but I asked her afterward what she had been dreaming about, and repeated to her the words she had uttered in her sleep. She had forgotten every thing, however, and did not even know that she had been dreaming. We have never played at chess since that evening. This game frightens me."

CHAPTER III.

JULIET'S RELIGION.

AGAIN, in another letter, which, though undated, I have no difficulty in referring to the same period, Juliet writes,

"I begin to think that Edmond is trying to hide from us the real cause of these attacks, and this makes me anxious. I fear that the frightful recollections of the 14th of September must at least have something to do with them, and that all his heroic efforts and long self-exile have not yet sufficed to dissipate every trace of that cruel shock. I can perfectly understand this. For the first time in his life Edmond has found himself, as it were, confronted with Providence, and compelled to recognize the operation of a will higher than man's, independent of man's, and inscrutable to human understanding. Ah! dear Theresa, we may ignore the love of God, we can not ignore the power of God; and how dreadful would be the power without the love! I have no doubt that, in the impotence of his efforts to save my lost darling, Edmond must have felt the omnipotence of the great Disposer; but it is in his nature to regard himself as responsible for the failure of those efforts. For Edmond is not a re

At least he is not relig

ligious man. I know that. ious in our sense, nor according to our way of feeling. His character is noble and lofty in all things, but child

like and submissive in none. His intellectual pride is unbending. I do not presume to judge him on that account. Men's minds are differently constituted from ours. With us women, the heart acts upon the mind, and we think what we feel.

With men it seems heart, and they feel

to me that the mind acts upon the what they think. Thus we get to conclusions quicker than men do, because with us conviction is the result of feeling, not of thought; and feeling is instantaneous, whereas thought is progressive. But I do not believe that either the woman who feels rightly, or the man who thinks rightly, will act wrongly.

In old days I used often to talk with our dear father about this religious indifference of Edmond.

Father had a way of explaining and justifying it, which made a great impression on my mind, because he was himself a man of unblemished piety and unshaken faith. Certainly Edmond from his earliest years evinced an extraordinary independence of judgment. He would never adopt a second-hand opinion without having first severely examined it. In this his mind is singularly conscientious; and I have often heard father say that, even as a boy, Edmond used to astonish him by the weight and precision of his remarks. He will have nothing to do with enigmas. Whatever coincides not with the perfect structure of thought, whatever is not amenable to the strict law of the understanding, he does not absolutely reject, but he refuses it admission to his mind, as being beyond According to him, the

the province of the intellect. mind of man can only operate within certain limits, and whatever exists beyond these limits does not ex

ist for the mind, because the mind can not take cognizance of that which it has no means of verifying. Edmond is no scoffer, however. He denies nothing. For he says that the possibility of denial involves the possibility of affirmation; that the mind is not competent to deny what it is incompetent to affirm, and that we are only entitled to affirm what we are able to prove. He fully admits that there exists in man an indefinite desire, a vague longing, which impels him toward the unknown, and renders him susceptible to the mysteries of religion. He also finds it quite natural that this want, like every other want, should have a tendency to satisfy itself; nay, even that the want of any thing indicates the existence of the thing wanted. But if the satisfaction of this want is only possible by faith; and in faith, and not possible by any process of thought, or in any logical demonstration of fact, then (he would say) it presupposes in man a faculty which he may possess (though how or whence he knows not), but which he can not acquire. After all, this is not very different from what the curé says himself when he talks of Grace and Election. Only I can not help hoping that grace must come by prayer; and if I rightly understand what Edmond means, I suppose he would say that prayer is grace a faculty not to be acquired; and this is a chilling thought.

"I remember father used to say that unfortunately our sublime religion has not been always carried out in conformity with the Divine origin of it. And, surely, he would say, a dogma which is based entirely on love should never appear beyond the reach of love. In following out such a dogma, a child might be our guide. And was not the Savior of the world himself

a child? And, in all worldly matters, did He not remain a child, even to the Cross? Ah! children,' father would say, 'name me the man that ever offered himself up to be crucified for the love of all mankind. Alexander the Great? He died of a fit of intemperance. Julius Cæsar? He fell an unwilling victim to his own ambition. Yet these men have been exalted to the rank of demigods, and held up to us as great examples. Or the Philosophers? Pythagoras, to whom Divine honors were paid? He lived chiefly for himself, and shunned the vulgar. Or Zeno, dying in hale old age, to whom was voted a brazen statue and a golden crown? Or Epicurus, whose birthday was honored with annual festival? Or Empedocles, who flung himself into Etna for vanity's sake, and to cheat the admiration of the world? Or Plato, who took care of his health and died painless? Or Socrates, best and wisest of all, who was sacrificed by the Athenians? Even of him, can it be said that for deep love of all the human family he sought and died torturing death?

666

"No, no! the power of Christianity is in the sacrifice of Christ. The whole Christian precept is in the Christian deed. But this has not been adequately borne in mind. Doctrine has been added to doctrine, while example has dwindled out of sight; and, while all history teaches the power of religion upon the spirit of man, every page of history proves how that power has been perverted to worldly uses. While the Church has been building up her establishment, Faith has been left to shift for herself. Yet the Church has more than once been shaken to her foundations, while Faith has never lost her hold upon