vented Oswald from abandoning himself to passionate disquietudes, she
desired to interest his mind and his imagination anew, by the wonders of
the fine arts which he had not yet seen, and by this means retard the
moment when their fate should be cleared up and decided. Such a
situation would be insupportable, governed by any other sentiment than
that of love; but so much is it in the power of love to sweeten every
hour, to give a charm to every minute, that although it need an
indefinite future, it becomes, intoxicated with the present, and is
filled every day with such a multitude of emotions and ideas that it
becomes an age of happiness or pain!

Undoubtedly it is love alone that can give an idea of eternity; it
confounds every notion of time; it effaces every idea of beginning and
end; we believe that we have always loved the object of our affection;
so difficult is it to conceive that we have ever been able to live
without him. The more dreadful separation appears, the less it seems
probable; it becomes, like death, a fear which is more spoken of than
believed--a future event which seems impossible, even at the very moment
we know it to be inevitable.

Corinne, among her innocent stratagems to vary the amusements of Oswald,
had still in reserve the statues and the paintings. One day therefore,
when Oswald was perfectly restored, she proposed that they should go
together to see the most beautiful specimens of painting and sculpture
that Rome contains. "It is a reproach," said she to him, smiling, "not
to be acquainted with our statues and our pictures; so to-morrow we will
commence our tour of the museums and the galleries."--"It is your wish,"
answered Nelville, "and I agree. But in truth, Corinne, you have no
need of these foreign resources to retain me; on the contrary, it is a
sacrifice that I make whenever I turn my eyes from you to any object
whatever."

They went first to the Museum of the Vatican, that palace of statues
where the human figure is deified by Paganism, in the same manner as the
sentiments of the soul are now by Christianity. Corinne directed the
observation of Lord Nelville to those silent halls, where the images of
the gods and the heroes are assembled, and where the most perfect beauty
seems to enjoy itself in eternal repose. In contemplating these
admirable features and forms, the intentions of the Deity towards man,
seems, I know not how, to be revealed by the noble figure which He has
be