know himself, will at the same time find every thing here which he
would vainly strive by desperate means and devices to extort from
Heaven and Hell. _Become like children._ In this exhortation the whole
mystery lies hidden. Only let our feelings be pure, and we may again,
even though it be but for hours or moments, cast off all that our
first parents drew down upon themselves by their wanton disobedience;
we walk again as in paradise; and Nature with all her powers comes
forward as she did then, in the youthful bridal age of the world, to
meet the transfigured man. Is not this the very thing which proves our
spirit to be a spirit, that bodily hinderances, space and time, with
the confusion they breed, cannot confine it? It soars even now on the
wings of yearning and devotion far above all the circles of the stars:
nothing checks its flight, save that earthly power which, when sin
entered, pounced upon it and enslaved it. This however we can and
ought to subdue, by prayer, by self-abasement before the Lord, by
confessing our vast guilt, and by boundless gratitude to him for his
unfathomable love; and then we see and hear the things that are
curtained from us by space and time; we are here and there; the future
comes forward and, like the past, pours out its secrets before us; the
whole realm of knowledge, of comprehension, lies open to us; the
powers of heaven become our willing servants: and yet to the truly
wise man one glimpse into the mysteries of the Godhead, one emotion of
his own heart when toucht by God's love, is far higher, and far more
precious knowledge, than all the treasures which do homage to the
inquiring mind, than the revealed soul of history or of the present
time, than the bending knees of a thousand angels who are ready to
call him their master."

Alfonso cast a look of enthusiasm upon his friend; and Antonio could
not refrain from acknowledging to himself that here in the garb of
lowly simplicity he found more than had ever delighted him from
Apone's mouth, even at the time of his greatest admiration for that
ostentatious philosopher. Indeed he was already become fully convinced
that the knowledge which people call supernatural may be easily united
with piety and a thorough resignation to the Lord.

"Do you know now what my fate has been?" askt the youth with emotion:
"can you tell me anything about the events that are hereafter to
befall me?"

"If I learn the year, the day, and the hour of you