con promised and what has been given; magis are equal to the wants whether the exwe equal to the desires. Seek an animal that is mag, and cannot find a fountain; a plant attached to tat vana, 7 which the breath of morn does not bring reresting lews; a human thought which cannot be accom

stu; a sentiment of love which cannot be realised. God says to each intelligence, that which thou conceivest I wal give to thee, and his magnificence is exhibited even in the extreme Emits of creation. Observe this frail buttendy, its head is circled with diamonds, its wings have the variegated colours of the rainbow; for it the zephyr ba'ances the flowers, for it the earth is a magnificent banquet. and ufe a radiant morning, all consecrated to pleasure; and vet, amidst so many riches, among so many pleasures, no voice awakens its gratitude, nothing occupies it beyond its appetites, nothing disturbs it beyond its horizon; it lives, enjoys, and dies; and its destiny is then fulfilled. What, the fly has not been deceived, and shall man be so? Would there be in us a sentiment without an object? an anxiety about a heavenly life without any necessity? desires without fulfilment? an eternal foresight without a futurity ? the penalty of annihilation, in the presence of an immortality promised and refused? promised because it is exhibited to us.

: pain! but death! Thou complainest of death, as if st not carry within thyself the sentiment which over it; as if it did not open to thee the gates of Alas, great lessons are not spared us, they are

God sends us pleasure

mixed up with the lives of all men. as a celestial messenger to invite us to come to him; and misfortune as a severe master to force us. But a few days ago I saw a child die-the sole thought of its mother; with what anxiety did she not look for life in its eyes, which were closing for ever. I still hear her lamentations; I still see her sorrowing countenance. All consolation was destroyed by the words-he is no more! All at once her soul becomes elevated; a celestial joy beams in her eyes; she invokes the name of God—she remembers his promises -an immortal sentiment restores to her all that she has lost. This inconsolable mother, who would hear nothing, is now consoled by the inspirations of infinity; it is no longer on earth, it is in heaven, that she contemplates her child.

Ah, if she were never to see it again, what a horrid mockery! Will God be wanting in power or in justice? Would there be magnificence and truth in the instinctive life of the fly? artifice and falsehood in the moral and religious life of man? virtue persecuted on the earth, and turning its regards towards heaven? the devotedness to one's country and to the human race? the heroism which looks for nothing here below? all the sacrifices made to duty, with the sole aim of pleasing God? Would these be only the mistakes of humanity? Thy soul, O Socrates! would have experienced thoughts more vast than the creation. Thou, the friend of truth, wouldst have died for a lie. Would God have deceived Socrates? Could the created being be more magnificent than his Creator?

No, no! to those who invoke him, to the human race which acknowledges him, Providence does not respond by a sentence of eternal death. It is not on the tombs that his answer is inscribed; it is in our own souls, whence escapes the sublime cry-God-eternity!

When man casts his eyes around him, what does he see? the creation which on all sides raises itself up to him; and when he restricts his regards to himself; when he studies and contemplates himself, what does he find, beyond his terrestrial passions? An instinctive sentiment of infinity, a conscience which tends to ideal perfection, a reason, the light of which extends up to heaven; in fact, a soul, all the faculties of which radiate towards God. Mysterious intuition of the Divinity which announces to us another existence as surely as the senses reveal to us the actual world.

The kingdom of God is within man.

*

CHAPTER XXIII.

OF THE SOURCE OF GENIUS AND VIRTUE.

"Ceux qui n'exercent point leur ame sont incapables des belles œuvres de l'ame."

XENOPHON.

"Si vous voulez concevoir ce qui est divin c'est le sens divin qu'il vous faut."

ELENSCHLAGER.

THE elements of man's essence being known, his existence his greatness-his passions-his contradictions, all are explained. Man is a soul united, not to a body, not to a corpse, as Maxime de Tyr says, but to a living and intelligent animal, which itself is endowed with all the instincts and all the passions of other animals. They are two

* "Neither shall they say, Lo, here, or lo, there, for behold the kingdom of God is within you." St. John xvii. 21.

beings of an opposite nature, which form but one being; two thoughts-two interests-two wills, which dispute with each other the sovereignty: such is man. The soul and the body may be likened to the rider and the horse, which are united together for a single course; they start forth, contest, press close to each other, passing from victory to defeat, and from defeat to victory, till the moment when the exhausted animal falls expiring in the arena. dies; the freed rider scarcely bestows a last look upon it; and, all panting with the lengthened conflict, finds himself in the presence of the master who is to reward or punish him.

It

In our modern educations, all the care, all the foresight are for the horse; to him belong the boldness-the strength; to him the glory and ambition. In order that he may start brilliantly in his career, that he should be intoxicated with the applause of the multitude, his passions are awakened, his intelligence is enlarged: time and matter are his. But the rider! who thinks of instructing him? What lessons has he received to guide him in the arena? How can he find himself prepared for the struggle? Who will give him the will and the courage? We train up an animal to the exercises of horsemanship; we develope his intelligence, we enrich his memory, we fertilize his talents -his passions-his vices, and then we proudly contemplate our work, believing that we have completed the education of a man.

Do you now understand why the soul has so little control over the body? why its contests are so feeble? its resistance so slight? and, consequently, why there exist so little morality, so little religion, conscience, and virtue, in the world? We must have professors to study a flea, to classify a gnat, to distinguish a cat from a rose-tree; but man, this sublime and hidden being, which it is important

for us to instruct and to know-where is he taught? In what college-in what institution-do you see any one occupied in developing in him the sense of the sublime and beautiful-the moral sense-the sense of infinity? or reason or conscience? these noble faculties which unite him to God.

And yet, herein lies the whole strength of man; his intelligence merely places him at the head of animals; his soul separates him from them, by calling him to duty. Let him congregate families, assemble people together, build towns, it is but the work of ants and bees; but let him establish laws, let him cause justice to reign, this will be the work of man.

Let us elevate men, then, if we would see in our cities something else than human ants. One truth of which we must be convinced before all others, is, that the development of the faculties of the soul is the sole and universal source of all our superiority; we owe to it both the chefsd'œuvre of genius, the advantages of virtue, and all the noblest works of the human race. To the moral sense we are indebted for Bayard, L'Hôpital, Socrates, and Fénelon. To the sense of the beautiful, Homer, Corneille, Shakspeare, La Fontaine, Molière, Lamartine. To the sense of the infinite, Plato and Descartes, Kant and Newton. It is our union with God which makes us great. To separate ourselves from God,-and all our modern educations do separate us from him,-is to deprive ourselves at once of genius, virtue, and immortality.

Do but observe the influence of the faculties of the soul over the works of the painter and of the sculptor. A man may be a good colourer, draw well, and compose a picture, and yet not rise above mediocrity. You copy a model, you give it physical beauty, colouring, and attitude; it will be a work of the hand, of the intelligence, but only an inani