Compare Antonia's encouraging aspect here with her refusal to hear Don Jose criticized
above. This is an allegorical dialogue in which skepticism is attacking in turn
the two 'parents' of idealism, nationalism and religion, in the attempt to woo
idealism away from great causes. Antonia's willingness to hear Father Corbelan
criticized suggests that idealism is more firmly allied to nationalism than to
religion -- at least for the moment.