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The

happy too-no, not happy; but he was merry. note of the harp, the tinklings of the tambourine, and the glad clappings of the castanet, saluted Adam's ear, and blithesome maidens and agile youth gladdened his eyes as they threaded the lascivious mazes of the dance.

He gazed upon the scene, musing upon its passing loveliness; yet his spirit was sad within him, and the tear of sorrow trickled down his manly cheek. "What avails it," said he, "to man, that he has achieved greatness?that all around him is prosperous?-and that Wisdom waits on his footsteps, and listens to his behests? A few short years, and shall he not DIE, leaving all, and be mingled with the original clod of the valley? And this all the result of my disobedience! Oh! why may not this curse be taken off? Why should my innocent descendants suffer for the parents' wickedness, and leave a world so bright, so beautiful, so happy?"

Suddenly the scene was changed. The sun was darkened, and the rich landscape, and all man's magnificence, faded from his view, and he was treading the streets of a vast commercial city. On one side, the stately palace reared its turrets to the clouds; on the other, the lowly hut of the laborer was crumbling to decay, its mouldy walls but half supported by the dark ivy with which they overrun. The costly carriage, with its prancing horses and its stylish out-riders, dashed o'er the pavement, overturning in its progress the lame beggar, whose arm outstretched in vain for alms; at one hand was he whose prince

were

ly revenue might feed a province, and on the other the poor widow, whose children cried for bread, and found it not!

He entered a wretched dwelling. The door creaked on its rusty hinges as he gained admittance, and the crazy stairway shook beneath his weight as he mounted it. Here and there a ragged child, or a squalid woman, eyed him scrutinizingly as he proceeded. A low, deep moan, as of one in distress, arrested his attention, and he entered the apartment from which it proceeded. The air was chill with the cold blast of a wintry day, but fire there was none. The moisture trickled down the clammy walls and fell in drops upon the floor. A wretched pallet of uncovered straw, the refuse of a stable, was in a corner placed, and upon it, stretched at length, what once was a man. But exposure, dissipation, want, and disease, had nearly done their work: the attenuated frame, the sunken cheek, the glassy, glistening eyes—all told that he was dying. Two little children, half clad, whose very looks betokened starvation, were lying listlessly on the floor, while beside the departing man a woman knelt, haggard from want, but yet a woman still, bathing his pallid brow, moistening his parched lips, and wiping the cold death-sweat from his face. The last struggle was at hand. He raised himself upon his couch, gave a wild shriek, gazed around him with glaring eyes, and cried out, "Give me bread!-I STARVE, I STARVE!" Another and all was over!

The spirit had gone to its accountthere is no starvation!

groan,

was in a world where

Again the scene was changed, and he stood within a spacious hall. At the extreme end were seated gravelooking men, and above their heads was a female statue, with eyes blindfolded, bearing in one hand a well-poised balance, and in the other a drawn sword. One half the room, divided off by a small partition, waist high, and furnished with rough benches, was densely filled with a motley crowd. Inside the enclosure, were sharp-featured men, who looked profoundly indifferent as to what was passing before them, or were busily engaged in the perusal of the neatly-folded papers with which the table was bestrewed. At one corner was a grated box, and in it a young man, prepossessing in appearance; but his pallid brow and sunken eyes showed the effects of long confinement. His was an eventful but not uncommon history. Sanguine, enterprising, ambitious, he had entered, but a short time before, the busy scenes of life. Success for a time greeted his honest efforts. He married, and a fond wife smiled upon his face, and an infant's prattle gladdened his heart as he rested from his daily toil. Reverses came

-sickness followed, and he was a beggar.

Haggard want

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hollowed the cheek of her he loved, and his child asked for the mouthful of bread which he had not to give. ployment was vainly sought-friends failed he was tempted, and he fell.

One spectator was there, sitting beside those cold, grave-looking men around the table within the bar, who was not indifferent to the scene; for the convulsive sob

that ever and anon burst forth, despite her efforts to smother it, told but too plainly the agonized feelings with which she awaited the return of the jury, who had just retired to decide whether the accused should be restored to his family and the world, or, immured within the walls of a prison, should expiate, by years of humiliation and of suffering, the wrong which society had experienced through him. Anon, the almost awful stillness of the place was broken, and a slight tumult at the side-door announced that the jury were about to return. The prisoner arose, and cast a cold, almost scornful look around, but carefully averting his eyes from her who was so nearly beside him. She also had risen, and the pallid face, the distended eyes, the compressed lips, the heaving bosom, all told how much of good or of evil hung upon the words which would in a moment be spoken. A voice, calm as unconcern could make it, asked, "Gentlemen of the jury, do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty?" Another answered, in terrible distinctness, “GUILTY!” so loud, so piercing, that the hall reverberated with its echoes, and the spectators sprung from their seats, as if there were danger in the sound, proclaimed that a heart had broken. They lifted her tenderly up, and bore her to the opened window, in hope that the refreshing air of heaven might revive her. In vain-the convict's wife was dead!

One scream,

Years had passed by, and Adam stood within a prison's gate. He stopped not to look at the misery around him;

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to mark the effects of crushed hopes, forgotten aspirations, the terrible retribution which follows a life ill-spent. His was a higher mission. He had been summoned to see a Christian die. Yes, within those walls, so high, so gloomy, which shut out the pure air and light of heaven from the wretched inmates, a Christian spirit was about to wing its flight to those celestial regions where is neither crime, nor punishment, nor sorrow. He entered a lowly cell, where, propped up by pillows on a narrow bed, was the man whom he had seen just as the trial ended which had resulted in his present confinement. But oh! how changed. The full, manly cheek had wasted to a shadow. proud and scornful look was gone, and meekness, resignation, nay, happiness, had taken its place. His two hands were folded together, and his eyes were uplifted to Heaven in prayer. Oh! what a torrent of fervid eloquence did he pour forth, laying his whole heart open as he communed with his Creator. He spoke not of his past blighted life; his hopes destroyed; his happiness wrecked. No; all was peace, and quietness, and joy. There was no darkness in the future; but glory and triumph through Him in whom he trusted, and a happy reunion above with her whom he had loved most below. He prayed, till his .. last breath passed away; and, as his spirit winged its flight, a smile of heavenly sweetness spread itself over the face of the earthly tenement which that spirit had forsaken.

Then Adam's eyes were opened, and he saw his folly and blindness when he lamented that man could not live

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