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and tell me where I am, and how I came here ?" "I do not know how you came here, but here you are, in our world, which we call chance-world, because every thing happens here by chance."

"Ah! is it so? This must be delightful! This is just the world for me. Oh! had I always lived here, my beautiful children would not have died under an inexorable law! Come, show me this world,-for I long to see it. But have ye really no God, nor any one to make laws and govern you just as he sees fit?” "I don't know what you mean by God: we have nothing of that kind here,-nothing but chance; but go with me, and you will understand all about it." they proceeded, Hafed began to notice that every thing looked queer and odd. Some of the grass was green, some red, some white, some new, and some dying; some grew with the top downward: all kinds were mingled together; and on the whole, the sight was very painful.

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He stopped to examine an orchard; here chance had been at work. On a fine looking apple tree, he saw no fruit but large, coarse cucumbers. A small peach tree was breaking down under its load of gourds. The guide told Hafed that there was no certainty about these trees; and you could never tell what fruit a tree would happen to bear. The tree which this year bears cucumbers, may bear potatoes next year.

LESSON LII.

HAFED'S DREAM.-[CONTINUED.]

THEY SOON met another of the "chance men." His legs were very unequal in length; one had no knee, and the other no ankle. His ears were set upon his shoulders, and around his head was a thick, black bandage. He came groping his way, and Hafed at once asked him how long since he had lost his sight. "I have not lost it," said he; "but when I was born, my eyeballs happened to be turned in instead of out, and the back parts, being outward, are very painful in the light, and so I put on a covering. "Well, but canst thou see any thing? Methinks thou mayest see strange things within." "True, but the difficulty is

to get any light in there. Yet I am as well off as others. My brother has one good eye on the top of his head; but he only looks directly up with it to the clouds; and the sun almost puts it out. He shuts it most of the time during the day; but it happens to be one of those eyes that will stay shut.

They stopped to look at some "chance cattle" in a yard. Some had but three legs; some had the head on the wrong part of the body; some were covered with wool, under which they were sweltering in a climate always tropical. Some were half horse and half ox. One cow had a young dwarf of a camel following her, and claiming her as his mother. Young elephants were there with the flocks of sheep; horses with claws like a lion, and geese clamping round the

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yard with hoofs like horses. It was all the work of chance. Just as they were leaving the premises, the owner came out, to admire, and show, and talk over his treasures. "Don't think I am a happy man," said he to Hafed, "in having so many and such perfect animals. Alas! even in this happy and perfect world, there are drawbacks. That fine looking cow yonder happens to give nothing but warm water for milk; and her calf, poor thing, died the first week. Some of them have good-looking eyes, but from some defect are stone blind. Some cannot live in the light, and few of them can hear. No two eat the same food, and it is a great labor to take care of them.'

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While they were talking, in an instant, they were in midnight darkness. The sun was gone, and Hafed could not for some time see his guide. "What has happened?" said he. "Oh! nothing uncommon," said the guide. "The sun happened to go down now. There is no regular time for him to shine; but he goes and comes just as it happens. Sometimes he is gone for months, and sometimes for weeks, and sometimes only for a few minutes, just as it happens. We may not see him again for months, but perhaps he will come soon."

As the guide was proceeding, to the inexpressible joy of all, the sun at once broke out. The light was so sudden, that Hafed at first thought he must be struck with lightning, and actually put his hands up to his eyes, to see if they were safe. He then clapped his hands over his eyes, till he could gradually bear the light. There was a splendor about the sun which he had never before seen; and it was intolerably hot.

The air seemed like a furnace. "Ah!" said the owner of the cattle, "we must now scorch for it. My poor wool-ox must die at once! Bad luck, bad luck to us! The sun has come back much nearer than he was before. But we hope he will happen to go away again soon, and then happen to come back further off the next time."

The sun was now pouring down his heat so intensely, that they were glad to go into the house for sheltera miserable looking place indeed, Hafed could not but compare it with his own beautiful cottage. They invited Hafed to eat. On sitting down at table, he noticed that each one had a different kind of food, and that no two could eat out of the same dish. He was told that it so happened, that the food which one could eat, was poison to another, and what was agreeable to one, was nauseating to another. Hafed rose from the table in anguish of spirit. He remembered the world where he had lived, and all that was past. He had desired to live in a world where there was no Godwhere all was governed by chance, so far as there was any thing that looked like government. Here he was, and here he must live.

He threw himself on a bed, and recalled the past— the beautiful world in which he had once lived; his ingratitude-his murmurings against the wisdom and the goodness of God. He wept like infancy. He would have prayed, and even began a prayer; but then he recollected that there was no God here-nothing to direct events-nothing but chance. He shed many and bitter tears of repentance. At last he wept himself asleep, When Hafed again awoke, he was

sitting under his palm tree in his own beautiful garden. It was morning. At the appointed moment, the glorious sun rose up in the east; the fields were all green and fresh; the trees were all right end upwards, and covered with blossoms; the beautiful deer were bounding, in their gladness, over the lawn; and the songsters in the trees, which, in plumage and sweetness, might have vied with those that sang in Eden, were uttering their morning song.

Hafed arose, recalled that ugly dream, and then wept for joy. Was he again in a world where chance does not reign? He looked up, and then turned to the God of heaven and earth- the God of laws and of order. He gave glory to him, and confessed that his ways, to us unsearchable, are full of wisdom. He was a new man. Tears, indeed, fell at the graves of his family; but he now lived to do good to men, and to make others happy. He called a young and worthy couple, distant relatives, to fill his house. His home again smiled, and peace and contentment came back, and were his abiding guests.

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