They form the golden thread in the tangled web of our existence, ever appearing amid the darker surface around, and throwing a fair halo of brilliancy on what, without it, were cold, bleak, and barren.

No, no-- The light that lies In woman's eyes, were it twice as fleeting--as it is ten times more brilliant--than the forked lightning, irradiates the dark gloom within us for many a long day after it has ceased to shine upon us.

As in boyhood it is the humanizing influence that tempers the fierce and unruly passions of our nature, so in manhood it forms the goal to which all our better and higher aspirations tend, telling us there is something more worthy than gold, and a more lofty pinnacle of ambition than the praise and envy of our fellow-men; and we may rest assured, that when this feeling dies within us, that all the ideal of life dies with it, and nothing remains save the dull reality of our daily cares and occupations.

"I have lived and have loved," saith Schiller; and if it were not that there seems some tautology in the phrase, I should say, such is my own motto.

If Lady Jane but prove true--if I have really succeeded--if, in a word--but why speculate upon such chances ?--what pretensions have I ?--what reasons to look for such a prize?
Alas! and alas! were I to catechise myself too closely, I fear that my horses' heads would face towards Calais, and that I should turn my back upon the only prospect of happiness I can picture to myself in this world.