It is not an agent; not a thing. What is fate? _Oo._ The fate of creatures is the influence which their good or bad deeds have on their future existence. _J._ If influence be exerted, there must be an exerter. If there be a determination, there must be a determiner. _Oo._ No, there is no determiner. There can not be an eternal being. _J._ Consider this point. It is a main point of true wisdom. Whenever there is an execution of a purpose, there must be an agent. _Oo._ (After a little thought.) I must say that my mind is very decided and hard, and unless you tell me something more to the purpose, I shall never believe. _J._ Well, teacher, I wish you to believe, not for my profit, but for yours. I daily pray the true God to give you light that you may believe. Whether you will ever believe in this world, I do not know; but when you die, I know you will believe what I now say. You will then appear before the God that you now deny. _Oo._ I don’t know that. _J._ I have heard that one Burman, many years ago, embraced the Portuguese religion, and that he was your relation. _Oo._ He was a brother of my grandfather. _J._ At Ava, or here? _Oo._ At Ava he became a Portuguese; afterwards went to a ship country with a ship-priest, and returned to Ava. _J._ I have heard he was put to death for his religion. _Oo._ No, he was imprisoned and tortured by order of the emperor. At last he escaped from their hands, fled to Rangoon, and afterwards to Bengal, where they say he died. _J._ Did any of his family join him? _Oo._ None; all forsook him; and he wandered about, despised and rejected by all. _J._ Do you think that he was a decided Christian, and had got a new mind? _Oo._ I think so; for when he was tortured hard, he held out. _J._ Did he ever talk with you about religion? _Oo._ Yes. _J._ Why did you not listen to him? _Oo._ I did not listen. _J._ Did you ever know any other Burman that changed his own for a foreign religion? _Oo._ I have heard that there is one now in Rangoon, who became a Portuguese; but he keeps himself concealed, and I have never seen him.” After almost three years of the closest application to study, Mr. Judson was taken ill. He wrote to Dr. Baldwin: