that first-born of every creature whom men are saved by. Praise to the men, then, for whose writings I am the better! I have in me thoughts of their thinking, and they have from me dear love of mine; and so we are members one of another, - yes, we are, though we have never seen one another. And so we are members of the kingdom of heaven, and none the less surely for our never having seen it. But it is to be felt by us, of ourselves, and, O, so plainly and so happily by the help of some few greater souls from amongst us! Blessings on them, whether in this world or the next! Blessings on them from the Highest!

nature.

O THIS summer day! It is a great calm in There is not a bird in the air that I can see. Listen! How still it is! There is nothing to be heard but the two or three flies in the room here. So quiet, yet so earnest, life feels to me just now. There is such sublimity in a day like this. me the stillness of it is like the

To

peace of God. I feel as though brooded over by almightiness. And the bright light is God's presence about me, looking my spirit through and through.

MARHAM.

To me sometimes a calm like this feels awful

almost, and like a lull in a storm.

is so vast, that

The world

AUBIN.

The universe is great, but it is greatness of my own that I see in it; it is glorious, but it is glory of my own that it is bright with; it is wisdom in motion, but it is knowledge of mine which it moves to; for the mind that is in it all I am made with, and the Maker of it is my Father.

MARHAM.

It is better to speak of the grandeur of the soul in Scriptural language; for so it sounds less presumptuous, and perhaps is so. We men are made in the image of God.

AUBIN.

And so more nobly than the universe. For there must be a something of infinity in what is a likeness of the infinite. Yes, man's is a destiny more lasting than that of suns and planets. Nay, I do not doubt but that, in the eye of an angel rejoicing over these lower treasures of God, there are some souls that already are counted before the earth and the sun. My nature, it is not only what I am, but what I may be. Ay, what I may be! To the greatness of that, this world is little; Alps and Andes though it be, Mediterranean and Atlantic, American woods and Arctic snows.

MARHAM.

Perhaps so, Oliver. But something else is true. You may see thousands of other worlds at night,

but you cannot visit one.

Earth owns you, and

holds you to her; and she scorches you by turning you to the sun, and freezes you by letting her north wind against you. With her west wind you

are gladdened, and with her east wind you are withered, and with her speed you are carried captive over the fields of space.

AUBIN.

True; but then the earth does not know herself, but I know her; her own course she does not know, but I know it; and her swiftness in it she does not know, but I know it, to a yard and a moment. And so I am the earth's better. Yes, and what are laws over her are service for me; and the expansiveness of water is my swiftness.

MARHAM.

You have said well and ingeniously, and, Oliver, much to my pleasure; for the soul is greater than the earth. And I do believe that there are eyes, in which even the first thought of a child is so bright as to eclipse the sun and moon. But these are feelings that are perhaps unsafe for us, except upon our knees, and with our faces in our hands.

AUBIN.

And it is from out of the depth of our humility that the height of our destiny looks grandest. For let me truly feel that in myself I am nothing, and at once, through every inlet of my soul, God

Weak, very

comes in and is every thing in me. weak, I am, and I would not be otherwise, if only I can keep looking towards righteousness; - this is what I think sometimes; and as soon as I feel this, the almightiness of God pours through my spirit like a stream, and I am free, and I am joyful, and I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me.

MARHAM.

Yes, and what God is in the earth and the sea, that and more than that he is in the soul, — in the humble soul.

AUBIN.

God is the centre of all truth, and so it is to be most largely seen from nighest him.

MARHAM.

To moral and to religious worth, humility is an essential, and it is quite needful for the best uses of the intellect.

AUBIN.

So it is, and many an instance would show it; but they are not necessary to tell of. If the soul has God within it, then there is in it an affinity with all truth in science, philosophy, art, and religion. God's I am, - God's everlastingly, God's to grow for ever. There will grow in me the whole wisdom in which this world is made; and the workings of my mind will be as grand as starry movements some time.