, to upbraid the mother who would bind
it to the darkness and pangs of the prison-house of clay? Didst thou
not feel that it was I who, permitted by the Heavens, shielded it from
suffering and disease? And in its wondrous beauty, I blessed the holy
medium through which, at last, my spirit might confer with thine!

And how have I tracked them hither? I learned that thy pupil had been at
Venice. I could not trace the young and gentle neophyte of Parthenope in
the description of the haggard and savage visitor who had come to Viola
before she fled; but when I would have summoned his IDEA before me, it
refused to obey; and I knew then that his fate had become entwined with
Viola's. I have tracked him, then, to this Lazar House. I arrived but
yesterday; I have not yet discovered him.

....

I have just returned from their courts of justice,--dens where tigers
arraign their prey. I find not whom I would seek. They are saved as
yet; but I recognise in the crimes of mortals the dark wisdom of the
Everlasting. Mejnour, I see here, for the first time, how majestic and
beauteous a thing is death! Of what sublime virtues we robbed ourselves,
when, in the thirst for virtue, we attained the art by which we can
refuse to die! When in some happy clime, where to breathe is to enjoy,
the charnel-house swallows up the young and fair; when in the noble
pursuit of knowledge, Death comes to the student, and shuts out the
enchanted land which was opening to his gaze,--how natural for us to
desire to live; how natural to make perpetual life the first object of
research! But here, from my tower of time, looking over the darksome
past, and into the starry future, I learn how great hearts feel what
sweetness and glory there is to die for the things they love! I saw
a father sacrificing himself for his son; he was subjected to charges
which a word of his could dispel,--he was mistaken for his boy. With
what joy he seized the error, confessed the noble crimes of valour
and fidelity which the son had indeed committed, and went to the doom,
exulting that his death saved the life he had given, not in vain! I saw
women, young, delicate, in the bloom of their beauty; they had vowed
themselves to the cloister. Hands smeared with the blood of saints
opened the gate that had shut them from the world, and bade them go
forth, forget their vows, forswear the Divine one these demons would
depose, find lovers and helpmates, and be free. And some of these young