CHAPTER XV.
GOD'S GOVERNMENT--KING STANISLAUS--THE DAUPHIN SON OF LOUIS XV .-- THE SHORTEST ROAD--NEW YEAR'S DAY--A MIRACLE--CLEVER ANIMALS--THE CALENDAR--MR.

JULIUS CAESAR AND POPE GREGORY XIII .-- HOW THE DAY AFTER THE 4TH OF OCTOBER WAS THE 15TH--OLYMPIAD--LUSTRES--THE HEGIRA--A HORSE MADE CONSUL--JACK'S DREAM.
Some men, when they regard the sinister side of events, are apt to call in question the axiom, Nothing is accomplished without the will of God.

Why, they ask, do the wicked triumph?
Why are the just oppressed?
Why this evil?
What is the use of that disaster?
Was it necessary that Mary Wolston should be thrown into the sea, and that she should afterwards die in consequence of the accident?
To these questions we reply, that God does not interrupt the ordinary course of His works.

Man is a free agent in so far as regards his own actions; were it otherwise, we should not be responsible for our own crimes.

We might as well plunge into vice as adhere to virtue; for we could not be called upon to expiate the one, nor could we hope to be rewarded for the other.