such as you have seen paintings and photographs of, -valleys thousands of feet deep, among mountains thousands of feet high?

Yes, I do. But, as I said before, I do not like you to take my word upon trust. When you are older, you shall go to the mountains, and you shall judge for yourself. Still, I must say that I never saw a valley, however deep, or a cliff, however high, which had not been scooped out by water; and that even the mountain-tops which stand up miles aloft in jagged peaks and pinnacles against the sky were cut out at first, and are being cut and sharpened still, by little else save water, soft and hard; that is, by rain, frost, and ice.

Water, and nothing else, has sawn out such a chasm as that through which the ships run up to Bristol, between Lee Wood and St. Vincent's Rocks. Water, and nothing else, has shaped those peaks of the Matterhorn, or the Weisshorn, or the Pic du Midi of the Pyrenees, of which you have seen sketches and photographs. Just so water might saw out Hartford Bridge Flat, if it had time enough, into a labyrinth of valleys, and hills, and peaks standing alone; as it has done already by Ambarrow, and Edgbarrow, and the Folly Hill on the other side of the vale.

I see you are astonished at the notion that water can make Alps. But it was just because I knew you

would be astonished at Madam How's doing so great a thing with so simple a tool, that I began by showing you how she was doing the same thing in a small

way here upon these flats. For the safest way o learn Madam How's methods is to watch her at work in little corners, at commonplace business, which will

not astonish or frighten us, nor put huge hasty guesses and dreams into our heads. Sir Isaac Newton, some will tell you, found out the great law of gravitation, which holds true of all the suns and stars in heaven, by watching an apple fall: and even if he did not find it out so, he found it out, we know, by careful thinking over the plain and commonplace fact, that things have weight. So do you be humble and patient, and watch Madam How at work on little things. For that is the way to see her at work upon all space and time.

What! you have a question more to ask?

Oh! I talked about Madam How lifting up Hartford Bridge Flat. How could she do that? My dear child, that is a long story; and I must tell it you some other time. Meanwhile, did you ever see the lid of a kettle rise up and shake when the water inside boiled? Of course: and of course too, remember that Madam How must have done it. Then think over between this and our next talk, what that can possibly have to do with her lifting up Hartford Bridge Flat. But you have been longing, perhaps, all this time to hear more about Lady Why; and why she set Madam How to make Bracknell's Bottom.

My dear child, the only answer I dare give to that is: Whatever other purposes she may have made it tor, she made it at least for this-that you and I

should come to it this day, and look at it, and talk over it, and become thereby wiser and more earnest, and we will hope more humble and better people. Whatever else Lady Why may wish or not wish, this she wishes always, to make all men wise and all men good. For what is written of her whom, as in a parable, I have called Lady Why?

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.

"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

"When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with

water.

"Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth :

"While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

"When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth :

"When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains of the deep:

"When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth:

"Then I was by Him, as one brought up with

lim and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him:

"Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

"Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children : for blessed are they that keep my ways.”

That we can say, for it has been said for us already. But beyond that we can say, and need say, very little. We were not there, as we read in the Book of Job, when God laid the foundations of the earth. "We see," says St. Paul, "as in a glass darkly, and only know in part." "For who," he asks again, "has known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?... For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Therefore we must not rashly say, this or that is Why a thing has happened; nor invent what are called "final causes," which are not Lady Why herself, but only our little notions of what Lady Why has done, or rather what we should have done if we had been in her place. It is not, indeed, by thinking that we shall find out anything about Lady Why. She speaks not to our eyes or to our brains, like Madam How, but to that inner part of us which we call our hearts and spirits, and which will endure when eyes and brain are turned again to dust. If your heart be pure and sober, gentle and truthful, then Lady Why speaks to you without words, and