its fate is so far as we
know eternal. It may change from gas to chaos, from chaos to active
life, from active life to seeming death. Then it may once more pass into
its elements, and from those elements back again to concrete being,
and so on for ever, always changing, but always the same. So much for
nature's allegory. It is not a perfect analogy, for Man is a thing
apart from all things else; it may be only a hint or a type, but it is
something.

"Now to come to the question of our religion. I confess I draw quite a
different conclusion from your facts. You say that you trace the same
superstitions in all religions, and that the same spiritual myths are in
some shape present in almost all. Well, does not this suggest that the
same great _truth_ underlies them all, taking from time to time the
shape which is best suited to the spiritual development of those
professing each. Every great new religion is better than the last. You
cannot compare Osirianism with Buddhism, or Buddhism with Christianity,
or Mahomedanism with the Arabian idol worship. Take the old
illustration--take a cut crystal and hold it in the sun, and you
will see many different coloured rays come from its facets. They look
different, but they are all born of the same great light; they are all
the same light. May it not be so with religion? Let your altar be to the
'Unknown God,' if you like--for who can give an unaltering likeness to
the Power above us?--but do not knock your altar down.

"Depend upon it, Miss Granger, all indications to the contrary
notwithstanding, there is a watching Providence without the will of
which we cannot live, and if we deliberately reject that Providence,
setting up our intelligence in its place, sorrow will come of it, even
here; for it is wiser than we. I wish that you would try and look at
the question from another point of view--from a higher point of view. I
think you will find that it will bear a great deal of examination, and
that you will come to the conclusion that the dictum of the wise-acre
who says there is nothing because he can see nothing, is not necessarily
a true one. There, that is all I have to say, and I wish that I could
say it better."

"Thank you," said Beatrice, "I will. Why here we are at home; I must go
and put Effie to bed."

And here it may be stated that Geoffrey's advice was not altogether
thrown away. Beatrice did try looking at the question again, and if
Faith did not altogether com