Part 35 (2/2)
The storht The rain poured with such violence that in the flashes of lightning he could see the large drops leap froround But he felt not that he et to the skin He minded not that he had left the house without a hat, and that the water was running in strea running, he fled through the streets, until he reached the grave-yard Without a ray to guide hiht be felt, he found his way to a grave, it was his wife's He threw himself prostrate on his face, and lay round the storm had ceased, the clouds had left the sky, and the stars were shi+ning brilliantly
He gazed around, then looked up into the blue vault What were those innu points? Were they worlds, as the learned have said? Were they inhabited by beings like himself, doomed to sin and suffer? Did they suffer, more or less? Could the errors of a few years be expiated by sufferings of ages, as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore? He struck the palm of his hand violently on his forehead; he threw out his arroaned aloud It seeroan was echoed, and called to him like an invitation to join the hosts of darkness He started, and looked again at the gruel sky But no voice of comfort was breathed thence The silver stars were now sparks of an universal conflagration With a gesture of despair, he left the city of the dead
Silence and darkness still shrouded the house of Mr Ar on his return He closed the door quietly after him, and, cautiously as he had descended, ascended the stairs, which, in spite of all his precaution, creaked under his feet The sounds sent a thrill of alarh he feared discovery It was as if he were returning froht, he threw off his soaked gare, perhaps, to say, he soon fell into a sleep, deeper andtime enjoyed It may be that the excitement of his systeht air and rain, or that nature, unable longer to endure it, sunk beneath the tension It was not until a late hour he arose, when he found breakfast awaiting his, Faith said:
”Here is your penknife, father, which Felix found lying on the path thisYoutook the knife, without reply, and, when unobserved, dropped it into the fire
CHAPTER XXIX
Cities hunorant as loud, Whose highest praise is that they live in vain, The dupes of pleasure, or the slaves of gain
COWPER
We have a little anticipated the order of events for the purpose of presentingafter the departure of the Solitary and Pownal that some of them occurred The favorable wind for which the packet Calypso had waited for two or three days at last caood sloop sped over the waters of the Severn
The means of communication between Hillsdale and the commercial capital were very different in those days from the present Instead of the fine steamboats and railroad cars, which now connect the two places, the e coaches The latter were the surer--but not the ation of the river was unimpeded by ice, the condition of the roads was such that, in spite of the dreariness of water transit, at that season, the packets were able to maintain a fair rivalshi+p with the coaches, while, in the summer, the latter stood but little chance in the competition, but were almost entirely deserted To this result the coers (spacious and satisfactory for those tieneration ood fare they furnished, not a little contributed
The Calypso was one of the finest of the line of packets to which she belonged, and provided with every convenience that could be desired
She was a sloop of some ninety or one hundred tons, with a tall mast, that, to the timid eye of a landsman, seemed fitter for a vessel of twice her size, and when her enormous mainsail was raised and usual sail set, she looked s bear such a disproportion to the body, that in the conteet to what they are attached, than like a safe and sea-worthy craft But the shi+pwright who laid her keel and shaped her ribs, knehat he was about, and the Calypso was as staunch and stiff as she was handsoth of the vessel, and by h between joints, so that even the tallesthis head True, it was not eany, and satinwood, but the paint was virgin white, the state-roo and linen scrupulously clean Captain Standish prided hiood reputation he enjoyed and deserved The length of the passage varied according to the state of the winds and tides It ht, under the most favorable circuht last a week It was at a period of the world's existence, before steam and electricity had imparted a feverish impatience to the coh to live
But let it not be thought, that it is as one who peevishly resents the improvee, ell upon these particulars We are quite awake to the fact that the world turns round, and although the consequence is an alternation of light and darkness, are satisfied with the change With the philosopher Pangloss ould rather believe, ”_dans ce meilleur des mondes possible_,” than to entertain any less cheerful opinion No
It is rather to perpetuate the remembrance of what has been, or to qualify more truthfully and er from oblivion It is with a e of the journey of life, froress can only be one of continued descent towards the valley whereon broods the cloud not untouched with rays of divine light, reverts to whatever, even though theyof his career Ah! it was the breaking of the lory, to fade at last into the ”light of coet that lovely dawning
Holden, nothing doubting, was confident that the voyage would terminate for him in the restoration to his arms, of the son whom he had mourned as one dead Nor did he see lost treasure A hope, brilliant and beautiful, that glorified whatever it touched, had taken absolute possession of him It would ad penetrated all departments of his ious speculations He began to connect, in some way, the realization of his awakened hopes with the millennium, of which it was to be a forerunner This appeared especially on the second day of the voyage, which lasted three days
It was a warht afternoon in the latter part of theof the sun, and Holden and Pownal had walked to the bow of the vessel, as if to be nearer the golden luentle breeze filled the sails of the Calypso, the soft murmur froht hich she moved on her liquid way For so the sun, as by slow degrees he sunk into the waves Pownal, hinificence of earth, and sky, and ocean, and all fair for the exalted and rapt expression of his elder friend's face, and sy in the influence that produced it, was in no mood to break the silence
”Type of the Infinite,” at last Pownal heard hi and departure! Chariot of fire, whose burning wheels support the throne of judgment, thy course is onward until the fullness of the time is come Of man's impatience thou reckest not With thee a thousand years are as a day”
He ceased speaking, and a total silence for some time succeeded His eyes continued fixed upon the spot where the sun had disappeared, but they saw nothing An interior struggle was going on which engrossed the faculties, and left no opportunity for the observation of external objects Repeatedly he passed his hand over his eyes and forehead, pressing the palth he addressed Pownal
”The scoffers have long sat in the gate, and lolled out the tongue and cried aha! but of a surety the tih Because He delayeth, where, say they, is the proround without His knowledge, and are not ye of more value than many sparrows, oh, ye of little faith? Shall not the sorrows of fathers move the heart of the universal Father?”
It is scarcely to be expected that the young h familiar with his moods He saever, it had some connection with the one idea that had , at perfect liberty, except so far as they interfered with itself For it cannot have escaped observation, that on all subjects but one Holden exercised an ordinary degree of judgular in the case of persons affected with mono all contradiction, and falling in with the other's thoughts
”That,” said Pownal, ”it seeiven to the Supre”
”It is the worthiest and the dearest Thou, youngof the emotions of a father's heart Couldst thou look into its abysses of tenderness a neorld would be revealed to thee, of which now thou only dreah its channels, but would coin itself into a joy for the beloved But what is human love to His, the Creator of love? A breath, a bubble, a sigh One great heart comprehendeth in its e up his arht worlds, bright because they are happy; this vast ocean teereen earth whence, as frorateful flowers and chants of praising birds do ceaselessly arise Young man, be thankful and adore”
Holden stopped, as if he expected a reply, and Pownal therefore said:
”I am not, I fear, sufficiently thankful for the favors of Providence”