dread sense of the immensity around us, and of the inadequacy of our own
strength. But there is a rapture in the breath of the pure and difficult
air, and in the progress by which we compass earth, the while we draw
nearer to the stars,--that again exalts us beyond ourselves, and
reconciles the true student unto all things,--even to the hardest of them
all,--the conviction how feebly our performance can ever imitate the
grandeur of our ambition! As you see the spark fly upward,--sometimes not
falling to earth till it be dark and quenched,--thus soars, whither it
recks not, so that the direction be above, the luminous spirit of him who
aspires to Truth; nor will it back to the vile and heavy clay from which
it sprang, until the light which bore it upward be no more!"




CHAPTER IV.

A DEEPER EXAMINATION INTO THE STUDENT'S HEART.--THE VISIT TO
THE CASTLE.--PHILOSOPHY PUT TO THE TRIAL.

I weigh not fortune's frown or smile,
I joy not much in earthly joys,
I seek not state, I seek not stile,
I am not fond of fancy's toys;
I rest so pleased with what I have,
I wish no more, no more I crave.
--Joshua Sylvester.

The reader must pardon me, if I somewhat clog his interest in my tale by
the brief conversations I have given, and must for a short while cast