Page:Selection of amusing and entertaining Irish stories.pdf/6

6 destroyer and his prey, have subsisted together from their first creation? Now look again, and tell me what thou seest.”

“I see,” said the solitary, “a thick black cloud gathering in the sky. I hear the thunder rolling from side to side of the vault of heaven. I behold the red lightning darting from the bosom of darkness. Now it has fallen on a stately tree, and shattered it to pieces, striking to the ground an ox sheltered at its foot. Now it falls again in the midst of a flock of timorous sheep, and several of them are left on the plain ;—and see ! the shepherd himself lies extended by their side. Now it strikes a lofty spire, and at the same time sets in a blaze a humble cottage beneath. It is an awful and terrible sight ! ’ ’

“It is so,” returned the stranger; ‘‘but what dost thou conclude from it ? Dost thou not know, that from the genial heat which gives life to plants and animals, and ripens the fruits of the earth, proceeds this electrical fire, which, ascending to the clouds, and charging them beyond what they are able to contain, is launched again in burning bolts to the earth ? Must it leave its direct course to strike the tree rather than the dome of worship, or to spend its fury on the herd rather than the herdsman? Millions of millions of living creatures have owed their birth to this active element; and shall we think it strange if a few meet their deaths from it? Thus the mountain-torrent that rushes down to fertilize the plain, in its course may sweep away the works of human industry, and man himself with them ; but could its benefits be purchased at another price ? ’ ’

“All this,” said the solitary, “I tolerably comprehend: but may I presume to ask whence have proceeded the moral evils of the painful scenes of yesterday? What good end is answered by making man the scourge of man, and preserving the guilty at the cost of the innocent? ”

“That, too,” replied the venerable stranger, “is a consequence of the same wise laws of providence. If it was right to make man a creature of habit, and render those things easy to him with which he is most familiar; the sailor, of course, must be better able to shift for himself in a shipwreck than the passenger ; while that self-love which is essential to the preservation of life, must, in general, cause him to consult his own safety preferably to that of others. The same force of habit, in a way of life full of peril and hardship, must conduce to form a rough, bold, and unfeeling character. This, under the direction of principle, will make a brave man ; without it, a robber and a murderer. In the latter case, human laws step in to remove the evil, which they have not been able to prevent. Wickedness meets with the fate which sooner or later always