o singularly placed. When I conceived that the
keenness of his feelings had in some degree subsided, I answered him
as follows:--'I will not--indeed I feel myself incompetent to argue
a question of such metaphysical subtlety, as that which involves the
limits betwixt free-will and predestination. Let us hope we may live
honestly and die hopefully, without being obliged to form a decided
opinion upon a point so far beyond our comprehension.'

'Wisely resolved,' he interrupted, with a sneer--'there came a note from
some Geneva, sermon.'

'But,' I proceeded, 'I call your attention to the fact that I, as well
as you, am acted upon by impulses, the result either of my own free
will, or the consequences of the part which is assigned to me by
destiny. These may be--nay, at present they are--in direct contradiction
to those by which you are actuated; and how shall we decide which
shall have precedence?--YOU perhaps feel yourself destined to act as my
jailer. I feel myself, on the contrary, destined to attempt and effect
my escape. One of us must be wrong, but who can say which errs till the
event has decided betwixt us?'

'I shall feel myself destined to have recourse to severe modes of
restraint,' said he, in the same tone of half jest, half earnest which I
had used.

'In that case,' I answered, 'it will be my destiny to attempt everything
for my freedom.'

'And it may be mine, young man,' he replied, in a deep and stern tone,
'to take care that you should rather die than attain your purpose.'

This was speaking out indeed, and I did not allow him to go unanswered.
'You threaten me in vain,' said I; 'the laws of my country will protect
me; or whom they cannot protect, they will avenge.'

I spoke this firmly, and he seemed for a moment silenced; and the scorn
with which he at last answered me, had something of affectation in it.

'The laws!' he said; 'and what, stripling, do you know of the laws of
your country? Could you learn jurisprudence under a base-born blotter
of parchment, such as Saunders Fairford; or from the empty pedantic
coxcomb, his son, who now, forsooth, writer himself advocate? When
Scotland was herself, and had her own king and legislature, such
plebeian cubs, instead of being called to the bar of her supreme courts,
would scarce have been admitted to the honour of bearing a sheepskin
process-bag.'

Alan, I could not bear this, but answered indignantly, that he knew not
the worth and honour from whi