Ansel, of course, was busy and ambitious. The lesson was coming somewhat upon his own ground, and he felt in no wise unwilling to show how well he had mastered the subject. He entered upon it with feelings a little different, however, from his anticipations. The explanation which Mr. Wilton had given of the purpose of the Creator in making such a world seemed to him very reasonable. He could make no objection to it. But that explanation had taken away at one sweep a whole store of objections to God's goodness which he was waiting to bring out as soon as a good opportunity was presented. A world designed for the dwelling-place of sinners--sinners not already given over and doomed to final wrath, but to be recovered from sin and trained in virtue and holiness, or, if incorrigible, to be held in check and used as helps in the discipline of the righteous--he plainly saw must be as unlike a world fitted up for holy beings as a reform school is different from a home for kind and obedient children. Those arrangements which he had thought the most painful and objectionable might, after all, be the wisest and best. He did not see where to put in a reasonable objection to Mr. Wilton's unexpected argument, yet he did not feel quite satisfied to confess to himself that he was so soon and so easily defeated. In this state of mind, on Saturday morning he met Mr. Hume upon the street. "Good-morning, Ansel," said Mr. Hume. "Good-morning," returned Ansel. "I hear," said Mr. Hume, "that you have given up studying the Bible in your Bible class, and have begun the study of natural philosophy. Is that so?" "Not quite true, Mr. Hume. We are to examine some department of the works of Nature, and see what indications appear of the Creator's wisdom and goodness." "That is a little different from the report which came to me. But what did you learn last Sunday?" "Mr. Wilton told us that in order to judge of the wisdom and goodness of God in any of the affairs of this world we must consider the object for which that arrangement was designed. He said that if a man examine a cotton-gin, supposing it to be a threshing-machine, he would be likely to pronounce it a foolish and worthless contrivance; and that the fine edge of a razor would be worse than useless upon the cutter of a breaking-up plough. He told us that the earth was not prepared as the dwelling-place of sinless beings, but as a place of discipline for the fallen human race, and that we ought not to look upon it as the choicest specimen of workmanship which the Creator could construct." "I have heard that Mr. Wilton believes something of that kind. Ansel, have you studied geology?" "I have read a little upon that subject and have heard some lectures." "Can you tell me, then, whether or not the natural laws which prevailed on the earth ages and ages ago, before the earth was fit for men to live upon it, are the same as those which have been in operation in these later ages, since men have inhabited it?"