into a forest, into a
plain, and the trees took counsel,

"And said, Come, let us go and make war against the sea, that it may
depart away before us, and that we may make us more woods.

"The floods of the sea also in like manner took counsel, and said,
Come, let us go up and subdue the woods of the plain, that there also
we may make us another country.

"The thought of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it.

"The thought of the floods of the sea came likewise to nought, for the
sand stood up and stopped them.

"If thou went judge now betwixt these two, whom wouldst thou begin to
justify; or whom wouldst thou condemn?

"I answered and said, Verily it is a foolish thought that they both
have devised; for the ground is given unto the wood, and the sea also
hath his place to bear his floods.

"Then answered he me, and said, Thou halt given a right judgment; but
why judgest thou not thyself also?

"For like as the ground is given unto the wood, and the sea to his
floods, even so they that dwell upon the earth may understand nothing
but that which is upon the earth; and He that dwelleth above the
heavens may only understand the things that are above the height of
the heavens."

I paused at those words, and, closing the Sacred Volume, fell into deep,
unquiet thought.

(1) Such is the supposition of Jahn. Dr. Lee, however, is of opinion
that the author was contemporary, and, indeed, identical, with the
author of the Book of Enoch.

CHAPTER LXIX.

I had hoped that the voyage would produce some beneficial effect upon
Lilian; but no effect, good or bad, was perceptible, except, perhaps,
a deeper silence, a gentler calm. She loved to sit on the deck when the
nights were fair, and the stars mirrored on the deep. And once thus, as
I stood beside her, bending over the rail of the vessel, and gazing on
the long wake of light which the moon made amidst the darkness of an
ocean to which no shore could be seen, I said to myself, "Where is
my track of light through the measureless future? Would that I could
believe as I did when a child! Woe is me, that all the reasonings I take
from my knowledge should lead me away from the comfort which the peasant
who mourns finds in faith! Why should riddles so dark have been thrust
upon me,--me, no fond child of fancy; me, sober pupil of schools the
severest? Yet what marvel--the stra