As Subjects, We All Live In Suspense,

Combativeness Was, I Suppose, The Dominant Trait In My Grandmother's Nature. An Aggressive Churchgoer, She Was Quite Without Christian Feeling; The Mercy Of The Lord Jesus Had Never Entered Her Heart. Her Piety Was An Act Of War Against Protestant Ascendancy. ...the Teachings Of The Church Did Not Interest Her, Except As They Were A Rebuke To Others.

Every Age Has A Keyhole To Which Its Eye Is Pasted. Spicy Court-memoirs, The Lives Of Gallant Ladies, Recollections Of An Ex-nun, A Monk's Confession, An Atheist's Repentance, True-to-life Accounts Of Prostitution And Bastardy Gave Our Ancestors A Penny Peep Into The Forbidden Room.

We Are A Nation Of 20 Million Bathrooms, With A Humanist In Every Tub.

The Rationalist Mind Has Always Had Its Doubts About Venice. The Watery City Receives A Dry Inspection, As Though It Were A Myth For The Credulous- Poets And Honeymooners.

The Crucifixion And Other Historical Precedents Notwithstanding, Many Of Us Still Believe That Outstanding Goodness Is A Kind Of Armor, That Virtue, Seen Plain And Bare, Gives Pause To Criminality. But Perhaps It Is The Other Way Around.