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CHAPTER XIV



         WHAT HE THOUGHT






         One last word.
            Since this sort of details might, particularly at the present
         moment, and to use an expression now in fashion, give to
         the Bishop of D—— a certain ‘pantheistical’ physiognomy,
         and induce the belief, either to his credit or discredit, that
         he entertained one of those personal philosophies which are
         peculiar to our century, which sometimes spring up in soli-
         tary spirits, and there take on a form and grow until they
         usurp the place of religion, we insist upon it, that not one
         of those persons who knew Monseigneur Welcome would
         have thought himself authorized to think anything of the
         sort. That which enlightened this man was his heart. His
         wisdom was made of the light which comes from there.
            No systems; many works. Abstruse speculations contain
         vertigo; no, there is nothing to indicate that he risked his
         mind in apocalypses. The apostle may be daring, but the
         bishop must be timid. He would probably have felt a scru-
         ple at sounding too far in advance certain problems which
         are, in a manner, reserved for terrible great minds. There is
         a sacred horror beneath the porches of the enigma; those

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