immensity until he had become utterly adrift in theology, the minister
found himself too feeble to stand upon the moral basis of some practical
creed. His regular parish duties afforded but slender occupation; he had
the gift of speaking extemporaneously, or from such notes as might be
made upon the back of a letter half an hour before church; he was not
called upon to do more catechizing or visiting than was agreeable to his
mood. He accordingly yielded to an indolence of disposition which
detained his vanishing illusions, and indulged in such studies as served
to prolong the barren contemplation which had wasted his youth. My
knowledge of the secret committed for eighty years to the Mather Safe
made me the only person to whom Clifton could freely write. At some
private inconvenience, I admitted a tolerably full intercourse with my
new correspondent. He declared that the sympathy of a man in active
affairs was invaluable to a solitary student like himself: he hoped, so
he said, to see through my eyes the facts of life. It was not difficult
to discern the cause of the sad indecision which afflicted him. To state
the case roughly, he had too much knowledge for his will. Busy people
reason by instinct with sufficient accuracy, but with this man no
conviction was for five minutes free from the probe of a metaphysical
argument. Yet from glimpses I had obtained of that overwhelming System
of Things elaborated by the two Vannelles, I could understand the
condition in which its partial apprehension had left Clifton. The more I
considered certain statements, authoritatively made in the portion of
the manuscript I had dared to read, the firmer grew my belief that years
of concentrated thought and fervent speculation had indeed illuminated,
to these men, dim outlines of most august truths,--truths which some
possible, although very distant, advancement of physical science might
inductively realize. But I had made out to dismiss the matter, with the
consideration that whatever it concerned me to know could be tied to no
one method of pursuit,--and, so reflecting, returned contentedly to the