Page:Orange Grove.djvu/72

 their fathers, rose up to protest against it in the name of the religion they professed; and the persecutions inflicted on them for daring, to attack the corruptions, naturally led them to a bolder renunciation of the forms and creeds so tenaciously cherished, and a more rigid adherence to their own convictions. Thus began a superstitious reverence for opinions, often trivial in themselves, and an undue importance attached to questions whose only merit consisted in the defence of the great principle of freedom of thought and expression. Because amusements had not been kept within rational bounds, they were wholly banished, and the divine gift of music condemned."

"I think it is wicked to condemn anything so refining and elevating in its influence as music, and for no other reason than that it is pleasing to the ear. I would go without the crown before I would take up such a cross. It is no more rational than to mortify the flesh as the Catholics do. I had a good deal of sympathy with that Popish priest in Robinson Crusoe. Seems to me he was about the right sort of a man, and Crusoe himself passed through similar experiences to John Bunyan."

"Just as I said," again interrupted Walter, "you can accede to any thing, or draw a comparison or contrast that would never enter another person's head. I guess you'd find some of the graver sort would shake their heads at you for daring to place Robinson Crusoe on the same footing with Pilgrim's Progress."

"I know that Priscilla Greenwood was greatly