mfort to me in this!"

"And what," said the visitor, with a slight accent of reproof in the
tone of celestial pity,--"what, with all thy wisdom and thy starry
secrets, with all thy empire of the past, and thy visions of the future;
what art thou to the All-Directing and Omniscient? Canst thou yet
imagine that thy presence on earth can give to the hearts thou lovest
the shelter which the humblest take from the wings of the Presence that
lives in heaven? Fear not thou for their future. Whether thou live or
die, their future is the care of the Most High! In the dungeon and on
the scaffold looks everlasting the Eye of HIM, tenderer than thou to
love, wiser than thou to guide, mightier than thou to save!"

Zanoni bowed his head; and when he looked up again, the last shadow had
left his brow. The visitor was gone; but still the glory of his presence
seemed to shine upon the spot, still the solitary air seemed to murmur
with tremulous delight. And thus ever shall it be with those who have
once, detaching themselves utterly from life, received the visit of the
Angel FAITH. Solitude and space retain the splendour, and it settles
like a halo round their graves.

CHAPTER 7.XIV.

Dann zur Blumenflor der Sterne
Aufgeschauet liebewarm,
Fass' ihn freundlich Arm in Arm
Trag' ihn in die blaue Ferne.
--Uhland, "An den Tod."

Then towards the Garden of the Star
Lift up thine aspect warm with love,
And, friendlike link'd through space afar,
Mount with him, arm in arm, above.
--Uhland, "Poem to Death."

He stood upon the lofty balcony that overlooked the quiet city. Though
afar, the fiercest passions of men were at work on the web of strife and
doom, all that gave itself to his view was calm and still in the rays
of the summer moon, for his soul was wrapped from man and man's narrow
sphere, and only the serener glories of creation were present to the
vision of the seer. There he stood, alone and thoughtful, to take the
last farewell of the wondrous life that he had known.

Coursing through the fields of space, he beheld the gossamer shapes,
whose choral joys his spirit had so often shared. There, group upon
group, they circled in the starry silence multiform in the unimaginable
beauty of a being fed by ambrosial dews and serenest light. In his
trance, all the universe stretched visible beyond; in the green valleys
afar, he saw the dances of the fairies; in the bowels of the mo