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your own souls, which will not relish the fire that is never quenched, nor feel at ease under the gnawings of the worm that never dies, let me entreat you to lose no time in re-arranging Industry, and preventing the recurrence of these evils, which with no malice I have roughly sketched for you to look upon. The matter, my friends, is pressing, and delay may prove fatal. Remember, there is a God in Heaven, who may say to you, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you; your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days. Behold

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ERNEST STEINER, A TALE OF THE IDEAL AND THE REAL.

BY MRS. JANE L. SWIFT.

TWILIGHT was shading with its dusky veil the streets of Strasburg, and still a stream of gold burnished the lofty spire which crowns its cathedral. Nearly five hundred feet in height, it is the first object that glows with the kiss of the rising sun, and is the last to be embellished with its evening rays.

At a window in the vicinity, commanding a full view of this splendid Gothic structure, sat a man, perhaps fifty years of age, with his eyes intently fixed upon the illuminated spire. It was to him a dear, familiar thing, for he had looked upon it from childhood; and there were associations now clustering around his heart, that brought the flush of suppressed emotion to his brow. He was a lonely man-with but one child-and that child was soon to be launched upon the billows of a world, too often stormy, seldom calm. The light disappeared; yet still he gazed upon that distant point that seemed to touch the sky; and, as he pondered, his thoughts unconsciously shaped themselves into words:

"Beautiful Ideal! Region of shadowy

thought! peopled with beings not of clay, and stored with images traced in dreamy loveliness upon the tablets of the fervid mind-beautiful Ideal! whom I worshipped with all the energy of youthful passion in years gone by, give, oh! give me back the pristine freshness of early manhood; give me back the delusive charm that lulled my spirit into a blest forgetfulness of transitory things, and wove a web of transparent light around my soul.

"Beautiful Ideal! how I worshipped thee; yet thine was the wandering gleam upon the ocean of existence, that led my bark astray; and, when with eager joy I would have moored that bark in the wished-for haven, it struck and stranded upon unsuspected shoals. The wreck floated once again, dismasted, with nothing but the naked hull to stem the wave; until, drifting on, it found deeper waters and a serener calm. But it is at best a shattered thing; just bearing its precious freight, and verging towards the far off shore, from which no vessel has returned.

"Beautiful Ideal! once more I call upon thee to restore the day-dreams of my youth-I call upon thee to rebuild the fairy castles in which it was my delight to dwell-I call upon thee to renew the golden promises of hope. Ah! idle, worse than idle, thus to cling to what has once betrayed, and would betray again. Have wasted years brought with them lessons so severe, only to drive me back again in despair, to the spell that worked my ruin? To have lived in vain-to have been but as an atom of dust in this beautiful world -and then, to die!

"But my_son-my only, my gifted child-how I tremble for thee, possessing as thou dost, all the elements that form a highly intellectual being. While yet thy infant lips were unused to speech, thou wouldst point to the wandering cloud as it curled into fantastic shapes, and watch with upturned brow the changes of light and shade. Thy playthings all forgotten, thou wouldst sit in mute ecstasy when the sweet tones of thy mother's harp were heard; and, unknowing why, the tears would gush from their welling fountain, and thou wouldst hide thy face upon her bosom. I remember, that while yet a little child, thou didst ask me if stars were not angels' eyes; and as I encouraged the poetical idea, I felt that thine was not a common mind. Yet, is it to be thy blessing or thy curse?"

"My blessing, dear father," said the youth, who had just entered and overheard the latter part of his parent's soliloquy; "you would not wish me, surely, to be one of the common herd, obtuse to everything excepting what I see, hear, touch, smell or taste? I would as soon be yonder beast of burthen, as be a man, without any of the aspirations that dignify and exalt our nature."

The lips of the elder Steiner relaxed into a smile, as he laid his hand upon the head of the handsome youth, who had seen some twenty summers. "And yet, Wieland," he said mournfully," the decline of life must be gilded with something more enduring than daydreams and beautiful illusions. If we would be content when old age overtakes us, we must feel that we have not altogether lived in vain.”

"Let old age take care of itself, father; I would live while I live, and in the glorious revelations of philosophy I

would worship mind. Nay, tell me not what you have often told me, that philosophy is full of dangerous subtleties and improbable theories. While I have the creations of your own gifted mind to speak to mine, I cannot shun the dreamy and beautiful speculations of the schools."

"I have lived long enough, my dear Wieland, to become convinced of the errors of my favorite theories, and to condemn that system of study, which leads us too often to involve in mystery the naked majesty of truth. It is like shutting out the rays of the noonday sun, to grope by the light of a flickering candle. And yet, I admit, Wieland, that against my better judgment, I find myself sometimes rearing those baseless fabrics, which a single gleam of truth can destroy." "Truth?"

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Ay, the real as opposed to the ideal the actual as opposed to the visionary-the thing having being in itself, as opposed to what is merely a phantasm of the mind."

"Good; and the right angles, triangles, and squares of truth, brought to the very point of the compasses, are to geometrize the parterre of my brain, until not a curve line of grace is left."

"Far from it, my dear boy; I would not wish to rob life of all its poetry and grace, but I would press upon you the danger of living in an imaginary world of your own. The wildest enthusiasts, who have broached the wildest schemes, generally began with less startling doctrines, which finally led them step by step to the natural result, for error can rarely rest satisfied with anything short of the extreme. In the simple recital of the most prominent events of my life, you will not be uninterested; and the tale may have its influence upon your subsequent career.

"Like yourself, dear Wieland, I was reared in affluence, a position not calculated to make us acquainted with ourselves, nor to give us just views of the world. I entered upon my studies in the university of Gottingen, at the age of twenty, with a mind all energy, and a heart all flame. I was tolerably well read in the philosophical literature of the day, from the sublimated doctrine of the mystics, to the more chilling dogmas of materialism; and the result was what might have been expected-I had no belief at all—but

inclined sometimes towards the tenets of one sect, and sometimes towards the tenets of another. There was something that fostered my self-esteem in the idea of identifying myself with the followers of what I, at length, conceived to be the most elevated philosophy; and after a residence of three years at Gottingen, I espoused the peculiar doctrines of Spinoza, in preference to the rest. I looked around upon the beautiful world, and recognized the universe as God. A profound lover of Nature, I worshipped a mysterious substance, endowed with infinite attributes, extension and thought; of which all spirits were modifications, and of whose essence all things were but subordinate portions. Rapt in the dreamy speculations to which such a belief impelled, I neglected all study that did not minister to the gratification of my absorbing passion; and the mind diseased' shrank from more healthful aliment, and from exercise less supine.

"Endowed by nature with the dangerous gift of eloquence, I became an oracle among my young associates; and found but too many ready to embrace the dogmas which were presented to them arrayed in all the alluring gracefulness of philosophical drapery. From being a teacher, I became a writer; unfortunately, a successful one; and thus, having thrown down the gauntlet as the champion of Pantheism, I no longer examined the claims of other doctrines, but occupied myself solely in defending and advancing the cause I had espoused.

"It was about this time that I acknowledged a new influence the influence of woman, or rather of beauty. Leading the secluded life of a student, I had mingled but little in female society, and to look upon the form of beauty, was to love. Sweet Hermine! young, guileless, and confiding, there was no mystery, no chilling reserve in the acknowledgment of her attachment, and I felt that I was deeply, tenderly, I may say blindly, loved. She could not comprehend the scope of my severer studies, but would listen with dreamy wonder to the lesser mysteries of my creed, and would strive to think as I thought, and to follow where I might lead.

"Ah, this was a beautiful episode in the record of my life, and even now, the remembrance of those days comes

back upon me with all the freshness of a recent dream. It does not seem reality, for years have thrown a misty veil upon my heart, and tinged with an ideal glow the shadows of the past. Happy months passed on, until the time approached that was to unite me in marriage to the lovely Hermine. Stronger and stronger had become the silken bond of love, and I had already learned to feel for her as the wife of my bosom.

"One beautiful moonlight evening as we sat together, I could not help pleading for a shorter period of probation, until at length she raised her soft blue eyes to mine, and whispered, 'Thy will, Steiner, is mine.'

"As I pressed my lips upon her brow, I said, 'Dear Hermine, may I ever possess such mesmeric influence over thee!'

"She gazed earnestly at me for a moment, and then asked,Could you magnetize me, Ernest? I have always had the greatest desire to know if mesmerism could work such wonders upon me as I have heard related respecting others.'

"Although not what might be called a disciple of Mesmer, still I could not resist the evidence of my senses in the experiments I had witnessed; and in the power I had been able to exercise over others while in the magnetic sleep, I saw enough to stagger my scepticism. After repeated importunity on her part I consented to make the attempt. She sat before me, with her smiling eyes fixed on mine, while I went through the usual manipulations, until gradually the fringed eyelids closed, and her head sank upon her shoulder in a heavy slumber. With a still greater intensity of will, I said mentally, 'Go, pure spirit, to the land where they say the blest repose; and, ere long, a change, as unearthly as it was beautiful, seemed to flit across her countenance, while her lips gently murmured, ‘heavenheaven.' She was the image of tranquillity, of peace, of happiness; and, trembling with agitation at the visible effect of the mysterious spell, I ceased the harmless incantation, and willed her to awake. With a sigh, and a half stifled sob, her spirit returned to its dwelling, with only a dim and indistinct recollection of repose.

"Several times I repeated similar experiments upon herself, and other members of her family, not always with

equal success, but seldom failing in producing the magnetic sleep.

fled the pure spirit of the departed? Where was the loving soul bound to mine by the dearest and holiest of ties? Annihilation! the thought was horror! All was doubt-darkness-and despair. No ray of comfort shone on the trackless waste of conjecture that spread itselfbefore me; beyond, around, within, a gloom profound;-the Ideal then only aggravated the blackness of the abyss into which I was plunged.

"It was a lovely afternoon in early summer; the day preceding that on which I was to call Hermine mine for ever. Her relations, some of whom had come from a distance to be present at her bridal, were around her; and at the earnest request of one of them who was an unbeliever in Mesmerism, Hermine consented to be magnetized again. When I had succeeded in producing "I went in to see her for the last time, the somnolent state, I willed that she just as they were about screwing down should visit the regions of the lost. I her coffin-lid for ever. Oh! the dreadknow not how the idea entered my ful realities of death! How my shudmind, or why I acted upon it, but it was dering soul cowered in the presence of done in the thoughtless levity of the man's relentless and triumphant foe! moment. Ere long, an expression of 'Take her not away now,' I said, imsuffering and disquiet overspread her ploringly; 'see, how beautiful she countenance, and distorted its usually looks-she may still but sleep-oh! do unruffled lineaments. She gasped vio- not heap the cold, damp mould upon lently once or twice, and then became that beloved form-it may yet revive!' pale and motionless. Alarmed and They folded down the covering of her terror-stricken at the result of my rash neck—oh God! the livid trace of death's proceeding, I instantly resorted to the decaying finger! A mist came over my usual means to awaken her, but with- eyes-I stooped to kiss the pure pale out success, I had lost the power! brow-and as the vivid reality forced There she lay, still as death, yet so itself upon me, that she whom I had lovely that she seemed too beautiful for loved so well, was but a clod of the earth. They besought me imploringly valley now, the scalding drops, which to release her from the terrific slum- shame the eye of manhood, fell fast ber,-alas! I had no longer command above her dear remains. over myself, and to that circumstance I imputed my failure in the effort to awaken her. Her brother leaned over her, and, touching her hand, started back with the appalling cry, 'My God, she is dead!' I grasped the wrist, there was no pulse; in agony I placed my shaking hand upon her heart, it did not beat beneath the pressure. With the speed of phrenzy, I ran for the nearest physician, so that in a few minutes he was by her side; but he turned away in tears, and said that she was dead! I would not-could not think so. I believe my senses must have left me, for I persisted in striving to arouse her from that frightful slumber, and not until I sank unconscious beside her, could they remove me.

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"I found myself, at length, beside her grave. It was a green and shaded spot, where, but a few days before, we had wandered together over the grassy hillocks, in all the buoyant hopefulness of youth and happiness. Death had stepped between us-and as the earth rattled heavily upon her coffin, I felt that there lay buried all that I had to love and live for. Ah! Wieland, bitter indeed is the first draught of the cup of sorrow; still more bitter, when it is tasted by one unprepared and unresigned to drink it.

"With a crushed and aching heart, I sought relief in study. In the solitude of my closet, I again strove to illume the magic lantern that had beguiled so many weary hours with its glowing pictures. But the spirit's destiny! the spirit's destiny! In letters of fire, written upon the walls—the earth-the sky-wherever I might turn, there, in characters that burned into my soul, I saw inscribed, 'the spirit's destiny!' I could not fly from the oppressive thought; and when I endeavored to face it, all grew dark around me ex

cepting those characters of fire, the spirit's destiny! Nature-philosophy godlike mind-gave me no clue to solve the impenetrable mystery; and when, after many months of mental anguish, I resumed the labors of my pen, it was but to broach wilder schemes, and to disseminate more impious principles.

"It was at this time that I began to receive anonymous letters from a distant part of Germany, written with so much talent, and confuting with so much ability my favorite theories, that I became deeply interested in the polemical correspondence. For more than a year it continued, uprooting one by one the arguments in favor of natural religion; and I was at length both mortified and confounded when my antagonist acknowledged herself of the weaker sex. 'I contend not,' she said, 'I contend not in the cause of an ideal God; and if my weapons have in any way blunted the edge of yours, it is not owing to the skill with which they have been wielded, but to the weight and temper of their blades. There is a foothold in revealed religion, as opposed to philosophy, which gives a vantage-ground, and enables the weaker combatant to overcome, when, standing upon the same dead level, he must have succumbed to superior strength. If, as you admit, you would abandon your skeptical doctrines, were it not for bringing upon yourself the ridicule of your many readers-let me implore you, with all the energy of one who will probably ere long enter upon the realities of the unseen world-let me implore you to weigh your decision in the balance of integrity. Recreant, from conviction, to the cause of error, oh! be not, from choice, recreant to the cause of truth, just as it begins to dawn upon your soul! My failing health may prevent our ever meeting on this side of the grave-but there-there-Ernest Steiner, shall we meet there?'

"No solicitation-no entreaties, could induce my unknown friend to reveal her name; and when at length the mysterious correspondence ceased, I felt as if the spirit of truth, of purity, and of goodness, had left my soul for ever. How I yearned to look upon her face, and to hear her voice luring me on to better and more enduring hopes! Call it enthusiasm-call it madnesscall it what you will-I could have

knelt and worshipped the gifted being who thus seemed sent to rescue me from the yawning gulf of atheism, and to draw aside the veil that hid the glorious realities of truth from my mental vision.

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The state of my mind for two years had been such as greatly to affect my health, and the prostration of my strength made me a prey to the most distressing languor and depression. The blight that had fallen upon my ambitious hopes, and the impossibility of retrieving the past so as to distinguish myself conscientiously in the path I had chosen, almost proved a death-blow to me. In the very zenith of my literary fame, when I had succeeded in winning for myself an enviable reputation among the Neologists of Germany, I saw the foundation of the fabric I had been rearing crumble beneath my feet, and felt that I could no longer defend with integrity or ability the cause in which I had labored. I abandoned, for the time, all philosophical study, and determined, at length, to recruit my waning health and exhausted spirits at the springs of Baden-Baden.

"What a variety of light and shade in the condition and circumstances of individuals does such a place of resort present! Youth, intent on pleasure, with the flush of joy and hope upon the cheek, and the merry laugh ringing from out the depths of a free, unburthened heart;-beauty, intent on conquest, with brow of light and winning smile, weaving its resistless spell around a host of votaries ;-talent, drawing within its magic circle the gifted few, aspiring to be the nucleus around which the lesser satellites delight to revolve-disease, with shrunken form and pallid lineaments, yearning for the boon that would bring sweetness to the cup of life, full, perchance to overflowing, with every other gift that blesses humanity,-all these, and more than these, are found among the motley crowd that yearly haunt these healthrestoring springs.

"It is, at least, comforting to those afflicted with lighter ailments, to see how rapidly the invigorating air and healing waters work a change in the almost confirmed invalid; so that many who arrive on litters, depart in a few weeks, rejoicing in a renovated frame.

"A day or two after my arrival, I was standing with a friend on one of the

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