thee, from the duties
that I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my
charge, give unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer
me to breathe into him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and
ascends its steeps. If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst
them one whom I may lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for,
behold, O Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon
my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath
gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking upon the
tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are swayed, and tracked
the steps that lead weakness into power; and fain would I be the ruler
of one who, if abased, shall aspire to rule."

As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of
the archangel.

"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would war with
the courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways
and harmonizes all,--the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"

And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
answered,--

"Yea! Grant me but one trial!"

Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the Heaven was
rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with
his hands, and a voice low and sweet and mild, with the consciousness of
unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star.

"The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon
yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under
thy influence, may be moulded to thy will."

The voice ceased as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
far-distant worlds. But the soul of the discontented star exulted within
itself; and it said, "I will call forth a king from the valley of the
herdsman that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and
render the charge of the contemned star more glorious than the minions
of its favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect! thus shall I
prove my claim hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!"

.......

At that time, though th