"Do you place much dependence on dreams?" "I place dependence on nothing, Sir, but the exceeding great and precious promises of my Bible; but it is delightsome to have, in the visions of the night, the re-appearance of day-thoughts and meditations; it is often then, from some cause which I cannot explain, they are clothed in a more visible and substantial form." "Now, Mrs. Allen, one more question, and I have done. Do you think it possible for any argument to convince you that Jesus Christ is not a real being, only an imaginary one?" "Do you, Sir, think it possible for any argument to convince you that you are not a real being, or that we are not all real beings, only imaginary ones. The one thing is just about as likely to be done as the other, and just about as easy." I read part of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, making a few remarks on what I read, and then went to pray with her, Mr. Tennent, from a sense of politeness, if not from a superior reason, kneeling with me before the throne of mercy. As the storm was now abated, and the evening far spent, we left her; but, on shaking hands with her, Mr. Tennent gave her a sovereign. We walked away in silence, but at length he said, "Well, Sir, if your religion be, what unbelievers say it is, an invention, it is a very soothing and inspiring one. On such an occasion as this we cannot help wishing it to be real, even if we can't believe it to be so." "You see, Sir, it answers all the purposes of a reality at the great crisis in the history of human life." When we came to the cross-road where we were to leave each other, he said, "Do you, Sir, remain at Fairmount much longer?" "Yes, Sir, for some weeks." "I should like another interview, if I may be permitted to solicit such a favour." We engaged to meet on the following Saturday evening, but we were prevented. Towards the latter end of the ensuing week, I received the subjoined note from him, which was brought by Captain Dunlop's gardener, who informed us that his master was just dead:-- "DEAR SIR,--Before you receive this, I shall have left. What a contrast have I witnessed between the cottage and the mansion! What I have _seen_ and _heard_ during this visit will never pass from my memory. If I could believe in the efficacy of prayer, I should say, _pray for me_. We may never meet again, but should the Bible ever be in later life as precious to me as it was before infidelity corrupted my heart, you shall hear from me.--Yours faithfully, "GEORGE TENNENT." We had heard of the Captain's illness, at whose mansion Mr. Tennent had been on a visit; but the announcement of his death startled and depressed us. "Why, gardener, your master's death has been very sudden." "Yes, Sir, he wasn't ill more than five days." "What was the nature of his disease?" "Inflammation of the bowels, so I heard my wife say." "Did any clergyman visit him during his illness?"