But, to let this pass, it was clear that spiritual pathology (I
confess that I do not know myself what spiritual pathology means
-but Pryer and Ernest doubtless did) was the great desideratum of
the age. It seemed to Ernest that he had made this discovery himself
and been familiar with it all his life, that he had never known, in
fact, of anything else. He wrote long letters to his college friends
expounding his views as though he had been one of the Apostolic
fathers. As for the Old Testament writers, he had no patience with
them. "Do oblige me," I find him writing to one friend, "by reading
the prophet Zechariah, and giving me your candid opinion upon him.
He is poor stuff, full of Yankee bounce; it is sickening to live in an
age when such balderdash can be gravely admired whether as poetry or
prophecy." This was because Pryer had set him against Zechariah. I
do not know what Zechariah had done; I should think myself that
Zechariah was a very good prophet; perhaps it was because he was a
Bible writer, and not a very prominent one, that Pryer selected him as
one through whom to disparage the Bible in comparison with the Church.
To his friend Dawson I find him saying a little later on: "Pryer and
I continue our walks, working out each other's thoughts.
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