Busy over it! Three days' not very close reading, Edgar thought, would have sufficed for the perusal of this book; the other thirteen, then, had been spent in-why, as he himself had spent them.

"It shows," added Cooper, "that the more we know, the more we feel, live, love, hope, and act, the more we sicken, suffer, despair, and yet, alas! not die. It is the old truth. One line of 'Manfred' is the epitome of it all:

66

'The tree of Knowledge is not that of Life." "

Nay, Horace! nay; read 'Zanoni' a third time, for assuredly its lesson has escaped you. It is a splendid dramatic sermon-the finest, I think, of our greatest living writer's homilies. Think you not that this is its moral ?-That he who would soar above this sphere, before he has per

formed the tasks which it allots, soars with fettered wings, and will fall again to earth. That he who, in the lust of power, would rule the minds and sway the councils of men, must first master his own prejudices and clogging passions, control his own wild impulses, discipline his own intellect, and purify his own soul. That, having done this, he may then aspire, then hope to proudly rise; then may he wield a worthy and a world-compelling sceptre ! That he who cannot wait, will never win. That Patience is the mighty wizard, stronger than Fate, longer than Time-the alchemist, the conqueror ! That he who shrinks from suffering, shall not with sacrilegious hand snatch the crown. That knowledge is granted only to calm, continuous labour; and love, to a heart that trusts long, and is not cast down. That he-be it reverently

spoken-who dare not face the agony, will not arrive at the consummation!"

There was a long pause. At last, Cooper said

"Ah, Edgar, I wish I were a poet! Hercules was strong because he was the son of Alcæus; and was not the bright Aurora descended of Apollo? So are you strong. Time was when I read and needed no interpreter; but now, even as you translate the pages, I have not read aright, they fail to move, to rouse me. I do not wish to aspire; I do not hope; I suffer, but not willingly; and I want no crown. death comes, its functions will be few-it will have but to close my eyes. If I still really live, life is not what I once thought it."

When

The wreck was complete. Mast, and sail, and helm—strength, volition, judgment,

-all had gone; and it only remained for the waters to close over the abandoned ! Edgar could face the sight no longer; he wondered why Cooper was not a chattering idiot. Merciful Heaven! why is reason spared?

Peace! mortal! The darkest cloud that ever rose from earth above, One there can breathe upon. Will it not dissolve, and

in a gentle shower descend?—a healing dew!

CHAPTER XIV.

"And as a hare, whom horn and hounds pursue, Pants to the place from which at first it flew." GOLDSMITH.

EDGAR was once more leaning over Afrel bridge. He had left the feverish turmoil of the town behind, and come to listen to the promptings of solitude in this sweet, sequestered spot. The hills opened their bosoms to receive him; they had known him from his infancy, and they welcomed him as one long and well remembered. They bent down to look at the poor boy