ine unto this day? Was I ever wont to
do so unto thee?" This was a poser. Balaam scratched his head and
reflected, but at last he was obliged to say "Nay."

Neddy had so far the best of the argument. But Balaam had the practical
argument of the stick left, and no doubt he was about to convince the
donkey with it. All arguments, practical or otherwise, would however
have left the dispute exactly where it stood. Neddy saw the angel, and
that was enough for him. Balaam did not see the angel, but only Neddy's
obstinate stupidity. In short, they reasoned from different premises,
and could not therefore arrive at the same conclusion. They might have
argued till doomsday had not the Lord again intervened. He "opened
Balaam's eyes," so that he also "saw the angel of the Lord standing in
the way, and his sword drawn in his hand." Then Balaam "bowed his head,
and fell flat on his face," and there he and Neddy laid side by side,
two asses together.

Now, dear reader, you will observe that the ass, being indeed an ass,
saw the angel first, and that Balaam, who was a wise man, did not see
the angel until his wits were disordered by the wonder of a talking
donkey. Does this not bear out great Bacon's remark that "in all
superstition, wise men follow fools"? And may we not say, that if asses
did not see angels first, wise men would never see them after?

The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, while he remained flat on his
face, "Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold,
I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:
and the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had
turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive."
The moral of this is that asses stand the best chance of salvation, and
that wise men run a frightful risk of damnation until they lose their
wits.

Balaam recognised the awful mess he was in, and being by this time as
limp as a wet rag, he made the most abject apology. "I have sinned," he
said, "for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me." This
strange reasoning shows still more clearly how the poor prophet had
taken leave of his senses. He had not sinned at all, for he was
strictly obeying God's commands; nor was it his fault that the angel
remained so long invisible. When the Lord "opened his eyes," and made
his vision like unto the vision of an ass, he saw the angel plainly
enough; and how could he possibly have done