you, I say: 'But in the trial below, man should recognize education for
heaven.' In a word, I would draw somewhat more downward her fancy, raise
somewhat more upward your reason. Take my advice then,--Pray. Your
mental system needs the support of prayer in order to preserve its
balance. In the embarrassment and confusion of your senses, clearness of
perception will come with habitual and tranquil confidence in Him who
alike rules the universe and reads the heart. I only say here what has
been said much better before by a reasoner in whom all Students of Nature
recognize a guide. I see on your table the very volume of Bacon which
contains the passage I commend to your reflection. Here it is. Listen:
'Take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will
put on when he finds himself maintained by a man who, to him, is instead
of a God, or melior natura, which courage is manifestly such as that
creature, without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could
never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine
protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature
could not obtain.'[3] You are silent, but your gesture tells me your
doubt,--a doubt which your heart, so femininely tender, will not speak
aloud lest you should rob the old man of a hope with which your strength
of manhood dispenses,--you doubt the efficacy of prayer! Pause and
reflect, bold but candid inquirer into the laws of that guide you call
Nature. If there were no efficacy in prayer; if prayer were as mere an
illusion of superstitious fantasy as aught against which your reason now
struggles, do you think that Nature herself would have made it amongst the
most common and facile of all her dictates? Do you believe that if there
really did not exist that tie between Man and his Maker--that link
between life here and life hereafter which is found in what we call Soul
alone--that wherever you look through the universe, you would behold a
child at Prayer? Nature inculcates nothing that is superfluous. Nature
does not impel the leviathan or the lion, the eagle or the moth, to pray;