atmosphere, and which they knew to be
the rocks of France. And if they should arrive there, what was the hope
they offered? Scarce any. Nothing but more pilgrimage, further
wandering. Paulett and Ellen sat apart, while the children lay sleeping
side by side, for an hour or two, at this point of their journey, and
talked over the desolation before them.

"Yet," said Paulett, "the more terrible is the appearance which material
things put on, the greater I feel the triumph of the spirit to be. The
worse it looks, the more immortal I feel; and when a perishing world
shows itself most perishable, I exult most that you and I, Ellen, have
borne it so far."

"Yes, I am glad too," said Ellen; "your strength strengthens me. In the
midst of this desolation the mind rises, for an hour at least, higher
perhaps than it would have ever done if we had been prosperous."

"Yet we might have used our prosperity to the same good end," said
Paulett. "It is not necessary to be miserable in order to be noble.
Millions have died before us, some in agony, some before the struggle
began; some hardly, some at ease: they had all their chances; all had
their occasions of virtue, if they used them; and some used them, some
failed: ours is not over yet; we have to struggle on still; and let us
do it, dear Ellen, and be ready for the good day when we too may be
allowed to die." And thus talking for a while, they rested themselves in
sight of the desert they had to traverse; then with renewed strength and
steadfast resolution, when the children woke, descended the cliffs, and
prepared to trace out a path through what had been the bottom of the
sea. The first part of the journey was infinitely difficult: the rocks
over which foot of man had never passed; the abrupt precipices over
which had flowed the even surface of the ocean, and then the height to
climb again, again to find themselves on ledges and shelves of
rocks--all these seemed at times hardly passable impediments. And when
they got to a distance from what had been the shore, the unnatural place
where they found themselves pressed upon the imagination. There was a
plain of sand, about which at irregular distances rose rocks, which,
north and south, stretched out beyond the reach of the eye; and this
sand, which had been at such a depth that it never felt the influence
of the waves, was covered in places with shells, the inhabitants of
which had perished when the waters gradually dried away. T