As it was, she did not leave the room, and presently the curate entered, with a newspaper in his hand.
"They're still at it, Faber," he said, "with their heated liquids and animal life!" "I need not ask which side you take," said the doctor, not much inclined to enter upon any discussion.
"I take neither," answered the curate.

"Where is the use, or indeed possibility, so long as the men of science themselves are disputing about the facts of experiment?
It will be time enough to try to understand them, when they are agreed and we know what the facts really are.

Whatever they may turn out to be, it is but a truism to say they must be consistent with all other truth, although they may entirely upset some of our notions of it." "To which side then do you lean, as to the weight of the evidence ?" asked Faber, rather listlessly.
He had been making some experiments of his own in the direction referred to.

They were not so complete as he would have liked, for he found a large country practice unfriendly to investigation; but, such as they were, they favored the conclusion that no form of life appeared where protection from the air was thorough.
"I take the evidence," answered the curate, "to be in favor of what they so absurdly call spontaneous generation." "I am surprised to hear you say so," returned Faber.

"The conclusions necessary thereupon, are opposed to all your theology." "Must I then, because I believe in a living Truth, be myself an unjust judge ?" said the curate.