Exalt the standard of love: let it not be confounded with an evanescent fancy, a deceiving passion, a wicked desire, and the miseries attendant on this divinity would no longer remain such popular proverbs. Purify the spirit of love, strengthen it, rouse it effectually from a diseased existence; what would follow! Surely the great heart of humanity would not become chilled, cold, insensible, dead!

If we come to see each other in the true manliness and womanliness of our human nature; if we dispense entirely forever with the mists of frenzied imagination, shall we lose ground? Shall we be degraded mutually by this truthful contemplation? Believe it not!

How much of wonderful and beautiful significance is there in this name, LOVE! How much of attractive, independent power there is in this spirit, Love! Oh, it is no will-o'-the-wisp, but an angel, that leads us, not certainly oftenest over beds of moss, through gardens of thornless roses! The blood of martyrs who for love's sake bent meekly under the axe of the executioner; the cross of our MASTER, the incarnate JESUS; are not these a witness and a proof, if we need look abroad for such, that ease, luxury and selfish enjoyment are not the ends for which we were created; are not the issue, are not the reality of love. Through the instrumentality of this divinity in man do we receive assurance of earth's final release from bondage to sin. Not in these bloody wars, which kindle the evil spirits of the nations; not in these strifes for precedence, not in these efforts for increase of dominion, does the hope of our final and complete redemption from the thraldom of sin lie.

When the sound of battling armies shall be hushed forever; when the greedy thirst for gain finds lodgment no longer in the souls of men ; when the bondmen of Satan rise, and quaff no more the poisoned waters of moral leprosy and death; when the Angel of the LORD comes forth in the heavens to proclaim the beginning of the Prince of Peace's reign, then shall we know that a power mightier than all the armies of earth has been acting on the heart's corruption with all the purifying influences of fire; then shall we know that love has been understood; that it has arisen and put on its mighty power; that it has flung away the disguises mortals would put upon it, assumed its own 'beautiful garments,' and finally appeared the agent of the ALMIGHTY ; the purification and the exaltation of humanity. Recognised then, a perpetually reproducing power, love will bring forth its natural, its heavenly fruits, of justice, of truth, of forbearance, endurance, forgiveness, charity, faith, hope; in short, of perfect religion.

Oh, let us learn of it now! Inasmuch as this life is but the dim-lit corridor leading into the dominions of our FATHER'S glory, the Land of Love, let us purify our hearts, let us recognise and act upon the presumption of the immutable necessity of godliness of living; instead of charming the heart and its affections in a bondage to earth, against which Reason with her loud voice cries, let us raise our hopes and aspirations; let us exalt our loves, and never of these toys of earth assert, Herewith I am content.'

The GoD of Love be with you!

Then stood before him in that revelation

The kinglier presence of that PRINCE who came
And trod the rugged pathway of probation,
And lived in lowliness, and died in shame,
That sinful man might know of free salvation,
And, passed from earthly to eternal things,
Might view his risen SAVIOUR's lofty station,

Throned as the 'Lord of Lords and King of Kings.'

VIII.

Then came, in shapes gigantic and appalling,
The prophet-types of wonders yet to be,

And mighty voices through the deeps were calling,
Which spoke of kingdoms and their destiny:

Of Zion through the future ages walling,

Earth with Truth's sure defences, high and strong,

Of gospel grace the nations disenthralling,

Of discords calmed to earth's millennial song.

IX.

The mystic meaning of these types divining,

He saw that CHRIST would set the nations free;
That the strong 'vine,' round trunk and branches twining,
Would climb and crush sin's shading upas-tree;
And from his heart there came no vain repining,
As passed from sight the city and the throne;
In the still sky the midnight stars were shining,
And John was on the mountain-top alone.

Boston, March, 1850.

Χ.

There is a Patmos in the soul's seclusion,

When from the tumult of earth's cares we flee;

When round the rock-bound will the world's intrusion

Rolls up the billows of its restless sea;

When inland far, remote from its confusion,

The climbing spirit treads the peaks of thought,
Where, through the flying clouds of life's delusion,
Home to the soul eternal scenes are brought.

XI.

Oh, that these deathless powers, which long have herded
With the low, sensuous tenants of the vale,

Sandalled for treading steeps, for struggling girded,
The holier heights of thought would dare to scale;
Then would their puny strength be grown and sturdied
In calmer solitudes and purer air,

And faith's deep mysteries, unvoiced, unworded,
Would come in visions on the mount of prayer.

THE SAINT LEGER

CHAPTER THE LAST.

PAPERS.

On the way to my hotel I revolved this interview, to discover a clue to the unexpected conduct of Vautrey. I came to the conviction that he had, in a manner, spoken truth with regard to himself. He had run so completely the round of pleasures, that they sickened rather than gratified his life had been so continually spent in making enemies and in opposing them, that he was tired of strife, and longed to be at peace. It was especially undesirable to provoke a quarrel at the present time, when his plans were about to be realized, and particularly dangerous to excite me to further opposition. Such being his feelings and position, his conduct-taking into view his adroitness to adapt himself to occasions, without scruple-was easily explained.

Although foiled in my object, I was not deceived. But without some assent to our action from Leila, what, after all, could be done? As it was, she was resolutely determined to prevent any interference in her behalf. And so, thought I, Laurent de Vautrey triumphs at last! this is the reward of a life of wickedness! after he is satisfied with every thing the senses can enjoy; after years of debauchery and violence, he is to lay hold on the only happiness that remains, and to possess the only object he desires. A thoughtless reproach of Providence was about to escape my lips, but I restrained it.

Leila, then, was to be sacrificed. How little really did Vautrey know of woman's nature; how mistaken was he in supposing his had been the school in which to learn it. Before reaching the Stadt-Prüssien, I had formed a new design; I would make an effort to see my cousin, and try what persuasion would do. Taking a carriage, I drove to the house of Madame de Marschelin. She was at home, and I thought it best to obtain what information I could from her. This lady was one of those fortunate persons with whom the world always goes smoothly; though kind-hearted and amiable, she had not soul enough to suffer from any occurrence that was likely to happen. She could not understand the calamity which had now fallen upon the lovers, or the agony it brought with it. I found little satisfaction in my conversation with her. She was distressed that Leila was so unhappy. She wondered how her father could have been so cruel; but fathers were cruel sometimes; at least young girls were apt to think so; not that Leila thought so; she was a sweet creature, a pattern of obedience; she loved her as if she were her own child- she was sure she did. Who could tell but it was best so? Count Vautrey was of a noble family; he was said to be too gay; but, doubtless, he would reform. I grew faint under this good-natured exhibition of heartlessness, and without attempting to prolong the interview, asked if I could see my cousin. Madame de Marschelin regretted that it was impossible, Leila, poor