the victim a heretic, is not included in the catalogue of damning sins. O no, Mr. Tub, but few of those who imbrue their hands in the blood of heretics are doomed to an abode in our ungodly place, and this, also, is favorable to our good state of society.

"How often do you hear it said, Mr. Tub, that there ought to be a hell for somebody.' Granting there ought-do those same somebodies get to it? On the contrary, does it not oftener happen that the more moral and peaceable class of people neglect to be born again, whilst the profligate, the profane, the violent, make sudden work of the matter, and help largely to swell the company of the saints on earth and the saved in heaven? Even your own preachers will inform you, Mr. Tub, that there is a far slenderer chance of a moral man's salvation than that of an out-breaking villain's. Hence, you see that hell has every chance for a very decent state of society, and, on that score, for being a very decent and orderly sort of place."

Another pause here ensued; our friend Triptolemus was utterly astounded at the nature of these disclosures; their strange

ness; the familiar manner in which the gob lin addressed him; his near concern in the matters revealed, and the air of entire probability which the statements of Paddle wore, quite overcame the elder's fears, and emboldened him to hold converse with his queer visitor. His poor old father and mother in hell! Alas! he had not before dreamed of such a thing. Yet what more possible? since, as he well knew, they were destitute of that mysterious qualification which is held to be essential to one's admission into heaven, although possessed of many virtues which rendered them useful and amiable on earth.

Such, also, was the case in general with the hardy pioneers of the west: coarse in manners and in speech; ignorant of, and indifferent about, the mysteries of the Christian faith; yet frank-hearted, hospitable, and reckless of hardship and danger when responding to the calls of duty and humanity; their dying-beds were seldom cheered by the voice of religion, or their graves sanctified by its prayers.

"Am I, then, to believe, Mr. Paddle,"

the elder took courage to inquire, "that you are really an inhabitant of the lower pit, and that my parents-the whole twenty-six who lie under this rock-and the women of the settlement who were massacred on that fearful night, are all now included amongst the damned?"

"No preaching was ever more true, Mr. Tub, whether you believe it or not," was Paddle's reply. "If you credit these statements, well; and if not, well; it is a rule in the divine government, it seems, to burn people for their want of faith, and the same has been extensively adopted in the practice of godly men on earth as witness the fires of Smithfield and the Inquisition-but opinion in hell is free.

"I don't wonder at its being unpalatable truth to you that so many of those are in hell who achieved your national liberties; I know it would not sound well in a fourthof-July oration; full oft have I been invisi bly present on such days, and laughed in the orator's face as he was descanting on the virtues of those brave men, and pointed to heaven as the place where they are

receiving the meed of their services! He, he! And your divines, Mr. Tub, dare not offend the patriotism of the people by hinting that these same heroes may possibly be in a very different country.

"Now is it likely, Mr. Tub, that amidst the bustle, and heat, and passion, which revolutionary times and conflicts are apt to excite, those gallant fellows took leisure to concern themselves about faith and the new birth? Not much did old Putnam, I trow, nor Warren, nor Greene, nor Moultrie, nor De Kalb, nor Paul Jones. And, to come to later times, who suspects that Decatur, or Lawrence, or Jefferson, or Franklin, with many others whom I could name, were subjects of regeneration and an evangelical faith? It has been asserted of even the great Washington, that although he gave a general assent to the truth of Christianity, he stopt widely short of an evangelical conversion.

"Of course I could tell you exactly how that matter stands, but I spare your patriotic feelings. Be assured, however, that hell contains a very large majority of the

most learned and illustrious men that have existed on earth-poets, orators, statesmen, priests, historians, sages, and monarchs; and whilst the wise maxims and precepts of some of these form the elements of the moral code for millions of mankind, they themselves are in hell because, in addition to their good morality, they did not also get religion—a thing they might have got very cheaply, and (as in the case of the thief on the cross) at their very last extremity." But, Mr. Paddle," broke in the elder "Not a word, Mr. Tub," interrupted Paddle in return; "I divine what you are about to say, my friend, and will save you the discredit of uttering a sentiment so unorthodox. Remember, Mr. Tub, that you are an elder, and ought, therefore, to be sound in the faith. Now you were about to suggest that possibly some of these very respectable persons are admitted to heaven, even without having been evangelically regenerated, on the score of their rare moral excellencies.

"My friend, the thing is not to be thought of-it is decidedly heretical. So taught not