ith great plainness, and without reserve, and
that I do not, after having given them on one page, take them back again
on the next.

How far my friends will be able to receive or tolerate my views on these
points, I do not know. I hope they will ponder them with all the candor
and charity they can. I have kept as near to orthodox standards as I
could, without doing violence to my conscience, and injustice to the
truth. I would never be singular, if I could honestly help it. It is
nothing but a regard to God, and duty, and the interests of humanity,
that prevents me going with the multitude. It would be gratifying in the
extreme to see truth and the majority on one side, and to be permitted
to take my place with them: but if the majority take sides with error, I
must take my place with the minority, and look for my comfort in a good
conscience, and in the sweet assurance of God's love and favor.

_A Dream._

In looking over some manuscripts some time ago, belonging to a relation
of my wife's father-in-law, I found the following story of a dream. Some
have no regard for dreams, but I have. I have both read of dreams, and
had dreams myself, that answered marvellously to great realities; and
this may be one of that kind. In any case, as the Preface does not take
up all the space set apart for it, I am disposed to give it a few of the
vacant pages.

The dreamer's account of his dream is as follows.

'After tiring my brain one day with reading a long debate between a
Catholic and a Protestant about the Infallibility of the Church and the
Bible, I took a walk along a quiet field-path near the river, full of
thought on the subject on which I had been reading. The fresh air, the
pleasant scene, and the ripple of the stream, had such a soothing effect
on me, that I lost myself, and passed unconsciously from the World of
realities, into the Land of dreams. I found myself in a large Hall,
filled with an eager crowd, listening to a number of men who had
assembled, as I was told, to discuss the affairs of the Universe, and
put an end to controversy. The subject under discussion just then was
the Sun. I found that after the world had lived in its light for
thousands of years, and been happy in the abundance of the fruit, and
grain, and numberless blessings produced by his wondrous influences,
some one, who had looked at the Great Light through a powerful
telescope, had discovered that there were several dark spots on his disk