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Thou bold discoverer in an unknown sea,Of happy isles and happier tenants there;I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee;Still dream of Paradise, thou know’st not where,But lovest too well to bid thine erring brother share. (McGann 2.46:64-72).The “churlish Priest” has been replaced by the “holiest men” as the believers in theafterlife, strengthening the positive connotations of that position, while the Sadduceeremains, as does the negative valuation of that viewpoint. While Joseph describes thisdraught as expressing “a Lucretian contempt for the idea of an after-life”, 108 thatreading is somewhat at odds with the appeal against disbelief in line 70. The stanzadescribes the priest’s concept of an afterlife as a “phantasy”, but also speaks of “envy”of that very fantasy, demonstrating not contempt of such an idea but desire for it. Themodal “may” in line 65 could as easily be speculative as dynamic, referring only tothe possibility that no afterlife will occur. 109 In both versions of this stanza, the ideaof an afterlife is represented in positive terms, even though it is far from certain: thisuncertainty is decidedly unorthodox, from a dogmatic perspective, but also decidedlynot secularist. The final line is a criticism of hypocrisy, and, yet again, of a lack oflove for one’s neighbour.The DeityThe validation of belief is stronger with respect towards the deity. Gleckner describesthe narrator of CHP as having an “orthodox Christian bias”, a bias which Gleckner’sown position configures as “provincial”. 110 A bias at least towards theism is evident.In addition to general comments on religious belief and practice, there are singularlymonotheistic statements in CHP, ranging from the reference by Harold’s page tohaving no friend apart from his parents, and Harold, and “one above” (1.13.4.149), toexplicit statements by the narrator, such as the apostrophe to God in appeal for justiceto 2.45.404, and the address at the beginning of the description of Portugal: “Oh,108 Joseph, p.15; see also p.26.109 This is coherent with the idea of conditional immortality, explored in more detail with respect to theEastern Tales.110 Gleckner, p.59.66