race
The living essence of the living soul,--
And there is faith--a firm-set, glorious faith,
Eternity cannot uproot, or change--
Oh, then the second birth of soul begins,
That purifies the base, the dark illumes,
And binds our being with a holy spell,
Whereby each function, faculty, and thought
Surrenders meekly to the central guide
Of hope and action, by a God empower'd.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

A God with all his glory laid aside,
Behold Him bleeding,--on his awful brow
The mingled sorrows of a world repose--
"'Tis FINISH'D,"--at those words creation throbs,
Round Hell's dark universe the echo rolls--
All Nature is unthroned--and mountains quake
Like human being when the death-pang comes--
The sun has wither'd from the frighted air,
And with a tomb-burst, hark, the dead arise
And gaze upon the living, as they glide
With soundless motion through the city's gloom,
Most awfully,--the world's Redeemer dies.

* * * * *

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

We quote the following from the _Cabinet Cyclopaedia_ history of these
countries:

_The Penitential Habit._

"From the fifth century," says Masden, "or from the beginning of the
sixth, the custom prevailed in Spain of the infirm, when so heavily
afflicted as to be in danger of death, piously assuming the tonsure and
the penitential habit, and engaging to continue both through life, if
God raised them up. As the use of this penance became common enough to
throw discredit on the piety of all who did not thus undertake it, if
the sick or dying man was unable to demand the habit, his relations or
friends could invest him with it, and his obligation to a penitential
life thenceforward was as great as if that obligation had been imposed,
not by others, but at his own request, since, as he was charitably
supposed to be thus piously inclined, he must of necessity wish to
become a penitent. This continued in force until king Chindaswind,
impressed with the abuses to which it had given rise, decreed that in
such cases the obligation imposed by others should be void unless the
patient should afterwards ratify it when in a sound state of mind.
Penitents of this class might remain in their own houses, without
seclusion within the walls of a monastery; but they were for ever
compelled to wear the habit and shaven crown, to shun business and
diversions, to lead exemplary and chaste lives: if single, they could
not