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mansions. One for a minute or two eclipsed the other by 
-announcing that their house had a verandah on it, but was 
completely annihilated when her opponent retorted ‘that 
was nothing, their house had a mortgage on it.” If any 
inhabitant of some other county should crow over us, and 
amnounce that they have got the sea serpent on their coast, 
we Lancashire people can always proudly retort that we 
possess the mountain in labour that brought forth a mouse, 
and we go one better than the ancient fable, for our mouse 
is still-born. 
After forty years’ careful study of the question, both by 
my own work and that done by others, the more I see and 
‘learn, the more vast the problem becomes. I am convinced 
that the Great Author of the Universe, though He created 
man in His own image, and gave him vast mental powers, 
as He visibly only endowed him with feeble physical powers 
‘compared with His own, so in the realm of mind, He main- 
‘tains His own supremacy, and while He allows us to learn 
‘much, He reserves still more which we cannot fathom, 
and shows us our own impotence to control the great 
forces and influences of Nature. On land He gives us much 
power, and, to encourage industry and other good qualities, 
He makes the fruits of the earth-very much dependent on 
our exertions and industry; but in the open seas He 
gives freely of His bounty, and He shows us His own 
power and goodness and our dependence on Him by making 
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