rise up
and shake when the water inside boiled? Of course; and of course, too,
remember that Madam How must have done it. Then think over between this
and our next talk, what that can possibly have to do with her lifting up
Hartford Bridge Flat. But you have been longing, perhaps, all this time
to hear more about Lady Why, and why she set Madam How to make
Bracknell's Bottom.

My dear child, the only answer I dare give to that is: Whatever other
purposes she may have made it for, she made it at least for this--that
you and I should come to it this day, and look at, and talk over it, and
become thereby wiser and more earnest, and we will hope more humble and
better people. Whatever else Lady Why may wish or not wish, this she
wishes always, to make all men wise and all men good. For what is
written of her whom, as in a parable, I have called Lady Why?

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of
old.

"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth
was.

"When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no
fountains abounding with water.

"Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

"While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest
part of the dust of the world.

"When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon
the face of the depth:

"When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains
of the deep:

"When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His
commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth:

"Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His
delight, rejoicing always before Him:

"Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with
the sons of men.

"Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that
keep my ways."

That we can say, for it has been said for us already. But beyond that we
can say, and need say, very little. We were not there, as we read in the
Book of Job, when God laid the foundations of the earth. "We see," says
St. Paul, "as in a glass darkly, and only know in part." "For who," he
asks again, "has known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His
counsellor? . . . For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all
things: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Therefore we must
not rashly say, this or that is Why a t