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 multiplex concerns with which I was then occupied.  Clifton, on the contrary, having always struggled loftily along the same narrow sunbeam, was utterly unable to accept such available knowledge of a principle as is sufficient to direct our activity,—­he must ever soar skyward to gaze upon the origin of its authority, until, entangled in a web of contradictions, he fell impotent to earth.

Week by week, in my city-home, through letters from the minister and Colonel Prowley, I had been kept informed of the progress of that wild ferment going on in Foxden.  At length the contentious spirit there evoked seemed ready to summon to trial all ancient and reputable things.  My friends of the protesting minority were surely to be credited with good Puritan pluck; though there was also something admirable in the vigor which had marshalled a party for their discomfiture.  I began to think it my duty to visit Clifton; moreover, I was curious to see the town at the height of its effervescence.  A note from Mrs. Widesworth supplied me with the needed excuse.  The singing-school was to hold its semiannual meeting at her house on Thursday next; would I not come down for a day and meet many old friends?

II.

The fragrance of perfected harvests pervaded Foxden.  The air was full of those sweet remembrances of summer which are better than her radiant presence.  The sky overhead was flooded with rich autumnal sunshine.  Far to the north lay glimmering a heavy bank of clouds.  There might be rain before night.