ong cave because they see the sun at the
mouth; but they don't know anything about the earth on the top of the
cave."

This was a surprisingly long speech for Marion Dearsley.

"You take me exactly. Now, Fullerton, I'm going to stay the winter out
here."

"You're what?" interjected Blair.

"Yes, I'm going to see the winter through; and I mean to lay some plans
before you."

"The Bashaw has some glimmerings of sense. Yes, the scientific creature
has. Go on, oh! many-tailed one."

"You miss the secular side a little. You cannot expect those grand,
good-humoured fellows of yours to be always content with devotional
excitement."

"But we don't. Our secular work, our care for the men's bodies, is just
as great as our care for their souls," said Fullerton, warmly. "We
simply cannot do everything; we lack means, and that must be our plea,
no matter how sordid it may seem to you. But you must clearly understand
that for my part, while I hold tenaciously to the primary duty of
'holding forth the Word of Life'--for it is 'the entrance of Thy Word
giveth light _and understanding to the simple_'--yet I am entirely with
you in feeling that we need to cultivate the intellect of these men. Go
on, Ferrier."

"Well; I meant to say that you must let the men know something of the
beauty of the world, and the wonder of it as well. Look here, Blair: do
you mean to say that I couldn't make a regular fairy tale out of the
geology of these Banks? Pray, ladies, excuse just a little shop; I can't
help it. Give me just one tooth of an elephant, dredged up off
Scarborough, and if I don't make those men delighted, then I may leave
the Royal Society."

"But, my good Bashaw," said Blair, "if you blindfold one of the
skippers, and tell him the soundings from time to time, he'll take you
from point to point, and pick up his marks just as surely as you could
touch your bedroom-door in the dark."

"Exactly. That's empirical knowledge; but when you explain _causes_, you
give a man a new pleasure. It _clinches_ his knowledge. Then, again,
supposing I were to tell those men something accurate about the movement
of the stars? Don't you think that would be interesting? If I could not
make it like a romance, then all the years I spent in learning were
thrown away."

"Could you get them to care for anything of the kind? Do you know that a
seaman is the most absolutely conservative of the human race?"

"We must begin. You give the men light, and