We are prepared, therefore, to proceed to the consideration of the nature and conditions of that grace, as a cure, gratuitous gift of God, conferred upon angels and upon the human race through his free and sovereign goodness. From the point of view to which the previous reasoning has conducted us, the angels and mankind appear to us, not as mere species of rational creatures conducted by their creator along the path of rational development by natural law, but as the elect heirs of an entirely gratuitous inheritance of glory--candidates for a destiny entirely supernatural. The relation which they sustain to God in this supernatural scheme of grace will therefore be our topic next in order. -------- {159} Original SONG. What magician pulls the string That uncurtains pretty Spring? And the swallow with his wing Against the sky 1 Who brings the branch its green, And the honey-bee a queen? "Is it I?" Said April, "I?" "Yes, 'tis I." What aërial artist limns Rock and cloud, with brush that dims Titian's oils and Hogarth's whims In shape and dye? What Florimel embowers Lawn and lake with arching flowers? "Is it I?" Said bright July, "I?" "Yes, 'tis I." What good genii drop the grains Of brown sugar in the canes? Who fills up the apple's veins With sweetened dew? Who hangs the painted air With the grape and golden pear? Is it you, October? You? Yes, 'tis you. Who careering sweeps the plain, Scoffing at the violet's pain. Echoing back and back again His wild halloo? Who makes the Yule-fire foam Round the happy hearth of home? Is it you, December? You? Aye, 'tis you. T. W. K. -------- {160} From The Dublin University Magazine, COWARDICE AND COURAGE. Shakespeare, the universal teacher, who knew every phase of the heart, and touched every chord of feeling, has declared aphoristically, speaking as Julius Caesar: "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant only taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard. It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come."