HARRY LEON WILSON

Author of
"The Spenders"
"The Lions of the Lord," Etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY
ROSE CECIL O'NEILL

1904

TO
MY FRIEND
WILLIAM CURTIS GIBSON

"Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?"
—Holy Writ.

"John and Peter and Robert and Paul—
God, in His wisdom, created them all.
John was a statesman and Peter a slave,
Robert a preacher and Paul was a knave.
Evil or good, as the case might be,
White or colored, or bond or free,
John and Peter and Robert and Paul—
God, in His wisdom, created them all."
The Chemistry of Character.

BOOK ONE—The Age Of Fable

CHAPTER
I.	[How the Christmas Saint was Proved]
II.	[An Old Man Faces Two Ways]
III.	[The Cult of the Candy Cane]
IV.	[The Big House of Portents]
V.	[The Life of Crime Is Appraised and Chosen]
VI.	[The Garden of Truth and the Perfect Father]
VII.	[The Superlative Cousin Bill J.]
VIII.	[Searching the Scriptures]
IX.	[On Surviving the Idols We Build]
X.	[The Passing of the Gratcher; and Another]
XI.	[The Strong Person's Narrative]
XII.	[A New Theory of a Certain Wicked Man]

BOOK TWO—The Age of Reason

CHAPTER
I.	[The Regrettable Dementia of a Convalescent]
II.	[Further Distressing Fantasies of a Clouded Mind]
III.	[Reason Is Again Enthroned]
IV.	[A Few Letters]
V.	["Is the Hand of the Lord Waxed Short?"]
VI.	[In the Folly of His Youth]

BOOK THREE—The Age of Faith

CHAPTER
I.	[The Perverse Behaviour of an Old Man and a Young Man]
II.	[How a Brother Was Different]
III.	[How Edom Was Favoured of God and Mammon]
IV.	[The Winning of Browett]
V.	[A Belated Martyrdom]
VI.	[The Walls of St. Antipas Fall at the Third Blast]
VII.	[There Entereth the Serpent of Inappreciation]
VIII.	[The Apple of Doubt is Nibbled]
IX.	[Sinful Perverseness of the Natural Woman]
X.	[The Reason of a Woman Who Had No Reason]
XI.	[The Remorse of Wondering Nancy]
XII.	[The Flexible Mind of a Pleased Husband]
XIII.	[The Wheels within Wheels of the Great Machine]
XIV.	[The Ineffective Message]
XV.	[The Woman at the End of the Path]
XVI.	[In Which the Mirror Is Held Up to Human Nature]
XVII.	[For the Sake of Nancy]
XVIII.	[The Fell Finger of Calumny Seems to be Agreeably Diverted]
XIX.	[A Mere Bit of Gossip]