roughly handled by theologians at different times.  And the Nemesis of the pulpit comes, in a shape it little thought of, beginning with the snap of a toe-joint, and ending with such a crack of old beliefs that the roar of it is heard in all the ministers’ studies of Christendom!  Sir, you cannot have people of cultivation, of pure character, sensible enough in common things, large-hearted women, grave judges, shrewd business-men, men of science, professing to be in communication with the spiritual world and keeping up constant intercourse with it, without its gradually reacting on the whole conception of that other life.  It is the folly of the world, constantly, which confounds its wisdom.  Not only out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, but out of the mouths of fools and cheats, we may often get our truest lessons.  For the fool’s judgment is a dog-vane that turns with a breath, and the cheat watches the clouds and sets his weathercock by them,—­so that one shall often see by their pointing which way the winds of heaven are blowing, when the slow-wheeling arrows and feathers of what we call the Temples of Wisdom are turning to all points of the compass.

——­Amen!—­said the young fellow called John.—­Ten minutes by the watch.  Those that are unanimous will please to signify by holding up their left foot!

I looked this young man steadily in the face for about thirty seconds.  His countenance was as calm as that of a reposing infant.  I think it was simplicity, rather than mischief, with perhaps a youthful playfulness, that led him to this outbreak.  I have often noticed that even quiet horses, on a sharp November morning, when their coats are just beginning to get the winter roughness, will give little sportive demi-kicks, with slight sudden elevation of the subsequent region of the body, and a sharp short whinny,—­by no means intending to put their heels through the dasher, or to address the driver rudely, but feeling, to use a familiar word, frisky.  This, I think, is the physiological condition of the young person, John.  I noticed, however, what I should call a palpebral spasm, affecting the eyelid and muscles of one side, which, if it were intended for the facial gesture called a wink, might lead me to suspect a disposition to be satirical on his part.

——­Resuming the conversation, I remarked,—­I am, ex officio, as a Professor, a conservative.  For I don’t know any fruit that clings to its tree so faithfully, not even a “froze-’n’-thaw” winter-apple, as a Professor to the bough of which his chair is made.  You can’t shake him off, and it is as much as you can do to pull him off.  Hence, by a chain of induction I need not unwind, he tends to conservatism generally.

But then, you know, if you are sailing the Atlantic, and all at once find yourself in a current and the sea covered with weeds, and drop your Fahrenheit over the side and find it eight or ten degrees higher than in the ocean generally, there is no use in flying in the face of facts and swearing there is no such thing as a Gulf-Stream, when you are in it.