My companion explained to me the meaning of this scene. This spirit had shortly before inhabited a mortal form. Tossed about here and there on the waves of poverty and misfortune, scorned and neglected and despised, she had felt herself an outcast from the human family, and in a fever of despair had ended her mortal life by poison. Her wild longing for solitude, the hatred of society of any kind, her dislike to the city, and her desire to bury herself and her griefs in some uninhabited spot, had surrounded her spirit with this deep forest, within which no step disturbed her lonely vigils. She had realized that she could not kill the soul; she had found herself in this wild spot, alone and unclaimed, and for a time was thankful that no eye could look upon her. But the silence, gloom, and solitude produced such an effect upon her spirit that a terrible reaction set in. She had had time to reflect, to realize her past life, and the cause of much of her misery. She had wept, and at last even prayed; and here alone with herself she had recognized her dependence upon humanity, and the duties she owed to it and to her own immortal nature. Then came a longing for companionship, a desire to leave this dreadful place, and a wish that she might go away where she could begin a new life, and be happy, innocent, and good like others. Weary with contending emotions, she had sunk down exhausted, and her guardian spirit, who was no other than her own mother, and who had never left her, threw her into a deep trance, in which we found her, still attended by that mother-soul. Raising the stricken being in our arms, we three spirits bore her away from the solitude, gloom, and darkness out into a beautiful valley, where the sun shone warmly, the birds warbled in the branches of the trees, the blue waters of a stream gurgled playfully between green banks, where flowers bloomed in fragrance and beauty, and laying her gently upon one of the mossy beds, we assisted the mother-spirit in bringing back the senses of her child. Soon the blue eyes opened, and as they began to take in the scene around her, they filled with a happy light, and a peaceful smile played around her pallid lips. Very weak was this child of God, and we left her upon the fragrant couch, where balmy breezes bore new healing to her weary frame. But not long; again and again we visited her, and shortly after found that she had been taken to a tiny, white cottage by her mother, where she was constantly growing stronger and better.