'
'The whole army saw and attested them, sir, and that is evidence
enough for us; and those who saw them, and were not satisfied, must
have had their hearts hardened to unbelief.'
'And you think, Nawab Sahib, that a man is not master of his own
belief or disbelief in religions matters; though he is rewarded by an
eternity of bliss in paradise for the one, and punished by an
eternity of scorching in hell for the other?
'I do, sir, faith is a matter of feeling; and over our feelings we
have no control. All that we can do is to prevent their influencing
our actions, when these actions would be mischievous. I have a desire
to stretch out this arm, and crush that fly on the table, I can
control the act, and do so; but the desire is not under my control.'
'True, Nawab Sahib; and in this life we punish men not for their
feelings, which are beyond their control, but for their acts, over
which they have no control; and we are apt to think that the Deity
will do the same.'
'There are, sir,' continued the Nawab, 'three kinds of certainty--the
moral certainty, the mathematical, and the religious certainty, which
we hold to be the greatest of all--the one in which the mind feels
entire repose.
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