On the first fine spring morning
they went the long road to the high mountain. There is a holiness
which sorrow alone can give in its purity; the stream of life becomes
white as snow when it is dashed against rocks. There is an elevation
where little thoughts no more intrude between sublime ones, as when
upon a mountain one sees the summits close to each other without their
connection in the depth below. Thou hadst that holiness, Rosamond, and
thou that elevation, Eugenius.

A morning mist was gathered round the foot of the mountain, and in that
three fluttering forms were suspended. These were the reflections of
the three travellers, and the timid Rosamond started, thinking she saw
herself. Eugenius thought, "That which the immortal spirit hath around
it is, after all, but a denser mist." And the child snatched at the
cloud, and wished to play with its little misty brother. One single
invisible angel of the future accompanied them through life and up this
mountain. They were so good and like each other that one angel was all
they needed.

As they ascended the angel opened the book of fate, one leaf of which
contained the sketch of a three-fold life--every line was a day--and
when the angel had read the line that belonged to this day, he wept and
closed the book for ever.

The travellers, in their delicate condition, required nearly a day to
arrive at the desired spot. The earth crept back into the valleys, the
sky rested itself on the mountains. The waving, glimmering sun seemed
to our Eugenius a mirror of the moon, and he said to his beloved, when
the icy summits had already cast their flames upon the earth: "I feel
so weary, and yet so well. Will it not be as if we left two
dreams--the dream of life and the dream of death--if we enter the
cloudless moon as the first shore beyond the hurricanes of life?"

"It will be still better," replied Rosamond, "for in the moon, as thou
hast taught me, dwell the little children of this earth, and their
parents remain with them till they themselves become as mild and
tranquil as children." Then they proceed further.

"Ay, from heaven to heaven--from world to world!" said Eugenius,
ecstatically.

They ascended as the sun declined; when they climbed more slowly, the
mountain summits like rising, loosened branches, concealed them from
the luminary. They hastened on into the evening glimmer, which was
already advancing, but when they had reached the mountain where