of destruction; and some of the flowers of peace, the bowers of
plenty, and the green woods of contentment. But how to follow the proper
one is the difficulty; for they run into one another--cross and recross
in a thousand different ways--so that the best disposed as often hit the
wrong as the right one, and are entrapped before they are aware of their
dangerous course. Worldly wisdom is here put at fault, and the fool as
often goes right as the wise man of lore--thus showing, notwithstanding
our free agency, that circumstances govern us; and that what many put
down as crime, is, in fact, oftentimes, neither more nor less than error
of judgment."

"Then you consider free agency only a chance game, depending, as it
were, upon the throw of a die?" observed Ella, inquiringly.

"I believe this much of free agency, that a train of circumstances often
forces some to evil and others to good; and that we should look upon the
former, in many cases--mind I do not say all--as unfortunate rather than
criminal--with pity rather than scorn; and so endeavor to reclaim them.
Were this doctrine more practiced by Christians--by those whom the world
terms good, (but whom circumstances alone have made better than their
fellows,) there would be far less of sin, misery, and crime abounding
for them to deplore. Let the creed of churches only be to ameliorate the
condition of the poor, relieve the distressed, remove temptations from
youth, encourage the virtuous, and endeavor, by gently means, to reclaim
the erring--and the holy design of Him who died to save would nobly
progress, prisons would be turned into asylums, and scaffolds be things
known only by tradition."

Algernon spoke with an easy, earnest eloquence, and a force of emphasis,
that made each word tell with proper effect upon his fair hearer. To
Ella the ideas he advanced were, many of them, entirely new; and she
mused thoughtfully upon them, as they rode along, without reply; while
he, becoming warm upon a subject that evidently occupied no inferior
place in his mind, went on to speak of the wrongs and abuses which
society in general heaped upon the unfortunate, as he termed
them--contrasted the charity of professing Christians of the eighteenth
century with that of Christ himself--and pointed out what he considered
the most effectual means of remedy. To show that a train of
circumstances would frequently force persons against their own will and
reason to be what society terms c