If he believes the Bible, he ought to have gone to the calaboose and cleaned that man up and taken care of him. There's not one person in Moonstone that really lives the way the New Testament says. Dr. Archie swung round in his chair and looked at her, honestly and leniently. Well, Thea, it seems to me like this. Every people has had its religion.
All religions are good, and all are pretty much alike.
But I don't see how we could live up to them in the sense you mean. I've thought about it a good deal, and I can't help feeling that while we are in this world we have to live for the best things of this world, and those things are material and positive. Now, most religions are passive, and they tell us chiefly what we should not do. That's not long enough to get acquainted with half the fine things that have been done in the world, much less to do anything ourselves. Dr. Archie met his little friend's searching gaze, the look of acute inquiry which always touched him.