered necessary for due observance. I told him I could not look on flowers and tinsel, on wax-lights and embroidery, at such times and under such circumstances as should be devoted to lifting the secret vision to Him whose home is Infinity, and His being⁠—Eternity. That when I thought of sin and sorrow, of earthly corruption, mortal depravity, weighty temporal woe⁠—I could not care for chanting priests or mumming officials; that when the pains of existence and the terrors of dissolution pressed before me⁠—when the mighty hope and measureless doubt of the future arose in view⁠— then