form they laid there has melted into nothing _now!_ Time has
softened the despair of my grief--the worst bitterness is past.

Through the gloomy portals of that dark gate of suffering, an unseen
Hand has led me out into a broader and a higher life; and the heart
that held darling _only_, purged from its selfishness by the fierce fire
of affliction, beats now for all humanity. Hearts whose love and
gratitude God has given me the power to win, say, out of the fulness of
their love for me, that a ministering angel is among them in woman's
guise; that no hand is half so lavish in its gifts, no heart so full of
sympathy, no watcher's form so constant beside the couch of pain. The
sick follow me with murmured prayer and blessing; and wounded soldiers
turn to kiss my shadow as I pass. Yet ever as the twilight falls I steal
away to listen to the night wind's moaning, and ever in the gloom I feel
an unseen presence--an arm about my neck--a cheek laid close to mine.
Journeying on the lonely, rugged path of duty, 'following meekly where
His footsteps lead,' I work and wait, and patiently abide my
time--content if, when the welcome summons come, when life's day is
fading, I may feel my darling's face pressed close to my own. He may not
come to me, but I shall go to him, where he may wear his glorified body
forever!

REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM.

CHAPTER IV.--UNITY.

The Divine Attributes, the base of all true Art.

Having already shown that the aspirations of man, made in the image of
his God, are always directed toward that wondrous background from which
all life projects--the Infinite, we now propose to make a few remarks
upon the manifestation of some of the remaining attributes revealed to
him, and which he is forever striving to incarnate in the works of art.

Beauty, in its proper expression, must be allied to or suggest the
Infinite, for in it alone can ceaseless _variety_ be united with
absolute _unity_. Unity is an essential characteristic of life itself;
variety resolving itself into unity, and unity expanding itself into
variety, mark all that God has made. As a necessary consequence of the
position we have assumed, viz.: 'That art is not a servile copy, but
rather a creation of man in the Spirit of Nature,' _Variety and Unity_
must characterize every great work of art, as they mark every work of
the Creator. Let us take any of the humblest things which He has made, a
flower, for example: Unity, Order, Propo