ll the earth rises higher, and when it is far above me I will gaze at
it as at heaven."

Accordingly, he lay down with his head on a mound of sod, and watched
the familiar planet.

"We were born too soon," he soliloquized; "for had Sylvia and I but
lived in the spiritual age foretold by the bishop, we might have held
communion, while now our spirits, no matter how much in love, are
separated absolutely by a mere matter of distance. It is a mockery to
see Sylvia's dwelling-place, and feel that she is beyond my vision. O
that, in the absence of something better, my poor imperfect eyes could
be transformed into those of an eagle, but with a million times the
power! for though I know that with these senses I shall see the
resurrection, and hear the last trump, that is but prospective, while
now is the time I long for sight."

On the plain he had left he saw his friends' camp-fire, while on the
other side of his elevation was a valley in which the insects chirped
sharply, and through which ran a stream. Feeling a desire for solitude
and to be as far removed as possible, he arose and descended towards
the water. Though the autumn, where they found themselves, was well
advanced, this night was warm, and the rings formed a great arch above
his head. Near the stream the frogs croaked happily, as if unmindful
of the long very long Saturnian winter; for though they were removed
but about ten degrees from the equator, the sun was so remote and the
axis of the planet so inclined that it was unlikely these individual
frogs would see another summer, though they might live again, in a
sense, in their descendants. The insects also would soon be frozen and
stiff, and the tall, graceful lilies that still clung to life would be
withered and dead. The trees, as if weeping at the evanescence of the
life around them, shed their leaves at the faintest breeze. These
fluttered to the ground, or, falling into the tranquil stream, were
carried away by it, and passed from sight. Ayrault stood musing and
regretting the necessity of such general death. "But," he thought, "I
would rather die than lose my love; for then I should have had the
taste of bliss without its fulfilment, and should be worse off than
dead. Love gilds the commonplace, and deifies all it touches. Love
survives the winter, and in my present frame of mind I should prefer
earth and cold with it to heaven and spring. Oh, why is my soul so
clogged by my body?"

A pil