Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

118 DANGER IN THE DARK.
" Then you deny the charge, Squire Delmont I"
"I must first be converted to some religion, Mr.
Twist, before I can become a partisan in any."
, ,
"You
skeptic."
have I am aware long been considered a
"Avowedly such."
" Then, of course, Oatholics and Protestants are all
the same to you, and you feel perfectly indifferent, no
doubt, as to the controversies between them ~"
"Not exactly so, Mr. Twist; as men and as citi-
zens, Catholics and Protestants are the same to me
when their deportment is the same ; but their princi-
pIes so widely differing, I must own that I am far
from being indifferent to the controversies between
Romanism and Protestantism; and politically, too, I
have a preference for Protestants over Papists."
" Yes,. yes; I perceive, after all, JOU are a religious
partisan. "
"How so~"
"I reckon it'll turn out true, as I've heard, that
you are uncompromisingly hostile to Catholics, and
will vote for no man who has any charity for them."
" Not hostile to Oatholics as such, Mr. Twist; but
am, in truth, uncompromisingly opposed to the anti-
republican principles they hold and teach; nor can I
vote for any man who gives countenance to such principles."
"In the political arena, the religious opinions of
men should be lost sigbt of: at least that's my notion
of things, Squire."