the deficiency of every other sort of importance by a large surplus of self-importance. He valued himself mostly upon what he called his cool blood, clear head, and perfect impartiality of judgment. He was not to be seduced by love or bribed by money to any sort of partisanship. And as there are two sides to most questions under the sun, and as Mr. Bolling would look impartially upon positive and negative at once, so Billy

"Won himself an everlasting name."

He now came up to the bay window, wiping his face, and fanning himself, and saying

"Good evening, ladies! It is a perfectly delightful evening-though, to be sure, it is insufferably warm."

Mrs. Vivian immediately challenged him with, "Mr. Bolling, we are anxious to know your opinion upon these lines of Pope;" and she read them to him, and put the book in his hands. He took it, and wiped his face, and fanned himself-but these cooling operations seemed to heat him all the more, for his face grew very red and his flaxen hair crisped tightly as he gazed upon the page, and said: "Eh, yes, that's all right-certainly!"

"We believe it right, but what does it mean?" "Mean! Why, this is what it means

'Binding nature fast in fate,

Left free the human will;'

certainly-yes."

"Please to explain yourself, Mr. Bolling," said tho widow, while India gazed on in languid amusement. Uncle Billy wiped his forehead, and said, “Why

I don't think ladies understand these grave theological matters."

"No, but you can enlighten us, Mr. Bolling."

"You see these lines comprise the profoundest problems of philosophy-so profound as to perplex the understandings of the greatest scholars and philosophers that have ever lived; so profound, in fact, as to be quite unintelligible even to me-yet so simple as to be easily comprehended by the narrowest intellect -so simple as to be clear even to you, or to Fly here."

This was said of a small boy who at that instant appeared with a basket of oranges.

"Fly, do you know what your master William is talking about?"

"Yes, ma'am; politics."

แ Exactly," smiled Valeria; "go on, Mr. Bolling." "Hem! Observe, Mrs. Vivian, that there is an analogy all through nature-physical, mental, moral, spiritual."

"Yes. Fly, listen-what is he talking about now?" "Physic and sparrits, ma'am."

"That is right. Pray go on, Mr. Bolling."

"Yes; permit me to seat myself."

Uncle Billy let himself cautiously down upon the green turf. Valeria gave her hand to India, who stepped out upon the terrace and seated herself. Mrs. Vivian sank down near her. Oriole placed herself by her mistress, with the plume fan. Fly stood a short distance off, with his basket of oranges.

The tall rose trees, blown by the breeze, shed coolness and fragrance over the party. The beautiful variegated lawn, with its groves, ponds, and parterres,

stretched out before them; and below it flowed on, between its banks of purple shadow, the limpid Pearl, with the evening light fast fading from its white bosom.

"Now, then, Mr. Bolling!"

"Now, then, Mrs. Vivian! I said that there was an analogy running through the universe of nature; thus, the centripetal and centrifugal forces, that modify each other's power, and regulate the motions of the planetary systems, correspond exactly to predestination and free will"

"Do you understand him now, Fly?"

"No, ma'am; Marse Billy's too deep for me now." "And for me too, Fly; put down your basket now, and go, Fly. I dislike to see a poor child tiring himself, first upon one foot, and then upon the other; it puts me ill at ease."

"Yes, go! you sickly little wretch, you! I wonder how you think the ladies like to have such an ugly little attenuated black shrimp as you are about them; and I'm astonished at the gardener for presuming to send you here. Be off with you, and never show your face again," said Master Billy, growing very red in the face with zeal and gallantry.

Little Fly looked first surprised and grieved, and then penitent on the score of his sickness and deformity, and set down his basket and turned to go.

"Please don't scold him, Mr. Bolling; it's not his fault, poor little fellow! It was I who asked Mr. Sutherland to take him from the field and place him in the garden, because it is shadier there, and the work is lighter. Everybody cannot be strong and handsome can they, Fly ?" And the gentle speaker

turned and laid her hand kindly upon the boy's head and smiled encouragingly in his face. The child looked up in grateful affection; and the eyes of all the party were raised to welcome the orphan stepdaughter of Mrs. Vivian. She was a fair, pale girl, of a gentle, thoughtful, pensive cast of countenance and style of beauty, with which her plain dress of deep mourning perfectly harmonized.

"Come and sit by me, Rosalie, love," said the widow, making room for the maiden, half embracing her with one arm.

The kind girl put an orange in the boy's hand, and, smiling, motioned him away; and Fly, no longer mortified, but solaced and cheerful, ran off.

"Now proceed, Mr. Bolling. Rosalie, dove, Mr. Bolling is explaining to us the two great motive powers of the universe; the centripetal, which he says means the law of the Lord, and the centrifugal, which he says means the temptation of the demon. And we, my love, are the planetary bodies, kept from extremes of good and evil by the opposite action of these two forces. Is not this it, Mr. Bolling?"

"No, madam; no! no! no! Lord! Lord! Thus it is to expose one's theories, especially to Mrs. Vivian there, who would wrest the plainest text of Scripture to her own perdition. No, ma'am; I was about to say that the overruling will of Providence and the free agency of man were the two great motive powers of the moral universe-the human free will, being the great inward and impulsive force, is the centrifugal or flying-off power, and the government of God the centripetal or constraining power; that in the moral world these two great forces modify each other's action, just

as their prototypes do in the material world--keeping all in healthful action. Do you understand me?" "Do you understand yourself, Mr. Bolling?"

"Ah, I see you don't-women seldom do!" said Uncle Billy, wiping his forehead. "Thus, then, were man without free will-without the power of working out his own salvation, or the privilege of sending himself to perdition, if he desired it he would no longer be a moral agent, and, were he never so sinless, he would be at the best only a sinless puppet, an automaton, and God's creation would be a dumb show. And, on the other hand, were human free will left without restraint of the Lord's overruling government, why, man would rush into all sorts of extravagances, become a maniac, and convert God's order into chaos again. But, both these evil extremes being avoided, the Scylla of inert, passive obedience is. left upon the right, and the Charybdis of unbridled license on the left, and all goes on well and harmoniously. And now I hope you understand how it is that in 'binding nature fast in fate,' God still left free the human will."

"No, I do not; it seems to me that we are free agents, or we are not free agents-one or the other."

"We're both, I assure you-both. Truth generally lies between extremes. I have known that all my life, and acted upon it. We are free agents, and we are not that is to say, we are free agents within a certain limit, and no further. And observe, my dear Mrs. Vivian, and my dear girls! within that limit we have still room enough to save or to lose our souls!"

This speech was concluded with so much solemnity of manner, that it imposed a silence on the little