"
The old man, who stood leaning on his rifle in a thoughtful attitude,
shook his head, as he answered with a native steadiness, that entirely
eclipsed the imposing air which his antagonist had seen fit to
assume--
"This is neither more nor less than mortal wickedness! Here have I
been a dweller on the earth for four-score and six changes of the
seasons, and all that time have I look'd at the growing and the dying
trees, and yet do I not know the reasons why the bud starts under the
summer sun, or the leaf falls when it is pinch'd by the frosts. Your
l'arning, though it is man's boast, is folly in the eyes of Him, who
sits in the clouds, and looks down, in sorrow, at the pride and vanity
of his creatur's. Many is the hour that I've passed, lying in the
shades of the woods, or stretch'd upon the hills of these open fields,
looking up into the blue skies, where I could fancy the Great One had
taken his stand, and was solemnising on the waywardness of man and
brute, below, as I myself had often look'd at the ants tumbling over
each other in their eagerness, though in a way and a fashion more
suited to His mightiness and power.
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