had parted with the few that he had, but a quantity of papers were scattered about. The slanting sunbeams kindled the thick air; long lines of dusky and tremulous golden atoms mocked the gloom which surrounded them; and Norbourne, as he breathed the thick atmosphere, did not wonder that Walter even coughed with difficulty.
"As busy," said he, "and are you as enthusiastic, as ever?"
"Ah, no!" exclaimed Walter; "I no longer believe in
'Wonders wrought by single hand!'"
"And yet," replied Norbourne, "all great discoveries have been the result of single endeavour. We owe the Iliad, America, and the Protestant faith, to individual effort!"
"The instances you have quoted," replied the other, "are certainly very encouraging! Homer past a life in blindness and beggary; Columbus, in vain solicitation and feverish disappointment; and Luther's was spent in struggle, imprisonment, and danger. The
