hand.' From which it is apparent that he is no metaphysician."

Another time, when Ernest had just said that the metaphysical
philosophers could never stand the test of truth, Dr. Hammerfield
suddenly demanded:

"What is the test of truth, young man? Will you kindly explain what has
so long puzzled wiser heads than yours?"

"Certainly," Ernest answered. His cocksureness irritated them. "The wise
heads have puzzled so sorely over truth because they went up into the
air after it. Had they remained on the solid earth, they would have
found it easily enough--ay, they would have found that they themselves
were precisely testing truth with every practical act and thought of
their lives."

"The test, the test," Dr. Hammerfield repeated impatiently. "Never mind
the preamble. Give us that which we have sought so long--the test of
truth. Give it us, and we will be as gods."

There was an impolite and sneering scepticism in his words and manner
that secretly pleased most of them at the table, though it seemed to
bother Bishop Morehouse.

"Dr. Jordan* has stated it very clearly," Ernest said. "His test of
truth is: 'Will it work? Will you trust your life to it?'"

* A noted educator of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries of the Christian Era. He was president
of the Stanford University, a private benefaction of the