I like you, Barton; you have a good deal of your brother's
common sense, uncommon as that is, and I shall come and see you
often."

And without another word he strode off deeper into the woods, and was
lost to the eyes of the young men.

"Is it possible," said Bart, "that this was an educated, strong, and
brilliant mind, capable of dealing with difficult questions of law?
I fear that he has worn or torn through the filament that divides the
workings of the healthy mind from the visions of the dreamer--wrecked
on the everlasting old rocks that jut out all about our shores, and
always challenging us to dash upon them. Shall we know when we die?
Shall we die when we know? After all, are not these things to be
known? Why place them under our eyes so that a child of five years
will ask questions that no mortal, or immortal, has yet solved? Have
we lost the clue to this knowledge? Do we overlook it? Do we stumble
over it, perish, wanting it, with it in our hands without the power to
see or feel it? Has some rift opened to a hidden store of truth, and
has a gleam of it come to the eyes of this man, filling him with
a hunger of which he is to die? When the man arises to whom these
mysteries shall reveal themselves, as he assuredly will, the old
gospels will be supplemented."

"Or superseded," said Case. "And is it not about time? Have not the
old done for us about all they can? Do we not need, as well as wish
for, a new?"

"A man may doubtless so abuse and deprave his powers, that old healthy
food ceases to be endurable, and yields to him no nutrition; of course
he must perish," answered Bart. "He will demand new food."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OLD GID.

Towards the close of the term, there came into the court-room, one
day, a man of giant mould: standing head and shoulders above his
fellows, broad shouldered, deep chested, with a short neck and large
flat face, a regal brow, and large, roomy head in which to work out
great problems. He had light grayish blue, or blueish gray eyes, and a
scarlet mark disfiguring one side of his face. The proceedings paused,
and men gathered about him. His manner was bland, his smile, that
took up his whole face, very pleasant. Bart knew that this was J.R.
Giddings, just home from Washington, where he had already overhauled
the Seminole war, and begun that mining into the foundation of things
that finally overthrew slavery.

During the term Bart heard him before the court and jury, an