e purifying by
fire and consequent salvation, of that immortal soul now so fearfully
led astray.

It was with little hope that the father again sought Marie. Bewitched
he might be, but he was so impressed with the fervid earnestness
of her gentle spirit; with the lofty enthusiasm that dictated her
decision; so touched with the uncomplaining, but visible suffering,
which it cost her to argue with, and reject the voice of
kindness--that it required a strong mental effort in the old man, to
refrain from conjuring his Sovereign, to permit that misguided one
to remain unmolested, and wait, till time, and prayer, from those so
interested in her, should produce the desired effect. But this feeling
was so contrary to the spirit of the age, that it scarcely needed
Torquemada's representations to convince him, that he was experiencing
the effect of the invisible sorcery with which the race of Israel
always blinded the eyes of their opponents. The kind old man was awed
and silenced by his stern superior. Liberty of conscience was then a
thing unheard of; and therefore it was, that so much of the divine
part of our mingled nature was so completely concealed, that it lost
alike effect or influence. It was not even the subjection of the weak
to the strong; but the mere superiority of clerical rank. The truest
and the noblest, the most enlarged mind, the firmest spirit would
bend unresistingly to the simple word of a priest; and the purest
and kindest impulses of our holier nature be annihilated, before the
dictates of those, who were supposed to hold so infallibly, in their
sole keeping, the oracles of God. The spiritual in man was kept in
rigid bondage; the divinity worshipped by the Catholics of that age,
represented to the mass like the Egyptian idol, with a key upon his
lips--his attributes, as his law, hid from them, or imparted by chosen
priests, who explained them only as suited their individual purposes.
Is it marvel, then, that we should read of such awful acts committed
in Religion's name by man upon his brother? or that we should see the
purest and loveliest characters led away by priestly influence to
commit deeds, from which now, the whole mind so recoils, that we turn
away disappointed and perplexed at the inconsistency, and refuse the
meed of love and admiration to those other qualities, which would
otherwise shine forth so unsullied? The inconsistency, the seeming
cruelty and intolerance, staining many a noble one in