Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/350

of approval, all issuing from those living leaves. The poet says, "aspire!" the sage, "be wise!" the martyr, "be heroic!" the divine, "be humble!" Bare walls are suddenly hung with glowing pictures of human life. Time and space are annihilated. A gentle companion softly takes our hand in his, and leads us over mountains and across seas, up dizzy heights, down cavernous abysses, through labyrinthine gardens, into loathsome dungeons; nay, he even soars with us to the pearly gates, beyond the blue expanse, and reveals a momentary glimpse of the celestial realms they inclose.

It may be that we opened the volume whence all this enchantment comes forth, weary and disheartened, and seeing only the dark and tangled threads in the web of life; but we close it, after that strange wandering, that mysterious communing, refreshed and strengthened. Some of the ends of the knotted skein have been found, and the shapes they were designed to broider upon Fate's tapestry are discovered. We have assumed a new armor of courage, while consorting with courageous spirits. We grow valiant for life's battle, because we have witnessed victories and talked with conquerors.

Benjamin Franklin, when he was a boy, met with a book entitled "Essays to do Good;" of which he says, "it gave me such a turn of thinking as to have an influence on my conduct through