'Ah!' he exclaimed; 'all is still pro

gress.

Material progress came to an
Mental progress has

end yesterday.

begun to-day. One third of Humanity is cultivating sentiment; another third is learning to covet truth. I, the remaining and most enlightened third, will go and seek it. Glorious, solemn Humanity! I will go and look about for its arboreal ancestor.'

Every step the Professor took he found the island more beautiful. But he came back to luncheon, having been unsuccessful in his search. Events had marched quickly in his absence.

Vir

ginia was at the beginning of her third

volume; and the curate had skimmed

over so many essays, that he professed himself able to give a thorough account of the want of faith that was in him.

After luncheon the three sat together in easy chairs, in the verandah, sometimes talking, sometimes falling into a half-doze. They all agreed that they were wonderfully comfortable, and the Professor said

'All Humanity is now at rest, and in utter peace. It is just taking breath, before it becomes unspeakably and significantly happy.'

He would have said more, but he was here startled by a piteous noise of crying, and the three found themselves

one of

confronted by an old woman dripping with sea-water, and with an expression on her face of the utmost misery. They soon recognised her as the passengers on the ship. She told them how she had been floated ashore on a spar, and how she had been sustained by a little roast pig, that kindly begged her to eat it, having first lain in her bosom to restore her to warmth. She was now looking for her son.

'And if I cannot find him,' said the

old woman, 'I shall never smile again. He has half broken my heart,' she went on, by his wicked ways. But if I thought he was dead-dead in the midst of his sins-it would be broken alto

gether; for in that case he must certainly be in hell.'

'Old woman,' said the Professor, very slowly and solemnly, 'be comforted. I announce to you that your son is alive.'

'Oh, bless you, sir, for that word!' cried the old woman.

'But where is

he? Have you seen him?

sure that he is living?'

Are you

'I am sure of it,' said the Professor, 'because enlightened thought shows me that he cannot be anything else. It is true that I saw him sink for a third time in the sea, and that he was then snapped up by a shark. But he is as

much alive as ever in his posthumous

activities.

He has made you wretched after him; and that is his future life. Become an exact thinker, and you will see that this is so. Old woman,' added the Professor solemnly, 'old woman, listen to me- You are your son in hell.'

At this the old woman flew into a

terrible rage.

'In hell, sir!' she exclaimed; 'me in hell! a poor lone woman like me! How dare you!' And she sank back in a chair and fainted.

'Alas!' said the Professor, 'thus is misery again introduced into the world. A fourth part of Humanity is now miserable.'

The curate answered promptly that