eart beat in the rock--a chained heart. It beat
against the walls of its prison till it bled, because it longed to
be abroad in the sunshine, but it could not break its bonds. I
could not free myself from myself. The rock wept because it was so
hard, because it was a prison for its own life. There came a
maiden, a light gentle angel, wandering through the wood, and laid
her warm lily-white hand on the rock, and pressed her pure lips
upon it, breathing a magical word of freedom. The rocky wall
opened itself, and the heart, the poor captive heart, saw the
light! The young girl went into the chamber of the heart, and
called it her home; and suddenly beautiful roses, which diffused
odours around, sprang forth from that happy heart towards its
liberator, whilst the chambers of the heart vaulted itself high
above her into a temple for her, clothing its walls with fresh
foliage and with precious stones, upon which the sunbeams played.

"I awoke from a sense of happiness that was too great to be borne
on earth; I awoke, and ah! the roses were vanished, the lovely
girl was vanished, and I was once again the hard, unsightly, and
joyless rock. But do you see, young maiden, the idea will not
leave me, that those roses which I saw in my dream are hidden in
me; that they may yet bloom, yet rejoice and make happy. The idea
will remain with me that this reserved, melancholy heart might yet
expand itself by an affectionate touch; that there are precious
stones within it, which would beam brightly for those who called
them forth into light.

"Good young maiden, will you not venture on the attempt? Will you
not lay your warm hand on the rock? Will you not breathe softly
upon it? Oh, certainly, certainly under your touch it would
soften--it would bring forth roses for you--it would exalt itself
into a temple for you, a temple full of hymns of thanksgiving,
full of love!

"I know that I am old, old before my time; that I am ugly and
disagreeable, unpleasant, and perhaps ridiculous; but I do not
think that nature intended me to be so. I have gone through life
in such infinite solitude; neither father nor mother, brother nor
sister, have followed my path; no sunshine fell upon my childhood
or my youth; I have wandered solitarily