the associates of robbers. Here, I am well assured, we are secure.”
“Did I not remind you of the protection of a better wisdom than our own?” replied the other.
“Truly you did; but it appears to me that it was the exercise of the faculties conferred upon you by the all-pervading power which is diffused everywhere, and of which your intelligence is a constituent part, that composed the protecting agency. Let men cease to put those faculties in operation and we have no evidence whatever of a governing mind. We take nothing without demonstration.”
“The supreme mind,” said the other cautiously, “does not appear to me to need any aid from us. Its operations are of its own volition; and that volition is benevolence and universal interposition.”
“On that theory,” dryly responded his friend,“ it is hard to account for the ruins that surround us, and the oppression which seems to impede the good efforts and the noble human feelings that seem to animate our worthy host. His heart is not without benevolence, and he interposes where he can; and it is difficult to account for the want of sympathy evidenced in these days, and in all days ancient and modern, towards such worthy persons by the supreme benevolence you speak of. But let us not wrangle ourselves out of our rest. We need all the repose we can secure.”
The apartment occupied by the wayfarers really consisted of an addition to an addition to the original hut of the congeries. Similar additions and expan-
