assed for _one_, and retired in tears, and I felt that the joy of my
heart had vanished.

"'Do not look so grave, Philip,' said my worthy friend: 'you will
overcome all these difficulties.'

"I shook my head, and sighed doubtfully.

"'I am sure you will. I have a presentiment to that effect. I saw you
in a dream last night, surrounded by a thousand dangers. As fast as you
got out of some trouble, you fell into a worse, and after I had given
you up for lost, you were rescued from the fangs of a tiger by a mere
lad, who led you back to Charlotte, and joined your hands.'

"He told this with such earnestness, that I, who was no believer in
signs and omens, laughed outright.

"He looked serious--almost offended.

"'You forget,' he said, 'that when man draws near his end, God often
opens the eyes of the soul, and reveals not only what is, but what
shall be. Oh, Philip, you who are so eager to win the affections of a
timid girl, how can you be so indifferent to the love of God?'

"'Nervous debility has rendered you superstitious, Cornelius. I have no
faith in the religious cant of the present day, in priests or
priestcraft.'

"This was my case two years ago. I was young and strong then. In the
possession of wealth and all those temporal blessings, for which wiser
and better men have to toil through a long life, and seldom obtain. The
world was before me, and death far distant, in my thoughts. But now,
the world is receding, and death is very near. You start! Have not you
discovered that truth before? Soon, very soon, nothing will remain for
me, but that blessed hope which I now prize as the only true riches. I
am happy in the prospect which I know awaits me, and consider those
only miserable to whom God is a stranger, and the love of the Saviour
unknown.'

"His words affected me strangely, and yet I felt that they were
distasteful. Sorrow had not taught me the knowledge of self. I had yet
to learn that religion alone can do that. My soul was grovelling in the
dust; my thoughts wholly engrossed by the world. Religion was to me a
well-invented fable, skillfully constructed, and admirably told, being
beautiful and artistic in a literary point of view, but altogether too
shallow to satisfy the reason of a clever fellow like me. Oh! how
repugnant are its pure precepts to those whose hearts are blinded by
vanity; who live but for the pleasures of the day, and never heed the
to-morrow in the skies.

"I sat down at a tabl