nd it alone, was the beautiful, righteousness the
sublime, the heavenly, the God-like--ay, God Himself?

_Hypatia_, chap. xxvii. 1852.

Human and Divine Love. May 27.

Believe me that he who has been led by love to a human being to
understand the mystery of that divine love which fills all heaven and
earth, and concentrates itself into an articulate manifestation in the
person of Christ, will soon begin to find that he cannot enter into the
perfect bliss of that truth without going further, and seeing that the
human heart requires some standing-ground for its affection, even for the
love of wife and child, deeper and surer than that love, namely, in utter
loyalty, resignation, adoring affection to Him in whom all loveliness is
concentrated. It is a great mystery. It is a hard lesson.

_Letters and Memories_. 1847.

A High Finish. May 28.

A high artistic finish is important for more reasons than for the mere
pleasure it gives. There is something sacramental in perfect metre and
rhythm. They are outward and visible signs (most seriously we speak as
we say it) of an inward and spiritual grace, namely, of the
self-possessed and victorious temper of one who has so far subdued nature
as to be able to hear that universal sphere-music of hers, speaking of
which Mr. Carlyle says, that "all deepest thoughts instinctively vent
themselves in song."

_Miscellanies_. 1849.

Our Prayers. May 29.

There can be no objection to praying for certain special things. God
forbid! I cannot help doing it, any more than a child in the dark can
help calling for its mother. Only it seems to me that when we pray,
"Grant this day that we run into no kind of danger," we ought to lay our
stress on the "run" rather than on the "danger," to ask God not to take
away the danger by altering the course of nature, but to give us light
and guidance whereby to avoid it.

_Letters and Memories_. 1860.

Clearing Showers. May 30.

When a stream is swelled by a flood, a shower of rain _clears_ it. So in
trouble, when the heart is turbid from the world's admixtures, and the
stirring up of the foul particles which will lie at the bottom, nothing
but the pure dew of heaven can restore its purity, when God's spirit
comes down upon it like a gentle rain!

_MS._ 1843.

Vineyards in Spring. May 31.

Look at the rows of vines, or what will be vines when the summer comes,
but are now black, knotted and gn