Page:Selection of amusing and entertaining Irish stories.pdf/5

5 The good solitary, on hearing of the event, at first exclaimed, “ What a wonderful interference of Providence to punish guilt, and protect innocence!” Pausing awhile, he added, “Yet had Providence thought fit to have drowned these sailors in their passage from the ship, where they left so many better people to perish, the lives of three innocent persons would have been saved, and these wretches would have died without such accumulated guilt and ignominy. On the other hand, had the master of the house been at home, instead of following a lawless and desperate trade, he would perhaps have perished with all his family, and the villains have escaped with their booty. What am I to think of all this ? ” Thus pensive and perplexed, he laid him down to rest, and, after some time spent in gloomy reflections, fell asleep.

In his dream, he fancied himself seated on the top of a high mountain, where he was accosted by a venerable figure in long white garments, who asked him the cause of the melancholy expressed on his countenance. “It is,” said he, “because I am unable to reconcile the decrees of Providence with my ideas of wisdom and justice.”—“That,” replied the stranger, “is probably because thy notions of Providence are narrow and erroneous. Thou seekest it in particular events, and dost not raise thy survey to the great whole. Every occurrence in the universe is providential, because it is the consequence of those laws which divine wisdom has established as most productive of the general good. But to select individual facts as more directed by the hand of Providence than others, because we think we see a particular good purpose answered by them, is an infallible inlet to error and superstition. Follow me to the edge of the cliff.” He seemed to follow.

“ Now look down,” said the stranger, “and tell me what thou seest.”—“ I see,” replied the solitary, “ a hawk darting amidst a flock of small birds, one of which he has caught, while the others escape.”—“ And canst thou think,” rejoined the stranger, ‘ ‘ that the single bird, made a prey of by the hawk, lies under any particular doom of providence, or that those who fly away are more the objects of divine favour than it? Hawks, by nature, were made to feed upon living prey, and were endowed with strength and swiftness to enable them to overtake and master it. Thus life is sacrificed to the support of life. But to this destruction limits are set. The small birds are much more numerous and prolific than the birds of prey ; and though they cannot resist his force, they have dexterity and nimbleness of flight sufficient in general to elude his pursuit. It is in this balance that the wisdom of Providence is seen ; and what can be a greater proof of it, than that both species, the