“Joking!” echoed Samuel, his eyes opening wide. And then the doctor caught his breath and proceeded to question him. He went back to the beginning, and made Samuel lay bare the story of his whole life. But when he got to the interview with Professor Stewart, the other could contain himself no longer. “Samuel!” he exclaimed, “this is the most terrible thing I have ever heard in my life.” “How do you mean, sir?” “You have been saved--providentially saved, as I firmly believe. But you were hanging on the very verge of a life of evil; and all because men in our colleges are permitted to teach these blasphemous and godless doctrines. This is what they call science! This is our modern enlightenment!” The doctor had risen and begun to pace the floor in his agitation. “I have always insisted that the consequence of such teaching would be the end of all morality. And here we have the thing before our very eyes! A young man of decent life is actually led to the commission of a crime, as a consequence of the teachings of Herbert Spencer!” Samuel was listening in consternation. “Then it isn't true what Herbert Spencer says!” he exclaimed. “True!” cried the other. “Why, Samuel, don't you KNOW that it isn't true? Weren't you brought up to read the Bible? And do you read anything in the Bible about the struggle for existence? Were you taught there that your sole duty was to fight with other men for your own selfish ends? Was it not rather made clear to you that you were not to concern yourself with your own welfare at all, but to struggle for the good of others, and to suffer rather than do evil? Why Samuel, what would your father have said, if he could have seen you last night--his own dear son, that he had brought up in the way of the Gospel?” “Oh, sir!” cried Samuel, struck to the heart. “My boy!” exclaimed the other. “Our business in this world is not that we should survive, but that the good should survive. We are to live for it and to die for it, if need be. We are to love and serve others--we are to be humble and patient--to sacrifice ourselves freely. The survival of the fittest! Why, Samuel, the very idea is a denial of spirituality--what are we that we should call ourselves fit? To think that is to be exposed to all the base passions of the human heart--to greed and jealousy and hate! Such doctrines are the cause of all the wickedness, of all the materialism of our time--of crime and murder and war! My boy, do you read that Jesus went about, worrying about His own survival, and robbing others because they were less fit than He? Only think how it would have been with you had you been called to face Him last night?” The shame of this was more than Samuel could bear. “Oh, stop, stop, sir!” he cried, and covered his face with his hands. “I see it all! I have been very wicked!” “Yes!” exclaimed the other. “You have been wicked.”