Village books

He did not suppose fraud on the part of
the first preachers of Christianity; they sincerely believed that
Christ died and rose again. Joseph and Nicodemus probably knew the
truth but kept silence. The idea of what might follow from belief
in one single supposed miracle was never hereafter absent from
Butler's mind.
In 1869, having been working too hard, he went abroad for a long
change. On his way back, at the Albergo La Luna, in Venice, he met
an elderly Russian lady in whose company he spent most of his time
there. She was no doubt impressed by his versatility and charmed,
as everyone always was, by his conversation and original views on
the many subjects that interested him. We may be sure he told her
all about himself and what he had done and was intending to do. At
the end of his stay, when he was taking leave of her, she said:
"Et maintenant, Monsieur, vous allez creer," meaning, as he
understood her, that he had been looking long enough at the work of
others and should now do something of his own.


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