It  is  the  part  of  a  fool  to  mitigate  its  horrors — when,
with  all  its  terrors,  it  scarcely  deters  men  from  sin —
simply  to  take  an  objection  out  of  the  mouths  of
scoffers  when  they  say  that  we  worship  Moloch  as
our  God  Jehovah."

Such  was  one  vigorous  representation.  From
another  correspondent  of  greater  philosophical  power
came  the  following  : —

"  Let  me  thank  you  for  sending  me  the  Dundee
Advertiser,  containing  your  hearty  article  on  Robert-
son of  Brighton.  I  find  I  am  too  ignorant  of  that
noble  fellow,  and  must  take  the  earliest  opportunity
I  can  of  obtaining  a  more  satisfactory  knowledge  of
him.  The  course  you  indicate  him  to  have  entered
on  is  quite  that  which  strikes  me  as  the  right  one  in
these  days.  The  negative  of  'enlightenment'  has


420  GEORGE  GILFILLAN.
alone  obtained  since  the  time  of  Voltaire  and  before
it.  Men  have  only  said  '  No '  since  then  ;  '  this  is
unreasonable/  and  '  that  is  unreasonable.'  But  this
no  has  been  but  a  multitude  of  individual  noes  ;  there
has  been  no  result  but  a  Babel  of  individuals,  each  for
himself.  It  is  this  anarchy  that  is  the  hopeless  thing  ;
for  there  is  no  consensus  in  it,  no  universal.  The  true
thing  to  do  now  seems  to  be  the  affirmative.  The  sun
is  old  and  undoubtedly  spotted.  It  is  only  madden-
ing, however,  for  each  of  us  to  go  on  pointing  out
that  only,  in  his  own  way  denouncing  and  lamenting.
