alive for his faith; but his belief in the
success of Christianity is about on a par with that of the melancholy
disciple of old, who, when Christ would go to Judaea, could only say,
"Let us also go, that we may die with him." Theophilus is always ready
to die for the truth and the right, for which he never sees anything
but defeat and destruction ahead.

During the late war, Theophilus has been a despairing patriot, dying
daily, and giving all up for lost in every reverse from Bull Run to
Fredericksburg. The surrender of Richmond and the capitulation of Lee
shortened his visage somewhat; but the murder of the President soon
brought it back to its old length. It is true that, while Lincoln
lived, he was in a perpetual state of dissent from all his measures.
He had broken his heart for years over the miseries of the slaves, but
he shuddered at the Emancipation Proclamation; a whirlwind of anarchy
was about to sweep over the country, in which the black and the white
would dash against each other, and be shivered like potters' vessels.
He was in despair at the accession of Johnson, believing the worst of
the unfavorable reports that clouded his reputation. Nevertheless he
was among the first of loyal citizens to rally to the support of the
new administration, because, though he had no hope in that, he could
see nothing better.

You must not infer from all this that friend Theophilus is a social
wet blanket, a goblin shadow at the domestic hearth. By no means.
Nature has gifted him with that vein of humor and that impulse to
friendly joviality which are frequent developments in sad-natured men,
and often deceive superficial observers as to their real character. He
who laughs well and makes you laugh is often called a man of cheerful
disposition, yet in many cases nothing can be further from it than
precisely this kind of person.

Theophilus frequents our chimney-corner, perhaps because Mrs.
Crowfield and myself are, so to speak, children of the light and the
day. My wife has precisely the opposite talent to that of our friend.
She can discover the good point, the sound spot, where others see only
defect and corruption. I myself am somewhat sanguine, and prone rather
to expect good than evil, and with a vast stock of faith in the
excellent things that may turn up in the future. The millennium is one
of the prime articles of my creed; and all the ups and downs of
society I regard only as so many jolts on a very rough road