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146 "Is He," I said, "the tyrant on whom you are making war?"

"Oh, yes," he said, "for all tyrants hold from Him; they are His hired bullies whom he pampers and lashes as you might lash and pamper your dog."

"You say that He gives and takes, will He take the gift of the freedom of will from you?"

If I had foreseen the effect which this question would have produced, I should certainly have been afraid to have asked it. His face became at once full of deadly fury and frenzy; "Yes," he said, "curse Him! He will at last if He can!" And then he sprang up and caught at the air with both his hands, just like the hands, in the device of which I have told you, grasping at the forked lightning.

In a moment, however, he resumed the quiet, stately and affable air, which he had worn before, and he sat down, and began to talk again quite calmly.

"Yes," he said, "free will is no doubt real to the bold and desperate spirit. To all others it is in effect unreal. To make it in effect real to all, every free being ought to be able to do as he will, not only without let or hindrance, but also without what you I suppose would call penal consequences."

"It seems to me," I said, "that our little world is