ELLA V , 
 
 OR 
 
 THE JULY TOUR 
 
 BY ONE OF THE PARTY. 
 
 He can form a moral on a glass of champagne. 
 
 LE ROT. 
 
 N E W - Y O R K : 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROAD WAV. 
 1841. 
 
f 
 
 ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., 
 
 in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the Southern 
 District of New- York. 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE principal object of the writer of the follow 
 ing pages, has been to record the religious reflec 
 tions which they contain. The fictitious part of 
 the work is a mere appendage, in which he has 
 purposely avoided plot and denouement, so usually 
 and essentially the parts of a novel. 
 
 M41750 
 
ELLA V. 
 
 OR 
 
 THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 A PERSON, on a lovely July morning, standing 
 on the deck of a steamer, just ready to leave her 
 fastenings to move like a courser up the Hudson, 
 would be characterized for little feeling, were he 
 to gaze without emotion on the grouping multitude 
 around him. He sees many a face lighted up with 
 a smile of expected pleasure as he hears the part 
 ing salutation, the spirited jest, the lady-laugh, and 
 the exhortation to the leaving party, that they will 
 take care of themselves ; with a hundred wishes 
 that they may have a pleasant tour and a safe 
 return. By a single change, the eye of the ob 
 server of this happy group may be arrested by a 
 graver circle, seated in their solitary musings ; or 
 rest upon some face that has just brushed from the 
 cheek the feeling and farewell tear. But could the 
 bosom of each stranger-face at such a moment be 
 read, it would only give, like every other crowd, 
 the world s varied and vast emotion, in less but 
 1 
 
2 * * " fiLLA V.* *Olt*T!IE JULY TOUR. 
 
 -pfrip&i&kmate amount^* of *fhe joyous and the sor 
 rowful, which swells the ever agitated bosoms of 
 mankind. 
 
 The little group among whom the writer deemed 
 himself fortunate to have been thrown, had its 
 brighter and more shaded faces. Upon the arm of 
 Le Roy, a young and joyous bride was leaning, 
 although this was not their bridal-tour. Her 
 younger sister stood at her side, with a fresh lip, 
 and a cheek deepened by the early breath of the 
 morning; and her young heart gushed free in her 
 anticipations of looking abroad on the wide world, 
 which, as yet, she had only known through the 
 medium of her school-books, or in the conversa 
 tion of the family circle ; or in the dreams and ro 
 mance of fiction and the imaginings of a young 
 and unsophisticated heart. And yet, from circum 
 stances of early illness, she had acquired a habit 
 of thought and manner beyond the usual intelli 
 gence and address of a young lady of sixteen. 
 She was speaking to a young gentleman who was 
 to join the party the next morning at the Springs, 
 and who left her, in the mean time, with the hope 
 that her anticipations of pleasure might be more 
 than realized. A slight shade deepened the deli 
 cate bloom on the cheek of Miss V. as her eye met 
 the young gentleman s parting look. We were 
 told, on his leaving the boat, that he was a young 
 clergyman of superior abilities and finished educa- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 tion, and as remarkable for his refined taste as his 
 engaging and polished manners. Mrs. E., one of 
 his parishioners, a young widow lady, and her sweet 
 orphan girl, four years old, whom he had accom 
 panied from the south, were of our party. This 
 little girl had a fresh bouquet of flowers in her 
 hand, and was urging the servant that accompa 
 nied her to put them into water, that they might 
 be kept fresh and fair for her friend Mr. F., 
 the young clergyman, when he should overtake 
 them at Saratoga the next morning. 
 
 The last bell of the steamer had rung. Our 
 boat shot out from the dock, and led on her course 
 ahead of the opposition, until the receding boat 
 was lost, erelong, in the distance. 
 
 We seldom finish our sail in a steamboat with 
 out meeting with a number of old friends, and add 
 ing new names to the list of our speaking acquaint 
 ances. Mrs. E. and child were soon recognised 
 by some southern friends, with whom there was a 
 beautiful little girl of eight or ten years of age, 
 who had attracted Mr. F. s attention on board the 
 boat from Norfolk to Baltimore, as resembling his 
 only sister, and for whom, while on board the 
 boat, he had pencilled a few lines of poetry, which 
 the little girl now recited to them. 
 
 The next morning, at about eleven o clock, little 
 Rosa E. was seen running across the room at Con 
 gress Hall, with an immense bouquet in her tiny 
 
4 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 hand, exclaiming, in her young joyousness, "Here, 
 Mr. F., is a whole mess of flowers for you. Mo 
 ther and I plucked them in Tayette Place, and 
 Magdalen has kept them fresh and fair for you/ 
 Mr. F. caught the little girl in his arms and gave 
 her a kiss of welcome meeting, and assured her 
 that he should value the bouquet very much, as 
 coming from his little friend, Rosa E. The bouquet 
 arrested the conversation for a moment, while the 
 peculiar beauties of the different flowers were 
 pointed out ; and their rich perfume gave its fra 
 grance impartially to all the little party, which had 
 now collected in one corner of the room. 
 
 " How perfect is nature in all her creations," 
 said Miss Ella V., as she inspected a beautiful 
 white lily, which Mr. F. had selected for her. 
 " And beauty, I am sure, to be perfect," she con 
 tinued, " must have the modest look of these meek- 
 eyed bells, which, by the gentle bend of their 
 necks, seem too timid to endure the gaze of their 
 admirers." 
 
 "La Belle Nature," said Le Roy. "A very 
 good play upon words, Miss V." 
 
 "And nature is no less perfect in her colouring 
 and contrasts," said Mrs. E., as she exhibited a 
 beautiful moss-rose, whose splendid red petals had 
 nearly bursted its brilliant green calix. "They 
 say our enjoyments are heightened by contrasts, 
 although, in feeling, I think our experience will 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 5 
 
 find less harmony in the sentiment than the eye 
 perceives in nature s beautiful blending of colours." 
 " I have always felt my sympathies touched 
 when gazing on the snow-drop," said Mr. F., as he 
 cast his eyes on the dark weeds of the young 
 widow ; " it is the early harbinger of joyous spring- 
 days, after the sad decay of winter months. If I 
 mistake not, it is called the emblem of consolation, 
 and I have somewhere seen a stanza to it : 
 
 1 Thou spirit-flower, I ll pluck thy bell, 
 An offering for my breast: 
 When ills of life my bosom swell, 
 Thy prophet-flowers each storm shall quell, 
 And yield me promised rest. " 
 
 " Cui bono ?" said Le Roy, as he placed a beau 
 tiful cluster of small pinks, with a dwarf-white 
 rose, in the braided hair of his lady. " I have often 
 queried what flowers were good for. And yet, I 
 thought Azile s hair graced the simple japonica 
 last new-year s bridal-night or the japonica graced 
 her hair which is it, now, friends V 
 
 The eyes of all rested on the head-dress of Mrs. 
 Le R., and they felt most truly that both the flow 
 ers and Mrs. Le Roy s person were nature s beau 
 tiful and perfect works. 
 
 "I remember," said Mr. F., " when I sympathized 
 
 less than I now do in the sentiment, that we should 
 
 look through nature up to nature s God. My 
 
 feelings never rose to positive emotion when study- 
 
 1* 
 
6 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 ing the character of the Creator through his 
 works ; or, rather, I did not study his character 
 thus, and the sentence as given us by Mr. Pope al 
 ways seemed to me to have something about it like 
 affectation. I probably was peculiar, or, at least, I 
 have come to feel differently from what I once did. 
 I think we learn the character of God in his works 
 as certainly, in many delightful particulars, as in 
 his word. The flowers speak to us in beautiful 
 illustration of the mind or characteristic being of 
 God. If we see an ingenious mechanism that 
 attracts our attention and surprise, we at once say 
 that it must have been an ingenious mind that con 
 ceived and constructed it. So also with regard to 
 whatever may awake the sublime in emotion, when 
 we contemplate the works of man as in the case 
 of the politician or the philanthropist, who has 
 conceived and carried to successful accomplish 
 ment a plan which has bestowed aggrandizement 
 upon a nation and happiness upon a world. We 
 say that he is a genius, a hero, a benefactor, as the 
 case shall be. Apply this to the character of God. 
 His conception of the system of the planetary 
 worlds his impelling them in their spheres with 
 such fleet and unerring motion performing their 
 circuits in harmony and regularity, does not fail 
 to impress the mind with the greatness and the 
 sublimity of the mental character of God. But 
 this gives us the vast and the ingenious, which 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 7 
 
 might yet be unlovely. But in the beauties of na 
 ture we read the loveliness of the character of God. 
 It must have been a beautiful mind to have con 
 ceived these lovely flowers. Mr. Le Roy asks for 
 their utility. It is to gratify and to render more 
 happy and amiable a world, that God desired should 
 be happy. He has first made us with susceptibil 
 ities that are pleased with beauty given us per 
 ceptions to discover and appreciate this beauty, 
 and placed before us beautiful objects thus for our 
 contemplation and delight. Look now at this pink 
 the scallop-edges of its variegated leaves its 
 colour, which with Mrs. E. we admit to be perfect 
 and inimitable its fragrance it is a perfect, beau 
 tiful thing of its kind, and it must have been a 
 beautiful mind that conceived it, and formed it for 
 our pleasure. It is thus we will see that God em 
 braces in his character, in an infinite degree, all 
 those qualities commanding and beautiful charac 
 teristics, which we most admire in our most pei- 
 fect conception of a most perfect human being, to 
 whom we would give our admiration and love in 
 telligence, ingenuousness, sublimity and beauty, 
 and poetry of thought ; and dignity, greatness, 
 and benevolence in action. Therefore when we 
 are called upon to love such a Being, it is not that 
 we should give our affection to an ugly, morose, 
 austere, and unlovely existence, who has power to 
 make us miserable if we do not love him ; but it is 
 
8 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR, 
 
 to one who embraces in his character all that is 
 worthy of our admiration ; all that can win affec 
 tion, secure veneration, devotion and love, as a 
 Being who has concerted for our greatest and en 
 during interests, and desires that we should be 
 happy in the enjoyment of his familiar and endur 
 ing friendship. Who then would not love such a 
 perfect Existence such a beautiful Mind such 
 an elevated Being V 
 
 As Mr. F. put this question in a tone of softened 
 feeling, his eye lingered on Miss Ella V., who for 
 a moment seemed lost in the abstractions of her 
 own mind, which had been excited by the remarks 
 of Mr. F. As he ended, her involuntary sigh de 
 clared that emotion had been awakened in a bosom 
 which had before mused with feeling on the lan 
 guage, " I love them that love me, and those that 
 seek me early shall find me." 
 
 " To me," continued Mr. F., " as if answering his 
 own question, there is an inexpressible loveliness in 
 the character of God, as spoken forth from the ex 
 quisite and beautiful flowers of creation." 
 
 "Come, Rosa," he added abruptly, as he tossed 
 the little girl upon his knee, "you and I must go 
 and put these 
 
 1 Pinks and posies, 
 And violets and roses, 
 And rosemary tree, 
 
 into afresh tumbler of water. We will show Mrs. 
 
9 
 
 Le Roy, however pretty that white rose now looks 
 in her hair-braid, that we shall have more of the 
 petals on ours at tea-time, than she will have." 
 
 The same evening Mr. F. sent a fresher bouquet, 
 which he had culled from a private garden he visit 
 ed during the day, accompanied with the following 
 lines to Miss Ella V. : 
 
 Go forth, go forth, ray sweet bouquet, 
 And find the maid that s light and gay, 
 And yet that sometimes sadness feels 
 When lonely thought the heart reveals. 
 
 Give out, give out thy rich perfume, 
 And bear to her thy odorous charm ; 
 Tell who thy tints of beauty gave, 
 And win from her the thoughts that save. 
 
 O say, O say there s not a flower 
 That decks the heath or lady s bower, 
 But tells that God his smile hath given 
 To woo the fearful soul to heaven. 
 And if, and if she press thee near 
 A heart that sometimes aches with care, 
 O point her to the Christian road, 
 And win her aching heart to God. 
 
 And if, and if thou e er shouldst see 
 A struggling tear in Ella s eye, 
 More pearly than the gem of dew 
 That gilds thy leaves of loveliest hue ; 
 
 O tell her, tell a Saviour wept 
 
 O er those whose hearts full sorrows kept, 
 
 Nor only tear for tear he gave, 
 
 But hopes once lost called from their grave. 
 
10 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 And when, and when her heart and eye 
 
 Wake full of joy and merrily, 
 
 Tell her RELIGION will inspire 
 
 The bosom s gladdening joys the higher. 
 
 Bear then, bear then, my sweet bouquet, 
 
 To Ella forth this friendly lay, 
 
 And say she ne er can be forgot, 
 
 While Friendship wakes the willing thought. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 11 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE party had spent several days very pleasant 
 ly at the Springs, where they met a number of New- 
 York acquaintances, and others from the far-south, 
 and added some names to their list of friendships, 
 which will be remembered with enduring pleasure 
 in their reminiscences of their JULY TOUR. 
 
 While they were thus pleasantly enjoying them 
 selves at this delightful watering place, the writer 
 left them for a hasty trip to Niagara, the other mem 
 bers of the party having visited the falls the prece 
 ding summer. A rapid passage, with occasional 
 delays of a few hours for observation on the way, 
 brought the writer to Buffalo, which, after a few 
 hours stay, he left for Niagara. 
 
 NIAGARA ! It is as one leaves Buffalo, that he feels 
 himself indeed on his way to the profoundest curio 
 sity of a world. He may before have thought of 
 Niagara, and read of it, and wished and expected 
 at some future day to see it, But he now feels that 
 he is indeed approaching it, that it is near at hand. 
 His heart almost beats with double gushes as he 
 leaves the dock at Buffalo, and finds the prow of 
 his boat pointing towards NIAGARA. So I felt. Ob 
 jects many and curious had passed under my review ; 
 
12 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 but they are not to be recorded here, as having 
 occurred within the time allotted to the incidents 
 narrated in this volume. Many treasured associa 
 tions had been located in the memory for future 
 reminiscence. Friendships had been formed, which 
 on my future course I trusted should light up with 
 a new beam of enjoyment the shaded path of one s 
 pilgrimage of earth. But all these associations, 
 for the time, were forgotten, while we glided 
 over the blue-green waters of the river Niagara, 
 borne on by the rapid tide and steam at the rate of 
 twenty miles the hour. Soon I caught a glimpse 
 of a curling cloud in the northwest, rising in 
 elongated and spiral colums above the forest, which 
 crowned the shores of Canada and the American 
 high grounds, as we sailed around in the eastern 
 channel of Grand Island. We landed at Schlosser, 
 two miles from the falls, and took a post-coach to 
 the hotel, which is located on the American side, 
 and shaken by day and by night by the eternal tide 
 of waters, rolling down their thundering cataract a 
 few rods in the rear of its doors. 
 
 It wanted a few minutes of three o clock when 
 we rose from the dinner-table. The day was plea 
 sant, and the sun was shining with his brightest 
 beam. I determined to take my first view of the 
 falls. 
 
 It has been made a matter of some speculation 
 with minds equally familiar with the beauties and 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the sublimities of the different views of the falls, whe 
 ther the final impression upon one s mind as a whole 
 will be the most agreeable and deep if he takes his 
 first view from the British or from the American 
 side. Some affirm the one, some the other. Un 
 able to decide for myself as to the better course, 
 I determined that I would gain my first view from 
 neither side. Consequently I should have to take a 
 boat to accomplish my purpose, and, midway across 
 the river, below the falls, make my observation. 
 Accordingly, I started from the hotel alone. I pursu 
 ed my way by the staircase, winding down the per 
 pendicular descent to the edge of the river, be 
 tween one and two hundred feet, to the ferry, where 
 the small boat is always in readiness to convey 
 passengers across to the British shore. When 
 two-thirds of the way down this covered staircase, 
 you come to an open point of ground, adjacent to 
 the northern edge of the fall. Here the tremendous 
 roaring of the American sheet of water, tumbling in 
 its sublimity near you, tempts the passer-by to lift 
 his eye. At this moment he sees an oval column 
 of water, one third the width of the entire sheet, 
 plunging down a perpendicular descent of a hun 
 dred and sixty-five feet, dashing up its clouds of 
 dense mists from the caverns of rocks, into which 
 the eternal tide rolls its exhaustless waters. The 
 tremendous sound of the cataract, with the glimpse 
 of the arched column of water thundering at your 
 2 
 
14) ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 side, heightens your imagination, and tends every 
 moment to increase your sympathies to relish the 
 full view of the extended rampart of waters, which 
 is soon to spread itself before you. 
 
 From this position, without pausing, I descend 
 ed to the boat, amid the ceaseless roar of the cata 
 ract and the tremblings of the earthquake, which 
 here has no respite to its convulsions. Scarcely 
 had I adjusted myself in my seat in the boat, be 
 fore I found myself in a central position of the river. 
 I turned my face full in view of the extended cata 
 ract. The island in the centre of the river, which, 
 with its perpendicular front of a hundred and sixty 
 feet above you divides the cataract into two falls, 
 the one on its right the other on its left, was now 
 seen through the mists, crested with its forest-trees. 
 The boatman, for a moment, lay upon his oars. 
 There it was, in its grandeur, in its sublimity, in its 
 thunder. But what was it like 1 Earth had not 
 its emblem. Had heaven ^ I thought it had. The 
 island seemed to be moving forward in its majesty 
 and terror through the mists, as if it were the AN 
 GEL OF THE ALMIGHTY, flanked by his wings of light, 
 and uttering his messages of thunder in a voice 
 of many waters ! I took a breath ; and with the 
 idea deep in my soul, I covered my face from the 
 mists which were driving over us, and reached the 
 British shore. 
 
 Having stepped my foot on the Canada side, I 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 15 
 
 paused on the rocks to reassure me of the reality 
 of what I had seen, from the centre of the river. It 
 was there ; and rolling on in its undiminished 
 grandeur ! As I gazed, I twice detected a feeling 
 of alarm lest the waters should cease their flow. 
 But, thank God, they rolled on they rolled on, 
 and shall roll on till the final catastrophe ! 
 
 Gradually I took my way up the winding road, 
 which leads to the top of the heights on the Canada 
 side. At intervals, however, as I passed upwards, 
 I paused to gain the different views from different 
 positions as I advanced up the hill, and more 
 particularly to analyze the sound, which broke 
 upon the ear from the opposite American fall, 
 and held the soul in profoundest admiration and 
 delight. 
 
 In most descriptions of Niagara the sound of 
 the cataract has been resembled to thunder. I could 
 not trace this resemblance, in any one position in 
 which I \vas placed. In a different state of atmos 
 phere perhaps the sound of thunder may be heard, 
 but I presume this resemblance will be found to 
 exist, only as to the loudness of the cataract. 
 Midway up the hill I paused. At this point, five 
 dissimilar sounds were distinctly to be heard, as 
 they were echoed in deafening roar from the Ame 
 rican side. The first, commencing with the nor 
 thern edge of the American fall, resembled the 
 dashing of water over a mill-dam, although as much 
 
16 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 louder as a peal of thunder exceeds the roar of a 
 single cannon. The second sound is like the 
 quick and successive strokes of the clapper of a grist 
 mill. The third is like the grumbling sound of the 
 whirling millstone. The fourth is strikingly like 
 the gurgling roar produced by the action of steam 
 upon water, when let off from the boiler of a 
 steamboat through the side of the vessel into the 
 water. The fifth sound held me in amazement. 
 I could find no resemblance, but it awed the soul, 
 and spell-bound you to the spot, as if some un 
 earthly voice had issued forth in a deep, cavernous 
 and sepulchral cadence. I left the phenomenon 
 unsolved. Delighted, and yet unsatisfied, while 
 this last and unearthly roar of waters fell on my ear 
 without finding its resemblance, I reached the top 
 of the heights, and again gazed full on the enchant 
 ing, thrilling and overawing scene that lay before 
 me. 
 
 By the time I had gained this eminence, I felt 
 sufficiently fatigued to find a seat within the piazza 
 of a little cottage, situated on the top of the hill, 
 to be a very agreeable resting place. The loca 
 tion of this little rustic habitation gives one a com 
 plete view of the falls. The cottage itself is fitted 
 up in the most fantastic of rural style. Here, on 
 a settee of unbarked elm-boughs, bent into the atti 
 tude of a sofa, one may regale himself with as many 
 cold ice-creams and hot cream-cakes as prudence 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 17 
 
 will allow, in full view of the magnificent scene 
 of Niagara before him. 
 
 Refreshed and rested, I renewed my course 
 for Table-Rock, distant three-quarters of a mile. 
 While advancing to this point, you have the falls 
 continually in view, but in different aspects from 
 different points of your walk, until you gain the po 
 sition in front of the museum, a sequestered and 
 solitary building, when you again see the flanked 
 Jlngel, with his \vings of light, advancing forth 
 amid the roar of cataracts and the glories of a felt 
 and acknowledged Deity. 
 
 One s next position is on the Table-Rock, near 
 the northern edge of the British side of the falls. 
 Here, before you, and between yourself and the 
 island, which with its perpendicular front divides 
 the whole cataract into two falls, you have the 
 nearest and most distinct view of the immense 
 sheet of water on the British part of the river, called 
 the horse-shoe, or crescent fall. It tumbles, a lit 
 eral ocean, down a precipice of one hundred and 
 fifty-eight feet. You stand in front of it, an ad 
 miring and entranced gazer. If you ask what it 
 is like, you reply that there is but one Niagara 
 in the world, and you cannot find its resem 
 blance. The extended sea before you, as it urges 
 on to its fatal plunge, is of a deep emerald- 
 green. The current has raised it into the commo 
 tion of a tumultuous ocean, lashed by a storm at 
 2* 
 
18 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 sea 5 and the emerald-billows, crested with their 
 wrathful foam, plunge in continued columns down 
 the tremendous abyss. You gaze, and the tide still 
 rolls on. You gaze, and the emerald-ocean still 
 plunges down the insatiable gulf. The foam boils 
 in the caldron below, as if it were a river of crys 
 tal cascades, and the volumes of dense mists rise 
 in fleecy clouds high above the rocky ramparts of 
 the thundering ravine. 
 
 On the other flank of the central island, which 
 fronts you, the river being cut obliquely by the 
 whole fall, and at your left, as you stand on Table- 
 Rock, you hear the roar of the American sheet of 
 the cataract, blending its voice of waters with the 
 thunderings of the tumbling ocean, that ingulfs 
 itself beneath your feet. The view of the grand 
 whole, is now before you and complete. You take 
 it in at a glance. You are a speck amid the subli 
 mity of the surrounding scene. You feel that you 
 could fall and adore it ! But you stand and gaze, 
 arid exclaim, Beautiful! beautiful! You stand, and 
 again you gaze, and exclaim, Sublime ! sublime ! 
 You stand, and again you gaze, but do not exclaim, 
 
 yet THINK OF JUDGMENT, OF ETERNITY, OF GoD ! 
 
 The morning which succeeded my afternoon visit 
 to the Canada side, Irecrossedfrom my lodgings 
 on the American shore, with the design of entering 
 under the sheet of water which constitutes the 
 horse-shoe, or crescent fall. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 19 
 
 It had been my good fortune to be thrown into 
 the agreeable company of a Boston party, who 
 were then at the falls. One of the ladies possessed 
 a character of romance and spirit, and a delicacy 
 of perception that sensitively appreciated the beau 
 tiful and the sublime. She was as fragile as a lily, 
 and in delicate health, and yet, she was as fleet as 
 the antelope and courageous as a warrior. She 
 would cull rosemary from over the edge of Table- 
 Rock ; stand, not without emotion, but without fear, 
 on the trembling terrapin-bridge projecting over the 
 falls, and gaze from it upon the rolling waters that 
 plunged down in their terror, with their tremendous 
 avalanches, and yet smile upon the emerald-green 
 billow as it rolled by as a thing on which she 
 would love to have laid her gentle cheek. And 
 this lady would enter beneath the sheet of w r aters, 
 that poured their ocean-flood down the crescent 
 fall. 
 
 Having arranged our dresses for the adventure, 
 I gave her my hand at the foot of the staircase, 
 which winds down a hundred and fifty feet to the 
 base of Table-Rock. Her younger friend, with a 
 full and fair and rosy cheek, accompanied us, with 
 her guardian as her attendant. "Are you readyl" 
 asked the guide, and then we plunged into the 
 mists beneath the tumbling sheet of waters ; and 
 buffeted the winds, and the spray, and the storm, 
 which contended, with all their opposing forces, 
 
20 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 against our advance. But we dashed on in our 
 dark path ; now losing sight of our guide, but a 
 few paces ahead of us, our breath being literally 
 blown out of our bodies by the gale that drove its 
 currents of water pitilessly into our faces. I paus 
 ed, exhausted ; and as soon as I could gather short 
 sentences enough to express the propriety of return 
 ing, " Guide," added the lady, "can we go farther!" 
 " No farther, no farther," was the reply. " Then 
 let us return," said the heroine ; and we found 
 our passage back facilitated and easy, urged on as 
 we were by the driving winds at our backs. Our 
 friends, who started with us, had long before retreat- 
 ed ? arid had advanced but half way into the terrific 
 passage traced by the heroine whom I escorted. 
 It was a fete which might have shaken the nerves 
 of a Trojan, when facing for the first time the dark 
 and misty and tempestuous sublimities of this ca 
 vern of storms. " Lady, " said the guide, before 
 we entered, " if you are not courageous you had 
 better not attempt it." And on my return to the 
 passage to re-examine it, the guide was conducting 
 a huge-boned, strong-set man, and on my proposing 
 to take the lead, " No, sir, no, sir," said the guide, 
 " keep behind, to prevent this gentleman from 
 running back." 
 
 The sublimity of the scene, under this sheet of 
 water, pouring down the crescent fall, and the ex 
 citement which must always attend one s fit st en- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 21 
 
 trance by a shelving and somewhat slippery path, 
 through dense mists and a continued storm of wind 
 which drives the currents of water into one s face, 
 exhausting one s breath and strength, altogether 
 surpasses what I had previously conceived 5 and 
 it should be particularly described to the individual 
 before he enters, that he may expect it. It is said, 
 and I can readily believe it to be true, that a lady, 
 through fear, fainted beneath this sheet of water, 
 after having proceeded but a short distance along 
 this passage of mists and storms. The path leads 
 in alongside the mountain-rock, which overhangs 
 one s head a hundred and more feet, and from the 
 outer edge of the narrow path, quite the whole dis 
 tance of the passage, the loose pieces of rock which 
 have fallen in scales from above you, slope down 
 with a fearful slant of some forty feet to the wa 
 ter s edge, where the boiling caldron is some hun 
 dreds of feet deep. And yet the winds, created by 
 the current of the ocean of waters continually fall 
 ing from above, blow against you so furiously, 
 that they pin you to the side of the overhanging 
 bulwark, which forms the rocky Atlas to support 
 the weight of the superincumbent sea. It is thus 
 that the gale saves the adventurer from what would 
 otherwise be an inevitable plunge into the whirling 
 gulf below. 
 
 The same day, after I had entered beneath the 
 sheet of water which tumbles over the crescent 
 
22 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 fall, I took a guide to pass over the grounds, which 
 are usually visited as points of observation, on the 
 American side. 
 
 Besides the large central island which divides 
 the cataract into what are known as the American 
 and the British sides, the American sheet of water 
 is again divided by a small island, which is near 
 the central island, and leaves a narrow sheet of wa 
 ter to pass between the two, called the central fall. 
 The water, though immense, which rushes through 
 this narrow pass, is yet less than a sixteenth part 
 of the American sheet. 
 
 When I was on the Canadian shore, taking my 
 first views of the cataract, it was this lesser 
 sheet of water, or the central fall, with which I had 
 identified the deep, terrific, and subterraneous 
 sound, which left its rumbling and sepulchral tones 
 impressed upon the soul of the enchained and 
 admiring listener. The same identified rumbling 
 cadence of waters was now heard beneath my feet, as 
 I stood upon the trunk of a felled tree, which forms 
 the little bridge between the two islands. From this 
 position, with the intention of going beneath the 
 immediate spot where I was then standing, I pur 
 sued my way to Biddle s staircase, which one de 
 scends by spiral steps to the foot of the rock, 
 constituting the perpendicular front of the central 
 island, and which divides the American from the 
 crescent or British fall. From the foot of the steps, 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 23 
 
 turning to the right, I pursued the path under the 
 rock to a point which was directly beneath the top 
 of the central fall, which I had left but a few mo 
 ments before. Here I paused. It was at the mouth 
 of the cave of the winds. 
 
 The rain had been descending during the morn 
 ing, and the mists, as is usual after a storm, were 
 now rising in denser clouds from the abyss. The sun 
 was two hours above the hills, and throwing his full 
 beams across from the Canada side into the misty 
 opening of the cave. The southwest wind was blow 
 ing with tremendous force directly into the cavern, 
 over the mouth of which, as a defying barrier, the 
 curved sheet of the fall poured down its eternal 
 avalanche, amid the tremblings of the earthquake, 
 and a grumbling and cavernous roaring, in compar 
 ison with which distant thunders are but the breath 
 ings of a sleeping infant. The small flat rock on 
 which I stood abruptly ends the path, from which 
 one looks down into a deep below, which extends 
 its waters far back into the cavernous rock, down 
 from the brow of which these ceaseless currents 
 flow. Here, the mystery was solved. And here 
 I met the spectacle which surpassed all that I had 
 yet beheld. The deep, rumbling, subterraneous 
 sound, which sunk heavily with its sublime impres 
 sions on the spirit as I listened on the opposite shore, 
 was now fully solved. It came, with its sepulchral 
 echoes and subterraneous reverberations, from the 
 
24< ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 mouth of the concealed cavern, at the entrance 
 of which I was now standing. The cataract, pour 
 ing down its tide from above, and plunging upon 
 the dimly discovered rocks beneath, carried with it 
 a current of wind, at this moment augmented by the 
 southwest, into the dark and yawning passage. All 
 other sounds were swallowed up by its sepulchral 
 tones, as they roared in distinguishable thunders 
 above all other noises of the two larger cataracts. 
 I placed my head around the point of rock to look 
 within the yawning cavern, now rendered doubly 
 frightful by the clouds of mist, which the ceaseless 
 currents of wind bore into the reverberating recess 
 es. My soul was already up to the pitch of emotion 
 where I could have fallen and adored the sublime. 
 I shuddered at the terrific scene. It was the only 
 place where I had trembled. But while I gazed in 
 terror, my eye fell entranced upon a bow of peace, 
 which now vividly encircled itself on the whirling 
 mists, as they sailed in troubled clouds into the 
 dark recess. What could add to the scene 1 The bow 
 crowned the head of the most fearful personification 
 of the sublime which this world affords. It inlaid 
 itself around the edge of the expanded cavity, form 
 ing a perfect circle, with but a small break at my 
 feet. I gazed in profoundest awe, while the winds 
 were driving their streams of waters in one un- 
 abating storm against me. And still I gazed. It 
 seemed as if the GOD OF WRATH WERE SMILING 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 25 
 
 THROUGH HIS BOW OF PROMISE. I turned with a shud 
 der from the scene ; but, ere I left for ever, I rushed 
 back once more to look, to fear, to adore ! 
 
 From the cave of the winds, classically called 
 JEolus 1 Cave, I returned towards Biddle s staircase, 
 and passing it, advanced forwards beneath the rock, 
 to examine the American side of the crescent fall. 
 But the southwest wind was blowing so heavily, 
 the spray which it dashed against me would not 
 permit a near approach to the edge of the crescent 
 sheet. Returning, I ascended the staircase, and, 
 above, wound my way to the terrapin-bridge, which 
 extends three hundred feet out from central island, 
 and projects ten feet over the crescent fall. Here I 
 stood for a few moments met a number of friends 
 said a few words and expecting again to return to 
 this position, which is supposed by some to be the 
 best view of the whole cataract, I hastily entered 
 the tower, which stands a few feet distant from 
 the bridge. The appearance of rain, and the hour 
 of sunset being near, induced me, without delay, 
 to wind my course around the island passed the 
 residence of the hermit, poor fellow, who one day 
 was found drowned below the falls and at length 
 reached the hotel in a shower of rain, almost equal 
 to the peltings of the merciless currents of water 
 under the crescent fall. 
 
 Shall I say it 1 I went not again to the ter 
 rapin-bridge. And to speak about what I examined 
 3 
 
26 
 
 not with that particularity by which I was to gain 
 definite feelings, would not be more in taste than 
 was my sudden departure from Niagara the suc 
 ceeding morning, contrary to my previous purpose 
 of spending two days longer in delightful commu 
 nion with these scenes, amid which one must be 
 far sunken in degradation if he is not rendered a 
 devouter worshipper of his God. 
 
 " Well, Jerry," I asked at the tea-table, " what 
 were your impressions, on the Table-Rockl" 
 
 Jerry was a new acquaintance, among those I 
 had formed after leaving Saratoga, and who loved 
 life for its bright things and smiling faces. 
 
 "Why," said he, "[believe, for once in my 
 life, I felt quite happy ; and, may be, if for nothing 
 else than for mere oddity s sake, I had a spice of 
 your devotion, and, like Pope, who was devo 
 tional only in some of his poetic hours, I might 
 have been disposed to look 
 
 Through nature up to nature s God. 
 
 But the prevailing idea in my mind while gazing on 
 the crescent fall, was, that we ought to fight for it. 
 England has no right to half of what is so wholly 
 American. And if I should ever be engaged in 
 running boundary lines between the two nations, 
 (a thing you know not quite impossible since I am 
 a Jackson-Van Buren man,) I would make it a sine 
 qua non of opening the negotiation, that the cres- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 27 
 
 cent fall should be included within the boundary 
 of Uncle Sam s lands." 
 
 " Well, Jerry," said Fritz, another new ac 
 quaintance, " as I stood upon the Canada shore, I 
 could not divest myself of the idea of the embattled 
 armies of England and America arrayed the one 
 against the other. How calm, how confident, how 
 self-possessed I thought the American sheet spread 
 out its wider and higher and brighter and untar 
 nished front. But it seemed like American infantry, 
 compared with English artillery. The crescent fall 
 is heavier, immensely, in the body of water that 
 rolls down in solid phalanxes to the terrible con 
 flict below. But I thought of Erie, Champlain, and 
 New-Orleans, and what were numbers, or weight 
 of artillery \ There was a secret on the American 
 shore, where, after all, lay concealed the greatest 
 sublimity and terrific power. I thought of the 
 subterranean passage of the winds. And I felt and 
 I knew that the undeveloped power of the Ameri 
 can land would not yield could not yield to 
 any other in sublimity, in energy, in prowess." 
 
 " And I," said the enthusiastic heroine, whom 
 I had accompanied under the crescent fall, and 
 with her eye turned almost wickedly on Jerry, 
 " felt vexed enough this morning to have shoved a 
 hugely sensitive gentleman from the Table-Rock, 
 had I been favoured with assistance, who was there 
 cracking almonds, in front of Niagara /" 
 
28 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 " Mercy for him !" exclaimed Jerry, " mercy 
 for him! He doubtless was some one of the Brit 
 ish-side boarders at the pavilion. I happened to 
 be there, this morning, at breakfast, by invitation 
 of a friend ; and neither money nor love could 
 secure more than one cup of coffee, and no bread 
 nor butter. The captain-landlord, with his white 
 gloves on, sauntered into the room after the break 
 fast table was being removed, and swore, by old 
 England and all the Canadas, that the fault was the 
 cook s. He called the cook into the room, and 
 with his unblacked boots, kicked this marvellously 
 unwashed professor of the kitchen-science three 
 times around the room, and four times across it. 
 The thing had gone offtolerably well, had not one of 
 the other waiters let out an immaterial fact, that the 
 landlord had previously feed the cook with a 
 dollar, to submit to the indignity of being booted 
 by his master. " 
 
 " Forgive him, forgive him !" was the general 
 appeal to the lady, in compassion for the un~ 
 breakfasted almond-cracker^ on Table-Eock. 
 
 "Well, well," said the heroine, "we will for 
 give him. But had it been myself, I should have 
 thought that I was about being petrified into one 
 of the many favasites, so abundantly found among 
 the organic remains of this limestone formation." 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 29 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 ON the morning after my return from the Falls 
 to Saratoga, two extra coaches were seen at the 
 door of Congress Hall. In a few moments more they 
 were on their way to Lake George. Our party occu 
 pied one of them. We paused a short time at Glenn 
 Falls, as do others when they have not been over the 
 route before, and recalled the associations connected 
 with romance and history, which have identified 
 the grounds in the neighbourhood with warlike 
 and bloody doings. 
 
 Mr. F., with little Rosa E. by the hand, was seen 
 on one point of the rocks, near a position where 
 Ella V. and Mrs. E. had climbed, and others were 
 scattered at the different points of observation, as 
 they were severally attracted by the caves in the 
 limestone, or the tumbling of the amber-coloured 
 waters as they rush down the rocky and narrow 
 ravines, which they have cut through the limestone 
 strata over which they are ceaselessly flowing. On 
 their return, they gathered from the crevices of the 
 rocks the beautiful blue-bells, so characterized for 
 their love of the waterfall and limestone crags. 
 
 There is a golden chain by which nature has 
 bound all her works together, showing that the 
 3* 
 
30 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 Creator of one part of this world is the Author of 
 the other. The eye is made for light, and light is 
 made for the eye ; the lungs for the air, and air for 
 the lungs ; the wing of the bird to cut the aerial 
 liquid, and the liquid atmosphere to buoy up the 
 pliant wing of the bird. And that golden chain, that 
 binds man to all nature, is sympathy. He looks 
 at the mountain, and it awakens in his bosom an 
 emotion he calls the sublime, and it makes him hap 
 py. He looks over an extensive plain varied by 
 cultivated fields and forest tracts, and village and 
 rivulet winding through verdant meadows or round 
 woodland acclivities, and he calls it beautiful, be 
 cause it excites within him, as he gazes upon it, a 
 feeling of his bosom which he denominates the beau 
 tiful in emotion. And God has so arranged his con 
 stitution and external nature, that such shall be the 
 sympathetic impression of the silent language of in 
 animate nature upon the feelings of his sensitive and 
 rational creatures. And it shows the benevolence 
 of the God of nature that such is the constitution 
 of things. 
 
 This was the substance of the conversation of 
 our party the evening after we had sailed up the 
 beautiful Lake George, and enjoyed the scenery of 
 its enchanting mountains, and fairy isles, and stilly 
 waters, which this day had slept as unrippled as if 
 no agitating gust had ever disturbed the quiet of 
 their unruffled bosom. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 31 
 
 The party had been over the grounds memora 
 ble for the battles fought upon them, and the sacri 
 fice of blood in the border-war, when France and 
 England arrayed their banners in hostile display, 
 and savages joined in the fray to receive their 
 rewards for the white man s scalp in the plunder of 
 the colonist. The olden forts were visited ; Ticonde- 
 roga at one end of the lake, and forts William Henry 
 and George at the other. Two leaden bullets were 
 found in the field by Miss V. incrusted with the 
 oxide of years ; and the day had passed off with 
 many a gleeful remark of Le Roy s, and amid the 
 good cheer of a colloquial party of pleasure, 
 who were alive to the beauties of nature, to the 
 recollections of olden historic associations, and 
 the repartee and the jeu d esprit of those who 
 sought to render the passage of time like the flight 
 of the carrier pigeon, that bears to a lady-love the 
 message of her devoted. 
 
 The sun had fallen beneath the high hills on 
 the western side of the lake, and the mellow mo 
 ment that succeeded it threw its enchantment over 
 the scene in front of the lake house. The sha 
 dows of the mountains had elongated themselves 
 into the lake, while a straggling cloud far up in 
 the heavens yet retained its gold and purple, while 
 it watched from its high throne the receding cha 
 riot wheels of the god of day. 
 
 " All s ready," cried Le Roy, from the edge of 
 
32 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the lake ; and the party were soon seated in a 
 small boat, with a bugleman at the bow, for a 
 twilight-sail on the lake, to hear the reverberating 
 echoes as they go the round from hill to hill, while 
 the bugle-player sends forth his notes over the 
 bosom of the enchanted waters. We had shot out 
 a distance from the shore j the boatmen lay upon 
 their oars j the bugle broke the stillness of the 
 spell-bound scene. 
 
 " Good God !" exclaimed Le R., as the echo 
 bounded from mountain to mountain, with its ca 
 dence five times repeated, while the bugleman rested 
 at the end of each bar of the tune he was playing. 
 
 " Glorious ! glorissima !" said a sweet lily-cheek 
 lady, who had been characterized for her little 
 speaking in the party, but who had studied Latin ; 
 while Ella V. sat with her hands clasped, and her eye 
 fixed in abstraction, as it rested on the curved line 
 which the high peaks of the surrounding mountains 
 described on the horizon. The company thought this 
 the proper attitude, and in silence listened to the 
 echoes, as they came forth like spirit-voices from 
 the mountains, in repetition of the bugle-notes that 
 broke in the sweet cadence of their music on the 
 waters. 
 
 " How must the soldier of the early wars," 
 at length said Mr. F., " have been thrilled, as the 
 full band awaked its martial music amid these re 
 verberating hills, with all the heightening circum- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 33 
 
 stance of an European enemy and a savage foe 
 around them ! And yet, if a man could ever be 
 brave, while facing the mouth of an enemy s can 
 non, it seems to me that this would be the place. 
 The scene is in keeping with the spirit of glory, 
 which they say so prevails in the soldier s breast." 
 
 " And how must the bosom of the gallant 
 Abercrombie have swelled," said Ella V., waking 
 from her dream, as she unconsciously waved her 
 hand over the waters, " when he saw his fifteen 
 thousand men embarked in their boats, on this very 
 sheet of water, and at this very point, for an attack 
 on Ticonderoga ! It was a gallant sight, as their 
 light boats skimmed over the bosom of the lake, 
 but they little dreamed of the coming, and, to them, 
 shameful reverse." 
 
 The boatmen dipped their oars again, and shot 
 the boat a few rods further on her course, while the 
 bugle-player had ceased his notes during the inter 
 val of conversation. 
 
 " Come, now," said Mrs. E., " we must have 
 one air before we leave this mellow scene. It is 
 indeed enchanting ; and the one who favours us 
 shall be remembered in the lovely associations 
 of the hour. Ella, shall it be you V 
 
 " No, no," replied Ella V., " nothing but what is 
 strictly in keeping with the scene shall be permitted 
 to mingle in the future associations of this enchant 
 ed hour. Mr. F. is our impromptu-resort ; and 
 from some of his pencillings to day, which he was 
 
34} ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 so kind as to show me, I am sure he will gratify us 
 with something that shall be remembered as the 
 Music OF THE LAKE. 
 
 Mr. F. was possessed of a fine voice, with a del 
 icate perception in adapting his intonation to the 
 sense of the words without theatrical affectation ; 
 and as he never made apologies when he could 
 give his friends around him pleasure by his singing, 
 he complied at once with the request, as the boat 
 men again lay upon their oars. 
 
 Music OF THE LAKE. 
 
 There s music in the zephyr-breeze 
 
 That freshens on the lake, 
 And bears wild odours of the trees 
 
 To greet fair lady s cheek. 
 
 There s music in the ripple-wave 
 
 That curls upon the lake, 
 As on the shore, in sunset rays, 
 
 The leaping circlets break. 
 
 There s music in the echo s voice 
 
 That wakes upon the lake, 
 As bugle-notes, from hill to hill. 
 
 Their mellowed cadence speak. 
 
 There s music of the mountain side 
 
 Seen mirrored in the lake, 
 With light and shade and deep ravine, 
 
 And high and crested peak. 
 
 But zephyr-breeze, and ripple-wave, 
 
 And echoes of the lake, 
 And mountain-side with shade and light, 
 
 And charm of cloud-cap peak, 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 35 
 
 Their sweetest music half would lose 
 
 Were friends not at our side, 
 While gently in our bonnie boat 
 
 O er moon-lit lake we glide. 
 
 But here we ve Ella s speaking eye 
 
 And joyousness of heart, 
 Which charms of richest harmony 
 
 To passing scenes impart. 
 
 And Rosa E., with lilied cheek, 
 
 Her sympathy awakes, 
 As now the narrow pass we seek, 
 
 Or trace the distant peaks. 
 
 And Georgie, with his bridal-fair, 
 
 Yields oft impromptu-glee, 
 That makes us say, with softened heart, 
 
 " May God bless both of ye." 
 
 Then onward glide our bonnie boat, 
 
 To course the moon-lit way, 
 While here we treasure many a thought 
 
 To light another day. 
 
 " Give way, men," said Mr. F. after a moment s 
 pause, as he concluded his song, " the ladies will 
 be unable themselves to gratify us with music, after 
 their return, if they shall be much longer exposed 
 to this evening air. Give way, men." 
 
 The bugleman struck up the " Bonnets of Blue," 
 and in a few moments more, we were again tread 
 ing the lovely lawn of the lake house. 
 
36 - ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE party left Lake George the next morning, 
 on their return to Saratoga. The succeeding 
 morning they were on their way to Boston pass 
 ing through Lebanon, Pittsfield, and Northamp 
 ton, where they delayed a day or two, visiting 
 several attractive scenes in the neighbourhood of 
 this enchanting region of the valley of the Connec 
 ticut. 
 
 On the evening of their arrival they strolled 
 through the town, and enjoyed the embowered 
 walks of this beautiful town. We entered the 
 ancient burial ground of this place, which was one 
 of the first settlements on the banks of the Con 
 necticut. Le Roy possessed a passion and a readi 
 ness for deciphering olden inscriptions, and found 
 ample opportunity here for the exercise of his 
 facility in reading almost illegible inscriptions on 
 the moss-covered tablet and tombstone. We paus 
 ed a moment at the monument of the SAINTED 
 BRAINERD, 
 
 " Where curious pilgrims often tread 
 To pay due honours to the dead." 
 
 The next morning the party crossed the river 
 and rode to the foot of Mount Holyoke. The 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 37 
 
 barouche ascended the acclivity a short distance, 
 when the party alighted and wound their way up a 
 steep path to the top of the mountain. 
 
 The view from Mount Holyoke is probably un 
 surpassed, for its beauty in rural landscape, by 
 any other in the country. The fields of the plain 
 below are richly cultivated ; and the rectangular 
 plots checker, with the various shaded green of their 
 products, the extensive meadows which spread 
 themselves on either side of the Connecticut. The 
 river itself is seen winding through the velvet land 
 scape like a silver ribbon, bisecting a field of 
 green, and forming at this point the great bend of 
 this beautiful stream, once known by the Indian 
 name as " the river of pines." Several villages 
 are in view with their beautiful spires, and white 
 houses, embowered by trees, and exhibiting a scene 
 of rural loveliness and peace so characteristic of 
 New England quiet and thrift. 
 
 A small wooden house is the only building on 
 the plain of the summit of Mount Holyoke, for the 
 accommodation of the visitersto the summit, where 
 a few cakes and a register-book are the only things 
 which are addressed to the tastes, mental and phy 
 sical, of those who seek the height. The party 
 here rested themselves, after the fatigue of the 
 ascent ; and Mr. F. possessed himself of a curi 
 ous Indian war-club which the huckster had ex 
 posed upon his stand. It was roughly carved 
 from a piece of heavy wood, apparently of the 
 4 
 
38 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 yellow locust, some eighteen or twenty inches in 
 length, and terminated at the but-end by a knob, 
 and so balanced in its proportions as to enable an 
 athletic arm to inflict a deadly blow upon the head. 
 
 The party severally selected their points of 
 preference in the prospect before them ; and Mr. 
 F. and Miss V. had been culling some wild flowers 
 and curiously scalloped leaves from the arbutus 
 and other running vines and shrubs. They were 
 now seated on a rock, with the extensive and en 
 chanting prospect before them. 
 
 " There is a calm loveliness in this beautiful 
 view before us," observed Miss V., "and such scenes 
 harmonize most sweetly with my feelings, when I 
 am most happy, Do you not think the heart is made 
 better by contemplating the beauties of nature, 
 which thus affect it V 
 
 " I think so," replied Mr. F. It is a species of 
 the serene in emotion which awakes, and you will 
 recognise it as being originated by various objects. 
 Music has the power, when the plaintive air finds 
 its kindred chord within the bosom. And there is 
 something like it on the still and solitary wood- 
 path in autumn, when your steps rustle the newly 
 fallen leaves of the forest ; and again, as you stand 
 on the edge of an expanse of smooth water, from 
 whose silver bosom the shadows of the trees, which 
 edge the banks of the stream or lake, are mirrored 
 back in their mellowed loveliness." 
 
 " I have felt it," said Miss V., " but I am less 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 39 
 
 accustomed to analyze my feelings and search for 
 their causes than you are. And yet, your idea 
 must be equally true when associated with the 
 emotion of the sublime." 
 
 " I know not that I am peculiar," returned Mr. 
 F., "but I have always been fond of the mountain. 
 There is nothing mean in it, ever ; and who can go 
 through the pass of the highlands of the Hudson 
 and not feel that there is majesty and purity writ 
 ten on the grander works of nature 1 The same 
 emotion is felt as one stands on the sea-shore and 
 watches the inrolling of the green billow, as it curls 
 its crest like the plume of some mighty knight, 
 advancing in its roar and foam to break on the 
 beach. The feelings are not materially different 
 in the two cases, though the objects that awaken 
 them are as different as land is from ocean and 
 height from the plain. That the heart is bettered, as 
 you suppose, in the contemplation of those objects 
 of nature which legitimately awaken these feelings, 
 I have no doubt. And the effect would invariably 
 discover itself, if there were no counteracting in 
 fluences to destroy the tendencies of external na 
 ture to refine and elevate the character, in mellow 
 ing and quickening the susceptibilities of the soul. 
 Indeed I think that most of those qualities we ad 
 mire in the character of the original inhabitants of 
 this country, are to be attributed to their familiarity 
 with the wild and beautiful and sublime scenes of 
 
40 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 nature, among which they roamed. We see it in 
 their eloquence, the metaphors they use in their 
 courage, the bold daring of their deeds. And it 
 is said ever to have been difficult if not impossible 
 to conquer a people whose dwellings have been 
 pitched among mountainous regions. The High 
 landers of Scotland, and the Alpine Swiss, and, if 
 you please, the New Englanders are cited as exam 
 ples, while the inhabitants of soft and beautiful Italy 
 submit to their chains, in effeminate and obsequious 
 ease. 
 
 " I am sure I have felt an exhilaration of spirits 
 when ascending the elevated summits of moun 
 tainous regions and gaining distant prospects, that 
 made me feel capable of all virtuous action, and 
 caused me to resolve on deeds which I almost forgot 
 again when in the plains below," observed Miss V. 
 
 " There doubtless is an effect upon the physical 
 system," continued Mr. F., "in the rarefied state of 
 the atmosphere of the mountain heights, which ex 
 cites like exhilarating gas. The travellers over the 
 Cordilleras of the Andes and the Alps, remark thus 
 of it, though at too great heights the rarefication be 
 comes painful. And we even here feel the generous 
 effect of the pure air, as it is often so called, of the 
 mountain ; and a noble sentiment never passes 
 through the mind without leaving it something bet 
 tered, whether or not it leads to action. We have an 
 anecdote of a revolutionary soldier, showing that the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 41 
 
 uncultivated as well as the refined are susceptible 
 of this elevating feeling. He was stationed among 
 the troops at West Point, and had climbed to the 
 heights overlooking that station ; and casting his 
 wide gaze abroad, his elevated feeling, evidently 
 became the gauge of his ascent, as he extended his 
 hand and exclaimed, " Attention the world by 
 kingdoms to the right wheel, forward march !" 
 
 " The soldier at that moment of feeling, at least, 
 must have been prepared to lead armies to the bat 
 tle," said Miss V. 
 
 "He was, in emotion and courage ; and needed 
 only science to have enabled him to accomplish 
 what would have been only natural effects in the 
 state of feeling which he then was in, but which 
 would have been far beyond the capacity of his usual 
 powers. And so of those noble chieftains who once 
 roved these beautiful fields beneath us, and forests 
 around us, and not only then called this wide land 
 theirs, but felt that it was all their own. Here, on 
 this very spot," continued Mr. F., "where we now 
 are, an Indian council once was held, as olden 
 legend says. And as the red warrior cast abroad his 
 look from this elevated place could he for a moment 
 have hesitated, in his excitement and elevated 
 feeling, as to an attack upon the feeble settlement 
 of the colonists he saw beneath him, which he 
 was now beginning to believe, would one day disin 
 herit him of his extensive domain!" 
 4* 
 
42 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 "Was there an Indian council gathered at this 
 spot 1" asked Miss V., as she rose and cast her view 
 over the plain of the summit, presenting a cleared 
 area of a few rods square, and studded in the rear by 
 the deep forest of the mountain which still em 
 bowered its ancients sides. 
 
 "Yes, MissV.," said Mr. F., as his hand arrested 
 the war-club, which was rolling down the rock, 
 occasioned by the movement of Miss V., who again 
 assumed her seat. " Hadley, the village you see 
 on our right with its pretty spire towering above the 
 elms, and which we shall pass through on our 
 ride this evening to Amherst, was a point of re 
 peated attacks of the savage foe, in the early set 
 tlement of the colonists. This village was located 
 earlier than Northampton, its opposite neighbour ; 
 and several times were the inhabitants near being 
 entirely massacred. The time of the council, how 
 ever, to which I particularly allude, was in 1675, 
 when Philip, king of the Wampanoags, endeavour 
 ed to effect a general rising of all the tribes through 
 out New England, that they might overwhelm all 
 the settlements in a common ruin, and rid them 
 selves, at once, of the envied and hated pale-faces. 
 The little church occupied the same spot where 
 you now see its later and finer specimen of a 
 church edifice ; and the dwellings, to some con 
 siderable number, stand on their old sites. It was 
 in the autumnal season, the 19th of November. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 43 
 
 The Indians, during the earlier months of July, 
 August, and September, had been falling on other 
 places, in the interior and along the coast. The 
 large tribe of the Narragansetts had made a treaty 
 with the Connecticut colonists, but it was evident 
 that they were harbouring some of Philip s men 
 contrary to the stipulation of the treaty, and it was 
 known that some of the young Narragansett war 
 riors were among the Wampanoags and other In 
 dians in their descent upon other settlements of 
 the colonies. Numbers of the planters had been 
 killed, and their women and children murdered or 
 taken into captivity. Having lived familiarly among 
 the colonists, the Indians were acquainted with 
 every path that led to the dwellings of the plant 
 ers. The deep wilderness, existing everywhere 
 except in the few cleared places in the neighbour 
 hood of the settlers, enabled the Indians, in great 
 numbers or singly, to conceal themselves, and sud 
 denly or by stealth to make their attacks, and even 
 to approach into the very midst of the dwellings 
 of the settlements. They entered by cover of 
 night into the out-houses, barns, and gardens, and 
 there waited the break of day to shoot down the 
 first one of the family that should open the outer 
 door, on the very threshold of their dwellings. It 
 had become dangerous for man, woman or child to 
 venture abroad ; and the Indians attacked the whites 
 as they went to the field, gathered to their meals, 
 
44 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 and when worshipping in their assemblies. Deer- 
 field, seen a few miles in this direction," continued 
 Mr. F., pointing to the north, " was nearly destroy 
 ed ; and to secure the provisions, it was resolved 
 to convey a large quantity of wheat to Hadley, 
 here beneath us, and to fortify this town as a gar 
 rison. A number of the choicest young men of 
 the country were collected to guard the teams on 
 their way hither and back. They were attacked 
 by 800 Indians so suddenly that nearly all of them 
 were cut off. Ninety of this band, composed of the 
 best young men of the settlers, were thus massa 
 cred with their captain, Lathrop, to whose relief 
 Captain Mosely hastened from Deerfield, but 
 was too late to yield the needed succour, and 
 had with his men to contend with the whole force 
 of the Indians for hours, when Major Treat, of the 
 Connecticut colony, distinguished for his enterprise 
 and bravery through all the Indians wars, came up 
 to the rescue and beat back the Indians, and saved 
 the remaining force of Captain Mosely, which 
 otherwise would have been cut off to a man. 
 
 " At about the same time Springfield, a short 
 distance at the south of us, which you may indis 
 tinctly see in this direction, was surprised by the 
 Indian warriors. The Indians of the neighbour 
 hood had a fort, about a mile from town ; and so 
 firmly did the villagers believe in their fidelity 
 and friendship, that the inhabitants of Springfield 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 45 
 
 would not credit the messenger which had been 
 sent to them from Windsor to assure them that it 
 was the design of the Indians about them to rise 
 against the place the next morning. This infor 
 mation had been communicated by a friendly Indian 
 of Windsor, on which a despatch was sent to Spring 
 field to warn its inhabitants to be prepared, and 
 another messenger was sent to Major Treat, who 
 was at Westfield with the handful of Connecticut 
 troops. The Springfield people, however, felt no 
 alarm, and made no preparations for defence. It 
 proved a fearful incredulity. Philip had inveigled 
 the Indians of the neighbourhood, and had con 
 veyed three hundred of his warriors into their 
 fort but a mile distant from the town, under cover of 
 the night before the meditated attack. In the morn 
 ing after the arrival of the news of the treacherous 
 designs of the wily foe, the captain in charge of the 
 garrison at Springfield, to evince his unconcern, 
 mounted a horse, and a friend another, to ride to the 
 fort, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the report, 
 which they discredited. The Indians fired upon 
 them at their approach. The friend fell; the captain, 
 being an athletic man and of unusual strength, suc 
 ceeded in retaining his seat upon his horse, and re 
 turned to give the alarm, though he had received 
 four balls through his person. The Indians rushed 
 on without delay ; and the whole of the inhabitants 
 of Springfield would have fallen a sacrifice before 
 
46 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the Indian foe in the confusion of the town and the 
 absence of a commander, had not that ever indefati 
 gable leader, Major Treat, made his appearance with 
 his force at the very moment of the attack, and 
 after a fearful rencounter drove back the enemy. 
 
 " This same Major Treat had left Springfield 
 again to save Norwich from an expected attack 
 from the Indians, but while on his way he received 
 countermanding orders and returned to Northamp 
 ton, lying now so beautifully before us. The 
 plan of attack on Hadley had been concerted by 
 the Indians. It was October 19th. More than eight 
 hundred warriors from different tribes were col 
 lected in the neighbourhood. Here, on this spot, 
 as legend tells us, was held the powaw or religious 
 dance and council, the day and evening before 
 the attack. Cononchet,, son of Miantonimoh, was 
 present, chief of the Narragansetts, who inherited 
 from his father all that disdain for the English, 
 which we have read of as characteristic of the early 
 Indian. And with him were a number of his pa- 
 niese, as his counsellors were called. He pointed 
 out to the chiefs the extended fields, as he directed 
 their eyes to the different views which lie before 
 us, then covered in a dense forest, and forming at 
 that autumnal season of the year a panoramic view 
 in its dyes, surpassing the present for its grandeur 
 if not for its beauty. He said, The pale faces offer 
 you breath, if you will bury the hatchet and yield 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 47 
 
 to them. They will allow you fields for the hunt, 
 and the streams for your fishing places. But are 
 the red man s nostrils to be fed by the air of the 
 pale-face ] Does not Kitchtan, the good spirit who 
 dwells in the far southwest, give breath to his red 
 children 1 And are not these hunting grounds 
 already ours 1 The pale skins should ask you, if 
 their hooks may dip in the river of pines for your 
 salmon, and the mountain-streams for your trout. 
 Children of Kitchtan, the spirit of Miantonimoh, 
 my father, says the fair hunting grounds beyond the 
 setting sun await the red man who hates the pale 
 face. "And see," continued the chief, as he extend 
 ed his brawny arm and small hand, standing on the 
 mount at the moment a bronze warrior prouder 
 than a Napoleon on the Alps, with his finger point 
 ing to the falling orb, " See, warriors ! there is blood 
 on the face of the departing Kitchtan, that says 
 the red veins of the pale-face must be opened j and 
 the dye on the leaf of the sugar tree on our forest 
 trails asks for the bloody scalps of the soft-haired 
 enemy. Who longer will be a woman 1 The pale 
 face quails. Their wigwams are smoking. Their 
 women weep around our fires. The pale-face flies 
 before the red-skins. Who longer will be a woman 1 
 Cononchet would spurn to taste his blood /" 
 
 The dance of the powaws, and the yells of the 
 savages in their paint mingling with the rattling of 
 their shells, which they shook with wild starts, 
 
48 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 and violent motions and passions, continued long, 
 that night, the revel and the superstitious rite ! 
 
 It was a fortunate circumstance that the council 
 and the dance of the powaw was held at this spot, 
 as the lights, at night, served as an admonition to 
 the people of Hadley and Northampton, that there 
 were Indians about them, and caused them to be in 
 preparation for the sudden assault. 
 
 The daylight of the succeeding morning had 
 just begun to streak the east, when the whole force 
 of the Indians, agreeably to their arrangement, 
 made a general onset upon every part of the town of 
 Hadley. At the first alarm the women and children 
 fled to the stockaded houses. The fight was con 
 tinued and obstinate. It had not raged long, how 
 ever, before Major Treat, the ever ready leader, 
 hurried across the river from Northampton to 
 the assistance of the Hadley people. But the 
 Indians fought with desperation. They were 
 flushed by previous success, and had come to the 
 attack with a boldness and unyielding determin 
 ation, which had never before so fully characterized 
 their spirit of vengeance and daring. The colo 
 nists were becoming exhausted in the long fight, 
 and the overpowering numbers of the yelling foe, 
 when, as if by some enchantment of supernatural 
 power, a venerable looking man, with silvered 
 locks and a peculiar dress, made his appearance 
 at the head of the forces, renewing and encourag- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 49 
 
 ing and directing the onset of the English against 
 the Indians. No weapon of the enemy seemed to 
 reach him ; and the exhausted band, in the religious 
 credulity of the age, believing that some angel had 
 been sent from heaven to fight their battle in their 
 distress, renewed and continued their efforts, charg 
 ing the foe with a terrible slaughter, and driving 
 them from the field. The Indians retreated, dis 
 heartened by their loss ; and immediately after left 
 this region of the country, and took up their head 
 quarters with the Narragansetts on the seaboard. 
 
 " And what became of the hoary-headed vete 
 ran V asked Miss Ella V., after a short pause, during 
 which each seemed to look with renewed interest 
 on the village of Hadley and the plains over which 
 its houses and cleared lands are now seen spreading, 
 in quiet and loveliness. 
 
 "Many remarkable stories were narrated about 
 the action and the appearance of the extraordinary 
 personage, who had so unaccountably and sudden 
 ly appeared among the colonists, and as remarka 
 bly disappeared, for he was never heard of after 
 wards. There is a secret history, however," con 
 tinued Mr. F., " connected with the private dwell 
 ing house you see in this direction of the town, 
 which solves the mystery. It stands on the corner 
 of the main street and the road we shall take to 
 Amherst this evening ; and we will pause with the 
 recollections of the story at this memorable resi- 
 5 
 
50 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 dence. It was occupied at that time by the Rev. 
 Mr. Russell, the clergyman of the place, with a des 
 cendant of whom I have the pleasure of being ac 
 quainted. And there is a part of the building which 
 was never entered by any one except the family. 
 Here, he sheltered two of the regicides, as they 
 were termed, for having occupied a seat among the 
 judges who decided the fate of Charles the first of 
 England, and who, according to their decision, was 
 beheaded. On the accession of Charles the second, 
 after the death of Cromwell the Protector, Goffand 
 Whalley, who had been generals in Cromwell s army, 
 were excepted from the number of the judges, to 
 whom the royal favour extended pardon, notwith 
 standing the sentence they had given against his rel 
 ative. They, in the change of affairs, had fled to New 
 England, trusting to the sympathies of the Puritans, 
 whose cause Cromwell and the judges had sup 
 ported in England, and successfully, while the 
 Protector survived, against the church party and le 
 gitimacy. Goff and Whalley first arrived at Boston, 
 where they were kindly received. But when it was 
 learned that the king had excepted them from the 
 pardon, and fixed a price upon their heads, and 
 forbid any of his subjects to harbour them, the 
 government of Boston became alarmed lest they 
 should incur the displeasure of the second Charles. 
 The two regicides therefore left Boston and sought 
 safety at New Haven, at the residence of the Rev. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 51 
 
 Mr. Devenport ; and afterwards, on the arrival of 
 commissioners from England to apprehend them, 
 they retired from the town to a cave, still called 
 the Judges Cave, composed of two high rocks on 
 the most western of the two dark bluffs, which we 
 see hereaway at the south now eighty miles from 
 us. Their situation becoming too much exposed, 
 the two exiles fled to this village of Hadley, and 
 were received by the reverend Mr. Russell, who 
 gave them shelter, secrecy, and sustenance. Goff 
 had died or was unwell at the time of the attack of 
 the Indians; and Whalley was the appearing angel, 
 whose arm rendered such service on that gloomy 
 day." 
 
 The different members of the party having sat 
 isfied themselves with the various views from 
 Mount Holyoke, began their descent from the sum 
 mit, less difficult and fatiguing than the climbing 
 of the mountain by the same winding path. The 
 writer was in the advance, with most of the group, 
 while Mr. F., with little Rosa E. by the hand, and 
 Miss V. upon his arm, was latest in accomplishing 
 the descent. He assisted Miss V. and the little Rosa 
 to their seats in the barouche, and placed himself 
 beside them, while the rest of the party had prefer 
 red to advance on foot, a short distance down the 
 hill. The driver was soon in his place ; when the 
 horses, at first, started gently, but in consequence 
 of some neglect in the adjustment of the harness, 
 
52 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the gear alarmed the off-horse, which soon fright 
 ened the other. They had already increased their 
 speed, and soon became unmanageable. Sheering 
 suddenly to the right, the wheel of the barouche 
 passed over a rock and threw the driver from his 
 seat, and the reins, at the same time, passed 
 through his hands. The alarm, of course, had be 
 come great. The horses had already passed our 
 selves as we were walking down the slight decli 
 vity, and the ladies screamed as they shot by, 
 which frightened the animals yet more, now at the 
 top of their speed on the level. Mr. F. was seen 
 at this moment moving from his seat, as if he were 
 in search for the reins, and soon threw himself 
 over the driver s seat placed his foot upon the 
 pole and sprung upon the near horse. Elevating 
 his war-club, he levelled a tremendous blow at the 
 head of the off-horse. The animal fell beneath the 
 heavy stroke 5 but the check it gave to the vehicle, 
 pitched the heroic rider several feet into the fence, 
 on the left of the horses. He rose as suddenly, ap 
 parently having received no injury, and seized the 
 reins of the rearing and pitching horse. We im 
 mediately came up, and received Miss V. and the 
 little girl from the vehicle. 
 
 " There, Messieurs Chevals Blanc and Blond 
 better tomahawk ten horses than injure a limb of 
 one descendant of the Puritans." 
 
 The voice of Mr, F., as he thus spoke, was as 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 53 
 
 calm as was his purpose, while every muscle of his 
 person trembled with the excitement. He soon 
 calmed the restless beast ; and the driver coming 
 up, convinced himself and the party, that the scalp 
 of the fallen animal was now his only value. The 
 dilemma, however, of one horse and a two horse 
 vehicle was soon relieved by the appearance of a 
 countryman, on horseback, whose animal served 
 to match our surviving cheval ; and we were again 
 on our return way, finishing without further acci 
 dent our short ride, and grateful for the rescue, but 
 highly enjoying the ludicrous incident of Mr. F. s 
 felling the noble steed with an Indian war-club. 
 
54 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 THE party, having finished their visits in the 
 neighbourhood of Northampton, set off for Bos 
 ton, passing through Worcester, that place of 
 antique papers and good modern taste ; and reached 
 the Tremont House in the city of Boston, on Thurs 
 day morning. 
 
 The party walked and rode to various places, 
 in and about the city. 
 
 " Give me that little book, Rosa," said Mr. F. 
 to Eosa E., who was carrying a beautiful little 
 Testament which her mother had purchased, as 
 they stopped at a book-store in Boston, on their 
 ride through town an hour before, on their way for 
 visiting MOUNT AUBURN, the beautiful cemetery 
 some three miles from the city. 
 
 The different members of the party had been 
 threading the paths of these beautiful grounds, 
 winding among the groves and their embowered 
 tombs ; and each one indulging the meditations 
 which the sad but beautiful monuments of the 
 dead called up to their minds. They were now 
 gathered from their different walks to a circular 
 bench on an elevated position, which commanded 
 the view of several rich obelisks of marble and 
 granite. Mr. F. saw that the eye of Mrs. E. was 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 55 
 
 wet, and rightly judged that she had been think 
 ing of some, whom she had left, like the deep 
 slumberers among these shades, in their place of 
 rest, until the final trump shall wake the dead. 
 
 "Is not this beautiful!" said Mr. F., as he open 
 ed the book at Revelation, chapter xxi. So truly 
 do all of Saint John s conceptions have the two 
 characteristics of sublimity about them, simplicity 
 yet grandeur. And I saw a new heaven and a 
 new ea.th, for the first heaven and the first earth 
 were passed away, and there was no more sea. 
 And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem. 
 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 
 Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
 will dwell with them ; and they shall be his people, 
 and God himself shall be with them, and be their 
 God. Jlnd God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, 
 nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. And 
 he that sat upon the throne said, He that overcom- 
 eth shall inherit these things, and I will be his 
 God, and he shall be my son. 
 
 After a moment s pause, Mr. F. added, " There 
 is no individual who has lived upon earth, whatever 
 may have been his external circumstances, who has 
 not had his sorrow. The world, it is true, and per 
 haps I have thus experienced it as far as most per 
 sons of my age, has its joys its many joys and 
 many, comparatively, have been happy. But if 
 
56 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 they lived long here, their feasts of enjoyment 
 were often broken in upon ; and if their race was but 
 short, they yet must have felt enough of the calami 
 ties of earth, to assure them that it is necessary for 
 us to enter on some other state of being before we 
 can secure the perfect rest, which the soul, as one 
 element of its spiritual being, longs for. And there 
 are some whose course of life is one continuous 
 way of disappointment, and distress, and protracted 
 sorrows. Sufferings of body or anguish of mind 
 are their constant companions. If, for a moment, 
 they find a relief to the bitterness of their distress 
 in the unaffected sympathies of those who love 
 them, they yet but too soon learn the truth, 
 
 " That words of love and friendship spoken, 
 Tell oft that hearts will soon be broken." 
 
 "It is," continued Mr. F., as he turned his eye 
 on the weeds of Mrs. E. and her orphan, " it is, in 
 circumstances like these, that the afflicted mind 
 lets its thoughts go to the pages of revelation, and 
 hears with a soothed heart the grateful words that 
 point to a future state of happy being : Eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered the 
 heart of man the things which God hath prepared 
 for them that love him. God shall wipe away 
 all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall 
 there be any more pain. 5J 
 
57 
 
 "It is beautiful," said Mrs. E., as she brushed 
 from her cheek a large tear that rolled from her 
 peculiarly fine and dark eye, " and the words come 
 over the heart with consolation. The other world 
 has gained, in late months, a defmiteness to me, 
 which it once did not have. But while I reflect 
 upon its joys, of which we are assured, my mind I 
 find is often confused. What will be the state of 
 one s being and what the sources of the enjoyment 
 of the saint 1 That I shall meet one there, I have 
 ceased to doubt, and that sweet Rosa shall be an 
 other," said the young widowed mother, as she 
 pressed her orphan child closer to her bosom but 
 she only ended the sentence by the tears that fell 
 fast and free upon the cheek of her beautiful little 
 girl, who, although hardly knowing why her mo 
 ther wept, yet as if by instinct put her arms around 
 her mother s neck and sobbed aloud. 
 
 This burst of grief was soon over, and, as in all 
 such cases, it gave relief to the afflicted heart. 
 Little Rosa, in her young joyousness and thought 
 less change of childhood, had already sprung off 
 a few yards to a little thicket, to cull a wild violet 
 that had met her eye. 
 
 The hour was a lovely one ; and as the party 
 had finished their rounds through the grounds, 
 there seemed no disposition at the moment to 
 move. 
 
 " But, do you think that we shall know our 
 
58 ELLA V.. OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 Christian friends in another world, Mr. F. V asked 
 Miss V., who also had indulged to tears in her 
 sympathies for her friend. 
 
 " Yes, Miss V.," replied Mr. F., who seemed for 
 a moment, to have been lost in the abstractions of 
 his own thoughts. " If I mistake not, Mrs. E. is 
 not peculiar in the indefiniteness and confusion to 
 which she alludes in the conceptions of her own 
 mind, as to the future circumstances of a departed 
 spirit, and the probable sources of enjoyment which 
 shall give perpetual happiness to the redeemed. 
 And I have thought that our conceptions on these 
 subjects have been, in many particulars, unneces 
 sarily indefinite. The Scripture language which is 
 employed to convey to us ideas relating to the 
 happiness of the glorified around the throne of 
 God, it is true, is often figurative, and, as used by 
 St. John, is highly poetic. But often, the object of 
 the sacred writers in the use of this language has 
 been mistaken. It was not to convey to our minds 
 the, particulars, which shall render us happy as 
 redeemed spirits ; but to convey to our minds the 
 extent and the completeness of that joy, which shall 
 feast the soul, so happy as to enter into the many 
 mansions. The cup of bliss that shall be offered to 
 the saint in heaven shall be full. And the apostles 
 have conveyed this idea distinctly to us, by bringing 
 before our imagination the most beautiful creations 
 of nature and art, which can yield us pleasure and 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 59 
 
 delight us by their possession or in their contem 
 plation : and then again, by exhibiting before us 
 whatever can contribute to our sorrow, alarm, 
 anxiety, and assuring us that such things shall be 
 absent from those happy regions. All things there 
 shall conspire to augment our bliss. Nothing 
 shall be present to mar our full felicity. The 
 pure river of water shall be there, clear as crys 
 tal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb. There shall be the * tree of life, whose 
 leaves shall be for the healing of the nations. The 
 walls of the holy city shall be garnished with 
 all manner of precious stones. Its l streets shall 
 be of pure gold. The gates thereof shall not 
 be shut by day nor by night, and the Almighty and 
 the Lamb are the temple of it. And what shall 
 not be there 1 No more curse no more night and 
 they shall have no more need of the sun nor of the 
 moon to shine in the holy city, for the glory of the 
 Lord shall lighten it. And there shall be no more 
 sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, and God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes ; and THERE SHALL 
 
 BE NO MORE DEATH. 
 
 " But this language, as you must at once see, 
 gives us no distinct conception as to the particu 
 lars, which shall go to make up this full joy and 
 to abstract this every pain. This language of 
 the apostle was not intended to convey ideas as 
 to these particulars. The pure river of water, 
 
60 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the walls garnished with all manner of precious 
 stones, and the streets, paved with gold, may 
 awaken in our imagination the idea that a resi 
 dence described by such beautiful imagery would 
 yield us delight. But no one can suppose that 
 rivers of water, and walls of cities, and 
 streets of gold, will be realities in a world of 
 spiritual existences. 
 
 " To secure, then, any thing like definite ideas 
 as to what shall be the probable sources of the en 
 joyment of heaven to the ransomed spirit, which 
 the metaphoric language of the Bible describes to 
 be complete, we must have recourse to the CONSTI 
 TUTION OF OUR SPIRITUAL BEING TO THE NATURE OF 
 
 THE SOUL." 
 
 " And will you not," said Mrs. E., as she per 
 ceived Mr. F. to pause in one of his peculiar ab 
 stractions when his eye was fixed on vacancy, 
 which gave to his features an intellectual cast so 
 peculiar to those persons who have formed the 
 habit of close mental action of original thinking, 
 " will you not give us your thoughts in connection 
 with the society of sainted spirits, and the manner 
 you think they shall be made completely happy 1 
 You know we like to hear you talk on these sub 
 jects, as you have sometimes indulged us; and 
 this place, while we are in these grounds, is so fit 
 for such musings, it seems almost like sacrilege 
 here to indulge in any other thoughts." 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 61 
 
 Mr. F. recovered himself playfully, as he pointed 
 out a turtle-dove, which had just lighted in the 
 path, at a little distance from where the party were 
 seated. " I wonder," said he, " if that little crea 
 ture has come here to mourn for its absent mate 1 
 It is not usual for them to fly separately. Ah, I 
 thought so," he continued, as the mate came skim 
 ming through the pines and perched herself, with 
 her neck up, near her companion. "It is a beau 
 tiful fiction, that when one of those birds die, the 
 other mourns itself to death." 
 
 "And yet," said Ella V., "it would not seem so 
 great a calamity for companions to be soon and 
 suddenly separated, were they confident in the 
 assurance that in heaven they shall be re-united, 
 as remembered friends on earth. But are you not 
 to remember Mrs. E. s request 1 What were you 
 to say of the happy spirits of the other world, and 
 the sources of their happiness V 
 
 " It seems to have been supposed by some," 
 said Mr. F., recurring to the subject proposed by 
 Mrs. E,, "that the constitution of our spiritual being, 
 or the soul of the MfJi^wiU have gone through such 
 a change, by death, as to have become quite a dif 
 ferent thing in its nature in another world, from 
 what it is in this. For instance, some seem to 
 think that our memories will be blotted out, lest, as 
 I suppose such persons would think, we may recur 
 back to the transactions of this world with pain. 
 6 
 
62 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 There certainly might be something more adduced 
 in support of this impression than for thousand 
 other and more crude notions, which seem to be 
 floating through the minds of vast numbers of 
 Christian people, which seem to have resulted 
 from the indefinite manner with which Christians 
 often speak of heavenly and spiritual things adopt 
 ing as they often do the poetic and metaphoric 
 language of the Bible, without a proper view of 
 the correct principles of interpretation. So true 
 is this, that I have known some persons under a 
 species of impression, that, as St. John speaks of 
 the everlasting songs unto him who redeemed us, 
 so, they say, the saints shall literally spend their 
 eternity in a ceaseless shout of worship around the 
 throne of the Eternal. And a German organist, to 
 whom I once was expressing my love for the simple 
 and pathetic in music, and who was fond of indulging 
 in the full chorus, replied, that there would be no 
 plaintive music in heaven. And do you think there 
 will be organs there 1 I asked. "Surely," added 
 Mr. F., as his voice fell to a soft intonation that 
 was music itself, and peculiarly his own, when his 
 sympathies were touched, " there is such a thing as 
 a song of soul, which is the soul of song, and which 
 a disembodied spirit, and a spirit while in the body 
 may raise and enjoy, with ceaseless gratitude and 
 love to God, without indulging in any audible sound 
 or note of voice. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 63 
 
 "But, to recur to the idea that in heaven the 
 memory may be lost. Suppose it were taken from 
 us, what should we then be 1 We, at once, should 
 lose our personal identity, and not know who we 
 are or who we have been. That power of the mind, 
 which we call memory, is one attribute of the soul, 
 and cannot be destroyed without annihilating one 
 part of the soul itself, any more than the power of 
 thinking could be destroyed, and yet leave us, as 
 we now are, thinking beings. The only change, as 
 I apprehend, which a purified spirit, so happy as to 
 reach the courts of eternal righteousness and con 
 sequent happiness, shall have gone through, will be 
 from sin to holiness. And this involves no change 
 in the attributes of the soul. They will remain the 
 same. Holiness only implies that these same attri 
 butes or faculties of the soul, which now go to 
 make up our being, shall in heaven be exercised 
 according to what is riarht, which is holiness. 
 
 "The same thing is true," continued Mr. F., 
 " when the soul here becomes, in the Scripture lan 
 guage, converted. There is no change in the attri 
 butes or powers of the mind. Before a person 
 meets with this change, he exercises his faculties 
 in a course of disobedience to the principles of the 
 gospel, which is sin. Afterwards, he employs the 
 same unchanged attributes of his soul in obedience 
 to these principles, which is holiness. He now 
 loves God supremely with the same powers of the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 mind with which he formerly and supremely loved 
 the world. His memory is the same after as it was 
 before this change, although it may be turned to 
 wards different and more commendable objects of 
 contemplation. And this is true of all the other 
 attributes of the soul. They remain unaltered. 
 He is the same mental being that he was, as to his 
 powers, though the decisions of those powers of 
 soul are now according to what he perceives to be 
 right, and, of consequence, are holy ; whereas, in 
 his decisions before this, in view of his known ob 
 ligations, he exercised these same powers contrary 
 to what he knew to be right, and consequently they 
 were unholy. 
 
 " I repeat, then, what is not always considered, 
 that all our attributes, mental and moral, of the soul 
 are the same before our change of character which 
 the Scriptures style conversion, that they are 
 after it. The devils in hell are the same noble 
 and unchanged beings, as to their intellectual cha 
 racter and mental constitution, that they were when 
 angels in heaven. And man, though a sinner here 
 on earth, shall be the same mental being when a 
 saint in heaven. The same powers of memory of 
 thinking of loving of hating of reasoning and 
 imagining, shall constitute his spiritual being there 
 as they do here, and the change will only consist 
 in having these powers of the mind and heart there 
 governed aright, and in that right government of 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 65 
 
 them will, through eternity, consist the holiness 
 of the saints ; as the right government of the attri 
 butes of angelic beings in heaven now constitutes 
 their holiness." 
 
 Here Mr. F. paused a moment, and his thoughts 
 seemed to be pursuing the subject on which he 
 had been uttering them. No one replied, while 
 thoughtful silence indicated the interest with which 
 the subject was gaining to each, as Mr. F. con 
 tinued : 
 
 "What, then," he asked, "are some of the par 
 ticular attributes which go to make up the spiritual 
 being, or the soul of man, as it shall continue to 
 exist in another world 1 We all know I know, 
 and you, Mrs. E., know, and Miss V. knows, that we 
 have within us, inherent in the very nature of our 
 souls, certain desires such as the desire of the 
 friendship of others the desire of knowledge the 
 desire of continual and immortal existence, not now 
 to mention more. And these desires are inde 
 pendent of all change of circumstances. And in 
 the gratification of these desires of our being, our 
 happiness consists. We further know that we 
 take pleasure in rendering acts of kindness to 
 those who have our confidence and love. And 
 memory, and the powers of reflection and antici 
 pation, are among the elements of our soul, and 
 are the attributes appealed to by Rogers and Camp 
 bell, in their Pleasures of Memory and Hope. 
 6* 
 
66 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 "Now," continued Mr. F., "a human spirit, re- 
 taining all these attributes of soul, (for they are 
 the very things which constitute him the very 
 being that he is,) when he finds himself in the 
 heaven of the saints, must have these desires of 
 his soul gratified, if he is to be a happy spirit. 
 And so long as he remains the mental being that 
 God has made him, his happiness will and must 
 continue to consist in the gratification of these 
 native susceptibilities of his being. As truly this 
 must be, as is the certainty that to be happy here, 
 with our present constitution of body, we must 
 have something to gratify our appetite for food 
 when we are hungry, if we will be happy. 
 
 " We are thus, if I rightly conceive, brought 
 to the necessary conclusion that these attributes or 
 susceptibilities of the soul, which I have specified 
 as among those which will remain with a sanctified 
 spirit, will find in the, circumstances of its residence 
 in heaven, sources and means for their gratification. 
 
 " We shall reach the same conclusion if we con 
 sult the purport of the language of the Scriptures, 
 when that language is divested of metaphor and 
 allegory, where it speaks of the active states of 
 the saints in heaven. 
 
 " As I said, we are constituted with a social prin 
 ciple, as one part of our nature. This delights in 
 the society of friends ; and we are rendered happy 
 by it when we are assured that we possess the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 67 
 
 affectionate regard of those friends. Now we at 
 once see that this social principle, according to 
 the general descriptions of the Scriptures, will be 
 fully met in heaven. There, we know, as the first 
 object of affection, and of reciprocated affection, 
 the soul shall familiarly commune with the Sav 
 iour. There, we shall see him as he is, and be 
 like him that is, possess the same kind, amiable, 
 affectionate, tender, benevolent spirit, which so 
 characterized him as the being who literally gave 
 his life to rescue from harm, and from eternal harm, 
 the friends who shall then be around him in fami 
 liar, social, grateful and delightful intercourse. 
 
 "And we shall see him as he is," added Mr. F., 
 with an emphasis on the first word of the sentence 
 which he quoted from Paul, " and, by consequence, 
 commune with each other that is, with all who 
 are included in this word we which the apostle 
 uses, and it does include all the saints. 
 
 " But besides the affectionate fellowship which 
 the redeemed soul shall hold with the Saviour and 
 the spirits of just men made perfect, we are told 
 further, by Saint Paul, that we shall come to an 
 innumerable company of angels? And we have 
 further confirmation of this idea that the angels, 
 intelligent and amiable spirits, shall constitute part 
 of the society and familiar companionship of hea 
 ven ; in the language of our Saviour, that we shall 
 be as the angels of God in the resurrection, in 
 
68 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 opposition to the idea of marrying and being given 
 in marriage that is, our existence in heaven shall 
 be a spiritual residence. And Saint Luke, record 
 ing other and solemn language of the Saviour in re 
 gard to the final resurrection, says, with a deep 
 emphasis to the mind unrenewed, as well as with 
 most grateful consolation to ? the Christian, Who 
 soever shall confess me before men, him shall the 
 Son of man confess before the angels of God. But 
 he that denieth or does not confess me before 
 men, shall be denied before the angels of God. 
 Not only then shall the ransomed spirit mingle in 
 the society of the redeemed from every tongue, 
 and nation, and people, with the ancient seers, and 
 prophets, and apostles, and martyrs, and the gen 
 eral assembly and church of the first born, and 
 with their Redeemer, and receive from them their 
 full confidence and reciprocated affection ; but the 
 happy spirit shall also have the society and com 
 panionship of innumerable and holy angels 
 beings of noblest intellect and of purity of charac 
 ter. What more, then," continued Mr. F., with his 
 own amiable sensibilities enkindling with the senti 
 ment, " what more shall we need, for the full grati 
 fication of THIS ONE ELEMENT OF OUR SOULS THIS DE 
 SIRE OF SOCIETY, SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL INTER 
 COURSE, AND THE FULL CONFIDENCE AND SURE AFFEC 
 TION OF FRIENDS 1 Surely, this of itself is enough 
 to render the soul thrice blessed. For, who has 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 69 
 
 not tasted of the delightful emotion, which, here 
 on earth, the unrestrained confidence and sure af 
 fection of friendship and reciprocated and known 
 attachment wake up in the soul 1 On earth, the 
 society of such friends is sought for as surely as 
 that the magnet seeks its pole ; and if, like the 
 disturbed magnet, the spirit chance to have been 
 thrown from its rest, the agitated soul regains its 
 peace at its own settling point the sympathy of 
 those friendly bosoms. 
 
 "And thus it is in heaven," said Mr. F., as his 
 eye rested on a pile of fleecy cumuli-clouds, seen 
 at this moment through a vista at the right, sailing 
 through the beautiful and calm blue of their own 
 upper deep, " so it is in heaven. Each one shall 
 know the other to be his friend. His confidence 
 shall be full. He shall greet his fellow-associate as 
 more than brother more than sister-spirit, kindred 
 and redeemed. Friendship shall there glow in every 
 bosom. No broken vows no misplaced affection 
 shall there pierce a confiding heart. Not one unkind 
 look not one jealous thought shall mar the free, 
 and pure, and familiar companionship of a ransomed 
 world. Interest for his fellow spirit shall swell each 
 bosom with joyous emulation to do his friend the 
 greater good. Thus, to have the full confidence, and 
 reciprocated affection, and deep-felt interest, and 
 social and familiar companionship of the whole of 
 heaven shall not this be enough to make the many 
 
70 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 mansions more than Eden to a ransomed soul, and 
 give felicity such as angels know to the purified 
 and rescued spirit V 
 
 For a moment the party sat in silence, each 
 pursuing the train of thought which the remarks 
 of Mr. F. had awakened. He soon added : " I have 
 given but a few thoughts to illustrate but one of the 
 attributes or inherent desires of the soul. But I 
 think we may see, from this imperfect outline, the 
 unlimited amount of happiness that waits for the 
 ransomed spirit, which shall be derived from this 
 one susceptibility of our spiritual being, viz., the de 
 sire of society, and of the reciprocated confidence^ 
 esteem, and love of those with whom we associate" 
 
 At this moment, little Rosa E., who, having 
 been playing in the grounds, and running from one 
 hillock to another, had become sufficiently fatigued 
 to fall asleep on a parasol and handkerchief at the 
 feet of her mother, now rose. She seemed half 
 doubtful where she was, and extending her hands 
 to her mother, buried her head in her lap. 
 
 " Well, Rosa," said Mr. F., "you have risen just 
 in time not to be left here like the babes in the 
 woods, and I do not hear many birds piping around 
 us, who would make you a leafy bed at night, and 
 bring you wild berries to eat in the morning-. And 
 I fear," continued Mr. F., turning to the party, 
 " that we are setting a strange fashion in remaining 
 so long in these grounds, however enticing may be 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 71 
 
 their groves and beautiful monuments. Shall we 
 seek our carriage 1" 
 
 " No, sir," said Mrs. E., " not until you make a 
 promise that you will take another ride to MOUNT 
 AUBURN, and let us be gratified by your further 
 thoughts upon the probable sources of the happi 
 ness of the saints. We thank you for your remarks 
 thus far, and they give us the determination, if not 
 the right, of having the rest." 
 
 This proposition was advocated by others ; and 
 Miss V. said, " Certainly, Mr. F. will not deny us. 
 We have several more days marked on our calen 
 dar for Boston ; and how could our time be spent 
 more pleasantly than by threading these grounds a 
 part of the evening, and lingering to hear, as we 
 have heard, of the happy spirits of those who have 
 left their remains among these beautiful shades 1" 
 
 Mr. F., of course, consented to accompany the 
 party on another ride to MOUNT AUBURN ; and they 
 were soon seen moving through the winding paths 
 which led to the portal opening of the grounds. 
 They entered their carriage, and by a drive through 
 Cambridge, they reached the Trernont House, in 
 time to consult their toilet for tea. 
 
72 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 THE day succeeding our visit to the shaded 
 grounds of MOUNT AUBURN, the party were seen 
 seated in their carriages for their afternoon ride. 
 There was but one silent voice as to the course that 
 should jbe pursued, and in a short time they were 
 again entering the grounds, so beautifully laid out 
 for the final repose of the dead. 
 
 Mr. F. had been observed to be more than usually 
 abstracted during the ride, as he was generally the 
 first to catch the beautiful of the way, and to enli 
 ven the party by his playful and chaste humour. 
 It may have been that his mind had been running 
 on solemn subjects, conscious that, to-day, it was 
 expected on his arrival in the grounds at MOUNT 
 AUBURN, that he would speak of the things associa 
 ted with the future circumstances of the soul ; 
 whereas, the preceding day his remarks had fallen, 
 as in an accidental conversation. Besides, there 
 were others who had joined the party for the eve 
 ning ride ; and he had reason to think that it had 
 been hinted to them that the subject of the yester 
 day s conversation was to draw from Mr. F. some 
 further remarks, that evening. Although Mr. F. 
 was ever alive to the wish of securing every oppor- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 73 
 
 tunity to benefit by delighting those with whom he 
 associated, no one was more sensitive as to pro 
 priety of time and place and the fitness of things. 
 And he would have shrunk from the occasion of 
 their meeting to-day, had it not come in the fami 
 liar way of the proposition of his few friends the 
 preceding evening. 
 
 The party had leisurely walked through the 
 grounds j and after a little while they had reached 
 the seats which a part of them had occupied the 
 evening before. At length Mr. F., with Miss V. lean 
 ing on his arm, approached the circle, and took a 
 vacant seat beside Mrs. E. Miss V. placing herself 
 near her sister. 
 
 u There," said Mr. F., as he held up an exquisite 
 white flower, " was it not a pity to destroy, before 
 its hour, so much beauty] But it may be like the 
 early death of some young geniuses, whose prema 
 ture departure has awakened our sympathies, and 
 called forth the loveliness and the beauty of their 
 characters, which otherwise might never have been 
 recorded, at least in such a way as to win our love 
 for their memory and deep-felt sympathy at their 
 end. The early grave of HENRY KIRK WHITE has 
 more certainly immortalized and endeared his 
 memory than the most brilliant specimens of genius 
 would have done, which might have been the pro 
 duct of a maturer age. But, so it was," continued 
 Mr. F. in an altered and playful tone, " Miss V. and 
 7 
 
74 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 I were brushing along, rather too carelessly for the 
 safety of this said lily, which, however, as some 
 atonement, we have brought hither that we may 
 exhibit its young beauties to a number of its kindred 
 lily-cheek gazers." Here Mr. F. carelessly passed 
 the flower to a very pale-face but beautiful young 
 lady who sat near him, and with whom the party 
 had become acquainted at the Tremont House. 
 
 "And I have heard," said the lily-cheek girl, 
 " that they think a young lady dying with the con 
 sumption to be a very interesting object. Surely I 
 hope that the premature nipping of this flower, 
 Mr. F., may not be the emblem of the increase of 
 the disease, which my friends are fearful may be 
 waiting me." 
 
 Mr. F., for a moment, regretted the disposition 
 of his flower, but another moment persuaded him, 
 as he rested his eye upon the speaker, that the 
 apprehensions of her friends must be more the 
 result of affectionate solicitudes than the correct 
 observation of the developements of consumptive 
 tendencies. 
 
 " It is a beautiful flower," at length added Mrs. 
 E., " and we remember your remarks at the Springs 
 in connection with a bunch of them. And that 
 reminds us of what we are expecting from you this 
 evening. You see we are all gathered to be your 
 listeners, and I am sure we shall be learners, and 
 
 44 Delighted and obliged disciples," rather im- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 75 
 
 politely, but playfully and modestly interrupted 
 Miss V. 
 
 Mr. F., without apology, familiarly began, by 
 saying, "It will be remembered by my friends, who 
 were here, that in our conversation last evening, I 
 suggested a few things illustrative of the probable 
 sources of enjoyment, which shall open to the 
 sanctified spirit in heaven. I affirmed, what every 
 one knows from his own consciousness, that we 
 are constituted, as to our spiritual being, with cer 
 tain desires which are inherent parts of our nature, 
 and that our happiness must always consist in the 
 gratification of these desires or susceptibilies of 
 our continued being, as truly so as that our desire 
 for food, when we are hungry in this life, must be 
 gratified, if we will be happy. 
 
 " I specified a few among the desires, which go 
 to make up the inherent elements of our being 
 such, for instance, as the desire for the esteem and 
 affectionate regard of those with whom we asso 
 ciate, which we all know to be an inmate of every 
 bosom. Further, the desire of knowledge. Our 
 every day s inquiry, "What news 1" which is as 
 old as Athens and as late as modern meeting of 
 friends, assures us of the truth, that this is another 
 native desire of the soul. And to mention but an* 
 other, we all desire continued and immortal exist 
 ence. 
 
 " If then the soul shall enter heaven with these 
 
76 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 desires of our spiritual being still remaining- a part 
 of that being, we see that our happiness in heaven 
 must consist in the gratification of these desires, 
 as much so as that our bodily happiness is depend 
 ent on having our appetite, or desire for food, grati 
 fied here, when we are hungry. Our conclusion 
 then necessarily was, that in heaven there will be 
 found sources which are fit, and which are adapted 
 and intended to gratify these desires wfiich shall re 
 main with the redeemed and immortal spirit. 
 
 " I then went on to specify and to illustrate the 
 sources for gratifying the first mentioned of these 
 desires of our natures, that is, the desire of society 
 and of the esteem and friendship of those with 
 whom we associate. 
 
 " We at once perceive that this desire will find 
 its fit objects in heaven to yield it gratification to 
 the fullest extent, by the familiar and intimate 
 communion and affectionate and tender friendship 
 of the Redeemer of angels and the saints, con 
 stituting the general assembly and church of the 
 first born. 
 
 "But, in heaven, we shall remain the same intel 
 lectual beings, in our constitution, as we are here, 
 and, by consequence, we shall possess within us the 
 desire of knowledge, as one other element of a ran 
 somed and immortal spirit. And this desire remain 
 ing, as one element of our spiritual being, we see, 
 that to be completely happy in heaven, we must 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 77 
 
 there find sources and means for its gratifica 
 tion. 
 
 " To the same conclusion the language of the 
 Scriptures leads us. We shall know as we are 
 known. We shall see him as he is. And then 
 the whole Scripture account of the worship, praise 
 and adoration, which a saved spirit is described as 
 rendering unto God and to the Lamb, necessarily 
 supposes that this worship is rendered and given 
 as the result of the perception of intelligent minds, 
 that the Lamb is worthy of all this praise and love 
 and glory. But to know this, we as ransomed spi 
 rits must see the grounds of the merit, in a moral 
 point of view, and the reasons for the praises so 
 justly accorded to the Eternal Being, throughout 
 eternal ages. It is not a blind service. It is not a 
 reasonless devotion. It is not a praise based on 
 unperceived grounds which shall swell the songs of 
 the ransomed, and give emphasis and depth to the 
 tones of that love and adoration, that shall wake 
 the harps of intellectual as well as holy beings. 
 And although, in the language already quoted, we 
 shall know as we are known, it implies not but 
 that there will open before the opening minds of in 
 tellectual spirits, in heaven, fields of increasing 
 knowledge, and yet, throughout eternity, for ever 
 unfathomed depths of thought. For, angels, holy 
 and heaven born and intellectual as they are, and 
 represented as far in advance of human souls, are 
 7* 
 
78 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 yet described as desirous of gaining new know 
 ledge ; and they were gaining it when represented 
 as { desirous of looking into the things that pertain 
 to the plan of salvation. 
 
 " What, then, I would ask,* continued Mr. F., 
 will be some of the sources, which shall gratify 
 this further innate susceptibility of our souls, viz. 
 the desire for increased and ever increasing know 
 ledge ?" 
 
 " Why," continued Mr. F., " as I was saying 
 last evening, we shall there have the society of 
 angels, beings exalted in intellect, and excelling in 
 purity of character, as much as they are elevated 
 in knowledge. And besides this innumerable num 
 ber of a holy race of moral and intellectual exist 
 ences, we shall have the society of the thousands 
 and tens of thousands of the redeemed of our own 
 race, who shall have been gathered from every 
 tongue and nation and people of this, our once in 
 habited, but then, re-chaotic earth. Amid the so 
 ciety of such companions, as the angels, beings so 
 far advanced before us in knowledge and, so 
 far as our own race is concerned, with minds of 
 every grade and with every variety of composition 
 as to ideas gathered, too, from separate portions 
 and different circumstances of our earth, what more 
 shall we need, besides such circumstances of our 
 heavenly residence and association among such 
 beings, for the gratification of our desire for know- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 79 
 
 ledge 1 Believe me, said Mr. F., after a little 
 pause, I am not on merely poetic ground here. It 
 is not mere imagination, but to my mind the so 
 berest deductions from Scripture truth, and the ne 
 cessary conclusion which we must come to from a 
 knowledge of our own being, and the future cir 
 cumstances of this our being, as revealed in the 
 word of God. If this society of angels and saints 
 is to be the future circumstances of intelligent and 
 yet not omniscient beings, we take it as a proba 
 bility, which needs no confirmation to render it a 
 fact, that beings so situated as associate spirits, 
 must and will have mental communion with each 
 other. And having this mental communion, we at 
 once see that there opens a wide field for the grat 
 ification of this desire of our souls for knowledge, 
 contributing its consequent wisdom and pleasure. 
 Is it fiction, think you, that we shall there meet 
 the patriarchs Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 their progenitors, and the successors of the pro 
 phets 1 Is it a fictitious hope and but a romantic 
 dream which lights up the Christian s anticipation, 
 that in one of those eras which shall stretch with 
 out beginning and end down the eternity of an 
 immortal existence is it a delusive persuasion 
 though a welcome and cherished thought, that we 
 shall meet a David, the king of the sacred lyre as 
 well as the king of Israel 1 Shall the Christian not 
 know the gifted Paul 1 Shall he not know the 
 
80 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 sainted John 1 Shall he not know the energetic 
 Peter and Luke, the beloved physician, and others 
 and all of the apostles and Mary the mother of 
 Jesus and other saints and martyrs, in ages both 
 before and in ages since the Christian era 1 Saint 
 Paul tells us that Christians are with Christ. 
 His language is, to depart and to be with Christ, 
 and consequently with one another, c is far better. 
 And the Saviour says, with fearful accent now to 
 the unrenewed as he did to the unrepenting Jews 
 when he carried their thoughts on to the judg 
 ment day : There shall be weeping and gnash 
 ing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, 
 and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of 
 God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they 
 shall come from the east, and from the west, and 
 from the north, and from the south, and shall sit 
 down in the kingdom of God. This language 
 then sufficiently assures us that the expectation of 
 the Christian is not a mere poetic fancy, but, in 
 heaven, we shall have the meeting, the familiar 
 meeting, and communion, and companionship of 
 the master-spirits of those ages which have gone 
 before us, who shall have given their hearts to 
 God on the terms, which he has made the condi 
 tion of entering the abodes of the blessed. 
 
 " And, once placed among this innumerable 
 number from every age, and clime, and tongue, we 
 perceive from these circumstances alone of a happy 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 81 
 
 spirit in heaven, that there opens before him one 
 field of inexhaustible intelligence, and a grateful op 
 portunity for gratifying 1 this thirst of the soul for 
 knowledge and the acquisition of something new, 
 which shall give delight to the intelligent and in 
 quisitive spirit of an immortal being. 
 
 " What a collection of ideas," continued Mr. F., 
 raising himself in his seat in a way that showed 
 that his mind was becoming excited by the enkin 
 dling theme, u what a collection of ideas shall be 
 amassed by these vast and happy millions, gathered 
 into the many mansions/ from every age and 
 tongue and nation of this world, and from every 
 era of its time 1 There and then, like the fabled 
 Jew, said to have wandered upon this earth ever 
 since the days of Christ, each sanctified spirit may, 
 in reality, live through all these ages, and through 
 all ages from the creation. For, there will be at 
 his side, as familiar companions, spirits of different 
 periods in time, and from different points in place, 
 throughout the existence and the extent of our 
 world, who with the freedom and interest of friends 
 will communicate the events of their day and the 
 characteristics of the era that dated their existence 
 upon this then departed earth. It is no fiction that 
 a ransomed spirit may there meet the patriarch, 
 who for a hundred and forty years preached to a 
 corrupted world, and with his children was rescued 
 from the deluge that overwhelmed a world of sin- 
 
82 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 ners. And would not the tale that he could tell be 
 worthy of the ear of an immortal being, as illustra 
 ting the justice, and the mercy too, of a holy, and 
 righteous, and inviting, and entreating, and forbear 
 ing God 1 Thus it is, there shall be presented be 
 fore the happy spirit, in heaven, thirsting for know 
 ledge and delighted by its attainment, a living his 
 tory of all ages gone before him on the earth, and 
 of the ages that shall come after him. And before 
 him stretches an eternity, through which he may 
 read it. Not as here on earth, cut off ere he can 
 acquire the story of but a few particulars, which, 
 at best, he traces in the imperfect records of the 
 past, and divested of the accuracy and vividness 
 with which an eye-witness would present them. 
 The time and the unnarrated incidents of the time 
 of those men, whose writings have been our guide 
 and direction in the way of salvation, and which 
 have been our consolation and the source of the 
 hope that sustains the soul of the Christian in his 
 last conflict, shall be, to the spirit redeemed from 
 our age, as familiar as we can now be with the 
 events of the days of our immediate forefathers. 
 And who of us, while we have been carried back 
 to the period of the apostles, have not felt that an 
 acquaintance with them and other memorable cha 
 racters of ages, before and since the apostolic day, 
 would yield untold delight, and the choicest pleas 
 ures, while it would augment our knowledge, 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 83 
 
 in connection with the incidents and occurrences 
 of the eras in which they lived 1 ." 
 
 Mr. F., after a moment s pause, resumed : " But 
 should any one suppose that the incidents of this 
 earth will be too insignificant to attract the future 
 thoughts, and interest the future feelings of a spirit 
 saved, we will see the probable incorrectness of 
 such an impression, when we remember that every 
 event of this world has a direct bearing in illustra 
 ting the government of God over offending subjects 
 and over his moral universe. It is in connection 
 with our actions in this life, and the dealings of 
 God with us as responsible beings, amid the occur 
 rences of this world, which shall enable his intelli 
 gent worshippers to seethe forbearance of his mer 
 cy, the intensity of his love, and the sincerity of 
 his invitations to a lost world, to avail itself of eter 
 nal happiness, and thus to evince to them and the 
 universe the justice of his dealings over his crea 
 tures, and wake from the intelligent perception of 
 his children, who shall be redeemed, a note of praise 
 and admiration and love, based on the intelligent 
 perception that the Lord of the whole earth doeth 
 right: 
 
 " Here then, in this vast community of the saved 
 from all ages, and nations, and tongues, and with 
 angels as beings of exalted intellect and purity of 
 character, there will open a field of knowledge and 
 consequent pleasure to the deathless soul of man, 
 unlimited and eternal. 
 
84 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 " But this companionship with saints from every 
 land and tongue, and with angels exalted in intel 
 ligence and purity of character, is not the only 
 source, nor probably will compare with many other 
 sources of knowledge which shall open, in heaven, 
 to the redeemed from the earth. We may justly 
 suppose, as the soul shall expand in its high attain 
 ments, that new fields of knowledge, there, shall 
 spread before it, to give food to this immortal 
 longing of our being, w r hich increases in the in 
 tensity of its desire in the proportion as the mind 
 gains new stores to its possessions. 
 
 " But the delightful reflection to the Christian 
 is, that all this accumulated knowledge shall be a 
 continued and unending source of pleasure to the 
 soul redeemed. It shall wake new gratitude in the 
 bosom of the saint to his God, as his creator new 
 love to him, as his friend new devotion and ad 
 miration as the God of power and of wisdom, who 
 has so formed us, and so formed all existences, 
 that they tend to fitness and to happiness. Every 
 hour of the Christian s ceaseless existence shall lay 
 open before his admiring and adoring spirit, facts, 
 with their connection and their relations, which 
 shall show God to be the just, and the merciful, 
 and the benevolent and the wise Creator, who has 
 concerted and who desired the bliss of all, as 
 well as the bliss of those who for ever shall sur 
 round his throne. And the Eternal would have 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 85 
 
 secured the endless happiness of all, if men and 
 devils had acted out their part, as they might have 
 done, and as their gratitude, and their interests, 
 and their privilege should have prompted them to 
 do. All things in another world shall affirm this 
 and render it plain, as it is now and here declared 
 by God s promises and threatenings, and godlike 
 acts of forbearance and mercy. The Christian, in 
 heaven, shall see it, and know it. And from his 
 intelligent and clear perception of these facts, in 
 God s works of grace and of creation, the sainted 
 spirit shall wake his harp anew; and again, and 
 again, and yet again admire, and adore, and love, 
 as he sweeps its chords in delightful worship of 
 his God. 
 
 " But," said Mr. F., and here his voice was low 
 ered to a note of unaffected melancholy and Chris 
 tian sympathy, which showed that he felt the emo 
 tion, " it is not so with the lost. Their knowledge, 
 too, must ever increase like the acquisitions of the 
 saints in heaven. For they will also be associated 
 with spirits from every age, and nation, and time, 
 and with devils, yet intelligent, though fallen from 
 the virtue of their character, by disobedience to 
 their God. But their acquisitions of every new 
 idea, gained in their circumstances as associates 
 of lost spirits from every age, and with a race of 
 yet higher though fallen existences, shall but in 
 crease their capacity for intenser suffering in a 
 8 
 
86 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 world of wo. Each new idea they shall gain, will 
 throw a beam of additional light on the consisten 
 cy of God s government on his righteousness, and 
 the tender mercies of his dealings a God, who 
 never injured them, nor wished them harm, and 
 only sought their happiness a God, who pointed 
 out to them the way of bliss, and urged them, by 
 every motive of interest and gratitude, to avail 
 themselves of a salvation which cost him suffer 
 ings as their benevolent friend, to enable him, in 
 view of his moral government, to give it them on 
 the conditions on which it is offered. The lost 
 spirit in the world of wo shall then see, if it never 
 saw before, as the dealings of God shall open be 
 fore him, that a sincerer desire never occupied the 
 bosom of his Creator than that which pompted the 
 invitation, Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come 
 ye to the waters j or than filled with tears of pity 
 and love the compassionate eye of Jesus Christ, as 
 he hung over the wretched Jerusalem and gave 
 forth, in bitterest lament, How oft would I have 
 gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her brood under 
 her wings, and ye would not? Through that long 
 and to them dark eternity, a lost spirit shall know 
 and feel that there was not a day of his mortal exist 
 ence, when he might not have complied with the 
 terms of an endless happiness, and thus have se 
 cured and enjoyed the enduring favour and friend 
 ship of his God, as was urged upon him, times 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 87 
 
 many and often, during a wasted life, and by every 
 consideration derived from the joys of a promis 
 ed heaven and the sorrows of a threatened hell. 
 The conviction shall flash and shall abide upon his 
 soul, from a full and intelligent perception of his 
 Maker s ever kind dealings with him and his uni 
 verse, that while he was flirting in a thoughtless 
 world with a thoughtless mind, the bosom of his 
 God was yearning over him as a parent s, and that 
 he often, in various ways, heard the language drop 
 from the lips of godlike pity, * Turn ye, turn ye, 
 for why will ye die V And forgive me, my friends, 
 when I say it," added Mr. F. in a tone of endearing 
 and thrilling kindness, as he contemplated the cir 
 cle then around him, " should it be the calamity of 
 any one of your number to die, thoughtless, with 
 the proffered friendship of an indulgent God un 
 secured, such a spirit in the world of wo will then, 
 and there, think. Thought shall there be the lost 
 spirit s chief curse intelligent, clear, unclouded 
 thought, which shall show the finally miserable, 
 that they have been their own suicides of their own 
 souls. Yes, it shall embitter all their endless years 
 years of their yet intelligent and rational though 
 lost souls, THOUGHT ! For k is their menial being 
 that shall there yet live. And it shall be their wo 
 their bitter wo the gnawing worm the sting of 
 an enlightened, intelligent, thinking conscience. 
 Happy spirits, indeed, could they then annihilate 
 
88 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOTTK. 
 
 the power of thinking, and there live thoughtless 
 as they have lived here. But the wo will then be 
 on them a wo, worse than the stings of injured 
 honour worse than the stings of blasted fame 
 worse than the conscious degradation of merited 
 shame. And it shall be like the weight of moun 
 tains pressing on self-smitten spirits, while they 
 shall waste with untold sorrows in a rayless and 
 hopeless, and endless despair ! 
 
 " Would to God this were fiction !" added Mr. 
 F., after a short and solemn pause. "So could I 
 desire it, sometimes, when looking at some of my 
 friends, in view of their onward and fearful pros 
 pects, while I see them uncheered by the hopes of 
 the Christian. But the reality glares me in the 
 face as I read the language of the Eternal, both in 
 bis word and in the constitution of my own nature. 
 
 " May it, my friends," said Mr. F., as he ended 
 these reflections, " make us most active, in our 
 exertions for the salvation of those endeared to us 
 by the ties of kindred and friendship." 
 
 No one of the party felt disposed to break the 
 spell which the earnest, and affectionate, and per 
 spicuous language of Mr. F. had left on the minds 
 of the whole circle. They felt that there was truth 
 in what he had said, in the very nature of the 
 things about which he had been speaking, and that 
 it personally interested themselves. And there 
 was more than one heart that evinced the depth of 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 89 
 
 its emotion, in an audible sigh, which betrayed it 
 self in the deep stillness of the moment that succeed 
 ed the termination of Mr. F. s remarks. 
 
 " We are indebted to you, Mr. F., for the plea 
 sure of this conversation," said Mrs. E., at length 
 breaking the silence, " and are surprised as well as 
 delighted that you should have said so much, and 
 separately on these two distinct desires of our spir 
 itual being. We feel assured, from your illustra 
 tions, that these elements of the soul, which go with 
 others to constitute our being, shall attend us to 
 another world, and that there will be enough there, 
 to yield an eternal gratification to our desires for 
 society and knowledge. But there is another de 
 sire to which you have alluded the desire of con 
 tinued and immortal existence. We should be cruel 
 to ask you to extend your remarks on this subject, 
 at this time, but may we not hope for one more ride 
 to this lovely retreat ; which I am sure none of 
 us will forget in our future associations connected 
 with another world 1" 
 
 The mornings having been already designated 
 for rides into other parts of the interesting neigh 
 bourhood about Boston, Mount Auburn, by gene 
 ral desire, was considered as the spot for their next 
 afternoon s excursion. 
 
 " You said, Mr. F., when alluding to the convic 
 tions of lost spirits in another world, this evening, 
 that through a long, and to them a dark eternity, 
 8* 
 
90 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR 
 
 they should know and feel that there was not a day 
 of their mortal existence when they might not 
 have complied with the terms of an endless happi 
 ness, and thus have secured and enjoyed the endu 
 ring favour and friendship of their God." 
 
 This was addressed by Miss V. to Mr. F., as 
 she was leaning on his arm, while they were now 
 walking through the grounds after the circle had 
 broken up, and were severally seeking objects to 
 amuse them, previous to their evening s return-ride 
 to Boston. 
 
 " I have sometimes felt," continued Miss V., 
 " that I would be willing to make any sacrifice, and 
 to give worlds, were they mine, could I become a 
 Christian. But how can II I know, and I feel, 
 that I must for ever be unhappy unless I become a 
 disciple of Jesus Christ. But I cannot help myself 
 how can I V 9 she asked, as her voice trembled 
 with emotion, and her head dropped to conceal the 
 involuntary flow of her tears. 
 
 " Ella," said Mr. F., as he paused a moment and 
 let his eye, in tenderest sympathy, rest upon her 
 moistened features, while the tears stole in succes 
 sion from her cheek, " do you think that God asks 
 from you impossibilities \ Does he command im 
 practicabilities 1 Has he not evinced the interest 
 of a friend and the tenderness of a father, in the 
 expressions of his word, and by demonstration in 
 his action 1 Why did Jesus Christ die 1 Was it not 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 91 
 
 that God might pardon you on the terms of the gos 
 pel 1 Are those terms, then, such that you cannot, 
 as you say, comply with them 1 Why does the 
 Holy Ghost strive with you, melting your heart to 
 tears in view of your responsibilities and neglect 
 of surrendering your heart to hirnl Is it not to in 
 duce you, by all the considerations brought to bear 
 upon you, thus to surrender your heart to God! 
 Is it then an impossibility for you to surrender that 
 heart 1 Does the Holy Ghost persuade you to an 
 impossibility ? Surely not. It is the wish of your 
 God it is the wish of your Saviour it is the wish 
 of the Holy Ghost, that you will at once become a 
 disciple of Christ, and give up your heart to him, 
 to be his future follower. The whole plan of the 
 gospel contemplates this consecration of yourself 
 to your Lord and Saviour. The object of the minis 
 try is to persuade you to it. If then you are wil 
 ling thus to devote yourself, in such full purpose 
 of your heart, as shall control you in future 
 obedience and love towards this Saviour, then are 
 you this day at the point of feeling where the Holy 
 Ghost, during the past of your life, has been ope 
 rating upon your heart with endeavour to bring you. 
 What then shall any longer hinder your purpose to 
 surrender that heart to your God, and thus to be 
 come his obedient child 1" 
 
 The two resumed their walk, slowly and silent 
 ly for a short distance, when Miss V. recovered 
 
92 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOTJR. 
 
 herself sufficiently to ask, " How shall I make this 
 surrender of myself to God 1 I have thought that 
 God, by his Spirit, in some way, though mysteri 
 ously, and at his own time, would make me a 
 Christian, and that in submission to his purposes 
 I must wait and pray for his coming. Therefore, 
 your remark, that the lost spirit would see in ano 
 ther world that no day passed in his mortal exist 
 ence when he might not have become an obedi 
 ent disciple of Jesus Christ, struck me as peculiar, 
 and has awakened in my feelings a new hope, if it 
 is true, and a wish, that this day may be to me the 
 one when I shall have made this surrender of my 
 heart to God. And I plainly see, that if I may do 
 this, then much that I have before thought to be 
 severe in the character of God, was the result of 
 my misconception of the truth, and that he now 
 appears the kinder and sincerer Being when of 
 fering his invitations from his word, as you have 
 feelingly represented him." 
 
 "Miss V.,". said Mr. F., "I am aware that your 
 feelings are not peculiar. I recur back to the mo 
 ment, when my own mind was excited on the sub 
 jects of my future interests and obligations to my 
 God, and I longed for his friendship and forgive 
 ness. The difficulties which I perceive you feel, 
 I felt. And I have conversed with many, very 
 many, who in a similar state of solicitude have 
 cherished like impressions, and felt like difficulties 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 93 
 
 to be in the way of their becoming the sincere fol 
 lowers of the Saviour of sinners. But they had not 
 clear conceptions as to what was the thing requir 
 ed of them to be done on their part, not in the way 
 of merit, as if any thing they could do would re 
 commend them to God, but which must be done 
 by them in the very nature of the change to be 
 effected. Had they perceived it, they, in their 
 then state of feeling, would have been willing to 
 do it. Had I perceived it, I should earlier have 
 gained, in reliance on the sure promises of God, a 
 persuasion of his acceptance of the consecration 
 of a heart to him, in obedience to his command, 
 * My son, give me thy heart. Did not God in 
 tend that the sinner should comply with this com 
 mand, when he issued it 1 Did he design that there 
 should be any delay about it ^ Is it to-day or to 
 morrow on which he expects us to yield to him our 
 devotion, our love, our plighted faith 1 It is now 
 if ever. And why not 1 If he is sincere in his in 
 vitations, entreaties, commands, and threatenings, 
 they relate to the present moment, and not to the 
 morrow. And his desire that we will return to 
 him is as sincere, this hour, as it can ever be. He 
 wishes us not to remain in disobedience, when he 
 forbids that disobedience. He wishes us not to 
 remain another hour from him, when he invites us 
 this hour, and now, to come to him. Does not the 
 conviction of your mind in view of this represen- 
 
94 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 tation of the good pleasure of God, assure you, 
 Miss V., that now is the accepted time, and 
 may be ( the day of salvation V 
 
 " That such is the language of the Bible," replied 
 MissV., "and such the pleasure of God, who desires 
 the salvation of his erring children, I cannot longer 
 doubt, and am surprised that I could otherwise 
 have thought, in view of the expressions of his 
 word, a number of which you have now repeated, 
 and did before repeat, in the conversation of this 
 evening. But how is the heart to be given to God," 
 continued Miss V., " as it would seem that it may be 
 done. My own is an adamant ; and yet I feel that 
 I desire his love above any thing else ; and with the 
 assurance of his favour I could meet the calami 
 ties of life, whatever they might be, and die with 
 out regret, were I confident of reaching the bless 
 edness of that heaven, which has occupied your 
 conversation this evening." 
 
 The swelling heart of the young lady again 
 gave vent to its emotions, and she wept audibly, as 
 the two moved slowly forward in their path. The 
 party had already advanced nearly to the gateway 
 of the grounds, some distance from the spot where 
 the two friends were exchanging their thoughts, 
 on a subject so thrilling in its relations to the eter 
 nal interests of the deathless soul. 
 
 " Miss V.," said Mr. F., " you have asked, < HOW 
 is this heart to be given to God V We can pause 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 95 
 
 but a moment longer here. But allow me briefly 
 to counsel you. You feel, at this moment, that 
 you have too long, although you are yet young, 
 withheld your heart from God. Had the impres 
 sions made on your mind been different from what 
 they were, maybe that heart had earlier been given 
 to your Saviour. If I mistake not, you see and feel 
 that it is your privilege and your duty to do so, 
 now. Let me then request of you, on your return 
 this evening, that you will seek your chamber. An 
 hour will be left you for your meditation. Devote 
 it to your God. Think of the relations that exist 
 between him and your soul. He has made you, 
 and blessed you, and asked your love in return, to 
 be manifested by your obedience to the principles 
 of his word, as the course which will make you 
 most happy here, and give you full felicity hereaf 
 ter. Think how seldom that God has had your med 
 itation upon his goodness, his greatness, his purity, 
 his eternity. How seldom has gratitude awakened 
 in your bosom for his mercy, and for the gifts 
 of this world, abundant as they have been to you, 
 and of the provision of salvation he has made for 
 you, if secured by a compliance with its terms, 
 which shall yield you, although you have offended 
 him, eternal blessedness. Think of the particulars 
 that go to make up the affecting story of the Bible. 
 It tells you, what you feel to be the truth, that you 
 are a sinner by transgressing his proper, and there- 
 
96 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR, 
 
 fore holy, law. It tells you of hell think of it, as I 
 have supposed it will be constituted in the eternal 
 world the place of the lost, for their crimes and 
 continued impenitence, from all places and all time ; 
 and of fallen angelic and malignant spirits the 
 murderer the assassin the highwayman the 
 pirate the liar the blasphemer and whatsoever 
 loveth and maketh a lie and the lover of this world 
 more than the lover of God. Then think, in contrast, 
 of heaven its happy and pure mansions the resi 
 dence of the blessed the pure and holy angelic 
 hosts and sainted spirits of our earth, from all time 
 and place enjoying the familiar friendship and 
 communion of its happy inhabitants, and of its God, 
 and the Saviour, and the Holy Ghost. Then think 
 of the grave its coldness dreariness silence 
 dust and nearness. It may be our resting place 
 to-morrow, and as it shall find us Christians in our 
 purposes and action, or woldlings in our feelings 
 and aims, so will we for ever continue the saint or 
 the sinner, and, as the consequence, be for ever 
 miserable or happy. Then think of the friendship 
 of Christ. Is it not worth having 1 Is it not worth 
 sacrificing much for, if our becoming a Christian 
 will involve us in sacrifice! Some have to make 
 a sacrifice in this world some more, some less. 
 Some are even banished by their friends, disinher 
 ited. Yours are Christian, and will rejoice in the 
 surrender of your heart to God. Count up all that 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JOLY TOtJK, 97 
 
 you will have to contend with. If you take the 
 purpose henceforth to be a follower of Jesus Christ, 
 you will have to contend with some things. It 
 will be known by companions. It must be known 
 to the world. It must be unostentatiously declared 
 before the world. He that confesses me before 
 men, him will I also confess before my Father who 
 i-s in heaven. He that denieth me before men, him 
 will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. 
 Do this in remembrance of me. Count up the 
 cost. Count up the gain- the loss and the gain 
 both for this and the coming life. And then, in 
 view of all these things, decide. If you decide to 
 delay, I have nothing more to say here, but may 
 weep for you hereafter. If you shall decide, that 
 henceforth you will go forward as a disciple of Jesus 
 Christ then let your decision be full, unchangeable, 
 final. Hesitate not to make the decision from any 
 fear of insincerity. It is a right decision. God 
 commands it and desires it. So does your Saviour, 
 and he is ready to accept it. It is the thing that 
 the Holy Ghost has long urged, and feelingly, as 
 your tears this evening have declared, and it will 
 delight the heart of angels, if you make it. 
 
 " If this be the purpose which you will now form, 
 take the decision w r hile bowing before your God, 
 in solemn devotion. Tell him, in childlike feeling 
 and familiarity and reverence, that you have too 
 long delayed this surrender that you have thought 
 9 
 
98 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 too little on your responsibilities and duty that 
 you here regret it, and earnestly repent, and are 
 heartily sorry for your past misdoings ; and that 
 you acknowledge and bewail them ; and now 
 would offer up your heart to be his for ever. Ask 
 your God to accept this offer. If the request be 
 sincere, on your part, believe that he will receive 
 such a surrender of your heart to him. And let 
 this present consecration of yourself to God that 
 made you and the Saviour that redeemed you, con 
 trol your future course ; and then rely on his un 
 merited, free, and abounding grace for forgiveness ; 
 and go forward and act, in all your course^ as such 
 a pledged follower of Jesus Christ. If you find 
 yourself, at any time, feeling less than you now 
 feel, still continue to act according to your present 
 purpose, according to your present decision. Our 
 feelings are often dependent upon circumstances, 
 but our responsible action, never. Continue to act 
 aright, whatever may be your feeling, as the surest 
 way of securing and retaining the feelings you de 
 sire and should possess. Go, Miss V.," added 
 Mr. F., with solemnity and tenderest feeling, " go, 
 and thus surrender yourself to your God and Sa 
 viour, and Sanctifier, to be the Lord s for ever. 
 You will never regret it. It shall comfort you in 
 all your griefs, should sorrow ever meet you. It 
 will compose your aching heart while standing 
 beside the death-bed of mends. It will delight the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 99 
 
 heart of a Christian mother. It will light up the 
 often dark way of mortality, and enable you to look 
 with composure into your own grave, as you shall 
 be nearing it, either by more rapid or slower steps. 
 And, if it is any thing for you to know it," added 
 Mr. F. in a tone of thrilling Christian sympathy) 
 " you will have my continued interest as you have 
 had my tears and my prayer." 
 
 As Mr. F. concluded this feeling appeal, in the 
 touching expression which ended the conversa 
 tion, they quickened their pace, and were but little 
 behind their company, who had just seated them 
 selves in their carriages. 
 
 But few words were spoken by the party on 
 their way back to the Tremont House. Perhaps 
 the objects by which they passed had become too 
 familiar to attract their attention and remark, or 
 what is more probable, as each seemed disposed 
 to indulge in each one s own private abstractions, 
 with more than usual gravity, the topics on which 
 they had been musing still occupied their minds. 
 Even when they had reached the Tremont House, 
 and, for a moment, entered the ladies parlour, the 
 laughing greeting of young Rosa E., who rushed 
 forward from the maid with hands extended, was 
 met by a more soft and hardly articulate welcome 
 from her mother ; while Miss V. passed her with 
 simply, < sweet Rosa" and sought her chamber. 
 
100 ELLA V. r OR THE JULY TOTTR?, 
 
 Had the time permitted, Mr. F., doubtless, 
 would have added much more to the feeling en 
 treaty and counsel which he deemed desirable for 
 assisting Miss V. in her inquiries r and in urging 
 her to decision in her then circumstances of a 
 softened and agitated heart. And we may suppose, 
 as the two were often thrown together during the 
 continuance of their tour, Mr. F. did not neglect 
 the opportunity to guide a mind that confided in 
 his ability to instruct, and in his piety and sympa 
 thy as a Christian friend. He did not think the 
 solemn interview which he urged Miss V. to hold 
 between her own spirit and her God, would result 
 in the change of her heart independent of the in 
 fluence of the Holy Spirit. And he knew, without 
 this influence, there was no hope at all that her 
 present feelings would bring her to that sincere 
 devotion of spirit in her onward course,, whick 
 should guide her in simple and humble disciple- 
 ship to Jesus Christ. But he also knew, that there 
 was no hope that the Spirit of God would operate 
 on her mind in any other way than " through the 
 truth," as that truth should be made the particular 
 subject of her thoughts ; and that the legitimate 
 object of the Holy Spirit was, to urge her, through 
 these truths, to do what Mr. F. presented to her 
 mind and endeavoured to persuade her to perform.* 
 
 * " It is plain that if any species of being is to pass under 
 a renovating process, the process must be of a kind analo 
 
ELLA V., OR THP..J7B?:TO!n?. 101 
 
 And he also knew th<*t a rnind that had be^n h^ 
 bituated to think more of worldly things than of 
 religion, might return a<rain to its indifference, and 
 would so return after having made its decisions 
 to pursue a religious course, unless that mind 
 should adopt the necessary means for keeping 
 vividly before its view religious truth, and the re 
 membrance of its own responsibilities and neces 
 sities for a Christian life on earth and hopes for 
 its future well-being. Mr. F., therefore, did not 
 neglect to open before Miss V. the means for cul 
 tivating her religious feelings and for strengthen 
 ing her religious purpose. He recommended to 
 her various books, the perusal of which he knew 
 would enlighten her mind, and tend to keep alive 
 and yet more to deepen the impressions of reli 
 gious truth upon her heart. The Bible was to be 
 her continued companion, and prayer, the often 
 aspiration of her contrite spirit. And after all this 
 she was to look to her heavenly Father as a feeble 
 and dependent child, that would certainly be lost 
 
 gous to the properties which are to be so transformed. Thus, 
 for instance, it can be nothing but a physical power and a 
 series of physical transitions that must translate an animal 
 from one condition of organization to another. And thus, 
 too, it can be nothing else than a moral process or a working 
 upon the affections by motives that can effect a transition from 
 one moral condition to another." Author of Natural History 
 of Enthusiasm. 
 
 9* 
 
102 ELfcA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 unless hi^ almighty;; hand interposed to save her 
 from a ruin, which, without his aid to strengthen 
 her, the temptations of the world and the unsub 
 dued passions of the corrupted heart would assur 
 edly bring upon her. But the writer will not longer 
 delay the advance of the action of the party. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 103 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 IT was a beautiful afternoon which witnessed 
 the third gathering of the friends within the grounds 
 of MOUNT AUBURN. Not a zephyr moved through 
 the foliage of the oaks or whispered in the tops of 
 the pines. The bosom of the sleeping water, col 
 lected in different ponds through the grounds, was 
 unrippled, and mirrored back, from its silver sur 
 face, to the clear blue sky above, the deep-green 
 foliage of the trees and the border of dahlias that 
 encircled the edges of the flower-enamelled basins. 
 It was a mellowed scene, fit to prepare the heart 
 for musing on the theme which had brought the 
 party again to this enchanting retreat. They were 
 seen moving on their different paths, for a while 
 seemingly with a more measured step and deeper 
 meditation than usual, as they threaded the wind 
 ing ways, and at length, with a new addition to 
 their number, reached the seats which they had 
 occupied the preceding day. 
 
 Mr. F. was already at this point, having to-day 
 taken his walk alone, after entering the grounds, 
 and held in his hand a sprig of arbor vitas which a 
 little ruffled-collar boy had presented him, while 
 walking around one of the water-ponds. Mr. F. 
 
104? ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 opened the little Testament, which by accident 
 had been left on the bench the first time they visit 
 ed the grounds, and read the following line : 
 
 "And there shall be no more death." 
 
 "There is something in that word death" added 
 Mr. F., "which causesthe soul for a moment to feel 
 solemn as it breaks upon the ear. No matter in 
 what circumstances we maybe placed, the thoughts 
 rush sadly through the mind, and the imagination 
 calls up the scenes of the last hour of the mortal 
 anguish, when the soul takes its exit to the unknown 
 world. 
 
 "We see the legislator in the halls of his nation 
 rise to pronounce his sentiments, when death 
 places his hand upon him, and he falls in his place, 
 while the words are yet on his lip. Around him 
 gather the associates of his labours, and they gaze 
 on the pale features of a face but just now animated 
 with thoughts struggling for utterance j and if they 
 smite not their breasts, they turn in silence from the 
 death-scene and think how frail is man. Such was 
 the death of Boudin. Again, another high in fame 
 and exalted in merit, ends his brilliant course as an 
 orator and a counsellor. It is told to the court of 
 his nation. They pause. They cease the transac 
 tion of their business. His eulogy is pronounced, 
 and they follow him in silence to his tomb. Such 
 was the death of the lamented and pious Wirt. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 105 
 
 "But who of us has not stood where a soul was 
 just on the verge of the untried being, and about to 
 take its farewell-leave of a world, where its exist 
 ence had commenced and the endearments of rela 
 tionship and kindred had been formed 1 It was an 
 hour of deep solemnity. The child remembers it 
 when he knelt at the bed-side of a dying parent, 
 and received the last blessing from the quivering 
 lip of a departing father. The child remembers it 
 when he hung over the pillow of the mother, who 
 had soothed his young cares and often pressed him 
 to her bosom with a mother s love, but lying in her 
 last illness, said to him, in the unrestrained anguish 
 of her spirit, My child, farewell ! And the mother 
 remembers it. It was a dark day to her when the 
 destroyer came and took from her the objects 
 which had entwined themselves in their young affec 
 tions among the life-strings of her heart or else 
 summoned to another world the manlier form of 
 one on whom she had hoped to lean as the support 
 and the consolation of her elder years. And my 
 friends," added Mr. F., as he cast his eye upon the 
 increased circle around him, " you all remember it, 
 as you have gazed upon the emaciated features of 
 the dead when robed for their burial, and when you 
 have stood at the grave of friends, and heard the 
 earth crumble with its hollow echo upon their cof 
 fin-lids, and you turned from the scene and sought 
 your closets to weep ! It is this thought of death 
 that takes away the zest of a soul, which would 
 
106 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 otherwise be wholly absorbed by the brief frivolity 
 and the incidents of a passing world, which are 
 beneath the dignity of an immortal spirit. To the 
 gay, the thought of the last struggle, if it ever comes 
 over their minds, even in their greatest hilarity, 
 is like a shade from another world, and it throws a 
 damp upon their spirits. It tells the miser, as he 
 counts his gain and his loss, that the hour is not far 
 distant, when the poverty of his grave-clothes and 
 his coffin which holds him shall he his only posses 
 sions. And it tells the ambitious man, and the man 
 of literature, that the bubble for which they struggle 
 will burst as they grasp it ; and if their only aim 
 shall have been for aggrandizement and fame, they 
 will be lost souls when their bodies shall lie in their 
 covered graves. And there is none of us, who can 
 look upon the funeral rite the mourning apparel 
 the hearse the coffin the open grave and the 
 relics lowered to their rest to wait the trump of the 
 last day, without a solemn pause, and a rush of 
 affecting thoughts, which carry back some of us 
 to the first bitter hours of our orphanage, and others 
 to the seasons of bereavement when their children, 
 or a brother, or companion, or sister for ever closed 
 the eye as trophies of the universal conqueror, 
 death. 
 
 " Well," continued Mr. F., " the passage which 
 I have just read from this blessed book, assures us, 
 that in heaven there shall be no more death no 
 more scenes kindred to these we have described. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 107 
 
 In heaven, no friendships shall he broken. In hea 
 ven, no mother shall gaze on the cold remains of a 
 beloved child, ere it takes its departure to its long 
 sleep of the grave-yard. In heaven, no child shall 
 pour forth its grief over the departing dust of him 
 or her on whose bosom he leaned in his childhood, 
 and who loved and consoled him in his riper years. 
 In heaven, there shall be no more death. 
 
 " We see, then, with these views, that a third 
 desire of the soul that is, the desire for continued 
 and immortal existence shall find, in heaven, its 
 gratification, as well as the two other native desires 
 of our spiritual being, of which I have spoken in 
 our two preceding conversations. 
 
 " The soul from a Christian land, at least," con 
 tinued Mr. F., " before he shall have entered on 
 those immortal scenes, shall have learned, from 
 the word of God, that its life shall be ceaseless. 
 But the simple fact that the soul shall live through 
 immortal ages might not, of itself, give us pleasure. 
 Our circumstances might be such, that the know 
 ledge of the eternal life of the soul might be a 
 source of pain. The desire of immortal existence, 
 then, which wakes in our bosoms as one element 
 of our spiritual being, is of necessity connected 
 with the expectation of happiness ; for, as some 
 may suppose, the desire of immortal life could 
 hardly exist within a bosom which was certain 
 that its eternal existence would be one continued 
 and eternal misery. Yet I once heard a sensible 
 
108 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR* 
 
 woman remark, that if the alternative with her was, 
 that she should either be annihilated or spend her 
 eternity in hell, she would choose the eternal exist 
 ence in misery rather than be annihilated. Such 
 at least was a strong evidence, in her case, of what 
 I have affirmed of every human being that all 
 have within them, as one element of their being, a 
 desire for continued and immortal existence. But 
 as this desire is one constituent part of our souls, 
 and consequently remaining with the saint in his 
 heaven of complete happiness, it shall there re 
 ceive its gratification, for augmenting our joys 
 through eternal ages. For, while the saint there 
 enjoys the familiar companionship and affection 
 of the purified society of heaven, and satiates his 
 thirst for increased knowledge at the sources 
 which such a society from every age and every 
 region shall afford him ; and at other fountains 
 which a perception of God s creation and provi 
 dence over his universe shall lay open to his en 
 larging capacities, he shall know, from the assurance 
 of his God, that this life of fullest joy shall be un 
 ending. In such circumstances of felicity he shall 
 find this longing after immortality a blessing of 
 his eternal being, bearing home to his soul an ad 
 ditional exultation of joy while he thinks of the 
 eternal life of the righteous ; and that once seated 
 in the many mansions he shall go no more out 
 for ever. As he casts back his thoughts to the un 
 told sorrows from which he has been rescued, and 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOt T X, 109 
 
 feels his soul swelling with the bliss of heaven to 
 which he has been elevated, then shall the assu 
 rance that this is an eternal redemption that this 
 is a deathless feast of soul, give new ecstasy to his 
 bliss and new value to his immortality. This feel 
 ing of safety shall blend itself with his swelling 
 emotions of blessedness, more acceptably than 
 wakes in the bosom of the shipwrecked mariner, 
 just rescued from a grave of waters, when once 
 more upon the solid beach he plants his firm foot 
 steps. A feeling of safety more grateful than 
 wakes in the bosom of a being just saved from the 
 fatal plunge of a precipice, down which he casts 
 his look, and thinks of his rescue as by a miracle 
 from inevitable ruin. The rescue of the saint is a 
 salvation from eternal ruin, and an elevation to the 
 safety of a spirit who is tasting the full joys of 
 heaven, whence he now knows his once jeopardized 
 spirit shall never depart. No more shall he trem 
 ble for his safety ; but while he drinks in the un 
 told happiness which angels know, there shall 
 come over him the delightful consciousness that 
 his desire for continued and immortal existence, 
 amid such blessedness of a happy spirit, shall gain 
 its full gratification, while the soul lives on in its 
 joys immeasurable and eternal. Has he met, on 
 
 the bright plains 
 
 Where the noontide of glory eternally reigns/ 
 a kindred spirit, and in the fellowship of kindred 
 
 minds communed, and loved, and worshipped no 
 10 
 
110 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 cloud there shall pass across the sunshine of his 
 soul at the thought that the day shall come when 
 the dearest relationships must be severed. Has he 
 welcomed to the abodes of the blessed some en 
 deared acquaintance from among the number with 
 whom he sojourned while on his course of proba 
 tion in this world there renewing, in the kindness 
 of their affection, the remembered acquaintance of 
 earth no fated hour shall dampen their spirits with 
 the reflection that friends again must part. Or 7 
 shall the Christian mother there again meet her 
 babes prematurely taken from her embraces here, 
 to inherit their possessions above, (for of such 
 is the kingdom of heaven, 7 ) no further pang shall 
 afflict a heart 
 
 1 On mother s feelings strung, 
 
 when she there re-greets her child, and then, to 
 gether, they enter on the course of eternal ages, 
 as deathless spirits, and happy as they are immor 
 tal. Or shall the mind there be drinking from new- 
 fountains, opening to the soul thirsting for increas 
 ing knowledge, and delighting the spirit in its new 
 acquisitions no sad complaint, no melancholy ap 
 prehension shall cross his mind kindred to one 
 found among 1 the lines of a Grecian epitaph, that 
 
 A long, long, silent, dark, oblivious sleep, 
 A sleep which no propitious power dispels, * 
 
 Ai on, iui [iua%m (AV tnav XCCTOI xunov 
 // TW hwa (rekiva, TO TEvOafag vkov 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. Ill 
 
 may succeed. No. Each new accession to his 
 knowledge shall but enlarge his capacities for in 
 creasing thought and for eternal acquisitions ; and 
 in the plenitude of his enjoyment as an intellectual 
 being, the thought that shall come over the soul 
 and augment its ecstasy shall be, * this is an eter 
 nal feast of soul ; and here my desire for immortal 
 being shall meet its wish amid these exhaustl ess foun 
 tains of the joys of friendship, and intellectual de 
 lights, and bliss without alloy. IN HEAVEN THERE 
 
 SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH. 
 
 1 Heaven s bliss is perfect, pure, 
 
 Friendship is there, 
 Heaven s bliss is sure, 
 Deathless its heir. 
 
 Christ, he has gone before, 
 Saints, with their troubles o er, 
 And still shall myriads more 
 Be gathered there. 
 
 T sfyov al fcorti, xui tig CTO^ AAo 
 yfy/jU <5 ol //f^aAot xai xarc^ot t] croyoi 
 OrtTtoie nyuTa Ouvwjiiv, uvoxooi fv /don xot).ut 
 
 Alas ! the tender herbs, and flowery tribes, 
 Though crushed by winter s unrelenting hand, 
 Revive and rise when vernal zephyrs call; 
 But we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise, 
 Bloom, flourish, fade, and fall, and then succeeds 
 A long, long, silent, dark, oblivious sleep; 
 A sleep, which no propitious power dispels, 
 fo,r changing seasons, nor revolving years. 
 
 MOSCHUS, Epitaph. Bion. 
 
112 ELLA V., OR THE JULY 
 
 Souls for that joyous feast 
 
 Robe and prepare, 
 Holiness becomes the guest 
 
 That feasteth there. 
 What makes their joys complete ? 
 What wakes their hymns so sweet T 
 There we our friends shall greet, 
 
 NOR DEATH FS THERE. " 
 
 ffere Mr. F* paused for a moment, and then re 
 sumed : 
 
 " If this inherent desire for continued and im 
 mortal existence be one of the elements of our 
 being, the question may arise, Must it not also be 
 a desire remaining in the soul of a lost spirit 1 I 
 suppose it must be. But like the desire for society 
 and its friendships, and the desire for increasing 1 
 knowledge, of which we have already spoken, so 
 this desire for immortal existence, instead of ad 
 ministering to the happiness of lost spirits, will be 
 a source, through the perversion of their nature, 
 of an augmented misery., New knowledge to them 
 will serve only to show more clearly the justness 
 of God s dealings with them, and the sincerity of 
 his good will towards them; and the unequivocal 
 wish which God cherished that every immortal 
 spirit should have availed himself of the terms of 
 the bliss of heaven, and complied with these terms,. 
 as he might and ought, and as was his interest to 
 have done. Every new perception which the lost 
 soul shall gain through eternity shall but illustrate 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 113 
 
 more and more clearly the truth of all this, and 
 thus inflict a deeper pang upon the spirits in the 
 world of ruin, as they shall see their folly and in 
 gratitude and madness, thus to have lost their souls 
 and drew destruction upon themselves, when they 
 might just as certainly, and infinitely more wisely 
 nnd honourably have saved their deathless spirits, 
 as was the wish of their God and as all his in 
 fluences and their own felt obligations urged them 
 to do, by a compliance with the terms of a cease 
 less happiness, which God, with ceaseless sincerity, 
 urged upon them. It is such a perception of the 
 goodness of God, of their own want of ingenuous 
 ness, and their loss eternal, which they cannot 
 then repair, which shall bear home to the bosom 
 of the ruined soul the bitter anguish of self-reproach, 
 and regret, and despair, and hate, which none but 
 a lost and conscience-smitten spirit can adequately 
 conceive. But notwithstanding all this accumu 
 lated and accumulating sorrow, as intellectual 
 spirits they must still desire knowledge, although 
 it bears with it such daggers to pierce their immor 
 tal spirits through immortal ages. The desire is 
 an indestructible element of their being. 
 
 "And it is thus the lost spirit also shall for ever 
 long after immortality. The conception of Lord 
 Byron, where he draws the character of Cain, is cor 
 rect, when applied to this subject, as he makes him 
 thus speak after the criminal murder of his brother : 
 
 
114 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 I live, and, living, see no thing 
 To make death hateful, save an innate dinging, 
 A loathsome and yet all invincible 
 Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I 
 Despise myself, yet cannot overcome. 
 And so 1 live. Would I had never lived. 
 
 " This element of our being, then, is still with 
 the lost in another state of existence. True, 
 their misery may be such, their self reproach 
 may be such, their shame and contempt for them 
 selves may be such as to cause another wish to 
 arise, not as one of the elements of their souls, but 
 as the result of their sufferings, which, for a time, 
 may overcome their native desire for immortality, 
 while, to free themselves from mental anguish and 
 woes untold, they would hail an hour of oblivion 
 to their suffering spirits and thank their God for 
 annihilation. But the desire of immortal exist 
 ence is still an element of their souls, though it 
 should yield to the circumstances of their sorrows, 
 self-inflicted, as in the case of a man in the agonies 
 of an injured limb ; while he could never but desire 
 its preservation, he yet might, to be relieved of its 
 pain, choose to have it amputated. 
 
 " We see, then, that while this desire is still an 
 element of the being of a lost spirit, it may never, 
 as in the case of the happy experience of the saved, 
 afford him an onward joy. It bears to him no re 
 lieving hope, to light up the pressure that weighs 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 115 
 
 down, and for ever shall weigh down his soul, 
 through untold ages. Nor shall he find among the 
 other elements of his being, one native susceptibi 
 lity, that shall give him relief. Designed for his 
 augmented bliss, they shall all then enhance his 
 eternal wo. Nor elsewhere shall the lost spirit 
 gain aught to allay the tumultuous throeings of his 
 bosom. In the world of wo, and through eternity, 
 his perceptions shall be too distinct to permit him 
 to gain any soothing palliatives in ignorance, or 
 succour from any quibblings in doctrine or sophis 
 try in argument. It shall be written fearfully and 
 vividly on his own spirit, by his own clear percep 
 tions of the truth that he knew his duty and did 
 it not. He might have entered heaven with some 
 of his kindred and friends who chose the better 
 part, but it will then be all too late with him ; while 
 before him shall stretch the disconsolate way of an 
 unblest soul, without the anticipation of one joy to 
 mitigate the eternal anguish of a withered and des 
 pairing spirit. 
 
 " Surely," continued Mr. F., " these tremendous 
 truths as they come up to our view must appeal to 
 our sensibilities to our self-love to our deathless 
 interests. To the Christian, it calls on him for grat 
 itude, that he is possessed of a hope, that this 
 inherent longing of the soul for immortality shall be 
 met and be gratified in his case, in the full frui 
 tion of those joys, which make up the blessed ex- 
 
116 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 perience of the saved. Let us then give God the 
 tribute of grateful thanks, and vow before him, 
 amid the associations of this moment and the me 
 mentoes of our mortality among these grounds, 
 devouter attachment than has yet swelled our bo 
 soms ; and go forth on our course, wherever it leads, 
 with inspiring hopes hopes enough, as we look 
 forward to those blessed mansions, to cast the 
 brightest and the best of this world s expectations 
 into the dimmest distance of the vision of an im 
 mortal spirit. 
 
 " And if I might suppose that one of our num 
 ber, gathered to this retreat this evening," con 
 tinued Mr. F., in a tone of friendly conciliation, 
 " is yet uncheered with the hopes of which we have 
 been speaking, and while you are now addressed 
 from every point of these grounds, that flesh is 
 but grass ; and that the sun seen through these vis 
 tas so fair this evening, may go down on your mortal 
 existence before many more days or weeks, I would 
 ask you, with the feelings of one who has estimated 
 with a full heart the hazards of his impenitent 
 friends, whether this subject of the future destiny 
 and circumstances of the deathless spirit cannot 
 gain an interest in your feelings 1 If, in the trifles 
 of the passing and to each of us fleet world, we 
 can find much to attract, to beguile, and to render 
 happy, can you find no temptation in the far greater 
 bliss that is proffered to us for far longer years 1 O 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 117 
 
 remember," added Mr. F., in his eloquent tone, " re 
 member the interests of your precious being, which 
 can be made delighted even by such trifles, and be 
 so bitterly depressed by the merest sorrow. When 
 ages on ages shall have rolled away, your spirits 
 shall be yet more sensitive, and long as devoutly 
 for happiness then, as is that desire which now urges 
 you, for a passing joy, to jeopardize the lasting 
 welfare of your souls. Millions of years hence," 
 continued Mr. F., with deeper intonation and im- 
 pressiveness, " shall you have this desire for happi 
 ness swelling your bosoms more strongly than now. 
 And shall it be satiated 1 Where then will you be 1 
 Annihilated 1 No ! In a world where hope comes 
 not! That now, since God has done his part, de 
 pends upon yourselves. And shall the lost spirit 
 there find this immortal longing for happiness met 1 
 No ! The desire there shall still be one element 
 of his being, but it shall administer the deepest 
 curse that shall ever be noted in the annals that 
 record the anguish of a damned spirit. O, allow 
 me," said Mr. F., rising from his seat in the emotion 
 of his feelings, " allow me to entreat, that you think 
 of it ! Think of it now a soul immortal, longing, 
 from the very nature of its being, for immortal hap 
 piness through immortal years, and yet never once 
 gaining the faintest gleam of the longed-for boon 
 of spirit ! It shall be like the wretch eternally 
 dying but never dead, with a quenchless thirst and 
 
118 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 with his lips just at the fountain that would allay 
 his anguish, but he cannot reach it ! Or will you, 
 as you may, gain the fruition of this eternal long 
 ing of the spirit in heaven 1 This, also, now de 
 pends upon yourselves. All things have been pre 
 pared, on the part of God. Jill things are ready? 
 Your part alone remains to be acted your surrender 
 of your heart to God. And my prayer to the Eternal, 
 at this hallowed moment and amid these hallowed 
 shades, is, that ye may hereafter satiate this eternal 
 element of your spirits, beneath the smile of a 
 complacent and inviting God." 
 
 Mr. F. had become considerably excited while 
 presenting his thoughts, at this last visit of the 
 party to this enchanting retreat, where the living 
 seek a rural walk among the monuments of the 
 dead. And aware that some hearts among his 
 listeners were feelingly affected, he delivered him 
 self, while concluding his remarks with the empha 
 sis and the solemnity of one ending a passionate 
 address. He immediately recollected himself, how 
 ever, and with a playful smile, offered his arm to 
 Mrs. E., and proposed that they should take their 
 final view of " sweet Auburn." Little Rosa E., 
 who had been permitted to accompany the party this 
 afternoon, familiarly took the hand of Mr. F., and 
 the party were soon scattered through the different 
 paths of this forest burial-ground ; and after a half 
 hour, were again seeking their carriages. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 119 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 THE next morning, which was Saturday morning 1 , 
 Mrs. E. with a book in her hand, and Miss Ella V. 
 with her needle and lace, were seated on a sofa, in 
 one part of the ladies parlour, at the Tremont 
 House. Little Rosa E. was at her mother s feet, 
 looking over a quantity of prints, which Magdalen 
 her nurse thought very pretty, and seemed desirous 
 of making Rosa admire them for their rural beauties, 
 as they were made up of country houses, and milk 
 maids, and shepherds collecting their flocks, and 
 other things in like keeping with rural life. 
 
 Mr. F. entered the parlour and took his seat be 
 side the two ladies, now at their leisure. At this 
 hour the room was generally vacated by the guests 
 of the house. 
 
 " How happy might our life be in this world," 
 said Mrs. E., " were we, as Christians, always to re 
 tain a consistent persuasion of our reconciliation 
 with our God. I have been reading the memoirs 
 you mentioned the second evening of our ride to- 
 MOUNT AUBURX. The subject of this memoir," con 
 tinued Mrs. E., referring to the book in her hand, 
 " seemed always to have enjoyed such a persuasion ; 
 and as a consequence of it, which resulted from 
 his holy living, was always happy." 
 
120 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 " You know, Mrs. E.," said Mr. F., " that I have an 
 
 invitation to preach in church, to-morrow. I 
 
 have some sermons on the evidences of Christian 
 character. For your pleasure, if it may prove such, 
 and as it may be a source of some consolation to 
 others," and here Mr. F. directed his look towards 
 Miss V., " I will choose them for that occasion. I 
 can then say something which I might desire to 
 suggest on this subject. But as I promised you, 
 as we were leaving the grounds at MOUNT AUBURN 
 last evening, to speak of the difficulty which you 
 suggested, in connection with the subject about 
 which we had conversed several times; and as I 
 now have a leisure moment, and you seem to be 
 quite disengaged and left by yourselves here, I will 
 give you a few thoughts that may serve to remove 
 what, otherwise, might still remain a difficulty on 
 your mind in connection with our thoughts on the 
 probable sources of the joys of the saints in 
 heaven. 
 
 " The difficulty which you suggested, if I rightly 
 remember, was this. If it be true that, as Chris 
 tians, we shall meet and know our Christian 
 friends in heaven, so we shall necessarily miss 
 those of our friends who are not there. This would 
 give us pain. But heaven is a place of perfect 
 happiness. Therefore, as a knowledge of the eter 
 nal loss of some of our friends would give us 
 sorrow, we must conclude that we shall not know 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 121 
 
 our friends in another world. Such was the drift 
 of your thoughts as you suggested them. 
 
 " I would here remark by the way, with the de 
 sign of making an application of the same by and 
 by, that a thing is considered perfect, which is as 
 much so as is possible in the nature of things* 
 We say that God is omnipotent can do any thing 
 and yet, in the nature of things, so long as the 
 Deity leaves things with the relations they now 
 sustain to each other, God, though a perfectly om 
 nipotent being, cannot make two and two seven 
 teen and a half. 
 
 " To prove, however, that we shall meet and 
 know our friends in another world, I will give a 
 few further suggestions. We all know, from our 
 own consciousness, that our spiritual being or soul 
 which thinks, loves, hates, is happy or is misera 
 ble, is made up of certain attributes or powers, one 
 of which is memory. Now this property of the 
 mind, or of the soul, can no more be destroyed 
 than our power of thinking or reasoning, or the 
 power of loving or hating. We have no mental 
 feeling independent of that which our thinking 
 produces. These things or attributes of the mind 
 go to make up the mental being that we call our 
 spirit, as much as tasting, seeing, hearing, and ex 
 ternal touch go to make up part of the sensitive 
 attributes of the body. Take away these attributes 
 of the body and it is dust. Take away these attri- 
 11 
 
122 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 butes of the soul and it is annihilated. The attri 
 butes dependent upon our body, of course, cease when 
 the body is separated from the soul. But the soul, 
 from its very nature, is an indestructible thing, and 
 cannot lose its attributes, or any one of them, 
 which go to make up the very being that it is. 
 Take away the memory, and how could we reason 
 for in the process of reasoning the memory holds 
 up before the mind two or more objects for our 
 comparison. We pass from the one to the other, 
 and draw our conclusions. But how could we 
 reason without we could remember what we last 
 passed from, that we may recur back to it, for 
 comparison ^ And how, when we had recurred 
 back, could we again recur to what we had left in 
 our mind, without the assistance of our memory 1 
 And without the power of reasoning, we could not 
 see the fitness of things in this or in the other 
 world and by consequence, could not know the 
 justness of God s dealings with his creatures on the 
 judgment day, the object of which is to show to a 
 universe of immortal and responsible beings, that 
 He who hath made all things doeth all things right. 
 And without this perception of the justness of 
 God s judgments, at the final tribunal, and of the 
 propriety and the fitness of things in his govern 
 ment, past and through eternity, the worship of 
 the saints around his throne would be a blind ser 
 vice, unworthy of intelligent and reasonable beings, 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 123 
 
 but which they offer up to an intelligent, and wise, 
 and holy God. In this world, we look at the cre 
 ation, we behold God s works. As we see their 
 greatness and their fitness in their happy tenden 
 cies, we adore him for his power, praise him for 
 his wisdom, and love him for his goodness. So in 
 heaven, clearer and larger perceptions of his pow 
 er, and wisdom, and goodness, in his w r orks and in 
 his government over his creation, and over sinful 
 and ransomed beings, shall wake, with yet deeper 
 emotion, the adoration, and praise, and love of the 
 redeemed, in their full enjoyment of the bliss of hea 
 ven. But to gain these clearer and larger percep 
 tions of the justness, and benevolence, and wisdom 
 of God in his moral government over us, and in his 
 works, we shall have to look at them with the rea 
 soning power of the mind, which power, as I have 
 said before, can only be exercised by the assistance 
 of the memory. Therefore the memory must re 
 main with us in another world. But if our memo 
 ry remains with us, we come to the necessary con 
 clusion, that in heaven we shall retain by our re 
 collection more or less of this world s concerns, 
 and of our relations in it. These things will be 
 forgotten only as time and objects of intenser in 
 terest to our thoughts shall exclude them from the 
 mind. 
 
 "And thus it is; our memories remaining what 
 they are, and our spiritual being in heaven gaining 
 
124 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 its happiness in the gratification of its desires for 
 society and friendship and knowledge as I have 
 previously illustrated of course, our familiar com 
 panionship and continued and eternal intercourse 
 with kindred spirits in another world will lead to a 
 recognition of our Christian friends. To what other 
 conclusion, from the very nature of our being and 
 the future necessary circumstances of that being 
 in the society of heaven, can we reach ? To my 
 mind, none other. 
 
 " But here occurs the- difficulty to which you 
 have alluded," said Mr. F., addressing Mrs. E., 
 " and which probably occupies the minds of many. 
 If we shall meet and remember our Christian friends 
 so we shall remember others who died in impeni 
 tence, and they being missed from the courts of the 
 blessed, it will cause sorrow to the bosom of the 
 saints. Painful as the reflection may be, and at 
 first view different from what may have been our 
 previous impressions, I am necessarily led to the 
 conclusion that it must be so ; but I yet think the 
 subject may be placed in a relieving and proper 
 light. . 
 
 " Let us then recur to a passage in Hebrews," 
 said Mr. F., opening a small Bible which he held in 
 his hand, " and quote from it a paragraph, to assist 
 us in our illustrations. But w r ith whom was he 
 grieved forty years \ Was it not with them that 
 had sinned V 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 125 
 
 "There is a principle, which naturally arises 
 out of this and similar expressions of the Bible," 
 continued Mr. F., "which I think will show us that 
 the difficulty we are considering may be made to 
 appear as one of those incidental circumstances of 
 our fallen world, which, men once having become 
 sinners, cannot in the nature of things be prevented. 
 I quote a few other passages," said Mr. F., as he 
 turned to different parts of the book he held in his 
 hand. " The Psalmist represents the Eternal to 
 say, Forty years long was I grieved with this gene 
 ration, and said, it is a people that do err in their 
 hearts. How oft did they grieve- him -in the 
 desert, is the further language of the Psalmist. 
 And St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to grieve not 
 the Holy Spirit of God, by which they are sealed 
 unto the day of redemption. These passages are 
 sufficient for my purpose in quoting them. They 
 speak of GRIEF in the, bosom of God when looking 
 upon sinners. 
 
 " It is often said, when we find such language 
 in the Scriptures, that we are to limit its meaning, 
 as it cannot be supposed that God can be .affected 
 by any emotion similar to the feeling we call grief, 
 for that would be to make the Deity unhappy. 
 But I would ask, on what authority we are forced 
 to make such a limitation. This once admitted 
 and we should have to make the same restriction 
 with regard to joy. And it often is made. But I 
 11* 
 
126 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 know of no such limitation, when I hear such words 
 falling from the compassionate lip of a holy God 
 over sinners, whom he made that they might be 
 happy, but who are perverting their privileges, and 
 marring the purity of his kingdom, and bringing 
 ceaseless ruin upon themselves. Is there no cause 
 for grief in all this, to a holy Being to a benevo 
 lent Being to ONE, who, in his sincerely felt inter 
 est for their salvation, even gave the Son of his 
 bosom, that they might be rescued from sorrow, 
 and elevated to the happiness of heaven and the 
 renewed love of their Creator 1 Is there no cause 
 for grief, such as a father feels when his tears flow 
 over the recollections of a wandering and ruined 
 child ? How could God, in such circumstances of 
 his erring kingdom, respect himself, as a holy 
 and be?ievolent Being, if he had not the appropriate 
 feelings of grief when he looked upon such moral 
 perversion and ruin 1 So also when the apostles 
 speak of the love of God towards his creatures 
 which invites them back to his affections, does not 
 this mean something ^ God so loved the world 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth in him should not perish but have ever 
 lasting life. Does this not mean any thing, as to 
 the feelings of God 1 Does it not mean that the 
 feeling which wakes in the bosom of God over his 
 created beings is kindred to that which we call 
 the love of the parent j though infinitely more 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 127 
 
 intense and kind in the Deity than in man ? God 
 created man in his own image, we are told, 
 which image consists in mental constitution and 
 moral feeling. And therefore, the way by which 
 we are to estimate the feelings of God, is to con 
 sult our own. And when we are told that we must 
 not reason from man up to God, I beg leave rather 
 to say that it is the only right or possible way we 
 can reason of the feelings of God. The Deity 
 then is grieved over the sinner in the circumstan 
 ces of his offending against the rule of right in 
 which the sinner has placed himself. It is benevo 
 lence looking upon ruin. It is holiness looking 
 upon sin. And these feelings of grief have all 
 their characteristics of sorrow about them in the 
 bosom of God, that they have when waking in the 
 heart of a grieved parent over the wanderings of a 
 wayward child. So that we see that it is not all 
 a mere ado which God, in his word, makes about 
 sin. The sinner in breaking his law incurs the 
 fearful responsibility of marring the holy kingdom 
 of God to the positive and deep grief of its almighty 
 Creator. 
 
 " We see then that there may be grief mental 
 sorrow, and consequently mental pain in the bo 
 som of a holy God, whom we consider, and rightly 
 consider completely happy that is, as happy as, 
 in the nature of things it is possible for him, as a 
 holy and benevolent being, to be. And I think it 
 
128 ELLA V,, OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 may be rendered plain that God is infinitely hap 
 pier with this mental grief than he otherwise, as a 
 holy God, could be, in the circumstances of man s 
 sinning, without it, and that, according to every 
 principle of correct judgment, he is a nobler being 
 with this feeling, in the circumstances of his sin 
 ning kingdom, than he would be without it. 
 
 " To illustrate this point then, (and erelong I 
 shall apply it to the case of the saints in heaven,) 
 take the earthly parent himself, who has an erring 
 child. The parent would rather that his child 
 should not have wandered, and have saved him the 
 grief which, as a parent, Jie feels for his erring 
 child. But the child once having disobeyed his 
 father s precepts and brought ruin on himself, the 
 parent cannot but grieve over the prodigal. And 
 in such a case, the parent would choose that this 
 grief should be the inmate of his bosom. For if 
 he did not feel grief in such circumstances, what 
 could he think of himself what could w r e think of 
 him what would all mankind think of him 1 With 
 out such a feeling, would he be more or less noble 1 
 With such a feeling, he shows himself the better 
 father, and the holier man, with his native sensibi 
 lities, which ennoble his moral being, yet unper- 
 verted. We then see that here is mental pain, but 
 it is a grief, which, in the circumstances of the 
 offending child, the parent would rather have than 
 not ; for without it, in such a case, he could not 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 129 
 
 respect himself nor be respected, as a benevolent 
 parent, by others. 
 
 "Take another case. No Christian can hear 
 the name of his God taken in vain, without mental 
 pain a feeling of grief. But while he feels this 
 aching of heart over the profanity of one who for 
 gets his God, it tells him at the same time that he 
 is a nobler and a holier being with this feeling than 
 he would be had he felt no such grief, when hearing 
 the profanation of the swearer. Without it, he could 
 have had no complacency in his own Christian 
 character ; with it, he has ; and thus, although he 
 would choose that the swearer should not have in 
 dulged his profanity in his hearing, yet having heard 
 it, the Christian would rather have felt this sorrow 
 than not, and is happier with the feeling of mental 
 grief, in the case, than he could be had he not felt 
 this grief or mental pain. This pain, therefore, in 
 the circumstances supposed, increases rather than 
 diminishes his happiness. 
 
 " Apply these two cases to the character of God. 
 He is a Being who has given existence to a moral uni 
 verse. As a holy Being he desires that his creatures 
 should remain holy, and he cannot look upon sin 
 with any allowance, and as a benevolent Being he 
 desires their eternal happiness. But when he looks 
 upon the objects of his creative power and benevo 
 lent care, he sees them sinking themselves in sin, 
 and by their disobedience to his pure precepts, 
 
130 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 bringing ruin upon their immortal souls. What 
 other feelings, I then ask, as a benevolent and holy 
 God, can he have when he contemplates the sub 
 jects of his creative goodness rejecting their truest 
 interests and marring the purity of his holy kingdom 
 except the feelings of sorrow of grief of mental 
 pain 1 And while he remains a holy God how can 
 he respect himself if he does not have these feel 
 ings, when he looks upon sin 1 And while he re 
 mains a benevolent God, how can he respect him 
 self, or be respected by others, if he does not pos 
 sess this feeling of grief as he sees the beings, whom 
 he made that they might be happy, thus ruining 
 themselves? True, God as a holy and benevolent 
 being, would rather that sin and ruin should not 
 have been committed and its penalty incurred by 
 his creatures, and by their continued holiness have 
 saved him the necessary grief of a holy and bene 
 volent God looking upon sin and ruin. But, they 
 having once sinned, and thus ruined themselves, I 
 ask, where were his holiness, and where his bene 
 volence, if these feelings of grief and sorrow wake 
 not in his bosom, as a holy and benevolent God 1 
 And had he not these feelings, how could he res 
 pect himself in the character which he has given us 
 of himself; or how could he be respected by his 
 universe? But with these feelings in the circum 
 stances of his sinful beings, which we have suppos 
 ed, do we not see, that in the eye of every principle 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 131 
 
 of holiness and benevolence, it renders God a nobler 
 Being than he could be deemed to be if he felt no 
 emotion of grief over such degeneracy of character 
 and eternal ruin of soul? And without such feel 
 ings in such circumstances of his kingdom he could 
 have no complacency in his own character ; and 
 therefore, in the nature of things, it is what is fit 
 should be felt, as the Deity himself has described 
 to us to be the fitness of things, and given us per 
 ceptions thus rigthly to estimate them. And these 
 feelings, therefore, in the bosom of God, though in 
 their very nature a mental sorrow, he would choose 
 as a holy and benevolent God to have ; and as such 
 a holy and benevolent Being, he is happier with 
 them than he would be without them, when thus 
 contemplating his sinning and ruined subjects. 
 
 "We see, then, that in the circumstances of a 
 sinful world, there may be such a thing as grief in 
 the bosom of a holy and happy God. But it is the 
 grief which a holy and benevolent Being feels over 
 sin and ruin. And as the proper feelings of such a 
 character, in such circumstances, instead of their 
 diminishing the happiness of the Deity, he could 
 not be a holy and benevolent and happy God with 
 out them. For to be fully blessed we must have 
 complacency in our own character. And without 
 such feelings God, as a holy and benevolent God, 
 could not approbate his own character. 
 
 " Now, then," continued Mr. F., " let us apply 
 
132 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 these remarks to the ransomed spirits in heaven. 
 There, they shall be holy beings, and yet from the 
 very nature of the soul, as we have seen, they must 
 retain the powers of memory and the native sensi 
 bilities of their spiritual being. As holy beings 
 they must and they will approve that which is right, 
 else they could have no complacency in their own 
 character. They shall see the justice of God s 
 dealings and approbate them. But like their God, 
 when he looks upon the sin and the ruin of the 
 lost, so their bosoms as holy and benevolent beings 
 must feel involuntary grief over such desolation in 
 holiness and happiness. But it is the pity and the 
 sorrow of an angel, which makes them yet more 
 angels, and rises in their souls, as the necessary 
 emotion of holy and benevolent beings, in the very 
 nature of things; and although it be an involuntary 
 emotion of grief of mental pain instead of 
 diminishing the amount of their happiness, as holy 
 and benevolent beings, it augments it, and they 
 could not be happy as such pure beings without it ; 
 for a moral being to be happy must have compla 
 cency in his own character. And this the saints 
 in heaven could not have, unless they cherished 
 the feeling to which I have alluded, over the con 
 scious ruin of moral beauty and happiness, among 
 the spirits of the lost. 
 
 " We hence see, that while a ransomed spirit 
 mingles in the society of heaven, and thinks on the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOT7R 133 
 
 world of desolation, he may yet miss from the courts 
 of the blessed, friends whom he knew upon earth, 
 who died in impenitence. Yes, I doubt it not. 
 Many a pious mother shall know assuredly that her 
 child, who repented not, is coursing its endless way 
 in eternal wo. And some pious child shall remem 
 ber the unfeeling mother, who took her separate 
 course to a world of sorrow. Companions there, 
 shall remember lost companions. Sisters and re 
 membered sisters, be eternally separated. And bro 
 thers know that a brother once beloved, and yet 
 remembered with an involuntary emotion of pity 
 and grief, is surely depressed, with an eternal 
 weight of anguish. Does any one ask if this can 
 be heaven ? If not, then there can be no heaven in 
 the bosom of the Eternal. He loved each of these 
 with a love dearer than ever mother loved her child, 
 and he knows and remembers them all, and sees 
 the full sorrow they must eternally feel. And hence 
 he resigned his Son to die to ransom each of them, 
 would they but comply w^ith the necessary condi 
 tions of the proffered salvation, and thus return to 
 their allegiance. But they have been their own de 
 stroyers, notwithstanding all which a benevolent and 
 affectionate God could do to lead them back to his 
 love. No, there is not one vindictive feeling that 
 awakes or ever shall awake in his bosom against 
 them. While writhing in their sorrows of remorse, 
 and regret, and despair, and self-contempt through- 
 12 
 
134 ELLA V.j OR THE JULY TOTJR. 
 
 out eternal ages, they shall yet have the grief and 
 the involuntary pity of the benevolent bosom of 
 their God, while he yet will frown on their contin 
 ued sin, throughout eternity. And while in their 
 dark prison-house they forever shall be sealed, they 
 yet are his children by creation, whom he wished 
 to make happy, and sacrificed much to render hap 
 py some of them, perhaps, our friends, severed 
 from us for ever and still shall he regard them with 
 the heart of a merciful God, who yet, as a holy and 
 benevolent governor toward his whole universe, 
 will and must preserve the holy law of his universe 
 over his free and moral beings. 
 
 " But all this, to us, if we are Christians," con 
 tinued Mr. F., " shall render heaven no less desira 
 ble. And it may be, that this knowledge of the 
 lost shall be the very thing, which, as an additional 
 influence added to other considerations, shall ren 
 der heaven, to us, an eternal abode. For, we shall 
 be kept there only by moral influences the influ 
 ence of motives addressed to yet free and moral 
 agents. No compulsion shall hold heaven s inhab 
 itants within its many mansions. It will be 
 their love to God and gratitude and love of holi 
 ness and of heaven s happiness and the fear of 
 hell s sorrows, as the known wages of sin, which 
 shall address the mind of a sainted spirit in bliss. 
 It is by such influences, that angels are now kept 
 in heaven. No compulsion no necessity pre- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 135 
 
 serves to them their high estate. They are yet 
 free, or they could not yet be holy, as holiness is 
 free and voluntary obedience to the rule of light. 
 
 " Thus, and there," continued Mr. F., " shall we 
 read, with the eye of a holy and redeemed spirit, 
 the justice of a holy and benevolent God, who rules 
 his free, moral universe, by the influence of motives, 
 addressed to their intellectual, free, and moral 
 being. We shall see that hell is but the prompt 
 ings of the purest benevolence, in the feelings of 
 a holy ruler over his whole universe, who aims to 
 secure the greatest amount of happiness in a crea 
 tion of free, intellectual and moral spirits. He 
 wished their happiness, and through eternity shall 
 regard them as a parent follows the footsteps of a 
 prodigal, ruined, never-returning child. And while 
 as beings that are made to appreciate what is 
 right we shall approbate the conduct of our God, 
 though we should know that some most dear to us 
 on earth have lain down in unending sorrow, we 
 yet shall partake of the full bliss that shall flow 
 from the companionship of the pure society of 
 heaven, and, together with them, feast the soul 
 with ever augmenting knowledge throughout eter 
 nal ages, and know, while in the fruition of this 
 blessedness of happy spirits, that it shall be an un 
 dying an eternal feast of soul. 
 
 " To me," added Mr. F. after a moment s pause, 
 tl this view of the subject, which I have presented, 
 
136 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR, 
 
 proffers to us, as Christians y if we are such, an ad 
 ditional motive for effort in our action for the sal 
 vation of our kindred and friends. As we look 
 over those, dear to us, who have no present hope 
 that, in peace, they will meet the awards of the last 
 day, is there not enough in the idea, that, in hea 
 ven, we may miss them, to the deep involuntary 
 grief of our souls, to rouse us to effort and prayer 
 in their behalf? Think of the full and lasting bliss 
 that shall feast the soul in paradise among saints r 
 and seraphim, and the redeemed hosts of heaven, 
 Shall the dark thought there, ever gather over us^ 
 that some friend and kindred, very dear, hath for 
 feited this proffered, and to us, enjoyed bliss, and 
 is on a course of eternal sorrow 1 God save us 
 from such a remembrance, if our present action, 
 under his holy influences, may wake our delaying 
 friends from their fearful lethargy about their fu 
 ture interests, and cause them to put in their claim 
 while they may, to this proffered redemption. Let 
 us then assure our friends, in the language of their 
 Eternal Friend, that all things are now ready. 
 Come, every one that thirsteth* for these blessed 
 and lasting enjoyments. There is joy in heaven 
 over one sinner that repenteth. Would we save 
 our friends, we should raise devoutly the prayer to 
 God that they may yield to the holy influences 
 moving over their spirits, in this world, and urg 
 ing them to repentance and to the dedication of 
 
SLLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 137 
 
 their souls to God, O yes," said Mr. F., with mel 
 lowed feelings, as he continued, " let us, as we have 
 the opportunity, assure them with flowing tears 
 and with hearts that feel, that the love of God is 
 waiting for them, and that they may secure it by 
 giving up their devotion to him without delay. 
 Tell them, from your own delightful hopes, that 
 there is joy in the experience of the Christian, in 
 his bright anticipations of bliss, which shall satiate 
 the capacities of our undying spirits. The hours 
 of earth are brief. The time we have for action 
 among our friends, and for God, is short. For one 
 then, I would urge, as I have opportunity, with 
 freedom and with affection, those I esteem and 
 love, to secure to themselves the hopes of a Chris 
 tian, that together we may course the realms of 
 happy, sainted, social, intellectual, and immortal 
 spirits. 
 
 After a few moments, Mr. F. rose and left the 
 parlour. Mrs. E. and Miss Ella V., for some time 
 indulged, each her separate thoughts in silence ; 
 when little Rosa E. approaching the sofa, upset her 
 mother s basket. Among other things, a scrap of 
 paper with the following lines fell from the basket. 
 The lines were written by Mr. F. two or three days 
 before the party left New- York, and were occa 
 sioned by the death of one of the most interesting 
 young ladies of the circle of Ella V. s sister. Miss 
 V. had copied them for her friend Mrs. E. She 
 12* 
 
138 ELLA V., 
 
 took up the paper and re-perused it aloud, as not 
 inaptly associated with the preceding conversation. 
 
 AN APOSTROPHE TO THE MEMORY OF LAURA H. 
 
 I knew ihee not, the young and gay, 
 
 With silver voice and eye of light, 
 But heard guitar and minstrelsy 
 
 Awoke for thee in hours of night. 
 
 I knew thee not on Broadway side, 
 
 With step of grace and nature s air, 
 But heard thou wast on promenade, 
 
 The gorgeous belle and lady fair. 
 
 I knew thee not, when came the hour 
 Which threw its shadows on thy way, 
 
 But heard those shades had mystic power 
 To quell the thoughtless and the gay. 
 
 I knew thee not, when messenger 
 Sought noiselessly thy muffled door, 
 
 But heard each answer through the sphere, 
 Thy circle saddened but the more. 
 
 I knew thee not, when forth the word 
 
 Announced the thrilling tale, 
 That thou wast for thy funeral robed ; 
 
 The young, the loved, the beautiful ! 
 
 I knew thee not, when holy light 
 
 Illumed thy spirit as it fled, 
 And hopes that thou art bless d were bright, 
 
 As " dust" fell on thy coffin-lid. 
 
ELLA V., OE THE JULY TOUR. 139 
 
 I knew thee not, when carriage line 
 Was seen to move, with solemn tread, 
 
 To bear the weepers slowly on 
 To find thy place among the dead. 
 
 But I was called by those who mourn 
 
 Thy tale was whispered in my ear 
 Then mong the mourners I was borne, 
 
 And at thy grave I shed my tear. 
 
 Rest then, thou beautiful and gone ! 
 To know thee ne er to me was given ; 
 
 Yet when thou wakest from thy tomb, 
 I ll hope to know thee well in heaven, 
 
HO ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUK, 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 IN the afternoon succeeding the morning of the 
 conversation in the parlour of the Tremont House, 
 as given in the preceding section, it was proposed 
 that the party should take their last view of Boston 
 and the surrounding neighbourhood from the 
 cupola of the State House. They had visited 
 Bunker Hill, Charlestown, and various other places 
 of interest and of olden patriotic association in the 
 vicinity of this city, so appropriately styled the 
 cradle of the Eevolution. They had received the 
 elegant hospitality of a number of the families in 
 the city, and had made their last return calls. 
 Availing themselves of a leisure hour after dining, 
 they sought this elevated and commanding posi 
 tion, and contemplated the gorgeous scene which 
 lay before them. As they traced the picturesque 
 panorama which surrounded them, the gaze of 
 Ella V., while leaning on the arm of her friend 
 Mrs. E., lingered longest on the dim foliage of 
 Mount Auburn, now seen in the distance. Their 
 attention was at length recalled, as one of the 
 party pointed out the beautiful symmetry of one 
 of our majestic frigates, with her sails all furled, 
 and her yards squared, advancing from among the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 141 
 
 islands of the harbour, and borne along in her rapid 
 approach up the channel as if by some spell of en 
 chantment. But it was soon discovered that a 
 small steam-boat was under her larboard beam, 
 propelling the gallant ship through the still waters, 
 towards the moorings of other noble vessels of her 
 class, lying at the docks of the navy-yard, at 
 Charlestown. 
 
 " It reminds me," said Mr. F., as his eye was 
 also directed towards the object, " of a thrilling 
 scene I witnessed on the Mississippi during a past 
 winter. We were at anchor early of the morning, 
 in a beautiful U. S. Cutter, inside the bar which 
 stretches across the southwest pass of the Missis 
 sippi. The topmasts of four ships, lying at their 
 moorings like ourselves, were seen in the distance 
 peering above the white volumes of fog, which 
 hung heavily on the waters, but at this moment 
 was lifting under the influence of the early sun. 
 The morning was as beautiful as a mild atmosphere, 
 an unrippled expanse of water, and the reign of a 
 still calm, unbroken even by a solitary gull, scream 
 ing in its passage by, could render it. 
 
 " The captain, myself, and young S., a college- 
 friend and fellow traveller of mine, were pacing 
 the quarter-deck, when we heard the puff of steam 
 in the offing. Soon we caught the glimpse of a 
 white column of vapour curling up above the 
 darker mists of fog that had gathered over the ex- 
 
142 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 panse of waters which, in floods, are hourly pour 
 ing from the seven mouths of the Mississippi. We 
 soon perceived the top-gallant masts of a brig above 
 the stratum of fog, cutting her way through this 
 misty ocean ; and soon, she emerged in the rear 
 of the steamer, as the two vessels made their ap 
 pearance off the bar. The steamer urged on her 
 course with the prize for which she had been 
 cruising, off the southwest pass, during the night. 
 A brig and packet-ship, one of the Philadelphia 
 barques, had already been conveyed over the bar 
 by the same steamer, the preceding day. This 
 new ally, with ourselves, made out a full tow for 
 the * Heroine, a powerful boat, engaged with 
 many others in towing vessels from the mouth of 
 the river up the current of the rapid Mississippi. 
 The steamer came up with the brig, and soon took 
 the ship, lying at a short distance from us, under 
 her right wing. As they came omvard, a line was 
 thrown aboard our cutter from the steamer. Our 
 hawser being attached to it, the fastening was 
 soon drawn on board the Heroine, and we fell into 
 the wake of the ship as our anchor was weighed, 
 and the powerful boat stood on her course to take 
 yet another brig, which lay ahead of us, into our 
 little fleet. 
 
 " What news from Boston V we asked, as we 
 were advancing, side by side, with the brig that 
 last came over the bar. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 143 
 
 " * None, only the snow was four feet deep 
 when we left there. 
 
 " Ay, sir, was responded, the fairies down 
 hereaway fan us with softer breezes, and conjure 
 up for us a milder climate. 
 
 " True, Fahrenheit as here he reads the mer 
 cury-scale to us to-day, would very much discom 
 pose the sisters of the fairies, of whom you speak, 
 were they to keep a like log for the seventeenth of 
 January in Boston. The sleigh-bells and the fairy- 
 belles would not long chime together, as they dash 
 on their rides of a moon-lit night, to catch for their 
 cheeks the carmine of the late rose-coloured Nor 
 thern Aurora. 
 
 " Sentiment and poetry, captain," continued we 
 from our deck, they say are sister-spirits. We 
 perceive, though the frost of New England does 
 not banish them, they yet sometimes make a tra 
 verse down hereaway. How long since you left 
 the northern Athens j and what is there new in the 
 way of poems, prose-works, and presidents V 
 
 " There you are a little too hard for me again, 
 replied the New Englander. As for poetry, we 
 left it as we crossed the emerald-green waters of 
 the bay, and rode on the billows of the 
 
 " deep, deep, blue sea," 
 
 and star-gazed at the light-houses above us, when 
 the light-houses of the land were afar. The latest 
 
144 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 prose is Mr. E. s extra message, and my mate s 
 log-book. As to politics, why, sirs, you know, as 
 with the petticoats, we of the water-craft have little 
 to do with them. " Mr. F. gently inclined his head 
 to the ladies as he added, " Excuse me, but it was 
 a la the captain, who continued : But the pilot 
 tells me you are from Tampa last. What news of 
 the twenty million and brevet-war, I pray, sirs V 
 
 " Good, by the feather of Miconopa, said our 
 captain, as an officer of the army came upon the 
 quarter-deck. 4 That is a question for you, Lieu 
 tenant L. That fellow has been to college, I s , 
 
 adding an oath, which, as a landsman, I may be 
 permitted to omit and sharpened his wits, as 
 every sensible man will do, on salt water. 
 
 " The Lieutenant responded : Jumper, the 
 secretary of state to his majesty Miconopa s king 
 dom, made an eloquent speech at the grand talk ; 
 and with the heir apparent, his lordship Hoolotoo- 
 chee, has touched the quill to the articles of capit 
 ulation, as General J. calls them, but which were 
 not explained to the Indians as any thing else than 
 a new treaty, ratifying the old one, and engaging 
 on their part, to go to the west, so soon as the 
 flies shall drive up their stray cattle and ponies for 
 the government to pay the change for. As to the 
 brevets, the most acceptable one to the army gene 
 ral, is, that they will briefly leave the field of glo 
 rious war, and look to the General for a recom- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 145 
 
 mendation favourable to the department for a few 
 more of the acceptable trifles of which you speak. 
 
 " * The Indian hath the eye of an eagle, and sees 
 a great way off, continued the captain of the brig, 
 in his characteristic style. * He has whipped the 
 white skins. He knew that his trail was shortening ; 
 and with the shrewdness of a red warrior, he has 
 accepted the terms before the army, in turn, shall 
 whip him, that he may bear away his soft haired 
 scalps in triumph, and dance around the war-pole, 
 and sing the song of successful warriors, when he 
 reaches his western home. 
 
 " Set your course there, cried the captain of 
 the steamer, through his trumpet, from the prome 
 nade deck of the Heroine ; clew down your top 
 sails, and have a pull upon your larboard braces. 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir, cried the mate of the brig ; and 
 the evolution for a moment suspended the conversa 
 tion from the quarter-decks of the two vessels. The 
 order, in substance, was repeated for us. The sails 
 were set, as the breeze began to spring up. The 
 vessels were entering one of the long reaches of 
 the river, and soon began to slacken the hawsers, 
 which united us to the tugging steamer. 
 
 " The loungers on the quarter-deck had dispersed 
 themselves for a time, some one of them occasion 
 ally emerging from the cabin, to discover, if 
 possible, some variety in the monotonous shores, 
 which they were now passing. 
 13 
 
146 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOITR. 
 
 " We had slowly urged our course up the river, 
 within about a mile of the junction of the north 
 east pass with the main stream, when young S.and 
 myself were again on the quarter-deck. We had 
 perceived that a number of passengers were on board 
 the Gazelle, the beautiful name of the packet-ship 
 before us. At about ten o clock, an hour previous 
 to the occurrence of the incident towards which we 
 are hastening, two or three ladies were seen prome 
 nading the quarter-deck of the ship. They mani 
 fested great sprightliness delighted By the change 
 of scene, having just arrived over the bar after a 
 passage at sea, and pleased with the novelty of be 
 ing towed, side by side, by a steamer, in company 
 with three other vessels one under either wing 
 of the boat, the others in their wake all making 
 up a gallant little fleet, which now advanced to 
 gether on its course in beautiful consort and gran 
 deur against the opposing current of the giant river. 
 At this moment the ladies, in their apparent glee, 
 were seen springing from the quarter-deck of tbe 
 Gazelle over a plank extending to the upper deck 
 of the steamer, when occasional bursts of laughter 
 would reach us, as if they were performing 
 great feats of seamanship or female daring. They 
 had now jumped upon the promenade deck of the 
 steamer, and were sprightly skipping over it, de 
 scending the steps which were at the immediate 
 stern of the boat, leading to the main or lower 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 147 
 
 deck. They had several times repeated this move 
 ment, entering the cabin of the steamer, and other 
 wise amusing themselves, apparently exulting in 
 the liberty they were enjoying, after the confine 
 ment of so many days within the circumscribed 
 bounds of a single vessel. 
 
 " Oh,F. ! said young S. to me, with emotion, as 
 he paused a moment, with his arms folded upon 
 his breast and gazed on the distant figures of the 
 young ladies, who had again gathered on the pro 
 menade deck of the Heroine, how my heart goes 
 forward to meet my friends, after these three years 
 absence from home. Greece, Italy, France, and 
 England, have all amused me much, and I could 
 hope I have gained some advantage in my obser 
 vations of persons and things. But it is a lonely 
 hour that often gathers over us abroad, however 
 numerous our letters may have been, and flattering 
 the attentions of strangers in a distant land. The 
 heart yearns for home for the familiar faces of 
 those we love the sweet voice of a sister, as in, 
 past hours we have sat at her side on some rural 
 bench beneath the green foliage of the clustering 
 trees, and listened to her sweet and young voice, 
 accompanied by her guitar ; and whom you have 
 loved with almost a romantic affection, and wholly, 
 with a brother s heart. I most sincerely thank our 
 countryman, the author of 
 
 Home, sweet, sweet home, 
 
148 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR, 
 
 for embodying the beautiful conception which has 
 filled the vision of every man, who has travelled. 
 And the music to which the words are set is so ex 
 quisite and simple, that it has rendered the piece 
 the height of the pathetic, and brought it home to 
 the bosom of every lover of poetry and song. One 
 forgets that they are not his own words, and his 
 own cadences, as he hears the plaintive air and 
 lets his melancholy yet happy musings cluster with 
 the memories of home/ 
 
 " The eye of young S.was still on the lady-forms 
 flitting on the promenade-deck of the steamer, as if 
 he traced in the air of one of them the recollected 
 attitudes of some remembered friend. 
 
 " We were now just entering the expanse of 
 water, where the several passes of the river diverge* 
 The steamer was pressing forward with all her pow 
 er, while the sails of the four vessels were spread, 
 to assist our passage through the rapid current. 
 
 " c Gods ! suddenly exclaimed young S., as a 
 scream came from the forward vessel. He sprang, 
 with a single leap, to the spanker halliards, and 
 severing them with his knife, he placed himself,, 
 with one end of the coil in his hand, upon the gun 
 wale of the cutter. Let run the hawser there, 
 men ! Give it all away and back the ship, and 
 save the woman overboard ! Mr. F., r he added 
 hastily, l bend the other end of these halliards to 
 this side fender and throw it overboard, if the rope 
 runs out before I reach the womaiu* 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 14-9 
 
 " Clear away the boat ! sounded from the cap 
 tain, who had rushed upon the deck, and at once 
 comprehended the scene, while a dozen hands had 
 sprung to the quarter-deck, anticipating the order. 
 
 " Young S. had struck the water between the two 
 vessels, where he expected the young lady would 
 rise, whom he had seen precipitated from the main- 
 deck of the steamer, and as instantly carried under 
 by the rushing current and the high swell which 
 the wheels of the boat had raised, and which were 
 now running with fearful velocity between the two 
 after vessels. He went under ; and it was a fear 
 ful time before he re-appeared upon the surface of 
 the water. The halliards had already run out the 
 coil before the vessel could be checked. I cut the 
 buoy from the side of the cutter, and committed 
 him to heaven and the tide. It was a long breath 
 that was drawn by every bosom on board, and he 
 rose within five feet of the lady, who was now 
 struggling in the last agonies of a drowning person, 
 when the muscular arm of young S. seized the back 
 part of her dress, at the neck. 
 
 " Thank God! broke forth in a deep-drawn 
 but suppressed breath from more than one sicken 
 ed bosom. 
 
 " The boats from each of the four vessels were 
 
 instantly in the water ; and the cutter s light yawl 
 
 had flown almost out of water to the rescue of 
 
 their struggling favourite, who was often borne 
 
 13* 
 
150 ELLA T. y OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 down by the current and the now unconscious be 
 ing whom he endeavoured to hold above the 
 surface of the water. It was but a few moments ; 
 yet as each one leaned forward, as if they would 
 add impulse to the flying boat, it seemed an age of 
 delay, while each man raised his prayer to God 
 that they might not sink before they were reached 
 by the boat. 
 
 " * Swim P cried the captain of the cutter at the 
 top of his voice as he stood upon the tafferel 
 swim ! courage c courage, my brave fellow ! r 
 1 Pull, men, pull for your lives ! continued to echo 
 from our captain, with astonishing presence of 
 mind and effect* 
 
 " Thanks to God, they were reached. The mate 
 of the cutter who had thrown himself into the boat 
 with his men, seized the noble and now nearly ex 
 hausted S., as he was raised with his rescued and 
 insensible burden, to the boat. 
 
 " What a moment was that on board of the five 
 vessels, in full view of which the scene occurred. 
 No one can describe it. Not a syllable was uttered, 
 as the return boats were seen to move back to the 
 vessels. A faintness still fainter oppressed the 
 bosom, and as pure gratitude, at that moment, rose 
 from many hearts to God, as was ever breathed by 
 grateful lips. 
 
 " Young S. now lay almost as insensible as the 
 lovely being whom he had rescued from such a grave. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 151 
 
 The other boats put back to their several vessels, 
 which were now drifting down the stream, as 
 the steamer stopped her wheels ; and the cutter s 
 yawl, with the two insensible sufferers, pulled for 
 the Gazelle. They were gently borne to the cabin 
 as the eyes of young S. opened, and indicated his 
 resuscitation. The young lady was conveyed to 
 her berth, and warm blankets were wrapped about 
 her. A few minutes had passed, when her blue 
 lips were seen to sever, and her dimmed eyes par 
 tially opened. The administering of some simple 
 restoratives soon recovered her to her senses. 
 
 " Only a short time afterwards had passed when 
 a venerable gentleman was seen at the side of the 
 recovered but still enfeebled young man, to thank 
 him thanks did not express the overflowing feel 
 ings that were gushing from his eyes, as he said, 
 in agitated accents, O, sir, it is my daughter 
 you have saved what can assure you of my grati 
 tude V 
 
 " Young S. cast his eyes upon the venerable man 
 as he saw him weep, and exclaimed, * God Al 
 mighty ! It is my father ! 
 
 " My son ! broke from the lips of the astonish 
 ed parent, as he sunk upon the locker beside him. 
 
 " I was not present at this scene, but was soon 
 afterwards on board the Gazelle, beside my friend ; 
 and that brother was soon after in the embrace of 
 an only sister, whom he had saved from such a 
 
152 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 burial and unmarked tomb, by the providential co 
 incidence of entering the Mississippi at the time, 
 and the only time, that could have rescued the only 
 sister of his love from so sudden and inevitable a 
 death. 
 
 " The young lady, as the cause of the accident, 
 had descended the steps of the promenade-deck, to 
 pet a beautiful dog, which had caught her eye. By 
 a sudden lurch of the boat, she descended with 
 greater rapidity than she intended ; and losing 
 her balance, she struck her foot against the coiled 
 end of the hawser of one of the vessels in tow, and 
 fell overboard from the lower deck, which has no 
 railing about it. She struck directly in the wake 
 of the steamer, and was swept, by the rapid tide, 
 between the two vessels of the stern-tow. It 
 seemed a miracle that she was saved, or that her 
 brother could thus have supported himself, in the 
 rapid waters of this deep and swift rolling river. 
 
 " But I am making my narrative too long. Young 
 S. had just returned from Europe, by the way of 
 the Havana, where he was politely offered a passage 
 on board one of the United States ships of war, to 
 Tampa Bay. From thence he came in the United 
 States Cutter, bearing despatches to New Orleans. 
 The father and the daughter were returning from 
 the north, in expectation of the arrival of the son 
 and brother from abroad." 
 
 Mr. F, having answered several inquiries, which 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 153 
 
 his narrative of this interesting incident had awak 
 ened, the party descended the winding staircase 
 of the State House, to the ground below. They 
 paused a few moments at the house of one of their 
 kind friends and new acquaintances which fronted 
 the State House. The two young ladies of the 
 family were sitting at the window, at the moment 
 the party was passing, *nd insisted upon their call. 
 They soon afterwards returned to the Tremont 
 House, gratified in their review of the courtesies 
 of the Bostonians, and the charming scenery in 
 the neighbourhood of the city ; and the many as 
 sociations which they had gathered, for adding the 
 agreeable to their future recollections, 
 
154- ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 THE church-bells were sending forth their last 
 peals for the morning service, the succeeding Sun 
 day, when the party were politely seated in the 
 
 middle aisle of church. The morning was 
 
 pleasantly cool, and fair as the mild rays of an un 
 clouded sun, dissipating the moisture which the 
 showers of the preceding night had produced, 
 could render it. The enchanting day drew crowds 
 to the churches, and the house at which we attend 
 ed was filled. The Rector had called on Mr. F., 
 and accompanied him to the church, but did not 
 himself appear in the desk. It was the commu 
 nion-day in this church, and the table within the 
 altar was arranged for the appropriate and solemn 
 services, which the Rector, with the assistance of 
 Mr. F., conducted, after the sermon. 
 
 Mr. F. entered the desk, as the overture on the 
 organ waked in its gently swelling strains, which 
 seemed in beautiful harmony with the pervading 
 spirit of the hour. 
 
 There was something in the countenance of 
 Mr. F,, as he rose from his secret prayer and turn 
 ed the leaves of the Bible to mark the chapters of 
 the service for the morning, which would at once 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUti. 155 
 
 have led one, given to the study of the human fea 
 tures, to regard him as a man of emotion and ar 
 dent religious feeling. And yet his features were 
 so balanced, that nothing sanctimonious in the 
 lineaments of his face could he read, while the 
 brow, marked, regular, and white in contrast with 
 his waved hair of dark auburn, indicated him to be 
 a man of great refinement, and thought far beyond 
 his years. He rose and commenced the services, 
 and continued them without referring with his eye 
 to the prayer-book. The mellowed and often pa 
 thetic intonation of his voice, which exhibited with 
 out affectation the nicer shades of thought in the 
 prayers the intense interest which he threw into 
 the chapters of the morning lessons and the abso 
 lute thrill of emotion with which he read, before 
 the sermon, Henry Kirk White s Hymn, beginning 
 with the lines, 
 
 " Jesus, and shall it ever be, 
 A mortal man ashamed of thee V 
 
 led the audience to anticipate high gratification 
 from the discourse. Mr. F., however without stu 
 dying for effect, had gone to the services of the 
 morning with only one purpose ; and that was, to 
 benefit his hearers as far as his abilities should 
 permit ; and had taken an occasional sermon which 
 he thought would meet the case of some of his 
 friends, at least, and not prove an unseasonable 
 topic for the meditation of the congregation, in 
 
156 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 view of the communion solemnities before them. 
 He rose in the pulpit with modesty, and pronounc 
 ed his text : " EVERY ONE THAT LOVETH is BORN OF 
 GOD." 1 John iv. 7. 
 
 It is not the purpose of the writer to give the 
 language of Mr. F. s morning discourse, much of 
 which was extemporaneous, as he proceeded. But 
 it is within the design of these pages to specify 
 the sentiments of the preacher, as he advanced 
 with his subject, and at times to catch the style of 
 his impassioned eloquence. 
 
 In the religion of Jesus Christ, he affirmed, in 
 the commencement of his sermon, there is enough 
 to render the Christian happy. So the language 
 of St. Paul implies, when he exhorts the Philippians 
 in view of their onward hopes and present privi 
 leges, " always to rejoice." So also in his trium 
 phant language, when recalling his own anticipa 
 tions, and the assurance that there was soon to 
 open before him, the blessedness of the eternally 
 happy : " I have fought a good fight I have kept 
 the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a 
 crown of righteousness." 
 
 This same state of assurance, Mr. F. believed 
 to be attainable by most Christians, as the result of 
 a persuasion of one s reconciliation with God. 
 But this persuasion of one s reconciliation must 
 be built on evidence of Christian character, which is 
 to be seen, known, felt, and as intelligibly per- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 157 
 
 civcd as evidence of any other fact, which is ad 
 dressed to our moral perception. And it is to be 
 apprehended that many minds troubled by doubts 
 and fears, remain in this state of painful agitation, 
 from the circumstance, that they either direct their 
 inquiry for evidence of Christian character where 
 it cannot properly be found, or else, do not give 
 the evidence the same credibility in their own 
 case, which the same force of testimony, relating 
 to other things than religion, would leave upon 
 their convictions. 
 
 The purpose, then, of Mr. F., in the selection 
 of his theme for his morning s discourse, was to in 
 vite the attention of his audience to some particu 
 lars, which, as he deemed them, go to make up the 
 true evidences of Christian character. " EVERY ONE 
 
 THAT LOVETH, IS BORN OF GOD." 
 
 But rightly to conceive of the evidences of the 
 " new birth," we need clearly to perceive in what 
 precisely consists the change for the evidence of 
 which we are to seek. It is very obvious that we 
 cannot know what are the evidences of a change of 
 heart or conversion, unless we know what conver 
 sion itself is. And not to mistake in his illustra 
 tions, in the preliminary part of his discourse 
 while making the inquiry as to what, in itself, con 
 stituted the change in moral character, Mr. F. in 
 stanced the three Scripture cases of Paul, the jailer 
 and Lydia ; avoiding what was deemed to be too 
 14, 
 
158 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 frequently an occurrence from the pulpit, and cer 
 tainly very illogical writing, viz., the confounding 
 of the evidences of conversion with conversion 
 itself, by dwelling only on the evidences of this 
 conversion when conversion itself was the subject 
 of description and discourse. 
 
 The case of Paul was instanced first. We see 
 him, as the narrative describes the circumstances 
 connected with his conversion, on his way to 
 Damascus. His heart was burning against the 
 cause of Christ and its adherents. Suddenly, while 
 advancing on his course with purposes of persecu 
 tion, he is surprised by miraculous occurrences 
 around him. He is convinced that such an exhibi 
 tion is beyond the power of a man like himself ; 
 and that a religion and its abettors which had such 
 evidence of its divinity, must be true. Paul, char 
 acterized ever, as we would suppose him to have 
 been from what we gain from his biography, for 
 acting according to his convictions of the trutb, 
 takes his purpose on the spot, to acknowledge the 
 authority before him ; and says in unaffected sin 
 cerity, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do," with 
 a determination which ruled his future course, to 
 go forward as the future disciple of Jesus Christ. 
 This was his fixed determination, in view of the 
 reasons and influences which urged it. He went 
 forward accordingly. 
 
 Now, in this case of Paul, many minds seem to 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 159 
 
 confound the miraculous occurrences attendant on. 
 the conversion of Paul, with the particular of his 
 conversion itself; and thus, by a general inference, 
 making conversion a miraculous thing, which God 
 is to effect alone by his omnipotent power, to which, 
 in this case, Paul, they say, of necessity yielded. 
 And hence, they infer, that when the time for their 
 conversion comes, God in some like manner, as to 
 the exercise of his omnipotent power, will work in 
 some mysterious and irresistible way upon their 
 souls, and convert them. But this, said Mr. F., is 
 not a right perception of the case before us as he 
 viewed it. There was nothing miraculous in the 
 particular of Paul s change of heart, so far as the 
 moral change itself is concerned, which precisely 
 constituted his conversion. The miracles occurred 
 to convince this man that the religion of Jesus 
 Christ, which he then was on his way to Damascus 
 to persecute and to contend against, was the true 
 religion. So St. Paul saw it, and understood it. 
 He reasoned justly ; for no power could effect such 
 manifestations, in the circumstances in which he 
 was then placed, unless it were the true God. 
 And what was declared in such circumstances by 
 such a Being, he knew ought to be adhered to and 
 followed ; and under the influence of the Spirit, 
 urging him through these demonstrations of the 
 truth, he yielded up his heart to God, to be his 
 future follower. But was there any absolute neces- 
 
160 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 sity in the case, which compelled Paul thus to 
 yield obedience to the convictions of his mind 1 
 Why did not he, like the Scribes and the Pharisees, 
 and the Chief Priest, and Alexander, and John, who 
 together confessed that a " notable miracle had 
 been done and none could deny it" why did not 
 he, like them, withhold his determination to be 
 come a follower of that Jesus Christ, notwithstand 
 ing his convictions 1 He was no more convinced 
 of the miraculous occurrences around him than 
 were those men. And as surely might he have 
 withheld his purpose of discipleship to Christ as 
 they, and turned away from his Lord, notwithstand 
 ing his convictions, as did the Chief Priest and 
 Alexander and John and the Scribes. But Paul 
 did not thus act. When once convinced, as he 
 now was by these miraculous occurrences, under 
 the influence of the Spirit 5 he, on the spot, took 
 his decision of mind his determination of heart 
 in view of what such a decision would involve, in 
 view of duty, and his interests, that henceforth he 
 would throw in his lot with the sincere followers 
 of Jesus Christ ; and he exclaims, in the sincerity 
 of a convinced and surrendered heart, " Lord what 
 wilt thou have me to do," with the controlling pur 
 pose of his soul to go forward in obedience to the 
 discovered will of his Lord. "Here then" said Mr. 
 F. " in this voluntary, unnecessitated, final decision 
 of PauVs mind, which, under the influence of the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 161 
 
 Holy Spirit that urged it, gave up his heart by a 
 purpose that controlled his future course to be an 
 humble and obedient follower of Jesus Christ, was 
 the precise thing which constituted Paul s moral 
 change the change of heart, which is conversion. 
 It was a free and considerate act of the mind of a 
 considerate and decided man, in view of the reasons 
 which urged, and commanded, and commended it. 
 He saw that it was duty. He felt the obligation. 
 He knew it to be his interest. It was a rational, 
 considerate, and unnecessitated purpose of his mind 
 as much so as was the decision of our own, 
 which brought every individual of us this morn 
 ing within this temple of our God. And it was 
 such a free determination, on his part, which the 
 miraculous occurrences about him designed to 
 effect. And for this free decision on his part he was 
 responsible. And, my hearers" continued Mr. F., 
 in language as near as the writer can quote it, " it 
 is this free and controlling decision of the mind 
 which constitutes every unrenewed man s obliga 
 tion, who is this day before me. And when the 
 Holy Ghost moves over the sensibilities of your 
 souls, and in his word and by his providence, 
 touches the fountain-spring of your tears, as they 
 flow in sorrow or gush in grateful joy, it is this 
 decision which his commission bears him forth to 
 effect, when l convincing of sin and of righteous 
 ness and of a judgment to come. Paul might 
 H* 
 
162 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 have withheld this obligated purpose of his soul, 
 and still gone on like the convicted Scribes of his 
 own day, or the convinced but unyielding minds 
 of thousands in our time. But his course was dif 
 ferent was wiser was the fit act of a rational and 
 immortal mind. Years after, when recurring back 
 to the thrilling scene, he exclaims, Whereupon, 
 O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heav 
 enly calling, as his own language implies he 
 might have been. But he yielded to evidence. 
 He decided to act in view of it. Lord, what wilt 
 thou have me to do, bursted from his quivering 
 lip j and in the spirit of the humble penitent and 
 devoted follower of his persecuted but now adored 
 Lord, he goes forward as one of the fixed and un 
 wavering band of the then despised and crucified 
 Nazarine." 
 
 Mr. F., in his own glowing language, next des 
 cribed the case of the jailer. It was different from 
 Paul s, but alike attended by miraculous circum 
 stances. His convictions were the same as Paul s. 
 The design of the miracles under the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, was to produce these like convic 
 tions ; and induce the like surrender of the heart 
 on the part of the jailer, in view of such demonstra 
 tions of right and divinity. Nothing but the hand 
 of the Eternal could effect the commotions of the 
 earthquake, and the unbolting of the prison-doors ; 
 and the Deity would not work such wonders in 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 1G3 
 
 support of falsehood. The jailer rushes before the 
 disciples of his God, with such convictions and 
 purpose of heart, to devote himself to the lot and 
 the fortunes of the followers of such a power. 
 " Sirs, what must I do to be saved," is the language 
 of an agitated spirit; and the inquiry fell from 
 the lip with a full decision on his part, to yield a 
 future obedience to the principles of that Jesus, 
 whom these men served. It was this controlling 
 decision of the jailer s mind, governing his future 
 course, which constituted his conversion. It was 
 free. It was final. It was urged by the Holy Ghost. 
 But he might have withheld it, and like Annas the 
 Chief Priest, and John, and Alexander, who sat in 
 judgment on the apostles, might have gone on 
 still in his old course, in spite of, and in full con 
 fession of this evidence, as they confessed and 
 eternally ruined their souls. He decided aright 
 in view of his convictions of truth and duty, as 
 every other person is now left to decide as a free, 
 and accountable, and immortal spirit, urged by all 
 the considerations which the Holy Ghost can bring 
 to bear upon him, to induce such a surrender of 
 the soul. 
 
 The case of Lydia was yet different. Only the 
 words of Paul were breaking on her ear, while no 
 miraculous demonstrations verified the truths that 
 were now moving the sensibilities of her heart. 
 Her bosom heaves. Her eye fills with the succes- 
 
164 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 sive tear, as she hangs on the lip of the holy man 
 while he is concluding the story of the Son of God. 
 And here she takes her purpose, that her lot shall 
 be with the followers of this Jesus of Nazareth. 
 She attended unto the things which were spoken 
 of Paul," adds the sacred writer, who describes the 
 thrilling scene ; and when the apostle has ended, 
 with the evidence of Christian character already 
 glowing in her bosom, she goes to the holy man 
 with the spirit of genuine Christian hospitality, 
 and says, " If ye have judged me faithful to the 
 Lord, come to my house and abide there." 
 
 We then see, was the continued sentiment of 
 Mr. F., in these three cases, that each differs 
 from the other. Their circumstances were differ 
 ent, the habit of their minds was different ; and 
 their feelings, modified by their circumstances, 
 consequently were various. But while their habits 
 were various, and their circumstances differed, 
 their purpose of heart was one their decision of 
 mind the same. It controlled their future course in 
 obedient discipleship to Jesus Christ. And this was 
 the act of their minds which constituted their mo 
 ral change their change of heart their new-birth 
 their regeneration their conversion. It was 
 free, full, final, and taken in view of the truth, their 
 consequent responsibilities, their duty and their 
 eternal interests. 
 
 But suppose the warm hearted Lydia had sought 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 165 
 
 for some miraculous display to be attendant on her 
 conversion, as evidence of her change of heart, 
 would she have found it 1 No. Or suppose the 
 jailer, hearing of the case of Paul s blindness, had 
 sought for a like incident in the circumstances of 
 his conversion, as evidence of his change of heart, 
 would he have found it 1 No. Or suppose Paul, 
 after the conversion of the jailer, had sought for an 
 earthquake in the circumstances of his conversion, 
 would he have found it 1 No. And further still. 
 Had these things all occurred in each of the cases 
 supposed, would it have afforded either of them 
 evidence of a change of heart 1 No, none. These 
 things were no evidence of conversion. The ob 
 ject of the miraculous display in the conversion of 
 these to-be-followers of Jesus Christ, was to con 
 vince them of the truth y to which they might or they 
 might not yield; and to influence them, if they 
 might be influenced in view of their convictions, to 
 give up their hearts to God, by a full, free, and con 
 trolling purpose of their souls, to go forward as the 
 future disciples of the Son of God. 
 
 Here, then, it was apprehended, in the continued 
 sentiment of Mr. F., that there was to be found one 
 reason why the evidences of Christian character 
 often gain so faint an impression on the minds of 
 many, who, in the just and proper evidences of 
 Christian character, we are to deem the conscien 
 tious followers of Jesus Christ. They direct their 
 
166 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 inquiries to a wrong point. In the three cases 
 which have been instanced, they do not rightly dis 
 criminate between the miraculous occurrences 
 which are brought to bear on the minds of some 
 characters in the apostle s days, to convince them 
 of the truth of the Christian religion, and what are 
 the real evidences that those same minds yielded 
 themselves up in obedience to their convictions, 
 which were thus produced in their perceptions of 
 the truth. The consequence often is, that many, 
 when seeking for the evidences of their conversion, 
 look for something miraculous, or mystic, or 
 strange, while it is yet something they do not de 
 fine, and which is indescribable, and only imaginary. 
 And as they find not the evidence of this ideal but 
 confused yet believed to be necessary mystic action 
 of their minds, in connection with their religious 
 experience in conversion, they continue to dwell 
 in fears doubts darkness and sometimes, in 
 despair; and never "rejoice" according to the ex 
 hortation of Paul in view of their high expectations. 
 And in some cases, (and they have not been a few,) 
 with such perversion of true sentiment in relation 
 to the evidences of what is a necessary change of 
 heart, the despairing inquirer has ended his exist 
 ence in the delirium of a suicide. 
 
 The precise thing, then, in the continued senti 
 ment of Mr. F. s discourse, which we need to know, 
 as we learn from these cases of conversion which 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 167 
 
 have been instanced, is, not whether, in our expe 
 rience we have had all the attending circumstances 
 which really have occurred, or which are affirmed 
 to have occurred in the experience of others at 
 their conversion, but whether we have taken this 
 free, full and controlling purpose of our souls to go 
 forward, as the disciples of Jesus Christ; and does 
 this decision of our hearts govern our external ac 
 tions in obedience to the principles of the New Testa 
 ment? It matters not ho\v we have reached this 
 purpose of heart. It matters not when we came to 
 it. It matters not where. It is its possession, on 
 which our safety depends, and by which our Chris 
 tian character is rightly decided. It is what con 
 stituted the conversion of Paul the jailer and 
 Lydia. It is what God urges, and the Saviour en 
 treats, and the Holy Ghost brings his influences to 
 bear upon the mind to effect. And if we do pos 
 sess it, and, by consequence, are acting on it, then 
 have we reason to thank God that he has led us by 
 his influences, whatever they may have been, thus 
 to surrender our hearts to him; and henceforth 
 should we go forward rejoicing in the language 
 of the apostle, "rejoicing ever more." 
 
 Mr. F. having given this illustration by Scripture 
 example, of what constitutes a change of heart, 
 and consequent Christian character, he proceeded 
 to offer, according to the plan of his discourse, 
 some reflections illustrative of the EVIDENCES of 
 
168 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR* 
 
 this change of heart, and of the possession of this 
 Christian character. He quoted three sets of pas 
 sages from the Scriptures, associated with the 
 evidences of Christian character. The first was 
 the theme he had selected for his discourse, with 
 its kindred expressions : "Every one that loveth 
 is born of God." " God is love, and he that dwel- 
 leth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 
 " We love him because he first loved us." These 
 are passages associated with LOVE TOWARDS GOD, as 
 evidence of Christian character. The next set of 
 texts were connected with love to the brethren, as 
 another evidence of discipleship to Christ ; and 
 that he who possesses it is " born of God," " con 
 verted," " regenerated," and has " passed from 
 death unto life ;" terms which, when they are pro 
 perly analyzed, mean one and the same thing ; 
 and the very thing which has been illustrated by 
 the remarks connected with Paul, the jailer, and 
 Lydia. The next set of texts had reference to the 
 keeping of the commandments of God, as a further 
 evidence of Christian character. From these pas 
 sages were gathered three particulars, as evidences 
 of Christian character. The first was LOVE TO GOD j 
 the second, LOVE TO THE BRETHREN ; the third, KEEP 
 ING THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD j and the passages 
 quoted were mostly recorded on the pages of the 
 Bible, especially to let those know, into whose 
 hands it should fall, whether or not they were the 
 
ELLA T., OR THE JULY TOUR. 169 
 
 disciples of Jesus Christ; "hereby we know," 
 "by this we know;" "we know because;" and 
 " by this shall all men know." What could be 
 more explicit what laid down more definitely, and 
 with greater precision 1 If we have these charac 
 teristics of a child of God of those who have 
 passed from " death unto life," who have been 
 " born again ;" why should we hesitate to take 
 home to our bosoms the assurance that we are the 
 reconciled children of God, and be elated with 
 grateful joy as we anticipate the hour when we 
 shall pass from this earth s friendships its joys 
 its griefs its changes and open our entranced 
 vision on the glories of the untried and blessed 
 state of changeless happiness 1 
 
 Mr. F. proceeded to inquire, how it should be 
 satisfactorily known to those before him, that they 
 were possessed of these evidences of Christian 
 character ; and solicited their attention while he 
 replied, in the remaining part of his discourse, in 
 connection with the first class of the passages which 
 he had quoted, that " He that loveih is born of 
 God." 
 
 To know that we possess the characteristic of 
 discipleship, designated by LOVE TO GOD, we are to 
 make the inquiry in many particulars, in the same 
 way that we would assure ourselves of our affec 
 tion for an earthly friend. Of such a friend we 
 know we are pleased to speak. To such a friend 
 15 
 
170 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 we find pleasure in speaking. For the interests, 
 and in the defence of such a friend, we are happy 
 to speak. We are happy in hearing of the pros 
 perity of the cause of such a friend. We are 
 grieved when we hear of any injury done to the 
 cause of that friend. If we know his wishes, it 
 will give us pleasure to further them ; and if it be 
 in our power and circumstances, we will advance 
 the interests and the wishes of that friend. If 
 such a friend is very dear to us, we are willing to 
 make very great sacrifices, if necessary, in promo 
 ting his interests, and in the defence of his charac 
 ter. In the reception of favours and kindness from 
 that friend, we acknowledge those favours and 
 kindness with a grateful feeling. And if, in an 
 hour of thoughtlessness or forgetfulness, or in 
 view of some other interest, we have injured this 
 friend in any way, unprovoked, and in spite of all 
 his kindness, on the return of our better mind the 
 reflecting consciousness of such action brings into 
 the bosom a deep sense of our uningenuousness 
 perhaps baseness and hardihood. And if the heart 
 indeed relents, it may w r et our eye with a tear of 
 contrition, and draw forth the confession of our 
 unkindness, while with bitterness of spirit we 
 lam^iit our fault. 
 
 Mr. F., in this connection, appealed to his 
 Christian hearers, if they had not already run the 
 parallel in their own minds, and found some analogy 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 171 
 
 between the feelings specified, and those which, at 
 times, they had cherished towards God. To ren 
 der it still plainer, he continued to inquire if they 
 had not in days past found it a pleasure in secret, 
 to lay open to their Father who seeth in secret, a 
 heart sometimes oppressed with sorrow ; and to 
 tell him all their wo, and at other times their joy 1 
 He asked not whether they always found such in 
 terviews equally interesting to their spirits, but 
 were such seasons conscientiously observed, with 
 a desire to please their God and to observe his 
 precepts ; and would nothing of this earth tempt 
 them to forego the welcome privilege of such in 
 terviews with their Creator 1 And then, was it 
 not a pleasure to them to hear of that God, as a 
 Being who stands to them in the relationship of one 
 vrho has done them good, and whom they feel that 
 they would ever regard as their friend, and one 
 who has obligations on them as a God of love ; 
 and did they not find it a part which they willingly 
 have performed, and which gave them pleasure, to 
 speak for the honour and in commendation of this 
 Being! Did they not delight to recommend to 
 others the excellency of God s character, that they 
 might win from them the affection which they 
 owed to a Being of such perfections, and of so 
 much kindness to them 1 And when they heard the 
 name of such a friend trifled with, did it not wake 
 in their bosoms the feelings of ingenuous sorrow, 
 
^TT.4 Y. OX THE JULY TOUE. 
 
 and the emotion of holy displeasure I And when 
 they heard of the prosperity of the cause of their 
 God, when the interests which the precepts of his 
 law inculcates, and for the advancement of which 
 he sent his Son into the world, are seen to prevail 
 when they hear of many turning from the error of 
 their ways to holiness -and they see one here and 
 another there coming to Christ and surrendering 
 their hearts to him to he his disciples did not all 
 these things wake an emotion of delight in their 
 bosoms ; and was it not something in which they 
 felt an interest : was it not something more than 
 a mere passive complacency, which onr very con 
 stitution, even were we devils, would require that 
 we should feel, while contemplating virtue 
 added Mr. F. nearly in the following language, "all 
 this you do feel ; and I doubt not, my Christian 
 friends, but that a tear of swelling joy has often 
 stolen silently from your eye, as you have marked 
 some of your beloved friends advance to this altar, 
 and here declare, for the first time, before a world, 
 and angels, and heaven, their purposes of future 
 discipleship to their Lord ; and when you have 
 seen the interests of Christ s kingdom invaded 
 when you have marked the prevalence of what 
 marred the success of religious effort to delay, 
 and finally to defeat the salvation of souls 
 when you have witnessed the occurrence of what 
 tended to dissipate the serious thoughts which 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JCT.Y TOUB. 173 
 
 were awaking in the minds of friends, urging their 
 return of love to their God then have you felt the 
 emotion of sorrow swelling your bosoms, and the 
 deep feeling of concern wake over those for whom 
 you would have sacrificed much, could you but 
 have urged them into the kingdom of God. But 
 they again returned with thoughtless indifference 
 to the miserable allurements of a tempting and 
 heartless world. And then again, if in an hour of 
 your own forgetfulness an hour when you have 
 ceased to be watchful over your own responsibili 
 ties and becoming course of professed friendship 
 for Jesus Christ an hour when the world, in some 
 of its shapes of conviviality, dissipation, and thou 
 sand forms of temptation, has drowned too many 
 of your serious thoughts, you have wandered from 
 what you have deemed your Christian duty, and 
 have thus given cause for reflection to be made 
 upon the observed defect in the consistency be 
 tween your actious and your professed love for him 
 who died for you oh, my Christian friends, has 
 not the reflection then brought with it, on your re 
 turn to a better mind, a sorrowful emotion of re 
 gret, and a bitter reflection of self-condemnation, 
 which, when your heart indeed relented, found re 
 lief for a broken spirit only in a free and full 
 confession of your neglect your forgetfulness 
 and fault against the God of love, and whom you 
 yet adore as your best, and long-forbearing, and 
 Jo* 
 
174* ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 forgiving friend 1 Yes," continued Mr. F. j " and 
 in the description given, surely do you find some 
 resembling portraiture of your own feelings. And 
 if such feelings, cherished towards an earthly 
 friend, would conclusively evince the sincerity of 
 a devoted affection, they no less declare the sin 
 cerity of your love, where possessed, towards your 
 Friend in heaven. Believe then the evidence," 
 Mr. F. continued at this point of his discourse, 
 as he looked over the congregation with confi 
 ding assurance that therewas reason in the ex 
 position and the illustration which he had given, 
 (and which here has but faintly been reported,) 
 why such should be the result of such perceived 
 feelings within the Christian s bosom. "Believe 
 the evidence. Let not the fear of deception, my 
 Christian friends, hinder you from cherishing 
 the feeling of confidence where the evidence is 
 yours. Your persuasion of reconciliation should 
 be built on evidence, and only on evidence. And 
 evidence here should be as fully convincing as 
 testimony on any other subject. You have the 
 rule: EVERYONE THAT LOVETH is BORN OF GOD. 
 Do you not know that these feelings, which I have 
 described, are the possession of your bosoms 1 
 Then hesitate not, in your own case, the intended 
 result of such perceived evidence, a grateful peace 
 of mind and joy in the Holy Ghost. Take to your 
 bosom the consolation which springs from the assu- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 175 
 
 ranee of sins forgiven, and of a reconciliation with 
 your God. Go on in your Christian course, with 
 hearts still more conscientious still more self- 
 denying still more happy. Rejoice evermore ! 
 aid again I say, rejoice. And to-day," con 
 tinued Mr. F., with more impassioned intonation, 
 " to-day, with such feelings of happy assurance, 
 come to this table of your Lord. Believe him 
 to be your friend, well-pleased by this demon 
 stration of your devotion and purposes of love 
 and faith plighted before heaven and the world. 
 Here, as ye muse on the love of that Saviour who 
 died for your rescue, here open all your heart to 
 him as to one you know will sympathize in all your 
 sorrows and in all your joys. He, this day, wishes 
 not that your mind should be filled with doubts. 
 He is no hard master. He is your elder brother; 
 and his heart is full of all those feelings, that make a 
 friend a worthy possession. Tell him then," con 
 tinued Mr. F. with yet deeper pathos, " tell him, 
 as ye this day, and around this board, recall 
 the godlike sacrifice of the crucified Jesus, tell 
 him the overflowings of your love. Tell him your 
 regrets for the past. Tell him your purposes of 
 devouter attachment and consistency of profession. 
 Tell him all your gratitude for his favours. Tell 
 him that your tears have flowed too seldom over 
 the recollections of his sufferings for you. Tell 
 him your heart has been too cold, your love too 
 
176 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 faint, your efforts of his honour too feeble, your 
 defence for his cause too timid. But tell him, here 
 is your heart, and here, this day, you renew its 
 surrender to him your life your soul your all, 
 and that on his cross hangs all your hopes of rescue 
 from eternal wo all your bright anticipations of 
 heaven, of happiness, of bliss ! 
 
 " But to you, my hearers," added Mr. F., as he 
 closed the gilded prayer-book which lay before 
 him, and in an altered tone of mingled pity and re 
 proach continued, " to you, who this day witness 
 the return of this sad and yet joyous commemora 
 tion of the last hour scene of the dying Son of God, 
 and can still remain unnumbered among the pro 
 fessed followers of the crucified Jesus, what to you, 
 amid the associations of this hallowed hour, may I 
 say 1 Nothing if the godlike love of Jesus Christ 
 touches not your hearts ! Nothing if you can re 
 fuse, this day, a response of affection for love so 
 sincere. Nothing if, at the close of this dis 
 course, you can again turn without emotion 
 from a scene which commemorates events 
 so thrilling in their relation to every deathless 
 spirit, longing for immortality and bliss ; and will 
 single yourselves from among Christ s approach 
 ing followers, as if these things, which hold 
 seraphim in an entranced gaze and solemn com 
 mune, were no concern of yours. Nothing 
 if the blood of Jesus speaks not to your sensi- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 177 
 
 bilities if the mangled body of Christ calls forth 
 no sorrow if the intonations of his dying agony 
 thrills not your quiverless lip throes not your 
 unheaving breast ! What to you may I say 1 No 
 thing ! No, nothing !" 
 
 As Mr. F. concluded his discourse, his eye 
 yet lingered in fixed abstraction on the audience 
 before him. That brief pause was as profound a 
 silence as the death moment, when the soul takes 
 its exit from earth to the world unknown. 
 
178 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 THE services of the afternoon were commenced. 
 Mr. F. was seated within the altar, around which 
 the followers of Christ that morning had knelt, and 
 where, too, Miss Ella V., at the side of her friend 
 Mrs. E., for the first time publicly declared a religious 
 profession before the world. It was known that 
 Mr. F. would continue, in the afternoon, the subject 
 on which he had discoursed in the morning. The 
 speaker and the subject had sufficiently interested 
 the morning audience, to draw a full house in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 The prayers were ended. Mr. F. entered the 
 pulpit and pronounced his text : 
 
 " WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE PASSED FROM DEATH 
 UNTO LIFE, BECAUSE WE LOVE THE BRETHREN." 
 
 1 John iii. 14*. 
 
 The speaker briefly recapitulated the particu 
 lars of his morning s discourse. He further pre 
 mised, that we should never hesitate, from the 
 fear of being deceived, to indulge those feelings 
 which we deem to be correct, nor discredit their 
 sincerity when we possess them. Many things 
 he believed were often said, doubtless with the best 
 intention, to preserve us from deception as to our 
 religious character, or what is sometimes called a 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 179 
 
 false hope, to which, however, he could not assent. 
 For, the way to prevent this self-deception, is not 
 by throwing doubts upon what is real evidence of 
 Christian character ; or, where this evidence is 
 possessed, to hesitate the receiving it, with the 
 full and free conviction of the mind as to its reality. 
 If we may be deceived with the evidences of Chris 
 tian character within our bosoms, as they are de 
 lineated on the pages of revelation, there can be 
 no means left, by which to test the verity of honest 
 Christian discipleship ; and we should be all adrift, 
 on an ocean of uncertainty and harassing doubts. 
 And we often do find conscientious minds tossed 
 on the agitating surge of alarm and unrest, with 
 their anxious bosoms bereft of the rich bequest, 
 which Jesus Christ designedly left for their happy 
 possession through this world, while yielding their 
 discipleship to him namely, a peace of mind 
 " which casteth out all fear," and a "joy in the 
 Holy Ghost." The Saviour would have his fol 
 lowers, while on earth, blessed with confiding trust 
 in his love, as they cast forward their happy anti 
 cipations to the rest, which shall be unruffled in its 
 peace, and eternal in its years. 
 
 Here Mr. F. quoted several passages from the 
 Scriptures, in connection with his text, for illus 
 trating the further evidence of Christian character, 
 namely, 
 
 LOVE FOR THE BRETHREN. 
 
180 ELLA V., OR TllE JULY TOUR. 
 
 And in view of these passages it was affirmed, that 
 here was another definite and distinct characteristic 
 of Christian discipleship something intelligent 
 something fixed : " We know that we have passed 
 from death unto life because we love the brethren." 
 " By this shall all men know that ye are my disci 
 ples, if ye have love one for another." As to the 
 possession of Christian character, in view of these 
 expressions from the Bible, the matter is not left 
 as a thing about which we are to guess to dream 
 to mystify. It is no indescribable thing. It is a 
 thing about which there need be no doubt no in 
 definitely perceived but fearful and agitating am 
 biguity. It is a reality, a perceptible, delineated, 
 and conscious reality. And where this love for the 
 brethren is possessed, it is evidence, on the authority 
 of the Scriptures, given us in the passages quoted, 
 expressly to let us know our religious state, of 
 " being born again" of having " passed from death 
 unto life" of " knowing God" of " abiding in 
 the light." And not only to ourselves, but it is 
 evidence to " all men," that we are his disciples, 
 " if we have love one to another." And Christians 
 know this evidence, from their own consciousness. 
 It is an emotion which has often swelled high their 
 throeing bosoms. It has awakened full their fre 
 quent sympathy. It has augmented oft their Chris 
 tian joys. It is an emotion which has arisen to 
 wards the pure and kindred spirit in sentiment and 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 181 
 
 feeling-, whether they have met together in the 
 humble cabin or the stately mansion whether 
 clad in the garb of poverty or the vestments of af 
 fluence. It is a kindling spirit which sympathizes 
 with its kindred character, wherever, and when 
 ever, and however found. It goes out into action ; 
 and in case of need will do deeds of goodness to 
 the object of kindred sentiments and discipleship. 
 And where and when this evidence is possessed 
 (and it is a thing of the Christian s own conscious 
 ness) of " being born again" of " knowing God" 
 of " abiding in the light," ought it not to yield a 
 full conviction to such a mind, of the reality of his 
 Christian state, and give him peace a peace which 
 casteth out all fear a peace, which makes religion 
 a thing worth the possession, and a thing, that may 
 and should calm the spirit amid all the changes of 
 earth, in his successive griefs and joys. 
 
 Mr. F. added many illustrations upon this evi 
 dence of Christian character, which the writer will 
 not here repeat. And when the speaker had, as he 
 believed, secured the convictions of his audience, 
 he added, with more deliberate enunciation : " My 
 Christian friends, with these evidences of Christian 
 character, you have reason, this day, to be happy. 
 I advocate not," he said, as he stepped back in 
 the pulpit, and yet more elevating his young 
 and dignified person, " I advocate not that 
 you should be watchless of your own Christian 
 16 
 
182 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 state. I advocate not, that your hopes should be 
 based on presumptuous confidence, where evidence 
 is absent. I call for no remissness on your part 
 for self-examination. On the contrary, I exhort 
 you to watchfulness and self-examination as ye 
 love your souls, and would secure their salvation. 
 But I further exhort you to give credence, belief, 
 and full confidence to the evidence, when, by self- 
 examination, you find it a matter of your own con 
 sciousness. Else, why be watchful 1 Else, where 
 fore give yourselves to self-examination 1 Believe 
 me, these feelings possessed will not deceive you. 
 And confidence in these feelings shall make you 
 peaceful, happy. What Christian, then, should hes 
 itate this peace of mind, this joy of soul 1 Yours, 
 Christian hearers, are high expectations. They 
 are immortal heavings which swell your throeing 
 bosoms. Look up look up to the fair battlements, 
 that inwall the heavenly and holy city. Erelong, 
 those rising bulwarks shall shield you from every 
 agitation of spirit from every fearful fluctuation 
 of hope from every doubt of suspense. Cast for 
 ward your kindling eye of expectation. Soon, ay, 
 soon a vision of glory shall break on your view, 
 surpassing the wildest dream that ever an unchain 
 ed fancy drew. Swell high, then, the grateful emo 
 tion of your joyous bosoms. Soon, that gush of 
 joy that gleam of hope that welcome calm of 
 spirit shall rise to an ocean-swell of delightful 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 183 
 
 emotion shall break in an eternal day of fruition 
 shall be perpetuated in an endless rest of soul. 
 Forget, for a moment, all your tears of earth, and 
 look yet intenser at the scenes of heaven. There, 
 in your far-on view of those eternal regions, you 
 see no face lined by the marks of grief. No sorrow 
 dims the immortal cheek with a tear bursting from 
 a disconsolate, riven, and broken heart. There, 
 the changes of time shall have finished their blight 
 ing and their mildew, which, on earth, sometimes 
 gather over a withered spirit. There, O yes, 
 Christians, your souls, which here have weathered 
 out full many a storm of temptation and trouble 
 and pain, shall be anchored safe in an unruffled 
 ocean of peace of bliss ; and wide heaven shall 
 know no damp to the exulting joy that shall fill the 
 bright domain. And this joy, Christians, is yours, 
 all, all is yours, and yours for ever. Shall it not 
 make you happy happy on your course of earth 
 as well as in the bright possessions of heaven 1 
 Shall it not here dry up your fastest flowing tears, 
 as they yet may fall over much that shall call you 
 to weep 1 Shall it not soothe the deepest griefs 
 that may yet lie on your path through a world of 
 change, to a changeless state of joyous being 1 
 Then give way, give way, Christians, to your 
 privileged emotions. Exult in your delightful and 
 joyous anticipations. Come, and without fear cast 
 your exulting gaze within that grave, which, ere- 
 
184 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUH. 
 
 long shall hold, in peaceful rest, your crumbling 
 dust. To you, the grave is no enemy. It is your 
 friend. And so is death and Christ. Hencefor 
 ward, then, go on your course rejoicing. Be thank 
 ful be happy. Wait in patience the summons of 
 your dying Lord ; and at the darkest hour of your 
 departing mortality, expect, with burning devotion 
 to your risen Saviour, to be welcomed to the rest 
 of thosej who sleep in JesusJ* 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 185 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 IT was customary in the church in which Mr. 
 F. preached, to postpone the afternoon service on 
 communion days, until the evening. But the 
 Rector, having the assistance of Mr. F., opened the 
 church, as we have seen, in the afternoon, at 
 which time notice was given of the third or evening 
 service. 
 
 To me, there was always a solemnity about a 
 night-service, which is absent during the exercises 
 of the earlier parts of the day. The sun has gone 
 down, and the shades of the evening have shut out 
 all external objects from the eye. The mellowed 
 light of the chandeliers and the lamps is in keeping 
 with the serenity of the hour, and the still-calm so 
 suitable for religious meditations. The notes of 
 the organ seem still sweeter and soft, and the har 
 monies of the hour prepare the feelings for the 
 deepest impressions which the narrative, and the 
 exposition, and the eloquent enforcing of affecting 
 and eternal truths can leave in the bosom of the wor 
 shipper. 
 
 Mr. F. this evening was to conclude his re 
 marks on the subject which had occupied his dis 
 course during the morning and the afternoon. A 
 
 season of tender emotion seemed to have come 
 
 16* 
 
186 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 over his own feelings as he sat within the altar 
 during the performance of the service. He lean 
 ed his elbow upon the communion table and buried 
 his face in his handkerchief. It might have been 
 fatigue, as it would have seemed to those who did 
 not know him, but to some who did, he appeared 
 more than once to shed his tears. The exercises 
 of the day had been such, that they were condu 
 cive to leave a susceptible Christian heart affected. 
 And Mr. F. had been known, in view of his rising 
 before a crowded audience, gathered as listeners 
 to the themes pertaining to their eternal interest, 
 to weep over a sense of his youth, his respon 
 sibility, and the affecting relations he stood in, as 
 one who was to declare to them the words per 
 taining to the onward destinies of their deathless 
 spirits. And to-day, he had witnessed the ap 
 proach of some of his friends to the altar within 
 which he was now sitting, among whom there was 
 one, at least, for whom he had felt the interest 
 and the solicitude of a Christian friend, and who, 
 for the first time, this day had numbered herself 
 among the public followers of Christ. 
 
 The first part of Mr. F. s sermons was gener 
 ally argumentative, illustrating some one definite 
 principle of the Bible ; and having secured the con 
 victions of his audience he concluded his discourse 
 with great energy and deepest feeling. The speci 
 men already given is sufficient to lead us to infer 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 187 
 
 this, but to form any correct estimate of the solemn 
 effects he left upon his audience, there was need to 
 listen to the feeling intonations of his voice, and 
 mark the earnest and unaffected expression of his 
 attitudes. 
 
 Mr. F. ascended the pulpit this evening, and his 
 silent prayer seemed longer than usual. The last 
 strain of the organ had ceased. Mr. F. rose and 
 announced his text : 
 
 " Y ARE MY FRIENDS, IF YE DO WHATSOEVER I 
 COMMAND YOU." John XV. 14. 
 
 Obedience to the commandments of God was the 
 inference which the speaker drew from the text, 
 as one other evidence of Christian character. 
 
 And he went on, illustrating his position at 
 length, with feeling and conclusive reasonings, 
 and the reciting of interesting cases, which came 
 home to the apprehension and convictions of his 
 auditors. The writer would like to report Mr. F. s 
 last discourse in full, holding the audience as it did 
 in still and profound attention and interest. But 
 the whole drift of the sermon was, to show that 
 where a prevailing conscientiousness is found in the 
 bosom of the professed follower of Christ, there 
 was the spirit of obedience, which corresponded 
 with the evidence under consideration, deduced 
 from the words, " Ye are my friends, if ye do what 
 soever I command you." 
 
 " Let me," said Mr. F., in the summing up of 
 
188 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUH. 
 
 his argument, "find this prevailing, delicate, every 
 where conscientiousness in guiding one s daily 
 action, and then I say, I have found one of the 
 most unequivocal evidences of a soul reconciled to 
 its God, and of a Christian character, which shall 
 bear him onward through a world of temptation 
 and sin, to the pure, and the happy, and the im 
 mortal realms of the rescued and the saved. 
 
 "My Christian hearers," he continued, en 
 kindling with his theme as he approached its 
 conclusion, " it is ever a grateful task to a Christian 
 pastor to address such of his flock as you. Before 
 you, he remembers that all is bright in anticipa 
 tion. Not one cloud shades the fair prospect. If 
 doubts, and fears, and alarms ever arise in your 
 hearts, which sometimes agitate the bosoms of the 
 holiest and the best, yet he knows and he feels 
 that he has the authority from the word of God to 
 re-assure you in your Christian confidence. To 
 you, amid all your agitation of spirit, where you 
 find this prevailing conscientiousness, he may ever 
 repeat the language of the Saviour, * Fear not ye 
 are my friends I go to prepare a place for you. 
 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
 again and receive you unto myself, that where 1 
 am there ye may be also. Let not your heart be 
 troubled, neither let it be afraid. Of you, he feels 
 assured, that neither life, nor death, nor principali 
 ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 189 
 
 come, shall be able to separate you from the love 
 of God. If he looks forward to the hour, whether 
 it shall sooner or later attend you, when, like all 
 others, you will have to pay the last debt of nature, 
 and lie on your bed of departure from this earth, 
 he knows that you have secured the arm of one 
 who will then support you in your weakness and 
 your anguish. He can imagine your emaciated 
 countenance he can contemplate your exhausted 
 state of nature he can see, in prospect, yoursunken 
 eye. But, dreadful as the contemplation is, he 
 can see in that eye an illumination that assures 
 him that it shall soon be re-enkindled by fires im 
 mortal and in that sinking debility of frame, he 
 yet has the evidence in your case, that it shall be 
 re-invigorated with undying health ; and those 
 emaciated features shall be re-illumed with immor 
 tal youth. And should it should it be his melan 
 choly destiny, Christians, ere it shall be his lot to 
 render up an account of his own stewardship, to 
 stand over the grave of one of your number, he 
 knows, amid the sorrows of such a moment, that 
 he can say, as the dust shall crumble with its hol 
 low echoes on your coffin-lids, Here rests the 
 relics of one who had placed his or her hopes on 
 Christ, and whose spirit now breathes its bliss in 
 heaven. Yes, as his thoughts go forward, he can 
 recall to his mind no one joy that can bless an immor 
 tal spirit, which he sees not to be yours. In heaven, 
 
190 ELLA V,, OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the soul shall enter on its eternal calm. There, 
 nothing shall come over the spirit to ruffle your 
 peace of mind nothing to excite with painful agi 
 tation a spirit so liable, on earth, to disappointment, 
 to irritation, to grief. There, painful remembrances 
 shall have lost their daggers, which here sometimes 
 pierce, with bitter anguish, a troubled spirit. There, 
 the social griefs that here wake on seeing one and 
 another and another of a beloved and united family 
 sinking to their long and silent rest, and at length 
 leaving, may be, but one of their number to tread 
 the way of earth in loneliness and care, shall cease. 
 No it is not in the power of words to tell the joy 
 of soul or visions of glory, that await your ran 
 somed spirits. But there, that joy shall be full 
 and those visions, eternal and bright and it shall 
 all be such as shall meet the longings of your social, 
 intellectual, and deathless spirits. And this, not 
 for one day not for one year not for one million 
 of years. It is a happiness that time cannot mea 
 sure for its continuance : it is a happiness that 
 numbers may not compute for its fullness. 
 
 " Tell me, then, shall I not^ exhort you, Chris 
 tian hearers, stranger though I am, in view of these 
 your bright destinies of immortal being, and evi 
 dences of your heirship to such unfailing blessed 
 ness, to rejoice to rejoice on your way to your 
 inheritance, so full of all that can make happy -so 
 free from all that can make sorrowful so eternal 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 191 
 
 in its onward years 1 What shade shall come over 
 the prospect, as I stand here, this night, addressing 
 such beings, and recalling to their view such pros 
 pects, and urging them to such rejoicings, in view 
 of such eternal relations 1 No ! no ! not one 
 shadow shall wave its dark wing of melancholy, and 
 solicitude, and despair, over the mental vision of 
 this joyous moment. To-day, the consoling and 
 sustaining expectation of him, who usually ad 
 dresses you from this hallowed place, bears for 
 ward his welcome gaze to the anticipated hour, 
 when, this earth having passed away, and your 
 bodies long having slept in some of these vaults 
 surrounding this temple, ye yet shall again meet 
 and shall again know and together, in heaven, 
 shall course your eternal way of bliss ! 
 
 "But, Christian hearers," continued Mr. F., 
 with a pause of eloquent abstraction in his fea 
 tures, while many heads were dropped before him, 
 as he added in a knver tone, "before you, there yet 
 may be, in a world like this, some sorrows that will 
 meet you. Whatever they may be, I ask, shall not 
 such high expectations prove a sufficient solace to 
 your disconsolate hearts, and soothe your broken 
 spirits 1 let these bright visions of your coming 
 future elevate your souls above the corroding 
 cares of life. Shed your tears, if they must flow, 
 when they are called for. Suffer the agonies of 
 body and anguish of spirit, if they must gather over 
 
192 ELLA V.j OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 you. But, still rejoice rejoice in your high 
 and unfailing hopes. Follow to their graves, if you 
 must, those you love most for whom you would 
 suffer most to whom you owe most. But let the 
 assurance that there is a deathless state of joyous 
 being, bind up your heaving hearts. There are 
 but a few score years, at most, that shall prolong 
 your days of change and doubtful being. Look 
 then again into your soon-to-be-opened graves. 
 Your rest of body shall be secure and peaceful, 
 with a hope that shall not fail you, when the wel 
 come trump of the archangel shall reinstate your 
 dismembered dust. 
 
 " Would to God," added Mr. F., with another 
 momentary pause, " would to God, the prospects 
 of all this congregation, Christians, were like 
 yours ! Would to God that here and there were 
 not to be found one, with a bosom uncheered with 
 hopes like yours ! Would to God it were so ! 
 How long it shall be otherwise, God only knows. 
 But why, Christian hearers, should one of these 
 your friends, so near and dear to you, be so long 
 indifferent to interests which have touched your 
 hearts, and secured the decision of your souls 1 O 
 yes, they might, alike and now, put in their plea 
 for mercy their prayer for salvation arid surren 
 der, by the full purpose of their souls, their hearts 
 to God. Well may you this night let fall for them 
 a tear of sorrow, and awake for them a sigh of 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 193 
 
 deep depression. But, Christians, tell them the 
 joys they are neglecting. Tell them the interests 
 they cannot compute, which they are hazarding. 
 Assure them that God cannot, and will not always 
 delay the termination of their probation. They 
 must die. They must stand before the judgment- 
 seat of Christ. And ere then, they must secure 
 the friendship of Jesus Christ, or be miserably and 
 eternally lost. Ask them in the tenderness of 
 your soul, why why they delay to join your num 
 bers. Nothing in heaven or on earth, when God 
 is for them, shall prevent their success, will they 
 but give him their hearts in the full purpose of con 
 trite souls, to be his. They shall be his friends if 
 they do whatsoever he commands them. Assure 
 them that the only hinderance in the way of their 
 becoming the friends of Christ, is their own unwil 
 lingness. Ye will not come to me that ye might 
 have life. All elsewhere, in heaven and on earth, 
 are willing are entreating. And if this hour they 
 are willing, tell them that there is no difficulty at 
 all, under heaven or above hell remaining, to pre 
 vent them from at once coming to Christ, and 
 before their God deciding on their future course of 
 obedience to his commands. If you ever find their 
 hearts relent, O urge them, while thus their bosoms 
 are heaving, to make, fearlessly, fully, but humbly 
 make the decision between their souls and their 
 God, to go forward as his pledged and unwavering 
 17 
 
194 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 followers. Yes, secure from them this surrender 
 of their hearts this purpose, free, full and con 
 trolling, of their souls. This is the point of their 
 responsibility. This is their duty this their obli 
 gation. It is the point of responsibility that meets 
 every delaying mind. It is the point to which the 
 jailer was brought, and Paul, and Lydia. This 
 decision they took this purpose of heart they 
 made this surrender, once and for ever, was the 
 action of their minds, in view of their interests, 
 their duty, their salvation. It is what the unre- 
 newed now must do, in view of their interests, 
 duty, and salvation. There is no apology for 
 delay. There is no necessity. I hesitate not, this 
 night, to affirm, that the situation of the gospel 
 sinner, within this temple, is far more favourable 
 for his becoming a Christian, than was the jailer s, 
 or Lydia s, or Paul s himself. Besides the testi 
 mony to the facts in their case, which we have and 
 believe, we have evidences of the truth of the reli 
 gion of Jesus Christ, which they had not. These 
 evidences have been accumulating upon us for 
 eighteen hundred years. The small band of Christ s 
 despised followers have increased to millions over 
 wide-spread Christendom, triumphing over all op 
 position of an idolatrous, and proud, and wicked, 
 and resisting world. Christians no longer have to 
 fear the stake, the fagot, the rack, the amphithe 
 atre, the dungeon, the gibbet. To be a Christian 
 

 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 195 
 
 now docs not always cut the social ties, and make 
 kindred enemies. Our prepossessions, instead of 
 tending towards another religion or superstition, 
 are all in favour of that which we believe to be the 
 true, and the Christian. No needed influences 
 are absent. No difficulties are in the way, but 
 what are within our own control. The truth we 
 know. The truth we believe. Damnation irre 
 trievable, unmitigated, and eternal, or a bliss un 
 ending, full and immeasurable, is before us. To 
 secure this proffered happiness, the same inquiry 
 and the same purpose of heart which were made 
 by Paul, the jailer, and Lydia, must be made now, 
 must now be taken by the sinner. No miraculous 
 display is needed to convince any here, of the 
 truth of the religion of Jesus Christ. This you 
 already believe. The controlling purpose of soul 
 to be the followers of Jesus Christ, is the act of 
 mind is the decision of heart free, full, and gov 
 erning your future course in love to God, in love 
 for the brethren, and in obedience to his laws 
 which you are called on to put forth. You may 
 do it. If you are willing, you may put forh this 
 decision of your mind to-night. The Holy Ghost 
 is urging you to do it ; and you must do it, if you 
 will be saved. It is a thing of your own concern 
 now. The point now, on which shall turn your 
 salvation. It is the point to which the Spirit urges 
 you has urged you this night continues to urge 
 
196 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOtTR. 
 
 you, and to which you never would come without 
 his urging. But you may resist it all his entreaty. 
 You may yield to it. It is the point to which the 
 ministry, in all its efforts, aims to bring you. It is 
 this surrender of your own hearts, by your own 
 selves to Christ, which is urged which you are 
 bound to make which the Holy Ghost entreats 
 which God commands which the Saviour died to 
 permit and which shall secure you the forgiveness 
 of your sins, through the blood of the atonement. 
 Each day you delay this purpose which surrenders 
 the heart to God, your future happiness becomes 
 more doubtful your future prospects more dread 
 more dark more fearful. Are you wise, my 
 unconverted hearers through this house, this night 
 are you wise to delay 1 What shall it profit a 
 man though he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul V O, act then," continued Mr. F. in im 
 passioned entreaty and eloquence of the heart, 
 c< ACT, THEN, my yet delaying friends, YOUR PART, 
 while you may ! let not another sun beam its 
 reproachful rays another morn upon this earth and 
 find your hearts yet unsurrendered to the God who 
 made you. Do the deed by a decision of your 
 souls, unwavering and final, to be for ever his. 
 Do it, repenting your already long delay and accu 
 mulated ingratitude and neglect. Do it with an 
 obligation that shall bind you for eternity. Kest 
 No, I would not, for a world, with such an alter- 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 197 
 
 native before me, while my decision remained 
 unfixed! Sleep I uould not for a million of 
 worlds, with my determination yet unformed ! And 
 will you the youngest of you through this house, 
 as I gaze on you at this solemn pause and profound 
 stillness, which tells me that the finger of the Spirit 
 of God is touching the passion-strings of your 
 hearts will YOU delay till the coming of another 
 and more convenient season, and hazard for an 
 other six-days space, the proffered friendship of 
 the Eternal to your jeopardized spirits 1 God 
 Almighty forbid it ! And you, yes, as ye love your 
 deathless souls, that shall live while the Godhead 
 is, this night and this hour forbid it! And while 
 this propitious moment hangs back thus wishful for 
 you amid these hallowed associations of this peace 
 ful house, close in with the proffers of a happy 
 immortality, and secure, this night, the portion 
 that shall for ever feast the bliss of SOCIAL, INTEL 
 LECTUAL, AND IMMORTAL SPIRITS !" 
 
 Thus Mr. F. ended his discourse. No hymn 
 followed the sermon. The preacher knelt and dis 
 missed the congregation. They walked down the 
 crowded aisles, and the salutations of friends this 
 evening, were without their usual smile. 
 
 17* 
 
198 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 ON Monday morning, as the sun rose clear and 
 fair, our party were moving on their way from 
 Boston to Worcester. Thence, by an extra, they 
 reached Hartford, on the Connecticut, the same 
 evening. The ride was pleasant. A more lovely 
 day could not have mellowed the landscape, or 
 yielded its gentle breezes to temper acceptably the 
 bland atmosphere. Most of the party were enticed 
 by the charming day to ride upon the outside of 
 the coach. Mr. F. and Miss V., however, retained 
 their seats within, enjoying their views from the 
 uncurtained coach, and indulging their sentiments 
 in wit, poetry, piety, and romance. The whole 
 party were much delighted with this day s ride 
 perhaps Mr. F. and Miss V. were most so. It was 
 a day of leisure, such as travellers sometimes feel. 
 They had been urging on their course to new 
 places and over new scenes ; and their attention 
 had been continually exercised by the objects and 
 incidents of the way. But now they were on their 
 return ; and they were unbending their minds in 
 review of various amusing and otherwise interest 
 ing recollections of their winding way. It had also 
 been concerted, before they left New-York, that 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 199 
 
 the party should return to the country residence of 
 the father of one of the young ladies, situated on 
 the banks of the beautiful Connecticut ; and when 
 they should have reached Hartford, they would be 
 only an afternoon s sail, in the boat, from this 
 charming- spot. 
 
 At Hartford we spent two days of agreeable 
 leisure, receiving the attentions of friends, and 
 visiting the objects of attraction in the neighbour 
 hood. 
 
 It has not been the design of the writer to in 
 dulge much in description of scenery, places, or 
 incident his principal wish being to recall and 
 to preserve the conversations of Mr. F. on subjects 
 of interest not only to the party which was ren 
 dered every way more pleasant on their course by 
 his vivacity, historic allusion, anecdote, and chaste 
 humour, but subjects also interesting to every mind 
 that has found pleasure in turning its thoughts in 
 upon its own mental and moral being, and contempla 
 ting its present characteristics and onward destinies. 
 It has not therefore come within the design of the 
 writer, to note many of the spirited scenes and 
 lighter incidents of the JULY TOUR of a party, that 
 embraced in it the elements of the cheerful, the 
 humorous, the sentimental, as well as the refined, 
 the intellectual and the pious. It may be, that another 
 record shall be made of other incidents of the 
 way of this party, which will not be exhibited 
 
200 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 here. But the writer has sketched enough, as he 
 has passed alon<r, to identify localities, over which 
 their course lay, and to connect the particulars that 
 have appealed to our feelings with the scenes among 
 which they occurred. 
 
 The writer, in view of his design, will therefore 
 omit to record here, much of interest which will 
 long be remembered by the party, in the associa 
 tions connected with their short pause at this very 
 pleasantly located town. Much however was there 
 written among the sybiline leaves of sentiment, 
 that, like other prophetic incidents, 
 
 " Cast their shadows before." 
 
 It was here Ella V. said to Mr. F., " Do you 
 not think that friends become much sooner ac 
 quainted when travelling together, than under 
 almost any other circumstances 1" 
 
 Mr. F. and Miss V. had never met until a few 
 days previous to their leaving New-York, although 
 they had heard of each other through mutual 
 friends. But at this time they seemed, at least, to 
 understand the feelings of each other in the silent 
 language of sympathy, as they together contem 
 plated the same object, or exchanged their thoughts 
 on a common subject. 
 
 The night of their arrival at Hartford, was such 
 as fairies might choose for moving abroad, on their 
 rambling parties through shade and moonlight. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 201 
 
 No heart susceptible of the mellowing influences 
 of such repose of evening beauty could withhold 
 the outgushings of tender feelings. Such a mo 
 ment of silence and blended light and shade, en 
 kindles devotion as well as romance. The house 
 within was still, as the repose without. The 
 window-blinds of a private sitting parlour, allotted 
 to the party, were half way opened. Miss V. was 
 sitting in one of two chairs which occupied the 
 window recess, with her arm resting upon the sill 
 of the open window, while gazing upon the light 
 and shade without. It was a moment of happy 
 emotion, when her young fancies were gilding over 
 with richer colouring the incidents of the past and 
 blending them in indistinct perceptions of the 
 present and the imaginings of the future. There 
 had been a revolution in her own feelings. New 
 emotions had been excited, and she had become an 
 actor in her religious obligations and onward pur 
 poses. And then, other feelings had come over 
 her heart, which she had hardly yet learned to ana- 
 lyze. She only knew that they made her sad, as 
 she now sat, at this shaded hour, gazing on the 
 calm and stilly scene without ; and she would 
 gladly and freely, in tears, have poured these feel 
 ings from out a young and swelling bosom. 
 
 Mr. F. entered at this moment, and placed him 
 self beside Miss Ella V. There seemed to havo 
 
202 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 gathered over his own feelings also, some similar 
 plaintive but serene emotion, with less of the min 
 gled sadness. 
 
 "Could any thing be more enchanting!" he asked, 
 as he took his seat, and slightly widenedthe open 
 ing in the green blinds of the window. " I know 
 not how it is with others, but my own heart sympa 
 thizes with the stillness of such a scene, which al 
 most makes me sad to tears. I dislike affected 
 sentimentalism, but there certainly is that in na 
 ture, at such a soft moment, that touches delicately 
 on the emotions of the heart. Some one has paid, 
 If you would shed your tears, go to the woods ; 
 but I think I would say, If you would give free 
 to the gushing sadness of a full heart, come and 
 look on this calm and moon-light scene. : 
 
 Miss V. replied only in a deep, but to her un- 
 perceived sigh ; and they both, for a moment, in 
 dulged their separate if not their different thoughts. 
 
 "I find," continued Mr. F. after a considerable 
 pause, "that at such moments, my heart enkindles 
 with most kind feelings for the religious welfare of 
 my friends, for whom my interest has been exci 
 ted ; and I know of no emotion more sincere than 
 the wish that rises for their happiness. Religion, 
 surely, is a benevolent moulder of the affections. 
 And to me, Miss V.," added Mr. F., " it is a grateful 
 emotion which I find at times swelling towards 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 203 
 
 my God, for the providence which led me early to 
 adopt the principles of this religion as the guide of 
 my youth. I often may have swerved, but I have 
 thus far been preserved from the terrible wreck 
 which I have witnessed of a number of my early 
 associates and later acquaintances. And if I mis 
 take not," added Mr. F., " some kindred feeling will 
 awake in your bosom, in view of the early impres 
 sions on your mind. How gratefully should our 
 hearts swell towards God for the influences of his 
 Spirit, in his providence and word, which have in 
 duced us to embrace our best interests and early 
 duty of becoming his. And how changed is the 
 onward prospect. And how gladdened the hearts 
 of our mothers over the assurance of our safety 
 here, and happiness hereafter. Could you wish a 
 different consummation of God s influences upon 
 your heart, Miss V., than that which has brought it 
 to himself 1 ." 
 
 Miss V. had leaned her face upon her handker 
 chief, and was weeping silently. She did not reply. 
 But the two friends needed not words as a medium 
 for their commune of hearts. They sat not in 
 silent embarrassment, but in still, and hallowed, 
 and commingling sympathies of kindred bosoms. 
 
 Some moments had passed, when Mrs. Le Roy 
 and the pale-cheeked young lady of the party en 
 tered the parlour, and without marking the pensive 
 air of Ella V., they advanced to the piano, and sung 
 
204 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 the following pathetic words, in the tune to which 
 they are set. 
 
 1. 
 
 " I m sometimes sad, but know not why, 
 
 And weep at evening hour; 
 Then gentlest murmurs whisper by, 
 
 And stillness wakes her. power. 
 I m sometimes sad when Cynthia s beams 
 
 The fountains silver o er ; 
 I wander then among the elms, 
 
 Where shadows hide my tear. 
 
 II. 
 I m sometimes sad, when friends that were 
 
 My sorrows wake anew ; 
 They once were here, but now they are 
 
 Where weeping-willows grow. 
 I m sometimes sad, when friends that be 
 
 Excite the tender sigh, 
 For soon a long adieu they ll say, 
 
 And so must I, must I ! 
 
 III. 
 I m sometimes sad among the crowd, 
 
 And in the circle glee, 
 And often when the laugh is loud 
 
 I go to bend the knee. 
 I m sometimes sad, and think I ve none 
 
 To shed a tear with me ; 
 And who will e er for me bemoan, 
 
 When neath the pendant tree 1 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 205 
 
 IV. 
 Sad world ! where is thy soothing power 
 
 At morn or vesper mild 1 
 Or where, when noontide tells the hour, 
 
 The charm for sorrow s child 1 
 Though sad I roam, though drop the tear 
 
 Mid light or shadow s gloom ; 
 Erelong I ll lay me silent there, 
 Low in the peaceful tomb ! 
 
 Miss V. rose and sought her chamber. " That," 
 said Mr. F. to the young lady who sang, after a" 
 moment s pause, " is like the 
 
 Remembered note of a mute lyre. " 
 
 18 
 
206 ELLA V M OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 AT two o clock the steam-boat shot out from the 
 dock at Hartford, for New-York. Our party were 
 on board, on their way down the river, in high ex 
 pectation of soon greeting some of their New- 
 York friends, who were enjoying the country air 
 among the hills and amid the healthful breezes of 
 the Connecticut. 
 
 " Well," said Le Roy, as the party had gath 
 ered into their little circle on one side of the la 
 dies saloon, " those Hartford people, with all their 
 notions and thrift in money-making matters, are a 
 benevolent sort of folk. Their institutions for the 
 deaf and dumb, and crazy women and men, (God 
 save us from running mad, which I have appre 
 hended will one day be my crazy fortune,) are 
 worthy of all commendation from both the wicked 
 and the pious. I am not certain that I would not 
 become a professor there, merely to witness the 
 exquisite lingering of the eyes of the deaf and dumb 
 pupils on their teachers. At least, when I reach 
 New-York, 1 shall propose to some of my young 
 lady acquaintances, to feign deafness and speech- 
 less?iess, and to secure a place in the Asylum at 
 Hartford, to learn the art of lingering their eyes 
 with the greatest effect." 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 207 
 
 " Oh Georgie," said Ella V. to Le R. as a gene 
 ral peal of laughter burst from the party, as they 
 caught his quizzical look ; " your face out-quizzes 
 the hobble-to-gobble tow-eater we saw in Boston. 
 Surely, you could not expect a young lady to lin 
 ger her eyes long on such a face." 
 
 "But," said Mr. F., " there was something very 
 fine in that steady attention of the eye, to which 
 Mr. Le Roy alludes, which struck me as exceed 
 ingly beautiful. And it often had the interest of a 
 lingering abstraction about it. What a beautiful 
 creation was that dark-haired and brilliant com 
 plexion girl that so composedly, and like one of 
 nature s favourite geniuses, wrote her parts. Do 
 you think these pupils are ever conscious of the 
 pity that sometimes awakes in the bosoms of their 
 visiters for them V 
 
 " They most generally appear happy," said Mrs. 
 Le R. " And I only marked one sad countenance 
 among all the pupils there. Certainly, out of our 
 own party, there could hardly be found such ano 
 ther smiling-faced company as the pupils at the 
 Asylum." 
 
 " And yet," said Mrs. E., " that poor girl, who 
 was blind as well as deaf and dumb, seemed rather 
 ill-natured the morning we visited the Asylum. 
 And how strange ! You know the professor told 
 ua that she was aware, as discovered by her con- 
 
208 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUH. 
 
 tinually feeling of her cape, that she was not 
 dressed that morning for seeing company." 
 
 "Seeing company, Mrs. E." said Le Roy. 
 " That were almost like a lad from the Emerald 
 Isle, who was going to see music. But, like the 
 deaf and dumb only, I suppose this singular mis 
 fortune of nature, too, has some melodies of soul." 
 
 " Mrs. Sigourney calls her, mysterious nature s 
 hermit-child^ " said Ella V. to Le Roy. " Poetry may 
 even turf over our graves with the fresh green sod, 
 and plant its borders with flowers, and almost make 
 it a lovely spot. But it is a drear place when we 
 enter it with the heavy feelings of reality unlifted 
 by the wing of our imaginings. What a desert- 
 place must her bosom be !" 
 
 " And yet," said Mr. F., " I should like to be able 
 to commune with her thoughts. They must be 
 strange combinations, often, as they would appear 
 to us, could we see them in the additional light 
 which our two senses of sight and hearing have 
 poured upon our minds. Miss V., can you not re 
 peat the lines of Mrs. Sigourney, to which you al 
 luded, associated with this unfortunate girl 1" 
 
 " I can only recall a few of them," said Miss V. 
 " Mrs. Sigourney s sweet lines on ALICE have a di 
 viner charm to me, as she represents her happy 
 spirit speaking from another world to her kindred 
 on earth : 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 209 
 
 Sisters ! there s music here ; 
 
 From countless harps it flows ; 
 Throughout this bright celestial sphere 
 
 No pause nor discord knows. 
 The seal is melted from my ear 
 
 By love divine ; 
 
 And what through life I pined to hear 
 Is mine ! is mine! 
 
 Joy ! I am mute no more ; 
 My sad and silent years 
 With all their loneliness are o er; 
 
 Sweet sisters, dry your tears : 
 Listen at hush of eve listen at dawn of day, 
 List at the hour of prayer can ye not hear my lay ? 
 
 "Pis better here to be, 
 
 No disappointments shroud 
 The angel-bowers of joy ; 
 
 Our knowledge hath no cloud, 
 Our pleasures no alloy ; 
 
 The fearful word to part, 
 Is never breathed above; 
 
 Heaven hath no broken heart 
 Call me not hence, my love. " 
 
 " And the verses you remember in connection 
 with the blind girl," continued Mr. F., addressing 
 Miss V., perceiving that she had ended her quo 
 tation from Mrs. Sigourney s beautiful piece called 
 " ALICE." 
 
 Miss V., after a moment s recollection, quoted 
 two verses : 
 
 18* 
 
210 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 " * She hath no eye God quenched its beam, 
 
 No ear though thunder s trump be blown ; 
 No speech her spirit s voiceless stream 
 Flows dark, unfathomed, and unknown. 
 
 Yet hath she joys, though none may know 
 
 Their germ, their impulse, or their power ; 
 And oft her kindling features glow 
 In meditation s lonely hour. " 
 
 " But," continued Miss V., " what beautiful 
 visions she must be deprived of. She may regale 
 herself with the perfume of the rose, but she can 
 not linger her eye on its beautiful colours, nor take 
 in, as we do, the picturesque view of this narrow 
 pass." Each of the party cast their look high up 
 the bluffs which they were now passing, and which 
 form, at this spot, the most picturesque view on 
 the river below Hartford. 
 
 "And what could be her conception of our glo 
 rious steamer," said Mr. F., " were she with us 
 gliding over this silver stream, narrowed here almost 
 to the width of the ribbon on Mrs. L.e Hoy s hat 1 
 She would only have the sensation of touch to be 
 exercised, which would possibly give her the idea 
 of motion and the presence of fire. But all beyond 
 would be a blank. She could have nothing of the 
 beautiful or the sublime of the scene, as Miss V. has 
 remarked. She could not know that we were glid 
 ing over a beautiful river, that lies so still in its deep 
 passage here, through this deep defile of hills j nor 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 211 
 
 catch the increased sound of the water-wheels, 
 brought back to our ears in this pent-up pass as we 
 dash on our course, nor see the little village that 
 opens before us now so beautifully or the rece 
 ding city as we gaze in our rear, though now just 
 shutting in from our view." 
 
 A moment only had passed when the lily-cheek 
 young lady had come back to the party, urging 
 them to go to the bows of the boat, to gain a finer 
 view of her father s country residence, as it would 
 soon open upon them from the hills. She and the 
 little Rosa E. had already been gazing for its first 
 appearance, and in another ten minutes it would 
 be in full view of the boat. 
 
 \Ve shall not locate this residence more defi 
 nitely. The spot is an enchanting one. But for the 
 present we would conceal its precise position, as we 
 have purposely avoided the record of many things and 
 sayings of the lily-cheek young lady, whose father s 
 country residence we were now so rapidly nearing. 
 Her story and the description of the scenery in this 
 neighbourhood, will be left for a work differing in 
 its nature from this. It may suffice here to say, 
 that she has romance in her character, and but one 
 superstition. Unaccountably, she thinks that her 
 destiny is somehow linked with a crow. 
 
 But, belt so or not, 
 Another I can never wed, 
 She, never be forgot. 
 
212 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 The steamboat-bell was rung.; and in a few mo 
 ments more we were at the dock. A carriage with 
 a span of beautiful bays and a couple of noble 
 riding horses was awaiting P us. A ride of a mile 
 brought us to the home of some of us, and to the 
 cordial welcome of a home to all of us. 
 
ELLA V., On THE JULY TOUR. 213 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 A FEW days had passed, which had been spent 
 amid various diversions and pleasures. The ladies 
 rode on horseback, and rambled the fields, and 
 played upon the piano forte and the guitar. The 
 gentlemen, at times, were sailing at others, gun 
 ning at others, fishing at others, listening to 
 the music and conversation of the ladies. 
 
 A few days had passed, and the carriage was 
 again at the door : and now, the party were to lose 
 some of its members. 
 
 Every one has felt that those who have been on 
 their course together for weeks do not separate 
 with merely feigned regrets. We shall not here 
 record all the reasons which made the parting of 
 friends, at this hour, one of tender feelings. They 
 were to ride a few miles, to meet the post-coach in 
 stead of the steam-boat, that they might pass 
 through New Haven, on their return-way to New- 
 York. They were accompanied by several friends 
 to the point, where they were to take the coach ; and 
 there, they separated with kind words and yet kinder 
 feelings. Little was said, but much was felt. Mrs. 
 E. and little Rosa, her daughter, and Mr. F. were to 
 remain for a few weeks at the father s of the young 
 
214 ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 lady who had been with them on their tour. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Le Roy and Miss Ella V., and the writer s self 
 were soon seated in the post-coach. Le Roy, though 
 but seldom manifesting other than joyous feeling, 
 now spoke the parting word with emotion, which 
 made his lighter manner unnatural. The coach and 
 the carriage turned on their separate courses, at 
 the same moment, and soon the broken party were 
 lost to each other. 
 
 " Well," at length said Le Roy, after the coach 
 had passed some way on its course, " our friend 
 Mr. F. is the cleverest fellow that I have seen for 
 an age of four weeks, at least. He can form a 
 moral on a glass of champagne cause religion to 
 blossom out of flowers make a man feel immortal 
 among the dead, and to lament that he is not a 
 Christian amid the wildest enjoyments of life. He 
 peoples the dark woods we pass with red-men and 
 warriors and re-fights, for Ella, the battles of her 
 grandmothers. And then, his geology, and mine 
 ralogy, and chemistry, and astronomy, without 
 seeming to know any thing about them, either in 
 his language or pretensions, put tongues into 
 the passing rocks, and mountains, and rivers, the 
 air, the moon and the mushroom ; and preaches ser 
 mons that send the sinner, in fearful language, to 
 destruction, while the sinner weeps and pardons 
 his denunciator as his assured friend. I admire 
 the learning of the scholar the eloquence of the 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUB. 215 
 
 preacher the modesty of the philosopher and 
 love and almost envy the man." 
 
 Had not the party felt the truth of Le Roy s 
 remarks, they would have looked rather surprised 
 at such a set-speech, as this would have seemed, 
 from one whose remarks were generally brief, as 
 well as humorous. 
 
 Ella V. had been silent, in her own musings, 
 in the back corner-seat of the coach. She raised 
 her head as Le Roy ended, and after a moment, 
 added, " Thank you, George, for thus appreciating 
 Mr. F. He has my gratitude as well as admiration," 
 added Miss V. with unintentional feeling. 
 
 " And think you this is all, Ella," said Le Roy, 
 returning to his quizzical vein. " I said, he had won 
 my love, and I am sure you would rather imitate 
 than envy such goodness." 
 
 Miss V. did not venture a reply, and the com 
 pany were again abstracted for some distance on 
 their ride. Their silence seemed to be the result of 
 each one s willingness to enjoy the commune with 
 each one s own thoughts. 
 
 New-Haven had been the object of frequent 
 allusion during the tour. Mr. F. always spoke of 
 it with enthusiasm. He had received his educa 
 tion there, and afterwards remained as a resident 
 graduate for some time, to attend to general litera 
 ture. Miss V. approached the city with no less in 
 terest from these associations. Le Roy had also 
 
216 ELLA V., OR THE JUL"V TOUR. 
 
 recieved his education there, two or three years 
 earlier than Mr. F. 
 
 We spent a day in this elm-embowered city. 
 And the writer could have lingered as many more 
 days among its shades, with increasing pleasure, 
 as he spent hours. But the next day found him and 
 those he accompanied again threading the noisy 
 streets of their city-home. This was my first visit 
 to New-Haven. I know not of a fitter retreat for the 
 devotees of science, literature, and taste. Had I 
 sons, they should be sent to Yale for their education. 
 Surely no spirit could breathe the atmosphere of 
 this town and not become a purer and wiser being. 
 And a youth, dwelling among such beauties of taste 
 in nature and art, during the formation of his intel 
 lectual and moral character, must have it happily 
 mellowed by the loveliness and the chasteness of 
 the scenes, and the associations and the society 
 among which, in this spot of enchantment, he 
 would move. The city is a literal rus inurbe, and 
 its colleges, its churches, its green, and its church 
 yard in its loveliness, even amid all its melancholy 
 associations, will always render New-Haven the 
 admired rural city of the Union. 
 
 We shall not describe the meeting of Ella V. 
 with her mother, on her reaching her home. It is 
 enough to say that her mother is a Christian, and 
 her confiding daughter had much for her ear. The 
 writer parted with her, and with Mr. and Mrs. Le 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JDLY TOUR. 217 
 
 Roy at their door, with the promise of a call upon 
 them the succeeding day, to inquire for the health 
 and happiness of his travelling companions. 
 
 Nearly five weeks had passed, when the writer, 
 at evening, after the hour of five, was slowly mov 
 ing up Broadway. His attention was attracted 
 by a noble span of black horses, richly caparisoned 
 and gallantly bearing on a heavy barouche. As it 
 neared him, a white handkerchief waved from its 
 side an emblem of recognition, in the hand of 
 Ella V. My eye at once took in the company, as 
 little Rosa E. spatted her hands, and cried out my 
 name. 
 
 Mrs. E. and her daughter, accompanied by Mr. 
 F., had arrived in the city early the same morning, 
 and Miss V. with her mother, had been taking Mrs. 
 E. and the little Rosa out, on an evening-ride. On 
 my reaching my own residence, I found a note in 
 forming me of the arrival of our mutual friends, 
 with an invitation to meet them the same evening 
 at tea. 
 
 Some weeks have since passed. Among the 
 
 DTI dits of Place, it is said, in a little more than 
 
 an audible whisper, that Miss Ella V. is engaged. 
 We shall leave the reader to guess the further par 
 ticulars, unless one may divine something very 
 certain from the following lines, which Mr. F. re 
 corded for Miss V. on the separate leaves of a 
 book, which contained, with exquisite taste of ar- 
 19 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 rangement, the flowers, which they had together 
 culled on their JULY TOUR. 
 
 To Miss ELLA V. 
 The Language of Flowers. 
 They culled us at the border-lake * 
 
 Where once the warrior-hosts were seen, 
 And Indian-yell and war-shout spake 
 
 Their death-cry o er the thousand slain: 
 But where the traveller lingers now 
 To gaze upon the gorgeous scene, 
 And lists to bugle-notes, that throw 
 Their echoes up the deep ravine. 
 
 They culled us at the storied fallj 
 Whence Hudson rolls his glorious wave ; 
 
 And romance, with her magic spell, 
 Hath hallowed there the Hawk-eye cave. 
 
 They culled us at the spouting fount^ 
 Where thousands come in summer-day, 
 
 And talk, and dance, and laugh, and shout, 
 And drive the live-long hours away. 
 
 They culled us at Mount Holyoke^ 
 That raises high its cloud-capt peak, 
 
 Where nature lines her grandest work, 
 And mountain-beauties loudest speak. 
 
 They culled us at the shaded mounds,\\ 
 Where AUBURN mourns the sleeping dead, 
 
 And where the traveller threads the grounds 
 With slow and reverential tread. 
 
 * Lake George. t Glen Falls. I Saratoga Springs. 
 
 Near Northampton, Massachusetts. 
 1 The burial-ground near Boston. 
 
ELLA V., OR THE JULY TOUR. 219 
 
 And though we love our native lake, 
 
 And water-fall, and spring, and mount, 
 Yet memories glad we ll fondly wake 
 
 As Ella shall her past recount ; 
 And while she casts her speaking eye 
 
 Upon our leaf, and stem, and flower, 
 Then may her heart gush full with joy, 
 
 As she recalls THE JULY TOUR. 
 
 THE END 
 

YB 7340! 
 
 50 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY