g for Alete to leave just then, for the conversation, which
hitherto had been gaily sustained, immediately began to languish, and
assumed a direction which compelled her to silence.

Ireneus complained of the inroad of democratic ideas, of the trembling
and fall of aristocratic institutions, of the authority of right divine,
which in his chivalric enthusiasm he looked on as the basis of society.

"Ah," replied Eric, with a tone of voice which seemed aroused by a
feeling of affection, "this holy authority will lift itself up from the
level of the popular waves which threaten to overwhelm it. It will appear
clear and brilliant as our polar star, above the clouds which now
surround it. It would subsist in all its power, if it were exercised by
men who comprehended the holy duties it imposed on them. Everything
connected with this primitive law, with this noble image of patriarchal
government, would yet exist, if each member of the great social family
would contemplate from a just point of view his own condition, and carry
out the consequences in a Christian-like manner.

"Charity, that is to say love and compassion, the two expressions in
which are summed up all the joys and miseries of human life, are two
virtues, ennobling and consoling man. Let the rich man be charitable to
the servant he has subjected to his will, toward the poor man who begs of
him. Let him say every day, as he awakes, every night as he prepares
himself for repose, that the more powerful he has been made by
Providence, the greater is the obligation he is under to aid and protect
those around him. In his turn, let the poor man be charitable to the
rich; let him know that no rock of marble, no gilded platform can rescue
the prince from mortal anxiety, and that human grief is found beneath the
imperial purple as well as wrapped in rags, and that often the noble,
surrounded by riches and at the festal board, is forced to envy the
humble hut and obscure repose of the coal-burner.

"If ever," pursued Eric, with an accent of enthusiasm, "I shall be called
to expound the word of God, this especially shall be the text of my
sermons: Charity! Charity! By charity I do not mean the habit of
extending the hand, which by a kind of instinctive motion, lets alms fall
in the blind man's basket, nor the graceful action of a lady who at
certain hours leaves the saloon to visit the garret. True charity
consists not so much in material aid as in the gifts of the heart;