s an impostor,
an enthusiast, a madman. It was not that I was simply invited to come
above the ordinary doctrines of the day, and stand supported and
encouraged by a few advanced minds; but I was called to place myself
where the most earnest souls--unless a second birth could be granted
them--would scoff with the ignorance and intolerance of the mass.

At last the gray light of morning shone upon me.

One of my deacons, whistling sturdily, passed along the street. A
physical emanation from his healthy vitality partially counteracted the
influence of the night. Gathering up every muscle of my feeble will, I
closed the manuscript forever. Hereditary imperfections of body and mind
confine me to a sphere of reputable usefulness. If I have sinned in the
past, I have also suffered. If, as I sometimes suspect, I have thrust
from me the grandest opportunity ever offered to man, the loss through
all eternity will be mine.

In eight days I heard of the death of Herbert Vannelle.

III.

As the last words of his strange narration fell from Clifton's lips, he
bowed his head and was greatly agitated. The vast theologic conception
over which he had so long brooded, instead of lifting him on high, had
crushed him to the earth. His moral consciousness had demanded a
satisfaction which he lacked integrity of purpose to pursue and
challenge. A fixed conviction of the dreariest pessimism would have been
better for this man than the lofty uncertainty which had tortured his
days; for in the belief that one may neither struggle nor aspire there
is a certain practical drift. But how shall he do any good who bears
about him a quick conscience, a skeptical understanding, sensitive
religious affections, and a feeble will? Charles Clifton had neither the
leisure, nor possibly the application, to follow the creeping advances
of systematic knowledge. He had listened to a fatal persuasion, and at
the same time had sought to satisfy contradictory principles of the
human mind. The kindest thing I could do for him was soon perceived.

"Reverend Sir," I said, "you must permit me to advise you. It is now six
o'clock. In an hour the early train leaves for Foxden. You must take it
and return home. Any further vacuum in your daily employment will
produce a crushing pressure from without that might endanger reason
itself. I solemnly promise to deposit this manuscript in the Mather
Safe,--nay, I will not leave town until the President and Treasurer hav