tions and individuals. It is thus that I have
learned of thee, and of the influence which this nation is to exert over
the world, dethroning tyrants, extirpating royalty, and making all men
"free and equal." It is thus that I have learned the hour at which I am
to undergo that change which men call death.

Remember that purity is what is required--purity, at no matter what
sacrifice of inclination. As you read this, your good angel stands at
your right side, and your evil one at your left, _nearest your heart_;
but both are invisible to you because you are neither wholly pure nor
wholly polluted. In the former case your good spirit would be visible,
in the latter your evil one. They are striving for you, the one
endeavoring to urge you to purity, the other to drag you down to
degradation. I am convinced, though even my angel does not know, that
you will cast your WILL on the side of virtue, and go on in your high
career of knowledge.

And here I will close. If you avail yourself of the information I have
imparted, I have said enough; if not, all that I have said is in vain,
and but labor lost. You are very dear to me, and, as I write, you grow
still dearer. But I am yet to see you, and to hold converse with you for
a little while: and the reason that I now write nothing concerning
Elinor Manvers is that I shall speak face to face with you about her.
Farewell.

DON RICARDUS CARLOS.
_Mountain Cave, Va._, Nov. 20th, 1779.

(Conclusion next month.)

MORAL COURAGE.

BY ALICE B. NEAL.

PART I.

"Ah, lonely, very lonely, is the room
Where love, domestic love, no longer nestles,
But, smitten by the common stroke of doom,
The corpse lies on the tressels!"--HOOD.

YES, there was death in the house. The closed windows told it to the
passers-by; and the crape which hung heavily from the door, tied with a
black ribbon, denoted that one in the prime of life was laid low.
Strangers looked at it with a glance of curiosity and hurried past,
forgetting the next moment, in the bright sunshine and busy avocations
of life, that they had received a solemn warning to prepare for a like
mysterious change. Acquaintances walked with a slower step, as it caught
the eye, and thought of the sad scenes that must be passing within that
house of mourning.

Friends said it was "a great blow," and wonde