me the affection and fleece of my flock so soon as it should be discovered.'

"And so he resumed his seat with a resolute determination to believe everything contained in his evangelical authorities, be it what it would. There's a lesson in the science of credulity for you, Mr. Tub; follow it, and you are sure to be on the major side in faith on all subjects.

"Well, heresy is on the increase, Mr. Tub, even in hell; we have of late, numerous arrivals of the class of Christians afore described, whose error consisted in supposing that God is good enough to take care of all the souls he has made. The rogues have the audacity to back up their notion with a strong force of Scripture testimony. Even after their arrival among us they still persist in their heresy-for there is, you know, no change after death-and they insist that hell will be destroyed in due time; all heresies cease; sin, suffering, the devil, and all other bad things be brought to an end; and all souls be brought to a happy and harmonious house-keeping together, with God, and his Son, and angels, in heaven forever and ever.

"The thing sounds very well, Mr. Tub→ does it not? Why they should be sent to hell for entertaining such pleasant opinions seems strange; but, it seems, from all that priests tell us, that the Deity has a dreadful spite against those who mistake their creed. And this accounts why holy men on earth have made so many bonfires for the accommodation of the same class-it was but affording them a foretaste of the comforts of the great bonfire below-and who shall deny to the saints the prerogative of imitating their God? They have been born again, you know, and like father like children.

"Now, we have in hell some very ancient religionists, known on earth as Manicheans, whose creed strikingly resembled what is now a pure evangelical faith, so far, at least, as respects the origin and endless continuance of good and evil. This sect once flourished extensively over the south-western portion of Asia. Their personified Principle of Evil, the origin of darkness, misery, death, and so on, corresponds closely to the devil of the popular Christian creed.

And their Good Principle-the originator of light, and purity, and all approvable things, was as powerless against his antagonist, as is Jehovah against the devil. Consequently, they held as evangelic Christians do that evil shall be as eternal in its duration as good.

"But, then, on the part of the Manicheans there was more consistency in so holding, for, as these opposing principles were equal, it was not to be expected that the one should ever be able to overcome the other; whereas, on the part of evangelic Christians, Jehovah is held to be infinite and the devil to be finite. Yet the latter, and his works, shall eternally coendure with the former, and the unoriginated principles of his moral nature! He, he! the faith that swallows these beautiful consistencies without choking, deserves, sure enough, to be rewarded with the privilege of singing psalms to all eternity.

"Well, we have grand debates on these several subjects in hell, Mr. Tub. Of our powers in that way you have a sample in the 'Paradise Lost,' of Milton; who farther

informs you that after the breaking up of the great council, in which they debated the question of peace or war with the Deity; some of the rebel angels betook themselves to one employment, and some to another.

'Others, apart, sat on a hill retired,

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate.'

And we have plenty of the masters of logic there, Mr. Tub; Aristotle, with his sylogisms; the author of the Socratian method also, as well as our American sage who was such an adept therein. Then we have the Academicians, the Sophists, the".

"Marsa-de skiff coming!" rang out at this moment on the silent evening air, and bounded in echoes from hill to hill. The elder sprang up gladly at the sound, and as he did so he found that the neighboring stump also had been suddenly deserted by its occupant. To that which he had occupied he found, by feeling, that some warmth had been communicated by his body; but on that which had supported the goblin the evening dew lay moist and cold.

"Paddle cannot possibly have been seated thar all this time," muttered the elder; "the night-dew could not have fallen thar through his person at this rate-the thing is clarly impossible, and Well Cesar, you are here are you? Very well; hurry over now, for I am chilled and want my supper."

So ended the affair of the fifth evening; the reader is left to form his own free opinion about it; and he is quite as capable of doing so, it is hoped, as is his humble servant, the narrator.