ld
not argue against it) proves that it is for our benefit and use; and if
there were no such life hereafter, we should be governed and influenced,
arrange our modes of life, and mature our civilization, by obedience
to a lie, which Nature falsified herself in giving us the capacity to
believe. You still understand me?"

"Yes; it bothers me a little, for you see I am not a parson's man; but I
do understand."

"Then, my friend, study to apply,--for it requires constant
study,--study to apply that which you understand to your own case. You
are something more than Tom Bowles, the smith and doctor of horses;
something more than the magnificent animal who rages for his mate and
fights every rival: the bull does that. You are a soul endowed with the
capacity to receive the idea of a Creator so divinely wise and great
and good that, though acting by the agency of general laws, He can
accommodate them to all individual cases, so that--taking into account
the life hereafter, which He grants to you the capacity to believe--all
that troubles you now will be proved to you wise and great and good
either in this life or the other. Lay that truth to your heart, friend,
now--before the bell stops ringing; recall it every time you hear the
church-bell ring again. And oh, Tom, you have such a noble nature!--"

"I--I! don't jeer me,--don't."

"Such a noble nature; for you can love so passionately, you can war so
fiercely, and yet, when convinced that your love would be misery to
her you love, can resign it; and yet, when beaten in your war, can so
forgive your victor that you are walking in this solitude with him as a
friend, knowing that you have but to drop a foot behind him in order to
take his life in an unguarded moment; and rather than take his life, you
would defend it against an army. Do you think I am so dull as not to see
all that? and is not all that a noble nature?"

Tom Bowles covered his face with his hands, and his broad breast heaved.

"Well, then, to that noble nature I now trust. I myself have done little
good in life. I may never do much; but let me think that I have not
crossed your life in vain for you and for those whom your life can
colour for good or for bad. As you are strong, be gentle; as you
can love one, be kind to all; as you have so much that is grand as
Man,--that is, the highest of God's works on earth,--let all your acts
attach your manhood to the idea of Him, to whom the voice of the bell
appeals.