nd, which
has no pedigree; in deceitful invitations of the water, in the
sullen rock, which never shall find a voice, and in the shapes
of all those beings who go about seeking what they may devour.
We speak of a mystery, a dread; we shudder, but we approach
still nearer, and a part of our nature listens, sometimes
answers to this influence, which, if not indestructible, is at
least indissolubly linked with the existence of matter.

'In genius, and in character, it works, as you say,
instinctively; it refuses to be analyzed by the understanding,
and is most of all inaccessible to the person who possesses
it. We can only say, I have it, he has it. You have seen it
often in the eyes of those Italian faces you like. It is most
obvious in the eye. As we look on such eyes, we think on
the tiger, the serpent, beings who lurk, glide, fascinate,
mysteriously control. For it is occult by its nature, and if
it could meet you on the highway, and be familiarly known as
an acquaintance, could not exist. The angels of light do not
love, yet they do not insist on exterminating it.

'It has given rise to the fables of wizard, enchantress, and
the like; these beings are scarcely good, yet not necessarily
bad. Power tempts them. They draw their skills from the dead,
because their being is coeval with that of matter, and matter
is the mother of death.'

In later days, she allowed herself sometimes to dwell sadly on the
resistances which she called her fate, and remarked, that 'all life
that has been or could be natural to me, is invariably denied.'

She wrote long afterwards:--

'My days at Milan were not unmarked. I have known some happy
hours, but they all lead to sorrow, and not only the cups of
wine, but of milk, seem drugged with poison, for me. It does
not seem to be my fault, this destiny. I do not court these
things,--they come. I am a poor magnet, with power to be
wounded by the bodies I attract.'

TEMPERAMENT.

I said that Margaret had a broad good sense, which brought her near to
all people. I am to say that she had also a strong temperament, which
is that counter force which makes individuality, by driving all the
powers in the direction of the ruling thought or feeling, and, when it
is allowed full sway, isolating them. These two tendencies were always
invading each other, and now one and now t