read; but oh what a difference between the book
you brought to me and the one you took away! I believe the one you
brought is written by the finger of God, and the other by--'

'Don't abuse the book,' said I, 'it is an excellent book for those who
can understand it; it was not exactly suited to you, and perhaps it had
been better that you had never read it--and yet, who knows? Peradventure,
if you had not read that book, you would not have been fitted for the
perusal of the one which you say is written by the finger of God'; and,
pressing my hand to my head, I fell into a deep fit of musing. 'What,
after all,' thought I, 'if there should be more order and system in the
working of the moral world than I have thought? Does there not seem in
the present instance to be something like the working of a Divine hand? I
could not conceive why this woman, better educated than her mother,
should have been, as she certainly was, a worse character than her
mother. Yet perhaps this woman may be better and happier than her mother
ever was; perhaps she is so already--perhaps this world is not a wild,
lying dream, as I have occasionally supposed it to be.'

But the thought of my own situation did not permit me to abandon myself
much longer to these musings. I started up. 'Where are you going,
child?' said the woman, anxiously. 'I scarcely know,' said I;
'anywhere.' 'Then stay here, child,' said she; 'I have much to say to
you.' 'No,' said I, 'I shall be better moving about'; and I was moving
away, when it suddenly occurred to me that I might never see this woman
again; and turning round I offered her my hand, and bade her good-bye.
'Farewell, child,' said the old woman, 'and God bless you!' I then moved
along the bridge until I reached the Southwark side, and, still holding
on my course, my mind again became quickly abstracted from all
surrounding objects.

At length I found myself in a street or road, with terraces on either
side, and seemingly of interminable length, leading, as it would appear,
to the south-east. I was walking at a great rate--there were likewise a
great number of people, also walking at a great rate; also carts and
carriages driving at a great rate; and all--men, carts, and
carriages--going in the selfsame direction, namely to the south-east. I
stopped for a moment and deliberated whether or not I should proceed.
What business had I in that direction? I could not say that I had any
particular busin