tide's rising. They don't
like to admit these facts, because they throw doubt upon some of their
cherished opinions. We are getting on towards the last part of this
nineteenth century. What we have gained is not so much in positive
knowledge, though that is a good deal, as it is in the freedom of
discussion of every subject that comes within the range of observation
and inference. How long is it since Mrs. Piozzi wrote,--"Let me
hope that you will not pursue geology till it leads you into doubts
destructive of all comfort in this world and all happiness in the next"?

The Master paused and I remained silent, for I was thinking things I
could not say.

--It is well always to have a woman near by when one is talking on this
class of subjects. Whether there will be three or four women to one man
in heaven is a question which I must leave to those who talk as if they
knew all about the future condition of the race to answer. But very
certainly there is much more of hearty faith, much more of spiritual
life, among women than among men, in this world. They need faith to
support them more than men do, for they have a great deal less to call
them out of themselves, and it comes easier to them, for their habitual
state of dependence teaches them to trust in others. When they become
voters, if they ever do, it may be feared that the pews will lose what
the ward-rooms gain. Relax a woman's hold on man, and her knee-joints
will soon begin to stiffen. Self-assertion brings out many fine
qualities, but it does not promote devotional habits.

I remember some such thoughts as this were passing through my mind while
the Master was talking. I noticed that the Lady was listening to the
conversation with a look of more than usual interest. We men have the
talk mostly to ourselves at this table; the Master, as you have found
out, is fond of monologues, and I myself--well, I suppose I must own
to a certain love for the reverberated music of my own accents; at any
rate, the Master and I do most of the talking. But others help us do
the listening. I think I can show that they listen to some purpose. I am
going to surprise my reader with a letter which I received very shortly
after the conversation took place which I have just reported. It is of
course by a special license, such as belongs to the supreme prerogative
of an author, that I am enabled to present it to him. He need ask
no questions: it is not his affair how I obtained the right t