t have seen the intimate relation which exists between
God's work and my own; for it is from his creature that I have
copied the combinations of the wheels of my clocks."

"Master," replied Aubert eagerly, "can you compare a copper or
steel machine with that breath of God which is called the soul,
which animates our bodies as the breeze stirs the flowers? What
mechanism could be so adjusted as to inspire us with thought?"

"That is not the question," responded Master Zacharius gently,
but with all the obstinacy of a blind man walking towards an
abyss. "In order to understand me, thou must recall the purpose
of the escapement which I have invented. When I saw the irregular
working of clocks, I understood that the movements shut up in
them did not suffice, and that it was necessary to submit them to
the regularity of some independent force. I then thought that the
balance-wheel might accomplish this, and I succeeded in
regulating the movement! Now, was it not a sublime idea that came
to me, to return to it its lost force by the action of the clock
itself, which it was charged with regulating?"

Aubert made a sign of assent.

"Now, Aubert," continued the old man, growing animated, "cast
thine eyes upon thyself! Dost thou not understand that there are
two distinct forces in us, that of the soul and that of the
body--that is, a movement and a regulator? The soul is the
principle of life; that is, then, the movement. Whether it is
produced by a weight, by a spring, or by an immaterial influence,
it is none the less in the heart. But without the body this
movement would be unequal, irregular, impossible! Thus the body
regulates the soul, and, like the balance-wheel, it is submitted
to regular oscillations. And this is so true, that one falls ill
when one's drink, food, sleep--in a word, the functions of the
body--are not properly regulated; just as in my watches the soul
renders to the body the force lost by its oscillations. Well, what
produces this intimate union between soul and body, if not a
marvellous escapement, by which the wheels of the one work into the
wheels of the other? This is what I have discovered and applied;
and there are no longer any secrets for me in this life, which is,
after all, only an ingenious mechanism!"

Master Zacharius looked sublime in this hallucination, which
carried him to the ultimate mysteries of the Infinite. But his
daughter Gerande, standing on the threshold of the door, had
hea