Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/293

Rh introduction to death. Reasoning over this occurrence, he advances step by step to the thought of dissolution and the immortality of the soul. We may suppose that he is really grieved over the loss of his faithful companion, but of this he says very little. And we have heard of other philosophers who, preoccupied with such questions as God, freedom and immortality, have had small energy to spare for ordinary mundane affairs.

Having followed Autonous in some detail up to this point, we shall probably express no great surprise when we learn of his further achievements, practical and intellectual. Passing over such feats as the invention of a sun-dial and the fashioning of a quadrant, we come at length to an important discovery which is made by simple accident. One day, while he is chopping down a tree, his hatchet strikes fire, some chips are ignited and he burns his fingers. Of course, he goes to work to experiment on this new element, fire, and in his pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, not only nearly burns down his cottage, but does, in fact, destroy a good deal of property and a number of animals. In this way he learns very effectually that fire, though a good servant, is a bad master. Indirectly, another consequence follows. His alarming adventure rather oddly gives him 'the first sad experience of the severe Lashes of a self-condemning Conscience'; a trouble compared with which he finds that all his other sorrows were* as nothing. With such a youth as Autonous, the remote results of this discovery may be easily anticipated. An 'inward Sense of guilt and shame' arises; he begins to realize the "natural Depravity and Perverseness' of his temper; and a new idea— the idea of Duty—takes shape in his mind. He begins to reflect on the 'great Disorders of the Soul,' of which other creatures on the island seem to know nothing, and comes slowly to feel that the world is 'nothing else but a black scene' of 'wickedness and impiety.' Having thought out for himself the principles of natural religion, our young theologian is, as we see, on the high-road to Christianity. Man by nature, he concludes, is in an 'indigent and imperfect State,' and is evidently so placed that he may be kept in a due sense of dependence on God. Hence the need of 'some Supernatural means' by which God must have made known His will to men; hence the inevitableness of prayer and supplication; and hence the necessity of a future life, with rewards and punishments, as the logical completion of the scheme of salvation.

The long course of Autonous's education is now complete, and there is nothing left for him but to be rescued and brought into human