ult!

"Poor one!" said a female (herself a parent), "and they say the father
fell yesterday; and now the mother! Alone in the world, what can be its
fate?"

The infant smiled fearlessly on the crowd, as the woman spoke thus. And
the old priest, who stood amongst them, said gently, "Woman, see! the
orphan smiles! THE FATHERLESS ARE THE CARE OF GOD!"

*****

NOTE.

The curiosity which Zanoni has excited among those who think it worth
while to dive into the subtler meanings they believe it intended to
convey, may excuse me in adding a few words, not in explanation of its
mysteries, but upon the principles which permit them. Zanoni is not, as
some have supposed, an allegory; but beneath the narrative it relates,
TYPICAL meanings are concealed. It is to be regarded in two characters,
distinct yet harmonious,--1st, that of the simple and objective fiction,
in which (once granting the license of the author to select a subject
which is, or appears to be, preternatural) the reader judges the writer
by the usual canons,--namely, by the consistency of his characters
under such admitted circumstances, the interest of his story, and the
coherence of his plot; of the work regarded in this view, it is not my
intention to say anything, whether in exposition of the design, or in
defence of the execution. No typical meanings (which, in plain terms are
but moral suggestions, more or less numerous, more or less subtle) can
afford just excuse to a writer of fiction, for the errors he should
avoid in the most ordinary novel. We have no right to expect the most
ingenious reader to search for the inner meaning, if the obvious course
of the narrative be tedious and displeasing. It is, on the contrary,
in proportion as we are satisfied with the objective sense of a work of
imagination, that we are inclined to search into its depths for the more
secret intentions of the author. Were we not so divinely charmed with
"Faust," and "Hamlet," and "Prometheus," so ardently carried on by
the interest of the story told to the common understanding, we should
trouble ourselves little with the types in each which all of us can
detect,--none of us can elucidate; none elucidate, for the essence of
type is mystery. We behold the figure, we cannot lift the veil. The
author himself is not called upon to explain what he designed. An
allegory is a personation of distinct and definite things,--virtues or
qualities,--and the key can be given easily; but