Then My Elder Brother Returned, An Event Of The Greatest Importance In
My Life; And As He Had Not Been
Expected so soon, I was for a minute
in doubt that this strange visitor could be my brother, so greatly
Had
he altered in appearance in those five long years of absence, which
had seemed like an age to me. He had left us as a smooth-faced youth,
with skin tanned to such a deep colour that with his dark piercing
eyes and long black hair he had looked to me more like an Indian than
a white man. Now his skin was white, and he had grown a brown beard
and moustache. In disposition, too, he had grown more genial and
tolerant, but I soon discovered that in character he had not changed.
As soon as an opportunity came he began to interrogate and cross-
question me as to my mind - life and where I stood, and expressed
himself surprised to hear that I still held to the creed in which we
had been reared. How, he demanded, did I reconcile these ancient
fabulous notions with the doctrine of evolution? What effect had
Darwin produced on me? I had to confess that I had not read a line of
his work, that with the exception of Draper's History of Civilisation,
which had come by chance in my way, I had during all those five years
read nothing but the old books which had always been on our shelves.
He said he knew Draper's History, and it was not the sort of book for
me to read at present.
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