"
"But," said Lady Mabel, coolly, with a provoking insensibility to her
danger, "there are, not only in Latin, but in Spanish and Portuguese,
many of these hymns to the Holy Virgin--for, doubtless, she was a holy
virgin--exquisitely happy, both in words and music. A devout nation
has poured its heart into them."
"They are all idolatrous, every one of them. There is not a word of
authority for the worship of her in Scripture, and the texts of God's
book are our only safe guide."
Lady Mabel, while fanning a fire that never went out, was gazing
around on the landscape. Suddenly she said: "You are a great stickler,
Moodie, for the words of Scripture, yet these idolatrous people often
stick to it more closely than you do."
"I will trouble you, my lady, to name an instance," Moodie answered,
in a defiant tone.
"Do you see those men in that field, with three yoke of oxen going
round and round on one spot?"
"I see them. But what of them?"
"While you and other heretic Scots are racking your brains to devise
how to thresh corn by machines, these pious people, in simple
obedience to the injunction, 'Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the
corn,' are treading out their corn with unmuzzled oxen.
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