ltations with Father Seysen, many were the exhortations of both the
good old men to Amine, who, at times, would listen without reply, and at
others, argue boldly against them. It appeared to them, that she
rejected their religion with an obstinacy as unpardonable as it was
incomprehensible. But, to her, the case was more simple: she refused to
believe, she said, that which she could not understand. She went so far
as to acknowledge the beauty of the principles, the purity of the
doctrine; but when the good priests would enter into the articles of
their faith, Amine would either shake her head, or attempt to turn the
conversation. This only increased the anxiety of the good Father
Mathias to convert and save the soul of one so young and beautiful; and
he now no longer thought of returning to Lisbon, but devoted his whole
time to the instruction of Amine, who, wearied by his incessant
importunities, almost loathed his presence.

Upon reflection, it will not appear surprising that Amine rejected a
creed so dissonant to her wishes and intentions. The human mind is of
that proud nature, that it requires all its humility to be called into
action before it will bow, even to the Deity.

Amine knew that her mother had possessed superior knowledge, and an
intimacy with unearthly intelligences. She had seen her practise her
art with success, although so young at the time, that she could not now
recall to mind the mystic preparations by which her mother had succeeded
in her wishes; and it was now that her thoughts were wholly bent upon
recovering what she had forgotten, that Father Mathias was exhorting her
to a creed which positively forbade even the attempt. The peculiar and
awful mission of her husband strengthened her opinion in the lawfulness
of calling in the aid of supernatural agencies; and the arguments
brought forward by these worthy, but not over-talented, professors of
the Christian creed, had but little effect upon a mind so strong, and so
decided, as that of Amine--a mind which, bent as it was upon one object,
rejected with scorn tenets, in roof of which, they could offer no
visible manifestation, and which would have bound her blindly to believe
what appeared to her contrary to common sense. That her mother's art
could bring evidence of _its_ truth she had already shown, and satisfied
herself in the effect of the dream which she had proved upon Philip;--
but what proof could they bring forward?--Records--_whi