yes."

MILTON.

"What child of sorrow
Art thou, that com'st wrapt up in weeds of sadness,
And mov'st as if thy steps were towards a grave?"

OTWAY.

It was on the 15th of October, 18--, that one of the best and
most respected clergymen in the town of--, and a canon of the
cathedral, turned his steps towards the western door of that
ancient pile. It was a little before the hour of evening
service; the rays of the declining sun were shining brightly
through the windows of painted glass, and producing that
mellow and chastened light that accords so well with the
feeling of religious awe, which a gothic edifice, the noblest
of the works of man, is calculated to inspire; a work where he
has been enabled to stamp on what is material an indelible
impress of that spirit of devotion, which unites the utmost
simplicity of faith with the highest sublimity of creed.

Mr. Lacy's attachment to this particular cathedral had grown
with his growth and strengthened with his years. In his youth
he had learnt to love its long deep aisles, its solemn arches,
its quaint carvings. During the pauses between the several
parts of divine service, his childish imagination would dwell
upon the topics of thought suggested by the histories of
saints and martyrs depicted in the glowing colours of the
stained glass windows, or in the intricate workmanship of the
minster screen. The swelling peal of the organ, the chaunting
of the choristers, awoke in his young mind strange and bright
imaginings of those things "which the eye of man has not seen,
nor his ear heard, and that it has not entered into his heart
to conceive."

To wander in the cloisters, and gather the flowers growing
there among the old tombstones, and to think the while of the
lilies of the field, which Solomon in all his glory could not
equal; or of the wilderness that blossomed like the rose, at
the word of the Lord; to collect in his own hands at Christmas
as much holly as his puny strength could carry, and add it to
the shining heap already standing at the cathedral door; to
follow it in, with timid steps, and watch with wondering eyes,
the adorning of the altar, the pulpit, the stalls, and the
pews; to observe with childish glee two tall branches, all
glowing with their coral berries, placed by the bench where he
knelt in church with his mother; to sit at home by that mother
of an evening, and with his Prayer Book on his knee, learn
from her lips how