contrasted with the character of the
night and his companion.

Glendower replied not: a pause ensued; and the lightning which,
spreading on a sudden from east to west, hung over the city a burning
and ghastly canopy, showed the face of each to the other, working and
almost haggard as it was with the conception of dark thoughts, and
rendered wan and unearthly by the spectral light in which it was beheld.
"It is an awful night," said Glendower.

"True," answered Crauford, "a very awful night; but we are all safe
under the care of Providence. Jesus! what a flash! Think you it is a
favourable opportunity for our conversation?"

"Why not?" said Glendower; "what have the thunders and wrath of Heaven
to do with us?"

"H-e-m! h-e-m! God sees all things," rejoined Crauford, "and avenges
Himself on the guilty by His storms!"

"Ay; but those are the storms of the heart! I tell you that even the
innocent may have that within to which the loudest tempests without are
peace! But guilt, you say; what have we to do with guilt?"

Crauford hesitated, and, avoiding any reply to this question, drew
Glendower's arm within his own, and in a low half-whispered tone said,--

"Glendower, survey mankind; look with a passionless and unprejudiced eye
upon the scene which moves around us: what do you see anywhere but the
same re-acted and eternal law of Nature,--all, all preying upon each
other? Or if there be a solitary individual who refrains, he is as a man
without a common badge, without a marriage garment, and the rest trample
him under foot! Glendower, you are such a man! Now hearken, I will
deceive you not; I honour you too much to beguile you, even to your
own good. I own to you, fairly and at once, that in the scheme I shall
unfold to you, there may be something repugnant, to the factitious
and theoretical principles of education,--something hostile to the
prejudices, though not to the reasonings, of the mind; but--"

"Hold!" said Glendower, abruptly, pausing and fixing his bold and
searching eye upon the tempter; "hold! there will be no need of argument
or refinement in this case: tell me at once your scheme, and at once I
will accept or reject it!"

"Gently," said Crauford; "to all deeds of contract there is a preamble.
Listen to me yet further: when I have ceased, I will listen to you. It
is in vain that you place man in cities; it is in vain that you fetter
him with laws; it is in vain that you pour into his mind the light of