h is our divine
nature. And, my dear young friend," and here his eminence put his arm
easily and affectionately into that of Lothair, "it is a most happy
thing for you, that you live so much with a really religious family. It
is a great boon for a young man, and a rare one."

"I feel it so," said Lothair, his face kindling.

"Ah!" said the cardinal, "when we remember that this country once
consisted only of such families!" And then, with a sigh, and as if
speaking to himself, "And they made it so great and so beautiful!"

"It is still great and beautiful," said Lothair, but rather in a tone of
inquiry than decision.

"But the cause of its greatness and its beauty no longer exists. It
became great and beautiful because it believed in God."

"But faith is not extinct?" said Lothair.

"It exists in the Church," replied the cardinal, with decision. "All
without that pale is practical atheism."

"It seems to me that a sense of duty is natural to man," said Lothair,
"and that there can be no satisfaction in life without attempting to
fulfil it."

"Noble words, my dear young friend; noble and true. And the highest
duty of man, especially in this age, is to vindicate the principles of
religion, without which the world must soon become a scene of universal
desolation."

"I wonder if England will ever again be a religious country?" said
Lothair, musingly.

"I pray for that daily," said the cardinal; and he invited his companion
to seat himself on the trunk of an oak that had been lying there
since the autumn fall. A slight hectic flame played over the pale and
attenuated countenance of the cardinal; he seemed for a moment in deep
thought; and then, in a voice distinct yet somewhat hushed, and at first
rather faltering, he said: "I know not a grander, or a nobler career,
for a young man of talents and position in this age, than to be the
champion and asserter of Divine truth. It is not probable that there
could be another conqueror in out time. The world is wearied of
statesmen; whom democracy has degraded into politicians, and of orators
who have become what they call debaters. I do not believe there could
be another Dante, even another Milton. The world is devoted to physical
science, because it believes these discoveries will increase its
capacity of luxury and self-indulgence. But the pursuit of science leads
only to the insoluble. When we arrive at that barren term, the Divine
voice summons man, as it summoned Sa