and,
has so much more experience, 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 professio