_happiness_. More nobly beautiful by far in her sad steadfastness than
when she glowed before us as the "child of light" upon the Placa,--

"Her choice was made.
. . . . . . .
Slowly she moved to choose sublimer pain,
Yearning, yet shrinking: . . .
. . . firm to slay her joy,
That cut her heart with smiles beneath the knife,
Like a sweet babe foredoomed by prophecy."

To all the despairing pleadings and appeals of her lover she has but one
answer:--

"You must forgive Fedalma all her debt.
She is quite beggared. If she gave herself,
'Twould be a self corrupt with stifled thoughts
Of a forsaken better. . . .
Oh, all my bliss was in our love, but now
I may not taste it; some deep energy
Compels me to choose hunger."

What that energy is, we surely do not need to ask. It is that deep
principle of all true life which represents the affinity--latent,
oppressed by circumstances, repressed by sin, but always there--between
our human nature and the Divine, and through subjection to which we
reassume our birthright as "the sons of God"; conscience to see and will
to choose--not what shall please ourselves, but--the highest and purest
aim that life presents to us.