"And happy!" added Aram, with a deep meaning in the tone of his voice.

"Hey day, hey day!" cried the Squire, starting up, "what's this? bless
me, Eugene!--wet through too, seemingly! Nell, run and open the door--
more wood on the fire--the pheasants for supper--and stay, girl, stay--
there's the key of the cellar--the twenty-one port--you know it. Ah! ah!
God willing, Eugene Aram shall not complain of his welcome back to
Grassdale!"




CHAPTER VIII.

AFFECTION: ITS GODLIKE NATURE.--THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ARAM
AND MADELINE.--THE FATALIST FORGETS FATE.

Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that,
And manage it against despairing thoughts.
--Two Gentlemen of Verona.

If there be any thing thoroughly lovely in the human heart, it is
Affection! All that makes hope elevated, or fear generous, belongs to the
capacity of loving. For my own part, I do not wonder, in looking over the
thousand creeds and sects of men, that so many religionists have traced
their theology,--that so many moralists have wrought their system from--
Love. The errors thus originated have something in them that charms us
even while we smile at the theology, or while we neglect the system. What
a beautiful fabric would be human nature--what a divine guide would be
human reason--if Love were indeed the stratum of the one, and the