before? An attachment is an epoch in existence—it leads to casting off old ties, that, till then, had seemed our dearest; it begins new duties; often, in a woman especially, changes the whole character; and yet, whether in its beginning, its continuance or its end, love is as little within our power as the wind that passes, of which no man knows whither it goeth or whence it comes. All that mortal resolve can effect, is to do the best under the circumstances in which we are placed, to keep alive the sweet voice of approval in our hearts, and trust that the grave will be but the bright gate opening on all that we now see through a glass darkly.
The ancients believed that the dark ministry of fate was on many a kingly line even to its close—a belief confirmed by the judaical ritual. "I will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation." The house of Ravenswood is doomed to destruction. Its chiefs have been men strong and evil in the land—the blood of the victim has not sunk into the earth—and the cry of the oppressed has not risen on the morning in vain. The dark sand has run to the appointed hour, and the proud and stately race will soon be a desolation whose place no man knoweth. But it is one of the mysteries of mortality that the wicked fall, and with them perish the innocent. Is it that remorse may be added to
