known. We are uneasy, we know not why; we are
discouraged without any knowledge of the cause. We are joyful without
being able to give any reason for it. The mind can rise above all these
dispositions, affections, and humors; can govern, cast out, and
disperse them. Proof enough that a king lives in man--the breath of
God, which is not taken from the earth, and to which all matter must
yield if that power so wills."

The dog stretched his strong legs without any idea of the important
question to which he had given occasion.

"Herr Frank," began Madam Siegwart earnestly, "I have learned to
respect you, and have often wished that my son, at your years, would be
like you. I see now with painful astonishment that you defend opinions
which contradict your former expressions, and the sentiments we must
expect from a Christian. Will you not be so good as to tell me how you
have so suddenly changed your views?"

"Esteemed madam," answered Frank, with emotion, "I thank you for this
undeserved motherly sympathy; but I beg of you not to believe that the
opinions I expressed are my firm convictions. No, I have not yet fallen
so deep that for me there is no difference between man and beast. I can
yet continue to believe that materialism is a crime against mankind. On
the other hand, I freely acknowledge that my mind is in great trouble;
that every firm position beneath my feet totters; that I have been
tempted to hold doctrines degrading to the individual and destructive
to society. I have been brought into this difficulty by reading books
whose seductive proofs I am not able to refute. Oh! I am miserable,
very miserable; my appearance must have shown you that already."

He looked involuntarily at Angela; he saw tears in her eyes; he bowed
his head and was silent.

"I see your difficulties," said the proprietor. "They enter early or
late into the mind of every man. It is good, in such uncertainties and
doubts, to lean on the authority of truth. This authority can only be
God, who is truth itself, who came down from heaven and brought light
into the darkness. We can prove, inquire, and speculate; but the
keenest human intellect is not always free from delusion. As there is
in man a spiritual tendency which raises him far above the visible and
material, God has been pleased to lead and direct that tendency by
revelation, that man may not err. I consider divine revelation a
necessity which God willed when he created the mind. As