as a storm-signal across a sea of glass.

The younger man was often taken at disadvantage, for, while he was
in touch with modern thought, he did not possess the old
dialectician's skill. Once, as Mr. Penrose remarked that science
was modifying theology, Mr. Morell, detecting the flaw in his
armour, thrust in his lance to the hilt by replying that science
and Calvinism were logically the same, with the exception that,
for heredity and environment, the Calvinist introduced grace.

Whereupon Mr. Penrose cried with some vehemence:

'No, no, Mr. Morell! that will not do. I cannot accept your
statement at all.'

'Can't you?' said the old man, rising from his chair, the war
spirit hardening his voice and flaming in his eye. 'Can't you?
What says science of the first hundred men which will pass you, if
you take your stand in the main thoroughfare of the great city
over the hills yonder? Watch them; one is drunk, another is linked
arm in arm with his paramour, a third is handcuffed, and you can
see by the conduct of him who follows that he is as reckless of
life as though the years were for ever. Why these? Ask science,
and it answers _election_--the election of birth and circumstance.
Ask Calvinism, and it, too, answers election--the election of
decrees.'

'But science does not do away with will, Mr. Morell.'

'Well, then, it teaches its impotence, and that is the same thing.