rever germing
into ever new loves. Like a triple arrow from a single bow, from
the depths of the Productive thought, spring, whether single or
united, matter, form, with the living heart of all finite
beings--their own governing laws. Created things are but the
splendor of the immutable ideas which the Father engenders, and
which He loves unceasingly. Ideas--thoughts--sacred words! Light,
which, without being detached from Him who wills it into being,
shines from creature to creature, from cause to effect,
on--on--until it produces only contingent and transitory phenomena;
Light which, repeated and reflected from mirror to mirror, pales as
its distance increases from its Holy Source.'

That would surely be an interesting work which would glean for us the
multiplied expressions of the faith of the 'laurel-crowned,' who have
left their consoling records for humanity, their tracks of light over
the dark earth-bosom in which they sleep. But this is not place for such
researches; we must confine ourselves to but few quotations, designed to
show that religion is the soul of art.

In proof of this we might quote the whole of the fine tragedy of
Polyeucte; it is full of ardent religious feeling. The moral is indeed
condensed in the following lines:

'If, to die for our king is a glorious destiny,--
How sublime is death when we may die for God!'

Urged by that unconquerable love of the Absolute which possesses all
true poets, Racine seeks in God alone the source of all regal power:

'The eternal is his name, the world is his work,
He hears the sighs of the oppressed;
He judges all mortals with equal justice,
From the height of his throne he calls kings to account.'

Our English poet Shakspeare, whose works are full of sublime morality,
puts into the mouth of one of his matchless heroines the following
exquisite passage, recalling to us the lessons of the New Testament:

'Alas! alas!
Why all the souls that are, were forfeit once,
And He that might the advantage best have took
Found out the remedy: how would you be,
If He, who is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? In the strict course
Of justice none of us should see salvation:
We do pray for mercy; that same prayer
Should teach us all to render deeds of mercy.'

Klopstock, the German poet, sings only of God, not in the creation
alone, the last judgment, in