Nobody spoke; as Captain Maile afterward explained, "'twasn't anybody else's fight." Besides, Valley Rest was peopled by the race peculiar to all other portions of this terrestrial ball, and one of the instincts of that race, whether savage or civilized, is that it is far more pleasing to be a spectator than a participant in an altercation. "Mr. Leader," said Mr. Alleman after a moment of silence, "in support of my amendment I wish to say that no one more enthusiastically admires than I do the remarkable, almost unique, logical ability of the apostle; but the very reason which prompted him to give forth that wonderful letter to the Romans is the one which I offer in opposition to our studying that same epistle. Paul was originally a shrewd man of the world, and his conversion did not deprive him of his common sense and tact. Writing to the church at Rome--a church whose members, judging by the Roman mental constitution, must have been gained through appeals logical rather than emotional--he met them upon their own ground, and taught them and grounded them in belief through those faculties in them which were most easily reached, and which, more than any others, would retain the impressions formed upon them. Of all that Paul taught we profess to be convinced; of what Christ taught we are not so well informed, for the reason that it is Paul, rather than Christ, who is preached from the pulpit. But here we are in a world and a state of society in which, for righteousness' sake, we are less helped by logically drawn dogma than by earnest injunction and pure example. We _do_ believe; what we need is to learn to lead the new life which that belief implies; we need to have asserted, explained, and impressed upon us the simple but comprehensive rules and gracious promises which Jesus enounced during his life. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes; which of us really _believes_ in them as we do in Paul's argument to the Romans? It continues and concludes with a number of moral injunctions, all of which we practically reject, or at least neglect; yet these bear directly on our daily intercourse with our fellow-men, and our daily acts of all sorts. Why, St. Paul himself apparently preached after this same model when he had to talk to men of the world whose intelligence was not confined to a single groove, for we read that when he preached--talked--to Felix, the governor, he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come. Therefore I move, for the good of those here assembled, and for the glory of God, that this class proceed to the study of the Sermon on the Mount." There was a perceptible rustle and an active interchange of winks and head-shakings as Mr. Alleman closed; but a dead silence was restored as Dr. Humbletop slowly rose to his feet, cleared his throat, adjusted his newly-polished glasses, and raised his voice.