'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount upward as on the wings of an eagle.'" "What think you of this passage ?" said the Doctor.

"'As when a bird hath flown through the air, there is no token of her way to be found; but the light air, beaten with the stroke of her wings and parted by the violent noise and motion thereof, is passed through, and therein afterward no sign of her path can be found.' "I don't remember the passage," said the Elder.
"I dare say not," quoth the Doctor.

"You clergymen take it for granted that no good thing can come home from the Nazareth of the Apocrypha.
But where will you find anything more beautiful and cheering than these verses in connection with that which I just cited?
--'The hope of the ungodly is like dust that is blown away by the wind; like the thin foam which is driven by the storm; like the smoke which is scattered here and there by the whirlwind; it passeth away like the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day.

But the righteous live forevermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most High.
Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom and a beautiful crown from the Lord's hand; for with his right hand shall He cover them, and with his arm shall He protect them.'" "That, if I mistake not, is from the Wisdom of Solomon," said the Elder.
"It is a striking passage; and there are many such in the uncanonical books." "Canonical or not," answered the Doctor, "it is God's truth, and stands in no need of the endorsement of a set of well-meaning but purblind bigots and pedants, who presumed to set metes and bounds to Divine inspiration, and decide by vote what is God's truth and what is the Devil's falsehood.

But, speaking of eagles, I never see one of these spiteful old sea-robbers without fancying that he may be the soul of a mad Viking of the middle centuries.