ng is
true, we will do our best in this chapter for the human minds that
condescend to peruse these pages, by leaping over a space of time, and
by changing at least the character of the scene, if not the locality.

We present the Bell Rock under a new aspect, that of a dense fog and a
dead calm.

This is by no means an unusual aspect of things at the Bell Rock, but as
we have hitherto dwelt chiefly on storms it may be regarded as new to
the reader.

It was a June morning. There had been few breezes and no storms for
some weeks past, so that the usual swell of the ocean had gone down, and
there were actually no breakers on the rock at low water, and no
ruffling of the surface at all at high tide. The tide had, about two
hours before, overflowed the rock and driven the men into the beacon
house, where, having breakfasted, they were at the time enjoying
themselves with pipes and small talk.

The lighthouse had grown considerably by this time. Its unfinished top
was more than eighty feet above the foundation; but the fog was so dense
that only the lower part of the column could be seen from the beacon,
the summit being lost, as it were, in the clouds.

Nevertheless that summit, high though it was, did not yet project beyond
the reach of the sea. A proof of this had been given in a very striking
manner, some weeks before the period about which we now write, to our
friend George Forsyth.

George was a studious man, and fond of reading the Bible critically. He
was proof against laughter and ridicule, and was wont sometimes to urge
the men into discussions. One of his favourite arguments was somewhat
as follows--

"Boys," he was wont to say, "you laugh at me for readin' the Bible
carefully. You would not laugh at a schoolboy for reading his books
carefully, would you? Yet the learnin' of the way of salvation is of
far more consequence to me than book learnin' is to a schoolboy. An
astronomer is never laughed at for readin' his books o' geometry an'
suchlike day an' night--even to the injury of his health--but what is an
astronomer's business to _him_ compared with the concerns of my soul to
_me_? Ministers tell me there are certain things I must know and
believe if I would be saved--such as the death and resurrection of our
Saviour Jesus Christ; and they also point out that the Bible speaks of
certain Christians, who did well in refusin' to receive the Gospel at
the hands of the apostles, without first enquir