By the Lord! I begin to think this intimate religion as tragic as a
great love. There came back into my mind a relic that I have in my
house. It is a panel of the old door of my college, having carved on
it my college arms. I remembered the Lion and the Shield, _Haec fuit,
Haec almae janua sacra domus._ Yes, certainly religion is as tragic as
first love, and drags us out into the void away from our dear homes.
It is a good thing to have loved one woman from a child, and it is a
good thing not to have to return to the Faith.
They cook worse in Undervelier than any place I was ever in, with the
possible exception of Omaha, Neb.
LECTOR. Why do you use phrases like _'possible exception'?_
AUCTOR. Why not? I see that all the religion I have stuck into the
book has no more effect on you than had Rousseau upon Sir Henry Maine.
You are as full of Pride as a minor Devil. You would avoid the
_cliche_ and the commonplace, and the _phrase toute faite_. Why? Not
because you naturally write odd prose - contrariwise, left to yourself
you write pure journalese; but simply because you are swelled and
puffed up with a desire to pose.
