scene of your trial below, and not in the stars.' Advising
you, I say: 'But in the trial below, man should recognize education for
heaven.' In a word, I would draw somewhat more downward her fancy,
raise somewhat more upward your reason. Take my advice then,--Pray.
Your mental system needs the support of prayer in order to preserve its
balance. In the embarrassment and confusion of your senses, clearness
of perception will come with habitual and tranquil confidence in Him who
alike rules the universe and reads the heart. I only say here what
has been said much better before by a reasoner in whom all Students of
Nature recognize a guide. I see on your table the very volume of Bacon
which contains the passage I commend to your reflection. Here it is.
Listen: 'Take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity and
courage he will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man who, to
him, is instead of a God, or melior natura, which courage is manifestly
such as that creature, without that confidence of a better nature
than his own, could never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth
himself upon Divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith
which human nature could not obtain.'(3) You are silent, but your
gesture tells me your doubt,--a doubt which your heart, so femininely
tender, will not speak aloud lest you should rob the old man of a hope
with which your strength of manhood dispenses,--you doubt the efficacy
of prayer! Pause and reflect, bold but candid inquirer into the laws
of that guide you call Nature. If there were no efficacy in prayer;
if prayer were as mere an illusion of superstitious fantasy as aught
against which your reason now struggles, do you think that Nature
herself would have made it amongst the most common and facile of all
her dictates? Do you believe that if there really did not exist that
tie between Man and his Maker--that link between life here and life
hereafter which is found in what we call Soul alone--that wherever you
look through the universe, you would behold a child at Prayer? Nature
inculcates nothing that is superfluous. Nature does not impel the
leviathan or the lion, the eagle or the moth, to pray; she impels only
man. Why? Because man only has soul, and Soul seeks to commune with the
Everlasting, as a fountain struggles up to its source. Burn your book.
It would found you a reputation for learning and intellect and courage,
I allow; but learning and intellect an