Oh beautiful, oh pitiable Paris! Through whose broad or narrow ways pass unseen angels of mercy, who continually are striving to raise the thoughts and aspirations of thy sensuous people above the insensate follies of vicious tendencies. Not yet, not yet, but in a coming time the tribulations of thy people will turn them away from the spell of thy enchantments, and with clearer eyes and purer aspirations they will seek the heights of Spiritual progress. Beloved France, land of my birth, home of my childhood, youth and manhood, I look backward through the years and I behold thee regnant in power, or tossed as a shuttlecock in the hands of thy foes. Then I behold thee dancing gaily on the brink of a precipice and, as I gaze, out of the shadows emerges the dread Reign of Terror, which stained thy garments with the best blood of thy children. Still I gaze, and out of the blackness of thy despair a strong hand, guided by indomitable will, and measureless ambition, rescues thee from the abyss into which thy mad and ignorant folly hath plunged thee, and then a new day, whose effulgent glory blinds the eyes of other nations, dawns for thee. Again deep shadows eclipse the effulgence of thy glory, whose beams gleam fitfully through some troublous years, and thus amid brightness and shadows the centuries have flown, and again, though in their hearts they spurn the plebeians whom they have chosen as rulers, thy children cry, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," and the fateful years go by. Liberty and equality are the finest jewels in the crown of any nation, but alas, it is the few, and not the many, who are able to estimate them at their full value. Now reluctantly my gaze turns toward Alsace and Lorraine, who, like two orphaned children are obliged to carry water on both shoulders, yet no one dares to lift their burthens, or to restore them to their own. With sorrowful sympathy I have watched their changeful history, and the end is not yet. An Alsatian born am I, and though it is nearer three than two centuries since I passed to the Spirit Side, my heart clings to the land of my birth and I dream of a time that may, nay, will, arrive, when France, regenerated and with garments undefiled, shall take her rightful place amid the galaxy of Earth's greatest nations.