noblest virtue—love is only the reflexion of this single power, an attraction of the EXCELLENT. There are moments when we are disposed to press to our bosom every flower and every distant star; every lofty spirit of our divining—an embracing of all nature as of our beloved. The divinity is already very near to that man who has succeeded in collecting all beauty and greatness, all excellence, both in the small and great of nature, and in evolving from this manifoldness the GREAT UNITY. If each man loved all such, then every individual would possess the world. I confess, freely, I believe in the reality of a disinterested love; I am lost, if there is none. I give up divinity, immortality, and virtue! I have no evidence remaining for these hopes, if I cease to have faith in love. A spirit who loves himself alone, is an atom floating in the immeasurable void! Let us perceive and imitate excellence, and it becomes our OWN. Let us become intimate with the high and holy, and we shall cling together with fraternal love. Let us think clearly and we shall love devotedly. 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,' were the words of the great Saviour when on earth; but, as weak humanity seemed incapable of fulfilling the injunction, He rendered it more intelligible by the new commandment, 'Love one another.'"
To prove that love to the Lord and love to our neighbour are the two olive trees which always stand before the Lord of the earth, we may recur to the lamp which was kept burning before the Lord (Exod. xxvii. 20): "Command the children of Israel, that they bring Thee pure olive oil, beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." The oil is repre-
