perience, so much more practical wisdom, than
he has that he consults her on many every-day questions, as he did, or
made believe do, about that of making love to one of the two Annexes.
I had thought, when we first sat round the tea-table, that she was good
for the bit of romance I wanted; but since she has undertaken to be a
kind of half-maternal friend to the young Tutor, I am afraid I shall
have to give her up as the heroine of a romantic episode. It would be a
pity if there were nothing to commend these papers to those who take up
this periodical but essays, more or less significant, on subjects more
or less interesting to the jaded and impatient readers of the numberless
stories and entertaining articles which crowd the magazines of this
prolific period. A whole year of a tea-table as large as ours without a
single love passage in it would be discreditable to the company. We
must find one, or make one, before the tea-things are taken away and the
table is no longer spread.

The Dictator turns preacher.

We have so many light and playful talks over the teacups that some
readers may be surprised to find us taking up the most serious and
solemn subject which can occupy a human intelligence. The sudden
appearance among our New England Protestants of the doctrine of
purgatory as a possibility, or even probability, has startled the
descendants of the Puritans. It has naturally led to a reconsideration
of the doctrine of eternal punishment. It is on that subject that Number
Five and I have talked together. I love to listen to her, for she talks
from the promptings of a true woman's heart. I love to talk to her, for
I learn my own thoughts better in that way than in any other "L'appetit
vient en mangeant," the French saying has it. "L'esprit vient en
causant;" that is, if one can find the right persons to talk with.

The subject which has specially interested Number Five and myself, of
late, was suggested to me in the following way.

Some two years ago I received a letter from a clergyman who bears by
inheritance one of the most distinguished names which has done honor
to the American "Orthodox" pulpit. This letter requested of me "a
contribution to a proposed work which was to present in their own
language the views of 'many men of many minds' on the subject of future
punishment. It was in my mind to let the public hear not only from
professional theologians, but from other professions, as from jurists
on t