been an admirer of people who chose the safe side in everything;
indeed I had always entertained a thorough contempt for them.
Surely it would be showing more manhood to adopt the dangerous
side, that of disbelief; I almost resolved to do so--but yet in a
question of so much importance, I ought not to be guided by vanity.
The question was not which was the safe, but the true side? yet how
was I to know which was the true side? Then I thought of the
Bible--which I had been reading in the morning--that spoke of the
soul and a future state; but was the Bible true? I had heard
learned and moral men say that it was true, but I had also heard
learned and moral men say that it was not: how was I to decide?
Still that balance of probabilities! If I could but see the way of
truth, I would follow it, if necessary, upon hands and knees; on
that I was determined; but I could not see it. Feeling my brain
begin to turn round, I resolved to think of something else; and
forthwith began to think of what had passed between Ursula and
myself in our discourse beneath the hedge.

I mused deeply on what she had told me as to the virtue of the
females of her race. How singular that virtue must be which was
kept pure and immaculate by the possessor, whilst indulging in
habits of falsehood and dishonesty! I had always thought the gypsy
females extraordinary beings. I had often wondered at them, their
dress, their manner of speaking, and, not least, at their names;
but, until the present day, I had been unacquainted with the most
extraordinary point connected with them. How came they possessed
of this extraordinary virtue? was it because they were thievish? I
remembered that an ancient thief-taker, who had retired from his
useful calling, and who frequently visited the office of my master
at law, the respectable S---, who had the management of his