Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE SEEKER

by

HARRY LEON WILSON

Author of _The Spenders_ _The Lions of the Lord,_ etc.

Illustrated by Rose Cecil O'Neill

New York Doubleday, Page & Company

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.

CONTENTS

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

SCENES

BOOK ONE--The Village of Edom

BOOK TWO--The Same