dden from his eyes, and death was
omnipotent. His power of working evil had no bounds, but his power of
good was limited; and yet it was good that he desired. How dared he put
in motion those mighty changes, which seemed to promise such happiness
on earth, while he was ignorant of what their results might be? and of
what avail was the joy he might pour out on life, over whose next hour
the grave might close, and only make the parting breath more bitter
from the blessings which it was leaving behind?"

I was no unworthy daughter of such a sire; I advanced in these divine
studies even to his wish, and looked to the future with a hope which
many years had deadened in himself, but from which I caught an omen of
ultimate success. Alas! he mastered not his destiny: I have said before,
his ashes are in yonder urn. A few unwholesome dews on a summer night
were mightier than all his science. For a time I struggled not with
despair; but youth is buoyant, and habit is strong. Again I pored over
the mystic scroll--again I called on the spirits with spell and with
sign. Many a mystery was revealed, many a wonder grew familiar; but
still death remained at the end of all things, as before. One night
I was on the terrace of my tower. Above me was the deep, blue sky,
with its stars--worlds filled, perchance, with the intelligence which
I sought. On the desert below was the phantasm of a great city.
I looked on its small and miserable streets, where hunger and cold
reigned paramount, and man was as wretched as if flung but yesterday
on the earth, and there had been as yet no time for art to yield its
assistance, or labour to bring forth its fruit. I gazed next on scenes
of festivity, but they were not glad; for I looked from the wreath into
the head it encircled, and from the carcanet of gems to the heart which
beat beneath--and I saw envy, and hate, and repining, and remorse.
I turned my last glance on the palace within its walls; but there the
purple was spread as a pall, and the voice of sorrow and the cry of pain
were loud on the air. I bade the shadows roll away upon the winds, and
rose depressed and in sorrow. I was not alone: one of those glorious
spirits, whose sphere was far beyond the power of our science, whose
existence we rather surmised than knew; stood beside me.

From that hour a new existence opened before me. I loved, and I was
beloved--love, to which imagination gave poetry, and mind gave strength,
was the new element