Transcribed from the 1904 Deighton Bell & Co. edition byDavid Price,

THE CHAPEL
ON THE HILL

BY

ALFRED PRETOR

FELLOW OFST. CATHARINE’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF ‘RONALD ANDI’

“Some falls aremeans the happier to arise.”

—Cymbeline, iv. 2 ad fin

CAMBRIDGE
DEIGHTON BELL & CO.
LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS
1904

p. ivCAMBRIDGE
PRINTED BY JONATHAN PALMER
ALEXANDRA STREET

p. vTothe
memory of
‘Judy’
(Ob. Aug. 27, 1904)

“A soul she had on earth.”

—Byron.

“The more I learn to know man, the better I likedogs.”

—GermanPhilosopher.

p.viiPREFACE

To those, I think a lessening number, who mayfind themselves at variance with “myRector’s” theology, I tender thefollowing quotation from one of the ablest and deepest thinkersof the past century:

“If, instead of the ‘gladtidings’ that there exists a Being in whom all theexcellences which the highest human mind can conceive exist in adegree inconceivable to us, I am informed that the world is ruledby a Being whose attributes are infinite, but what they are wecannot learn, nor what are the principles of his government,except that ‘the highest human morality which we arecapable of conceiving’ does not sanction them; convince meof it, and I will bear my fate as I may.  But when I am toldthat I must believe this, and at the same time call this Being bythe names which express and affirm the highest human morality, Isay in plain terms I will call no being good who is not what Imean when I apply that epithet to myfellow-creatures.”—J. S. Mill, Examination of Sir W.Hamilton’s Philosophy, pp. 102, 103 (Criticism ofMansel).

p.viiiI have omitted from the above the author’speroration, which is couched in language too strong tosuit the taste of the present generation.

That the Bible is our one and only true guide, webelieve; but we are nowhere instructed to make an idol anda fetish of the form in which it is presented.  Itwas written to suit all times; we must read it in thelanguage of to-day.

In the controversy between the Squire and himself theRector is by no means guiltless of plagiarism. Ford, who knew Spain as intimately as an Englishman canever know it, advances the self-same arguments in hiscomments on the national sport.

A word more and I have done.  It is reported ongood authority that one of our greatest divines—the authorof ‘Butler’s Analogy’—held aconfident belief in the re-existence of animals. They share our doom of suffering and death: why not ourpromise of happiness beyond