"Give it to me! That is an expression which I have heard used in two senses," said the Doctor. "Well, you were giving it to me last night; now be so good as to give it." "Better feel Mr. Berwick's pulse first, Father." "You people are leagued against me," said he; "and I shall proceed to punish you." "By refusing me?" "No; by giving it to you. I said, did I not, that rebellion does not necessarily bring war?" "That is the postulate," I replied. "Then, first, what is rebellion?" "Rebellion," said I, "rebellion--rebellion," seeking a definition, "rebellion is armed hostility, within a nation or state, to the legalized government of the nation or state." "I am willing to accept that," said the Doctor; "now let us see if there have not been cases of rebellion without war. What do you say of Jeroboam and the ten tribes?" "I say that there was about to be war, and the Almighty put a stop to it." "That is all I pray for," said the Doctor; "then, what do you say of Monk?" "What Monk?" "The general of the commonwealth, who restored Charles the Second." "Monk simply decided a dilemma," said I. "I don't count that a rebellion; the people were glad to settle matters." "Well, we won't count Monk; what do you say--" "No more, Doctor," I interrupted; "I admit that rebellion does not bring war when, the other party won't fight." "But it is wrong to fight," he said. "Then every rebellion ought to succeed," said I. "Certainly it ought, at least for a time. What I am contending is that every revolution should be peaceable. Would not England have been wiser if she had not endeavoured to subdue the colonies? Suppose the principle of peace were cherished: the ideas that would otherwise cause rebellion would be patiently tested; the men of new or opposite ideas would no longer be rebels; they would be statesmen; a rebellion would be accepted, tried, and defeated by a counter rebellion, both peaceable. It is simply leaving things to the will of the majority. Right ideas will win, no matter what the opposition to them. Better change the arena of conflict. A single champion of an idea would once challenge a doubter and prove his hypothesis by the blood of the disputant; you do the same thing on a great scale. The Southern people--very good people as you and I have cause to know--think the constitution gives them the right, or rather cannot take away the right, to withdraw from the Union; you Northern people think they deserve death for so thinking, and you proceed to kill them off; you intend keeping it up until too few of them are left to think fatally; but they _will_ think, and your killing them will not prove your ideas right." "And so you would settle it by letting them alone? Yes, I know that is what you think should be done. But how about slavery?" I asked, thinking to touch a tender spot.