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THE GATES WIDE OPEN; 
 
 OB, 
 
 SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD, 
 
THE GATES WIDE OPEN 
 
 SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE WOOD, 
 
 AUTHOB OF " PETES BOHLEMIHI. m AJUBICA," " MOSKKK FUABUfSi" XTO. 
 
 What if earth 
 Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
 Each to other like, more than on earth is thought? 
 
 MTLTON, p. L., Book V. 
 
 Socrates, before drinking the cup of hemlock, said to his disciples, 
 " It is especially suited to one who is on the eve of departing to another 
 world, to inquire into and speculate upon his migration thither — of what 
 nature we suppose it to be." 
 
 SAHDFOED'8 PllSDO, p. 8. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LEE AND SHEPARD, 
 
 149 Washington Stkket. 
 
 1869. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 GEORGE WOOD, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. 
 

 ADVEETISEMENT. 
 
 An edition of this work, entitled " Future Life ; or, 
 Scenes in Another World," was published by Derby 
 and Jackson in the fall of 1858. The firm failed in 
 the spring of 1859, and the plates were resold to the 
 author, and have remained in his possession unused 
 until the present time, when the recent popular and 
 attractive book of Miss Phelps, entitled " The Gates 
 Ajar," suggested its republication and the change of 
 title which is now made. The Author hopes his readers 
 will be gratified witli this attempt to picture the Scenes 
 and Society of Another World. 
 
 Washington, May 1, 1869. 
 
 (V) 
 
 :^49691 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 This work was designed by the Author as a man- 
 uscript tale for a young friend ; but, as " stories 
 somehow lengthen as they run," and being pleased 
 with the labor, the work grew under his hands, and 
 took its present shape. 
 
 All our ideas of the future must be formed out of 
 the present life ; nor can we reach outside of a 
 physical theory. The vehicles of thought and rep- 
 resentations of The World to Come, found in this 
 volume, are the same which have been. adopted by 
 the inspired writers of the Holy Bible, and by 
 Dante and Milton. 
 
 Jeremy Taylor, speaking of a poor widow who 
 labored hard to procure the means of subsistence, 
 says, "her ideas of heaven were few and simple. 
 She rejected the doctrine that it was a place of con- 
 stant activity, and not of repose ; and believed that 
 when she at length reached it, she would work no 
 more, but sit in a clean white apron and sing psalms." 
 
 (vii) 
 
Vlll TO THE HEADER. 
 
 In like manner we all have our own ideas of heaven, 
 which have been forming from the day-dawn of 
 existence, and result from a combination of all the 
 varied influences that have ever been brought to 
 bear upon our physical as well as our spiritual 
 nature. 
 
 The Author, after the book was written, in order 
 to meet objections as best he could, sought for 
 passages from Dante and Milton to countenance his 
 imaginings, assured that under the shelter of their 
 great names he would be safe from misconception 
 and censure. The eminent English essayist, John 
 Foster, has thus given his judgment of such an 
 effort as this : " I am very far from disliking philo- 
 sophical speculation, or daring flights of fancy on 
 this high subject. On the contrary, it appears to 
 me strange that any one firmly holding the belief 
 of a life to come should not have both the intellec- 
 tual faculty and the imagination excited to the 
 utmost in the trial, however unavailing, to give 
 some outlines of definite form to the unseen real- 
 ities." And Socrates, addressing those by whom 
 he had been condemned, spoke of his death as a 
 departure to the society of the good in another 
 world, and asked : "If this be true, O my judges, 
 what greater good can there be than this ? At what 
 price would not either of you purchase a conference 
 
TO THE READER. IX 
 
 with Orpheus or Musteus, with Hesiod and Homer? 
 What woukl not any one of you give for an inter- 
 view with him who led that mighty army against 
 Troy ; or with Ulysses, or ten thousand of others, 
 both male and female, that might be mentioned? 
 For to converse and associate with them would be 
 an inestimable felicity. Truly I should be willing 
 to die often, if these things be true." 
 
 In a work of the Imagination, which, so far as 
 his knowledge extends, is the first to portray after 
 this manner the possible scenes of a future life, the 
 Author may not hope to satisfy his readers ; yet, if 
 its perusal shall be suggestive, and if, by antago- 
 nism even, thoughts in their souls before dormant, 
 or undefined and shadowy, shall become operative 
 ideas, his wishes will have been so far attained. 
 
 Heaven is the true happiness of the human soul ; 
 presenting the attractions of every excellence and 
 tho" fruition of every desire. The Author's aim has 
 been to awaken in his readers new aspirations of 
 hope for "the glorious appearing of the great God 
 and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The World of Art and Beauty — Its Appearance to Beings of Earth floating in ita 
 Atmosphere — These Observers described^The joj-ful Greetings of Mrs. Jay 
 and Peter Schlemihl in upper Air — Their Colloquy — Peter describes his Sickness 
 and Death — Of the City of God— Mrs. Jay and Peter alight near a Temple — 
 Here they meet with Deacon and Mrs. Colgate, with whom they go to the 
 Mansion of the Redeemed and spend the Night 16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Morning Scenes— Deacon Colgate's Account of this New World — Colloquy con- 
 cerning this World in contrast with Earth — Brealcfast — Servitors described — 
 Peter receives a Message from his Angel to hasten to the Metropolis to hear a 
 new Oratorio by Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven — The Messenger 
 tells the Story of his Life 84 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Day spent in the World of Art and Beauty — Of the new St. Peter's built by Michael 
 Angelo — Mrs. Jay and her friend Peter meet with their neighbor, Mr. Laurens 
 — The new Oratorio by Handel is performed, aided by Haydn, Mozart and Bee- 
 thoven — Of the Language and Literature of the World of Art — They reach the 
 Happy Valley — Trial of Skill with a Mocking-bird — The Enigmas of Faith Dis- 
 cussed— Laurens introduces his friends to St. Perpetua — They attend Vespers — 
 The Temple and Worship described 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 St. Perpetua sends Persis to Mrs. Jay with a Message — Their Conversation — The 
 Idea of Married Life entertained by Persis — Her Admiration of Mrs. Jay — 
 Scenes on Silver Lake— Mrs. Jay joins Perpetua, who relates the Story of her 
 
XH CONTENTS. 
 
 Martyrdom at Carthage— Of her appearance before Hilarion — Scene in the 
 Amphitheatre— Her Companions in Martyrdom — Of the Fathers of the Church— 
 The Similarity of Pagan and Papal Religions in Social Life — St. Perpetua and 
 Mrs. Jay are joined by Faustinus and Calliste, just returned after an Absence 
 of fourteen Centuries- — Their Colloquy with Mrs. Jay — Their Surprise at hearing 
 of the Discovery of a "New World" — Mrs. Jay describes her meeting Satan, 
 the "Architect of Ruin" — Faustinus's Account of the New World whence he 
 has returned— Puolic Opinion in Rome, a.d 330 — Roman Society of the Fourth 
 Century— Calliste tells the Story of her Conversion ; her Interviews with St. Paul, 
 of her Trials and Martyrdom 77 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Faustinus inquires of Mrs. Jay as to the Progress of the Gospel — Of the Last Days 
 of the World; Views of the Early Ages respecting it; Mrs. Jay gives the Views 
 of the Present Day — Perpetua on the Progress of Christianity — On the Condition 
 of Women in the Days of Nero — The Law of the Twelve Tables -Examples of 
 the Degradation of Women, shown in the Mother of Demosthenes and the Wife 
 of M. P. Cato — Of the Law of Divorce as shown by Cicero to Terentia— Cal- 
 liste tells of the Condition of Roman Children — Testimony of Tacitus — She gives 
 an Account of Roman Customs, concerning Marriage, in a Gelation of her own 
 union to Faustinus 116 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Party returns to the Palace Gardens — Scene— The Festivity of the Servitors — 
 Their Dances described — Mrs. Jay's Colloquy with St. Perpetua about Dancing 
 — Miss Mehitable Smith arrives— Her Horror at the Sights — Her Angel's con- 
 trast between the Dancing of Earth and the World of Beauty — Tibertius gives 
 a Recitation to Mrs. Jay and Perpetua of a Sermon Preached in the Metropolis 
 by St. John Chrysostom 140 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mrs. Jay rises at an early Hour — Her Recollections of her Infancy — She ascends 
 into the Air and seats herself on a Cloud — Her Thoughts of God — Returns to the 
 Palace to receive a Morning Call from Perpetua and Calliste in her own Room 
 — Their Colloquy — Of the School of Eloquence — Why there are ro " Strong- 
 minded Women " in Heaven — Perpetua's Opinion of Woman's Rights — Of Modern 
 Fashions — Influence of the Science of Phrenology on Beauty — Variety of dresses 
 now worn — Paint not now used — Of Diamonds — Modern Invention of making 
 Money out of Paper — Of the Fashions at Carthage — -Advantage of an Auto-da- 
 F6 — Satirical sayings of TertulUan — Of Celibacy — .Asceticism — Monasticism — 
 Rise of Nunneries— Character of Girls educated in Convents — Of the Convents 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 of the United States— Of escaped Nuns— Of political Parties in the United 
 States — The Admiration of certain Mothers for Nunneries as Seminaries of 
 Education — Perpetua and Mrs. Jay discuss how these Prisons -of the Unhappy 
 can be made subject to Law 151 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 St. Perpetua, Calliste and Mrs. Jay rise into the Air and sweep over the Country 
 alighting to visit attractive Pleasure Grounds — Perpetua's Remarks on English 
 Manners— The Villa of Anastasius — Frankie Guilford and her Music Lesson — 
 Her Account of Herself and Studies — Emerentia welcomes our Party to her 
 Villa — The Music Hall— New Music by Beethoven— Mrs. Jay sings some Airs, 
 " Native " to good Society in New York— Their Visit to the Studio— Perpetua and 
 her Party remain to Supper— Conversation at the Table— They take Leave of 
 the Family of Anastasius — Evening Scenes at the Palace— Mrs. Jay contrasts the 
 Appearance of tlie Saloons with a Grand Party of her own — Mrs. Jay's Difference 
 between Ancient and Modern Martyrdom— They join Sulpicius Severus and 
 St. Hedwiges— St. Chrysostom's Opinion of Modern Monkery— Of the Origin of 
 Asceticism 183 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Feast of Fruits and Flowers — Mrs. Jay introduced to Dante and Beatrice — 
 Perpetua and Mrs. Jay meet Laurens and Peter Schlemihl on the Lawn — They 
 are joined by Faustinus and Calliste — Laurens gives an Account of a Meeting 
 of S<ivan^ in a Distant World for the Advancpment of Knowledge — Description 
 of the Academy— They go to the Section of Metaphysicians — Peter Schlemihl 
 gives an Account of his Experiences — Calliste is surprised to hear Peter speak 
 of his Seven Senses— Peter's Explanation— Gives his Views of the Discussions — 
 Laurens resumes his Narrative— Mrs. Jay's Story of a Learned Lady of the 
 East— The Search for the Absolute — Sir William Hamilton and Plato compared 
 — The Jews had no Philosophy — Faustinus gives his Views — Laurens finishes the 
 Narrative of his Visit — Perpetua defends the Metaphysicians— They go to the 
 Temple to hear Beethoven's new Anthem — The Scene described— St. Cecilia and 
 Beethoven 204 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Story of Angela, the Nun — Mishael, the Guardian of Angela, leads her 
 to the Temple of the Winds, where Perpetua and our Friends were seated — 
 Her Appearance described — While Perpetua takes her on a Walk in the Gar- 
 dens, Mishael, at the request of Calliste, tells the Story of her Life — Angela 
 having completed her Education at Home, is taken by her Mother to Paris, 
 where she returns the Love of a young Nobleman — Her Mother gives her 
 Approval; and while Count Qratz is on a Visit to Vienna, she breaks up her 
 Home In Paris, and returns with Angela — The Count, in his Despair, takes ihc 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Vow of Celibacy and becomes a Priest — He writes her a Letter, which she 
 receives at Home, praying her to become a Nun — Angela takes the Veil — Her 
 Decline and Death 229 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Life at the Palace described — An Evening Entertainment at the Temple — A Sunset 
 described — The Sabbath— The Ritual Service of the Temple — A Sermon is 
 preached by John Howe, once Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell — Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter meet Mr. Howe in the Gardens — Their Colloquy — The Necessity of a 
 Creed — Mr. Howe on Conversion — Mrs. Jay's Account of the State of the 
 Churches of Christ in the United States— Her Notion of the Work of the 
 Ministry 262 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Visit to the Studio of the Metropolis — Controversy between two Doctors, an AUo- 
 pathist and Homeopathist, as to their several Systems and Modes of Practice — 
 Visit to the Studio of a young Artist — Mrs. Jay makes a Discovery — Peter meets 
 Lucia sitting on a Cloud— Their Colloquy — Of the recent Meeting of Savans in 
 Montreal for the Advancement of Science — Lucia tells the Story of her Life — Of 
 her Interview with Lady Alice De Vere, just from St. Barnabas, in Pimlico — Story 
 of a Roman Saint 274 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mrs. Jay is recalled to Earth by Flavianus, her Angel, to be present at the Mar- 
 riage of her Daughter — She is accompanied by Faustinus and Calliste, Peter 
 and her Son— Sights seen on the Journey — The Records of Eternity — A World 
 on Fire — On reaching the Milky-way they have a Vision of Paradise before the 
 Creation of Adam— Scenes passing before them to the Ascension of Christ — 
 Flavianus explains how the Air holds a Record of all Events from the beginning 
 of Creation — They alight at the Home of Mrs. Jay 29T 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Wedding Party at Mr. Jay's— The Marriage Guests enter — Miss Judith Grey — 
 Mrs. Fairfield — Mrs. George Thomson — Mrs. Thomson's Critique on " Old 
 Masters " — Mrs. Gen. Wentworth and Mrs. Thomson discuss the late Mrs. Jay — 
 Colloquy between Mrs. Thomson, Mrs. Butler, and Mrs. Griswold, as to the 
 presence of the Departed — Mrs. Thomson's Opinion of the World she lives in — The 
 Story of a Night — Mrs. Howard and Miss Fairfield — Mrs. Jay takes leave of her 
 Husband and Daughter — Peter remains behind — Discovers the Curtains of an 
 Upper Room on Fire — Fails to arouse Mr. Jay — He rushes into the Ball-room 
 and shouts. Fire ! 320 
 
 Appendix 847 
 
THE GATES WIDE OPEN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The World of Art and Beauty — ^Its Appearance to Beings of Earth floating in ita 
 Atmosphere — These Observers described — The joyful Greetings of Mrs. Jay 
 and Peter Schlemihl in upper Air — Their Colloquy — Peter describes his Siclcness 
 and Death — Of the City of God — Mrs. Jay and Peter alight near a Temple — 
 Here they meet with Deacon and Mrs. Goodman, with whom they go to the 
 Mansion of the Redeemed and spend the Night. 
 
 It was at the close of a summer's day,, that a female 
 form, arrayed in robes of light, floated in the atmosphere 
 of a world of loveliness and grandeur. Upon her beauti- 
 ful brow shone the halo of umnortality, whose pure rays 
 resembled the scintillations of stars. Her robes and 
 vesture 
 
 -" Sky robes spun of Iris' woof," 
 
 were classic in their fashion, and fastened around the 
 waist by a girdle studded with gems of rare brilliancy. 
 Her eyes were lit with intense delight as she gazed long 
 and aMently upon the varied landscape mapped out 
 beneath her. 
 
 16 
 
16 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 On this globe were vast continents, with mighty moun- 
 tain chains, and oceans gemmed with islands, whose 
 peaks were lifted high above the clouds. All around 
 were scenes of rarest combinations of luxuriance and 
 loveliness. Cities of vast size were seen, whose domes 
 rose like gold and silver-capped clouds. 
 
 Sweeping above the earth, like an eagle on wings of 
 even poise, did this shining one circle over the plains 
 below. And while thus occupied and absorbed, angel 
 forms from the empyrean, appeared in the distance, with 
 the suddenness of falling stars. Arrested by the vision 
 of beauty, with a swoop high in air, they staid their 
 flight, and floated amid the clouds. 
 
 This squadron of angels, descending, left one of their 
 nimiber above. He, too, bore the flame of the Re- 
 deemed, shining like the morning star over his fore- 
 head. By a law of sympathy, as undefined in heaven 
 as on earth, these two shining ones drew nearer and 
 nearer, until, in immediate proximity, they awoke to the 
 consciousness of each other's presence. After graceful 
 salutations, as befits the courtesies of all worlds, the man, 
 for such he was, addressed the woman thus : " Fair sis- 
 ter, are you, like myself, a stranger here ?" 
 
 She replied, "I am, and have but just reached this 
 beautiful world. Can you tell me anything of its 
 history ?" 
 
 " My companions in travel, who have just leftwne, tell 
 me that this world is one of the centres of the Fine 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 17 
 
 Arts, to which many of the redeemed of eaith are sent 
 to be initialed into the love of Music and the Arts of 
 Design." 
 
 " I am most happy to know this. I have never heard 
 of such a world, but as God, our Creator, is the author 
 of Beauty, I knew he must sympathize with the feeblest 
 efibrts of his children, in whatever scale of existence, 
 and however rude their attempt to realize the Ideal." * 
 
 As the woman spoke, there was a flash of mutual 
 recognition, and with a burst of joy the friendships of 
 earth were now renewed, f 
 
 All that the reader need know of the lives on earth of 
 these persons, thus introduced to his acquamtance, is 
 told m a few words. Mrs. Anna Jay had been the "wife 
 of an eminent citizen of New York, still living in that 
 city, with his only child. Miss Augusta Jay, now a young 
 lady : and the male spirit was none other than Mr. Peter 
 
 * Plato, in his book " Against the Atheists," which is the " 10th Book of Laws,' 
 with wonderful acumen makes an argument a priori, derived from inward con- 
 sciousness, in which he demonstrates that the Supreme Being is the God of beauty 
 and love. His words are " God is Beauty and Love itself." 
 
 t Recoonition of Friends in Hravbn. — Baxter says, "I must confess, as the ex- 
 perience of my own soul, that the expectation of loving my friends In heaven 
 principally kindles my love to them on earth. If I thought I should never know, 
 and consequently never love them after this life, I should number them with tem 
 poral things, and love them as such ; but I now delightfully converse with my 
 pious friends, in a firm persuasion that I shall converse with them forever; and I 
 take comfort in those that are dead or absent, believing that I shall shortly meet 
 them in heaven, and love them with a heavenly love." 
 
18 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Schlemihl, whose adventures in this country are well 
 known to the readers of his book, entitled " Peter Schle- 
 mihl in America." 
 
 After the surprise of this unexpected meeting was 
 over, Mrs. Jay proposed that they should alight, saying, 
 " I have a thousand questions to ask you." 
 
 Leading the way, Mrs. Jay descended gently down 
 the skies to where a beautiful little Doric edifice stood 
 on a shaft of granite, which rose out of the centre of 
 a lake, the shores of which lay about a mUe distant. 
 These were covered with villas whose velvety green 
 ornamental grounds ran down to the water. In front 
 of them, and standing upon a bold rocky bank, rose a 
 magnificent temple, whose golden spires and lofty dome 
 were reflected in long lines of light upon the glassy sur- 
 face of the lake, with all the gorgeous clouds of a 
 summer's eve, lit up by the great setting flame. Here 
 as they sat admiring the scene before them, Peter thus 
 addressed his companion : 
 
 "How unspeakably happy I am, Mrs. Jay, to meet 
 you here in these realms of life and immortality; 
 ' redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled !' " 
 
 Mrs. Jay, with her eyes lifted to heaven, replied: 
 " Free, Peter ! yes, my soul, complete in the circle of its 
 powers, has but one aspiration, to be God-like." Reco- 
 vering herself, she continued : " Now, Peter, teE me of 
 your escape out of the body ?" 
 
 Peter replied : " Dying was to me, Mrs, Jay, as it is 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 19 
 
 to most men, a matter of painful apprehension. Not 
 only because of ' the pains, the groans and dying strife,' 
 but most of all, lest, after all, I should find myself self- 
 deceived, and forever lost. It was on Friday night, 
 now six weeks since, that I went to bed with a chill. I 
 had spent the evening at your house with your husband 
 and Augusta, and not feeling well, I left at an early 
 hour. That night I had a hot fever, and the strangest 
 of dreams. In the morning, my excellent friend, Dr. 
 Hall, came up to see me, and prescribed. My fever 
 raged with violence for five days, and I began to realize 
 the possibility that this was to be my last sickness, and 
 that soon I should stand before God. Satan was near 
 me to accuse me, and I was made to look down into 
 the immeasurable abyss of my depravity. Such was 
 the activity of my soul, that the retrospection of 
 my life now is not more vivid than it was at that 
 time. My reply to all these accusations of conscience 
 was this: I repeated all the exceeding great and pre- 
 cious promises of the word of God, and all the verses 
 of hymns I could recall, and these flowed into my soul 
 with such sweetness that I was kejjt, for the most part, 
 in perfect peace. I say for the most part, for there wei'e 
 moments when my sins rose like mountain waves, 
 impending over me. I knew I was wading through the 
 Jordan, and though the waters rose very high, I was 
 assured of my safety; so that when the anxieties of 
 those around me increased, mine had all ceased. I was 
 
20 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 perfectly passive, suffered little, and was only sorry 
 to see those about me in tears. The ninth day, and 
 it was the Lord's day, about noon, I was aware of 
 those around me expressmg a wish for me to give them 
 some token of my consciousness. I felt the pressure of 
 their hands, but could not return it. My soul was now 
 bathed in perfect repose, when, my sight failing, I saw 
 but dimly those near me, and became conscious of 
 the presence of my guardian angel. 'Give me,' said 
 Augusta, 'one last pressure;' I did so, and then sunk 
 away into a blissful sleep. From this I woke, and found 
 myself clad in the robes of immortality, the morning 
 star shining above my forehead. 
 
 " I lingered awhile, anxious to manifest myself to those 
 who stood around my bed weeping. It was all in vain that 
 I spoke to them ; and thus I grew iato the full conscious- 
 ness of my separate existence. ' Let us depart,' said my 
 ansrel : and with the last emotion of sorrow I shall ever 
 know, I found myself rising into the heavens, and soon 
 Sims and stars fled by me with the rapidity of meteors, 
 as we mounted upwards on our way to the Holy City, 
 there to be presented to our great Redeemer as a new 
 trophy of his victory. The rapture of that glad hour 
 I have no words to express, and happily you need none. 
 It was to me, and ever will be, a glory unutterable. 
 After my audience with our great God and Saviour, I 
 was sent by him, under the conduct of my guardian, 
 to this world, here to begin my studies. By permission 
 
SCENES IX ANOTHER WORLD. 21 
 
 of my angel, I have remained above to witness the 
 beauty of the landscape, and, to my great joy, I have 
 met you." 
 
 " Were you not surprised, Peter, to find in the Holy 
 City no Scripture personages, and no one of whom you 
 had read in the history of the church ?" 
 
 "I was greatly surprised. I inquired for them, 
 especially for the apostle Paul, but was told by my 
 angel that they had all long since been made meet for 
 the high service of messengers of the grace of God, and 
 were now telling the tidings of the redemption of a 
 lost race by the suiferings and death of Christ. He told 
 me this was the last attainment of a glorified soul : that, 
 in order to this, after long practice in the schools of 
 eloquence, the languages as well as the sciences of the 
 world to which the missionary is sent were to be ac- 
 quired ; and then it demands the greatest possible range 
 of illustration to make sinless beings comprehend the 
 mysteries of the renewal and sanctification of a lost 
 soul." 
 
 " And what was the newest of your joys, Peter, after 
 you were clothed upon \vith immortality ?" 
 
 " It was the absence of sin — no more sin ! A soul 
 saved I knew must be happy, but the manner in which 
 happiness came was new to me. The great unappreciated 
 weight of sin, Avhich, like our earth's atmosphere, once 
 weighed me down, was now no more. And then, such 
 was my joy in the exercise of my new-found faculties of 
 
22 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 knowing and loving. Gladly did I task my angel into 
 the development of my soul's energies, and yet I was 
 surprised to find myself, though disembodied, and after 
 so great a change, so little changed. And this thought 
 was present to me, when I felt in my soul the conscious- 
 ness of power to wing my flight to the very verge of 
 creation, if such there be. But it was not long before 
 I found myself, as on earth, a child of limited powers 
 and in the infancy of my being. I had everything to 
 learn, and could not reach my longings any more than 
 an infant who cries for the moon ; but then I was docile, 
 and made the glad discovery that I had now none of 
 the repinings of earth clinging to me." * 
 
 * The Author respectfully requests the attention of his readers to this note. 
 Archbishop Whately, in hia recent work on " A Future State," presents these 
 views : " Vast as must be the difference, in many respects, between the glorified 
 condition of the saints, and everything they have experienced here, yet I doubt 
 whether there may not be more resemblance between the two states — the earthly 
 and the heavenly— than some suppose. Sins and infirmities will of course be 
 excluded from that better world ; the enjoyments and perfections of sincere Christ- 
 ians will be immensely heightened; but if we look on the highest and puiest 
 spots of human nature and human life, as it is here, we may be led to form, I 
 think, no unreasonable conjectures as to some things that will be hereafter. For, 
 we should remember, that both worlds are the work of the same Author— this 
 present world of trial, and the eternal world, — 'the new heavens and the new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.' All that is suitable to this world alone will 
 be removed from that other, what is evil will be taken away, what is Imperfect will 
 be made complete, what is good will be extended and exalted ; but there is no 
 reason to suppose that any further change will be made than is necessary tl> 
 qualify the faithful for that improved state, that their human character will be 
 altered any further than it wants altering, and its dispositions and whole con- 
 stitution unnecessarily reversed."— Zectera X " Occupations and State of 
 Society of tfie Blest," p. 20. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. • 23 
 
 " One of the glad surprises which filled me with joy," 
 said Mrs. Jay, " was my recollection of aU I had ever 
 thought, or said, or did. I had read of a French meta- 
 physician who says, ' a thought is more substantive than 
 a post,' and in studying mental philosophy I had learned 
 that thoughts were eternal, but the recovery of all these 
 at wiU has filled me with dehght. And now your pre- 
 sence brings back to me all we have said and done from 
 our first acquaintance; but after aU, I cannot ask you 
 a thousand questions at once, and I find I am, as you 
 have just now suggested, still the subject of time and 
 space." 
 
 And while they thus sat conversing the sim of that 
 world was making a golden set, and distant songs of praise 
 fiom a multitude of voices were borne by the evening 
 breeze over the surface of the lake, from out of the ca- 
 thedral, and with such a flood of hannony as at once 
 arrested the attention of Mrs. Jay and Peter. The last 
 note was hushed, when the hymn to the Trinity came to 
 them on the wings of the wind, and reverently rising, 
 they joined in the song of saints and angels. 
 
 " Let us go down to meet these children of the high- 
 est," said Mrs. Jay ; for now the multitude of worship- 
 pers were seen thronging out, and returning, in family 
 groups to their villas. By a volition they alighted on 
 the greensward in front of the temple, and stood aside, 
 to see these new-found creatures of their Heavenly 
 Father, who, in passing, saluted them with the profound 
 
24 • THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 deference due to their superior race. Last of all, tlioio 
 came thronging out of the temple a bevy of youth of 
 both sexes, wearing the halo of the redeemed, who were 
 crowding playfully around two mature persons who 
 seemed to promote the amusement of these happy 
 beings. There was a gracious smile on the handsome face 
 of the man, whose merry sayings provoked the mirth of 
 the group, while his wife (as they supposed her to be) 
 looked around with a pleased aii', the very type of good- 
 ness and gentleness. It reminded Mrs, Jay of the play- 
 fulness of boys and girls around beloved teachers. 
 
 As these drew near, Peter, to his great joy, discovered 
 in these seniors, his well beloved friends. Deacon and 
 Mrs. Colgate. With extended arms he advanced 
 towards them, and they, recognizing him, came towards 
 him with glad expressions of delight. This over, Mrs. 
 Jay was presented and then the deacon called his son 
 Thomas, and after him the whole school came forward 
 and were introduced. The young folks then left them 
 to enjoy their sports on the green, and on the lake. "Do 
 you not wish me to tell you whose these are ?" said the 
 deacon as they stood looking, watching their antics and 
 frolics. 
 
 " Certainly, Deacon Colgate," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " These all died in childhood or infancy, and they have 
 been sent here to be trained into the science of music. 
 They are the choristers of this great cathedral as we 
 should call it on earth, while they pursue their various 
 
SCENES m ANOTUEK WORLD. 25 
 
 studies in the academy whose dome you see yonder," 
 pointing to it in the distance. 
 
 "Come," said the deacon, "let us have the pleasure 
 of your company for the night. I have many inquiries 
 to make of our world, and here we have homes as wide 
 and spacious as our hearts. " 
 
 " You have always had such a home, deacon," said 
 Peter. 
 
 "Let us lead the way, Mrs. Jay," said the deacon, 
 offering his arm; and Mrs. Colgate and Peter followed 
 after. 
 
 The Palace of the Redeemed stood on a gentle slope 
 of land bordering on the lake. The grounds were beau- 
 tifully laid out and were adorned with statues, which, 
 seen m the shadows of tA\dlight amid the shrubbery of 
 the garden, were often mistaken for living beings of sur- 
 passing grace and beauty. The building stood in the 
 centre of the grounds, and rose before them a splendid 
 palace. There was a lofty pillared porch over the grand 
 entrance, and, having ascended its marble steps, they 
 entered a vestibule so beautiful in its adornments, as to 
 make them pause and look up and around in wondering 
 amazement. The frescoes were to their eyes living real- 
 ities, and when they entered the spacious saloon they 
 found themselves sm-rounded with works of art, the ceil- 
 ings covered with forms of loveliness, and the walls hung 
 with paintings which riveted the attention of beholders 
 tjo newly arrived as were both Mrs. Jay and Peter. 
 2 
 
26 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 They were permitted to indulge their admiration to 
 the full, when the deacon, addressing Mrs. Jay, said, " I 
 see, madam, you love art. That is somethmg I have 
 now to acquire, and I am taking my first lessons in draw- 
 ing. In the utilitarian world in which, when a boy, I 
 lived. Art was not regarded with much favor. Indeed, 
 an artist, whether in music, painting or sculpture, was 
 considered as a worthless fellow who wanted to live 
 without labor. All we desired then was just enough of 
 music to turn a tune, and of painting, to make a por- 
 trait, where every feature was caricatured into what is 
 called "a strikmg likeness." And as for sculpture, all 
 we asked was a carver to make figure-heads for our ships, 
 or gravestones with horrid cherubs, to mark the place 
 where our dead lay buried. But a great change had 
 been efiected, and at the end of the first half of the nine- 
 teenth century, I was fearful we were getting on too fast 
 with our love of art, and spending money on works of 
 taste which ought to have been devoted to works of 
 benevolence and the cause of missions." 
 
 " ' Offences must needs come,' deacon," replied Mrs. 
 Jay. " Man, sinful as he is, will never do anything as it 
 ought to be done. Perfect symmetry of life and action 
 is not of earth but heaven. For myself, I always loved 
 art, for I felt that next to Holiness, God must love 
 Beauty. I use the language of earth in so speaking, for 
 in the mind of God there are no sequences." 
 
 " You wiU have your longings fully met hi this, God's 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 27 
 
 world of art and beauty," said Mrs. Colgate, "for here, 
 Mrs. Jay, the struggle is to reacli to the fiiU comprehen- 
 sion of what meets the eye wherever it rests, whether 
 in the creations of God, or of his creatures. 
 
 " Let us now take a survey of our home here," said 
 this good woman ; which they did under her guidance 
 and the deacon's. The grandeur of the saloons and halls, 
 and the splendor of the furniture, and beauty of the 
 drapery, all were subjects of Mrs. Jay's especial admira- 
 tion. 
 
 When they had walked through the saloons, return- 
 ing, they took seats at mndows opening upon the lake, 
 where they saw many gilded skiffs gliding along under 
 the guidance of the children of the palace. Some were 
 running boat races, striving for the goal, and followed 
 by many as lookers-on ; and others were playing along 
 the banks. While they sat gazing on the sj^orts of these 
 shining ones, -the deacon asked many questions conceni- 
 ing his children and the city, and finally, as to the state 
 of political parties. He asked after the progress of 
 liberty, and was happy to be informed that every 
 advance was in favor of freedom. 
 
 " I doubt not it is so," said the deacon. " The Gospel 
 of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ is leavening 
 the whole lump, but how slowly. It seems to me the 
 advance of Christianity and civilization (and these I 
 regard as identical), is like the swaying of a pendulum, 
 first one way and then another; but there is a rack 
 
28 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 movement high over all, heyond the control of rulers, 
 whether kmgs or congressmen, which carries the world 
 forward." And pausing a moment, the deacon, with 
 one of his merry smiles, continued, " I think, Peter, the 
 world every now and then makes a sudden lurch, and 
 the advance of a generation seems lost ; but it is not so, 
 for the world's history shows that the subversion of the 
 eternal laws of God and humanity, are overruled for the 
 advance of the kingdom of Christ ; for which alone, my 
 fi'iends, the world is kept in being." 
 
 "All you say is true, Deacon Colgate," said Mrs. 
 Jay, " but you would not preach the doctrine of submis- 
 sion to evil-doers if you were on earth," 
 
 " By no means. Let every man be zealously affected 
 in a good cause, and if, by mistake, good men even knock 
 each other's heads off, it only hastens them in their pil- 
 grimage to the celestial city." This unexpected turn 
 given by the deacon to the discourse was followed by 
 one of his merry laughs that shed its sunshine, as they 
 were wont to do, over the circle about him. It was 
 beautiful in the eyes of Peter, to see these dear friends 
 once more, and to hear the wise sayings of the good 
 deacon, and to enjoy his grave, genial and becoming 
 mirth, illustrated and heightened by the silvery laugh 
 of Mrs. Jay. 
 
 At this point of their discussion, supper was an- 
 nomiced, and the deacon led Mrs. Jay, Peter and Mrs. 
 Colgate following, across the central hall into a spa- 
 
SCENES IN ANOTUER WOULD. 29 
 
 cious saloon, where they fouiid a hundred youth or more 
 assembled, and the table covered with a service of gold 
 of exquisite workmanship, and vases filled with fruits 
 and flowers; grapes just gathered, and fruits of various 
 hues, before imseen. The " Gloria " having been simg, 
 they seated themselves. A lovely girl of fifteen, whose 
 lustrous eyes bespoke her origin in eastern lands, sat 
 next Peter, and made herself agreeable to him, help- 
 ing hun to select the fruits to be eaten, and replying to 
 all his inquiries. 
 
 " Have the Fellahs of Egypt yet awakened the sympa- 
 thy of the European churches ?" asked the girl ; to Avhich 
 Peter replied he had not heard of any such missions. 
 
 " Pray teU me," asked Peter, " are you from Egypt ?" 
 
 " Yes, I was born at Philoe, and was thro^^oi to the 
 crocodiles. I was born but to be born again unto the king- 
 dom of heaven ; and after having received the blessing 
 of our God and Saviour, I was brought here by my angel 
 to be educated. See that girl conversing opposite ; she 
 was born m Hmdostan, and was exposed to vultures ; and 
 you see here representatives of all lands." 
 
 "Are there many such homes for infants in this 
 world ?" 
 
 "O, yes, we are scattered everywhere; not only in 
 this world, but in other worlds of Art and Beauty, of 
 which there is an inconceivable number." 
 
 The scene was one of singular interest to Peter, as he 
 sat looking up and doAvn the table and saw this lovely 
 
30 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 company, all arrayed in robes of light and wearing the 
 halo of inunortality, feasting with playfulness and joy on 
 fruits which might have satisfied the palate of Raphael, 
 the angel of God, in Paradise.* 
 
 On rising from the table, as the evening was advanced, 
 
 the deacon proposed to Mrs. Jay and Peter, to go out 
 
 and see the starry heavens. They did so, and looking up 
 
 were filled Avith admii'ation and awe. There was a broad 
 
 ' belt of light circling the heavens which reflected the sun's 
 
 * Lest some of his readers may deem this as "of the earth earthy," the author 
 deems it wise to call on Blilton to give him his aid and countenance. In the Para- 
 dise Lost, book v., we read of Raphael's visit to Adam and Eve in Paradise. 
 Raphael being invited to the banquet prepared by Eve, Adam apologizes for its 
 quality, saying : 
 
 " ' unsavory food, perhaps, 
 
 To spiritual natures." 
 
 To whom the angel : ' Therefore what he gives 
 (Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part 
 Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found 
 No ingrateful food: and food alike those puri 
 IntelUgential substances require, 
 Aa doth your rational ; and both contain 
 Within them every lower faculty 
 Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, 
 Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate, 
 And corporeal to incorporeal turn.' " 
 After further discourse, Raphael, speaking of heavenly fruits, tells Adam: 
 
 " ' Yet God hath here 
 Varied his bounty so with new delights 
 As may compare with heaven ; and to taste 
 Think not I shall be nice.' So down they sat 
 And to the viands fell ; nor seemingly 
 The angel, nor in mist, the common gloss 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 31 
 
 rays, and four moons were visible, oue at the full over 
 head, another just emerging from behind the ring, and two 
 others showing the cusp of a coming and of a waning 
 moon. These, and stars which hung down from the dark 
 depths of the sky like buming lamps, forming glorious 
 constellations, filled the souls of our travellers with ador- 
 ing rapture. 
 
 They remained in the open air, walking along the 
 shores of the lake, accompanied by deacon and Mrs. 
 Colgate and the Egyptian girl, who held the hand of 
 Peter, and described to him the cosmography of this sys- 
 tem of worlds with which she was fixmiliar from having 
 personally visited every planet and every moon in sight; 
 and this she did in the most pleasing manner conceivable. 
 
 The chimes of the cathedi'al reminded them of their 
 hour of worship and rest. Returning skiffs freighted 
 with shining ones Avere seen now hastening to land, and 
 soon this Community of Love Avere assembled in the grand 
 hall, as it was called by preeminence, when the choir 
 
 Of theologians ; but with keen dispatch 
 
 Of real hunger 
 
 Meanwhile at table Eve 
 
 Minister'd naked, and their flowing cups 
 With pleasant liquors crowned." — Line 445. 
 
 In Gen. xviii. we read of a visit made by the angel Jehovah and two attend- 
 ant angels to Abraham. It is written— "Abraham ran unto the herd, and fecht a 
 calf, tender and good, and gave it unto a young man ; and he hasted to dress it. 
 And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before 
 them ; and fhey did eat." 
 
32 THE GATES WIDE OrEN; OR, 
 
 with one consent began their song of praise. This ser- 
 vice ended, with graceful adieus, they separated. The 
 deacon consigned Mrs. Jay to liis wife, and Peter to his 
 son, to be conducted to their several apartments.* 
 
 Peter was again surprised at the beauty of his chamber, 
 and its furniture. Tlie couch was of classic form and the 
 filmy curtams were held up by cherubs wrought in gold, 
 whose faces were beautiful beyond description. It was 
 late, and Peter, a Httle weary with his long flight, laid 
 himself do\\Ti to sleej). 
 
 Now the state of repose to the redeemed is bliss un- 
 known on earth ; for then the soul in vision rises with a 
 flood of light, into the sensible and immediate presence 
 of the Saviour, and holds with him the most intimate 
 communion ; asking him every question love can inspire, 
 and receiving his gracious answers, as did the disciple 
 whom Jesus loved while leaning on his bosom. It was 
 the belief of the saints of all ages, and this was sustained 
 by those most learned in the science of the soul, that this 
 state of exaltation was the highest life ; when the soul 
 found its repose in God, the ocean of the Infinite, where 
 all is light and love ; to each soul the perfection of being, 
 defined by no line, boimded by no circle, but in which 
 the soul Avas represented to itself as the centre and God 
 the circumference. Such was the commimion of the 
 
 * Satan, {Paradise Lost, book i, line 325) reproaches his fallen lemons, lying en- 
 tranced upon the burning lake : 
 
 "To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven I" 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 33 
 
 redeemed with God and Christ, alike to all capacities, 
 the mightiest miiid aud the infant heir of glory who 
 but breathed and was exhaled to heaven ; and shared 
 too by archangels, those who stood with Lucifer, son of 
 the morning, when the almightiness of God Avas first 
 manifested in the creation of sims and systems, in- 
 numerable. 
 
 Happ.y sleepers ! whose beautiful activity is thus sus- 
 pended to wake to visions of a more beatific existence. 
 
34 THE GATES WIDE OPEIjr; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Morning Scenes— Deacon Colgate's account of this Xew World — Colloquy con- 
 cerning this World in contrast with Earth — Breaicfast — Servitors described- 
 Peter receives a Message from his Angel to hasten to the Metropolis to hear a 
 new Oratorio by Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven — The Messenger 
 tells the Story of his Life. 
 
 Our travellers arose with the song of earliest birds, and 
 met each other on the terrace leading to the grounds 
 bordering on the lake. The morning breeze was just 
 waking the waves to life. If the sunset was glorious, 
 the rising sun, whose coming was foretold by the 
 reflected light from the vast zone cii cling this world, 
 was magnificent, and filled their souls with emotions of 
 sublimity which kept them silent. 
 
 They were brought down from heaven to earth by the 
 song of birds, whose plumage was paradisiacal, while 
 their notes, running through the sweetest inflections, 
 won their admiring attention. And looking round they 
 were delighted to see flowers of vmknown fragrance, and 
 ncAV combinations of hues ; and above and around were 
 trees of great height and beauty of foliage whose 
 
SCENES IN AJSrOTHER WORLD. 36 
 
 pendent boughs, far droopmg, waved gracefully over 
 them.* 
 
 " How beautiful !" was an exclamation ever rising to 
 their lips. 
 
 While thus occupied, Deacon Colgate and wife joined 
 them, and after morning salutations, Mrs. Jay asked the 
 deacon to tell them something about this lovely world. 
 
 ""We are told, madam, that this is a very ancient 
 world, and has been peopled many cycles of centuries. 
 It is one of worlds of Beauty and Art, or, as my son 
 has it, of the True and the Beautiful in Art. If you have 
 circled it before alighting here, you have seen its many 
 and vast cities, filled with glorious temjjles and edifices 
 devoted to galleries of paintings and sculpture, and 
 museimis of natural history, so vai-ious and bewildering, 
 that walking through them even, wearies the attention 
 of new comers ; and when you shall visit them, as I have 
 done, you will come away as I did, with a feeling that 
 ages would be exhausted in the attemjDt to know all that 
 is to be known of this one world." 
 
 "How the glory and greatness of God widens! 
 When I was on earth, and thought of eternity, I some- 
 times speculated whether the time would not come when 
 I should have exhausted all that was knowable." 
 
 " And so, Mrs. Jay, you thought you might become a 
 
 * " Many are the trees of God that grow- 
 In Paradise, and various yet unknown 
 To us." . . . .—Paradise Lost, boolc ix., line 618. 
 
36 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 fit subject of ennui^'' said the deacon, smiling. lie con- 
 tinued, "Heaven is certainly somewhat different from 
 what we have dreamed ; but however that may be in our 
 experience, our hopes are realized in that we have no 
 tears to be wiped away, no more of sin to taint the con- 
 science and wound the soul." 
 
 Mrs. Colgate, with her sweet smile, followed her 
 husband, saying, "To be holy, forever pure as God is 
 pure, is the completeness of heavenly fehcity. And yet 
 we all feel that we are but in the beginning of our blissful 
 existence. To grow into the hkeness of God — 'one 
 with God as Christ and God are one' — means more 
 than we can now conceive of, and the ages of eternity 
 will come to us full freighted with the blessings of our 
 adoption, and ' a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory.' " 
 
 "It must be so, dear Mrs. Colgate," said Peter, 
 " and yet, for myself I speak, I have no power to appre- 
 hend these great thoughts from the completeness of my 
 present existence. The measure of my capacity will 
 doubtless be enlarged, but no measure can be more than 
 full." 
 
 "Pray do not perplex my mind, Peter," Mrs. Jay 
 exclaimed, " with such vain imaginings ; soap bubbles of 
 philosophers! I am happy now, and shall be forever 
 happy. What more can be desired, deacon and Mrs. 
 Colgate ? And yet, deacon, I can guess at the per- 
 plexity and embarrassment you felt while wandering 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 37 
 
 through a vast collection of natural history, which was 
 new to you, and which you could not but strive to 
 arrange into some order which would be available to 
 you hereafter." 
 
 "My dear madam," said the deacon, "you do not 
 begin to guess the embarrassments that await you. 
 Here is a world, one of fifty-two planets, that belong to 
 this system, whose history goes back many millions of 
 years, and every age an age of progress. Their authors' 
 works are wi'itten in a language forever changing, 
 making the literature of one cycle unintelligible to those 
 of the next, and all these changes are to be studied and 
 attained before the books piled up in public libraries can 
 be read. Then there are as many eras in Art as in lite- 
 rature, and in the same age, in difierent lands, are con- 
 tending schools whose works to be appreciated must be 
 studied in the light of the period when they were orig- 
 inated. So that I, who when I reached here, knew 
 nothing of such matters, felt myself overwhelmed with 
 the variety of knoAvledge to be acquired. Hapj^ily I 
 have no lack of industry and docihty; and under the 
 kind tuition of able masters, aided by my son, Mrs. Col- 
 gjite and I have begun at the alphabet of science, and we 
 hope to comprehend what now only inspires us with 
 wonder." 
 
 A scampering of some sort was heard m the shrubbery, 
 and turning roimd, our friends saw a flock of fawn-like 
 animals bounding over the bushes. So soon as they dis- 
 
38 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 covered strangers they stood at gaze, and when Mrs. 
 Jay ran towards them with kmd words and extended 
 hands, they drew back, till coming to a wall of shrub- 
 bery, they turned and giving a leap were out of sight. 
 Shortly the Egyptian girl joined the party, and at the 
 deacon's request she gave a whistle, when the troop came 
 bounding once more over the bushes and ran up to her 
 to receive her caresses. Encouraged by her voice, the 
 animals stood while Mrs. Jay stroked their smooth skins, 
 spotted with white. " How beautiful !" said Mrs. Jay, 
 and turning to the deacon, she inquired, " Of what use 
 are they ?" 
 
 " How much that smacks of earth, madam. In our 
 world everything is regarded as valuable or otherwise for 
 its utility. An animal for his fur or his flesh, biit here are * 
 animals whose only use, outside then- own joy of living, 
 seems to be to fill the mind with forms of beauty, and to 
 give play to the loving aiFections of the soul. I doubt 
 not there is a use in all things God has made, but I doubt 
 if the inhabitants of this world ever had this inquiry of 
 yours in their heads. You will* find, Mrs. Jay, that all 
 your ideas are to be read backwards in worlds where sin 
 and sorrow are unknown." 
 
 " Is there no death here ?" exclaimed Peter, " and if 
 none, what saves you from a redundant population ?" 
 
 The deacon repUed with a smile, " I assure you, Peter, 
 we do not need Enghsh laws to discourage matrimony, 
 nor any aid fi-om Mr. Malthus, as to population." 
 
SCENES EST ANOTHER WOKLD. 
 
 39 
 
 "Do explain yourself, Deacon Colgate," said Mrs. 
 Jay ; " for this world wears a look of spaciousness, and 
 from the bird's-eye view I have had of it, though culti- 
 vated as a garden, it has no sign of bemg crowded ; in- 
 deed, there are vast areas yet in nature's virgin soil to be 
 seen in every contment and on every island." 
 
 "The germ of population commenced here as on 
 earth, only as their Adam and Eve ate no apple, so then- 
 Paradise now covers the entire globe. There ai^e here 
 two classes— the commoners, who are many, and the 
 select few, who are born, as in England, lords of the 
 soil. These all have their appropriate trammg m their 
 several schools of hterature, art and science, and when 
 they attain to perfection here, they are translated to a 
 higher sphere, where they are placed in worlds analo- 
 go'lis, but' of greater glory, and thus they go onward in 
 endless progression." 
 
 Mrs. Jay asked, " Do they not dread this change ? Is 
 there no hesitancy, nothing like that which we feel when 
 
 leaving 
 
 1 the warm precincts of life's cheerful day, 
 
 We cast one longing, Ungering, look behind ?' " 
 
 « 0, never !" rephed the deacon. " I have witnessed 
 several translations. When the angel comes for them, 
 all their children and friends are gathered together with 
 joy and gladness. After a season of festivity, the father 
 and mother (for here these ties are indissoluble), are 
 
40 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 taken up into the air by the convoy of angels, and their 
 songs of thanksgiving are sent back by those they leave 
 behind." 
 
 "And do children never hear from their parents? 
 Are there no telegrapliic lines to link these far-off worlds 
 together ?" asked Peter. 
 
 'No, Peter, we have no such vehicles of thought, 
 though we are constantly receiving visits of angels who 
 bring messages from those ' not lost, but gone before,' 
 But though we have no such lines as you ask after, you 
 will find each of our great cities the centre of a net-work 
 of wires ; for though these people are in advance of us 
 by cycles of ages in all our discoveries of printing, 
 steam, and the like, yet Professor Morse's discovery of 
 sending a written message with the speed of lightning 
 was a sui-prise ; and it was at once introduced into this 
 world. There are no such pitiful jealousies here, as 
 has kept Wheatstone's visual telegraph in being in Eng- 
 land, while the continent of Europe is covered with 
 3Iorse's instruments, writing by Morse's alphabet," 
 
 "Have they made no improvements upon Morse?" 
 asked Peter. 
 
 " None," replied the deacon, " and for this reason, 
 Professor Morse, at a single bound, reached the ne plus 
 ultra of alphabetic signs, since nothing is so simple as a 
 line^ nothing can be less than a dot.'''' 
 
 Mrs. Jay, who had been listening with great attention, 
 asked if they used steam on this globe, for, she said, " I 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 41 
 
 thought I saw vast steamers, crossmg the ocean iu all 
 directions, but I could see neither smoke-stacks nor 
 smoke; and yet they "went forward with amazing 
 celerity." 
 
 " Steam has long since been superseded by the dis- 
 covery of a very simple and safe process of Ubcrating 
 the inconceivable power of electricity latent in water. 
 This is done with perfect ease, and a wineglass of water 
 is found to contain as much electric force as is evolved 
 in the heaviest of thunder storms ; and this latent elec- 
 tricity has been made as docile as the electro-magnetic 
 fluid in sending messages from New York to New 
 Orleans." 
 
 " Is it possible !" exclaimed Mrs. Jay ; " and is this 
 dreamed of on our earth ?" 
 
 " Yes," replied the deacon, " I am told this great idea 
 has been started by Michael Faraday, and it will not now 
 be permitted to remain imdiscovered." * 
 
 "To change the toi^ic of our discourse," said Mrs. 
 Jay, " will you please tell me what number of the 
 Redeemed are residents of this world ?" 
 
 " The number varies daily, madam, but probably fifty 
 to seventy-five thousand are scattered over this globe, 
 in its hamlets, villas, towns and cities." 
 
 " So few ! John saw in heaven a great multitude, 
 
 • The author quotes from memory. The paper by Faraday is in the printed 
 Transactions of the Royal Society, from 1885 to 1845. 
 
42 TUB GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 which he says, ' no man can number, of all nations, and 
 kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, clothed in white, 
 singing the anthem ' Salvation to our God.' " 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Jay, but who can number the worlds of 
 light that burn in the depths of space, in all which God 
 reveals his love of science and art ? Are you good at 
 figures, Mrs. Jay ?" 
 
 " My mental arithmetic. Deacon Colgate, was quite 
 equal to the smn of fifteen and a half yards of silk for a 
 dress, at two dollars and eighty-seven and a half cents a 
 yard; and I think Mrs. Colgate will confirm me in 
 saying, that this is more than most ladies can do who 
 buy their silks at Stewart's. But why do you ask me 
 such a question, deacon ?" 
 
 " I thought, perhaps, you could have told us the num- 
 ber of Noah's family, upon the ratio of increase which 
 has been fixed upon by statisticians of our times. When 
 you shall have studied numbers, as you will do hereafter 
 in some world devoted to this wonderful science, you 
 may make up the mighty sum, and have a capacity to 
 grasp it. The only interest it now has to us, children of 
 immortality, in this the infancy of our heavenly exist- 
 ence, is, to show the folly of the opinion which obtains 
 with many persons, that our earth is to be made up 
 anew for the habitation of the Redeemed." * 
 
 * Archbishop Whately, page 192, Lecture Lx., on the " Condition of the Blest 
 and their Abode in Heaven," says : " The eternal habitation of the blest is 
 described by the apostle as 'new heavens and a new earth;' meaning by 
 
SCEJSTES IN ANOTIIEK WOKI.D. 43 
 
 "That thought was never pleasant to me," replied 
 Mrs. Jay, " and the moment I Avas free from the 
 body, at one volition I was beyond the system of our 
 earth, and as my angel told me, surrounded by the suns 
 of the Nebula in the belt of Orion. And I have not the 
 least desire to go back even for a short stay." 
 
 " You will never return unless God wills it," said the 
 deacon, " and then your will and his will be one." 
 
 " May I ask Avliat are your studies here, deacon ?" 
 
 " Well, Peter, I have of course begim with the lan- 
 guage of this people at the present day, and I have now 
 a good command of their vernacular, so that when I 
 meet with the common people I can converse with them. 
 The higher classes usually speak English with great 
 beauty. This arises from so many being sent to this 
 world who are natives of Great Britain and North 
 America. My first study in art has been in drawing 
 and perspective, preparatory to the study of architec- 
 ture. You remember, Peter, my brick front to the old 
 tabernacle. That stands a monument of my sldll. My 
 
 'heavens' the air we breathe and sky over our heads, as he means by ' earth' 
 the place on which we dwell. As this description must be understood, in a great 
 degree at least, literally ; since the blest in the next world, having real material 
 bodies as now, though different from then- present bodies, must inhabit some J9^ace 
 fitted for the reception of such bodies ; though exempt, of course, from the evils 
 of the world they now dwell in, and from all the temptations that could lead them 
 into sin ; ' righteousness,' says the apostle, will dwell in the new heavens and the 
 •new earth ' which God has promised." 
 
 In order to show the impossibility arising out of numbers, the author requests 
 the attention of liis readers to Appendix A. 
 
44 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 son, Josey, amused himself by calling it 'Colgate's 
 front,' and I am sure Michael Angelo, or Sir Christopher 
 Wren, would give it their sanction. It was an old 
 building, and needed a front of some sort ; and for the 
 money it cost, I do not believe it could be bettered. I 
 was not a little proud of it, and I may have talked more 
 about it than it merited; but I am sure I committed 
 greater follies in my lifetune than by advocating free 
 pews and my brick front, which, even now, contrast 
 favorably with marble-pillared porticoes, which frown 
 upon the poor, as they in passing cast a stealthy look 
 into a luxurious church which contams no free seats for 
 them. I thank God, that I have left behind me a build- 
 ing for the worshijD of God and Christ which is free to 
 all." 
 
 The hour of morning worship now sounded from the 
 belfry of the cathedral, when the inhabitants in. all their 
 homes assembled for the adoration of their Creator and 
 bountiful Benefactor. Our friends all rose to go into 
 the chapel, as it was called — a large hall in the eastern 
 wing, fitted up Avith an organ. Not only the Redeemed, 
 but all the servitors of the palace were present, when 
 
 " with preamble sweet 
 
 Of charming symphony they introduced 
 Their sacred song, and wakened raptures high. 
 No Toice exempt, no voice but well could join 
 Melodious part : such concord is in heaven." * 
 
 , ♦ Milton— Paradise Lost, book iii., line 8T0. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER "WORLD. 46 
 
 After the morning service, followed the sweet morn- 
 ing congratulations of the Redeemed, and with a mirth- 
 fulness alike graceful and pleasing, they all proceeded to 
 the great saloon, where, as before, a table was spread, 
 whose magnificence was, to Peter and Mrs, Jay, amaz- 
 ing. Fresh fruits and fresh flowers, and grapes just 
 gathered, were placed before them by servitors whose 
 every movement was a new surprise of grace to or.r new 
 comers. These were as numerous as the company. 
 Various were the topics . discoursed of at the table, and 
 Peter Ustened with delight to tones that seemed to him 
 spoken music. 
 
 The servitors were aU young, and far surpassed the 
 Redeemed in beauty and figure ; and then, the slightest 
 act, whatever it might be, was the perfection of grace. 
 These servitors regarded it as a high distmction con- 
 ferred upon them, though they all belonged to the nobil- 
 ity, thus to stand associated Avith the children of God. 
 
 After breakfast, they separated ; some to one studio, 
 and some to another; some to pamt on a picture, 
 another to chisel a statue. Often several of both sexes 
 were at work on the same group of marble ; and others 
 again, set off for the schools of science and litera- 
 ture. 
 
 Deacon and Mrs. Colgate offered to devote them- 
 selves for the day to Mrs. Jay and Peter, but as this 
 would interrupt their studies, Mrs. Jay insisted that she 
 should be left to the care of Peter, and that they Avould 
 
46 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 make a near survey of this lovely world, and return in 
 good time for evening worship in the cathedral. 
 
 While thus engaged, one of the Redeemed entered the 
 saloon where they were sitting,, and, addressing Peter, 
 said to him, "The angel of Peter Schlemihl has sent 
 me : he wishes you to accompany me to the metropolis, 
 where a new oratorio, by Handel, is to be performed 
 this day, at twelve, in the Academy of Music." This at 
 once settled the question as for the day's occupation, for 
 Mrs. Jay asked permission to go Avith Peter, which was 
 promptly granted by the messenger; and the deacon 
 and wife ^were also earnestly invited, but the deacon 
 declined, for, he said, "Neither Mrs. Colgate nor 
 myself have yet attained to such knowledge as will ena- 
 ble us to comprehend this oratorio." 
 
 The excellent deacon and his lady walked with them 
 to the portico, and there took leave of Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter, with warm invitations to return whenever it 
 should please them to do so. It was a bright day ; the 
 air warm and full of fragrance, and with a joy only 
 kno^vn to the Redeemed, they rose gracefully into the air, 
 imtil they had reached a pleasing height, and which 
 afforded the best bird's-eye view of the country over 
 which they were floating. 
 
 "It is somewhat surprising, sir," said Mrs. Jay to 
 their guide, " that any one can leave such a world as 
 this mthout one sigh of regret." 
 
 He replied: "To us, of earth, it is wonderful; but 
 
SCENES EST ANOTHER WOKLD. 47 
 
 their wills are one with God's ; and then they know that 
 eveiy change is one of progress, and that joy is their 
 heritage. How nnhke our earth ! bnt then our joy is 
 heightened by contrast." 
 
 " Doubtless," replied Peter ; " but it is learned in a 
 school of temptation and triah" 
 
 " It is a source of terrible apprehension even now," 
 rephed the guide, "to think of the precipices of destruc- 
 tion upon which we once stood, unconscious or reckless 
 of the fiery billows burnmg below iis, and from which 
 we were saved by the ministry of angels, thus perfecting 
 the love of God our Saviour. These jjeople, in common 
 with all intelligences unfollen, listen with delight to the 
 stories of the redeemed, especially of those who have 
 come out of great tribulations, and washed their robes 
 white in the blood of the Lamb. They but feebly com- 
 prehend what is the height and depth of the love of 
 God in the redemption of sinners ; and the chiefest 
 vehicle of these great ideas is music. This is, therefore, 
 the method adoj^ted by the glorious men of our world 
 to make kno^vn to other worlds, such as this, the mys- 
 tery madB manifest in the life, sufiermgs and death of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. To-day we are to listen to a 
 new labor of Handel's genius, aided by others as glori- 
 ously endowed, which is to tell of the Nativity of 
 Christ. I am sure you will be amply repaid for your visit." 
 
 " May I ask, sir, where were you born, and in what 
 age ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
48 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 " With all pleasure, madam. God was pleased to give 
 me my existence in England, in the year 1760. My 
 name was Richard Godfrey. My lot was one of toil. I 
 was brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is ia 
 Christ Jesus, uader the ministry of William Romaine, 
 of pious memory. There lay hid in my soul aspirations 
 which filled me mth longmgs I could never define. I 
 knew not what it was thus seeking for life and develop- 
 ment, imtil I was led by my trade to labor on the man- 
 sion of the Earl of Stafibrd. For the first time in my 
 life I entered a gallery of sculpture and paintings. Then 
 it was I began to breathe. My sovtl took its first flight, 
 and I was lost in the visions of beauty that I saw all 
 around me ; but it was all too brief, for my opportunities 
 of seeing paintings and statuary were Uke gleams of sun- 
 shine on the dark and desolate wastes of existence. 
 The temple of art was closed upon me in time, but here 
 it has been thrown open to me heaven-wide." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIKK WORLD. 4:9 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Day spent in tlie World of Art and Beauty — Of the new St. Peter's built by M-chn el 
 Angelo — Mrs. Jay and her friend Peter meet with their neighbor, Mr. Laurens 
 — The new Oratorio by Handel is performed, aided by Haydn, Mozart and Bee- 
 thoven — Of the Language and Literature of the ^A'orld of Art — They reach the 
 Happy Valley— Trial of Skill with a Mocking-bird — The Enigmas of Faith Dis- 
 cussed— Laurens introduces his friends to St. Perpetua — They attend Vespers— 
 The Temple and Worship described. 
 
 As they thus floated along in pleasant converse, they 
 often paused in their flight to look down on cities, 
 crowded with edifices, the work of many centuries. 
 After circling this globe for more than four hours, they 
 reached the Metropolitan City, which covered an 
 immense jilateau of high land, surrounded with raouu- 
 tams capped with snow ; in the very centre of which lay 
 a glassy lake of pure water, forever supplied by rivulets 
 trickling dowTi the sides of these mountains. Though 
 situated near the equator.of this globe, the atmosi^here 
 was cool and bracing, and this city was regarded as 
 admirably well situated for the prosecution of the highei- 
 branches in art, because of the purity of its climate. 
 Led by their guide, they alighted upon the tessellated 
 
 3 
 
50 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 pavement of a grand square. On either side of them, 
 as they stood gazing about, were sculptured fovmtains, 
 throwing up plumes of crystal water into the air, which 
 came down in diamond drops. Slender obelisks rose to 
 a great height, in front of a majestic temple, which filled 
 up one side of the square, surpassing all they had con- 
 ceived as possible for created beings to have built. 
 
 " This grand temple," said the guide, " is in the form 
 of the Greek cross, and is a reproduction of St, Peter's, 
 by Michael Angelo.* He was made hapi^y by being 
 appointed architect on his arrival here, which happened 
 immediately after his death ; and on its completion, he 
 was sent to a more glorious world, where his lofty 
 genius will find scope for yet higher conceptions of his 
 art — the art of arts,^^ said Godfrey with emphasis. 
 
 " Is architecture so regarded here ?" asked Peter. " I 
 remember to have seen this claimed for it by Yitru- 
 vius ; but it was not so regarded ia our day, certainly 
 not in the United States." 
 
 "For the good reason," rephed Godfrey, with 
 warmth, "that there are but few men capable of com- 
 prehending all the demands made by the art. It is all 
 that Vitruvius has said of it, and Michael Angelo has 
 
 * St. Peter's was first designed by Bramante, who was followed by SangaUo, who 
 was associated with Raphael On the death of these eminent men, in 1546, 
 Michael Angelo Buonarotti was appointed sole architect. His design was a Greek 
 cross. It was changed by Carlo Maderno, internally as well as externally, to the 
 Bhape of the Latin cross.— Xerters of an Architect, by Jos. Woods. London, 
 1828. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 51 
 
 sho^Ti to the world the intimate relations of the 
 builder and the sculptor and painter. But any builder 
 of dwellihg-houses, even, is allowed to call himself an 
 architect ; and when a man of varied learning and 
 science and skill arises in the providence of God to bless 
 tlie nation to which he is given, his genius is cramped 
 by the ignorance of those who hold the purse." 
 
 " Tliere will be no more grand labors of the archi- 
 tect," continued Godfrey, " since the world has become 
 so wondrous wise, and when every man holding office 
 regards himself competent to control and direct men of 
 genius." 
 
 "You speak with feeling," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 "Yes, madam, and with reason. I made a brief 
 visit some short time since to our world, and was so 
 pained mth the wretched imitations of the ancients, and 
 especially the dark, ill-ventilated, pigmy places of 
 worship, called 'Gothic churches,' that I came away 
 in hot haste, and determined never to visit the earth 
 again." 
 
 " Oh," said Mrs. Jay, smiling, " it is nothing but bad 
 taste. The fashionables will come to their senses and fro 
 back to a style of building fitted for the worship of 
 God; and some twenty years after, their shallow imi- 
 tators Avill follow their example." 
 
 While thus conversing, they walked towards the 
 grand temple. A multitude of citizens, with their fami- 
 lies, were thronging the entrance. Their robes and ves- 
 
52 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 tures were of various hues, and worn with a grace of 
 movement, and a mien so beautiful, that both Peter and 
 Mrs. Jay paused to witness a sight so novel. Every face 
 was bi'ight with anticii^ation, and their steps were eager 
 and elastic; but there was no vulgar hurry, no jostling, 
 but the utmost courtesy prevailed. On their approach, 
 these citizens, with a smile and graceful recognition, 
 stood aside Avith deferential courtesy, to make way for 
 their entrance into the vestibule of the temple. Here 
 new wonders awaited them. On the walls so vividly 
 were pictured scenes from the life of Christ, that it was 
 as if the forms before them were instinct with Ufe, and 
 statues, too, looked down from their pedestals as if about 
 to open their marble lips. 
 
 On all sides of this vast temple were seats as in an 
 amphitheatre, which were already filled with an expec- 
 tant audience. At the entrance, Mrs. Jay and Peter 
 were met by Peter's angel, who led them to seats of emi- 
 nence, already occupied by numbers of the Redeemed, 
 and of women " native here." 
 
 It was with breathless delight that Mrs, Jay and Peter 
 foimd themselves seated next their lost and gifted friend 
 and neighbor, Mr. Alexander Laurens, who had disco- 
 vered them as they were being led up. 
 
 Rising, Mr. Laurens gave his seat to Mrs. Jay, and so 
 sat between Mrs. Jay and Peter, turning from one to 
 the other, exchanging glad congratulations at meeting 
 each other under such happy circumstances. He had a 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 63 
 
 hundred questions to ask of Peter, who, havuig left the 
 world last, could best inform him of the welfare of his 
 wife and children. While these hurried questions were 
 put and answered, the choir and orchestra were entering 
 and taking their several seats, filling up that portion of 
 the temple which would be called on earth the altar or 
 chancel. There stood the great organ, in all respects 
 equal to the building, and beside all known instruments 
 there were others whose forms were as new as the 
 sounds they made. 
 
 Laurens whispered to Mrs. Jay and Peter, " that the 
 oratorio which was about to be performed was the joint 
 production of Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven ; 
 all of whom would aid in the performances. Music, and 
 the Arts of Design," he said, " are the best of all vehicles 
 for revealing to the minds of sinless beings the mystery 
 of man's redemption. In this world, music is not 
 regarded as a sign of the decline of a race, but rather 
 as the nearest approach to the God-like that creatures 
 can attain unto." 
 
 " Very unlike the world we have left," said Peter. 
 
 Laurens smiled and replied, "Our quartette parties 
 will have given you but a faint idea of the music you 
 are about to hear. On earth, eloquence of words is 
 regarded as the highest attainment of man ; but here the 
 glorious capacity of harmony to reach the soul is felt 
 and acknowledged. Indeed, music is here in some sort 
 a universal language. If the voice of Clay, of Calhoun, 
 
54 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 or of Webster, glowing with eloquence, could thrill 
 the souls of a Ustening multitude, what must be the elec- 
 tric force of such a choir as you see collecting, aided by 
 such performers, when, too, every note is pregnant with 
 meaning, with which the choir, orchestra and auditors are 
 alike inspired, as by the overshadowing of the omnis- 
 cient Jehovah. And then the theme is worthy the galaxy 
 of genius that has been tasked in the composition of this 
 grand oratorio ; for it is the story of the birth of Christ." 
 
 "Pray tell me, Laurens, how long you have been 
 here ?" asked Peter. 
 
 " After my arrival at the Holy City, and my presenta- 
 tion to my glorious Saviour, I sought for my infant boy, 
 and was informed that he had been sent to the World 
 of Art and Beauty to commence his studies. Now of 
 all worlds, that devoted to the science of harmony Avas 
 attractive to me ; and so it was, that after a short stay in 
 the Celestial City, I was brought here by my angel, and 
 found my son, a beautiful spirit, whose loveliness of form 
 and admirable skill and attainments filled me with 
 delight. You see him now near that gentle featured 
 man, whose sweet smile comes from a heart full of good- 
 ness — that is Mozart." 
 
 Both Peter and Mrs. Jay looked with eagerness to 
 see the lovely son of their friend, and the gentle Mozart. 
 
 Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven now had 
 taken their several stations, when the organist began 
 placing the grand overture. As the overture proceeded 
 
SCENES IX ANOTHER WORLD. 
 
 55 
 
 the orchestra sUd into the Thema, and gradually the 
 intensity of high and holy thoughts conveyed by the 
 soul-entrancing harmony, so thrilled the audience that 
 they rose as by one impulse, when the choir burst into 
 the opening anthem— " Holy, holy, holy art thou. Lord 
 God Almighty: the earth is full of thy glory!" These 
 words were reduplicated in multiform ways, and with 
 every new modification, new impressions of the stupend- 
 ous thoughts arose in the soul of every auditor, until it 
 seemed beyond the power of even angelic natures to 
 endure such harmony as this. 
 
 This anthem sunk away in far-off echoes, as if distant 
 worlds had caught the flame of enthusiasm, and the re- 
 bound came back in murmurs, till all was hushed. Then 
 the silence of night on the plains of Bethlehem was 
 painted to the mmd's eye through the ear. The bleat- 
 ing of the lambs, and the buzzing of the insects of a sum- 
 mer's night were distmctly heard, and the dull tmkling 
 and pastoral voices of night were so closely imitated that 
 the imagination was captivated by the soothing sounds.* 
 Then anew movement showed the souls of the shepherds 
 
 * Wkbkr says, he never saw a beautiful landscape that did not produce in his 
 mind a train of corresponding musical associations. 
 
 " A universal sympathy, and the faculty of expressing it in forms as multifarious 
 as the aspects of nature-remote ideas instinct with truth-the power of awakening 
 in a phrase of melody a long train of dormant feelings, which seem before to have 
 wanted their true expression-these are the qualities to account for the rarity of 
 hl^h musical genius ; and especially so when it becomes necessary to suppose them 
 refined by a tedious education, and an experience in the details of art the most 
 painfully minute."— £outiioates Many Thoughts. 
 
. 56 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 full of lofty aspirations as they gazed upon the stars burn- 
 ing above them ; and in recitatives they spoke to each 
 other of the promises made in the holy oracles of God, 
 of the Messiah that was to come. Then suddenly blazed 
 forth the glory of God from out the dark heavens, and 
 the words of the angel were sung — " Fear not : for, be- 
 hold I bring you good tidmgs of great joy, which shall 
 be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the 
 city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Then 
 came the glorious chorus — " Glory to God in the highest, 
 and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
 
 Such were the familiar words which formed the themes 
 of harmonies which thrilled this vast audience with emo- 
 tions no words can express. Peter, forgetful of every- 
 thing, turned to the lady who sat on his right, and 
 exclaimed, " How unspeakably glorious ! " She smiled 
 as she bowed graciously and replied in a language 
 unknown to him. 
 
 The assembly was a long time in dispersing. There 
 were so many words to be spoken in admiration of the 
 new oratorio, and of the glorious theme, that Mrs. Jay 
 and Peter had time allowed them to look about them. 
 They were charmed with the child-like innocency in the 
 fiice of Mozart ; as for Beethoven he had not yet descended 
 from his open vision of the throne of God, and sat gazing 
 upward as in a trance. Haydn with smiles received the 
 congratulations of the choir gathering about him, while 
 Handel, in a rapt state of soul, stood looking up to the 
 
SCENES IN xVNOTHER VrOKLD. 57 
 
 frescoed roof, as if those angels ever bright and fair, float- 
 ing in the heavens above, were answering back his beau- 
 tiful appeal to take hira to their arms. 
 
 It Avas hard to quit this glorious creation of genius. 
 They wanted hours to satisfy their Avish to look up at the 
 dome, painted by native artists who had here labored to 
 give color and expression to the cartoons of Michael An- 
 gelo. Laurens was impatient of delay, and wished them 
 to tear themselves away, saying, " You can come to- 
 morrow and see this to your heart's content." " To-mor- 
 row*!" exclaimed Mrs. Jay. "" No, there is none in this 
 life, as there was none in the j^ast. What we wish to see 
 we must see as it passes before us ; for with infinity of 
 worlds all around ns full of wonders, we shall, perhaps, 
 never return to this again." 
 
 " Oh yes ! this world will probably be the school to 
 which you Avill be sent to take your first lessons," replied 
 Mr. Laurens. 
 
 " I shall be most happy if it be so," said Mrs. Jay ; " but 
 as yet I have been alloAved to go wherever I will to be. 
 This large liberty of action is my dehght now. It is so 
 delightful to say — 'I will,' and I am." 
 
 As they thus stood gazing up and around, Peter's next 
 neighbor passed, and with a bow of recognition and a 
 lovely smile, spoke to hira a few words as she swept by 
 with her party. 
 
 Peter touched Laurens' aim, and asked, "What did 
 that lady say as she passed us ?" 
 
 3* 
 
58 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " It was the usual salutation of this people expressing 
 their pleasure in meeting friends," replied Laurens. 
 
 " Tell me how do you get on here, where all tongues 
 and dialects are new to you? Is it not very embarrass- 
 ing;?" 
 
 " It would be were it not that our English tongue is 
 generally spoken in the higher circles. And you are 
 doubtless conscious of the fact, that the Redeemed 
 and angels are possessed of the power of intuition ; so 
 that in whatever language the idea is conveyed, it is 
 represented to the mind of the listener in his mother 
 tongue; and to your apprehension angels and the 
 Redeemed all speak the English language." 
 
 "I never guessed they did not speak English, and the 
 choicest of English, Laurens. How is it with you, Mrs. 
 Jay ?" asked Peter. 
 
 "The thought never presented itself before. As it 
 was represented to my mind, so I supposed it was spoken; 
 but now I see the goodness of God in thus constituting 
 our minds for receiving and conveying ideas. Let me 
 ask, do you speak the language of this world, Mr. Lau- 
 rens ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " I have a command of all their familiar words, which 
 combine the power of the language, as the Saxon does 
 the English. They, however, amount to many thousand. 
 You can have little idea of the opulence of their voca- 
 bulary, as well as of the grace and elegance of their 
 thoughts. I am told there are famous worlds where 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 59 
 
 every symbol signifies not a sound but great and mighty 
 thoughts, forged from brains of beings who hold rank in 
 those worlds, as Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakspeare and 
 Milton do with us. Their works are the classics of 
 these distant and ancient worlds. But even hei-e 
 they surpass all our ideas of grace and eloquence of 
 expression.* I met recently a Christian, from Athens, 
 belonging to the first century; a man learned in all the 
 wisdom of his age, and who was converted by the minis- 
 try of St. Paul himself. He has resided here for nearly 
 a century, devoting himself to the acqiiisition of the lan- 
 guage and literature of these people ; and he tells me, 
 that with all the enlarged powers of a redeemed soul, he 
 has but begun to drink into the deep fountains of their 
 literature. ' Nothing,' he says, ' had inspired him with 
 such a sense of their angelic goodness as their condescen- 
 sion to the poverty of his ideas. But then they regard 
 us as the sons of God, and as such, we are objects of 
 their admiration and love. Our histories are more Avon- 
 derful to them than was the story of Sinbad, the sailor, 
 to us in our childhood. Only our tales are real, and 
 
 * In the German edition of the " Seeress of Prevorst," by Justinua Kerner, 
 there is a specimen of the writing of the spirit-world into which Frederica Hauflo 
 (known to the world as Sefiei'irm von Prevorst) was admitted, and which she wrote 
 while in her trance-state. This plate was shown by the late Rev. Dr. Eliakim 
 Phelps to his son, while in one of his singular states of suffering, when he took the 
 book and cried out with astonishment, "Who wrote these characters? They are 
 the symbols of great thoughts — thoughts I have no words to express." His father 
 asked him " if he cou^d not give him some idea of these symbols?" After think- 
 ing, his son replied, " No ; they transcend all our ideas." 
 
60 TIIK GATES WUn<: Oi'i:X; OR, 
 
 they often aslc questions as to our intentions and motives 
 of action in our lives on earth, which lie beyond all our 
 capacities to answer. We are, indeed, infants in com- 
 parison, but in their regard, we are, all of us. Infantas 
 of the King of kings and Lord of lords." 
 
 They were now joined by Peter's angel and Godfreyv- 
 who accompanied them in their walk down the long 
 aisles of this magnificent temple, and detained them, 
 calling their attention to objects of interest worthy their 
 special regard. On reaching the open air, Mr. Laurens 
 asked leave of the angel to take his friend Peter home 
 with him — a request which was cheerfully granted. 
 
 " He is at liberty to follow his intuitions here without 
 any further guidance," said the angel. 
 
 After taking leave of Godfrey and the angel, with 
 many thanks for the pleasure they had derived from 
 attending this oratorio, Mrs, Jay and Peter, at the sug- 
 gestion of Laurens, rose with him into the air, to a 
 height whence they could look down upon the city and 
 its inhabitants, as from some tall monument. 
 
 Laurens pointed out the many great public edifices 
 encircling vast areas and gardens filled with fountains 
 and works of art. " That massive structure is the Vati- 
 can of this Rome ; but, imlike the Vatican of our Rome, 
 there are no bars and bolts to be drawn to give the freest 
 access to its spacious halls, and when these are opened, no 
 envious lock is put upon the doors of the cases which con- 
 tain the books collected in the Vatican for show, m this 
 
SCENT'S IN ANOTIIEK WOELD. 61 
 
 Alexandrian library for all people. That noLle building, 
 to the right of the library, is the Academy of Art; the 
 left wing, which extends five hundred yards, is devoted 
 to the school of Sculpture, and the right wing to the 
 school of Design. Students are supported at the public 
 expense ; for the citizens of this world regard painting 
 and sculpture as the chief agencies of refinement and 
 progress. 
 
 « * 
 
 * Dante thus speaks of sculpture audits uses in his Vision of Purgatory, Canto X. 
 On being admitted to the gate of purgatory, Dante, accompanied by Virgil, ascend- 
 ed a winding path. On the side of the mountain was seen, in white marble, stories 
 of humility, and whilst they were contemplating them, there approached the souls 
 of those who expiate the sin of pride, and who are bent down beneath the weight 
 of heavy stones. The bass-reliefs are thus described : 
 
 " I discovered that the bank, around, 
 
 Whose proud uprising all ascent denied, 
 
 Was marble white ; and so exactly wrought 
 
 With quaintest sculpture, that not there alone 
 
 Had Polycletus, but e'en nature's self 
 
 Been sham'd. The angel (who came down to earth 
 
 With tidings of the peace, so many years 
 
 Wept for in vain, that op'd the heavenly gates 
 
 From their long interdict), before us seem'd, 
 
 In a sweet act, so sculptured to the life 
 
 He look'd no silent image. One had sworn 
 
 He had said ' Hail !' "—Line 88. 
 
 In Canto XII., Dante thus describes the wonderful Mosaics he saw in Purgatory 
 while traversing the first cornice : 
 
 " What master of the pencil or the style 
 Had trac'd the shades and lines, that might have made 
 The subtlest workman wonder? Dead, the dead ; 
 The living seem'd alive : with clearer view, 
 His eye beheld not, who beheld the truth, 
 Than mine what I did tread on." — Line 62. 
 
62 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " What can that immense pile of building contain ?" 
 asked Peter, pointing to a quadrangular building that 
 inclosed miles of area. 
 
 "That is their museum of ancient art and history. 
 You will find it extremely interesting to study the 
 growth of art from the earliest age to the present," 
 
 " I think I shall like to make my home here," said Mrs. 
 Jay, " so soon as I have done with our earth." 
 
 " Do you expect to survive your sympathies at an early 
 day ?" asked Laurens. " I have seen those who Hved cen- 
 turies since as deeply concerned in the affairs of our world 
 as we are who have left our loved ones behind us." 
 
 The city, and its wide suburbs having been fully 
 scanned, Laurens proposed they should hasten their 
 flight, and with the swiftness of angels they swept over 
 plains and mountains until they came to the happy valley 
 of the Redeemed. This lay within an amphitheatre of 
 mountains whose j)eaks pierced the clouds. The palace 
 with its wide-spread wings and many pillared porticoes, 
 stood in the centre of a paradise filled with wildernesses 
 of shade and sunshine. Sculptured fountains threw up 
 high into the air vast plumes of crystal waters, flashing 
 brightness all around. Groups of statuary filled the 
 walks Avith beauty. Some stood on pedestals so low and 
 with such life-like action as to arrest the eye and inspire 
 the doubt whether they were works of ait. But if all 
 stood instinct with life, it was a life of love and beauty. 
 No Laocoon and his sons writhing m agony — no dying 
 
SCENES IN ANOTDEE WORLD. 63 
 
 gladiator, with eyes swimming iu death, was to be seen, 
 recalHiig the m.iseries of a fallen world. Nothing of all 
 this, but all that art, and skiU and labor could create was 
 here, combining to make this one of the " many mansions" 
 prepared by the Saviour for the home of his disciples. 
 Nor was this all ; in the distance was seen a lake of many 
 miles upon whose surface lay islands of differing area, 
 covered mth classic temples filled with statuary. Lau- 
 rens told his friends, it was accounted a glorious achieve- 
 ment for a native artist to make a group worthy of 
 a place in this home of the Redeemed. 
 
 These beautiful grounds were filled with guests — some 
 threading the shaded walks, some sailing on the lake, 
 others gathered in sweet converse beneath trees of trans- 
 cendental beauty. Music from far-off choirs, who were 
 seated in the arbors and on the turf, mmgled sweetly 
 with the melodies of birds. 
 
 Alighting in the gardens of the palace, the attention 
 of our friends was attracted by a singular trial of skill 
 between a beautiful creature, "native here," and a mock- 
 ing-bird which sat on the highest branch of a lofty tree. 
 The bird would trill and rise with a transition of hght- 
 .ning speed, and then, as in circles, come back to the note 
 from which it started. The young girl would repeat 
 every trill, rise to the same note, and with like circling 
 melody return to the point of departure. Then again the 
 bird would strive with new and more difficult notes to 
 surpass all competition ; and as the contest went on, fliglits 
 
64 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 of singing birds gathered in the Ibranches ; and when the 
 bird coukl go no higher, it rose on its wings and flew 
 away. Then as with one consent all the birds burst forth 
 into joyous song, filling the air with heaven-inspired 
 harmonies. 
 
 Mrs. Jay and Peter were delighted. They approached 
 the young girl, and in the choicest phrase they could 
 command, told her of their admiration of her powers. 
 Mrs, Jay said, " she had been charmed by the beauty of 
 her notes. On earth she had had the pleasure of listening 
 to the notes of Malibran and Jenny Lind ; but their notes 
 were not to be cpmpared "with hers." And Peter, not to 
 be outdone by Mrs. Jay, assured the girl that " there were 
 thousands on earth who would be glad to exchange their 
 golden eagles for her winged not?cs, which had this advan 
 tage that they would '■pass current ' everywhere ; defy- 
 ing, as they did, both competition and counterfeit." 
 
 The girl looked up, reading their meaning in their 
 eyes and the tones of their voices, while Laurens stood 
 listening with an amused air at the elaborate compliments 
 of his friends, Peter's especially. When they had finished, 
 the girl made a graceful courtesy and ran toward her 
 friends who were awaiting her return ; to please whom 
 this trial of skUl -with the mocking-bird had been at- 
 tempted. 
 
 " Those were very pretty compliments," said Laurens, 
 " and it is to be regretted that that sweet creature did 
 not understand a word you said." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTlIEIi WORLD. 65 
 
 " Pray tell me," said Peter, " is tlicre no universal lan- 
 guage understood Ly beings of all worlds ? " 
 
 " I know of none," replied Laurens, " unless it be musi- 
 cal sounds.* That sweet girl, though she did not under- 
 stand the precise thoughts expressed by Mrs. Jay and 
 yourself, yet guessed your meanmg in your tones — the 
 intuitive sympathy which pervades sinless beings of all 
 worlds." 
 
 " My previous conceptions are so unlike what I find to 
 be real," said Peter ; " and yet in many things there is a 
 delightful realization of my day-dreams on earth. But 
 this learning various languages in various worlds is all 
 new to me. I had sripposed we would have been born 
 into the knowledge of language just as Adam was. By 
 the by — ^have you met with Adam and Eve, and where 
 are they to be seen ?" 
 
 * Mendelssohn, on Iiis return from Scotland, was asked by his sisters to tell them 
 something of the Hebrides. "That cannot be told," said he, "it can only be 
 played" and seating himself at the piano, he improvised the beautiful theme 
 which he afterward expanded into the " Overture to Fingal's Cave." — Quarterly 
 Hevieie. 
 
 "The art of music, whose power has been acknowledged by the most powerful 
 thinkers of all ages, is of later growth than her sisters — poetry, sculpture and paint- 
 ing; and its means of communicating ideas are also less positive and direct; but 
 the principles which govern its manifestations are strictly analogous, and we 
 cognize in its very vagueness that yearning after the infinite, that feeling of ineffa- 
 ble loveliness, which, by the electrical rapidity of its action upon the mind, the 
 slow deductions of reason and all powers of analysis, approaches the divine in its 
 bright mystery and inexplicable influence upon our sentiments and emotions." 
 
 Sir J F. W. Herschell says (Discourse on the study of Natural Pliilosoiiliy, p. 1S6), 
 " the sense of harmony is perhaps the only instance of a sensation for whose pleas- 
 ing impression a distinct and intelligible reason can be assigned." 
 
bb THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " No, I have not," replied Laurens ; " indeed, I have 
 met with no one of the celebrities of the Holy ScriiDtnres. 
 I have inquired very diligently after the apostle Paul, 
 whom, of all redeemed men, I have longed most to see ; 
 for Paul has ever been regarded by me as my ideal of a 
 Christian, and a man.* I want to ask him about those 
 questions 'hard to be understood' by St. Peter himself" 
 
 "And do you ttnnk" asked Mrs. Jay, "that St. Paul 
 can succeed any better in heaven than on earth, in doing 
 away with all difficulties in religion ?" 
 
 " Perhaps not," said Mr, Laurens, " but I would like to 
 hear him pour out his eloquence, discoursing to the beings 
 of other worlds of the love of God in Christ. As for the 
 paradoxes and enigmas of human life, they remain to my 
 mind now what they ever were, inexplicable. Paul, in 
 his Epistle to the Romans, fairly stated the question of 
 questions when he made his mterlocutor Jew say, " Why 
 doth God find fault? for who hath resisted his will?" to 
 which Paul had no other reply to make than this, " Nay, 
 but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ? 
 Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, ' Why 
 hast thou made me thus ?' Is there unrighteousness with 
 God ? God forbid !" f And why did he end thus, but 
 
 * Archbishop Whately, " Future State," p. 215, says, " The highest enjoyment of 
 the blessed will be the personal knowledge of their great and beloved Master ; yet 
 I cannot but think that some part of their happiness will consist in an intimate 
 knowledge of the greatest of his followers also; and of those in particular, whose 
 peculiar qualities are, to each, most particularly attractive." 
 
 t Rom. ix., 20. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 67 
 
 because that was, for earth certamly, and it may be in 
 heaven too, the end of the discussion. In time, this great 
 stone of stumbhng and rock of offence, was the test of 
 dociUty of the soul. If the proud heart of man would not 
 submit itself to God, and to such evidence of his attributes 
 as were made manifest in his works, his ways, and his 
 word, he perished of necessity." 
 
 " Necessity !" exclaimed Mrs. Jay — " there's another of 
 those mystic words which on earth have made my head 
 ache with thinking," 
 
 " And would forever," replied Laurens, " if you could 
 again entertam those rebellious thoughts which gave rise 
 to all such speculations. The answer here is, as there, 
 ' Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ?' When 
 I say I long to see Paul, it is to listen to his glowing 
 eloquence as he discourses of the height, and depth, and 
 length and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus — • 
 wliich passeth knowledge. That was his theme in time, 
 and it is that which bums and brightens and hallows in his 
 great and glorious soul ; and he is now, in far-off worlds, 
 making known to principalities and j^owers in heavenly 
 places, the mystery of the manifold wisdom and love of 
 God in the redemption of the world ; mysteries angels 
 have desired and still desire to look into ; hid in the ages 
 that are past and now revealed in tis and hy us to unknown 
 realms. Everywhere, as here, humanity is the most glo- 
 rious mystery of God's greatness and goodness. We are 
 not so beautiful nor so gifted as those around us ; we have 
 
68 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 little of their grace of movement, little of that sm-passing 
 intelligence beaming ia their lustrous eyes, and finding ex- 
 pression in voices ever changing in melody, and in forms 
 of speech mexpressibly sweet. But they recognize us to 
 be sons of God, by the robes of light we wear, by the 
 halo which burns upon our foreheads, and by powers 
 put forth by us which fill them with wondermg admira^ 
 tion." 
 
 " I am sure there exists a universal language, though 
 you may never have heard of it," said Peter. " And 
 how convenient it would have been had I known it this 
 morning, when I addressed my next neighboi"." 
 
 Laurens, smiling, replied, "It is not God's way of work- 
 ing. We are not horn to the knowledge of anything, 
 and Adam and Eve probably had no vocabulary taught 
 to them beyond their immediate wants. You must not 
 mistake MUt'on's epic for Bible truth. I am sure it will 
 be our hapijiness to be forever pupils in the schools of 
 creation, providence and grace." 
 
 " It may be so," said Peter, with some reluctance, 
 " but I had my own notions of these matters from my 
 earliest days, and always believed Avhen I reached hea- 
 ven I should be endowed with all knowledge by mtui- 
 tion, and that I should speak all languages and mider- 
 stand all science and art — in a word, that I should know 
 all things comprehensible to a finite being. But here I 
 am, a child new-born, with powers unknown, and with 
 demands upon my time which wiU absorb eternity 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 69 
 
 itself. I am astounded at the outset, in view of such 
 multitudinous objects which demand my attention." 
 
 " Ah, wait, and you will become teachable," said Lau- 
 rens. "When we find ourselves free from earth, Hke 
 birds let loose in eastern skies, we rise high into the air, 
 and wheel round and roimd in vast circles, as if in doubt 
 as to our pathway ; but we are soon satisfied with our 
 large liberty, and are sweetly led to trace that lumi- 
 nous path of progress towards the Infinite which our 
 Saviour selects for us. It seems to me of all worlds 
 my lot is cast in the one I love best ; but so every one 
 says." 
 
 " Mr. Laurens," asked Mrs. Jay, " will you please tell 
 me what difierence exists in your perceptions in this life, 
 as contrasted with the past ? Let us hear what you have 
 to say, for you always loved metaphysical investigations, 
 and I want to compare notes." 
 
 "I do not see any difference in kind," rei^lied Mr. 
 Laurens. " In the Avorld, we lived wdth God all about 
 us, Avithoiit the consciousness of his omnipresence ; as, 
 while we saw objects in the light of the sun, for days it 
 may have been, we never once looked up at the sun. 
 But here all is changed; with every new development 
 of science the Infinite is present to us, and in every new 
 manifestation of loveliness, in art or nature, we see the 
 Author of Beauty. In those lovely forms," pointing to 
 a group of statuary, " we see the attempt of the artist 
 to realize an ideal existinsr in God. And thus it is we 
 
70 TUE GATES TVIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 live in the conscious presence of our Creator, Redeemer, 
 and Sanctifier—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — one 
 God !" and so saying, Laurens folded his hands over his 
 bosom, and bowed his head. 
 
 Recovering himself fi-om his high rapture, Laurens led 
 his friends to a beautiful marble pavilion, and while 
 ascending the steps, they discovered a lady engaged in 
 reading. She rose with graceful dignity, and with a 
 smile of courtesy welcomed their coming. 
 
 Laurens leading the way introduced Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter to this sjilendid woman as St. Perpetua. 
 
 Mrs. Jay looked her surprise at hearing such a'title 
 conferred in a world where all are alike saints; and 
 after they had taken seats on a sofa together, she 
 said to the lady: "It is the first time I have heard 
 this title conferred upon any one since leaving our 
 world." 
 
 St. Perpetua, with a smile, repUed, " I was an inhabit- 
 ant of heaven for three centuries before I ever dreamed 
 of having any peculiar claims to this title, which is here 
 used only because it has become historical on earth. I 
 perceive you are no Romanist?" 
 
 " No, indeed, madam. I am most Protestant, and a 
 member of the Anglo-Saxon, American Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church." 
 
 "Do you claim to be still a communicant of Trinity?" 
 asked Peter. 
 
 . " I claim to be a member of Trinity Church still," 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 71 
 
 said Mrs. Jay in tones of voice a little brnsquc. " I do 
 not lose my fellowship with saints on earth by becoming 
 a samt in heaven. What says St. Perpetua ?" 
 
 This lady at once assured Mrs. Jay of her entire 
 concurrence with her views, though she never had the 
 matter presented to her mind in just these terms. 
 
 " May I inquire, St. Perpetua," asked Mrs. Jay, " why 
 you said I was no Romanist ?" 
 
 "With pleasure," she replied, "for had you been 
 familiar with the Romish calendar, you would have seen 
 my name set against the seventh of March, and in any 
 edition of the 'Lives of Saints,' you would have read 
 some account of my martyrdom under Emperor Se- 
 verus." 
 
 " Will you not, in pity of my ignorance," said Mrs. 
 Jay, " tell me by what sufferings you reached this crown 
 of glory, to be a Roman saint ?" 
 
 " Do you not prefer the epithet, this ' bad eminence ?' " 
 asked Perpetua, smiling. 
 
 " O no," replied Mrs. Jay ; " it may be that the Rom- 
 ish church have canonized bad men, but I have always 
 believed such must have been but exceptions, and that 
 piety — eminent piety, has worn this crown of glory in 
 all ages." 
 
 "To-morrow," said St. Perpetua, "I will with plea- 
 sure tell you of my early history. Now the hour has 
 come for our vesper songs. Let us go to the temple. 
 See ! the Redeemed are all in motion." 
 
72 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; Oli, 
 
 They rose, aud Perpetua taking the arm of Mrs. Jay 
 led the way. From every direction, from the palace 
 and garden walks thronged a multitude of persons all 
 tending with elastic steps towards their place of worship. 
 
 Perpetua led them by a mazy walk through deep 
 shades, out of which they emerged in front of a pile 
 whose magnificence exceeded all their powers of imag- 
 . ination. It was another Milan cathedral, whose niches 
 were filled with statuary and whose fayade was covered 
 over with frost-work of the chisel. Its high spire and 
 many minarets flamed with polished gold; and grand 
 and sublune as was the new St. Peter's of Michael 
 Angelo, this far surpassed it in splendor. Perpetua 
 enjoyed the surprise of our friends ; and allowing them 
 ample time to make all their exclamations of delight, 
 she aided them to a glimpse of the arcana of archi- 
 tecture to awaken sentiments of subhmity. This occu- 
 pied some little time ; for both Mrs. Jay and Peter were 
 slow to realize the relations of form and color and orna- 
 ment in a great edifice to fiU the soul with a sense of 
 grandeur. As yet they were beginners in the science of 
 beauty and art. 
 
 "Let us go on," said Perpetua. "At some future 
 period I will help you to an idea of the laws of rela- 
 tion which make every line, curve, window, moulding, 
 niche, ornament, statue and minaret, up to the lofty 
 spire, symbolic and necessary to completeness ; that this 
 temple may meet the soul's aspirations after the sublime. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WORLD. 73 
 
 These laws were felt and sought after by the architects 
 of Greece and Italy, and builders of later days. The 
 structures you see on this globe have in some measure 
 succeeded ; but what perfection is, we do not know and 
 never can attain unto." 
 
 When they entered the spacious vestibule, and thence 
 mto the temple, they were tempted to pause at every 
 step to gaze with Avoudering admiration on every side. 
 The ceiling was upheld by pillars of marble, veined with 
 glittering ores. These were spiral and covered with 
 sculptured vines, and flowers and fruits — resembling 
 nature in her most perfect forms. Nor was this all; 
 the roof hung down with the lightness of a grove of 
 majestic elms, and the rays of the setting sun poured 
 doAvn upon the multitude already assembled hke stealthy 
 rays through rich foliage. To Mrs. Jay the interior 
 looked Uke a magnificent arbor of tall trees, stems, 
 fruits and flowers, green and golden, rather than a work 
 of labor and art. 
 
 The choir, as it would be called on earth, occupied 
 the altar and transepts. The organ with its pipes rose 
 like a wall of gold ; and the orchestra and singers were 
 more numerous than at the Metropolitan Temple. 
 Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were already 
 hi their places, and crowds thronged in through the 
 many entrances and swept onward to their appointed 
 places. 
 
 No sooner had Perpetua seated her companions, and 
 4 
 
74 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 was giving Peter and Mrs. Jay some explanations of the 
 scene before them, than a beautiful boy and girl came 
 threading their way up the aisles to where they sat, and 
 delivered a message from St. Cecilia to Laurens, inviting 
 him to play her violoncello. This high distmction, 
 Laurens, with his wonted modesty declined ; but St. Per- 
 petua laid her commands on him, speaking as one who 
 had a right to decide for him his course of action, and 
 with a pleased reluctance he was led by these graceful 
 messengers, each one holding him by the hand, to the 
 orchestra. As he ascended the steps, he was met by 
 the beautiful saint, whose fame for music has filled the 
 world. She was a being of dazzling beauty.* With a 
 smile of inexpressible sweetness, she took Laurens' 
 hand, and led him to his seat, when she presented him 
 her violoncello. This done, she at once ascended the 
 
 * St. Cecilia has been the admiration of the world for her beauty. That old 
 Protestant, Fox, in his Martyrology (book i., a.d., 222) says of St. Cecilia, that 
 having converted her husband, Valerien, and her brother, Tiburtius, to the faith 
 of Christ, she was apprehended and brought to the idols to sacrifice, and refusing, 
 was condemned to death. " In the meantime," says Fox, following the legends of 
 the Roman church, " the sergeants and officers about her beholding her comely 
 beauty, began with many persuasive words to solicit her to favor herself, and such 
 excellent beauty, and not to cast herself away. But she replied to them with 
 such reasons and godly exhortations, that, by the grace of Almighty God, their 
 hearts began to kindle, and at length to yield to that religion which before they 
 persecuted." She converted upwards of four hundred persons, and among them 
 a noble named Gordian, before her martyrdom by the axe." 
 
 The tale of St. Cecilia is closely copied by Chaucer, in " The Second Nonne's 
 Tale," from the golden legend of Jacob Jannensis. She was also the theme of St. 
 Aldhelm's panegyric in his poem in praise of Virginity. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 75 
 
 pedestal assigned her as the Coiypheus of the choir. 
 The overture was overpowering to both Peter and Mrs. 
 Jay. They sat in breathless astonishment as they lis- 
 tened. Then canie recitations celebrating the glory of 
 Christ, not less eloquent in the thought than its expres- 
 sion, both alike perfect in the rendermg. Of the themes 
 sung, Perpetua kindly acted as the interpreter to her 
 new-found friends. 
 
 There sat Laurens, his ear fondly inclined to his vio- 
 loncello, listening with a pleased air to the sounds it 
 gave forth at the sweep of his bow. It was nearly two 
 hours, and it may have been more, the vesper service 
 lasted, and yet no sign of weariness or exhaustion was 
 sho^Ti by the choir or orchestra ; for indeed none was 
 felt, but rather a fresh inspiration of strength from on 
 liigh. And when the whole audience rose in singing the 
 Hymn to the Trinity, the divine presence was made 
 manifest by a halo of light which filled the temple with 
 ineflfable glory. 
 
 Time was no more. The entire audience of saints 
 and servitors rose and sang " Gloria in Excelsis." This 
 ended, the Redeemed, imaided and alone,* sang their 
 sono-, forever new — " Unto Him that hath loved us and 
 washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made 
 us kings and priests unto God and His Father ; to him 
 be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." 
 
 On leaving the temple, to their surprise, Perpetua and 
 
 * Revelations, xiv. 3. 
 
76 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 our friends found it was night. The heavens were lit up 
 with stars and moons. Filled with awe and love at what 
 they had just witnessed, they went to the palace. Per- 
 petua, having first commended Mrs. Jay and Peter to 
 the hospitalities of the mayor of tke palace, who 
 received them with great consideration, left them for the 
 night. They were shown into a spacious hall sj)lendidly 
 lighted, where they sat doAvn conversing with Laurens 
 on all they had seen during the day, till servitors of 
 hoth sexes came to show them to their several apart- 
 ments. Thus ended with our friends their first day spent 
 in the delightful circles of this new world. 
 
SCEiraiS IN ANOTHER WOULD. 77 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 St. Perpetua sends Persis to Mrs. Jay with a Message — Their Conversation — The 
 Idea of Married Life entertained by Persis — Her Admiration of Mrs. Jay — 
 Scenes on Silver Lake — Mrs. Jay joins Perpetua, who relates the Story of her 
 Martyrdom at Carthage — Of her appearance before Hilarion — Scene in the 
 Amphitheatre— Her Companions in Martyrdom — Of the Fathers of the Church — 
 The Similarity of Pagan and Papal Religions in Social Life — St. Perpetua and 
 Mrs. Jay are joined by Faustinas and Calliste, just returned after an Absence 
 of fourteen Centuries— Their Colloquy with Mrs. Jay — Their Surprise at hearing 
 of the Discovery of a " New World " — Mrs. Jay describes her meeting Satan, 
 the "Architect of Ruin "— Faustinus's Account of the New World whence he 
 has returned— Public Opinion in Rome, a.d. SSO— Roman Society of the Fourth 
 Century— Calliste tells the Story of her Conversion ; her Interviews with St. Paul, 
 of her Trials and Martyrdom. 
 
 The next day, Mrs. Jay, as she was walking through a 
 long gallery of i^aintiiigs, was Availed upon by a young 
 native girl, with a message from St. Perpetua, to bring 
 Mrs. Jay to an island, which was a favorite haunt of 
 hers, in Silver Lake. 
 
 As slie walked with the sweet girl through the garden, 
 Mrs. Jay inquired of her her name and duties in the 
 palace. The girl replied, " My name is Persi.s, Avhich 
 name St. Perpetua gave me while an infant. I have 
 
78 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 grown up under lier care, and she has taught me your 
 tongue, that it miglit be useful to such of our visitants 
 as come from England and America." 
 
 " What is your age, Persis ?" 
 
 " I am almost eighteen, and then I shall be marriage- 
 able." 
 
 This was said with a joyousness wliich spoke more 
 of earth than anything Mrs. Jay had heard for a long 
 time. 
 
 " Is it possible that your happiness can be enhanced 
 by being married?" cried Mrs. Jay, with much astonish- 
 ment. " I thought," she contmued, " angels neither 
 marry nor are given in marriage." 
 
 " O yes, angels ; but I am so glad I'm not an angel ; 
 for I cannot conceive how any one can but be happier 
 for loving and being loved," said the girl with earnest- 
 ness. 
 
 " It may be so in this world," replied Mrs. Jay ; 
 " but in my world the wider the target of our bosoms, 
 the more sure are the shafts of death to pierce the 
 heart." 
 
 " What a world that must be !" said Persis, Avith a 
 look of painful surprise. " All such ideas are so terrible 
 to me, if indeed I do rightly appreciate the thouglits 
 expressed. No skill of mine can reach the profundities 
 opened to my mind while I listen to what is told of your 
 world ; only this, that by some surpassing manifestation 
 of the mercy of God, outcasts from holiness and heaven 
 
SCENES IN .ANOTHER WORLD. T9 
 
 have become by adoption, ' one -with God, as Christ and 
 God are one !' " And Persis's look, as she fixedly gazed 
 upon the face of Mrs, Jay and its halo, and thence 
 at her iridescent robes which fell in graceful aud 
 ample folds at her feet, showed the intensity of her awe 
 and admiration of beings so mysteriously endowed by 
 the great Creator. 
 
 On reaching the shore of the lake, Persis pointed out 
 to Mrs. Jay the island, aud asked her to take a seat in a 
 little skiff which she unfastened from a rock, to wliich it 
 had been held by a golden chain. 
 
 " It is unnecessary, Persis ; I can will myself across the 
 water," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " Yes, but I shall be pleased to accompany you, and I 
 want to sit and listen to your conversation with my 
 lovely lady. Then, too, you will lose the pleasure only 
 to be enjoyed by sailing over our blue aud beautiful 
 lake. You see others, who could as readily as yourself 
 reach their places of destination by a vohtion, rowing 
 their skiffs, or who, by raising silken sails, are wafted 
 across the surface of the water. Will you j^ermit me to 
 row you over ?" 
 
 " Oh, certainly," said Mrs. Jay ; and Persis ferried her 
 over in her skiff; her every motion was the perfection 
 of grace, and Mrs. Jay was pleased to think she had not 
 lost the pleasure of witnessing such beauty. The island 
 lay a mile distant, and as they glided over the rippling 
 surface, skiffs of various forms, all alike beautiful in shape, 
 
80 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 and managed with equal skill by others as young and 
 graceful as Persis, passed rapidly by them, piloted to 
 one of the many green gems of the lake ; some 
 fi-eighted with many, some with few of the Redeemed, 
 who, thus surrounded by the loveliest of His works, were 
 keeping a new holiday with God. 
 
 As they neared the island, which was almost covered 
 by a temple of purest marble, they discovered Perpetua 
 seated with a golden lyre, which gave forth sweet chords 
 as her fingers swept over the strings, soft as if waked 
 to life by whispering zephyrs. As they ascended the 
 marble steps, Mrs. Jay saw that Perpetua was rapt in 
 far-off visions ; and her face, always full of sweetness and 
 majesty, was now angelic. The strain ended, and rest- 
 ing the lyre on her lap, she covered her face with her 
 hands, and sat for a while silent. 
 
 Persis spoke, and Perpetua, rousing herself, received 
 Mrs. Jay with a graceful smUe. " I have been mdulging 
 myself with lofty and far-reaching thoiights of the love 
 of God in the redemption of the world. ' O the heights 
 and the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and 
 knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judg- 
 ments, and his ways past finding out !' " * 
 
 This said, Perpetua took a seat beside Mrs. Jay, whUe 
 Persis placed herself at the feet of her mistress. After 
 calling the attention of her guest to a fragrant flower 
 which twined about the pillar near her, Perpetua 
 
 * Romans, xi. 83. 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. SI 
 
 explained its structure, and spoke of the botany in the 
 world around them in contrast with the Avorld they had 
 once inhabited. 
 
 "And now, my dear lady, you may ask me any ques- 
 tions you please. What sllall I tell you of myself?" 
 said Perpetua. 
 
 "Tell me, my kind friend, the story of your life, 
 or if that be taskiug you too fai', of your martyrdom. 
 When a child I was delighted to road in a black letter 
 foUo edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs, of those who 
 witnessed a good confession and won the crowns of mar- 
 tyrdom and immortality ; and now you are the first of all 
 that noble army that I have met with since I Avas born 
 into eternal life." 
 
 With loving courtesy, Perpetua, taldng the hand of 
 Mrs, Jay, Avhich she held in both of hers, began, " I suf- 
 fered at Carthage, with others, in tlie year of Christ 
 205,* My martyrdom Avas the more notable because I 
 belonged to the nobility of that city, where I lived a 
 young and happy wife and mother, surrounded with the 
 luxuries of that age, beloved by my husband and idol- 
 ized by my father. There had arisen in the minds of 
 the people of the great centres of the empire, a feeling 
 of bitter hatred to the sect called Christians ; Avhieli was 
 the necessary antagonism of irreconcilable religions. 
 This had been overlooked at first, for the emperors and 
 people of Rome were not hostile to religionists, ' setters 
 
 * So says Bavonius in his Annals, liook ii. Others say, a.d. 210. 
 
 4* 
 
82 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 forth of strange gods ;' but Christianity knew notliing 
 of compromise, and it gradually became a question 
 which should Hve. While Christian teachers clauned a 
 religion from God, Koman lohilosophers believed they 
 had a purer code of ethics in their divine philosophy. 
 Then, too, the vulgar mind was full of prejudices, inspired 
 by vile stories of the Christian mysteries ; because they 
 sought, from necessity, to worshijD Christ in the vaults 
 of catacombs and caverns of nature, where they held 
 their love feasts, and partook of the Communion of the 
 Lord's Supper. Nor were these prejudices lessened by 
 confident prophecies made by mad zealots that the 
 world was soon to be burned up ; and too, the eloquence 
 of great men had created in the minds of Christians 
 an indifference to life and its pursuits : for as the world 
 was soon to be consumed, there was no w'orth in wealth, 
 and by the ardent and ill-advised, the crown of martyr- 
 dom was sought for as the highest honor, inasmuch as 
 all who suffered entered into the paradise of God and 
 were crowned Avith glory." 
 
 " How were you brought to the knowledge of Christ ?" 
 asked Mrs. Jay. " What great Christian father had for 
 his crown of rejoicing your enlightenment?" 
 
 " It was no great orator of the church who brought 
 to me the knowledge of the gospel of the Son of God, 
 but a lovely boy v/hom my husband brought home to 
 me from the slave-market as a gift. He was about 
 fifteen years of ago, and his face beamed with gentle- 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEE "WORLD. 83 
 
 ncss and goodness. He took his place with other of 
 my servitors, and these were many. He was most 
 hapi^y to be near me, and devoid of the artifices of other 
 of my pages, was diligent, dutifid and exact in every 
 duty. He sought for no indulgences from me; and 
 when not waiting upon me, or discharging some duty, 
 was always to be found in the apartment assigned to 
 him. His beautiful countenance shone with that seren- 
 ity of soul, that I loved to gaze upon. Nor was I alone 
 in this, for Claudius, my husband, felt this silent attrac- 
 tion of the beauty of my boy Julius. One day, sitting 
 alone together, we asked him of his parentage and 
 education, and were told he had been born a slave 
 and was brought up m the family of his master as 
 the companion of his only son. The master and «on 
 had both suffered as Christians, and he had been brought 
 to the fonim to be sold by their relatives. This was 
 all he had to say at that thne ; and it was of little interest 
 to us, except that he had been once owned by one of 
 the sect of Christians. Claudius was attracted by this 
 fact, and made many inquiries as to Christ and his 
 disciples, and the pliilosophy which made Julius so 
 serenely happy — for so Ave called it. Julius was glad 
 to tell us all he knew. It was wonderful how well he 
 could repeat the Gospels and the Epistles. He never 
 owned a copy, but had committed to memory most of 
 the Gospels of Luke and John, and jwrtions of the 
 Epistles of Paul. We were both interested in his 
 
84 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 recitations for theii* singular beauty and precision. 
 Then Claudius began to talk of this religion, and 
 was led by Julius to attend the midnight meetings. 
 He then procured a copy of the Gospel of John and 
 Paul's Epistle to the Romans, which he read daily to 
 me. In a word, my dear lady, we unawares became 
 converts to the Christian faith. 
 
 " Our conversion was soon knoAvn ; for such were 
 the demands made by Roman rites, that when these 
 ceased to be conformed to, it Avas at once known to 
 our household and all who shared our hospitalities, 
 that we had become Christians. Every kind entreaty 
 was made by our relatives and friends to save us from 
 being denounced to the magistracy. It was told us 
 we should be forced to recant. Claudius lost no time 
 to manumit Julius, and to send him, under conduct 
 of one of our friends going into Greece, to Athens, 
 where he was born. We made every possible pre- 
 paration for whatever should betide us, in the disposi- 
 tion of our property and our slaves. This done, Ave 
 awaited the action of Hilarion, then Pro-Consul of 
 Carthage, hoping if Ave Avere to suffer the ordeal of 
 the Amphitheatre we should stand together. Hilarion 
 did not think I could endure this furnace of affliction 
 alone. He had shared the hospitalities of our palace, 
 and had ever expressed a Avarni friendship for us both. 
 
 "My first trial was being torn from my husband, 
 and taken Avith ray infant son to prison. There were 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 86 
 
 five of US IqcI through the narrow streets on foot, fol- 
 lowed by a rabble. A young disciple, named Satur, 
 joined us, ambitious of sharing our fate. Such heroism 
 was not unfrequent in those days, * 
 
 " When I had reached the vaulted prison in Avhich we 
 were to be confined, and seated on a block of stone, 
 surrounded with dirt, was nursing my boy, my vener- 
 able father came to visit me, and in an agony of 
 tears besought me to have pity on his grey hairs. He 
 kissed my hands, praying me to have compassion on my 
 infant boy, who must die if deserted by me ; to pity my 
 husband ; and falling on his knees, weeping, called me no 
 longer his daughter, but the mistress of his fate. Oh, it 
 was sad, very sad ; but I had the joy of knowing that, 
 except my dear father, my husband and all I loved best, 
 rejoiced in my confession of Christ." 
 
 Perpetua ceased. "And is that all? Pray go on," 
 said Mrs. Jay, earnestly. 
 
 "Do not let me weary you," said Perpetua, "The 
 days following my arrest were days of intense anguish ; 
 for I was a daughter, a wife, and a young mother, accus- 
 tomed to all the luxury of a most luxurious age. But I 
 endured all the miseries- of my prison without flinching. 
 Tlien my child was taken from mo, and I was brought 
 
 * In the persecution which commenced in the tenth year of Severus (a.d. 202), 
 Leonidas, the father of Origen was belicaded. Origen, then a boy, was very 
 anxious to share with his father the glory of martyrdom, and his desire was frus- 
 trated by his mother, who hid away all his clothes and so prevented him from 
 leaving home.— Syniih's Dictionary, Article, " Origen." 
 
86 THE GATES AVIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 before the governor in open court, surrounded by a vast 
 crowd. My imjDrisomnent had become a matter for the 
 "wonder of Carthage, and my martyrdom was to be to 
 all classes a holiday. It was, therefore, a question of 
 interest whether I would confess or recant. My poor 
 father brought to me my infant, as I stood on the 
 scaffold before this unmense concourse, and besought me 
 to have pity on my son. I kissed my child, who was 
 held up in his hands, but I would not come down. See- 
 ing this, my father caught hold of my dress, and strove 
 to pull me from the scaffold. Hilarion at once cried 
 out to the guards to beat back my father, which they 
 did ; and every blow he received upon his head fell u2)on 
 my heart. In this hour of intense agony Christ was 
 near me. I knew that my martyrdom was a necessity 
 iu Carthage, for the success of the religion of God and 
 my Saviour ; and that it was mine, not only to suffer, 
 but dying to uphold the fainting faith of those in like 
 condemnation. The day following was the festival day 
 of the birth of the emperor, and it was to be made joy- 
 ous to the multitude by my martyrdom. My compan- 
 ions were Felicitas, a young wife and mother like myself, 
 and a nameless slave ; so as to heighten the contrasts, 
 and make the spectacle the more remarkable. "With 
 every possible indignity we were led from the prison to 
 the Amphitheatre. 
 
 " This vast edifice was crowded with people ; bench 
 above bench, to the flat where the multitude stood, and 
 
SCENES IN ANOTUER WORLD. 87 
 
 had stood for hours, while mauy who occupied the 
 benches had been there all night, so eager were they to 
 witness the spectacle. For, my dear lady, I may here tell 
 you without vanity, that I was kno^vn not only for the 
 gifts of rank and wealth, but what attracted this crowd 
 more than all, was the fame -of my beauty; and Feli- 
 citas, too, my female companion, was not without her 
 attractions, and had become a mother since her impri- 
 sonment. When led into the centre of the circle, we 
 stood awliile, to satisfy the gaze of the audience. This 
 done, we were seized by the gladiators and stripped 
 naked. Our shrieks at this indignity thrilled the breasts 
 of the multitude, and while we were being placed under 
 nets, preparatory to our exposure to wild beasts, their 
 cries rose to such a pitch of fury, that the gladiators 
 withdrew the nets and threw us back our garments 
 loose, to cover us. This done, a cow, made wild, was let 
 into the arena, and attacked us, woimding and maiming, 
 but not killuig us. The audience, weary of this torture, 
 demanded the termination of our lives. One of the 
 gladiators came forward and drove his sword into my 
 ribs. In my agony, I offered him my throat, and he 
 gave me a blow which set my soul free. The story of 
 my martyrdom has been told with many variations by 
 Beda, Usardus and others. I have told it to you with- 
 out any of their ornaments." * 
 
 * The story of the martyrdom of Pcrpetua has been related with no other 
 
88 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 "And now I want you to tell me, Perpetua, if your 
 deatli was necessary ? The pro-consul was a personal 
 friend of yourself and family ; and was it necessary you 
 should inflict such misery upon your father and your 
 husband, and then, too, to desert that infant hoy? 
 Could it be that all this was demanded of you ?" asked 
 Mrs. Jay, wath a shuddering emotion. " My dear Per- 
 petua, I have the impression that those ' old men elo- 
 quent ' of the early church, inspired Christians with a 
 mad zeal for martyrdom ; and that Roman magistrates 
 were taunted to become their murderers." 
 
 " I have never doubted that my pourmg forth was a 
 duty I owed to my Saviour," replied Perpetua, with 
 great solemnity. "He died on the cross for me, and 
 had a right to claim my martyrdom in the Amphitheatre 
 at Carthage." — This said, Perpetua assumed her usual 
 sweet and lovely air and manner, adding, " The early 
 fathers doubtless erred in many things, and their elo- 
 quence did produce the eflects you have named; but, 
 madam, what age is free from error? Not your age, 
 certainly, and how much less mine. And I must say in 
 its defence, I have never seen an age like that which 
 produced Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, Ambrose, Chry- 
 sostom and Jerome; men whose ardor led them to 
 reach after impracticable virtues, and to regard marriage 
 itself, in the language of St. Gregory of Nyssa, himself 
 
 change, than the incident of her clothes being given bacli, which, though not true 
 of her, is a fact in Martyrology. 
 
SCENES EST ANOTHER WOELD. 89 
 
 a married man, as ' the prologue to all the tragedies of 
 life.' " * 
 
 " There are hundreds of thousands upon earth at this 
 very moment, Perpetua, both men and women, who hold 
 the same opinion as St. Basil, though I never before knew 
 it had been upheld by such eminent authority. What is 
 your opinion, now^ St. Perpetua ?" asked Mrs Jay, 
 
 " In life," answered Perpetua, with a look of love, 
 raised up to heaven, " I was a happy wife and mother, 
 and the happier in heaven for the loves of earth. My 
 love reaches to the remotest links of the chain of exist- 
 ence derived from me ; they are all mine, and as truly 
 
 * St. Gregory, of Nyssa (a.d. 872), was a younger brother of St. Basil. He 
 deplores the condition of married life with great force and eloquence in his writ- 
 ings, wlule he delineates with a brilliant pencil the delights of virginity. In his 
 exegesis of Genesis, chap, iv., he says : " Since marriage was the last step which 
 separated us from Paradise, I would advise those who are ambitious of returning 
 thither, to begin by relinquishing marriage, the last stage, as it were, in the road 
 between earth and heaven." The age of St. Basil and the Gregorys was eminent 
 for its talents rather than for its piety. We read in writers of the Oxford school 
 much in praise of the church in the fourth century. Milner in his Church History 
 says, the character of the church at the close of the third century resembled the 
 ■ Episcopal Church of England during the reigns of Charles II. to George II. (vol. 
 i. p. 464). It is certain that a deep declension from Christian purity had taken 
 place. This is abundantly shown in the Epistles of Cyprian, who describes a 
 state of morals, and tests of character, which cannot in these days of refinement 
 be so much as alluded to. The licentiousness of confessors, men who did not die, 
 gave the bishops great trouble. The lapsed were numerous, and on the approach 
 of persecution, Cyprian says, " Slany ran and sacrificed to the gods, and the 
 crowds of apostates was so great that the magistrates wished to delay numbers 
 till the next day, but they were importuned by their wretched suppliants to be 
 allowed to prove themselves heathen that very night." — Ep. of Cypriav, 81. 
 
90 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 embraced by me as when my boy-babe lay in my hip, 
 the sole fond object of a mother's love, Om- circle of 
 sympathy and love widens like ripples on a glassy lake, 
 and the outmost wave is as truly of that circle as is its 
 very centre." 
 
 " That is a new thought to me," said Mrs. Jay, " and 
 it oppresses me. I cannot conceive of it. I do not 
 want such a wide circle of loves ; but I, too, may share 
 in like joy when I have lived to see a grandchild. How 
 odd it seems to me now ! The fact of the case vrith me 
 is this : I was so glad to get away from my body and 
 the world about me, that the moment I was free, at a 
 single bound, I found myself threading with my angel, 
 the nebulae in the belt of Orion, on my way to the Celes- 
 tial City, and have never been back to earth since ; nor 
 have I met with any one, till I was joined by my friend, 
 Peter, from whom I could make a single inquiry after 
 my husband and only child, Augusta." 
 
 " That surprises me, Mrs. Jay," replied Perpetua, 
 " for I spend some portion of every century in revisiting 
 the homes of my children. My boy grew to manhood, 
 and was sent to Britain with the cohort he commanded. 
 There he remained, and had children, and died, and 
 of those children there are now living representa- 
 tives in every clime ; not one of whom is unknoAvn to 
 me. My Claudius is now in India with one of our 
 boys, who is engaged in civil war with the Sepoys before 
 Delhi." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIEK WORLD. 91 
 
 " Will you tell me, St. Perpetua, if the condition of 
 society in Carthage in your lifetime was like to that 
 of Rome, as described hy St. Paul in the opening 
 chapter of his Epistle to the Romans ; if so, from what 
 a maelstrom of depravity you escaped ! " 
 
 " It was indeed a vortex of splendid vice ; and it is 
 to illustrate the wonderM goodness of God to me, 
 that I love to dwell upon my early life in Rome and 
 my married life in Carthage. You are, doubtless, 
 familiar with the adroitness and cmming of the priest- 
 hood of the papal church in taking charge of a child 
 so soon as he comes into the world and sealing him 
 with the cross of baptism; and next with childhood 
 comes confirmation, and before marriage the first 
 confession and communion; and so on, step by step 
 in life's progress, the priesthood have their hand 
 upon the man from the cradle to the grave, nor leave 
 him there; for the future of his soul ceases not to be 
 a fountain of wealth to the cofiers of the church. 
 You know as a Protestant something of this. You 
 may have seen others thus crushed by the Church of 
 Rome, though happily you have been exempt from 
 such spiritual despotism." 
 
 "Yes indeed, "Perpetxia," replied Mrs. Jay with 
 flashing eyes, as she recalled the memory of the past. 
 "I have had in my service poor Irish Avomen whose 
 hard earnings have been absorbed, anticipated even, 
 to pay their priests for tlicir prayers for the dead 
 
92 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 as well as their sacraments for the living. How 
 strange it is, that these men should be venerated, 
 instead of being execrated; who say they can release 
 lost souls from the miseries of purgatory by their 
 prayers, but will not do it unless they are paid for it. 
 What would be said of a man in a life-boat who 
 should refuse to rescue a child drowning, untU he 
 was paid for doing so ? He would be caUed a monster 
 indeed; and yet Roman priests of the present day 
 live "ttdthout offering up a single prayer for a lost 
 soul, unless they have the price paid in hand." 
 
 "Yes, I am aware of it. I have witnessed the 
 rise of the papacy from its beginnings, though its 
 seeds were sown in the days of Paul. I saw the 
 ripening of the genns to theii* fuU fruit, and it is one 
 of the subjects of my inquiries, in every visit I make 
 to earth, to see its latest developments. My motive 
 in alluding to this wonderful net-work wrought out 
 by the papal priesthood was to illustrate to you the 
 like meshes of superstition woven by the religion of 
 Pagan Rome about a Roman child; and to show you 
 how hard it was, ia my time, for a mother, or a maiden, 
 to become a Christian." 
 
 As Perpetua was speaking, two of the Redeemed, 
 a male and female of resplendently beautiful forms, 
 alighted from the skies upon the steps of the temi)le, 
 and with bright and beaming looks of joy came up 
 the steps. Perpetua, rising, received them with a warm 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 93 
 
 welcome, exclaiming, " What strangers you are ! " 
 This done, she presented them to Mrs. Jay, " Let 
 me introduce to you, dear sister, my beloved Faustinus 
 and Calliste, and to you, Calliste and Faustiuus, our 
 newly-arrived sister, Mrs. Jay, of New York, North 
 America." 
 
 Mrs. Jay was greeted with all the charming courte- 
 sies of the world of Art and Beauty, and Persis 
 having set couches for them, the strangers took their 
 seats ; and turning to Mrs. Jay Avith smiles of welcome, 
 Faustinus spoke : " Tell us, where is North America ? 
 That is a new name to us." 
 
 "North America," said Mrs. Jay, not a little sur- 
 prised and somewhat at a loss how to make herself 
 miderstood to these imlearned guests of Perpetua, " is 
 separated from Europe by the Atlantic ocean." 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed Faustinus, "then the Atlantis has 
 been discovered at last. In our day, Perpetua, it was 
 thought to be a fiction of Plato in Timceus.'''' 
 
 Perpetua smiled at the surprise to be seen in Mrs. 
 Jay's face, and turning to her said, "Since the de- 
 parture of these dear friends of mine, the New World 
 has been discovered." 
 
 " A new world ! " exclaimed Faustinus, " pray ex- 
 plain." 
 
 Perpetua was amused, and addressing her friends 
 told them that since they had left this world, a Geno- 
 ese, named Columbus, had in the year 1492 discovered a 
 
94 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 continent wliicli had been called America, the northern 
 section of which had been settled by Britons, and the 
 southern by Spaniards and Portuguese. That this 
 " new world," as it was called, in its area was as large 
 as- Europe and Africa, and was found peopled with 
 natives now known as Indians, and much more that 
 need not be repeated. 
 
 " But where on the plane of the earth's surface is 
 this wonderful continent ?" asked Faustinus. 
 
 " O ! there again," said Perpetua, " you will have 
 to learn that the earth is not a plane, but a globe, and 
 that the doubtful sayings of Nicetas, Heraclides and 
 Ecphontus as to the possibility of the motion of the 
 earth and the hypothesis of Aristarchus of Samos, 
 that the earth revolves in an oblique circle round the 
 sun, ajid daily on its own axis, has been demonstrated 
 by a German, known to all the world as Copernicus." 
 
 " A GeiTnan and a Genoese ! pray what have Romans 
 been doing, that such discoveries as these have been 
 made by men of obscure provinces ?" asked Faustinus. 
 
 Perpetua repHed with a tone of deep emotion — 
 " There are no more Romans ! Those who now peo- 
 ple Italy are no longer known as Romans, but as Ital- 
 ians, and as such they have been dispersed over all 
 lands, and are known as the pastrycooks and organ- 
 grinders of the world. The Church of Rome has 
 become the seat of Anti-Christ.* Her priesthood 
 
 * In the Homily of the Church of England for Whit Sunday we have the follow- 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 95 
 
 have made themselves notorious for their skill in 
 cruelty. They have created, a secret tribunal, known 
 as the Inquisition, for the suppression of the gospel 
 of Christ. In their dungeons Christians are tortured 
 with such exquisite refinement of cruelty that the last 
 throb of agony is extorted before the soul is permitted 
 to escape them. And as for the nobles of Rome, 
 they are all gone, and Italian princes, so-called, have 
 taken their places, rich only in titles and recollections 
 of the past." 
 
 Faustinua and Calliste sat horror-struck at such a 
 picture of their country; for they were of the proud 
 senatorial families of Rome in the days of Nero. 
 
 "We shall have ample time to tell you of all the 
 events which have elapsed since you left us ; and now 
 tell me briefly where you have been for the last fifteen 
 hundred years," said Perpetua, wishing to change the 
 current of their thoughts. 
 
 "We have been most happy in seeing a new world 
 resembling our earth, peopled with a race of beautiful 
 beings, to whom we have been ministering spirits," 
 replied Calliste. 
 
 "I hope Satan may not find it out and carry ruin 
 and desolation into it," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 "O, never!" exclaimed Calliste. "Satan has been 
 
 Ing testimony, 'which is of force with all who hold the doctrines of the Episcopal 
 church — The Homily says, "If it be possible to be where the true church is not, 
 then it is at Rome." 
 
96 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 chained ever since Christ rose to his throne of ever- 
 lasting Dominion." 
 
 "You must be mistaken, madam," said Mrs. Jay, 
 "for I met him with legions of fallen angels not long 
 smce, and left them at work destroying a world of 
 beauty; ripping up continents with horrible combus- 
 tions." 
 
 " Can it be so ?" said Calliste, with a look of terror, 
 in which Faustinus sympathized. 
 
 Mrs. Jay was earnestly requested to tell them of all 
 she had seen, for both Faustinus and Calliste said they 
 had supposed Satan had been shut up in hell since the 
 resurrection of the Saviour.* 
 
 Mrs. Jay replied : " It is only a short time since I 
 was roaming the wastes of sj)ace; a sohtude so vast 
 that no ray from far-oflf stars reached it, when suddenly 
 a baleful glare rose out of the depths. Coming straight 
 on I saw a multitude of mighty forms, and stood 
 awaiting their approach. I was soon surrounded with 
 a legion of angels of darkness, who encompassed me 
 as in a circle of red flame. Then came forward their 
 
 * That Satan has been in some way restricted in his power on earth since the 
 coming of Christ, is an opinion very generally received. Milton thus alludes to it, 
 in his sublime poem, " On the morning of Christ's nativity " — Hymn, stanza xviii 
 
 " For from this happy day 
 
 The old Dragon under ground, 
 
 In straiter limits bound, 
 
 Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 
 
 And wroth to see his kingdom fail 
 
 Swindges the scaly hon-or of his folded tail," etc. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WORLD. 97 
 
 cliief to wliere I stood, gazing with wonder, but without 
 one throb of fear, on this globe of faces whose flaming 
 eyes were all bent upon me with fierce glances of 
 anger. How well he bore himself! I recalled the 
 Milton's description of Satan, and I knew in whose 
 presence I stood.* 
 
 " ' Who and whence art thou ?' he asked in tones 
 which would have once filled me with horror. I replied, 
 ' I am a child of earth, for whom Christ died, and who 
 now stands before you, redeemed from the curse and 
 dominion of sin. Would I could tell you of like mercy 
 and pardon ; of a restoration to happiness and heaven.' 
 He replied, ' Know, cliild of God, I could mount up 
 from the pit of hell to the highest throne of created 
 existence, and be once more Lucifer, son of the morning, 
 if I so willed to be?' 'Ah!' I replied, 'you coald as 
 easily create a world as to will to be what you once 
 were. Would it were possible that your enmity could 
 be changed to love.' Oh, how he swelled with pride and 
 rage as I said this. 'Never! penitence precedes par- 
 don, and I hate God and all his works, and will mar if I 
 cannot destroy, and will forever task omnipotence to 
 renew what I reduce to ruin and chaos.' 
 
 " In a twinkling these baleful flaming angels broke their 
 
 * " He, their dread commander, above the rest 
 In shape and gesture proudly eminent. 
 Stood like a tower : his form had not yet lost 
 All her original brightness, nor appear'd 
 Less than archangel ruln'd."— Paradise Lost, book i, lines 590. 
 5 
 
98 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 circle and I saw them rushing deeper into the night of 
 unfathomable space. The sound of such a movmg multi« 
 tude was like the roar of mighty waters upon the air of 
 midnight. I stood awed, when an angel of light jomed 
 me, to whom I told all I had seen. 'Come with me,' 
 said the angel, "and you shall see by what agencies 
 worlds are made." As we flew with the speed of the 
 messengers of the Almighty, the angel told me, that a 
 far-ofi" world had reached a condition when a cataclysm 
 was required. ' It has been,' he said, ' the home of 
 lower forms of life, and is about to assume a higher 
 development. Satan, as the 'architect of ruin,' does 
 but fulfill the behests of Infinite wisdom,' 
 
 " A bright star now sent its rays across the wastes of 
 night, for which we steered our course, when a splendid 
 solar system came into view. It was a galaxy of glories 
 and worlds filled with Paradises. We had only time to 
 survey a beautiful world soon to be made desolate, when 
 the corps of destroying angels came and circled the 
 globe. The heavens gathered the blackness of dark- 
 ness, and suddenly great thunderbolts, hurled by Satanic 
 power,* broke through the crust of the earth and down 
 rushed the ocean, when flames of concealed fires burst 
 forth, and towering mountains were ripped open and 
 melted, like icebergs in a sea of flame. It was a scene 
 of terrible sublimity !" 
 
 Perpetua, after a silence which seemed the eflfect of 
 
 * Bee Job, i. 16, for examples of Satanic power. 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. ' 99 
 
 terror upon the minds of Mrs. Jay's auditory, -^dth her 
 eyes raised, spoke : " Great and marvellous are thy 
 works. Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, 
 thou King of saints !" Then, turning to Faustinus, she 
 asked, "What description of world is this where you 
 have been residing, and what species of intelligences are 
 these new-made creatures of God's goodness ?" 
 
 " The system is so very like our own planetary sys- 
 tem," replied Faustinus, " that to us it seemed a redupli- 
 cation of the sun and earth and planets ; only the constel- 
 lations were all diiFerent, as you may readily suppose 
 they would be. The new Adam and Eve were just begin- 
 ning their labors in the Paradise of their own Eden, 
 when we reached them. At that time they were being 
 taught the uses of words and the value and qualities of 
 things about them. There is no death known in that 
 world, for there is no knowledge of sin. After li\ing 
 about a century of our years, they are translated to 
 some higher sjAere. 
 
 "We were thus permitted," said Calliste, "to live 
 with them the Ufe of our first parents ; as they would 
 have lived had Satan and sin never entered Paradise." 
 
 " It must have been ftiU of interest to you, thus to 
 mmister to the development of the faculties of an un- 
 fallen race of human beings," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " It has been," said Calliste ; " and now that you tell 
 us Satan is let loose once more, we must return and help 
 to guard this happy home from his wiles." 
 
100 THE GATES WIDE OrEN; OR, 
 
 " Oh, there can be but one fallen race in all the uni- 
 verse," said Peter, " Christ has died once for aU. The 
 mystery of man's redemption has been revealed, and as 
 our great Redeemer said on the cross, ' It is finished !' " 
 
 " And do you thmk so, Perpetua ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " So far as assurance can be mine, I am confident that 
 our race, and the ' angels who kept not their first estate,' 
 are the only intelligences to whom sin is known by 
 bitter experience. How sin came to be, is the enigma 
 of enigmas, before which we must bow and be silent — 
 believing and resting in our knowledge of God and his 
 attributes, that ' He will do right,' " 
 
 "Perpetua, you speak of the origin of evil," said Faus- 
 tinus, " as being the enigma of enigmas. When we left 
 on our mission to this new world, which was in the year 
 of Christ 330, just after the Synod of Nice had dis- 
 solved, the great stumbling-block in the way of the pro- 
 gress of the church was that of the Holy Trinity.* 
 Pray tell me is that now an established article of faith in 
 the churches of Christ," 
 
 " It is of all Christian churches. There are in Ger- 
 many, Britain and Gaul, churches, so called, which reject 
 
 * The Athanasian Creed was left out of the Book of Common Prayer, by cur 
 House of Bishops, in adapting the Liturgy of the Church of England to our coun- 
 try : an omission, which, for one, the author has ever regretted. He has always 
 felt deep sympathy with this creed for its intensity of zeal for the divinity of 
 Christ, and the reduplications of its claims for the personality of the Holy Trinity. 
 It was the work of a mighty mind, and will stand up, like a peak of the Cordilleras 
 against a clear sky, unapproachable in its sublimity. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTUER WOKLD. 101 
 
 Christ as the Son of God and the Redeemer of the 
 world." 
 
 "Has there ever been a solution of the enigma, Per- 
 petua?" asked Galliste. "I had supposed God's mode 
 of existence must of necessity be incomprehensible." 
 
 "As it was, so it is, and ever will be, Calliste. 
 Modern science has helped us to a glimpse of His mode 
 of existing as Three Persons in One God. A ray of 
 light has been decomposed into three distinct colors, 
 red, yellow and blue, kno\^^l as primary colors, and 
 these when recombined, make one pure ray. Now we 
 are told by inspiration, ' God is light !' " 
 
 " We were speaking, just as you joined us, my dear 
 Faustinus and Calliste," continued Perpetua, " of the 
 condition of Roman sociot}' in the days of Paul, as 
 described in his Epistle to the Romans ; and Mrs. Jay 
 was expressing her wonder and admiration, how Christi- 
 anity could have gained access into Rome. And to 
 show her some of the barriers to the Gospel, I was about 
 to tell her how Paganism bore upon females m all the 
 relations of life. Now, Calliste, as you lived ui the days 
 of Paul, you can best render her this kind service." 
 
 "I do not know how better to fulfill your wishes, and 
 these of our new-come sister," replied Calliste, bowing to 
 Mrs, Jay, " than by telling her briefly the story of my life. 
 I was born on the 5th of the Kalends of May, in Rome, 
 while the people were celebrating the Floralia, in the 
 year of Christ 40. I was the only child of a senator of 
 
102 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 wealth and influence, and in due time was affianced to my 
 beloved Faustinus, and was married on my eighteenth 
 birthday. All went happily with us, and we were 
 made rich by the possession of five lovely children, when 
 sickness came, and in a few months we were childless. 
 For a change of scene we went out to our villa, which 
 was beautifully situated on the banks of Lake Albanus, at 
 Alba Longa, about ten miles from Rome. The nurse of 
 our children was a Christian slave of mine, who had 
 feared to avow her faith in Christ, lest she should be 
 denounced and delivered up to the lions. But when 
 Myrrha saw me broken-hearted and in deep despair, she 
 spoke to me, little by little, of the life and immortality 
 brouo-ht to hght in the glorious gospel of the blessed 
 God. It was like water to a lost wayfarer on the desert. 
 It was life to the dead. The wealth of the world was 
 less than nothing and vanity in comparison with such 
 hopes. In all this Faustinus profoundly sympathized 
 with me. He sought out the teachers of the church, 
 and went to the caverns of the catacombs to listen to 
 the preaching of the Gospel, which he rehearsed to me 
 attain and again. This was hazardous, for it was after 
 the conflagration of the city, and Christians were being 
 sacrificed to appease the people of Rome, who were made 
 to believe that Christians were the incendiaries by whom 
 so large a portion of the city had been laid in i*uins. 
 
 " It was at this time the great apostle of the Gentiles 
 was brought again to Rome a prisoner, and was bound 
 
SCENES IN Aif OTHER WORLD. 103 
 
 in the Mamertine prison.* "We hastened back to our 
 palace, which was near the Amphitheatre of Statilius 
 Taurus^ and some distance from the prison; for at all 
 hazards we purposed to see St. Paid. Disguised as best 
 we could to resemble the poorer class of the conunon 
 people, we sought admission, which was readily granted 
 to us. We fomid Paul seated on a block, near the base 
 of the pillar to which he was chained. He was wrapt m 
 his cloak, and some rolls of parchment lay at his feet. 
 He seemed in deep meditation when we drew near. He 
 addressed us in Greek, in reply to our salutation in that 
 tongue. This was safest for us, as there were prisoners 
 bound in like manner as Paul to other pillars, not far off. 
 Our tale was a short and simple one, and it told him how 
 the longing love of being restored to our lost ones had 
 opened our hearts to receive the gospel of the grace of 
 God by Christ Jesus. Paul listened with earnest atten- 
 tion. He read our souls, and discerned our spirits as 
 an apostle only can do. He had no reproofs to make, 
 but taking up the theme of eternal life, brought to light 
 in the Gospel, he preached unto us Jesus; showing how 
 all ancient prophecies had been fulfilled, and mysteries, 
 hid from the foundation of the world, had been revealed 
 in the coming, the death and the resurrection of Christ, 
 who had ascended upon high, where he ever lived to 
 make all prevalent mterccssion for his disciples. We 
 
 ♦ According to the legends of the Mediaeval Church, St. Paul was imprisoned in 
 the Mamertine prison.— Contbeare and IIowson's Life of St. Paul, vol. ii. p. 483, 
 
104 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 forgot everything while we listened, and his face, like 
 Stephen's, was full of the glory of heaven. 
 
 " It was our privilege to minister to the necessities of 
 Paul, while he opened to xis the glorious Gospel. One 
 day Luke the beloved physician was with us, and to 
 him Paul told the story of our life. Luke asked us, ' K 
 we were walling to take up the cross of Christ, and bear 
 it into the Amphitheatre of Nero.' He was abrupt, and 
 we were staggered at the thought of being sacrificed. 
 Paul reproved Luke, and told him we were as yet biit 
 babes in Christ, and then directing us to kneel before 
 him as he sat, with a fervor of soul that was heaven- 
 inspired, laying his hands on our heads, he prayed for 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost to enlighten and uphold 
 us ; and when he had made an end of praying, the peace 
 of God and the love of Christ was shed abroad in our 
 hearts — a joy unspeakable and full of glory ! By direc- 
 tion of Paul, and upon confession of our faith and repent- 
 ance, St. Luke baptized us in the name of Christ, in the 
 prison tank, in presence of all the prisoners. This, how- 
 ever attracted Httle attention from them, for it was of 
 daily occurrence, and was regarded by them as some 
 superstitious washing of these new religionists. And 
 yet the person of Paul was awe-inspiring ; felt and 
 acknowledged by every one, bond or free, soldier or 
 centurion. 
 
 " The day dreaded by all the disciples at last came, 
 when Paul was to be exhibited in the Amphitheatre. 
 
SCENES IX ANOTHER WOULD. 105 
 
 "We received notice from the palace of Nero that the 
 nobility of Rome were expected to be present. It was 
 perilous to be absent, and on that dark day we took 
 our seats in the gilded balcony of our rank, which hung 
 over the walls of the arena ; and there we sat and wit- 
 nessed the pouring forth of the life-blood of the most 
 glorious of men — the Apostle to the Gentiles. 
 
 "The day of our trial was not distant. One of our 
 freed-men, named Felix, a man whom we trusted with- 
 out limit, a year before had robbed me of a casket of 
 jewels. He was taken and punished. It was at our 
 earnest entreaty his life was spared. We could not 
 have saved him from the stripes inflicted upon him, 
 had such been our wish. Returning to us, he could no 
 longer be trusted, but was compelled to take his place 
 among our menials of the lowest class. This he re- 
 sented as an aifront, and then it was that he be- 
 came a spy upon us. He watched ns as narrowly 
 as he could from the distance to which he had been 
 removed by his new duties, and noticed our frequent 
 absences from our palace. It was our custom to leave 
 our gi-ounds disguised as plebeians of the poorer class, 
 through a remote postern gate opening into a vacant 
 lodge, and thence to the nearest assembly of Chris- 
 tians hold in some upper room, or dark vaulted cham- 
 ber ; for in those days the Word of God Avas most 
 precious, and the courage of Christians rose with the 
 exigencies of the trial. The words of Christ came home 
 
 5* 
 
106 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 to our souls with the clangor of the last trumpet — • 
 ' If any man will come after me let him deny himself 
 and take up his cross and follow me ; for whosoever 
 will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose 
 his life for my sake shall find it * — ^Whosoever shall 
 be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous 
 and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man he 
 ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father 
 with the holy angel s.f For what is a man advantaged 
 if he gain the whole world and lose himself, or be 
 cast away.' J Our worship was real, and our prayers 
 so fervent and effectual, that heaven seemed open to us. 
 " It was the custom during our exercises of devotion, 
 to be told of those who had been offered up on that 
 day; and we received from spectators usually their 
 messages of love and dying exhortations. We were 
 told of those apprehended, or who had been denounced 
 to the magistrates by their slaves, their neighbors, 
 familiar friends, and sometimes, as in the martyrdom 
 of St, Christine,§ by their parents. The prophecy of 
 Christ was already verified — ' The brother shall deliver 
 up the brother to death, and the father the child ; and 
 children shall rise up against their parents, and cause 
 
 * Matthew, xvi. 24. t Mark, viii. 8S. t Luke, ix. 23. 
 
 § St. Antonius, according to Baronius, has told the story of this young saint. 
 Her day on the Roman calendar is the 24th July. She was imprisoned by her own 
 father Urbanus, and after various modes of torture, yielded up her soul to God, 
 A.D. 295, in the reign of Diocletian and Maximinus. St. Isidore says, "she took 
 the name of Christine of Christ, because she was a Cliristiaa." 
 
SCENES m ANOTHEK WORLD. 107 
 
 them to be put to death, and ye shall be hated of all 
 men for my name's sake: and a man's foes shall be 
 they of his own household.' * There was not a meet- 
 mg, however small, ' when but two or three only were 
 met together in the name of Christ,' that did not bring 
 to our ears glorious testimonies of saints who had wit- 
 nessed a good profession. Life to us was full of the 
 iutensest excitement, for all felt that we walked, as it 
 were, around the mouth of a crater, trembling with 
 the throes of an eruption. 
 
 " There was much work to be done, and the life of a 
 disciple was a warfare m which there were no exempts. 
 Gold often procured the release of the denounced 
 through the cupidity of the petty magistracy, and it 
 was poured forth hke water. Alas! how often were 
 we pained by the subsequent lives of those who were 
 thus saved. They were held in high honor as Confes- 
 sors, and became apostates from holiness, claiming an 
 immunity for their licentiousness as beyond the reach 
 of the censures of the Church. 
 
 "At home, the life we led was altogether changed. 
 We made no feasts and we went to none. The cause 
 assigned by our friends, was, naturally enough, our 
 great sorrow in the loss of our children. They had 
 no suspicions of any other cause and they sought for 
 none. But it was not so easy to hide our change of 
 
 * Matthew, x. 21, 86. 
 
108 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 life from the observation of our households. In many 
 little matters, as in the customs of every-day life, the 
 paganism of Rome was interwoven, and a failure of 
 compliance with its established usages was at once 
 observable. Indeed, concealment was not possible ; 
 and we could but confide in the devotion of those 
 who were about us at table and in our private apart- 
 ments. In those days, Nero illuminated his gardens 
 at night with disciples who had refused to sacrifice to 
 the gods. These were wi'apped in rolls of linen and 
 pitch and seated on pedestals, all to be fired by a sig- 
 nal at the same instant. It was our sad duty to visit 
 these disciples and supply them with food and drink; 
 to whisper the promises of God for theii' consolation 
 and support. Often these martyrs, thus wrapped up like 
 so many Egyptian mummies, were surrounded by their 
 parents and brothers and sisters, and slaves, all weeping 
 and praying them to consent to pour out oil upon the 
 altar before any one of the gods of the cajDitol ; while near 
 by, enclosed in shrouds covered with pitch, stood those 
 neglected or unknown — nameless on earth, but whose 
 names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. How 
 often have I found such weeping, not for themselves, 
 but for those thus tempted to deny the Lord Jesus. 
 Oh, how often have I sat down upon a pedestal just 
 vacated by one whose heart had melted at the prayers 
 and tears of those they loved, and who was being led 
 away to the temple of Jupiter near by, followed by the 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 109 
 
 plaudits of her relatives and friends, and have asked 
 myself— 'Can it be tliat God, ray Saviour, demands 
 such sacrifices as these ? Is not that sweet girl whom I 
 call apostate, to be commended ?' and then came the 
 question of Christ to Peter, sounding its dreadftil 
 appeal to my conscience, 'Will ye also go away?' 
 and I rose in haste out of my fearful revery, and asked, 
 ' Lord to whom -shall I go ? thou only hast the words 
 of eternal life !' 
 
 " My dear lady," continued Calliste, after the pause of 
 a moment, as if living over the past in her memory, 
 "you may never have kno^\^l anything like this fearful 
 conflict of doubt. It was the agony of our existence, 
 and forever present to our minds. How wisely and 
 cogently and convincingly did our hearts reason against 
 what we every day witnessed in the martyrdom of the 
 young and the beautiful ; of those endowed with all 
 that can make life lovely and themselves the centres of 
 happiness. But in despite of all such terrible conflicts 
 in our souls, toward the close of the day, during the 
 banquet hour, when we were least likely to be missed 
 from the palace, Faustinus and I went down to the 
 lodge, near the garden wall, which was enshrouded by 
 shrubbery, and there, aided by Myrrha, Ave put on our 
 disguise, leaving her to watch for our ret.irn. "We 
 next hastened to the garden of Nero, buj-ing the food 
 on our way which we needed for Christ's poor. This 
 ministry we were permitted to continue up to the fr.tal 
 
110 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 signal, when the flaming torches held by the guards were 
 appHed ; and then, np and down the long vistas of the 
 garden, flames arose, and martyrs, in chariots of fire, 
 ascended to the throne of God. Oh, it was fearful ! A 
 cry of horror rose on all sides from the multitude of 
 beholders, which, with the agony of the dying, broke 
 upon the palace walls of Nero, while he, reposing in the 
 arms of the lovely Popptea, listened and smiled ; his 
 own sense of joy thus heightened by the wailing shrieks 
 of his people. 
 
 " But I -svill hasten to the end of my narrative. The 
 event so dreaded came. I had recovered my jewels, 
 but at the cost of our lives. We were denounced by 
 Felix. The Flamen of Jupiter, to whom so grave an 
 accusation as this was conveyed, had been the friend of 
 our fathers, and in full confidence that it was false, he 
 came to us; and after a call of some length, with a 
 smile, he told us of the charge brought against us by our 
 freedman Felbc, saying, ' So much for your unwise lenity.' 
 Faustinus rej)lied, 'It is true; we are Christians.' He 
 lifted up his hands in amazement. That we should, 
 without hesitancy, confess ourselves Christians, seemed 
 to him madness ; and his look told us that he doubted 
 our sanity. Turning to me, he asked, if I v/as ready 
 to enter the arena of the Amphitheatre. I replied, 
 ' Faustinus and I do not seek martyrdom as some have 
 done, but we ^ill go to the lions rather than become 
 apostates to the faith of Christ.' He conversed with us 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. Ill 
 
 for an hour, and left us in deep dismay at the result 
 of his long visit. He sought to have us banished to our 
 estates in Sicily. But when the question was brought 
 before Nero, the martyi'dom of us two, belonging as we 
 did to the old families of Rome, was just the event he 
 wished for to signalize the birthday of his beloved 
 PoppKa. It was therefore decided by him that on that 
 day we should be destroyed by some magnificent lions 
 recently brought to Rome, as a crowning glory of the 
 gladiatorial shows he had been busily occupied in 
 arranging for the celebration of the day. 
 
 " Our beloved friends now thronged around us. Every 
 motive which could be urged by early friendships, a 
 large retinue of devoted cUents and the tears and cries 
 of our household, was brought to bear upon us in the 
 week which intervened. We were permitted to live in 
 our palace under the guardianship of a centurion. The 
 Flamen of Jupiter made a last call, and it was to me 
 alone he came, hoj)ing to induce me to sacrifice to the 
 gods. He told me that he was sure of Faustinus if I 
 would consent. I told him, 'It was certain I should 
 share the fate of Faustinus, and that I knew my hus- 
 band too well to doubt his integrity of soul to his 
 Saviour and mine. If we were lifted above the common 
 people, so much the greater glory would be gained to 
 the cause of Christ ;' and quotuig Seneca, his friend and 
 mine, I said, ' My leader hath not deserved ill of me ; 
 he hath judged me well.' 
 
112 THE GATES Vv^IDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " The clay came. All Rome thronged to the Amphi- 
 theatre. By the order of Nero we were dressed in all the 
 splendor of our rank, and led to our wonted seat in the 
 gilded and cushioned balcony of senators. There Y^e 
 witnessed for the last time the horrid shows of gladiators 
 killing each other to make a Roman holiday. 
 
 " The hour drew on apace. The senatorial seats near • 
 us were vacated. It was truly a fearful i:>lace of obser- 
 vation. I glanced my eye up the ten benches, where 
 I saw, pale and anxious, Christ's poor gazing down upon 
 us, and I was comforted in the certainty that we had 
 their prayers that our faith should not fail. The vic- 
 tors were dragging the dead, by hooks, across the 
 arena, and throwing them into the cells from which 
 they had so recently issued in the vigor of life. 
 When the arena was cleared, the Mayor of the Games, 
 who sat below Nero's seat, called for us to come for- 
 ward. There was a small altar upon which stood the 
 statue of Jupiter, and the Flamen in his robes, biinging 
 with him a cruse of oil, came and commanded us to 
 make our libation in honor of the god. That was the 
 crisis of our Uves. The beautiful Poppaea, whom I had 
 kno^\'n as the wife of Rufius Crispinus, was roused to 
 lean forward and see us make the sacrifice. And Nero, 
 sympathizing with the feeling of anxious curiosity that 
 pervaded the whole soul of that great multitude, rose in 
 his seat. His was the fierce look of one expecting us to 
 despoil him of an anticipated jDleasure, and most unlike 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 113 
 
 to the stare of the loA^ely woman at his side, who now for 
 the first time waked up to the possibility of our con- 
 tumacy. We made our obeisance to the Flamen of Jupi- 
 ter, next to Nero and Poppasa, and then of declinature 
 to the Flamen. Nero was roused. 'To the lions!' he 
 cried in a loud voice ; and as by one volition the cry 
 came up on all sides, * To the lions ! to the lions !' Our 
 centurion came forward and hurried us through the 
 labyrinthian passages which led down to the level of the 
 arena, and passing into one of the many vomitories, out 
 of which in other days we had been wont to see gladia- 
 tors and Avild beasts ushered, we now came out hand in 
 hand, and were led by the centurion into the centre, 
 where he left us. We looked tip blanched with terror, 
 while the multitude welcomed us with shouts, as they 
 were wont to cheer a coming spectacle. We stood close 
 together, shuddermg at the cries of the multitude, and 
 looking anxiously at the iron doors of the arena, to see 
 Avhence the lions would be let out ui^on us. Oh, it 
 was a fearful hour ! God willed it should be so, and the 
 acme of agony of that moment of suspense was the fear, 
 lest after all we should f:iil of the grace of God and be 
 castaways. The interval of tune we thus stood was 
 brief, but it seemed to me a century. Every act of my 
 life came up before me, and my sins flamed up into my 
 face. My only cry was, 'Lord, save, or I perish!' 
 What else could I do ? The horrid din of the lifting up 
 of the iron gates, under the scat of Nero, thrilled me 
 
114 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 through, and as the hungry lions with a roar rushed 
 out, I was affrighted and about to fly, when Faustinus, 
 whose arm was about me, held me to his side, saying, 
 ' Courage, Calliste ; 'tis but a pang and hfe is over.' Oh, 
 it was fearful to see them leaping out of the darkness of 
 night upon the arena, enraged by hunger and the scent 
 of the blood of slaughtered gladiators. And as they 
 came, their glaring eyes flashed flames which would have 
 blazed across a desert. For an instant they cowered 
 beneath the loud cries of thousands. But soon they dis- 
 covered us, and stealthily circled round about the walls, 
 stopping to lap up the puddles of blood they met 
 with. 
 
 " This taste of blood roused them to frenzy, and they 
 ran towards us with terrible roaring. We stood facing 
 them, and they paused under the fiery glance of our eyes. 
 It was but for an instant. Our glances could not arrest 
 all three of the lions; and I know not how it was, but 
 there was a leaping of the lions upon me, a crashing of 
 my bones, and behold I stood up disembodied, arrayed 
 in robes of light, and filled with unutterable amazement 
 at the change. Shining ones stood by us, and welcomed 
 us mto the world unseen. Recovering ourselves, Faus- 
 tinus embraced me, and then we gazed about us. Nero 
 and Poppaea had risen, and were prejiaring to return 
 home to their banquet. The crowd were already mak- 
 ing their Avay out of the many passages, and the lions 
 were fiercely feeding, with many growls, upon our 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 115 
 
 mangled bodies, tearing with their claws the rich gar- 
 ments which marred their feasting. We lingered, and 
 saw Christ's disciples stealing in behind the gladiators, 
 who now came to drive the Uons back to their den. 
 These loving souls, with fond affection, sought to carry 
 away with them fragments of our clothing saturated 
 with blood, to be kept by them as mementoes of our 
 death. And when they turned up the faces of Faus- 
 tinus and myself, ^dth astonishment they recognized in 
 them the poor plebeians who were so constant in their 
 devotion to the martyi'S of the gardens ; for, my dear 
 madam, so many were the false brethren of that day, no 
 one but Myrrha shared our secret. 
 
 "'Are you not weary of such a sight of hoiTor?' 
 asked our angel. 'I am filled with joy unspeakable,' 
 I repHed; 'my soul clings to these dear ones whose 
 hearts are so sad for our martyrdom, and yet glad 
 that we have witnessed a good profession. I want 
 to speak words of comfort to them.' ' God, the Com- 
 forter, has them ever in his holy keeping,' rcj)lied our 
 angel. ' Now let us wing our way to the holy city, where 
 you will be welcome to your Saviour, Jesus Christ.' 
 Thi^ speech lifted us from earth ; and with the delight 
 of birds freed from the cage, we soared away to the 
 open vision of our God and Redeemer." 
 
116 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OE, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Faustmus inquires of Mrs. Jay as to the Progress of the Gospel — Of the Last Daya 
 of the World ; Views of the Early Ages respecting it ; Mrs. Jay gives the Views 
 of the Present Day— Perpetua on the Progress of Christianity — On the Condition 
 of Women in the Days of Nero — The Law of the Twelve Tables— Examples of 
 the Degradation of Women, shown in the Mother of Demosthenes and the Wife 
 of M. P. Cato — Of the Law of Divorce as shown by Cicero to Terentia — Cal- 
 liste tells of the Condition of Roman Children — Testimony of Tacitus — She gives 
 an Account of Roman Customs, concerning Marriage, in a Relation of her own 
 union to Faustinas. 
 
 The narrative of Calliste had ended, and Mi-s. Jay, with 
 profound sympathy and admiration, returned her thanks. 
 Faustinus, addressing Mrs. Jay, said, "You come, 
 madam, from a new world. Tell me, is it the new 
 earth we read of in the Holy Scriptures, 'wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness ?' " 
 
 " O no ! I wash it were. Our people have no claim 
 to distinction on this score. They have made no pro- 
 gress ia holiness that I know of in settling a new con 
 tinent. Humanity is the same in all cUmes and all- 
 ages." 
 
 " But we hoped the Gospel would have renovated th 
 world ere this," answered Faustiaus. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WOKLD. 117 
 
 " But it has not, sir, and I do not see that it will for 
 centuries to come. Some pious and eminent divines 
 of the present day have had their patience utterly 
 exhausted, waitmg for the triumphs of the Gospel ; 
 and have published sermons, and pamphlets, in favor 
 of tlie world's being burned up. This summary mode 
 of proceeding has been quite popular in certain quar- 
 ters, but we have no knowledge whether this scheme 
 of theirs will be entertained elsewhere. It seems to be 
 the effect of petulance and a longing for a climax. I 
 believe, St. Perpetua, there has been in every age an 
 intense desire throughout Christendom to see the world 
 destroyed by fire." 
 
 Perpetua, with a smile, replied, " My dear Mrs. Jay, 
 you have your oa^ti way in saymg things. In answer 
 to your inquiry, Faustinus will tell you that in his day 
 there was an earnest longing and looking for the day 
 of the Lord, Avliich was then believed to be near at 
 hand. Toward the close of the tenth century, it was 
 believed that the ppenmg of the next would see the 
 consununation of all things ; an expectation spread by 
 the great leaders of the Church who added vast do- 
 mains to monasteries by compounduig the sins of great 
 barons in consideration of such grants;* and as you 
 
 * Hallam in his " History of the Middle Ages," chap. vii. says : " To die without 
 allotting a portion of worldly wealth to pious uses, was accounted almost like sui. 
 
 cide or a refusal of the last sacraments The church lands enjoyed 
 
 an Immunity from taxes. According to a calculation founded on a passage in 
 Knyghton, the revenue of the Engli.li chuich in 1887, amounted to 780,000 mark* 
 
118 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 know, Mrs, Jay, since the days of Mede and Bishop 
 Newton, every year has seen a new exegesis of the 
 Revelations of St. John, of which the boldest and most 
 specific has always paid best ; nor has the skill of 
 modern divines, in making ' taking books,' decreased in 
 your day and generation." 
 
 " How much we have to learn !" exclaimed Faustuius, 
 addressing CaUiste. "Tell me, Mrs. Jay, the burden 
 of the ministry in the jn-esent day. In ours, there 
 was one absorbing theme — 'God manifest in the flesh, 
 justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto 
 the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up 
 into glory.' 'Christ the Son of God, the Saviour of 
 sinners,' was our cabalistic saying, by which we knew 
 each other. That was the scope of the preaching then, 
 and of our duty, — to confess Christ and lay down our 
 lives for the brethren. His glory was the Alpha and 
 Omega of all our exertions ; the motive of aU our sacri- 
 fices. Changes had come over the world in the third 
 century, before we took our departure on the mission 
 of love to the new world we have just now left. Alms- 
 giving and ceUbacy began then to take the place of 
 Christ, and faith in his complete righteousness, as the 
 sinner's hope of justification before God. 'John, of 
 
 per annum. The clergy did enjoy nearly one-half of England, and I bellMo a 
 greater portion in some countries of Europe." 
 
 Hallam says, chap, ix., part 1: "In the tenth century, an opinion prevaiU-d 
 everywhere that the end of the world was approaching." 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WOKLD. 119 
 
 the Golcleu Mouth,' as St, Chrysostom was called, with 
 glomng eloquence was then leacUug away the Church of 
 God from the true faith in Christ. And now, madam, 
 after an absence of fifteen centuries, we come back to 
 ask what are the themes of the Christian muiistry in 
 these latter days and in your new world. I cannot but 
 hope that this virgin continent has been kept fi'ee from 
 the pollutions of the old world." 
 
 " I wish it were so," said Mrs. Jay with great inten- 
 sity of feelmg. "Doubtless there are advantages re- 
 sulting from the newness pervading our wide-spread 
 country. The North American RepubUc consists of 
 thirty-one Independent and Sovereign States. In the 
 Northern States, the population is divided into a mul- 
 titude of sects, called churches; some of these are 
 very high, some very low; some extremely orthodox, 
 some excessively heterodox, and those claiming to be 
 most of all rationalistic, are of all others most irrational. 
 Now among those known as Evangelical and Orthodox, 
 the topics you speak of as being the burden of all the 
 prophesyings of your day, are regarded as accepted 
 truths, and the confessed stand-points of all subjects 
 to be discussed. What is most needed now for a re- 
 vival of primitive piety in our country, is a .little of 
 that of which you had too much — the lions of the 
 Amphitheatre. Nor will you wonder at this when I tell 
 you that our churches for more than two hundred 
 years have possessed the largest freedom of rehgious 
 
120 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 liberty. We all sit under our own vines and fig- 
 trees, having none to disturb or make us afraid. 
 And yet, in despite of all the corrupting influences 
 of such national prosperity as the world has never 
 before seen possessed by any people, I hope and believe 
 the kingdom of Christ is advancing and his glorious 
 reign is extending over the wide world. But my 
 judgment is Hke that of a man in the midst of op- 
 posing forces ; he cannot tell on which side is the vic- 
 tory. What says Perpetua ?" 
 
 " Oh, there is progress !" exclaimed Perpetua with a 
 bright and beautiful confidence in her tone and manner. 
 " It is, as our divine Redeemer has said it should be, 
 the leaven is leavening the whole lump. The simpli- 
 city of life and manners existing two centuries since, and 
 the principles which led the colonists of Plymouth to 
 the rock-bound coast of New England, and which deep 
 poverty enforced with stern rigor, has changed more and 
 more as your country has become prosperous. And this 
 is as true of Great Britain as of the States of North 
 America. But while there has been a subsidence of 
 some severe virtues, there is a wonderful development 
 of the feeling of brotherhood. Since the days of the 
 apostles, when the disciples, in the fire of their first love, 
 tried the hopeless experiment of having all things com- 
 mon, never has the command of Christ to disciple all 
 nations been so widely recognized and acted upon by 
 the churches of Christ as now," 
 
SCENES IN ANOTUEB WOKLD. 121 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say so, Perpetua," said Mrs. 
 Jay ; " and though I could never have had any desire 
 to be killed by mad cows, or devoured by hungry lions, 
 yet I have always felt that Christians of the early cen- 
 turies had a confidence in theu- true-hearted discipleship 
 that we never could attain unto in our days of peace 
 and prosperity." 
 
 " Certainly, Mrs. Jay," replied Perpetua, " the cross 
 of Christ was far more palpable in our day than in 
 yours. To be a Christian in the lifetime of Faustinus 
 and Calliste was to resist the current of public opinion ; 
 to commit treason to the state, and to bring down its ter- 
 rible malediction. And yet, madam, the cross of Christ 
 is ever one and the same. • It demands of us the sacrifice 
 of self, and the cross is a daily one ; it meets us on the 
 threshold of existence, and never leaves us tUl we sleep 
 the sleep of death. And so obvious is this cross, that 
 all can both see it and feel it at every step of life's pro- 
 gress, while, with an eye upon our Saviour's footsteps, 
 w^e walk as he also walked, of whom it is said 'he 
 pleased not himself.' Now, madam, the great truth 
 which men are so slow to learn, and which milhons have 
 never guessed at, is this, — God has ordained in all worlds, 
 that happiness shall consist, not in what is gained, but in 
 what is given ; and this being so, men 'ought to seek as 
 their own highest happiness the gifts and powers to do 
 the greatest good to the greatest number. You see in 
 this world, so joyous and happy, what blessedness 
 
 6 
 
122 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 results from carrying out this course of action. As I 
 have just said, few on earth have adopted the principle 
 of self-sacrifice in very little things. All ideas of taking 
 up the cross of Christ daily, are vague and mystical. In 
 great exigencies Christians act well at aU times, but in 
 the ' sweet small charities of life,' upon which the happi- 
 ness of a wife or a chUd chiefly depend, how often do 
 men offend ? And yet, this willingness and power at 
 once to sacrifice self in order to advance the well-being 
 of others, is the philosopher's stone for which the world 
 has so long sought." 
 
 " The adoption of such a principle, St. Perpetua, 
 would indeed change the aspect of society, and the com- 
 merce of the world," said Mrs. Jay. " I have had such 
 dreams of a future of our world ; but then I never 
 believed it could be attained without some such purga- 
 tion as a general conflagration. Why, Perpetua, who 
 would sell us our silks and ribbons ? and as for hucksters 
 they would cease to be.* No, no ; while there is a neces- 
 sity for bu}dng and selling, there will always be more or 
 less buying cheap and selling dear. And, Perpetua, I 
 think the Saviour teaches us that in the last day, at the 
 very instant when the pealing sound of the archangel's 
 trumpet shall wake the dead, the ladies of our cities vtdll 
 be. cheapening lace for their wedding dresses." f 
 
 Perpetua smiled at the illustration Mrs. Jay had used, 
 
 * Ecclesiasticus xxvi. 29, — " A huckster shall not be free from sin." 
 t Matthew, xxiv. 37. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 123 
 
 while Faustinas and Calliste sat by with a look of mcer- 
 titude as to what was meant. 
 
 " I tliink, Mrs. Jay, we all agree in belie\TjQg," said 
 Perpetua in reply, " that the mission of Christ was for 
 the saving of the whole world. He has in his gospel 
 given as the law of love by which the world is to be 
 regenerated — ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.* 
 Now to recur to the subject of which we have been 
 speaking ; in djTiamics the greatest power attainable is 
 by a quick repetition of strokes ; and if the ministers 
 of the gospel of the present day, should be instant in 
 bringing home to the hearts of men the teachings 
 of Christ as to bearing his cross daily, and, indeed, 
 hourly and instantly, their hearers would be the 
 wiser and better for their discourses ; and there would 
 be a growth of holiness as well as happiness in the 
 world. 
 
 "I beg to recall the topic of our discourse," con- 
 tinued St. Pei'petua, " when Faustinus and Calliste joined 
 us. Calliste has told us of some of the dangers attending 
 a confession of Christ in the days of Nero ; but what 
 I desired, Faustinus, that Mrs. Jay should be told, was 
 this, — Of the obstacles which were met by Roman ma- 
 trons and maidens arising from the interweaving of 
 pagan rites with every-day life." 
 
 A conversation ensued which need not be repeated 
 here, in which the present position of women in Eng- 
 land and North America was presented to Faustinusi 
 
124 TUB GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 and Calliste, who listened with delight while Perpetua 
 sketched the progress of society and the elevation of 
 woman from the third century to the present day. 
 This done, Mrs. Jay recalled Faustinas to the inquiry 
 made by Perpetua. 
 
 " To recur to the past, then," said Faustinus, " and 
 its days of darkness, sensuality and suffering, I will 
 say to Mrs. Jay, that according to the testimony of 
 Roman authors, and poets especially, women were 
 never so abandoned as in the days of Augustus Csesar. 
 They describe the scenes then taking place, and say 
 the framework of society and the bonds of domestic 
 life were on the eve of disruption. Woman, distrusted 
 by her husband, was deprived of the freedom of 
 social intercourse, and being left without motive for 
 the cultivation of her mind, she soon lost her deli- 
 cacy of manners. Her form was all that was now 
 left her for adornment, and this she saw elevated on 
 a pedestal, the object of worship — in the porch, the 
 vestibule and upon the altars of temples. But whUe 
 there was all this reverence for beauty, there was 
 none for Woman. It was Christianity^ that first attri- 
 buted to woman a fuU participation of the godlike. 
 
 "To our rude Roman fathers, as with the ancient 
 Greeks, there was nothing so grand as courage and 
 strength. From timid women they expected nothing, 
 and treated them accordingly. And when cities began 
 to be built, women were confined to a certain section 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 125 
 
 of the house, always the hack part, and slept in the 
 upj)er rooms well secured by bars and bolts ; nor were 
 they permitted, in the day-time even, to go from one 
 part of the house to the other. Their keepers were 
 old female slaves and eunuchs. If the golden fleece 
 of Thessaly was not safe from the enterprise of Jason, 
 the wives of the ancient Greeks and Romans were 
 not safe from the men of their day. With wealth 
 came refinement. Rome in the days of Augustus was 
 enriched by the plunder of the world. She had laid 
 a belt about the Mediterranean of a thousand miles 
 in breadth ; and within that zone she comprehended 
 not only all the great cities of the ancient world, but 
 so perfectly did she lay the garden of the world in 
 every climate, and for every mode of natural wealth, 
 within her o^vn rin»-fence, that since that era no ■ land, 
 no part and parcel of the Roman empire, has ever 
 risen into strength and .opulence, except where im- 
 usual artificial industry has availed to coimteract the 
 tendencies of nature. So entirely had Rome engrossed 
 whatsoever was rich by the mere bounty of native 
 endowment.* The city had become a nation in it- 
 self It contained with its suburbs, in the days of 
 Christ, not less than four millions; and by many it 
 was beUeved to contain millions more ; f for there 
 were no accurate methods in use in those days of 
 numbering all sorts of people. 
 
 * De Qulncey— "The Caesars," p. 16. t De Quincey, p. 6. 
 
126 Tift; GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " Women were made to share in the luxuries of the 
 age. They were needed to grace the banquet ; but their 
 sjihere was only to minister to the pleasures of men, and 
 not to share their confidence. In the Pantheon woman 
 was worshipped, but at home she was degraded ; and 
 though having the care of her children, and sharing in 
 her husband's honors, she was the victim of a capricious 
 jealousy, and could be repudiated by him at his plea- 
 sure ; and more, she was at his sole disposal at his 
 death." 
 
 Mrs. Jay, lifting up her hands, terrified at such a pic- 
 ture, exclaimed, " What would I have done to my hus- 
 band had I lived in your day !" 
 
 " You would have submitted as the women of Rome 
 did," rephed Faustinus. " But Hsten awhile, for I have 
 not told you the half of all that- can be told of the 
 degradation of women in the height of Roman glory. 
 In the day-dawn of Christianity, a Roman mother was 
 liable to see her most loved chUd torn from her bosom, 
 if jealousy seized upon her husband, and thrown by him, 
 or by some obedient slave, into the fish-pond of the 
 house to become food for eels." 
 
 " Horrible !" cried Mrs. Jay. " This might be old 
 Roman law ; but could it consist with such civilization 
 as was the glory *of Rome in the days of Augustus." 
 
 " I could tell you tales of my own day," replied Faus- 
 tinus, " but I would rather speak of those facts which 
 are found imbedded in the pages of the great writers of 
 
SCENES IN anotui:r wokld. 127 
 
 the empire. You may think," continued Faustinus, 
 addressing himself to Mrs. Jay, " that we Romans of the 
 first century were monsters. We may have been, but we 
 regarded ourselves as greatly in advance of the primitive 
 laws and customs. Our civilization came to us from the 
 people of Greece, who learned their lessons from Egypt, 
 Xenophon, in one of his letters says : ' There are few of 
 my friends with whom I converse* so seldom as with ray 
 wife.' Nor were the domestic customs of Athens more 
 mild and regardful of women than those of Rome. A 
 Roman citizen could transfer his authority over his wife- 
 to his son ; or, if he chose, could bequeath her to a 
 friend as her future husband : and this, too, was Grecian 
 law, of which we have a most notable instance in the 
 father of Demosthenes, who chose Aphobus, his own 
 slave, for his successor. And another example is sup- 
 plied us by M. Porcius Cato, the great-grandson of Cato 
 the Censor. This eminent man, amid the oriental 
 voluptuousness of his age, retained a love of Samnite 
 rusticity. He was proud of the name he bore, and the 
 virtues Avhich had made that name illustrious. And it 
 was this Cato, who, failing to persuade Bibulus, who had 
 married his daughter Portia (by whom Bibulus had 
 two children), to give her up to his friend Hortensius, 
 divorced his own wife Marcia, who was then married to 
 Hortensius in the presence of Cato and her own 
 father.' '* 
 
 • So I'lutarch— " Cato the Younger." 
 
128 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " Plow wonderful !" cried Mrs, Jay. " I have now a 
 new apprehension of the blessedness of the glorious 
 gospel of the Son of God. Well might old Zacharias 
 call Christ's coming the day-spring from on high, giv- 
 ing" light to them that sat in darkness and the shadow 
 of death, and of all, to woman. And our Redeemer 
 might weU say of his coming He was sent to bind up 
 the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
 and to open the prisons of them that were bound. But 
 was there no protection for women ? I have heard much 
 about the famous Tables of Roman law, and did they 
 contain no mention of us poor wives and mothers ?" 
 
 " Oh, certainly," replied Faustinus. " They prescribe 
 the foi'm of divorce." 
 
 " A summary method no doubt, and what was it ?" 
 
 " It was not more so than among the Jews, madam ; 
 and I think it was far more respectful. The law of the 
 Twelve Tables prescribes as follows : ' When a man will 
 put away his wife, the form of doing it shall be by tak- 
 ing the keys of her house from her and giving her what 
 she brought.' Thus it was that Cicero dismissed Teren- 
 tia, after a union of thirty years, because he said she 
 was expensive and peevish;* and only eleven years 
 before, while he was in exile, he addressed to her those 
 beautiful letters, in which he says she had been cruelly 
 robbed of her whole fortune on his accoimt, calling her 
 
 * " Terentia denied all these charges, and Cicero afterwards made her a full 
 apology." — Plutarch. 
 
SCENES IlSr ANOTHER WORLD. 129 
 
 '■My Tcrentia^ thou most faithful and best of ^^dves;' 
 conjuring her to join hum in his banishment, saying to 
 her, ' I can never think myself ruined whilst I enjoy 
 thy society.' " 
 
 "The wretch!" cried Mrs. Jay, "he well deserved to 
 have his head cut off and a bodkin run through his 
 tongue, for such baseness to his wife." 
 
 " My dear Faustinus," said Calliste, " you are making 
 very slow jirogress m answermg the inquiry made by 
 Perpetua. You have been talking all this while about 
 the condition of wives in order to enhance the triumph 
 of Christ's gospel. But how much more strikingly is 
 this shown in the condition of children under the law 
 of the Twelve Tables. Wives have never had such 
 hold upon the hearts of husbands as children upon the 
 heartstrings of fathers ; and I want you to tell Mrs. 
 Jay, that by the authority of law, a father could kill his 
 child, or sell him into slavery, and there was no appeal ;* 
 and as for the females born, it was a matter of incerti- 
 tude whether to let the child live or die. The degrada- 
 tion of our sex came to us from Greece, and is shoAvn 
 by the quotation of one of their poets, who says : ' A 
 man though poor will not expose his son, but if he is 
 rich, he will scarcely save his daughter.' " 
 
 * The first law of the Twelve Tables enacts: " Let a father have the power of 
 life and death over his legitimate children, and let him sell them when he pleases. 
 But if a father has sold his son three times, let the son be out of the father's power. 
 If a father has a son born wliich is monstrously deformed, let him kill him imme- 
 diately." 
 
 6* 
 
130 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 "Well might St. Paul say of such men, 'without 
 natural aiFection.' " said Mrs. Jay. " "Was there ever 
 such a catalogue of crimes as Paul has made in the first 
 chapter of his Epistle to the Romans ? It seems to me 
 the Huns and Vandals were needed to crush such a race 
 out of existence." 
 
 " How thankful should we be," said Perpetua, with 
 her sweet smile, and taking Mrs. Jay's hand as she 
 spoke, " that the long suffering of God leads men to 
 repentance. Even James and John wished permission 
 fi'om Christ to command fire to come down from heaven 
 to consume the inhabitants of a Samaritan village, for no 
 other reason than that they refused to entertain Christ 
 and his disciples on their way to Jerusalem ; and we must 
 pardon our new-come sister for her sentiments of abhor- 
 rence of Roman morals. And yet, dear Mrs. Jay, we 
 three are native-born Romans, and love aU that was 
 noble in our country," 
 
 " I pray you forgive me, St. Perpetua, if I have in 
 any degree pained you." 
 
 " It was not what you said, my sister, but there was 
 in your tone and manner something which sounded 
 like the prayer of the Pharisee — ' Lord, I thank thee I 
 am not as other men are.' I am not a Roman of the 
 first century, but a Christian of the nineteenth." 
 
 " Yes, truly, St. Perpetua ; for what but a Pagan 
 should I have been had I been born in Rome in the 
 times of N"ero ? or a Buddhist had I lived in my own 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 131 
 
 day beneath tlie Lurniiig sun of Hindostan ? Born as I 
 was of Christian parents, listening to the jjreaching 
 of the gospel every Lord's day, trained from my cradle 
 to rejieat the Divine Hymns of Dr. Watts for Infmt 
 Minds, initiated mto the Christian church by baptism 
 confirmed m childhood by a Christian bishop — I am 
 here, a brand plucked from the burning ; redeemed, 
 while- those who commenced life with me, imder like 
 auspices, have failed of the grace of God, and dying 
 made no sign." 
 
 This little matter was soon settled, and the conversa- 
 tion was carried back by Faustinus to the condition of 
 the children of Rome, in the higher walks, with which 
 indeed he and Calliste alone were personally conversant. 
 He cited these words from the great historian Tacitus, 
 as illustrating this question — " The young infant is given 
 in charge to some poor Grecian wench, and one or two 
 serving men are perhaps joined in the commission ; 
 generally the meanest and ill-bred, and such as are unfit 
 for any other business. With their tales and vagaries 
 the tender mind, as yet a virgin soil, is saturated. Of 
 all the inmates of the house not one regards what is said 
 or done before the infant lord ; while their very jiarents 
 accustom their little ones, not to virtue and modesty, 
 but to license of speech and behavior ; thus, through 
 this loop-hole made for impudence and contempt of 
 obedience to their own parents, all vices find entrance. 
 Nay," continues Tacitus, " the vices peculiar to Rome 
 
132 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 seem to be inborn, such as a fondness for the stage, and 
 the arena, a passion for horses and the like." 
 
 Calliste now took up the topic. " Mrs. Jay, you want 
 to know what were the stones of stumbling, and rocks 
 of offence in the way of a Roman girl in becoming a 
 Christian. Now I think I can tell you of some which 
 would have been insuperable, had I been a Christian 
 before I married Faustinus. And to begin at the be- 
 ginning; the auspices were to be first consulted and 
 found concurrent ; for if an omen deemed unlucky ap- 
 peared, th§ contract was forthwith dissolved as displeas- 
 ing to the gods. It was rare for such omens to be 
 discovered, when rich gifts rewarded the priest for suc- 
 cessful ones. These in our case were declared to be 
 auspicious in aU respects; and forthwith our prayers 
 were offered with sacrifices to the gods, and a lock of 
 my hair was cut off and laid upon the altar as a conse- 
 crated gift. This fearful ordeal over, for such it had 
 been to me, being ignorant of the persuasives Faus- 
 tinus had made to the soothsayers to secure a favorable 
 report, I with joy hastened to get ready for my espous- 
 als. It was a day forever to be remembered, when after 
 much labor I stood arrayed in my long white robe with 
 its purple fringe adorned with ribbons, called tunica 
 recta, and had the girdle bound around me which Faus- 
 tinus was to unloose. Then my maids having parted my 
 hair with a spear in honor of Juno, the protectress of 
 mari'iage, to whom the spear was sacred, put over me 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOULD. 133 
 
 my bridal, orange-colored veil, called the flammeum ^ 
 and last of all I put on my yellow shoes. Thus attired, 
 I was led down into the hall where stood the priest at 
 an altar placed there for the occasion. A sheep was 
 then sacrificed to the gods, and the skin being rent off 
 the victim (a most offensive sight it was to me), it was 
 spread over two stools, npon which we sat with our 
 heads covered. This done, our marriage was completed 
 by pronouncing a solemn prayer, after which another 
 sacrifice was made, and Faustinus then became my hus- 
 band." 
 
 " And was that all ?" cried Mrs. Jay. " I had supposed 
 there was the greatest splendor attendmg the nuptials 
 of the nobility of Rome." 
 
 " Oh, there was," replied CaUiste ; " but I wanted to 
 show you how intimately the ritual of pagan worship 
 was comiected "wdth the rites of marriage. Faustinus 
 can best teU you Avhat a retinue of nobility attended me 
 on my way from my father's palace, to the one which 
 was to be henceforth mine." 
 
 " By no means can I begin to tell of these ceremonies 
 so well as you, Calliste. Pray finish your story," said 
 Faustinus with a pleasant smile. 
 
 " Do you not see, Mrs. Jay, that this husband of mine 
 slily suggests that this affair of marrying hhn was a 
 matter of much more importance and interest to me 
 than it was to him. But I assure you he was regarded 
 as fortunate when he married me ; and there were ladies 
 
loi TUB GATES WIDE OPEN; Olt, 
 
 of my rank who openly expressed their astonishment 
 at my father's choice; but I beheved then, as now, 
 that it was only envy ; for our love began in child- 
 hood, and was a imion of hearts as well as of great fami- 
 lies; and then, you know, matches are never entirely 
 satisfactory but to those directly concerned in them. 
 But I am not telling you of what I did and what was 
 done to me on my nuptial day. It was a cloudless day, 
 and I was dressed twenty times by my slaves before I 
 could be entirely satisfied with my looks; so it was, 
 when I ought to have been ready to descend, I had not 
 as yet made a single step of progress. The second and 
 third message hastened on the robes and completed this 
 most momentous toilet. It was set down in the books 
 that I was to be torn from the arms of my parents, as if 
 reluctant to be separated from them. I believe I acted 
 the part with more sincerity than is common on such 
 occasions ; for it was not only my parents from whom I 
 was to be torn away, but from a troop of domestics 
 whom I loved with all the ardent tenderness of a young 
 girl. 
 
 " I was then conducted to my new home with music 
 and dancing, escorted by young boys, friends of ours, 
 whose parents were yet alive ; one holding a flaming 
 torch while the others carried my distaff and a spindle 
 with woollen yarn — the only time I ever saw them. 
 One boy, called Ccifnillus, carried a vase containing cer- 
 tain bridal ornaments. Then followed a splendid train 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 135 
 
 of persons who officiated on this occasion, composed of 
 the friends of our respective families. When the pro- 
 cession reached the grand entrance, which was adorned 
 Avith garlands and flowers, in compliance with ancient 
 custom, I wound woollen yarn around the pillars and 
 anomted them with lard. This done, I was taken up 
 hy Gellius and Plautus, two of my father's friends who 
 had been married but once, by whom I was carried 
 across the threshold ; the utmost care being taken that 
 I should not touch it with my foot, for this would have 
 been a bad omen. On my entrance I was met by Faus- 
 tinus, who presented me with fire and water, both which 
 I was expected to touch." 
 
 " Pray, Calliste, can you tell me what all this symbol- 
 ized ?" asked Mrs. Jay. " Greasing the door-posts would 
 not be regarded as a good beginnmg for a neat house- 
 wife in my day." 
 
 " I assure you," replied Calliste with a good-natured 
 laugh, " I did not know then, nor did I ever make the 
 inquiry.* In fact it never occurred to me. I was en- 
 tirely absorbed m thinking of that gentleman "—bowing 
 to Faustinus ; " and as for the ritual, I was as reckless as 
 most young ladies are on such occasions." 
 
 ♦ Pliny says, the dista£f and spindle were in memory of Caia Ccecilia, or 
 Tanaquil, wife of Tarquinius Priscus, who, according to the venerable Doctor 
 Kennett, " was a famous spinster." A bride called herself Caia because it was a 
 fortunate name. The winding of the posts with woollen list or yarn, and covering 
 them with tallow was regarded as the "sov'ranst thing," to keep out infection and 
 sorcery. The bride was lifted over the threshold because it was sacred to Vesta— 
 a chaste goddess. 
 
136 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Calliste continued : " Having touched fii'e and water 
 as presented me by my Faustinus, I next saluted him 
 with all the grace of maimer I could command ; and I 
 will tell you privately " — and here Calliste leaned for- 
 ward, and in a stage-aside, said: "it was the result of 
 the steady practice of a month previous ; this done, I 
 addressed to him. those sweet words : ' TJbi tu Caius, ego 
 Caia.' * 
 
 " Thus I entered, distaff and spindle in hand, and 
 being seated on a sheepskin, the keys of the house were 
 placed in my hands. Then followed the banquet styled 
 coena nuptialis, given by Faustinus to my tram of 
 friends. At this feast I presided. The banquet over, 
 I was conducted by matrons to the bridal chamber, 
 which was magnificent as taste and wealth could con- 
 trive ; the floor of which was strewed with, flowers. On 
 the day following, Faustinus gave another entertainment 
 to his friends, after which I made certain sacrifices, ac- 
 cording to prescribed customs, to the Dii Penates, and 
 then assumed all the management of my new home. 
 Such were the ceremonies of a Roman marriage among 
 the Patrician order. As conducted by the citizens of 
 Rome, it was made offensive to all delicacy and modesty. 
 Now, Mrs. Jay, had I been a Christian, could I have 
 poured out the Ubations required of me in honor of the 
 gods? All these ceremonies were more or less inti- 
 mately associated with the religion of Rome. Suppose 
 
 * " Where thou art Caius there am I Caia." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 137 
 
 I had been one of the slaves of Faustinus, a poor 
 kitchen drudge? There stood upon the hearth house- 
 hold deities to be sacrificed to daily ; there was the 
 sacred lamp to be kept burning, around Avhich the lares * 
 a,ndi penates were ranged. And sitting at the table with 
 other servants, I must have eaten of meat offered to 
 idols, and been expected to pour out of my wine-cup, 
 my libation with those about me, in honor of the gods ; 
 and ujjon festival days to have joined in dances full of 
 seductive blandishments. Every condition of life has 
 its peculiar trials and tests of faith ; and I tlnnk you vnW 
 admire the grace of God our Saviour, manifested by 
 multitudes of women, who in face of all these dangers, 
 dared to embrace the religion of a despised and cruci- 
 fied Saviour — and he a Jew! The courage of a man 
 was hardly equal to such horrors as awaited the con- 
 fession of Christ ; and yet, — with all the tenderness of a 
 woman's heart, torn by contending passions, the love of 
 life, the shrinking from suffering natural to all, and felt 
 most by women ; the rending of the ties of love to her 
 parents, her husband, her cliildren and her household, 
 — there was no lack of martyred mothers, wives and 
 daughters, in the three first centuries of the church of 
 Christ." 
 
 • " The domestic Lares, like the Penates, formed the religious elements of a Ro- 
 man household. 'Wheh they took their meals some portion was offered to the Lares. 
 When a young bride entered the house of her husband, her first duty was to offer 
 a saorifice to the Lares." — Smith, vol. i. p. 722. 
 
 St. Chrysostom has an account of marriage rites in his day. In addition to 
 
138 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Mrs. Jay renewed her thanks to Calliste and Faus- 
 tmus for all the pleasure she had derived from this con- 
 versation, so full of new and instructive thoughts as it 
 had been to her, saying in conclusion : " The grace of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, has been gloriously illus- 
 trated in the sight of angels and men by the triumphs of 
 the cross over Pagan Rome. And there is yet another 
 to be accomplished when the prophecies against Papal 
 Rome shall aU be fulfilled ; when the angel of God shall 
 come down from heaven endowed with great power, 
 enlightening the face of the earth with the glory of his 
 presence, and lifting up his voice shall cry mightily, 
 " Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of mys- 
 tery, is fallen, is fallen !" 
 
 " Can it be," cried Faustinus, looking at Perpetua, 
 "that Rome has become the Anti-Christ of St. Paul, 
 and the mystical Babylon of St. John ?" 
 
 " Such is the faith of all Protestant churches," repUed 
 St. Perpetua. 
 
 " Come," said Faustinus rising, " let us change our 
 places and our thoughts. I begin to feel the chill atmos- 
 phere of the Campagna of Rome about me. See ! there 
 
 all that has been given — speaking of the trials to which a young bride was sub- 
 jected, he says: "Not only in the day, but also in the evening, men are enlisted, 
 who having been made drunk, besotted and InSamed with luxurious fare, are 
 brought in to look upon the beauty of the damseL Nor is this all ; but they led 
 her through the market-place in pomp, to made an exhibition of her, conducting 
 her with torches late in the evening, so that she might be seen of all. And they do 
 not stop here ; but with shameful songs do they conduct her .... What can 
 one say of these songs, crammed as they are with all uncleanness ?" 
 
yCENER IN ANOTHER WOKI.D. 
 
 139 
 
 are the young servitors of the palace gathermg to keep 
 this festival day, under the shade trees ; I am sure you 
 will all be glad of such a change as they will offer 
 
 us. 
 
 " With pleasure," said Mrs. Jay ; and with a volition 
 they landed on the shore, leaving Persis to ferry herself 
 over the lake alone. 
 
140 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Party returns to the Palace Gardens — Scene— The Festivity of the Servitors — 
 Their Dances described — Mrs. Jay's Colloquy with St. Perpetua about Dancing 
 — Miss Mehitable Smith arrives— Her Horror at the Sight — Her Angel's con- 
 trast between the Dancing of Earth and the World of Beauty — Tibertius pves 
 a Recitation to Mrs. Jay and Perpetua of a Sermon Preached in the Metropolis 
 by St. John Chrysostom. 
 
 The day had reached its meridian, and a throng of 
 young persons were clustered in happy groups in their 
 gala costumes, awaiting the coming of their corypheus 
 to begin their festive dances. His coming was told by 
 a sound of music, whereupon they all ran to meet him and. 
 his band of some sixty orchestral performers. For these 
 a temporary platform had been already erected. So soon 
 as the performers were seated, the signal sounded for the 
 opening dance, when the confused groups became a 
 circle. The male and female choreutae* sang as they 
 danced, and their gliding graceful movements were 
 inexpressibly beautiful. At times they were so mixed 
 
 * " The original of the chorus" says Dr. Kennett, " was at first notlung else 
 but a company of musicians sinking and dancing in honor of Bacchus." — Art, 
 " The Comedy and Tragedy." 
 
BOKNES IX ANOTHER WOKLD. 141 
 
 as to show only an undistinguishable mass, out of which 
 these youtli with magical celerity evolved the most 
 graceful figures. 
 
 Mrs. Jay looked on with absorbed attention. Per- 
 petua, as one dance was ended and another began, 
 explained them, saying, " These bear a very close resem- 
 blance in their cadences and measure to those kno^sTi 
 in ancient Greece as the Lydian, Dorian and Phrygian 
 dances." 
 
 " Pray explain ! How could the ancient Greeks have 
 obtained the knowledge of these dances ?" asked Mrs. 
 Jay. 
 
 "That is a very natural inquiiy for Mrs. Jay to 
 make," said Faustinus, " and I am cmious to know what 
 answer you have for it, Perpetua." 
 
 " I have a re^^ly, which is satisfactory to myself, and if, 
 Faustinus, you do not approve of it, I shall task your inge- 
 nuity to offer a better solution for the fact. My answer 
 then to Mrs. Jay's inquiry is this : there is in all worlds a 
 reaching forth of the soul for the ideal of grace and 
 loveliness, which exists in its unattainable perfection in 
 the mind of God. Now the Greeks had attained a higher 
 and loftier conception of this ideal of the beautiful in 
 nature and art than any other j^eople that have lived on 
 our earth. They, therefore, in their dances as well as in 
 sculpture and architecture attained to a nearer con- 
 formity to this world of art and beauty than all others. 
 And I will say further, that by the law of life, impressed 
 
142 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 by the Creator on all pure intelligences, this pursuit of 
 the ideal in nature and art is an essential element in the 
 unceasing happiness of all worlds." 
 
 Faustinus and Calliste bowed their approval, and then 
 took leave of St. Perpetua and Mrs. Jay, and walked 
 toward the palace. 
 
 " What do you think of dancing, St. Perpetua, for 
 beings of the present day, upon our world, peopled by 
 those whose very natures are, not to say totally 
 depraved, but, as is stated more cautiously, and it may 
 be with more wisdom, in the Book of Common Prayer, 
 Article ix., 'Very far gone from original righteousness, 
 and is of his own nature inclined to evil.' " 
 
 Perpetua replied : " Dancing, in its simplest forms, is 
 the natural expression of youthful joy and gladness. 
 See ! how lovely is this sight. There is no movement, 
 no look but is the sign of innocence out of the very 
 soul of purity." 
 
 " Oh yes, it is beautiful, but the young men of the 
 present age are not angels, if our young ladies are." 
 
 " It is a vexed question I know," rephed Perpetua, 
 " and one hard to be decided. There are no two villages 
 even, much less towns and cities, where the conditions 
 of morals and culture are alike, and consequently no 
 rule can be prescribed which it would be safe to foUow. 
 Only this is forever true, piety ought to make home the 
 centre of all happiness ; and this is done by guiding, and not 
 damming up, all natural expressions of youthful gaiety." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 143 
 
 Pcrsis coming up, Perpetua requested her to keep 
 Mrs. Jay company, and promising to see her in the 
 evening, took leave. 
 
 Persis was delighted to explain all the dances to Mrs. 
 Jay, and to point out those who excelled, telhng her 
 their names and occupations in and about the palace. 
 While they stood conversing, a female and her angel 
 descended, and alighted near Mrs. Jay and Persis. The 
 new-comer lifted up her hands with amazement as she 
 looked on the dancei's, and turning to Mrs. Jay, she 
 exclaimed : " Dancing in heaven ! Avho would have 
 thought it !" * 
 
 Mrs. Jay, with that delightful perversity Avliich adds 
 so much to the attractiveness of all brilliant women, 
 replied : " And why not dancing, madam ? What do 
 you see in this but new manifestations of God's love of 
 beauty ? Is not this the perfection of grace ?" 
 
 " Dear me !" exclaimed the lady, taking a long breath, 
 and looking around after her angel, as if suffocating, for 
 relief " I did not expect to hear this nonsense about 
 the poetry of motion repeated here. The high jiriest of 
 
 ♦ Milton thus ciescribes dancing in heaven : 
 
 " That day, as other solemn days, they spent 
 In song and dance about the sacred hill; 
 Mystical dance . . . mazes intricate 
 Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular. 
 Then most, when most irregular they seem ; 
 And in their motions harmony divine 
 So soothes her charming tones, that God's own ear 
 Listens delighted."— Pa/'odwe ZmsI, book v., line 617. 
 
144 THE GATES WIDE OIEX ; Oil, 
 
 modern Pantheism might well say to his lady friend, 
 while sitting in the Boston theatre gazing, whUe Fanny 
 EUsler was making a pirouette, with a steadiness that 
 would have looked an eagle blind, ' Maria, this is 
 religion ! ' but I must say this sight takes me all 
 aback !" 
 
 " How long have you been here ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " I have this instant alighted, direct from the Holy 
 City, and here I am in the midst of a mixed multitude of 
 dancing men and women !" 
 
 " You have doubtless come then from some town 
 settled by a primitive people, far removed from the 
 centres of social life ?" 
 
 " No, madam, I came from town of Newbury-port, and 
 have been for fifty years a member in good standing in 
 the orthodox church — a church which has thus far 
 escaped the march of modern refinement." 
 
 " Indeed ! and will you tell me if you have allowed 
 the introduction of a pitch-pipe into your singing 
 seats ?» 
 
 The lady was a Httle embarrassed, and replied, that 
 she had heard that old Dr. Spring had publicly reproved 
 so much as the use of a pitch-pipe ; but since his day, in 
 regard to music, there had been a great change in public 
 opinion, and now they had not only one pitch-piiDC but 
 many, for they had the most costly organ that was 
 in the town. 
 
 " Ah well," said Mrs. Jay, as she bowed to leave her 
 
. SCENES IN ANOTHEK WOKLD. 145 
 
 with Persis, " when you have been here a year or less, 
 you will look on such a scene as this divested of all 
 associations of earth, and will thank God that he has 
 conferred on pure natures such sweet pastimes ; and it 
 may be you will join them in their dance, as I would do 
 now, if I knew how." 
 
 The angel of the new-comer, who had left her for a 
 moment to greet his friends among the servitors, now 
 returned to the lady, who stood gazing with a look of 
 painful intensity upon the gay scene. She recovered 
 herself on his addressing her, and in a hesitating way 
 asked how his mind was affected by the sight of such 
 sports as tliese. He, who had been her guardian angel 
 from the day of her conversion, — had studied all her 
 moods, knew every sentiment she had entertained, and 
 almost her thoughts fi-om her looks, at once compre- 
 hended her feelings and motive in making this inquiry. 
 
 " Wait awhile, Miss Mehitable, and you will look at 
 things as they are, and not through the medium of the 
 atmosphere of your native town." 
 
 " It may be so," she replied, " but it upsets all I have 
 ever conceived of as belonging to the life of Avorlds of 
 light. It is beautiful ! I never saw dancing before ; 
 and if this be the aspect of one of our fashionable assem- 
 blies, I do not wonder it should be so fascinating to the 
 young." 
 
 " Earth has no such scene as this, my sister. Here 
 you see heavenly grace, unfeigned gentleness and the 
 
 1 
 
146 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 most complete unconsciousness of self. Goodness and 
 purity glows in every feature and beams from every eye. 
 But had you visited those grand saloons of earth, you 
 would have seen the floor of the hall covered with 
 extremely well-dressed jaersons, distressingly anxious to 
 be perfectly proper, languidly walking through quad- 
 rilles, paired but not matched, whose features, schooled 
 into marble, wake only to show some token of being 
 excessively ennuyed^ but at a later hour, polking — 
 rushing from one end of the hall to the other, or circling 
 round and round in the seductive and bewildering waltz." 
 
 " I am glad you do not sanction the dancing of the 
 lower world, if you find this commendable," repUed 
 Miss Mehitable. " You must not leave me imtil I have 
 become familiar with the scenes about me, for though 
 they are pleasing to me, they are as yet strange." 
 
 " Let me now introduce you to the Mayor of the 
 Palace, who will make you welcome, and do not doubt I 
 shall be equally devoted to you as ever, until my Creator 
 shall send me on some other mission to earth. Let us go 
 to the palace." 
 
 The singing and dancing continued, one set following 
 another, untU the chimes of the temple were heard, 
 when they dispersed without delay, equally happy in the 
 discharge of duties as in their festive dances and song- 
 singing. 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 147 
 
 Mrs. Jay, accompanied by Persis, went to the palace. 
 She found the porticos, great saloons thronged with 
 the Redeemed who had returned from liearing an ora- 
 tion in the new "Academy of Music," at the Metro- 
 politan City ; delivered by no less a person than St. John 
 Chrysostom. They were in raptures over it; and the 
 scene was described to her by a young artist, who was 
 one of the saiut's stars of glory. It was a pleasure all 
 .unexpected to them ; for the saint was on a mission to a 
 distant world and could stay but a day. The messenger 
 with the news had reached the palace after Mrs. Jay 
 had left in the morning with Persis. Whereupon, all 
 who could be notified, sped away to the metropolis in 
 order to listen to this eminent and eloquent preacher. 
 
 "Oh, that you could have heard him!" said this artist 
 to Mrs. Jay. " He was always ' golden-mouthed ;' but 
 by no words of mine can you conceive of the dignity of 
 his form ; the grace of his action ; the light which beams 
 from 'his eye ; and then the richness of his tones, their 
 various iuflectious, from a gentle whisper to the rolling 
 tlumder. Ah ! he has not been in vain all this whUe a 
 hard student in the schools of eloquence. So much, 
 madam, for his manner; but his theme — 'The glory 
 of Christ.' It was one he loved to dwell upon fourteen 
 centuries ago, while I with multitudes of other converts 
 to the faith, sat at his feet in Antioch. After having 
 proceeded for an hour or more, for I cannot now recoA'^er 
 the time, he became rapt away with his subject, when the 
 
148 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 audience l)y one impulse rose and stood, every eye fixed, 
 every soul absorbed by his kindling eloquence; and 
 when he had climbed to a vast height, taking us up 
 .into the heaven of heavens, he closed abruptly, as if 
 his conceptions outran all language t,o express. Where- 
 upon the vast audience found relief for their burdened 
 breasts by bursting forth and singing 'The Hymn to 
 the Trinity.' This over, we dispersed; and here we 
 are, every one filled to overflowing with the theme so 
 grandly upheld by my beloved father into the kingdom 
 
 of God." 
 
 St. Perpetua coming up, Mrs. Jay expressed her re- 
 gret that she should have been the cause of her losmg 
 this splendid oration. Perpetua assured Mrs. Jay, that 
 she was well content to have spent the day as she had 
 done with her; and that Calliste and herself had agreed 
 to call upon her, at her parlor, the next morning; and 
 i\ith her permission she would bring Faustinus ; to which 
 Mrs. Jay acceded with her thanks, for their intended 
 
 kindness. 
 
 " I have not seen Mr. Laurens and your friend Peter," 
 said Perpetua; "do you know where they have gone?" 
 
 " I am sure I do not ; and now, for the first tune, have 
 I missed them," replied Mrs. Jay. 
 
 Perpetua said: "I learn there are several arrivals to- 
 day from our world; and I want to find them out. 
 Have you seen any one of these new people?" 
 
 "I met with a lady from Newbury Old To^ti, in 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 149 
 
 New England somewliere, who seemed to me, consider- 
 ing the maturity of her years, quite fresh. We met in 
 the gardens where she had just alighted ; and while her 
 angel ran to greet some of liis friends, we entered into 
 a discourse about the propriety of dancing in heaven." 
 
 " Of which you no doulot disapproved," replied Per- 
 petua, smiling. 
 
 " Oh, you do not know me, St. Perpetua. I did no 
 such thing. I found this lady so full of virtuous indig- 
 nation, that I took up the defence of dancing." 
 
 "And did she think that these dances of ours were 
 copied from out the ball-rooms of the present day ? If 
 so, I should like to know in what part of the world they 
 are practised. I know of nothing in vogue in the courts 
 of Europe, or the republican homes of the New World, 
 which can be compared with them." 
 
 " Oh, this lady, in all likelihood, never was present in 
 a ball-room in her life." 
 
 "You are no doubt right in your guess, Mrs. Jay. 
 Our new-come sister will be able to discern the differ- 
 ence which exists between words and things after she 
 has been at home here with us for a little while." 
 
 Tibertius, a sculptor, who was a martyr of the third 
 century, and who was a beloved friend of St. Perpetua, 
 and had already been presented to Mrs, Jay, now came 
 up and conversed . awhile concerning the oration of 
 St. Chrysostom. 
 
150 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " Come, Tibertius," said Perpetua, " go to my rooms 
 with me and Mrs. Jay, and give us a recitation of 
 tliis famous sermon." To this invitation he at once 
 assented, and when they were seated in Perpetua's jDar- 
 lor, Tibertius recited the oration, word for word, with 
 every inflection of voice, and every gesture used by 
 Chrysostom. Such memories have the Redeemed ! 
 
 " How wonderful are your memory and powers of imi- 
 tion!" exclaimed Mrs. Jay to Tibertius when he closed. 
 " I have never seen anythmg like it before.' 
 
 " Oh, do not think my recitation gives any true idea 
 of St. Chrysostom's manner. And then, too, there is 
 wanting that wave of sympathy which rose and swept 
 over that vast audience, helping every soul to a higher 
 point of rapture. I could keep you longer, but the 
 chimes are striking twelve, and I bid you good-night." 
 
 Tibertius gone, the ladies separated soon after, promis- 
 ing to meet again early in the morning. 
 
 KOTE. Doctor Isaac Watts, in his sermon "Ori tJie Happiness of Separate Spir- 
 its," asks, " Are we sure that there are no such entertainments " as Iiere described? 
 And further, " May not Christ himself be the everlasting Teacher of the church? May 
 He not at solemn seasons summon all heaven to hear him publish some new discov- 
 eries of nature or of grace?" 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 151 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Mrs. Jay rises at an early Hour— Her Recollections of her Infancy— She ascenda 
 into the Air and seats herself on a Cloud— Her Thoughts of God— Returns to the 
 Palace to receive a Morning Call from Perpetua and Calliste in her own Room . 
 —Their Colloquy— Of the School of Eloquence— Why there are no " Strong- 
 minded Women " in Heaven— Perpetua's Opinion of Woman's Rights— Of Modern 
 Fashions— Influence of the Science of Phrenology on Beauty— Variety of dresses 
 now worn — Paint not now used— Of Diamonds— Modern Invention of making 
 Money out of Paper— Of the Fashions at Carthage — Advantage of an Auto-da- 
 Fe — Satirical sayings of TertuUian— Of Celibacy— Asceticism— Monasticism — 
 Rise of Nunneries— Character of Girls educated in Convents — Of the Convents 
 of the United States — Of escaped Nuns— Of political Parties in the United 
 States — The Admiration of certain Mothers for Nunneries as Seminaries of 
 Education — Perpetua and Mrs. Jay discuss how these Prisons of the Unhappy 
 can be made subject to Law. 
 
 Mrs. Jay w' as wakened by the song of birds, and rising — 
 having renewed her thanksgivuigs to God for life and 
 redemption — she w' alked out upon the piazza, listening to 
 the melodies of the garden, and watching the dawning 
 of the day. Her mind, full of the activities of immor- 
 tality, recalled her earliest recollections of childhood, the 
 emotions of her soul when she heard for the first time a 
 bird carol his morning song ; and with this reminiscence 
 came thronging up the memories of her child's life ; and 
 
152 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 these came not dim and misty, but with the entirety of 
 first impressions. Her childish aspirations, her little sor- 
 rows, her blind kitten, her chiiia doll with its defaced 
 nose — all were recalled and renewed, as vividly as the 
 reality had been, with all the inconceivable rapidity of 
 which the soul is endowed ; of which drowning men, 
 and men in great peril, are fearfully conscious, who live 
 over a long life in a few seconds of time. This was to 
 Mrs. Jay, as it is to all happy beings, a blissful exercise 
 of the soul ; for such is the constitution of the mind of 
 the Redeemed, that those inkspots of memory * which 
 once rose unbidden, are all washed out, and events the 
 
 * The Holy Scriptures teach us as follows : — Ps. ciii. 12 : " As far as the east is 
 from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Isaiah xliv. 22 : 
 " I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions ; and, as a cloud thy 
 sins ;" and in the 4-3d chapter, 25th verse : " I, even I, am he that blotteth out 
 thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins." 
 
 Babbage, in his Chapter on Future Punishments, says : " To the major part of 
 our race oblivion would be the greatest boon," and that the misery of the wicked 
 may be, with exalted moral feelings, to survey their past existence. But oblivion 
 is impossible ; for thought is eternal. Goethe goes so far as to say : 
 
 " They are not shadows which produce a dream : 
 I know they are eternal, for they are." 
 
 Babbage, in the same chapter, asks : " Who has not felt the painful memory of 
 departed folly? Who has not at times found crowding on his recollection, 
 thoughts, feelings, scenes, by all perhaps but himself forgotton, which force them- 
 selves involuntarily on his attention? Who has not reproached himself with the 
 bitterest regret at the follies he has thought, or said, or acted? Time brings no 
 alleviation to these periods of morbid memory : the weaknesses of youthful days, 
 as well as those of later life, come equally unbidden and unarranged, to mock out 
 attention and claim their condemnation from our severer judgment." 
 
• SCENES IN ANOTHEK WOKLD. 153 
 
 most painful to them iu life, are now seen in all their 
 hearings as heightening the glorious grace and mercy 
 of Christ in their salvation ; and no more offensive to 
 the soul than are shadows in a picture by which the 
 bright points are relieved and made resplendently beauti- 
 ful by strong contrasts. 
 
 Seeing a little islet cloud bathed in the golden rays of 
 tlie ascending sun, Mrs. Jay, by a gentle volition, rose 
 gracefully like a fihny vapor into the atmosphere ; and 
 having reached the gorgeous couch, there reclined, lost 
 iu transcendent thoughts of God and his beneficence as 
 manifested in his works of creation. She Avished to be 
 alone with Ilim, Avhose immanence pervaded the immen- 
 sities of space, and of which only the Redeemed are con- 
 scious — akin to waves of light, forever flowing forth 
 from the throne of God. 
 
 She had remained there for hours, floatiDg*far away 
 upon the cloud, when she awoke to the recollection of 
 her morning engagement with her friends. With the 
 rapidity of an angel she flew back to the palace and has- 
 tened to her room, just as Persis was about to enter 
 with a message from St. Perpetua, announcing her com- 
 ing accompanied by Calliste. 
 
 Mrs. Jay, aided by Persis, arranged her seats for 
 lier guests who soon entered, and after their morning 
 congratulations, Mrs. Jay asked after Fausthius. 
 
 Calliste replied : " He and Tibertius liavc gone on a 
 visit to the metropolis, to see a Mork on which Tibertius 
 
 1* ■ 
 
154 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, ' 
 
 is now engaged, and to walk throngh the galleries of 
 Art, and see what has been done these last fourteen cen- 
 turies ; and do you know, Mrs. Jay, he dared to say that 
 he would be one too many, for we should wish to talk 
 over matters of our own ; and I told liim in reply, that 
 he was very thoughtful for us, and that he was right ; 
 for I do love, sometimes, to be alone. Is not that wife- 
 like?" 
 
 " Oh yes !" said Mrs. Jay, " and I dearly love to hear 
 you say so, Calliste ; and that you have not yet become 
 a perfect saint." 
 
 " Such as is Perpetua ?" said Perpetua, smiling. 
 
 " No, my dear saint," cried Mrs. Jay. " I never had 
 such a thought. Every sentiment inspired by you in my 
 heart has been fuU of satisfied affection. What I meant 
 was this — and I said it under certain impressions long 
 since made upon my mind — that I was glad to hear 
 CaUiste speak as she did, out of the naturalness of her 
 womanly heart. Now what could be more wearisome 
 than our being forever aU alike perfect, seeing everything 
 in the same light, impressed in the same way and to the 
 same extent. Should we not long for a change of any 
 sort to break up the distressing monotony of such an 
 existence? Therefore it is I am glad Calliste retains 
 her womanly likings, to be sometimes away from her 
 dearest Faustinus, and in grand conclave with her own 
 sex. This is all delightful ; and now then what shall we 
 talk about? Calliste, were you not sorry to have 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIEE WORLD. 155 
 
 missed the oratiou of St. John Chiysostom, yester- 
 day ?" 
 
 " I Avas sorry we were not all there to listen to him. 
 Tibertius says it was the grandest effort he has yet 
 heai'd. He hopes to go into the school of eloquence so 
 soon as he has comijleted the group he is now at work 
 upon, I tell huu his eloquent thoughts will live in mar- 
 ble, informing and elevating the minds of all coming 
 ages, and that he is as much an evangeUst as St. Cliry- 
 sostom." 
 
 " Doubtless," replied Mrs. Jay. " The aim and end 
 of oratory is to mould the minds of men and angels, and 
 sculpture reaches the soul through the eye as oratory 
 does through the ear ; and yet, Calliste, I sympathize 
 with Tibertius in his longing for the power of swaying 
 a living multitude, whose very life hangs upon the hps 
 of the orator. But I suppose, Perpetua, we have here 
 neither women orators nor 'strong-minded women.' 
 How is it, my dear sister ?" 
 
 " There are no ' strong-minded women ' here, Mrs. 
 Jay, only because we have no woman's wrongs to be 
 righted," said Perpetua ; and turning to Calliste, she 
 went on, " ' strong-minded Avomen ' is a popular cant 
 phrase of the present day, my CaUiste, ironically applied 
 to those of our sex Avho have dared to stand forth in 
 defence of the rights of women ; to their just and equal 
 claims to the control of their children ; the rewards of 
 their own labor, and possession of their own property." 
 
156 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " Ah ! if tliey had rested in these demands, Perpetua, 
 there woidd have been no grounds for the ridicule of the 
 world ; but they claim to be senators, judges and chief- 
 tains ; and in a word to do Avhatever men perform in all 
 the departments of civil, religious and military service. 
 Now that is the madness of monomania intensified." 
 
 "Pardon me, Mrs. Jay," replied Perpetua, in a quiet, 
 even tone, which was in sweet contrast with the earnest- 
 ness of Mi"s. Jay. "Do not injustice to a great cause 
 by charging upon it the extravagant and impracticable 
 claims of women, in whose minds the rebound tran- 
 scends the conditions of human society. God has not 
 created man and woman ever to be antagonistic in their 
 social or domestic relations ; but to be forever the com- 
 plement of each other." 
 
 " It is very sweet to hear such words as these, Per- 
 petua ; but there is one little obstacle to be surmounted 
 to make these new views of society work harmoniously, 
 and that is this: women as now constituted are not, 
 all of them^ angels of peace and gladness." 
 
 "It seems to me," said Calliste, "that Christianity has 
 not done all for woman that was hoped for, if a mother 
 has not an equal right to her children's aifections, and 
 the sole right of her own property. Why, Perpetua, 
 though our husbands could drive us away from their 
 homes, they were not allowed to retain a single drachma 
 of our property." 
 
 " Indeed !" exclaimed Mrs, Jay. "Was it so? Then 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 157 
 
 that was one bright sjiot in the life of a Roman wife 
 which has been lost to lis in the subversion of the 
 empire. Now, a woman, except in a few of our North 
 American States, gives up everything she calls her own, 
 for the doubtful advantage of having a husband." 
 
 "Then I shall be on the side of 'strong-minded 
 women,' Mrs. Jay; and I wonder how there can be 
 two sides to such a question as this, among the wives 
 and mothers of the day," 
 
 " Oh, but there is ! and Calliste, you would not be 
 found with these strong-minded women, for the reason 
 that, for the most part, they are all free-thinkers, and 
 hold the teachings of the Word of God in great con- 
 tempt." 
 
 "Is that so? Alas! how hard it is to find the ex- 
 act mean in any of the great reforms of our world. 
 Everything goes on by conflict of some sort ; and God 
 only, from antagonistic forces, can work out perfect 
 ellipses in worlds above and worlds below." 
 
 Calliste now addressed Mrs. Jay: "In all ages of 
 the world, my sister, dress has exerted an important 
 influence upon the position and destiny of woman. 
 Luxury had reached a wonderful height Avhcn I left 
 Italy last, in the middle of the fourth century. Hoav 
 is it now? Are women the slaves of dress now as they 
 were then? I hope not, and beg you will tell me what 
 are the customs and fashions now prevailing." 
 
 Mrs. Jay replied: "The dress of a modern lady is 
 
158 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 vastly different from what it must have been in your 
 day, if we are to judge of your costumes Tby the statues 
 that have come down to us. To begin with the hair ; 
 this is now wo3'n parted and brushed plain, sometimes in 
 puffs, sometimes it is plaited, and fastened low down in 
 the neck. This fashion prevails, because of the form of 
 the bonnet ; which, just now, is a pretty creation of lace 
 and artificial flowers, and so placed as to cover the 
 organs of inhabitiveness and philoprogenitiveness ; leav- 
 ing the face and head uncovered as far up as the organ 
 of firmness." 
 
 "Pray pause one minute, Mrs. Jay," cried Calliste, 
 " and tell me what all these words mean. What kind 
 of organs are you speaking of?" 
 
 " Certainly," said Mrs. Jay, laughing. " I had for- 
 gotten, Calliste, that you know nothmg of the new 
 science of Phrenology. It supplies a most convenient 
 map of the head, and is universally adopted both by 
 believers and skeptics. The brain is not now regarded 
 as a unit, but is believed to be congeries of organs 
 which ' crop out,' as geologists say, upon the surface of 
 the brain ; and make certain bumps on the skixU, which 
 are designated by names, such as those I have men- 
 tioned ; so that now-a-days one does not need any other 
 index of character than the curves of the cranium, 
 which tell all that is sedulously concealed by men and 
 women, under a courteous mien of their passional ten- 
 dencies." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTILEK WOKLD. 169 
 
 " And do you confide in it implicitly ?" asked Calliste, 
 with a look of amazement at such a "discerning of 
 spirits" having been attained since her day." 
 
 Mrs. Jay answered with a smile, " Fometimes I do, and 
 sometunes not." 
 
 " You are as dark as an oracle, my sister. In my day 
 we sought to know the character of those about us by 
 the expression of their eyes, their manners, and above 
 all, their voice ; but this reading the inmost secrets of 
 the soul by the contour of the skull is to me incon- 
 ceivable." 
 
 " My dear Calliste," said Perpetua, " when you have 
 visited our earth once more, you will find this science 
 among others a mere matter of fiishion. It was the 
 rage in and about the city of Boston, m North America, 
 some years since, and was regarded as an auxiliary to 
 the skepticism which obtams in the fashionable and liter- 
 ary circles ol that vicinity. It has had its day, and, as 
 Mrs. Jay says, has afibrded a convenient nomenclature 
 when speaking of the outside of the head ; in which she 
 has shown some sldll in discoursing of the modern head- 
 gear." 
 
 " Such a science, whether true or false, must have 
 given great significance to the form of the head. Do 
 lovers sigh and sing sonnets in praise of dark eyes and 
 loAV brows, as they did from the days of Homer down 
 to those of Nero ?" asked Calliste. 
 
 " Dark eyes are always in good repute, if they be full 
 
160 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 and lustrous," said Mrs. Jay ; " but blue eyes are now 
 preferred, as light hair is regarded more beautiful than 
 black hair ; but when low brows are bestowed upon a 
 :^iir girl, she regards it a calamity thus to have her intel- 
 lectual organs hid from sight ; and some extirpate these 
 gifts of nature, once so much admired, in order to show 
 their grand intellectual developments." 
 
 " And do they look any the wiser for so doing ? I 
 should thmk such folly would be obvious to the eye as 
 their eyebrows. And now to proceed, let me ask, 
 what is the form and texture of ladies' robes in these 
 days ?" 
 
 "They change with every season, and are made of 
 every variety of material. There is a dress for the 
 morning, a dress for dinner, a dress for walking out, and 
 a dress for the evening. The fashion of all these change 
 with the season. There is a new style for spring, for 
 summer, for autumn, and for winter. These are got up 
 by a class of men in the pay of great manufacturers of 
 France and England, usually residing in Paris, whose 
 aim is to bring out those fashions most favorable to the 
 interests of the men who i>aj them best. These cos- 
 tumers seek to get as much material mto a dress as may 
 be possible. The latest invention of theirs has been to 
 revive the wcarmg of hoops, under the new name of 
 crinoline — thus enabling a lady to consume some sLx- 
 teen to twenty yards of silk m a smgle dress." 
 
 " How strangely they must look ! In our day the 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEE WORLD. 161 
 
 great art in making our toilette was to dress our 
 hair and paint our faces. Do modern ladies paint ?" 
 
 " No, or very rarely : a fair skin is regarded as the 
 greatest beauty attainable. "White paint and small 
 spots of black, called beauty-spots, m£\de of court- 
 plaster, was the style with our great-grandmothers, 
 a century since, but now a Uttle rouge is allowable." 
 
 " Jewels are doubtless worn now as in my day ?" said 
 Calliste. 
 
 " They are worn by the few who possess them ; but 
 in my country wealth is not absorbed by the few at the 
 cost of the many ; and gold ornaments have to supply 
 the place of diamonds and pearls, except in our cities, 
 where they manufacture money out of paper, and in 
 such quantities and with such success, that the wives and 
 daughters of bank directors are illuminated on gala 
 nights with pure diamonds." 
 
 "Let me ask, Mrs, Jay, before you go further, if 
 there are in these latter days, magicians who make 
 money out of paper ? I mean such money as will buy 
 diamonds and pearls. I have no capacity to under- 
 stand what you can mean — making gold out of paper ! 
 How wonderful !" said CalUste, turaing to St. Perpetua, 
 who was sitting quietly by, greatly amused with Mrs. 
 Jay's mystification of her friend. 
 
 " It is indeed, wonderful," said Mrs. Jay with empha- 
 sis. " This grand discovery was made centuries since, 
 by Jews of Lombardy ; but they required, as much gold 
 
162 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 to be paid into their hands as they made into paper- 
 money, and so the art and mystery continued for cen- 
 turies; but the great convenience of carrying paper- 
 money from place to place made it so necessary, that 
 after a while, the common peoj^le came to regard a paper 
 bill as an equivalent to gold. In the United States of 
 America, where everything goes with railroad speed, 
 certain bankers and rich men combined to create a 
 multitude of shoj)s for the manufacture of paper-money, 
 by which the labor of the poor and the industry of the 
 farmer has been uj)set. All this while these honest, hard- 
 working men are made to believe themselves the richer 
 for this paper-money, until a great crisis comes, which 
 overwhelms the country in ruin. Only those bankers 
 and bank-directors, and bank-stockholders, retain unin- 
 jured their real estate, purchased out of the dividends 
 paid on their bank stocks ; and their wives continue to 
 wear diamonds. The working men, who are made to 
 pay the piper, are led to believe that the cause of the 
 last convulsion is all owing to something else than pajDcr- 
 money. Just before I left the world, one of these great 
 earthquakes commenced in my own native city ; and like 
 a wave, has circled round the globe ; and now can you 
 guess to what cause paper-money making men have attri- 
 buted all these monetary disasters ? I know you never 
 could guess, and so I will tell you ; it is all owuig to wives 
 and daughters wearing what is now called ' CrinoHne.' " * 
 
 * Appendix B. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 163 
 
 Calliste cauglit the frolicsome mood of Mrs. Jay, 
 and entered into the mirthfuluess of such a description 
 of a great revolution in the commercial world. In this, 
 Perpetua joined with the greatest zest and heartiness. 
 
 " Now I have told you of modern fashions, Calliste, 
 will you not tell me of the fashionable manners of your 
 day ? I have read Juvenal, and he certainly does not 
 flatter the ladies of Nero's court." 
 
 " He does not, Mrs. Jay ; but satirists are never safe 
 guides. Human society could not have been held to- 
 gether, had such vices as he has portrayed, pervaded all 
 circles of Roman life. What do you say, Perpetua?" 
 
 " Perpetua replied : "I cannot say what would have 
 been the condition of Pome, if Christ had not come 
 down from heaven to save the world. Certain it is, my 
 adopted city of Carthage presented ua strongest contrast 
 the power of faith to overcome the world, and the power 
 of fashion to enslave it." 
 
 "Dear Perpetua, will you not give us some illustra- 
 tions of this remark ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " Before Perpetua complies with your request, Mrs. 
 Jay, will you not tell me what you meant when you 
 spoke just now of 'railroad speed?' In my day we 
 likened speed to the flight of eagles and of falling stars ; 
 but what is now the superlative of speed ?" 
 
 " Sure enough, Calliste, this is all new to you. Well 
 then, the speed I spoke of is not quite ' up to time,' 
 when compared with falling stars, or even the eagle's 
 
164 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 flight. It is a very simple matter, as you will see. 
 Instead of your old Roman roads, which have been 
 revived in our great cities and are called 'Russ pave- 
 ments,' railroads are made by levelling the surface of the 
 land, and then iron rails are laid upon wooden logs. 
 Upon these rails long trains of cars are placed ; and at 
 the head of each train, instead of horses, we have now a 
 single iron-horse, propelled by water heated into steam. 
 This iron-horse drags hundreds of travellers and tons of 
 baggage, at the rate of thirty miles an hour, for days 
 and weeks together, stopping only for a drink of cold 
 water, once in a whUe." 
 
 " Iron horses and paper money ! O Perpetua, how 
 can you sit by and smile at my increduUty. What 
 next ?" 
 
 " What next ? why this ; the genius of Franklin and 
 Morse, countr}Tnen of mine, born within strikmg dis- 
 tance of each other, has brought down the Hghtning 
 from the clouds ; and what was once the symbol of the 
 power of Jove, now runs with messages of all sorts, from 
 one end of the continent to the other, and at the bidding 
 of everybody." 
 
 " Is it possible ! what mysteries, hid from the creation 
 of the woi'ld, has the genius of men eliminated ! After 
 all you have told me, Mrs. Jay, there is nothmg quite so 
 wonderful to me, as that men can make money out of 
 paper : money, which laj)idaries and jewellers will receive, 
 as of equivalent value, for pearls and diamonds." 
 
SCENES LN ANOTHEK WOKLD. 165 
 
 " That is, Oalliste, par excellence^ the mvention of the 
 present age ; suggested by Lombard Jews, and improved 
 upon by the Bank of Amsterdam, and subsequently 
 by the Bank of England ; but brought to its perfection 
 in my oy^n. day, by the clever men of North America. 
 Those old banking institutions of Euroi^e required nearly 
 as much gold to be paid to them as they made into 
 paper ; but the last j)erfection of American banking is, to 
 make paper money to any amount without the smallest 
 outlay of gold. You think that wonderful, Calliste ; but 
 to my mind the wonder is, that men of labor, those who 
 compose the millions of these sovereign States, consent 
 to give to a few astute rich men, by charter, the right to 
 plunder them of the rewards of their jDatient industry." 
 
 Mrs. Jay, now addressing Perpetua, begged her to 
 go on. 
 
 " What I had to say, my dear Mrs. Jay, was this : 
 that at the very time when the disciples of Christ in the 
 higher walks of life in Carthage were ready to lay down 
 their lives rather than deny the faith of Christ, they 
 would not deny themselves the luxuries of that luxurious 
 age. And to show you the temper of those times, when 
 Scapula, the Roman governor, in order to extirpate the 
 Church, threatened a renewal of tortures and death, 
 Tertullian addressed him a letter in these words : ' Be- 
 think thyself, Scapula! What wilt thou do with so 
 many thousand men and women, of every age and dig- 
 nity, as will freely offer themselves ? What SAVords wilt 
 
166 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 thou stand in need of? What is Carthage likely to suf- 
 fer, if decimated by thee ; when every one shall find 
 there his kindred and neighbors ; and if you shall see 
 matrons and men, perhaps of thine own rank and order ?' 
 "What words are these ! they show the highest enthu- 
 siasm i^revailing among the Christians of that day ; and 
 would you not, as a consequence, believe these matrons 
 above the love of dress and ornament ; whose hearts 
 were so full of glorious anticipations of a life with Christ, 
 that to them the crowns of earth would have become 
 baubles ?" 
 
 " Certainly I should," said Mrs. Jay. " I have always 
 thought that the great want of the present day was an 
 occasional auto-da-fe^ for the special benefit of Christ- 
 ians of all Protestant denominations ; at which some of 
 our most eminent pietists, clothed in ' the blessed yellow 
 vest of penitence,' with a cross on their breasts and 
 backs, painted all over with devils, could be burned uj^, 
 in proof of the perpetuity of the martyr spirit on earth, 
 and for the edification of the Church universal ; which I 
 beg Calliste to understand, is the antipodes of ' the Holy 
 Catholic Chu^rch,' as the Church of Rome calls herself. 
 
 " If you want me to comprehend you, Mrs. Jay," said 
 Calliste, " you must tell me something by way of exjDla- 
 nation of these axito-dar-fesP * 
 
 * Auto-da-fe, which being interpreted means an Act of Faith, was invented by 
 the Inquisition at Valladolid, in Spain, and was first celebrated on 21st of May, 
 1569, in the presence of tfee royal family. This procedure was made necessary 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 167 
 
 " Do you tell Calliste, St. Perpetua ; for Calliste, I see, 
 begins to distrust my entire fidelity in my replies to her 
 inquiries." 
 
 " Auto-da-Fe^ my Calliste, is the name of the mar- 
 tyrdom of heretics by the papal Church of Rome. 
 Heresy and heretics have a different signification now 
 than in the days of Hippolytus and Origen. These 
 words, at Rome, now embrace all Christians out of the 
 pale of the Romish church." 
 
 " And has the Church of Rome been guilty of perse- 
 cution, and to what extent ?" 
 
 says Llorente, Secretary of the Inquisition, in liis famous history, In consequence 
 of the arrest and trial of so great a number of Spaniards. This bonfire of the 
 disciples of Luther, was made of eminent men and women, and became quite 
 the fashion all over the world. It was first introduced on this continent in 
 Mexico, in 1574. Llorente says, " this fii-st auto-da-fe was celebrated with so much 
 pomp and splendor, that eye-witnesses have declared it could only be compared 
 to that at Valladolid, in 1559, at which Philip II. and the royal family attended." 
 The following is from Washington Irving's " Student of Salamanca," describing an 
 auto-da-fi, as given by Gonsalvius : 
 
 "The sound of bells gave notice that the dismal procession was advancing. It 
 passed slowly through the principal streets of the city, bearing in advance the 
 awful banner of the holy office. The prisoners walked singly, attended by their 
 confessors, and guarded by familiars of the Inquisition. They were clad in differ- 
 ent garments, according to the nature of their punishments ; those who were to 
 suffer death, wore the hideous samarra painted with flames and demons. The 
 procession was swelled by choirs of boys, different religious orders, aud public dig- 
 nitaries, and above all, by the Fathers of the faith, ' moving,' says Gonsalvius, 
 ' with a slow pace and profound gravity, truly such as becomes the principal 
 generals of that great victory.' " 
 
 Llorente says, " the number of those who perished cannot be determined." He 
 makes an approximate estimate, excluding Mexico, Lima, Carthagena, Sicily, and 
 Sardinia, and says the number of those burnt and condemned to severe penances 
 amounted to 828,862 men and women. * 
 
168 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " It is hard to tell," said Perpetua. " The lives lost ia 
 persecutions and religious wars carried on at the instiga- 
 tion of the papacy, extend through centuries and 
 cover the globe. The number has been estimated by 
 many millions of men, women and children." 
 
 " And you, Mrs. Jay, want these times of trial re- 
 stored!" 
 
 " Not exactly that ; but when I have seen the little 
 faith there was in the world about me, I have thought 
 if I was in danger of being burned up some day, it 
 would have a wonderful effect upon my character as a 
 Christian ; but here is Perpetua about to tell us that all 
 my speculations on this head are vain." 
 
 " I only wish to show you what I have before said is 
 true ; that the present age is in advance of all that has 
 preceded it, from the days of the apostles down ; and 
 although you have told us that the last gi-eat financial 
 convulsion has had its origin in the expensive fashions of 
 the women of the present age, I doubt if their luxuiy 
 begins to compare in costliness with the luxuries of the 
 second and third centuries. TertuUian, who has just 
 been cited, boasting of the devotedness of the saints, re- 
 proves the excessive love of finery in his day. He tells 
 us (I quote his words), 'A great estate is dra-Roi out of a 
 little pocket. It is nothing to exjjend many thousand 
 pounds upon a string of pearls,' and continuing in this 
 strain, with fine satire he says : ' a weak, slender neck can 
 make a shift to carry about whole forests and lordships.* 
 
SCENES nsr ajs^otiier world. IGi^ 
 
 And then the way our lady-folks managed their money 
 matters, was very much after that of modern times. He 
 says, ' Vast sums borrowed of the banker, and noted in 
 his account-book to be repaid every month with interest, 
 are weighed at the beam of a thin slender ear ;' and with 
 undiminished keenness of irony, he continues thus, ' So 
 great is the strength of their pride and ambition, that 
 even the feeble body of one woman shall be able to 
 carry the weight and substance of so many pounds taken 
 up at usury.' He tells us of a single row of pearls 
 which was valued at upwards of two hundred talents.* 
 In his work 'X>e Disciplina et Hahitu Virginum,^ he 
 gives us his views of abstaining from sumptuous apparel 
 and vain ornaments, from the use of paint and frequent 
 public baths ; and moderns may guess at the manners of 
 that day by his warnings and entreaties. There is no 
 circle of society now existing in England or the United 
 States where such exhortations as are here found Avould 
 not be regarded as offensive and excessively oiit of j^lace ; 
 and, for a modern illustration of the same sort, I might 
 add, the sermon which that eminent man of God, 
 Jonathan Edwards, preached at Northampton, in Massa- 
 chusetts, on fast day, about a century since." 
 
 " I am much more interested, Perpetua, in the flishions 
 and manners of the ladies in the martyr days of the 
 church, than I am of those in the Mildernesscs of New 
 
 * In the currency of the present day this sum is upwards of two hundred thou- 
 sand doUars. A vast sum to be represented by a necklace. 
 
170 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 England a hundred years ago ; and now I want you to 
 tell me something more of these ornaments. What was 
 then the style, and how were jewels worn ?" 
 
 " They were of diamonds, beryls and all manner of 
 precious stones. These were made into bracelets set in 
 gold ; and bandeaux for the hair consisting of gold, and 
 jewels and pearls ; and our costly suits of apparel were 
 wrought of golden tissues, embroidered vdth pearls." 
 
 " How superb must a splendid woman have looked in 
 her grand gala dress 1 And then your drapery all hung 
 in graceful folds, and not as is the fashion of the present 
 day, when these are almost obliterated by crinoline and 
 flounces. I have often thought how odd it would be to 
 have a statue of Queen Victoria perpetuated in marble 
 in the court dress of the present day. There is one 
 thins to be said in favor of the ladies of Rome and 
 Carthage ; if their dresses were costly, they were not, 
 like those of the ladies of my day, forever changing 
 — three dresses a day, made up in different styles, 
 trimmed with different ribbons and laces ; so that a lady 
 with a small family of daughters is nothing more than a 
 family costumer ; to say nothing of the wearisomeness 
 of shopping, buying a ribbon here, a jiair of gloves 
 there, and gaiter boots at another place, and a bonnet at 
 stUl another, in order to have all the colors of a dress in 
 perfect trim. Our costumes cannot be so splendid as 
 yours were, but I can see why they cost nearly as much 
 money." 
 
SCENES IN ANUTIIEK WOKLD. 171 
 
 *' Your ladies must be weary of a dress before they 
 put it on," said Calliste, who had been a good listener. 
 " I think, Perpetua, if I had made my dresses, or had 
 even the taSk of selecting them out of the variety of 
 fabi'ics of our day, I should have been content with few 
 changes of raiment." 
 
 "Was there not in those days, St. Perpetua, a large 
 number, of nuns, as they are called now, who had taken 
 vows renouncing the pomps, pride and vanities of this 
 life ; and were they like all the rest of the world ?" 
 
 St. Perpetua replied rather demurely : " And let me 
 ask, if there are not any number of young ladies of the 
 present day who take the same vows ; and further, if 
 they too are not like all the rest of the world ?" 
 
 "You hit very close, St. Perpetua; but then the 
 young ladies who take these vows now-a-days, have 
 husbands to win ; and I don't think it hardly fair for you 
 to put our vestals alongside of your virgins." 
 
 " You are right, Mrs. Jay," said Calliste. " Perpetua 
 has not taken into account the vast difference made by 
 the vow of celibacy. Now St. Paul himself, my Per- 
 petua, in his first epistle to Corinth, tells us that ' those 
 who are married care for the things of the world, how 
 they may please their husbands,' as if it was their 
 bounden duty so to do ; and if so, how much more will 
 a young girl care for those things, which are the means 
 of gaining one. Certainly then, Mrs. Jay has good 
 ground for her reply. For what had those women of 
 
172 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Rome and Carthage, your contemporaries, who had 
 taken the vows of ceUbacy, with wearing costly ap- 
 parel; whose slippers and sandals even, as St. Clement 
 tells us — and which we, Perpetua, very well know to be 
 true from our own observation — were adorned with gold 
 and precious stones. And besides, their chambers were 
 the very centres of luxury ; containing couches with 
 silver feet, bedsteads inlaid with ivory and gold, sur- 
 rounded with gold and purjjle hangings; and indeed, 
 crowded with rich furniture, and statuettes and pictures 
 of immense value ; to say nothing, Mrs. Jay, of their 
 love of pearls, peacocks, parrots and Maltese lap-dogs ; 
 and more, and what was far more unchristian, though 
 not so regarded in our day, their use of costly perfumes, 
 and the expenditure of large sums in the purchase of 
 beautiful boys." * 
 
 * This enumeration of luxuries is found in tlie EpisHes of Clement. Si. Clement 
 was very unlike the fasliionable preachers of our day. His address would be re- 
 garded as out-Spurgeon-ing Spurgeon. Exeter Hall would refuse to listen to such 
 home-thrusts as St. Clement gave his hearers. Speaking of this Jove of perfumes, 
 he says : " Christians should smell not of ointments, but virtue. As dogs trace 
 wild beasts by their scent, so may we trace the luxurious by their perfumes." An- 
 other of these old ministers of the fourth century, thus describes the scene pre- 
 sented in one of the then fashionable churches : " I went into one of the churches 
 and I heard Paul say to the women, that they should ' not adorn themselves with 
 gold and pearls' (1st Epistle to Timothy, xi. 9) ; but I saw everything contrary in 
 their practice. When one sees the women adorned in the galleries above, and 
 hears Paul thus speaking below ; will he not be able to say, our religion is a mere 
 show and fable ?" 
 
 It may interest some of my readers to know of the modes then practised by 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 173 
 
 " I am surprised," cried Mrs. Jay, " to be told your 
 fine ladies were so very like those of these latter days. 
 Lap-dogs ! why, these are now regarded as ' the super- 
 fluity of naughtiness,' and as for beautiful boys, that is 
 something we know nothing of. My wonder is, dear 
 saints, that with such luxury, there could have existed 
 the eminent piety which supplied martyrs for the ten 
 persecutions of the Caisars." 
 
 Perpetua replied, " This corrupt condition of social 
 life gave rise to a sentiment of utter despair of meeting 
 the demands of a hfe of holiness, and made Christians 
 anxious for the martyr's crown. It led, also, to the 
 rapid development of asceticism in the church. The 
 first of Christian hermits was Anthony, the Egyptian, 
 born 251. His example was made famous by Athana- 
 sius, and followed by multitudes. It spread like wild- 
 
 ladies to heighten their beauty. St. Cyprian tells us that the fallen angels taught 
 women to paint their cheeks, and draw circles of red round their eyes. His lan- 
 guage is very earnest. He says to the fine ladies of his church: "Are you not 
 afraid that when you rise from the dead your Maker will not know you ; and that 
 he will shut you out of heaven with this strong rebuke : ' You are none of my 
 work ; you have not my image ; you have stained your skin with drugs ; your 
 ha/ir is adulterated with dye; your face is disguised with falsehood ; your figure 
 is transformed ; your look is strange ;' you cannot see God, when your eyes are 
 not such as God made them, but are infected by the devil. You have followed 
 him ; you have imitated the red-colored eyes of the old serpent ; and having been 
 decked out by your enemy, you shall burn with him.' " 
 
 There is some pertinency in the reproduction of this testimony of so eminent a 
 saint, which certainly has some points of resemblance to our present fashions ; 
 and inasmuch as the mode of coloring the eyes, so severely stigmatized by this 
 venerable sain^, is said to be coming into vogue. 
 
174 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 fire from Egypt to Palestine and Syria, and before the 
 close of the fourth century, there was scarcely a moun- 
 tain in the eastern part of the Roman empire between 
 Armenia and Arabia without its Laura, or colony of 
 monks." * 
 
 " When Faustiuus and I last visited Carthage, it was 
 near the close of the fourth century. "We were horrified 
 by the condition of morals consequent on making celibacy 
 and not Christ the way to heaven ; and were disgusted 
 with the disgracefid methods by which questions of 
 extreme delicacy were concluded ; and now, then, what 
 has followed since our day ?" 
 
 Perpetua replied : " Separate communities of monks 
 and nuns became a necessity. The dogma of celibacy 
 once enunciated must be maintained. Men give up 
 everything sooner than their idols. The cry now is, as 
 when Micah followed in pursuit of the children of Dan, 
 ' Ye have taken away the gods which I have made, and 
 what have I more ?' The history of Monachism, which 
 you ask me to relate, would be painful even here ;" and 
 pausing a moment, Perpetua continued : " Woman has 
 ever been the victim of cruelty and crime. Girls of the 
 
 * The Fathers of the latter half of the fourth century, considered these arid 
 deserts as a heaven upon earth. " Go, now," says Chrysostom, " to the desert of 
 Egypt, and you will find it more delightful than paradise, for there are ten thou- 
 sand choirs of angels in human form." Epiphanius said of them : " The monasteries 
 are like tabernacles, full of heavenly choirs, singing psalms, reading and praying. S 
 'Fathers of the Desert,' vol. ii. p. 128. St. Augustine describes some of the monks 
 of the desert as hideous for their ugliness and nastiness. Saints in that age, even, 
 saw the bame things in very different lights. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 176 
 
 present day, who liave the misfortune to be educated by 
 nuns, are taught to look upon married life as degrading; 
 and certain it is, that such girls, educated in convents, 
 are utterly woilhless as wives and mothers. Indeed, so 
 deeply has this truth been burnt into the souls of men 
 in Catholic countries, that it is a Roman proverb — ' Do 
 you want a faithless wife ? Marry a girl brought up at a 
 nunnery.' " * 
 
 " Alas ! to what a wretched condition has the world 
 come ! Kome, no more the mistress of the world, and 
 the Church of Christ a prey to wolves in sheep's cloth- 
 ing ! What a contrast to our hopes fourteen centuries 
 since, Perpetua !" 
 
 " Do not despair of the Church of Christ, my Calliste," 
 said Perpetua. " That lives, and will Hve, while thrones 
 and empires are passmg away." 
 
 "What a worthless sacrifice of human happiness," said 
 Mrs. Jay, " have these great fathers of the chnrch 
 inflicted upon the world, and what untold and unappre- 
 ciable misery Save they inflicted upon our sex, by the 
 institution of these convents. But what astonishes me 
 most of all is, that in the United States of North 
 America, a land peopled by men who left their homes 
 because of oppression, and to secure to their children 
 freedom of conscience, that Romish convents are built 
 
 * See a work entitled, " Nuns and Nunneries : Slcetches compiled entirely from 
 Komish authorities, pp. 2-12-273. London, 1S52." Will no American publisher 
 bring out this hook ? 
 
176 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 in every State, and schools maintained in them for the 
 education of Protestant girls, and are patronized by men 
 who claim to be Protestants. Such is the enmity of the 
 hearts of these fathers and mothers to the reUgion of 
 Christ, that they hazard the happiness of their children 
 for this world and the world to come, ' to show their 
 superiority to prejudices of education !' The history of 
 Europe, and the condition of Catholic Italy and Spain, 
 and of sensual, infidel and Catholic France, at the 
 present day, reads them no lessons ; nor even the sad 
 history of many homes of our own land, robbed of their 
 children, who have been beguiled to become nuns. 
 Nothing can reach the hearts and consciences of such, 
 so-called Protestants. The most astoundmg develop- 
 ments are met with indifference. And all the while, 
 they are so jealous of forcible and illegal confinement, 
 that lunatics even are visited in their asylums once a 
 year by the governors of States and the councU of state, 
 to see if any one sane person is unjustly deprived of 
 liberty. And yet convents are allowec? to exist, and 
 no one doubts that great cruelty is exercised to poor 
 nims, heavy chastisements inflicted, and death itself; but 
 these poor, weak, pious women, who have been lured 
 into these Bastiles of religious despotism, hoping to 
 escape from cruel parents, or the misery of u^nrequited 
 love, are left without the faintest hope of escape, 
 to die of their unspoken sorrows and unredressed 
 wrongs." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 177 
 
 " My dear lady !" cried Calliste, interrupting Mrs, 
 Jay ; " wliy does not the Christian church cry out in a 
 voice of thunder against such unspeakable cruelty ?" 
 
 " Cry out, indeed !" replied Mrs. Jay. " Why one half 
 of the Christian church is democratic, and the other half 
 is republican — these being the two great political parties 
 of our country. Now all the Romanists side Avith the 
 democracy, and if a case occurs of a nun who has 
 escaped from her prison-house, and she dares to tell the 
 story of her wrongs and wretchedness, she is defamed 
 by half the presses m the country, and the other half so 
 feebly defend her, that she is treated as a castaway, and 
 her last state is often worse than her first. The priests 
 are powerful ; they have money, and they use it on all 
 such occasions, with great sagacity and success. This 
 treatment of nuns who have escaped from their convents 
 and sought to return to society, and who have been 
 hunted doMTi by calumny, and thus left without sympa- 
 thy and countenance of those who call themselves pro- 
 tcstants, has silenced others, who in a happy hoitr have 
 achieved their liberty. These escaped mms have won 
 an immunity from persecution, by the most entire silence 
 of the secrets of their convents." 
 
 " And your coimtry is a free republic !" said Calliste. 
 " What strange contrasts and contradictions continue to 
 exist, my Perpetua ! Here is a land of freedom, where 
 the greatest jealousy exists as to personal liberty, as is 
 shown in the treatment of the insane, and yet convents 
 
 p* 
 
178 TUE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 exist which no magistrate can entei* ! I am greatly 
 mystified by such contradictions." 
 
 " It is in all respects as Mrs. Jay has told us," replied 
 Perpetua. " The strangest anomalies exist in that coun- 
 try on this subject. The fashionable mothers, those 
 especially whose fortunes have been speedily created, 
 are greatly taken by such romantic names as the Roman- 
 ists adopt for their semmaries. The building is of wood, 
 or brick, or stone, and like all academies, but then it is 
 styled — '•Ladies of the Sacred Hearty'' '■The Academy 
 of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin.,'' ' Carmelite 
 Sisters'' Academy., ' Soeurs Notre Dame,'' and the like. 
 These mothers, who are conscious of their incompetency 
 for training their children for the fashionable cLrcles to 
 which they themselves aspire, and which they hope to 
 reach on bringing out their lovely daughters, send these 
 dear ones to have their manners formed by nuns who 
 have no knowledge of either life or manners. It is very 
 odd, but so it is." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, Perpetua," said Mrs. Jay. " How is it 
 you are so well-informed, Perpetua? Have you been 
 recently in the United States ?" 
 
 " No, I have not ; but one of my descendants, who 
 was with me some years since, was educated at Era- 
 mittsburg, a,nd from her I derived a full account of 
 w. at is passing in American convents and in American 
 8 ciety." 
 
 " What can be done, Perpetua, and who is to do it ? 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 179 
 
 I mean to ask, How sliall the mind of my countrymen be 
 reached to induce them by law to open these dark habi- 
 tations of cruelty ?" 
 
 " It is a question of vast interest, and one upon which 
 I have speculated with the deepest anxiety. I had 
 hopes that a wise, cautious and courteous movement was 
 about to be made in the Legislature of ]\fassachusett8 
 some little while since ; but how happened it ? A com- 
 mittee of vulgar, sensual and corrupt men was appointed 
 to make an examination of certain Romanist seminaries, 
 and they disgraced themselves and the State, and post- 
 poned the action of the public mind in this matter for a 
 century perhaps." 
 
 " Oh, it was horribly disgraceful !" exclaimed Mrs. 
 Jay, " and it was a great triumph for the Roman party. 
 Politics pollute everything in our country, and it is this 
 that makes the difficulty, Massachusetts owes it to the 
 world to recommence the effort, and if there are any men 
 of high moral standing in the legislature, to place them 
 in the position to act." 
 
 Perpetua shook her head. " Such men are rare every- 
 where; and men of high moral courage, willing to 
 become martyrs for the cause of humanity, are not likely 
 to be found in the halls of modern legislatures. The 
 cause of woman must be advocated by Christian women. 
 They must petition the legislatures of the several States, 
 with a paper carefully prepared, and which shall pre- 
 scribe all the steps to be taken, and alj the course to be 
 
180 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 pursued ; not leaving a single point to be decided by 
 political hucksters, who will not fail to mar by their 
 amendments the work to be done, and so defeat the 
 movement." 
 
 " And, Perpetua, what ought women to do ? pray, be 
 more specific," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " With pleasure. I would have a bill carefully di-awn 
 in the form of a jDctition, praying that the governor and 
 his council shall, once a year, or oftener at his option, 
 and without previous notice, visit every convent and 
 monastery in the State. Their position would insure 
 society that such investigations Avould be made Avith all 
 refinement compatible wdth the end to be attained. 
 Each recluse, male and female, should be had alone 
 before the governor and council, in a room where they 
 should be exammed without any possibility of being 
 overheard, and the replies should be made in writing. 
 These nuns and monks should be assured of protection 
 from all harm. It should be a provision of law that a 
 register of the inmates should be kept. All penances 
 inflicted and the oifences thus punished should be regis- 
 tered ; and this record should be placed before the 
 governor and his council, to aid them in their scrutiny. 
 In case of the death of a recluse, an inquest should be 
 held by the coroner, aided by one or more of the lead- 
 ing medical faculty as jurymen, whose report should be 
 registered in the convent and then sent to the governor. 
 In case of cruelty or unjust imprisonment, the Superior 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 181 
 
 and all of her accessories, should be punishable as other 
 criminals, by due process of law. Now, my dear Mrs. 
 Jay, who can doubt, if this shield of pi'otection were 
 thrown over women in convents, much misery would be 
 prevented. And why is not this sliield interposed ? only 
 because the hearts of American women have not been 
 roused to the condition of theii* suffering sisters in bon- 
 dage." 
 
 " You sjieak, Perpetua, with a tone of rebuke, as if 
 this was a triumph that could be achieved by a single 
 impulse of the womanhood of my country. Who is to 
 give the impulse ?" 
 
 " God knows ! I cannot tell. It may commence with 
 any one woman competent to place this matter in proper 
 form. That is the great matter. This done, then let 
 all the women agitate. Let every church send its j^eti- 
 tion. Let every circle of friends send a petition, and 
 every neighborhood — not once, but for a series of 
 sessions of their several State legislatures — and let such 
 an act be passed, and one of the results will be the sud- 
 den removal of these convents from State to State, and 
 when such laws are created and enforced in every 
 State, finally they avUI remove across the Canada line on 
 the north, and that of Mexico on the south." 
 
 " ' That is a consummation devoutly to be Avished,' and 
 I think if those who have so much to say about the dan- 
 gers of the Roman priesthood in controlling the elections 
 of our country Avould take this view of this question, it 
 
182 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Blight at once enlist the attention of the presses of " The 
 American Party,' so-called." 
 
 " I hope it never may, then," said Perpetua, " for if 
 ever this movement can be successful, it must come from, 
 the pure well of woman's sympathy for woman, and not 
 out of the miserable motives which defile American 
 statesmanship of the present day." 
 
 Calliste rose and exclaimed, " What dismal topics we 
 have had for our first call upon Mrs. Jay ! Come, now, 
 suppose we ascend mto the clouds and take a survey of 
 the world below us ?" 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 183 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Bt. Perpetua, Calliste and Mrs. Jay rise into the Air and sweep over the Country, 
 alighting to visit attractive Pleasure Grounds — Perpetua's Remarks on English 
 Manners— The Villa of Anastasius — Frankie Guilford and her Music Lesson — 
 Her Account of Herself and Studies — Emerentia welcomes our Party to her 
 Villa — The Music Hall— New Music by Beethoven— Mrs. Jay sings some Airs, 
 "Native" to good Society in New York — Their Visit to the Studio — Perpetua and 
 her Party remain to Supper — Conversation at the Table— They take Leave of 
 the Family of Anastasius — Evening Scenes at the Palace— Mrs. Jay contrasts the 
 Appearance of the Saloons with a Grand Party of her own — Mrs. Jay's Difference 
 between Ancient and Modern Martyrdom —They join Sulpicius Severus and 
 St. Hedwiges— St. Chrysostom's Opinion of Modern Monkery— Of the Origin of 
 Asceticism. 
 
 With the graceful movement of angels on the wing, 
 Perpetua, Calliste and Mrs. Jay rose into the air from 
 off the balcony of the palace, and sweeping over the 
 surface of the country, engaged in happy converse, they 
 enjoyed the ever-varpng landscape. Sometimes they 
 alighted to admire a classic miniature Temple of the 
 Winds which adorned an extensive lawn, or to examine a 
 nicely-trimmed and well-kept garden, ornamented with 
 gruups of statuary. Wherever they alighted they wore 
 welcomed with smiles of courtesy. There were no dis- 
 
184 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 mal signs of civilization — " Man-traps set here," warning 
 them to keep out of harm's wayf No fierce bull-dogs 
 with their hideous faces and crooked legs, chained at 
 the gates of entrance into parks and pleasure-grounds, 
 a terror to all visitors, and a warning to all vagrants. 
 No formal landholder, with his proud lady and her pert 
 daughters to stand aside when strangers drew near, ^dth 
 a look of inquiry, as if to say, " What impertinence is 
 this that hrmgs you here ?" or, when this was not the 
 feeling expressed, then the dubious stare, whether to 
 cringe in base servility, or to wear a frowning hauteur. 
 
 A manor-house, as it would be called in England, hid 
 amid a grove of splendid shade-trees, lay beneath them. 
 It wore such an air of elegance and comfort, as well as 
 of opvilence, that Perpetua proposed they should de- 
 scend and make the acquaintance of the family. To 
 this, Calliste and Mrs. Jay gladly assented. As they 
 entered within the open gates, Perpetua, with a smile, 
 said to Mrs. Jay : " How happy it is for us that we are 
 not thiis straying into the park of some proud English 
 gentleman. I have known a well-dressed party to be 
 warned to quit premises of this sort, with as httle 
 courtesy as if they had been gipsies." 
 
 As they drew near the house, they discovered a group 
 of lovely girls sitting on couches beneath the pillared 
 portico, with music-books in their hands, in the height 
 of merriment. The party consisted of three girls, of 
 about twelve, fifteen and sixteen years, dressed Avith the 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 185 
 
 grace and teauty Avhicli characterizes the higher walks 
 of social life upon this globe ; and a young lady of 
 twenty, wearing the robes and halo of humortality, 
 whose lovely face and bright eyes beamed with glad- 
 ness. The children were clustered around this young 
 lady, and their mei'ry laugh made the sweetest miisic. 
 So soon as our party were discovered coming up the 
 shaded walk leading to the main entrance, they all rose ; 
 and advancing with a grace and buoyancy of manner, 
 which in itself created in the mind of Mrs. Jay a sense 
 of exquisite pleasure, they hastened to welcome their 
 approach. 
 
 The young lady first presented herself to Perpetua, as 
 one who had been known on earth as Miss Frankie Guil- 
 ford ; and then Perpetua, having introduced Calljste and 
 Mrs. Jay, was herself presented by Calliste. This done, 
 the young girls were in like manner introduced. 
 
 After they had entered the grand saloon and were 
 seated, the young ladies nestled aroimd tlie shining one 
 with the sweet solicitude of those whose love made 
 nearness essential to hapjDiness. Perpetua began the 
 conversation by apologizing for interrupting their mirth. 
 Frankie, with her bright laughing eyes, replied, " I must 
 explain to you the cause for such an explosive laugh as 
 we were all enjoying at the moment. I am one of the 
 few of earth who are born without a love for melody. 
 I might have had the germ of music developed in me, 
 but my attempts to sing were so odd as to provoke tlio 
 
186 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 laughter of those about me, until I ceased to make the 
 effort, and grew up into the belief that because 'I had 
 no ear for music,' I had no soul for music, and thus I 
 lived on till my short life ended. 
 
 " On reaching the celestial city, I soon discovered my 
 great want of aU knowledge of the science of music ; 
 for though my soul was on fire while the songs of the 
 Redeemed arose in the vast congregation, yet I could 
 not sing. It was my happiness to be sent here under 
 conduct of my angel, who placed me in this beloved 
 family to be instructed by these dear children, and so be 
 made fit for the circles of the Redeemed. Now I can 
 read the notes with the facility of printed letters, and 
 the science of music is rapidly opening itself to me, so 
 that I am becoming quite at home in the exercises of the 
 grammar of music, but this matter of singing is not so 
 easily attained. And my singing-lessons are an unfail- 
 ing source of mirthfulness. I practice the scales, and 
 when I make a slide they slide into smiles, and just now 
 I had made my first burst into a bravura, whereupon 
 my teachers, taken all by surprise, found relief in inex- 
 tinguishable laughter ; and I joined in the laugh. I do 
 not get Qn very rapidly, but I do not know how I could 
 be happier." 
 
 " Sister Frankie does herself great injustice," said the 
 eldest girl, who was seated with her arm around her 
 waist. "Her j^rogress in the science of music, so full 
 as it is of occult laws of sound and the sublimities of 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 187 
 
 mathematical science, she has made almost at a hound, so 
 that her teacher has often expressed his pleasure and sur- 
 prise at her sldU and success. It is only with regard to 
 the discipline of the voice to which she has not yet 
 attained." 
 
 " I am sure, Miss Frankie, that you have made good 
 progress," said Perpetua. 
 
 " Yes, I do succeed surprisingly well. This is my own 
 consciousness ; and then my patience is only surpassed 
 by the loving persistency of these sweet sisters of mine. 
 I tell them that by and by I shall enjoy my new-found 
 capacities far more than I could have done had I too 
 been born to the full appreciation of harmony." 
 
 "Certainly, Miss Frankie," replied Perpetua, "the 
 law of compensation is miiversal. Let me ask, ^are you 
 doing nothing more than studying music ?" 
 
 " Oh yes ! I have various masters who come to give 
 me lessons in art, science, literature and languages. I 
 have no idle hours here. But then there is such a joy 
 in study in this life of ours. All we have attained in 
 our past life is at our command, and my past acquire- 
 ments aid me immensely in my present studies. Then, 
 too, the perfection of our mental power, in seizing a 
 new idea ; its widest generalizations come into the miiid 
 with such rapidity as to seem an intuitive perception of 
 truth. Then we have here such happy changes of intel- 
 lectual labor. I go from mathematics to painting in the 
 studio, and thence to the garden to study botany, 
 
188 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 thence to the gorges and moimtams for pebbles to aid. 
 me in my lessons in mineralogy, and last of all, come 
 my lessons in singing, when these dear girls assume the 
 very responsible task of teachers." 
 
 " Have you no sense of weariness ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " Far fi'om it," replied Frankie, Tv^th flashing eyes of 
 joy ; " delightful as are our visions of the night, I wake 
 with eager delight to reach some far distant point in the 
 illimitable range of mathematics which had just made 
 its appearance in the mind's horizon on yesterday, or it 
 may be of some other of the various branches of know- 
 ledge which fill the soul with ever growing conscious- 
 ness of the T^dsdom and love of God — the source of 
 all life, all beauty, and all wisdom ; and I, saved by the 
 death of Christ !" * 
 
 "I congratulate you. Miss Frankie," said Mrs. Jay, 
 " that you have been led to begin at the beginning from 
 the very day-dawn of immortal life. But in my own 
 case, I felt the trammels of society so great, that when I 
 
 * Babbage, in his Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, says, " If, in a future state, we 
 could turn from the contemplation of our own imperfections, anfl with increased 
 powers apply our minds to the discovery of nature's laws, and to the invention 
 of new methods by which our faculties might be aided in that research, pleasure 
 the most unalloyed would await us at every stage of our progress. Unclogged by 
 the dull corporeal load which tyrannizes even over our most intellectual moments, 
 and chains the ardent spirit to its unkindred clay, we should advance in the pur- 
 suit, stimulated instead of wearied by our past exertions, and encountering each 
 new difficulty in the inquiry, with the accumulated power derived from the experi- 
 ence of the past, and with the irresistible energy resulting from the confidence of 
 ultimate success."— Chapter xiv. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 189 
 
 found myself free of earth, I was possessed of a wish 
 to enjoy the Avidest range of my new-found liberty. 
 Sweeping from sphere to sphere, I have been coasting 
 along the shores of creation, glad to be alone with God. 
 I have not lost all my time in so doing ; for I have gained 
 grand conceptions of the power of my heavenly Father, 
 who has impressed his Almightiness upon all his works. 
 But I may have made a mistake, Miss Frankie, in not 
 following your example," 
 
 " I do not know whether I have done wisely or not," 
 replied Frankie ; " but I have been perfectly contented 
 here, and have not now a single wish ungratified." 
 
 " Is it possible that you have not been tempted to 
 ascend to these bright spheres above us?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " I have thought, at times, that I Avould do so, but 
 then these sweet friends of mine have looked sad when 
 I have talked of leaving them ; and as I have but little- 
 time to spend with them, I never have put forth the 
 exercise of my wiU to leave this villa for a single hour. 
 Sometimes when we are walking, and a flower is seen 
 growing at a height not approachable on foot, I rise to 
 gather it ; and this done, I retui*n to the ground and 
 have almost forgotten my powers of will." 
 
 " From what part of the earth do you come ?" asked 
 Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " I was born and brought up in the State of Connecti- 
 cut, within sight of Long Island Sound, the lullaby of 
 whose waves, in my childhood, sang me to rest." 
 
190 THIi GATES WIDK OPEN; OR, 
 
 " You have a lovely home," said Perpetua, bowing to 
 Frankie. "And what are the names of the proprietors 
 of this villa and the parents of these dear children ?" 
 
 Frankie replied, " They are known as Anastasins and 
 Erementia, whose domains are quite extensive, as you 
 may have seen. Anastasius holds these lands from his 
 forefathers through many centuries, and is sedulous to 
 leave them in a more perfect state than when he received 
 them. His only son is now with hun overlooking the 
 labors of the peasantry, whose lovely cottages, covered 
 with climbing flowers, must have attracted your atten- 
 tion." 
 
 While Frankie was thus speaking, a lady of forty, 
 in the full maturity of woman's beauty, in a splendid 
 toilet, swept into the room, and was presented by 
 Frankie to her guests. The amenity of this lady's 
 address was so beautiful as to arrest and absorb the 
 attention of Mrs. Jay. She had never witnessed any 
 thing to compare with it. Seating herself beside St. 
 Perpetua, Erementia made her acknowledgments for 
 the distinguished honor of her visit, and continued the 
 conversation by asking after certain eminent persons 
 resident at the palace, known to St. Peri^etua. And 
 this ended, she sj^oke of the oration of St. Chrysostom, 
 which she had had the happiness of hearing. And being 
 requested by Perpetua, she gave a most skillful analysis 
 of the argument, repeating with entire accuracy, and 
 perfect elocution, certain passages of striking eloquence 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 191 
 
 which had sunk into her heart, Mrs. Jay all the while 
 gazing and listening as one charmed. She had seen the 
 graceful manners of the Redeemed, and of the peoi»le at 
 the great oratorio, and of the servitors of the palace, but 
 here was her ideal of womanly grace and intellectual 
 culture. Having finished her remarks ahout St. Chry- 
 sostom, Erementia expressed her satisfaction that her 
 flimily had been so highly distinguished as to be selected 
 for the residence of one of the Redeemed, and of the 
 unceasing interest she and her husband and children 
 took in Frankie, and m the cultivation of her intel- 
 lect. 
 
 " I have all reason to believe it is so," said Frankie ; 
 " and it is so strange that beings so vastly superior to 
 me in all that I am now constituted to love, should see 
 in me anything to move them to admiration ; but it Is 
 not me they admire, but the grace of God that has 
 clothed me in the robes of Christ's righteousness. And 
 this it is that makes me happy to be so loved as I am by 
 these gifted friends and their loved children." 
 
 One of the girls, standing at the side of the chair 
 occupied by Frankie, leaned forward, and placing her 
 arm round Frankie's neck, kissed her on the forehead, 
 and said in a low tone, " Why need you ask, dearest 
 Frankie, what prompts us to love you, so you are loved? 
 We do not seek to know what impels us, but are unceas- 
 ingly happy in loving you." 
 
 "Yes, Bwect one," said Frankie, returning her em- 
 
192 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 brace, "but such thoughts in my heart increase my 
 apprehension of the love of God and Christ towards 
 me, thus enhancing, inexpressibly, my joy in your 
 love." 
 
 " Oh, then it shall be so forever !" cried the dear girl, 
 again kissing Frankie, her hand stUl resting upon 
 Frankie's shoulder, from the simple love ol having it 
 there. 
 
 The father and his son, a youth of twenty, entered 
 the saloon, and were welcomed by his lady wath charm- 
 ing courtesy. She then presented them to our party 
 with all her characteristic grace of manner, to the admi- 
 ration of Mrs. Jay, who was busy thinking how much the 
 happiness of life may be enhanced by a careftil attention 
 to the sweet charities of courtesy and kindly tones of 
 voice ; and of the negligence of husbands and wives and 
 children to each other on earth, and how much of heart- 
 felt happiness was thus lost. 
 
 Anastasius at once entered into easy conversation with 
 his guests. His son seated himself by Mrs. Jay, and 
 was soon absorbed, listening to all she had to tell him of 
 her impressions of the world of art. While they were 
 thus occupied, the circle broke up ; Perpetua and Ere- 
 mentia going into a long gallery of paintings and statu- 
 ary, and Calliste and Anastasius into a conservatory 
 filled with rare plants ; not only of this world, but various 
 plants raised from seeds sent to him by his father and 
 mother in the far-off world, where they now resided, and 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 193 
 
 wliich liacl been bronglit Ly angels rcturnnig to this 
 world. The girls with Frankie returned soon to the 
 saloon, and gathered around Mrs. Jay. Frankie felt a 
 great interest in one so recently from her native land, 
 and from a city so well known to her, and which she had 
 often visited. Then, too, there w^as somethmg attractive 
 in Mrs. Jay to Frankie, Avhich made all she said a source 
 of amusement and interest to herself and the. children. 
 Returning with his lady, Perpetua, and Caliste to the 
 mansion, Anastasius invited our friends to go mtli him 
 and his family up into his music hall, and listen to some 
 new compositions of the illustrious Beethoven, which 
 they had recently brought home with them from the 
 metropolitan city. This proposal was gladly assented to 
 by Mrs. Jay, who at once rose, greatly to the regret of 
 her happy auditors, who were all absorbed by the tale 
 she was teUing of her early days. This was broken off 
 most inopportunely, but it could not be helped. She 
 had already so Avon the hearts of the youngest girls that 
 they accompanied her up the grand staircase with their 
 hands held in hers, making many fond entreaties for her 
 to stay with them and Frankie. 
 
 Anastasius called to his children to take their places, 
 w^hich they did with alacrity, while he led Erementia to 
 a magnificent harp. The beauty of the jjerformance 
 was forgotten in the exquisite tones of their united 
 voices. INIrs. Jay thought she caught something of 
 Adelaide in this composition. It M^as full of the genius 
 
 9 
 
194 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 of the great master, and held our party absorbed and 
 delighted. When this was ended, the girls and brother 
 sang a quartette, Erementia playing for her children 
 an accompaniment. Perpetua said, "That must be 
 Haydn's;" when the youngest girl, running to her 
 mother and throwing her arms around her neck, as she 
 sat at the harp, exclaimed, " Oh no ! it is mother's." 
 Erementia left her instrument, and begged Perpetua to 
 sing for them some of the songs of Carthage ; which she 
 did, accomj)anying herself on the harp. Calliste was then 
 called upon for a song ; and without rising she sang some 
 sweet melodies which she said were native to the world 
 from whence she had so recently returned. Anastasius 
 next begged Mrs. Jay to sing some of her native songs. 
 
 " My native songs !" exclaimed Mrs. Jay. " I came 
 from a land as yet without music. I was next neighbor 
 to Frankie. She Uved in Connecticut, and I in New 
 York. We import all our music from abroad, as we do 
 our silks and satins. We have some negro melodies 
 which may be called native airs, sung by the slaves of 
 the south, in the corn-fields, with Httle other effect than 
 to scare away the crows. But that I may not seem 
 imwilling to contribute my share to our musical enter- 
 tainment, I will accompany myself on the hai*p and do 
 my best to sing airs native now to the circles of good 
 society ' up-town.' " 
 
 And with a degree of skill which outside the world 
 of art would have been regarded admirable, Mrs. Jay 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 195 
 
 sang "Ah non giiinge," from Som?iambula, and "Qui la 
 voce," from Furitani. She then was about to rise, 
 when the young ladies begged so earnestly, that she 
 reseated herself, and sang " Salut a la France," " Quando 
 il destino," from the Child of the JRegiment^ and 
 " Robert, toi que j'aime," from Robert le Diahle. 
 
 " These are some of the popular airs from the operas 
 of the day when I left," said Mrs. Jay as she rose from 
 the harj"), 
 
 Anastasius was very kind in his acknowledgments, and 
 Erementia expressed her thanks in her accustomed 
 graceful manner ; as for the young folks, they were 
 e^ddently greatly taken with this lady so fresh from earth. 
 
 Perpetua now proposed that they should return to the 
 Palace, and invited Frankie to return with them for the 
 night. " We have a reception of our near neighbors 
 this evening, and are promised visits from some very 
 distinguished persons from the Metropolis. I thmk as 
 you have never been to this one of our ' many mansions,' 
 you will see it now under very happy auspices." 
 
 Perpetua's movement was met by entreaties to pro- 
 long their visit so far as to share the family repast. 
 Now it is fitting to say here, that eating and drinking 
 M'ith the Redeemed is no longer a necessity, but, 
 as Math those angels who dined with Abraham, 
 it is optional. And these repasts are now a bond of 
 union, enlivened by wit and anecdote, and enriched by 
 the various knowledge of the cii'cle. 
 
196 THE GATES WIDE OPEX; OR, 
 
 Frankie united her earnest entreaties, and it was 
 agreed by Perpetiia and her friends to stay, with the 
 understanding that they should leave immediately after 
 the feast was over. This done, the girls took possession 
 of Mrs. Jay and Frankie, whom they led to their studio, 
 where it was their custom to work two hours every day 
 with their masters at their several studies. One had a 
 picture begun, another was moulding a flower girl, and 
 the eldest had a statue of Frankie in marble, blocked 
 out by her master, which she was now bringing into its 
 perfect shape by her mallet and chisels, and various files. 
 They all expressed their delight in their labors, and hav- 
 ing sho"vvTi Mrs. Jay their works, they drew aside a cur- 
 tain, very much against the will of Frankie, who sought 
 .to prevent them, and there was revealed Frankie's first 
 attempt with the pencil. It would have been regarded 
 in any studio on earth a very clever picture ; but after 
 the eye had been satiated with splendors of design and 
 color in the gallery of Anastasius, it certainly did wear 
 the marks of the brush of the sign-post pamter rather 
 than the pencil of an artist. Mrs. Jay honestly ex- 
 pressed her full faith that Frankie would, in due time, 
 become quite as eininent an artist in painting as in music. 
 This doubtful compUment drew forth a burst of laughter, 
 in which Frankie led the way with the highest satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 They were called by a servant to return to the house, 
 and found the host and hostess awaiting them with their 
 
SCENES TN ANOTHER WORLD. 197 
 
 guests to go to tlie sapper-rooni, where the banquet was 
 all prepared. It was a room of rare niagnificenco, and 
 the vases for fruit and grapes were of singular beauty, 
 Ava-ought of gold and of porcelain — a pottery which would 
 have astonished and delighted even Bernard Palissy. 
 The repast was purely ante-diluvian, aud the delicious 
 fruit might well be called " angel's food." The enter- 
 tainment of the palate, however, was not comparable to 
 the pleasures of their social converse. Erementia told 
 some very pretty talcs of her birds. This led Calliste to 
 tell of the splendor of the birds of her new Avorld, and 
 their habits, which 'were full of Avonders. Anastasius 
 made many inquiries as to the electrical changes of 
 atmosphere in that globe, but Calliste confessed she did 
 not kuoAV the meaning of the word. Tliis Avas explained, 
 and she gave a description, glowing and graphic, of the 
 sun-sets, and the skies both by day aud night in that 
 AA'orkl, and next, of the gradual development of that ncAV 
 race of beings ; and thus it Avas that the hours flcAV until 
 the stars began to glitter, Avhen tliey rose from the table 
 and passing through the hall stepped out upon the por- 
 tico. The girls clung to Frankie as Perpctua rencAved 
 her invitation for her to spend the night Avith her at the 
 palace. 
 
 " I think we must leave," said Mrs. Jay, " for I have 
 an intuition that my friend Peter Schlemihl has re- 
 turned, and is noAV searching for me." 
 
 "Peter Schlcmilil!" cried Frankie, breakmg away 
 
198 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 from tlie young ladies and laying her hand upon Mrs. 
 Jay's arm ; " which Peter do you speak of — the German 
 Peter Schlemihl, or ' Peter Schlemihl in America ?' " 
 
 "Peter Schlemihl in America," replied Mrs. Jay. 
 " Pray, tell me, do you know him ?" 
 
 " Know him ! why he is my dear friend Peter," replied 
 Frankie, her bright eyes beaming with joy. 
 
 " Is it so ? Now you will go home with us and meet 
 him there. How glad he will be to see you and receive 
 your congratulations, that he who was shadowless, boot- 
 less and homeless is now at home with every wish of his 
 soul satisfied." 
 
 Frankie stood in doubt. The children begged her to 
 send word to her friend Peter to come to see her ; and 
 the eldest girl, with a modest, roguish air, in a low tone 
 of voice, suggested that it was not ladyUke for Frankie 
 to go in search of her gentlemen friends. This pro- 
 voked a general mirthfulness, and Frankie declared it 
 was due to the gallantry of all worlds that a lady should 
 be sought. She, however, obtained a promise from Mrs. 
 Jay, that she would certainly bring him with her at no 
 distant day. 
 
 Anastasius and his lady, with that beautiful air of 
 entire sincerity which is so winning when it is felt to 
 spring from the depths of the soul, begged St. Perpetua, 
 CaUiste and Mrs. Jay to bring Frankie's friend, and to 
 confer upon them the high gratification of their society ; 
 not for so short a time as now, but for days and months. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 199 
 
 It Wfis with many loving courtesies they left, rising rap- 
 idly into the upper regions of the air, until they saw 
 with the space-penetrating glance of angelic vision, the 
 distant, illuminated domes of the palace, for which they 
 sped their way, reaching the grand entrance as the 
 chimes of the great temple sounded the hour of ten. 
 
 Their first purpose was to find their friends ; Calliste 
 went in search of Faustinus, and Perpetua kept Mrs. 
 Jay company in looking after Laurens and Schlemihl. 
 In so doing, they promenaded tlie halls, saloons and 
 porticos of the palace, which were filled with guests and 
 residents ; some walking, others stood in groups convers- 
 ing. Within the saloons, were companies of the Re- 
 deemed and their visitors, occupied in various ways. In 
 one saloon they were singing some glorious quartettes. 
 In another they were all listenmg to an eminent elocu- 
 tionist repeating a new Epic by Milton, a poem recently 
 brought out by him, and which was already winging its 
 flight across the wide plains of space, borne by angels 
 and the Redeemed, to be recited by them, as now, to 
 beings fitted to appreciate its sublimity. 
 
 They thus strolled along the halls and upon the bal- 
 conies, looking into the rooms for their truant friends, 
 until they were satisfied they were not to be found. 
 IMrs. Jay could not but remark to Perpetua, the contrast 
 of which she was conscious, between the crowded par- 
 ties of good society in New York and what she saAv 
 before her. " Hero," she said, " all are alike occupied, 
 
200 THE GATES WIDE OTEN; OR, 
 
 and with such earnestness, as if they were compressing 
 all that was possible into the passing moment. Look at 
 that happy group ! Listen to the gaiety of their laugh, 
 see the sparkling of eyes, as the ready reply follows the 
 brilliant sally. And if we look into other rooms where 
 grave subjects are under review, there is no wandering 
 eye, nor one who is not wholly absorbed in the dis- 
 course. But, my dear Perpetua, had you looked in at 
 one of our grand parties, you would have seen the 
 hostess all anxiety to save young ladies from ennui at 
 being left alone to gaze at her pictures ; or if in the 
 dancing hall, from becoming fixtures against the wall 
 for want of proper partners in the dance. And one- 
 half of all present, weary of the stuj)iclities of a party, 
 which nothing could have induced them to meet, but the 
 fear of losing caste, and so dropping out of the world of 
 fashion. I never Avillingly ventured upon such a fiery 
 ordeal of my patience; but somehow the demands of 
 society — such as a wedding party for a cousm, or a niece ; 
 or when my Augusta had been elected bridesmaid to a 
 school-girl friend, she must give a party to the bride in 
 acknowledgment of the distinction thus conferred — in 
 some such way I was made a martyr to good society 
 about once a year." 
 
 " And you demeaned yourself with the patience of a 
 saint," replied Perj)etua, with a smile. 
 
 " A saint ' all of the modern time,' Perpetua. There 
 is some difference in the martyrdoms of the present day. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTlIKll WOKLD. 201 
 
 and those sixteen centuries since. Then you were cou- 
 sumed to ashes by those who hated you ; but now we 
 are only done hroion by our ' dear live hundred friends.' " 
 
 Passing a room in which tliere were but two persons 
 seated on a sofa in earnest colloquy — 
 
 "Come," said Perpetua, "let us join Sulpicius Severus 
 and St. Hedwiges, both dear friends of mine." So say- 
 ing, she led Mrs. Jay mto the room and presented her. 
 " Do not let us interrupt your conversation, which we 
 come to sha*?," said Perpetua. 
 
 "With pleasure, Perpetua," said Severus. "I was 
 telling St. Hedwiges of my mterview Avith St. John 
 Chrysostom; and was about to tell her what he said, 
 speaking of my life of St. Martui, and of his own works 
 and mine in favor of Christian asceticism and ceUbacy. 
 The remark I was about to repeat to St. Hedwiges as 
 you came up was this — that Chrysostom in reviewing 
 all that had follOAved his own labors in this direction, and 
 Mhicli were to follow for centuries to come, unless God 
 should interpose and consume the world by the bright- 
 ness of his coming ; with intense feeling said : ' I feel, 
 Severus, as if I could adopt the language of Paul, and 
 wish myself accursed from Christ, rather than have 
 inflicted all this weight of misery which has rested and 
 will rest upon misguided youthful hearts.' He added : 
 ' God's infinitude of mercy is alone equal to the forgive- 
 ness of such as have corrupted the simplicity of the 
 Gospel of Christ, and whose lives and labors are to be 
 
 9* 
 
202 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 regarded as a curse rather tlian a blessing to tlie world. 
 Ministers of the grace and mercy of God we have 
 fastened heavy chams of a cruel bondage upon those 
 whom Christ has made free. What height and depth 
 of wretchedness has followed your labors and mine!' 
 exclaimed Chrysostom." 
 
 These remarks at once interested Mrs. Jay, who could 
 not but express her astonishment that the great men of 
 the early church could so soon forget the Saviour, and 
 substitute for his righteousness the idols of celibacy and 
 alms-giving. In reply to this, Severus showed by what 
 slow steps the great doctrine of salvation by faith became 
 corrujDted and changed. He traced the rise of asceticism 
 to Hindostan, far into the depths of antiquity. He 
 spoke as follows: "Monachisra did not take its rise in 
 the church. It is not a Christian institution. In the . 
 laws of Menu, wi'itten fifteen centuries before the Christ- 
 ian era, the following directions are given how to 
 become a saint. The words of Menu are : ' Let a man 
 seclude himself from the world, and gain the favor of the 
 gods, by fasting, subduing the lusts and mortifying the 
 senses. Let him crawl backwards and forwards on his 
 belly ; or let him stand all day on his toes. Let him 
 remain always sitting or always standing : only at sunrise, 
 Boon and sunset, let him go to the water and bathe.' * 
 In this last direction the Fakirs of India far surpassed 
 our early monks; for the Hindoos associated holiness 
 
 * Cited by Ru£Qn, in his " Fathers of the Desert," toI. i. p. 24. 
 
8CENK8 m ANOTITER WOKLD. 203 
 
 with personal cleanliness, but not so tlie saints of our 
 age. St. Athanasius, in his Life of St. Anthony the 
 Monk, sj)eaking of his mortification of the flesh, in a 
 tone of high commendation, says: 'St. Anthony wore 
 inside a hair shirt ; outside a skin. These he kept on to 
 the end of his days. He never washed the dirt from his 
 body. He would not even wash his feet, nor let them 
 touch water when he could help it.' " * 
 
 This subject thus introduced was made the topic of an 
 hour's talk, in which St. Hedwigos shared largely. It 
 was to Mrs. Jay a novelty to listen to a discussion of 
 this sort, by those who could say Avith ^neas, "All 
 which I saw, and part of which I was." 
 
 As it was getting late, Perpetua and Mrs. Jay rose, 
 and thanking Sulpicius and St. Hedwiges for their kind 
 courtesy, they took leave. 
 
 • Ruffin, vol. L p. 2TT. 
 
204 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Feast of Fruits and Flowers— Mrs. Jay introduced to Dante and Beatrice — 
 Perpetua and Mra. Jay meet Laurens and Peter Schleinilil on the Lawn— They 
 are joined by Faustiuus and Calliste— Laurens gives an Account of a Meeting 
 of Savans in a Distant World for the Advancement of Knowledge — Description 
 of the Academy— They go to the Section of Metaphysicians— Peter Schlemihl 
 gives an Account of his Expeinences— CalUste is surprised to hear Peter speak 
 of his Seven Senses— Peter's Explanation— Gives his Views of the Discussions — 
 Laurens resumes his Narrative— Mrs. Jay's Story of a Learned Lady of the 
 East— The Search for the Absolute — Sir William Hamilton and Plato compared 
 — The Jews had no Philosophy — Faustinus gives his Views— Laurens finishes the 
 Narrative of his Visit— Perpetua defends the Metaphysicians— They go to the 
 Temple to hear Beethoven's new Anthem— The Scene described — St. Ctcilia and 
 Beethoven. 
 
 Eakly the next morning tlie palace was all astir, eagerly 
 crowding into the great temple to listen to the new 
 oratorio composed by Mozart, called " The Crucifixion." 
 It was performed at smirisc, in order that the intense 
 sadness it inspired might be dispersed during the day of 
 sunshine. 
 
 At the feast of fruits ana riowers which followed, and 
 which was not unworthy Raphael's entertainment, Per- 
 petua and Mrs. Jay had taken their seats together, when 
 two of the Redeemed, a lady and gentleman, whose air 
 
8CENI':S IN ANOTHER WORLD. 205 
 
 and bearing ri vetted the attention of Mrs. Jay, took seats 
 opposite. They bowed to Perpetua, and addrc'ssing her, 
 spolce of the eloquence of Mozart's music. They had 
 discoursed together some time, greatly to Mrs. Jay's 
 satisfaction, when Perpetua, recollecting herself, turning 
 to Mrs. Jay, said : " Pardon me, dear Mrs. Jay, I have 
 failed to present to you two persons Avith whom I am 
 sure you are somewhat acquainted already. This is 
 Dante, my beloved friend, and this is Beatrice, his friend 
 and mine." 
 
 They kindly welcomed Mrs. Jay to the circle of the 
 blessed, and both manifested their interest in the native 
 land of Mrs. Jay, with which they showed themselves 
 acquainted, by asking her many questions concerning the 
 progress of the Gospel of Christ. That subject was 
 always first in the souls of the Redeemed. 
 
 A literary lady, who sat next Perpetua, sought to 
 enlist the attention of Dante, telling him of her recent 
 visit to Italy, England and New England, and of the 
 wide popularity of his " Divina Conmiedia," of which 
 she had seen very many translations in the languages of 
 Europe. " Indeed," she said, " I knew one lady of high 
 standing who always travelled with a pocket edition of 
 the original, and yet she could not even read modern 
 Italian writers." * 
 
 Dante replied, " I assure you, madam, I had rather 
 
 * This remarkable expression of admiration of Dante is a fact ; the lady thus 
 impressing upon the unlearned a belief of her eminent scholarship. 
 
206 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 have wi'itten the Psahns and Hymns of Dr. Watts than 
 all the epics the world has ever seen," 
 
 While this lady was so fluent, in speaking to Dante, 
 Mrs. Jay felt awed in such presence. There was an 
 atmosphere which surrounded these personages, some- 
 thing beyond and above anything she had before experi- 
 enced ; inspiring in her heart emotions of homage and 
 profound interest, so deep as gave force to their every 
 action and word. 
 
 Perpetua remarked this awe impressed by Dante upon 
 her friend, who had never before manifested any remark- 
 able development of the organ of veneration ; for now 
 Mrs. Jay sat perfectly quiet, contented to be an ob- 
 server, and replied briefly and explicitly to all Dante's 
 inquiries, as if she regretted every second of time thus 
 absorbed by herself. It was evident she had in some 
 sort the terror of the ancient Florentines for the man 
 who had descended into the abodes of the damned. 
 
 Rising from the banquet-table, in company with all the 
 guests, Perpetua and Mrs. Jay walked out upon the 
 lawn, when Laurens and Peter aUghted from the clouds 
 and joined them. 
 
 " Where have you been playing truant, Peter ?" asked 
 Mrs. Jay. " You would not have left me a stranger in a 
 strange city ten years since." 
 
 " It is all my fault, Mrs. Jay," said Laurens. " I will 
 tell you how it has happened. Let us go into this sum- 
 mer-house where we can sit down." 
 
SCENES IN AJSrOTHEK WOELD. 207 
 
 This proposal was at once acceded to, and they 
 entered a sweet arbor of flowers not far distant, where 
 they took seats. 
 
 " To begin at the beginning," said Laurens. " On the 
 day we left the palace, my friend Peter and I rose up 
 into the air, to enjoy the scenery below us. While thus 
 engaged in taking a bird's-eye view of the country 
 around, we were jomed by an angel and two gentlemen 
 who were on their way to a great Convocation for the 
 Advancement of Knowledge, to be held in a distant 
 world, at which they told us the great minds of the ages 
 would be present, and urged us to go with them. Now 
 I was earnest to go, and Peter out of kindness consented 
 to keep me company. 
 
 "It was a long flight, and we did not come within the 
 atmosphere of the world of science till it was high noon. 
 We reached the city where the savans were assembled, 
 and found the sitting for the day had already com- 
 menced." 
 
 At this point of time, Faustinus and Calliste, who 
 were in search of Perpetua and Mrs. Jay, discovered 
 them, and hastened to enter the arbor. They were 
 joyously welcomed, and at once presented to Laurens 
 and Peter. This done, Perpetua told them of what Mr. 
 Laurens was about to communicate ; whereupon they 
 both expressed their great satisfaction, and the pleasure 
 it would give them to listen. 
 
 Laurens, having rehearsed all he had said, went on 
 
208 THE GATES V.'IDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 thus : " The Academy we found in a central square. It 
 was a stately pile, whose high and burnished dome 
 reflected the rays of the meridian sun, as if it had been 
 a great beacon fire. We alighted m front of the grand 
 entrance, and were instantly approached by citizens who 
 acted as marshals. They received us with kind courtesy, 
 and inquired to which of the several sections or depart- 
 ments of the Academy they should lead us. The angel 
 and his friends requested to be led to the section or sit- 
 ting of the chemists, and Peter having no choice, I asked 
 them to lead us to the sittmg of metaphysicians. On 
 reachmg the platform of the pillared portico, we walked 
 mto a magnificent rotunda, whose dome rose five hun- 
 dred feet, and was adorned with suitable frescos and 
 bass-reliefs, illustrative of the arts and sciences. It was 
 here we separated from our travelling companions, they 
 being conducted to one wing of the building and we to 
 the other. On entering the apartment, we were led to 
 raised seats appropriated to the spectators. The hall 
 was circular and lighted from the dome. It was as plain 
 as marble could make it. There was the absence of all 
 ornament. No bass-reliefs ran around the cornice, no 
 statues stood along the wall, no angels in fresco hovered 
 over the assembly high up in the dome ; nothing could 
 be more massive and severe than this spacious hall of 
 science. When we entered, our attendant, at our 
 request, took a seat beside us, to point out the chief 
 personages below us. It was awe-inspiring thus to 
 
SCENES IN ANOTUEK WORLD, 209 
 
 look down upou the great iniuds of the Christian 
 world." 
 
 " How many were present ?" asked Perpetua. 
 
 " There must have been over five hundred," replied 
 Laurens, looking towards Peter, who bowed his assent. 
 "We were told the person presiding was none other 
 than Blaise Pascal." 
 
 "A glorious soul!" exclaimed Perpetua. "Wasnot 
 Jacqueline present ?" 
 
 " She was," replied Laurens, " and sat next Arnauld, 
 of Port Royal, in company with Madame Dufargis 
 d'Augennes, Prioress of Port Royal des Champs." 
 
 " I had the pleasure of meeting both those eminent 
 and saintly ladies, soon after they were liberated from 
 earth, in company with Pascal, Aruauld, Shiglin and 
 others of Port Royal. A noble company of con- 
 fessors ! I believe Blaise and his sister have never 
 been separated for a day since they met in the world 
 of spirits. Pardon me for my iuterrui)tion, Mr. Lau- 
 rens. Pray go on, and tell us all that mterested 
 you." 
 
 Mr. Laurens proceeded : " Sir WiUiam Hamilton hav- 
 ing that day been duly elected a member of the Aca^ 
 demy, was for the first time introduced to the assembly, 
 and was seated on the right of Pascal, in the seat of 
 honor." 
 
 "I have heard of limi before," said Mr$. Jay, with 
 delight to thhik she had reached so high up into this 
 
210 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 world of science, as to be familiar with the name of a 
 great philosopher. "Perhaps, Mr. Laurens, you may 
 have seen some other notabilities whose names at least I 
 have before heard of?" 
 
 " Doubtless," said Mr. Laurens. " I confess most of 
 the names were quite new to me. They may have been 
 eminent in the dark ages ; but they have not come down 
 on the stream of time, which hides beneath its surface 
 all that is weighty and solid in philosophy, while that 
 which is light, swims." * 
 
 " How do you know this, my dear Mr. Laurens ? 
 Have you any diving-bell to make this grand discov- 
 ery ?" asked Mrs. Jay, thinking to make a hit upon her 
 friend. 
 
 Laurens replied "v\-ith a smUe full of good humor : " I 
 was taught to beheve so by one to whom the world is, 
 and will be forever indebted ; who said, that ' the great- 
 est geniuses in all ages have suffered the greatest vio- 
 lence ' — and it is his image and not mine that I have just 
 made use of; and which his translator instances in a note 
 as exemplified in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, 
 in contrast with that of the lost philosophy of Democri- 
 tus. But Mrs. Jay, I can teU you of some whose names 
 you have certainly heard of before: There sat the 
 Angelical doctor, f Thomas of Aqicine, and Dims Scotus, 
 
 * Lord Bacon. 
 
 t In the Lives of the Saints (for the 7th of March), published three centuries 
 since in English, this title is thus explained : " This holy Doctour is nailed the 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 211 
 
 the Subtle ; and other divme and irrefragable doctors of 
 the Latm church, who, if they failed to discover the 
 •matter of knowledge, have been unsurpassed m invent- 
 ing the forms by which it is conveyed to the minds of 
 men. And besides these, there was pomted out to me, 
 Lord Bacon, Doctor Chalmers, Doctor Samuel Clark, 
 Jacob Bohme, Leibnitz, Fenelon, Sir Isaac Newton, 
 John Locke, Bishops Barrow, Butler and Berkeley, Doc- 
 tor Thomas BroAvn, Doctor Arnold of Rugby; Dugald 
 Stewart, and Doctor Beattie and Coleridge, and many 
 more whose names I need not rej^eat ; and last not least, 
 certaualy not in my eyes, sat the eminent Jonathan Ed- 
 wards side by side with the genial and lovely Bishop 
 Berkeley. Doctor Clark and Doctor Chalmers appeared 
 to be on most intimate terms, and Coleridge sat dream- 
 ing, ever dreaming, during the session ; every new phase 
 of the discussion giving a new unijulse to his reverie. 
 I was pleased to see Newton and Leibnitz whispering 
 together every now and then, as the discussions went 
 on ; as I guessed, comparing notes." 
 
 " Pray, tell us, what was the matter in hand ?" asked 
 Mrs. Jay. " I am curious to know what they find to 
 talk about this side of the grave ; are not vou, Faus- 
 tinus ?" she said, turning to Faustinus for a reply. 
 
 Angelical Doctour for three respects ; first, for the ingeniousness wherewith tie 
 handled his questions; secori.dly, for that he wrote of the angels like an angel; 
 the third, for that he was a Virgin ; for that which an Angel is in heaven, a Virgin 
 is on earth." 
 
212 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " I left off with Plato," replied Faustiuus. " I know 
 nothing of modern methods of philosophy. Doubtless 
 they have made important discoveries ; and these philoso- 
 phers of whom Mr. Laurens has been speakmg, may 
 have made as great advance upon Plato, as Plato upon 
 Heraclitus and Pythagoras." 
 
 " Let me reply to you, my Faustinus," said Perpetua. 
 " ' Speculation has advanced not one step farther than 
 when he left it. Plato stands confessedly at the head of 
 the speculative genius of the world.' But I beg Mr. 
 Laurens will answer Mrs. Jay's inquiry, and tell us what 
 was the subject under consideration." 
 
 "You must pardon my inability to do justice to these 
 great minds," replied Mr. Laurens ; " and I wiU do what 
 I may to comply with your request. The subject-matter 
 was the Absolute, and our cognitions of the Absolute. 
 The point made was the occult question, whether it was 
 possible to bridge the abyss from the subjective to the 
 objective — from the apparent to the real.* Lord Bacon 
 was speaking when we took our seats. He remarked, 
 that ' as navigation was imperfect before the use of the 
 
 * This seems to have been the aim of Plato. A writer in the London Quarterly, 
 Article : " Institutes of Metaphysics," etc., says : " Plato's dialectic (which seems 
 to answer to what we call self-examination.) had clearly this one object : it was an 
 attempt to bridge over the gulf between man and the ideal world. . . . Was 
 there not an ideal world, the region of real being, whether or not in the mind of 
 the Deity, in which the soul of the votary might be lost forever in the mystic con- 
 templation of the True, the Beautiful and the Good? Was there not as surely 
 some pathway by which the soul could ascend to this its native region, and by 
 searching find out its truest heaven ? Plato gave a long answer to this inquiry." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 213 
 
 compass, so will many secrets of nature and art remain 
 madiscovered without a more perfect knowledge of the 
 understanding, its uses and ways of working.' * He was 
 folloAved by Duns Scotug and Thomas Aquinas ; but such 
 was the strangeness of their terminology, so numerous 
 their subdivisions, that I was unable to comprehend any- 
 thing of their line of argiunent. Next, Locke spoke in 
 his clear, simple style ; and though the speeches that fol- 
 lowed were brief, they were so entirely satisfactory to 
 my mind, that it seemed to me the last speech settled 
 the vexed question ; but I soon grew diffident, and 
 before they concluded, I listened without any attempt 
 to form a judgment as to the dark oracles which were 
 Oldened." 
 
 Mrs. Jay, turning to Peter, who sat quietly listening 
 to all that was said, looking as if his mind had wandered 
 leagues away from' the subject on hand, said: "Well, 
 Peter, I suppose you heard so much about the me and 
 the ?iot me, until you did not know whether you stood 
 on your head or your heels ?" 
 
 "Precisely so, Mrs. Jay. Of coui-se I made out so 
 much as this, that all the knowledge of a world outside 
 ourselves came to us through our senses, and I came to 
 the wise cmiclusion that if our wise men of modern 
 times vnM not believe their seven senses, there is then 
 no hope for them." f 
 
 * " De Augmentis Scientiarum," translated by Shaw. 
 
 * The ahle Presiilent oi' Rochester University, New York, M. B. Anderson, 
 
214 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " Seven senses !" exclaimed Calliste. " And has the 
 area of the senses been enlarged as well as the land on 
 our globe since we last visited it ?" 
 
 " Did I say seven senses ?" asked Peter demurely. 
 
 " Yes, sir, you did ; and I would Uke to have you tell 
 me what these are." 
 
 " If I said seven senses, seven it shall be. Well thon, 
 madam, there is the sense of seeing, of feeling, of hear- 
 ing, of smelling, of tasting," and he paused. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Peter, I had all these myself; Avhat 
 next?" 
 
 " Common sense ! Did you have that ?" asked 
 Peter. 
 
 " And what is common sense ?" asked Calliste. 
 
 LL.D., in a brief review of "Lewes' History of Philostiphy," thus speaks of the 
 latest of all philosophical systems, known as " Comte's Positive Philosophy :" 
 " It follows, from Mr. Lewes' own showing, th« external world is only a matter of 
 inference, and this inference is not necessary, but contingent. He is placed, in 
 reference to the external world, in a relation precisely similar to that which led 
 Berkeley and Collier to deny that matter had any existence out of the perceiving 
 mind." And further on, President Anderson says : " In view of the deductions 
 which we have made from the principles which Mr. Lewes holds, in common with 
 his master, Comte, one cannot but be amused at his extravagant claims for Posi- 
 tive Science. On his own showing, this boasted method is conversant only with 
 shadows. So far from having anything to do with the real, the solid and the cer- 
 tain only, it stands before us a philosophy of matter, which catinot even certify 
 us, by any legitimate method, of the real existence of the earth on which we 
 tread ; as a philosophy of the real, which is founded on a denial of all knowledge 
 of reality at the very outset. It comes to us as a philosophy of law, while it de- 
 nies the existence of all necessary convictions. It comes to us as a philosophy of 
 effects, while it affirms the knowledge of causes to be impossitle, and their pursuit 
 absurd." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER "WORLD. 215 
 
 " Do you not know what common sense is ? and did 
 you never hear of this in your lifetime ?" 
 
 Calliste shook her head. 
 
 "How could you get on without'it?" continued Peter. 
 
 " Peter Schlemihl!" cried Mrs. Jay, " how can you be 
 so rude ? Common sense, dear Calliste, in the parlance 
 of the present day, means the instinctive decision of the 
 mind unperverted by passion or ignorance ; or, in other 
 words, sound practical judgment. Now then, Peter, 
 please explain yourself." 
 
 " With all pleasure, so I do not weary ray audience," 
 said Peter. "Doctor Reid told us this morning that 
 common sense was ' the mathematical affections of mat- 
 tor;* a part of human nature which,' he said, 'had 
 never been explained.' f In answer. Doctor Beattie rose 
 and declared common sense was, 'that power of the 
 mind which pe^eives truth or commands belief, not by 
 progressive augmentation, but by an instantaneous and 
 instinctive impulse ;' \ and further, ' it is instinct and not 
 reason.' § Doctor Stewart declared it to be ' the co)n- 
 nion reason of mankind.' This did not quite satisfy 
 Doctor Roid, Avho would have it far above all this, for 
 he said expressly, 'that common sense was the direct 
 inspiration of God, leading us, where our reasoning facul- 
 ties leave us in the dark.' " || 
 
 ♦ Reid's Essays, vol. 1. p. 95. t Inquiry, oh. vii. p. 4S0. sec. iii. p. 115. 
 
 % Beattie on Truth, part i. ch. i. p. 2. § Ibid, part ii. ch. i. 
 
 1 Reid, ch. vii. p. 4S2. 
 
216 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 "Ah! well, Mr. Peter," said Callisto, smiling, "if that 
 is all your wise scholars have discovered for a sixth sense, 
 I do not think much of their long labor. We Romans 
 were not wanting in" it, though we never perplexed 
 ourselves about it. But what for your seventh sense ?" 
 
 " Oh, that is a modern discovery," replied Peter, 
 " and some good folks call it ' a realizing sense.' " 
 
 " Calhste, this dear friend of mine has shown a sad 
 lack of his sixth sense, and the entire want of his 
 seventh," said Mrs. Jay. " I insist on it, Mr. Schlemihl, 
 that you shall give such a description of what you have 
 seen and heard as we shall all comprehend." 
 
 "I wish it were in my power to comply with your 
 request ; but comprehending but little of what I heard 
 much, how can I do so ?" 
 
 " Try, Peter ; there is nothing like an honest effort," 
 said Mrs. Jay. ^ 
 
 Calliste, who had entered into the humor of Mrs. Jay, 
 united her entreaties that Peter Schlemihl should do his 
 best in meeting her wishes. 
 
 Peter bowing, commenced : " You must all have in 
 your mind's eye, this conclave of philosophers, with a 
 sprinkling of philosophic ladies, every one of whom 
 looked the impersonation of wisdom. On taking my 
 seat there was, to my apprehension, a hideous gabble 
 about words. The Scholastics had a great deal to say in 
 praise of their logic and method ; of the distinctions to 
 be made in causation between what is formal^ material 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 217 
 
 and Jlfial — that logic must be as a lighted lami), in the 
 hand of scientific investigation, in finding our way along 
 the labyrinth of the soul. Others claimed that the 
 method so long followed was nothing better than the 
 attempt to dij) up moonshine ; and that a review of all 
 that had been done since the Christian era, as Perpetua 
 just now remarked, was not a step in advance of Plato. 
 It was said, that ' modern j)hilosophy had lost its way 
 for three centuries, and was like the traveller on western 
 prairies, who galloped all day long in terror upon his 
 own track, until he returned to the place from which he 
 started, and the sun was going down.' * 
 
 " As for myself, I Avas soon at sea without compass, 
 sail or rudder. Realism and Idealism, the Absolute and 
 the Apparent, were terms bandied about fi*om one to 
 another, as if they had been a shuttle-cock, which all 
 sought to keep up in the air. One gave it a hit, and, to 
 use the terms of Louis Philippe's Chamber of Deputies, 
 away it flew to the ' extreme left,' and when it was hit 
 again, it bounded to the ' centre-right,' and so it flcAV 
 about, till at last it went directly into the face of Sir 
 William Hamilton, who gave it a fillip, when it rose 
 liigh into the dome, and falling, lit upon the nose of 
 John Locke, who gave a puflT and away it went mto the 
 lap of Mr. Jonathan Edwards ; who, having examined it 
 a moment, mit it into his breeches-pocket; whereupon 
 
 ♦ London Quarterly. 
 
 ^ 10 
 
218 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 the Bureau of Metaphysics rose and reported progress 
 (but what progress they had made I cannot so much as 
 guess), and asked leave to sit again. Now, ladies, hav- 
 ing given you my experience, I refer you to my friend 
 Laurens for the rationale of all I have told you." 
 
 The ladies complimented Mr. Schlemihl on his admir- 
 able sketch of what he had seen and heard ; and then 
 begged Mr. Laurens to interpret his parables. 
 
 "I fear I am unequal to such a task," replied Mr. 
 Laurens, " because of my inability to foUow all that was 
 said. You are aU aware that the Absolute, as a funda- 
 mental notion and as the chief constituent of all intel- 
 lection, has been of aU subjects the most difficult to 
 manage. If Truth, as has been said, lies at the bottom 
 of a well, no finite mind has been able to touch bottom, 
 and drag her up by her locks. Sir William Hamilton, 
 in his speech on the Absolute or ' unconditioned,' advo- 
 cated his ideas as published in his works." 
 
 " Cannot you give us a brief of his ideas," asked 
 Faustinus ; " for I am ignorant of all that has been done 
 on earth for many centuries ; and this I can see is a mat- 
 ter of instant moment in aU the circles of heaven as well 
 as on earth." 
 
 " Is it possible ?" exclauned Mrs. Jay. " I had sup- 
 posed all such discussions, which necessarily surpass the 
 comprehension of creatures, whether angels or men, 
 would have been, on this side of existence, confined to 
 the Paradise of Fools. The use of these famous sound 
 
SCENES EST ANOTHER WORLD. 219 
 
 ing Ayords reminds me of one of the Eastern magi of 
 modern times. She was called upon in a court of some 
 sort, to give her testimony in a case of misplaced affec- 
 tion. In givmg a narrative of her acquaintance with 
 the deserter, she told the judges, that while he talked 
 to her of the ontology of Locke and his theory of ideas, 
 of Condillac, of Baron d'Holbach and the French En- 
 cyclopiedists, and then of the Scotch school, of Adam 
 Smith, Reid, Stewart and Thomas Brown — she listened 
 with cold indifference, and could not have told the color 
 of his eyes. He never enlisted her attention, and her 
 heart was untouched ; but when in lapse of months he 
 came to si^eak of the school of Hegel, of Fichte and 
 Schelling, then it was her bosom heaved its first sigh ; 
 and M'hen at last he spoke of our Cognitions d priori^ 
 and of categorical Imparatives synthetically imderstood, 
 the flood-gates of her heart were broken open, and all 
 the gushing tides of her pent-up affections burst forth. 
 What do you think of that, Faustinus and Calliste? 
 Did you ever hear of anything like this in your 
 times ?" 
 
 Calliste and Faustinus both confessed themselves igno- 
 rant of any such method of reaching a lady's heart. 
 This matter was made the theme of some playftJ remarks, 
 when Faustinus begged to be permitted to go back to 
 the subject of their colloquy, and asked Mr. Laurens to 
 give him some idea of Sir William Hamilton's method 
 of reaching the Absolute, which h3 had supposed must 
 
220 THE GATES WIDE OPEJ^ ; OR, 
 
 exist in a finite mind simply as the negation of that 
 which is conditioned. 
 
 Mr. Laurens replied : " I believe it is so held by all 
 Enfiflish and Scotch philosophers, and Sir William, in 
 this discussion, held that the Absolute, though not an 
 object of real knowledge, exists within our consciousness 
 as a regulative principle, and though the Absolute can- 
 not be comprehended in consciousness or reflection, it 
 can be gazed upon by a higher faculty — that of intel- 
 lectual intuition ; and when so grasj^ed by reason, can be 
 brought within the compass of our real consciousness." * 
 
 " Is it not too much of earth to bring siTch discussions 
 into the worlds of light ?" said Peter Schlemihl. " How 
 strange it is! God's people, the Jews, had no philoso- 
 phy, and it was their highest wisdom.f God said, ' Let 
 there be hght and light was." That was all sufficient for 
 
 * Sir William Hamilton tells us, that " Philosophy is wholly dependent upon 
 consciousness : the possibility of the former, supposing the trustworthiness of the 
 latter." Again he says, " How the will can possibly be free, must remain to us, 
 under the present limitation of our faculties, wholly incomprehensible." How 
 true it is what Paul says : — " The world by wisdom knew not God " — and the last 
 result of modern times has reached this abysm. — If there be truth in philosophy it 
 cannot be demonstrated by the mind of man. 
 
 + " Before the Babylonish Captivity the Jews had no philosophy of their own, and 
 were too little acquainted with foreign nations to learn the philosophy of others. 
 They had no speculative opinions ; they formed no theories concerning the origin 
 and nature of things ; that is, they did not philosophize — they did not reason on 
 things in heaven or things on the earth . . . the only question that divided 
 their religious sentiments was, whether they should serve God according to the 
 precepts of Moses, or Baal, according to the custom of the Canaanites." — Fathers 
 of the Desert, by Ruffin, vol. i. p. 157. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WOKLD. 221 
 
 them. They did not seek to chain the Ahnighty to 
 ' Laws of Nature.' That was a phrase not as yet forged 
 out by philosophy, falsely so-called — a mere phrase, hke 
 gravitation, which when examined is a nullity, means 
 nothing and explains nothing.* And here, where it is 
 our highest happiness to have our wills one with God, 
 what need have we thus to seek to find out God to per- 
 fection. It is a vain search, beyond question, for mor- 
 tal mind, whether on earth or in heaven." f 
 
 " Not so, Mr. Schlemihl," said Faustinus. " To say, 
 * Thy will be done,' is the joy of earth and heaven ; but 
 
 * " The attraction of gravitation ^ the weight of bodies, these are but forms of 
 words, in which either our materialism or else our reverence, leads us to speak of 
 the modes of action in the Divine Will. It is no figure of speech, but the literal 
 truth, to speali of Ilira that formed the Seven Stars and Orion, as guiding thera on 
 their way. Their circling orbits, by their figure, and the golden orbs themselves 
 by their motion, continually manifest His guiding hand." — Oeometry and Faiili, 
 by Thomas Hill, p. 27. 
 
 Babbage, " On the great law which regulates matter," says : " Ever since the 
 period when Newton established the great law of gravity, philosophers have occa- 
 Bionally speculated on the existence of some more comprehensive law, of which 
 gravity is a consequence. Although some have considered it in vain to search for 
 a more general law, the great philosopher himself left encouragement to future 
 Inquirers ; and the time, perhaps, has even now arrived, when such a discovery 
 may be near its maturity. . . . Many of the discoveries of the present day 
 point towards some more general law ; and many philosophers of the present 
 lima anticipate its near approach." — P. ISO. 
 
 + In an article entitled " Philosophy, Old and New," in the Eclectic for Novem- 
 ber, 1857, the writer says : " Speculation has advanced no jot since Plato. The 
 most bold, sustained and daring thinkers of the world have soared to these 
 heights, and found an infinite beyond them ; their fall has proved that to us the 
 absolute, the unconditioned, the infinite, must ever remain the unknown." 
 
222 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 neither in earth nor heaven has the Almighty set limits 
 to our desire for knowledge. We know, and we rejoice it 
 is so, that all the streams of knowledge and ai't find their 
 confluence in God — m the Absolute. These are myste- 
 ries ' the angels desire to look mto,' and just so far as the 
 Redeemed of earth grow in knowledge they become 
 more and more hke God — whose sons we are by adoji- 
 tion, made one with God, even as Christ and God are 
 one !" 
 
 "When Faustinas had spoken these words, they all rose 
 as by one unpulse, and sang " Gloria in excelsis." After 
 the glow of love and enthusiasm, mduced by these 
 unspeakable ideas of the love of God, had subsided and 
 they had taken their seats, Perpetua resumed the dis- 
 course, by saying : " It is as Faustinus has just now told 
 us, ' Divme Philosophy ' is the highest of all sciences, 
 and those minds devoted to the study of the Absolute in 
 God wUl see most of his glory — just as the traveller who 
 climbs the highest peaks of earth has the widest land- 
 scape beneath him." 
 
 "I am sure it. must be so," rephed Laurens, "and Sir 
 Isaac Newton, millions of cycles of ages hence, may 
 repeat with a pregnant meaning unknown to him before, 
 his last words on earth : ' I have but picked up on the 
 shores of tune, a prettier pebble than others, while the 
 great ocean of truth lies before me imtravei'sed and un- 
 known.' " 
 
 " Yes," said Perpetua, " an ocean whose depths are 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 223 
 
 never to be sounded, but whose precious pearls enrich all 
 who search for them." 
 
 " I see I am all in the wrong," said Peter, " and it 'is 
 my misery that I never could see into the obscurities of 
 metaphysical science." 
 
 "And I say 'ditto' to Peter Schlemihl," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " I believe, ladies, women^ I beg your pardon, Mrs. 
 Jay," said Laurens, correcting himself, "women then, 
 arc pleased to consider this science above their reach ; 
 but my belief is, that they will never hold their proper 
 places in the world until they shall regard this as the 
 first of all studies to be attained by those who assume 
 the vast responsibility of mothers." 
 
 " It may be so, Mr. Laurens," replied Mrs. Jay. " All 
 I can say is, I am glad I have done with earth. This 
 world of art is much more to my taste than that inha- 
 bited by metaphysicians, and so I will stay here." 
 
 " Let us brmg this colloquy to a close," said Perpetua; 
 " and now, Mr. Laurens, please tell us how did the dis- 
 cussion end. Was it confined to the objectivity of the 
 Absolute ?" 
 
 Mr. Laurens replied : " No, it was not. Toward the 
 close of the session the question slid away into the possi- 
 biUty of laying down a theoretic basis for the history of 
 relig'on, in the necessary mb 'e of the Divine Being and 
 Manifestation — God, Man and Humanity — th Triad of 
 the Infinite in the process of realization in time.* Such 
 
 * Ed. Rev. May, 18D3, art. Wppolytua. 
 
224 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 a basis was regarded impossible while as yet the drama 
 of hmnan life was in process of elimination. It was held 
 as an unquestioned verity that there was such a philoso- 
 phy of religion, but to assume a basis now, would de- 
 grade history from its scientific position. It was to be 
 regarded in time as a collection of facts, out of which in 
 a future age the divine science imbedded in history 
 would be made plain to the admiring gaze of the Church 
 of God ; when every individual would see for himself his 
 relations to the world's history, and a solution for every 
 complication of his Hfe." 
 
 Mrs. Jay drew a long breath, and with a puff of ex- 
 piration, said: " For one I can say 'I will wait.' I cer- 
 tainly shall not now, nor ever, seek to arrange all that 
 has happened to me and mine into a perfect circle. 
 When on earth I quieted myself as a weaned child 
 while under discipline, by saying, ' It is all as God wills 
 it, and let his will be mine ;' and now I am here, re- 
 deemed and disenthralled, I would as soon dive down into 
 the ocean for pearls as sink into such an abyss as this. 
 That is what I have to say, Perpetua." 
 
 Perpetua replied with a sweet smile, " You are but a 
 child in the divine life. Eternity is all before you, and 
 you will not lack of docility in this life when you suc- 
 ceeded so well in your life on earth." 
 
 " I was all wi'ong in saying I was docile in the pilgrim- 
 age of earth. No, I was restless and imhappy to be the 
 subject of trials of any sort ; and I am disappointed 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 225 
 
 now, that tliere is no king's highway to geometry and 
 all science. But I see Ave have here to creep before we 
 go. Facts are to be collected and laid together like 
 pieces of a dissected map, and when all is done, then we 
 are to set our wits at work to come to a proper conclu- 
 sion of all that lies before us. Instead of this, I had 
 hoped we should have reached certainties by infallible 
 uituitions, and by a volition have attained the ultimates 
 of truth." 
 
 Perpetua rose and the company followed. 
 
 " Before we leave this arbor," said Perpetua, address- 
 ing Mrs. Jay, " I wish to say to you, my sister, that you 
 have made a mistake common to most minds, who make 
 the goal of their philosophy the spot where tliey become 
 weary of thinking. The science of the soul lies at the 
 base of all knowledge. All religion reposes upon the 
 idea of God. "Without this idea, revelation itself has no 
 weight. The idea of a God must first be attained. But 
 who is God ? and where are the evidences of his exist- 
 ence ? This must be settled before the Scriptures can 
 be received as authority; and when once this inquiry 
 is started, it cannot be settled without deep inward 
 reflection upon nature, and upon man as its interpre- 
 ter." * 
 
 "That being so, dear Perpetua," replied Mrs. Jay 
 
 ♦ Morell's " Modern Philosophy," p. 83. 
 
 10* 
 
226 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 smiling, " I am glad I never started upon tlie search. I 
 was content with the open Bible, and my own conscious- 
 ness that it was the Word of God." 
 
 " The chimes are calling us to the great temple," said 
 Perpetua, as the silver tones came floating on the air. 
 " Let us all go and hear Beethoven's new composition. 
 The words selected by him form the anthem of the 
 Redeemed in the Apocaljq^se, ' Blessing and honor, and 
 glory and power unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
 and imto the Lamb forever and ever, Amen.' The theme 
 is worthy the capacities of an archangel, and I am sure 
 we shall soar as on eagle's wings, uplifted by the noble 
 and sanctified genius of Beethoven — 
 
 ' Untwisting all the chains that tie, 
 The hidden soul of harmony.' " 
 
 With one consent they now hastened to the temple, and 
 soon joined the moving masses coming up from all direc- 
 tions to the first performance of this new labor of love 
 by a great master. It was one of the inducements 
 offered to those residing at a distance to make a visit to 
 the palace at this time. The great temjDle was soon 
 filled to overflowang, and as the performers came in, the 
 score of the new anthem was handed to them. It was a 
 lovely sight to see an orchestra crowded with talent, 
 who sung and played at sight "with true and entire 
 appreciation of the genius of the author. As they took 
 
SCENES m ANOTHEK WORLD. 227 
 
 their several seats, tliey ran over the sheets in eager 
 delight, pointing out to each other some beautiful sur- 
 prise of a master mind ■\vhich had met the eye. 
 
 "Look at St. Cecilia!" said Laurens to his party. 
 " Was ever such beauty and sweetness combined in one 
 person before ?" 
 
 This lovely saint on entering had taken her violon- 
 cello, and with her arm lovingly embracing her instru- 
 ment, leaning forward, she turned over the leaves of 
 the libretto placed on the music-stand, her eyes beaming 
 with delight. 
 
 Beethoven now entered, baton in hand, to lead the 
 performance. He made his way slowly through the 
 crowd of the orchestra and choir, for all sought to 
 detam him, and congratulate him on his S2)lendid suc- 
 cess. And when passing St. Cecilia, she, too, detained 
 him awhile ; and turning over the leaves, she was evi- 
 dently telling him of her approval and admiration of his 
 work. 
 
 All was hushed expectation when Beethoven ascended 
 the pedestal. Every eye was fixed upon him, the lips 
 of those who sang were half unclosed, and their chests 
 swollen with a deep inspiration earnest for the signal. It 
 was given, and a volume of harmony rose which took 
 with it all souls to heaven. The attention of both per- 
 formers and audience Avas so absorbed, that when the 
 last note died away, they woke as as from a blissful 
 dream. 
 
228 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 -" The song 
 
 Of heaven is ever new ; for daily, thus, 
 
 And nightly, new discoveries are made 
 
 Of God's unbounded wisdom, power and love, 
 
 Which give the understanding larger room, 
 
 And swell the hymn with ever-growing praise."* 
 
 • PoLLOK. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 229 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Story of Angela, the Nun— Mishael, the Guardian of Angela, leads her 
 to the Temple of the Winds, where Perpetua and our Friends were seated— 
 Her Appearance described— While Perpetua takes her on a Walk in the Gar- 
 dens, Mishael, at the request of Calliste, tells the Story of her Life — Angela 
 having completed her Education at Home, is taken by her Mother to Paris, 
 where she returns the Love of a young Nobleman— Her Mother gives her 
 Approval; and while Count Gratz is on a Visit to Vienna, she breaks up her 
 Home in Paris, and returns with Angela — The Count, in his Despair, takes the 
 Vow of Celibacy and becomes a Priest — He writes her a Letter, which she 
 receives at Home, praying her to become a Nun— Angela takes the Veil— Her 
 Decline and Death. 
 
 Leaving the temple in company, Perpetua, Faustinus, 
 Calliste and our friends, walked together till they 
 reached Perpetua's favorite place of resort, a minia- 
 ture Temple of the Winds, where they took seats and 
 enjoyed the wdde landscape ; for the view opened on the 
 lake, and in the distance glittering glaciers rose high 
 into the air. It was a scene of singular beauty. In 
 the grounds around them, the highest forms of art Avere 
 seen, and far-oflf temples covered every island and every 
 headland of the lake shore. 
 
 Seating themselves, Calliste chanced to make a remark 
 
230 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 as to tlie sources of the sublime and beautiful, wliicb was 
 replied to by St. Perpetua. It was something wonder- 
 ful, thus to hear Perpetua, who had lived so long in the 
 world of Art, give an analysis of the laws which make 
 one object more lovely than another. They were all 
 absorbed as Perpetua proceeded to show that while 
 Beauty, like its Author, was infinite, yet there were 
 fixed laws of its manifestation. These laws were re- 
 vealed to those great minds, who in sublune intercourse 
 caught the inspiration of God and realized such lofty 
 conceptions, imperfectly and j^artially, in their produc- 
 tions of the chisel and the pencil. And thus it was, 
 that Art was forever revealing more and more of God 
 to created mtelligences of all worlds. 
 
 They had closed this topic, when an angel approached 
 leading a lovely girl, whose timid downcast look bespoke 
 her a newcomer from earth. Perj^etua, recognizing the 
 angel, rose hastily ; and in glad tones welcomed him as 
 Mishael, once her own guardian angel, and begged to be 
 introduced to his last charge.* The young girl stood at 
 the foot of the steps, her hands folded across her bosom 
 and with her eyes downcast as Perpetua approached her 
 with hands extended. On hearing Mishael say, "This, 
 Angela, is your own St. Perpetua," she sank at her feet 
 and made a profound obeisance, while in a whisj)ering 
 tone she sought her blessing. Perpetua gently lifted 
 
 * St. Jerome says : " Nothing gives us a greater idea of our soul, than that 
 Ooi has given us, at the moment of our birth, an angel to take care of it." 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 231 
 
 hor up and kissing lier on her forehead, drew her close 
 to her side ; thus assurmg tlus timid child of heaven of 
 iier love and sympathy. 
 
 " You have, doubtless, just reached our world," said 
 Perpetua. 
 
 In a tone of voice just audible, the giii answered: 
 " 1 have this moment alighted with my angel." 
 
 The young lady was next led up into the temple and 
 duly presented by Perpetua to her circle, as was also 
 Mishael. There was something in the air and manner 
 of this young saint, so much like that worn by recluses, 
 that Mrs. Jay asked her if she had been a nun ? 
 
 To this, Angela answered, much to the surprise of that 
 lady, decisively: '•'■ I ain a nun!" 
 
 Perpetua said to Mishael : " I am about to take charge 
 of your friend for a little while, and I leave you to sup- 
 ply my place. Come, Angela, and walk with me in the 
 gardens." 
 
 The nun rose with that air of submissiveness which is 
 so strongly marked upon the religious orders of the 
 Roman church ; and Perpetua, with her arm around the 
 waist of the nun, led her away. 
 
 "Will you, good Mishael, tell us the history of this 
 sweet saint ? She has evidently come to us through the 
 gratings of a convent," said Peter. 
 
 " Pray, Mishael, first tell us, how could it be that she 
 should have made such a worshipping obeisance to Pei*- 
 
232 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 pctua in this world of perfect equality among the Re- 
 deemed ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 "I will explain," rejilied the angel. "St. Perpetua 
 was selected by Angela for her patron saint. And on 
 reaching the Holy City, I made inquiry for Perpetua; 
 and learning she was here, I sent her word of my com- 
 ing, and that I needed her aid to induce my Angela, 
 without violence, to give up her idols of the mind, the 
 results of her education, and thus to introduce her uito 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God. The soul 
 grows into use of its powers ; like the eyes of the blind, 
 when cleared of a cataract, it must become accustomed 
 to the open vision of Avorlds of light." 
 
 Calliste now spoke and begged Mishael, Mobile Per- 
 petua was away with Angela, to tell them her story. 
 
 "With all pleasure," he replied. "Angela is "the 
 eldest of three daughters. Her father, Mr. S. W. Jones, 
 is a man of large fortune and eminent for his professional 
 skill. He married a yoimg lady whose misfortime it was 
 to be a belle and an heiress ; one whose education was 
 all of the head and nothing of the heart. It was a vmion 
 of fortunes and not of affections. Their children were 
 brought up by nurses in infancy, and by teachers of 
 fashionable schools during the important years of child- 
 hood. The father was necessarily occuined by important 
 pm'suits, and the mother thus rid herself of her children, 
 whom she regarded as dead weights upon her pleasures, 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 233 
 
 and whom she cared not to see about her until they 
 were ready to take their places in society, and add to 
 the attractions of her parlors. The season was approach- 
 ing when Angela would be ready to make her dcbut^ 
 when her mother became suddenly deeply impressed 
 with the necessity of takmg her daughter to Paris ; for 
 she was shocked to find Angela was wanting in a perfect 
 pronunciation of French. The secret of all her solici- 
 tude was an earnest desire to reside awhile in Paris. 
 Her husband was made to see that this absence from 
 home was a first necessity, and he at last consented to 
 be left behind. 
 
 " On reaching Paris, Mr. Jones's banker soon placed 
 Mrs. Jones in a hotel of her own, with aU the splendid 
 appliances which money can buy in that great city. Mas- 
 ters were called in, of course, for the young ladies, 
 who really had little to learn as to the true pronun- 
 ciation of the French language; for they had had in 
 their school, as one of their teachers, a Parisian lady 
 of eminent attaimnents in her native language and litera- 
 ture. 
 
 " Angela now became her mother's companion in her 
 rides, her morning visits ; and her evening parties. The 
 lavish expenditures of Mrs. Jones made her saloons 
 attractive. Among the crowd of elegant society into 
 M'hich she was introduced, and who made one of her 
 visiting acquaintance, was Count Gratz, an attache of 
 the Austiian embassy in Paris, who in due time became 
 
234 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 the familiar friend of Madame and tbe sliadow of my 
 charge. 
 
 " Count Gratz was a young man of twenty-three. His 
 family was as ancient as that of the Pucklers to whom he 
 was allied, and which for eight centuries had preserved 
 the purity of its blood free from all admixture. The- 
 count was a yoimger son of slender means, for the family 
 had, with many others, been impoverished by the armies 
 of Napoleon. He was a Catholic, or to sj)eak strictly, a 
 Romanist, and earnestly attached to his church. When 
 first introduced to Angela, he was attracted by her 
 beautiful truthfulness and simplicity, so strikingly in con- 
 trast with the artificial and brilliant manners of French 
 society. He made the discovery, and a painful one it 
 was, that she was no Catholic. Without design he 
 undertook to labor for her conversion. That was aU. It 
 was so pitiful to see one so lovely, so good and pure, out 
 of the pale of the only true church ! Had the idea been 
 presented to him then, that he would have been tempted 
 to ally his name with that of Angela's, he would have 
 left Paris and its fascinations the next morning. It did 
 not. Unconsciously to himself his own affections were 
 enlisted, and he had enlisted the affections of Angela. 
 At balls, or at the opera, or at parties, the count and 
 Angela would fall into long talks, and become oblivious 
 of all about them. Madame Jones did not see it ; for she 
 was herself too entirely occupied by the whispering 
 attentions of Baron Grimme, the friend of Count Gratz, 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 235 
 
 a man of high rank and devoted to the admiration of 
 women, who gave good dinners, and hot suppers after 
 returning from the opera. The young friends of the 
 count gave him credit for the same high appreciation of 
 the elegances of the mother's hotel. Now, I know that 
 the chief topic of all these long conversations was all 
 about the mysteries of the Romish church. It was 
 delightful to Angela to be told by the comit that she 
 had a soul to be saved. She had a vague idea of 
 this sort, as most young ladies have,. but it never was 
 realized by her before, and she became anxious that his 
 wishes should be gratified. It was not long before the 
 count expressed a wish that she should go to confession 
 as a first step towards obtaining the grace of a true 
 faith. Changmg her religion was to Angela no great 
 gulf to be crossed on the edge of a sword. The count 
 made no such a request as that she should become a 
 Catholic, but simply expressed a wish that she should 
 see an eminent minister whose church was near their 
 hotel. To this confessor Angela was duly presented, 
 and while the count was saying his prayers before the 
 high altar for the conversion of Angela she was making 
 her first confession. Thus it was that these young hearts 
 were being united m the bonds of love, by a sweet and 
 tender union of their sympathies in the great matter of 
 the soul's salvation. The count now became solicitous 
 that Angela should receive the sacrament of communion 
 from her confesisor, Father Joseph, in the Catholic 
 
236 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 church. To this she deferred compliance unless the 
 count would allow her to ask the consent of her mother. 
 
 " The count, who perfectly understood the character of 
 the mother, entreated Angela to take counsel of her own 
 conscience. It was always sweet to Angela thus to hear 
 the count's earnest persuasions for her to become a true 
 Catholic ; for with a woman's intuitions she saw in this 
 the depth of his love. She could not be made to see 
 that there was no salvation out of the pale of the Roman 
 church ; but then she was sure of being saved in it, 
 especially when she had one so pious as her confessor, 
 and more than all, the count to aid her in her faith. 
 
 " There was something clandestine to Angela in joining 
 the church without the consent of her mother, and she 
 told the count that she must teU her mother of her pur- 
 pose. Seeing the mind of Angela resolute, he asked 
 her permission to see her mother, and having declared 
 his wishes to obtain her sanction to his love for her 
 daughter. This had been for weeks the purpose of 
 Coimt Gratz. He had long since made the discovery of 
 his love to Angela, and his heart had been brought to 
 look upon an alliance at first as a matter possible, next, 
 as probable, and last of all, desirable ; but he felt a deep 
 repugnance to this mterview. 
 
 "During this tete-a-tete with Angela, the count was 
 greatly moved. Asking all she did of a lover, Angela 
 was for the first time content. The depths of the 
 count's soul were broken up. There was now no longer 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 237 
 
 a withholding, a reserve which she had felt in former 
 interviews with him. She was siare that her love to him 
 was what his love was to her — dearer than life itself. His 
 soul was full of forebodings of the consequences which 
 would follow his avowal to the mother, but Angela 
 dehghted herself in dispelling these doubts; assuring 
 him that her mother would do everything to promote 
 his wishes. But all in vain ; the dark shadows still 
 rested on the soul of Count Gratz. It seemed as if he 
 beheved Angela would be spirited away from him, and 
 that this was their last meeting. My sweet charge wept, 
 but her tears Avere those of joy, mingled with sympathiz- 
 insf sorrow — fjlad to be so loved ! 
 
 " The next day the count made his avoAval of love for 
 Angela in his morning visit to Mrs. Jones. She was 
 surprised, but listened to all he had to say with the utmost 
 courtesy. lie told her of his fxmily, his fortune and his 
 purposes. Mrs. Jones took not the slightest exception 
 to his honest avowal that he was not wealthy, and ex- 
 pressed her high sense of the honor he had conferred 
 upon herself and family. She said it was proper before 
 any engagement Avas announced, or even understood 
 between Angela and himself, that Mr. Jones should be 
 consulted. That she would take the earliest opportunity 
 to do so. 
 
 " The count had every reason to be satisfied so far as 
 words went ; but he read duplicity beneath the mask 
 worn by Mrs. Jones, and left her presence with many 
 
238 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 painful surmises that his fears on the last evening would 
 become livmg realities. 
 
 " The week that followed was marked by no change in 
 the manners of Mrs. Jones towards the count. No 
 change was made in the social life of the family, and yet 
 Mrs. Jones was all the while making arrangements for 
 her dej^arture. In order to relieve herself from the pre- 
 sence of her daughters, she accepted an invitation of 
 some friends to take them on a visit to the ancient city 
 of Tours. Angela was glad to go, for the count had 
 gone at his own request with important dispatches to 
 Vienna. He told Angela privately that his object was 
 to communicate his plans to his family. 
 
 " Angela and her sisters were recalled after a week's 
 absence by a letter from their mother, saying it was of 
 the first importance that they should be in Paris on a 
 given day, and that she wished them to return on the 
 day previous. They did so, and found their trunks 
 packed and sent to Havre under the care of one of their 
 servants, and that they were to go in the steamer sailing 
 the day following. Angela's first thought was to seek out 
 Father Joseph, her confessor, and tell him of her griefs. 
 This she did without stint. He sought to discover the 
 motive for the sudden departure of her mother ; but 
 Angela could tell him nothing. He exhorted her to con- 
 tinue tnie to the Church of God, and she entreated him 
 to tell the comit of all her grief at being separated from 
 him. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 239 
 
 " On returning to the hotel she sat up till near day- 
 break writing a letter to the count. It was often begun 
 and often destroyed, until at last she grew desperate, 
 and wrote out of the fullness of her soul all her love and 
 all her Avretchedness. This letter she carefully sealed, 
 and then lay down to weep herself asleep. The next 
 day her mother was early with her, and when Angela 
 gave her letter to a servant to give it to Connt Gratz on 
 his return, she was not inattentive. Sending Angela up 
 stairs on an errand, she sent for the man and told him 
 her daughter had requested the letter to be given to her. 
 On receiving the letter she read it attentively, and then 
 destroyed it, and thought she had acted both wisely and 
 well. 
 
 " The count, on returning to Paris, hastened to call on 
 Mrs. Jones, and foimd the hotel already occupied by 
 new tenants. His proud soul told him he was the cause 
 of this sudden return to America. A letter from Mrs. 
 Jones was placed in his hands the day following, by her 
 banker, in which she said, ha\dng reviewed all the 
 embarrassments attending the union of Angela Avith a 
 foreign nobleman, whose fortunes were to be made, and 
 whose home must be in Euroj^e, thus separating Angela 
 from her fither and family, she had concluded it best for 
 both parties to take Angela home. She beheved the count 
 would be grateful to her for saving him from an alliance 
 which could not but mar liis fortunes. This letter 
 wounded him Jto the quick, for he had commmiicated hia 
 
240 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 plans to his father and mother, and they had with the 
 greatest reluctance consented to such an alliance ; for they 
 had said to him that they felt it to be the first blot on 
 the fiimily records. And now to be discarded by such a 
 woman as Mrs. Jones, made his blood hot with rage. 
 In such a state of mind. Father Joseph called upon him, 
 and told him all he had to say of the grief and love of 
 Angela. It was pleasant to know that this sweet girl 
 was true in her devotion to him. He did not doubt it, 
 and it was oil upon his troubled spirits to receive this 
 assurance from Father Joseph, who bore with exemplary 
 patience his oft repeated cross-examinations, until every 
 look had been recalled and described. 
 
 " And now was instantly developed a desire long re- 
 pressed, to devote his life to God by becoming a monk. 
 To this he had been devoted by his mother at his birth ; 
 but the boy was ambitious of honors, and his father hav- 
 ing secured him a place at court, she was compelled to 
 sacrifice her hopes. These had been fostered by splen- 
 did promises made to her by a brother who stood high 
 at Rome, as one of the cardmals and ministers of the 
 pope. The count determined never to cross the Atlan- 
 tic in search of Angela. He believed the husband and 
 the wife must be alike incapable of appreciating the 
 honor he had, by the force of love, been made wiUiug 
 to confer upon them by an alliance with their child. 
 There was the end of all hopes of happiness on earth, 
 and now he would devote himself to God and the 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WOKLD. 241 
 
 church. Resigniug his position in the embassy, he 
 liastened to Rome and was received mth open arms 
 by his uncle, the cardinal. He told him of his purpose 
 to be a priest, and of his desire to be a missionary 
 among the Indians of Paraguay. The cardinal was 
 delighted. He was content that his nephew should 
 devote some years as a missionary. It would give 
 him reputation at Rome. He would be able to put him 
 in proper training, and to recall him at the proper time, 
 to succeed him in his honors and office at Rome. He 
 saw that some great disappomtment had come over his 
 handsome relative, doubtless a love affair ; but as the 
 count was silent, he made no inquiries. Indeed, he 
 needed no such aid ; for sending to one of his friends in 
 Paris, at the end of a month, he knew all that Father 
 Joseph could tell, concerning his love for and loss of 
 Angela. 
 
 " The cardinal delayed the consecration of the count, 
 so that he should become acquainted with the pope and 
 the conclave. He was much admired by the ladies of 
 Rome, who thought it a great loss to society that so 
 young and handsome a person as the count, should go 
 on a mission to the miserable Indians of South America. 
 It added greatly to the sensation produced by the 
 count, that he could not be persuaded to give up his 
 purpose of devoting his whole life to the conversion of 
 naked Indians. 
 
 " Count Gratz was much caressed by his holiness the 
 11 
 
242 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 IDope and liis cardiBals, and by the gay circles of Rome. 
 Had he been permitted to do so, he would probably 
 have given up his mission to St. Ignacio, on the Rio de 
 la Plata. But this Avas not the wish of the cardinal. 
 The count, therefore, laid aside his title and became 
 Father Ernest; and with every possible care of his 
 future wants, and in company with a learned monk, 
 belonging to the cardinal's own household, whom he 
 detailed to be the companion of his nephew — but who 
 was in fact to become his instructor in theology — the 
 count left home for Paris. While in Paris, he gave in 
 charge to Father Joseph, a packet for Angela which 
 he had prepared and sealed the day previous to his 
 consecration as a priest. After a short stay, he left for 
 Havre, and sailed for Buenos Ayres. 
 
 " On reaching St. Ignacio, Father Ernest found himself 
 among an ignorant race of mixed breeds, whose lan- 
 guage he could not speak, and which it was his first 
 business to learn ; and there he is now at work, nomi- 
 nally laboring for the conversion of the Indians of Para- 
 guay; but really readiug the great Latin fathers, and 
 writing sermons under the guidance of Father Am- 
 brose." 
 
 " And how are the plans of the cardinal to be accom- 
 plished?" asked Calliste. 
 
 " I was once in the cabinet of the cardinal when he 
 was talkmg over his plans with Father Ambrose, whom 
 he had enlisted by promises of preferment in the churcli. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 243 
 
 He expressed the hope that Father Ambrose would 
 make his nephew a respectable theologian in three to 
 five years ; and so soon as the young father could do 
 himself honor, of which Ambrose was to advise him, he 
 would procure an autograph letter from the pope to 
 Ernest, requesting him to prepare a series of sermons for 
 Lent, to be preached in the church of St. Giovanni, in 
 Rome. The composition of these discourses would 
 require him to call up the audience to whom his sermons 
 were to be read, and Father Ambrose was to tell hun, 
 that should they be approved, he would be sent for to 
 preach them. This exercise the cardhial believed would 
 naturally revive in his nephew all. his love of elegant 
 society ; and his zeal in the conversion of Indians having 
 long since been obliterated by the hopelessness of 
 doing any good, he would rejoice to be once more 
 in Rome. As his recall would be by command of the 
 pope, Ernest would find himself regarded as a martyr 
 missionary ; and as such would hold a high rank among 
 the pietists of the church everywhere, and by the time 
 he was forty he would certainly be a bishop. All which 
 seems to me probable." 
 
 " What wonderful skill these wily cardinals have of 
 making men automatons !" exclaimed Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " They certainly have," replied Mishael. " Some of 
 their great works, showmg all the ways of operation upon 
 the minds of men and women, and which are studied by 
 the students of Jesuit seminaries, are never to be printed, 
 
244 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 but are multiplied in manuscripts. It would produce a 
 world-wide sensation should they ever be made pub- 
 lic." * 
 
 "Will you please continue your narrative of dear 
 Angela," said Calliste. 
 
 " Oh, do not leave off with the count until you tell us 
 whether he still loves Angela," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 Mishael bowed to Mrs. Jay, and went on thus : " As a 
 priest he has taken the vow of celibacy, though he. 
 hourly thinks of Angela, in his prayers for her conver- 
 sion. Surrounded as he is with miserable native women, 
 Angela shines in his memory with the brilliancy of the 
 evening star. How. it will be when he shall return to 
 Italy, and is again surrounded with lovely ladies, and 
 treated with all that charming confidence bestowed by 
 them upon monsignori of Rome, I cannot say ; but I 
 have many fears he will forget his first love, and, it may 
 be, make shipwreck of his soul." 
 
 " And will she be living on in this bright world hoping 
 for a reunion of souls ?" asked Mrs. Jay. " Please 
 inform me and these friends of mine," pointing to 
 
 * Will the reader ponder and weigh well the testimony of the great French his- 
 torian, Michelet, who says : " The manuscript books which form the course of a 
 student of theology, contain matter the boldest have never dared publish." 
 Speaking of those that are printed, he says : " They furnish a set of questions by 
 which a confessor can search a woman's inmost thoughts, compel her to sift her 
 own secrets, to give them up entire, to open her heart fibre by fibre, thread by 
 thread, so to speak, unravel before him, the whole skein, which he, thenceforward, 
 holds in his own hands." — Michelet : Priest, Women cund Families, chap. ii. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 2-15 
 
 Mr. Laurens and Peter, " for vre are all new arrivals 
 here," 
 
 Mishael replied : " Angela will find her love for the 
 count fixdiug from out her soul should her lover fail of 
 the grace of salvation, and she will be happy in the love 
 of God — glorying that she is forever and ever ' complete 
 in him.' " 
 
 " And now," continued Mishael, " I will return to 
 the story of my dear Angela," to which all bowed 
 assent. 
 
 " Angela, on reaching home, told her father all that 
 was in her heart. lie listened with profound spupathy, 
 and while he felt sad that his child's affections were 
 placed upon one whose home must be on the other side 
 of the Atlantic, yet he assured Angela he would sacrifice 
 every wish of his heart for the promotion of her happi- 
 ness, lie made many inquiries, and so ascertained that 
 his wife had neglected all the precautions he had urged 
 upon her, to save Angela from any attachment which 
 would separate her from her family and country. When 
 he communicated to his wife all he had heard, with 
 severe reproaches of her utter neglect of her children's 
 and his own happiness while abroad, she replied, defiantly, 
 that she had not the eyes of Argus, and if she had it was 
 impossible for her to be but in one place at a time. 
 It was a most unsatisfactory colloquy to Mi\ Jones. lie 
 saw more and more from all that his wife said in 
 defence of her ignorance of what was transpiring under 
 
24G THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 her cttTi eye, that she had been regardful only of her 
 own pleasures. 
 
 " Mr. Jones was silent for awhile, meditating on what 
 he had heard and what it was his duty to do. He saw 
 that his dear child had heen innocently beguiled into an 
 attachment which would separate her from her family 
 But Angela had said her hai^piness was at stake, and at 
 all sacrifice of his own wishes, she should be upheld by 
 him with all the love, sympathy and support he had to 
 bestow. When he had reached this result, he made 
 known his purposes should Count Gratz seek liis Angela. 
 This brought forth the loudest complaints from Mrs. 
 Jones. She, who Avas proud of her superiority of rank 
 among the democracy around her, tracing her line to a 
 signer of the Declaration of Independence, saw nothing 
 to commend a young man without fortune, though of 
 one of the noblest families of Germany. 
 
 " The fashionable season was about to open, and Mrs. 
 Jones was desirous of making a grand display of the 
 millinery she had brought from Paris, and this she could 
 best do by bringing out Angela. In this she was utterly 
 disappointed. Angela was sick at heart, waiting for let- 
 ters from Paris, and would not go out into society, nor 
 consent to have any parties made for her, either by her 
 mother or her relatives. This was the first resistance to 
 her will this lady had met with in the management of 
 her family affairs. Her husband she had always made 
 to bend to her decrees, but not so now. Mr. Jones took 
 
SCENES IN ANOTBEK WOELD. 
 
 247 
 
 part with Angela, and severe Avas the punishment iii- 
 flicted upon his lady when she found her plans frustrated. 
 Mr. Jones' love for Angela, and his sympathy in her 
 silent sorrow of heart, made him a lion in her defence ; 
 and for the first time in her life did Mrs. Jones quail 
 before her incensed husband, 
 
 " One Sunday morning, as Angela was about to leave 
 the confessional in the church of St. Thomas, the priest 
 placed in her hands a packet sealed in black, bearing the 
 arms of Coimt Gratz. She hastened home and ran up 
 into her chamber, laying the packet upon her dressing- 
 table while she divested herself of her bonnet and furs. 
 She looked at these seals, and hesitated—' what could 
 they mean ?' but whoever was dead her dear Ernest was 
 alive, and had addressed this package to her. Seating 
 herself on a sofa, she broke the seals, and there was a 
 letter from the count, which she opened with joyful 
 haste. The first sentence drove the color from her 
 cheek and she fiiinted. I read the letter. It was brief. 
 The count told her of his love and deep despair. That 
 he had determined to devote his life as a missionary to 
 the Indians of Paraguay, and would take the vows of 
 celibacy on the morrow. He sent her a set of beads 
 which he had received from the pope in person, and he 
 concluded by beseeching her to become a religieuse and 
 to ' meet him in heaven.' The beads had attached a 
 diamond cross. This last gift of her lover lay at the feet 
 of Angela, and was the first object which attracted her 
 
248 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 attention as she wakened out of her state of insensibility. 
 Rousing herself she took up the letter and read it and 
 re-read it. Then she kissed the beads which had been 
 blessed by the pope himself, for so had the count written 
 m his letter. She sat meditating ; living ages in a sin- 
 gle hour, until her soul was all aroused, and kneeling 
 down she consecrated herself to God ; in which act of 
 devotion her spirit was lifted far above all the sorrows 
 and wretchedness w^hich had shrouded her for months 
 past. This state of exaltation lasted for days. ' She had 
 lost her lover on earth but she would meet him in 
 heaven !' Life now appeared but as a dream, and she 
 felt that she stood on the threshold of eternity. 
 
 "Angela concealed her beads and cross, and the 
 count's letter, and made instant arrangements for be- 
 coming a nun. She visited all her relatives with a 
 smiling countenance. They were delighted to see the 
 rosy hue once more upon her pale cheek ; and such was 
 the sweet flow of affection expressed by Angela, that 
 there was a general rejoicing for her restoration to 
 society. Such it appeared to her family and their near 
 relatives and friends. 
 
 "A month had elapsed since the packet of Count 
 Gratz had been received, when Easter Sunday came, 
 and the family as usual drove down town to attend 
 church, leaving Angela at home ; for she had been to 
 morning mass and had returned before they left. She 
 permitted her mother and sisters to leave the house 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER Wv)KLD. 24:9 
 
 \\'itliout any sign of emotion ; but when handing her 
 father his hat, she could restrain herself no longer; 
 throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him, 
 she burst into tears. She ran up stairs on the instant, 
 and Mr. Jones stood in doubt what to do ; when the 
 servant came in from the carriage, with a message from 
 his wife that she was waiting for him. ' Poor Angela !' 
 sighed the father as he put on his hat and buttoned up 
 his coat to go. 
 
 " At dinner, Angela did not appear ; but as she rarely 
 dined with the family on Sundays — it being her custom 
 to go to church in the afternoon, no notice was taken of 
 her absence. Mr. Jones left the house for his usual 
 walk, Mrs. Jones took her siesta, and the sisters, not 
 knowing w^hat else to do, went up to their chamber. 
 After remaining there awhile, they strolled into their 
 sister's chamber ; and seeing her drawers all open, they 
 looked in, and saw slips of paper pinned to her dresses 
 and collars, with their names and those of their cousins, 
 indicating for whom they were designed, with a note to 
 each requesting their acceptance of these gifts. Filled 
 with wonder, they went down to their mother's room ; 
 and wakening her, told her what they had seen. The 
 mother roused herself in alarm ; and when she had 
 reached the chamber of Angela, and had examined her 
 drawers and opened her wardrobe, and saw slips pinned 
 to every article of dress, and had read these farewell 
 notes of love from Angela, the idea of a suicide came 
 
 11* 
 
250 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 like a flash of lightning into her mind, and she swooned. 
 The children's cries brouglit up the servants, and thus 
 the departure of Angela became known to the house- 
 hold ; and before night it was a matter of speculation on 
 both sides of the square. 
 
 " Mr. Jones, on his return home, was met at the door 
 by his daughters in tears. Leading them into the parlor 
 he sought to quiet them of their grief, so as to enable 
 them to tell him what had happened. They told him all 
 tbey kncAv ; and that their mother had said Angela had 
 drowned herself This idea Mr. Jones resented. He 
 knew his child had done nothing unworthy of herself. 
 On entering liis wife's chamber, he found her in a highly 
 excited state of mind;, she declared her belief that 
 Angela had made away with herself. Mr. Jones ordered 
 his wife to be silent ; he would not hear such words from 
 her ; and told her, that the public woidd hold her to a 
 severe accoimt for whatever might have taken jjlace — a 
 singular remark fur him to make at such a time as this, 
 but that he knew this to be the only tribunal before 
 whom his wife feared to be arraigned ; for, odd as it may 
 seem to you, Mrs. Jones claimed to be a pattern woman, 
 and was ambitious of being so regarded in the circles of 
 good society, in which she was a shining light. 
 
 " Night came on apace, and Mr. Jones Avaited in silence 
 for the return of his child till long past midnight, when 
 he reluctantly retired to rest ; and though when awake 
 be chnsed away the surmises of his M-ife, asleep his 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOULD. 251 
 
 dreams were full of horrors. With the dawn of day the 
 entire family were up and dressed. Mrs. Jones was for 
 employing the police, and even suggested the street- 
 crier being sent about to cry her lost child ; for she was 
 restive under this state of incertitude. Mr. Jones would 
 do nothing of the sort. He sent a message to all the 
 family relatives to come to his house as early as nine 
 o'clock, on imjiortant business. These missives were 
 promptly complied with, and at that hour the parlor was 
 full of uncles, aimts and cousins, all whispering to each 
 other concerning the disappearance of Angela, Mhen Mr. 
 Jones and his brother entered ; as for Mrs. Jones, as the 
 easiest way of avoiding the mortification of such a meet- 
 ing, she sent an apology that she was too much indisposed 
 to see any one. Mr. Jones told them Avhat had happened, 
 and asked if they could aid him to discover what had 
 become of his child. After a little hesitancy, they gave 
 their guesses, and the reasons for such guesses ; and it 
 was wonderful how much they had gathered up of the 
 story of Count Gratz and his love of Angela, from theii- 
 friends who were residents in Paris at the same time, and 
 on familiar intercourse with Mrs. Jones in that city. 
 
 "While they were thus conversing and comparing 
 observations, a man came to the door with a letter ad- 
 dressed to Mr. Jones. This was brought in by a servant 
 woman who had received it. As soon as his eye caught 
 the direction of the letter, Mr. Jones rose and ex- 
 claimed, 'Tliaiik God, she is safe!' The servant hear- 
 
252 THE GATES WIDE Ol'EX; OR, 
 
 ing this, ran up to lier mistress with the glad news. Mr. 
 Jones was reading the letter with eagerness, and that ho 
 was troubled by what he read was seen in his fea- 
 tures, and the tears which rose to his eyes, when Mrs. 
 Jones rushed into the room and almost rudely seizing 
 her husband's arms in her imj^atience, cried, ' Where is 
 she?' Mr. Jones having glanced over the remainmg 
 portion of the letter, folded it up, and with cuttmg cold- 
 ness, addressing his wife, said: 'Angela has gone from 
 us never to return. This, madam, is the last sad result 
 of your life in Paris.' Then turning to his relatives, he 
 said : ' My sweet child, as you aU know, while in Paris 
 became attached to a younger son of a noble family of 
 Austria. His avowals were listened to by Mrs. Jones 
 with courtesy, and he received her assurances that she 
 would lay his proj)osals before me, and that they had 
 her entire approval. This done, the count having gone 
 to Vienna to see his family, Angela was hurried home ; 
 but not before she had, poor girl ! seen her confessor, and 
 commmiicated all she knew. On returniBg to Paris, this 
 gentleman was told of the departure of Angela, and 
 received a note from Mrs. Jones, saying she never would 
 consent to her daughter making a love match, and what 
 else I do not know ; for that such a note had been writ- 
 ten was unknown to me till this morning. Outraged 
 and deeply mortified, Count Gratz resigned his position 
 in Paris, and hastened to Rome, where he has an uncle, 
 a cardinal and a minister of state, in order to take the 
 
sci:ni:s in anothkr wokld. 253 
 
 orders of the pvicstliood. This he has done, and is now 
 on his Avay to Paraguay as a missionary. In a letter 
 recently received by Angela, so she writes m this letter, 
 he exhorted her to become a nnn, that in heaven their 
 union might be made perfect. Angela has become a 
 nun. She took the veil yesterday, and is thus lost to us 
 forever.' 
 
 "No sooner had Mrs. Jones heard this than her 
 tongue found a theme on which to discourse with fluency 
 and energy. She urged her husband to take legal steps 
 to recover Angela ; and if these should fail, then to 
 rouse a mob and tear down the walls of this prison- 
 house, with its bars and bolts. As Mrs. Jones found 
 relief in this outburst of passion, she was indulged in it 
 to the full ; after which Mr. Jones again addressed his 
 relatives in these words: 'My dear friends, no one can 
 more deeply deplore the step taken by Angela than 
 myself. She is of age, and has acted in accordance with 
 the pleadings of a hopeless love, and I must submit. 
 Let who will indulge in reproaches, Angela will hear 
 none from me. May God bless her sorrowing heart with 
 the light of his countenance and the joy of his salvation!' 
 So saying, he took his brother's arm, and bowing to all, left 
 the room. Mrs. Jones then again endeavored to get up 
 a party for tearing down the convent, but without suc- 
 cess. The relatives retiring left her alone to her own 
 thoughts ; and though these were not pleasant, they 
 were not reproachful of herself. 
 
254 THE GATES "V7IDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " And now I must return to ray charge. Angela in 
 making her arrangements had secured the aid of a catho- 
 lic lady, belonging to the circle of her mother's friends, 
 who had her carriage in readiness at 12 o'clock; and 
 when Angela came to her house, went with her to the 
 convent of the Sacred Heart, where her confessor had 
 made all the arrangements for her reception. The lady 
 al)bess felt that this was a case demanding instant compli- 
 ance ; and Angela, at the evening service, was invested 
 Avith the white veil. This done, she gave to her lady- 
 friend the letter she had prepared for her father, which 
 was forwarded by one of her servants, as I have already 
 told you. 
 
 "Angela, in Paris, was in the bloom of beauty ; joyous 
 and happy ; the playfulness of her mt, and the lovable- 
 ncss of her character, constituted her the central attrac- 
 tion of her mother's circle. Everybody loved Angela, 
 and Angela loved everybody. But on her return home, 
 all her buoyancy was gone. Her rosy complexion be- 
 came pale and sallow, and signs of a hectic were seen by 
 her father w^hose sympathies were all enlisted in the for- 
 tunes of his lovely daughter. He only was acquainted 
 with all that Angela had to tell. He desired to write to 
 Count Gratz, and to express his approval of his union 
 with Angela ; but she felt the count owed it to her, to 
 reply to the letter she had left for him — the letter her 
 mother had destroyed. And thus the months rolled on 
 till Count Gratz's packet came. Her soul rose to a 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 255 
 
 height of heavenly repose, so soon as she had consecrat- 
 ed herself to God. The mystery of life to her was now 
 solved ; and her enthusiasm gave a lustre to her eye and 
 a flush to her cheek, which filled the heart of her father 
 with gladness. But when the vow was taken, and the 
 newness of a nun's life had worn away, the signs of de- 
 cline became more and more apparent. Her father and 
 sisters came every week to see her; and she hstened 
 with a grieved heart to their entreaties to return home 
 and make them happy once more. She longed for the 
 months to roll on, when the black veil would save her 
 from these sad importunities. She was zealous of her 
 duties, and met the pains and penalties of a nun's life 
 with cheerful submission. It was evident to all that she 
 could not maintain the rigor she had assumed ; and her 
 mental conflicts increased with her dimmished bodily 
 strength. Her soul was often in darkness ; at times, 
 repining against the pro^ddence of God ; as Avhen the 
 recollections of the comit and their happy life in Paris 
 came up before her so vi\adly, that it was all but reality. 
 These day-dreams she repelled as the uastigations of the 
 devil. Poor child! she did not know that these were 
 the necessary results of her debility. But it was my 
 privilege to call up before her mind, sweet visions of the 
 heavenly world; and when she awoke, she wept that she 
 was yet alive. And thus the months rolled on ; and dis- 
 ease -wnth stealthy steps advanced. Angela was looking 
 forward to Easter Sunday, when her novitiate would be 
 
256 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 ended and she should take the black veil ; as if that vow 
 would shut out of her heart all its loA^es and memories 
 of the past. Passion Sunday came, and Angela was 
 unable to rise from her pallet. Her eyes shone brightly 
 with the fever which was consuming her life. She was 
 very happy in her meditations of the love and death of 
 Christ. Her mind had been enhghtened by the Holy 
 Spirit ; and when the lady superior came to her bedside 
 with her kind inquiries, the eloquence of the novice, as 
 she spoke of her joy of faith, filled this lady with admir- 
 ing wonder. But I linger in my tale — let me hasten to 
 a close, 
 
 " It was but a week that she was confined to her bed. 
 The nuns who waited around her, saw vnih awe the 
 light of immortality shining from out her eyes. She 
 loved to lie in silent reverie, looking up with such a 
 fixedness of gaze, that the nuns who gathered around 
 her bed were sure she had a vision of angels. And 
 when once they whisjDered to her, ' Sister Angela, are 
 the heavens opened to you ?' She replied, ' There is a 
 pencil of light streaming down from the thi'one of God, 
 filling my soul with joy unspeakable and fall of glory.' * 
 It was a sweet, trance-like state of repose. 
 
 " Although this was all beautiful and saint-like, yet it 
 became a matter of j^ainful regret to the lady superior 
 and her nuns, that Angela had as yet no vision of the 
 
 * This was the happy experience of that eminent saint, Mrs. Edwards, the wife 
 of Jonathan Edwards, the great divine. 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WOKLD. 257 
 
 Blessed Virgin and lier child. Tliey, therefore, con- 
 sulted the priests of the monastery near by ; who, after 
 mature deliberation, believed that if the relics of St. 
 Bridget, of famous memory, of which the convent had 
 the veritable cross-bones, were, with fitting ceremonies, 
 taken from beneath the altar, and should be laid upon the 
 breast of Angela, they would purge the films from her eyes. 
 This was accordingly done, and Angela thanked them 
 for this smgular expression of their love and sympathy. 
 
 " ' Do you not now see the Blessed Virgin, Angela ?' 
 asked Father Bonner. 
 
 " Angela, who lay feeble as an infant, smiled, but did 
 not answer. 
 
 " ' You do see the Mother of God !' cried Father Bon- 
 ner, exultingly. 
 
 " ' I see Jesus !' whispered Angela. 
 
 " And so it was, after waiting till patience Avas ex- 
 hausted, Father Bonner took the relics from the breast 
 of Angela, and with a sad heart returned them to theu* 
 shrine.* 
 
 " On the Monday following Angela's father came out 
 
 * Robert Fortune, Esq , in his recent work, published in London, 1857, entitled 
 " A Residence among the Chinese," chap, ii., gives an account of the idols wor- 
 shipped by the Buddhists of China, he says : " The Queen of Heaven (Kwiin-yin) 
 with her child in her arms, was the only idol that did not seem to frown. 
 Some have supposed that this image represents the Virgin Mary and infant 
 Saviour, and argue from this that Buddhism and Christianity have been mixed up 
 in the formation of the JJuddhist religion ; or that the earlier Buddhists in Thibet 
 and India have had some slight glimmerings of the Christian faith." — P. 89. 
 From a remote period, anterior to the Christian era, these people have had their 
 
258 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 unaccompanied to see her. He was grieved to see his 
 child had reached this closing stage of her decline. He 
 was convinced she wonld never leave her couch alive ; 
 and when he spoke to her of his fears, she replied, that 
 she had long since given up the exi^ectation of taking the 
 black veil. 
 
 " ' Alas ! dear child, you are about to be enshrouded 
 with the veil of the tomb, and will be forever hid from 
 our eyes.' 
 
 " ' Not forever, my dear father,' said Angela ; ' Oh, 
 no, not forever !' 
 
 " Angela now requested the nuns, some of whom were 
 ever present, to raise her head so that she might sit up 
 awhile. When this was done, laying her hands in her 
 iather's, she said, ' I wish, my father, you could reaUze 
 what a dream is life. I wonder that I have been so 
 grieved by the loss of my hopes of happiness on earth. I 
 see now that this great grief has brought me to the cross 
 of Christ. Dying ! what is it, dear father ? I have in my 
 soul the highest exercise of consciousness that my life is 
 hid with Christ in God, and when he who is my life 
 shall appear, then shall I also appear with him in glory." 
 
 "Angela earnestly entreated her father to devote him- 
 
 monasteries, and monks who wear a rosary, and use them in their devotions in 
 the same way as in Catholic countries, to the great astonishmeut of St. Francis 
 Xavier and the early Jesuit missionaries. See account of Cochin China, in Pinker- 
 ton's Collection, vol. ix., p. 762. After describing the monks and the nuns and 
 their customs and modes of worship, the missionary says, naively, " So near hae 
 the devil endeavored to imitate ms." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 259 
 
 self to the service of God. There had been until now 
 an insurmountable harrier which prevented her pouring 
 out all that was m her heart to her father. This was all 
 removed. With the utmost fluency and ease she sought 
 to enlist her flither to make the salvation of his soul and 
 of those dear to them both, the chief concern of his life. 
 And when, fearing to exhaust her strength, he proposed 
 to leave her, she said, ' Not yet, father, I have one last 
 request to make. This diamond cross,' holding it up as 
 she spoke from her bosom, ' and this rosary were sent to 
 me by Count Gratz in the letter he addressed to me 
 the day before he assumed the habit. I have a letter 
 which I wrote the week before I made my profession, 
 which I wish you to send him, accomi^anied by this cross 
 and these beads. The cross you will take from my neck, 
 and the rosary will be found at my side. My letter I 
 will now place in your hands, and I shall sleep all the 
 sweeter, dearest father, knowing that you have received 
 this my last request.' 
 
 " The letter was taken from a bureau by a nun, at the 
 request of Angela, and handed to her. After having 
 looked at the superscription, she gave it to her father. 
 Many memories of the past rushed mto the rriind of An- 
 gela as she held this letter in her hand, and imagined the 
 circumstances which would attend its delivery ; the emo- 
 tions it would induce in the mind of Count Gratz, and 
 the sad satisfaction he would receive in knowing that his 
 wishes had been met. 
 
260 THE gatp:s wide open; or, 
 
 " The following days Angela was regarded as in a dy- 
 ing state, but she revived again, and was able to receive 
 the last visit of her mother and sisters. To her mother 
 she said everything which could comfort her and relieve 
 her mind from all remorse concerning her conduct 
 towards Count Gratz and herself; but such was the con- 
 dition of that lady's mind, that she had little conscious- 
 ness of what was said to her by her child. Not so her 
 sisters ; they were alive to every look and every word, 
 and all the sweet expressions of Angela for their conduct 
 in life was written deeply upon their hearts : and I am 
 confident the death of Angela will be the day-da^vn of a 
 spiritual life to her family. 
 
 " Death came, and the last offices of the church were 
 administered to Angela in the presence of her father 
 and the lady superior. She was radiant with joy and 
 peace. The morning star visibly shone over her lovely 
 face. Her eyes, foil of love, were turned upon her father. 
 She wanted to speak, and all hovered around her to 
 catch her last words. Finding she was unable to do so, 
 with a sweet smile she ofiered her lips to her father for 
 his last kiss. With the utmost self-control, Mr. Jones 
 kissed his Angela again and again, and then hastened 
 out into the hall where he could vent his cries and 
 tears. 
 
 " Angela's eye followed her father as he left the room. 
 She then closed them, and crossing her hands over her 
 breast, without a sigh her soul was released. Waking 
 
SCENFS IN ANOTHER WORLD, 261 
 
 into life, she found herself clothed upon with the vesture 
 of immortality." 
 
 Calliste and Mrs. Jay thanked Mishael for his mterest- 
 ui£r narrative. 
 
 "You have said nothing, Mishael, about Angela's 
 becoming a nun, and not one word against convents," 
 said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " Guardian angels are not called upon to discuss such 
 questions. Wherever Angela went, by God's pennissive 
 will, it was my duty to follow." 
 
 " Granted, Mishael ; but you have seen the mteriors 
 of convents, and what do you think of them ?" 
 
 " I know them, madam, to be prison-houses of both 
 body and soul. Of this Angela was saved all knowledge ; 
 for the dark chambers of mystery are kept closed until 
 the black veil, like a pall, has shiit up novices in their liv- 
 ing tombs." 
 
262 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 • 
 
 Life at the Palace described — An Evening Entertainment at the Temple — A Sunset 
 described— The Sabbath— rhe Ritual Service of the Temple— A Sermon is 
 preached by John Howe, once Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell — Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter meet Mr. Howe in the Gardens— Their Colloquy — The Necessity of a 
 Crecd^Mr. Howe on Conversion — Mrs. Jay's Account of the State of the 
 Churches of Christ in the United States— Her Notion of the Work of the 
 Ministry. 
 
 The stars began to glitter in the clear skies of twilight, 
 when our friends, Peter, Laurens and Mrs. Jay, met St. 
 Perpetua, Angela and Miss Mehitable Smith upon the 
 terrace. Perpetua apologized for not rejoining them in 
 the morning, but she had been happily absorbed by 
 Angela ; whereupon Angela gratefully expressed her 
 high sense of the honor thus conferred by St. Perpetua. 
 The step of Angela was elastic, and her eyes, which had 
 been so downcast, were now radiant with joy and free- 
 dom. Miss Smith next spoke ; alluding to her first meet- 
 ing with Mrs. Jay, she said with a smile, " Tou must 
 have been amused with my remarks, Mrs. Jay. It was 
 all so new to me !" Mrs. Jay replied, " Nothing could be 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOEX,D. 203 
 
 more natural to a new comer, for slie had herself said 
 the same things to St. Perpetua on seeing for the first 
 time this doubtful recreation of fashionable life in such 
 good repute here." St. Perpetua gave Mrs. Jay a know- 
 ing look, and smiled. 
 
 While they were promenading the ten\acc, Faustinus 
 and Calliste, accompanied by Tibertius, joined them. 
 Calliste presented Angela to him, and Perpetua, in like 
 manner, Miss Smith. This done, they broke up into 
 pairs, Tibertius attending Angela ; and it was sweet 
 music in the ears of Mrs. Jay to listen to the briglit joy- 
 ous tones of Angela's voice, who Avalked immediately 
 behind her, conversing with Tibertius. JMisliacl joined 
 them, and told them that an eminent scholar who had 
 been for eight centuries studying in the school of elo- 
 quence would recite certain rhapsodies of the Homer- 
 ides, some portions of which were found woven into the 
 Iliad. This was equally delightful to our group, and 
 they aU agreed to attend. 
 
 When the chimes told the hour for these recitations, 
 the entire company in the palace began to move toward 
 the temple. 
 
 As they descended the steps, they saw the dome of 
 the tempfe, high above the trees, glowing "with hght ; 
 and when our friends entered the building, they paused 
 to admire the si)lendor of the illumination. This was in 
 itself a miracle of art. Beads of light, of dilferent 
 sizes, revealed eveiy ornament, while a noon-day radi- 
 
264 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 ance came do^yn from above, as sunshine through the 
 foliage of an over-hanging forest. 
 
 The audience Avere all in their seats, gaily conversing, 
 when some one unseen began to play on the great 
 organ. The tones were far off, but gradually drew 
 nearer, until there was a grand opening of the full organ. 
 Then it gradually diminished, now swelling as if the 
 music of military bands was heard ascending some far 
 mountain ; then it was lost, as if descending into a valley ; 
 then a strain was caught, as if reflected by the face of 
 some steep hUl, till it was heard no more. Just as the 
 ear was straining to catch another echo, the orator came 
 forward and was received with bursts of applause. 
 Never before had Mrs. Jay or Peter realized the power 
 of the voice. These ancient poems were delivered with 
 such exquisite skill, that when the recitations were over, 
 Laurens said he believed he should have known what 
 was the burden of the poem, if he had not understood a 
 word, merely by listening to the tones of the voice, and 
 watching the face of the speaker and his gestures. 
 
 It was past nine when the perfonnances ended; and 
 while the audience were retiring, our friends remained 
 to examine the interior of the temple, Ut up as it was by 
 millions of jets of flame. The effect of this illumination 
 was to reveal beauties of design concealed before. Mrs. 
 Jay spoke of this to St. Perpetua, who replied that 
 there was not a pillar, arch, or ornament which was 
 not contemplated and designed by the architect in 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIEK WOELD. 265 
 
 its double relations to sunlight and artificial illumina- 
 tion. 
 
 On coming out of the temple, Perpetua invited Cal- 
 liste and Faustinus and our friends to ascend with her- 
 self, Angela and Tibertius, to witness from the furthest 
 orb a wonderful comet, which had been reported as 
 coming towards their planetary system. This was de- 
 clined by Calliste, who said she had the promise of Mr. 
 Schlemihl and Laurens to spend the evenmg with her in 
 her own parlor ; and turning to Mrs. Jay, she expressed 
 the hope that she would go home with her. Angela 
 begged Mrs. Jay's company on their excursion, and in 
 this Tibertius united. It was a j^assage of wit and 
 entreaty between Calliste and Angela, who should retain 
 the society of Mrs. Jay ; and it was gratifying to all to 
 see the buoyancy and brilliancy already manifested by 
 the beautiful nun. That cowed and depressed demeanor, 
 seen in her bent figure on her approach to St. Perpetua, 
 was gone, and now her step was volant, and her flashing 
 eye full of gladness. The nun of the Sacred Heart of 
 Jesus was lost iu the Redeemed child of God. 
 
 Time flew fast amid scenes so various and beautiful ; 
 but there was no shadow cast over their brightest mo- 
 ments by the thought, that they Avere to come to an end. 
 Eternity was before them ; and every new joy brought 
 with it the capacity for an advance to higher happinesa 
 
 12 
 
266 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 There was no ebbing of the tide of existence, no weari- 
 ness from excess of blessedness. 
 
 As Mrs. Jay and her friends were walking together in 
 the grounds of the palace, studying the beauty of the 
 statuary and temples, they saw a great convoy of angels 
 and Redeemed floating onwards to the palace. They 
 were evidently enjoying the splendors of the hour 
 The sun had just sunk into a sea of molten gold, whUe 
 silver-capped clouds rose like mountains intervening be- 
 tween the zone ; so that this broad, illuminated belt 
 looked like a bow of promise resting on clouds of silver. 
 
 It was the closing day of the week, and these angels 
 and Redeemed whom they saw in the air were return- 
 ing from distant worlds to share in the services of the 
 Lord's day at the temple of the palace. On earth this 
 is a day, with most Christians, of penitence and prayer ; 
 but here the day was spent by all in public worship and 
 praise. In all worlds, as we have before said, there is a 
 Lord's day ; and wherever the Redeemed of earth are 
 present, they tell to unfallen beings the story of man's 
 redemption ; and this is their last and highest attain- 
 ment — to preach the Gospel of the grace of God. This 
 was the joy of Paul on earth, and is his delightful theme 
 in heaven. In whatever world the Redeemed are placed 
 for their development antl culture, all alike rejoice in the 
 hope of being at some time thus capacitated to glorify 
 their God and Saviour. 
 
 The next day was a high day at the palace ; and it 
 
SCENES IN AJSOTHEK WORLD. 2G7 
 
 was a beautiful sight to see the assembling of the angels, 
 Redeemed and servitors, with buoyant steps and coimte- 
 nances lit up with devotion, thronging to the temple. 
 
 Every part of this vast edifice was full at an early 
 hour in advance of the time for beginning the services, 
 and the great masters of music were in their places, 
 when Handel and St. Cecilia entered the choir, where- 
 upon the sublime services of this sanctuary commenced 
 by a choral anthem. This was followed by songs of 
 praise, in which the orchestra and organ, and every one 
 present, joined. This magnificent ritual of worship was 
 the work of ages. The grandest conceptions of the 
 love of God in the gift of his only Son, for the redemp- 
 tion of man, were conveyed to theu* souls by a liturgy, 
 exhibiting in itself the utmost power of language ; which 
 was intensified by the genius of the great masters, and 
 made vocal by a vast audience, all alike glowing with 
 the enthusiasm of love. Mrs. Jay and Peter sat over- 
 whelmed with emotions of gratitude to God who had 
 made them partakers of the divine nature. This service 
 ended, the orator of the day ascended the forum. He 
 was of a majestic height, and his face was noble. His 
 eye threw rays of light over the audience as he sur- 
 veyed them from the platform. There was in his bear- 
 ing a consciousness of the loftiness of his theme, Avhich 
 swelled in his breast and gleamed from his eye. The 
 attention of every one present was riveted. Stretching 
 forth his hand, the orator began : " Hear, O heavens, 
 
268 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 and give ear O earth; for the Lord hath spoken. I 
 have nourished and brought up children, and they have 
 rebelled against me." Taking this for his text, he por- 
 trayed in words of flame the rebelUon of man, from the 
 earliest days to the death of Christ; and then he 
 brought this home to every redeemed soul present, in 
 their past history and present blessedness ; showing the 
 glory of God's grace in their salvation with a vividness, 
 w^hich, like a flash of lightning to the eye, shut out from 
 their minds every other thought, and only God and 
 Christ, and their soul's life, were present in their con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 When the orator ceased there was a long pause. Like 
 the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration, his auditors 
 were blinded with the excess of glory, which weighed 
 upon their spirits like a heavy sleep, out of which they 
 slowly awakened. And this was the eloquence of a 
 human being ! — a minister who had held a high place 
 in the Christian world, and who since had been a student 
 in the school of eloquence, and was now traversing the 
 wide-spread universe of God, to tell of the glorious gos- 
 pel of Jesus Christ.* 
 
 * The heavens as seen on a starry night are called the universe. Now, modern 
 astronomy has shown us the shape of the firmament in which our sun is a star ; and 
 beyond and outside this our firmament, are already catalogued upwards of 
 twelve hundred nebvlcB, believed to be distinct firmaments ; and of these there is 
 no end. 
 
 Sir J. F. W. Herschell, in his Astronomy, chapter xii., § 626, says : " The nebulaa 
 furnish, on every point of view, an inexhaustible field of speculation and con« 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WORLD. 269 
 
 One afternoon of the following week, as Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter were walking in the gardens, watching the coming 
 twihght and listening to the singmg of birds and of far- 
 off choirs, they were joined by the orator, John Howe, 
 the eminent chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, whose benig- 
 nant smile as he approached them, encouraged Mrs. Jay 
 to address him. With a courtesy full of graciousness 
 he came up and inquired what had been the subject- 
 matter of their conversation, that he might share in it. 
 
 "We were talking of the blessedness of the righteous, 
 and of the text in John's epistle, ' Behold what manner 
 of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should 
 be called the sons of God.' " 
 
 " A precious subject," replied Mr. Howe, " and one 
 concernmg which I delighted to speculate while on 
 earth." 
 
 " I was expressing to my friend my astonishment that 
 this topic is so seldom the subject of ministerial teachings 
 at the present day ; and that mere matters of method 
 and of ritual are permitted to take the place of the great 
 theme of the adoption of sinners into the family of God. 
 I was myself, sir, a member of the Ej^iscopal church, and 
 
 jecture. That by far the larger share of them consist of stars there can be little 
 doubt ; and by the interminable range of system upon system, and fli-mament upon 
 firmament, which we thus catch a glimpse of, the imagination is bewildered and 
 lost." 
 
 Since this work of Sir J. F. W. Ilerschell was published, Lord Rosse has erected 
 his great telescope, which has resolved many nebulous spots into vast firmauienta 
 of stars. 
 
270 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 in the light of eternity I see no reason to change my 
 preference for its liturgy ; but I fear it is too common for 
 Christians of all denominations to deem the shell as 
 essential as the kernel itself." 
 
 " As it is," replied Mr. Howe, with emphasis ; " for, 
 madam, a man to be without a creed, a mode of faith, a 
 formula of devotion, is to be without religion." 
 
 " But, reverend sir, on earth," said Mrs. Jay, " the 
 scaffolding is too often regarded as an object of more 
 interest than the temple. Here accessories are nothing, 
 and Christ is all — his birth, his life, his works of mercy 
 and his words of love, his death and resurrection, and 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost ; these are the themes of 
 heavenly worlds, but how is it on earth ? Is Christ all 
 and in all ? No, indeed ! It is the General Assembly, the 
 convocation of the House of Bishops, or the Convention 
 of some sort — mere vehicles for promoting the interests 
 of t,he several sectarian organizations, absorbing the 
 talents and time of the ministry which should be conse- 
 crated to God and Christ." 
 
 " It is the infirmity of earthly natures. In the world 
 there is no progress but what comes from conflict of 
 opposing forces. There was no little of this in the days 
 of the Protectorate, in which I largely shared." 
 
 " How does modern preaching compare with that of 
 your times ?" asked Peter. 
 
 "The ministry of my day, and of all days since the apos- 
 tolic age, has been too often aside from the true power 
 
SCKNKS IN ANOTHER WORLD. 271 
 
 of tlic gospel of our blcssod God and Saviour. Of late, 
 recondite themes have taken the place of the simple 
 story of the life and death of the Lord Jesus, which has 
 come to be a twice-told tale. All this is wrong. The 
 song of Moses and the Lamb is an ever new song in 
 heaven ; and the story of the incarnation of the Son of 
 God is the one great theme which God designs shall be 
 the power of God to the salvation of the soul. It is to 
 be hoped that a day-spring from on high is about to 
 dawn, when a symmetrical and beautiful union Avill exist 
 in the Church of God of s}Tnpathy with man, and of high 
 and holy aspirations after the indwelling of Christ." 
 
 " I beg you will pardon me, sir," said Peter, " for say- 
 ing, that until this descent of the Holy Spirit, I do not 
 see what our preachers can so well do as to make a care- 
 ful and entire preparation of their sermons. I have 
 believed, and do still believe, that the Holy Spirit blesses 
 those labors of the ministry which are the result of long 
 study and earnest prayer ; and this in spite of all the suc- 
 cess of modern evangelists, so-called, who reap the 
 golden harvest from seed sown by men of whom the 
 world has never heard." 
 
 " The question you have started, my brother, I have 
 often sought to solve," replied Mr. Howe. "God has 
 doubtless made the conversion of every man brought 
 home to glory to be the result of all the influences attend- 
 ing his existence, from the creation of Adam and Eve 
 to the moment of his regeneration by the Holy Ghost." 
 
272 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Mr. Ilowe now made some inquiries concerning their 
 nativities, and of the age in which they had lived on 
 earth ; and next, of the present state of the churches in 
 North America. He was well advised as to the con- 
 dition of the churches up to the opening of the nine- 
 teenth century ; and Peter and Mrs. Jay gave him a full 
 narration of the present state of the churches. 
 
 At this point of their colloquy, they came to a place 
 where the avenue on which they had been walking 
 diverged, and Mr. Howe took leave of Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter, with many kind expressions of the pleasure he 
 had derived from meeting with them. 
 
 Perpetua joined them as they were turning into a new 
 path. 
 
 " I am glad to have met you, my friends," said Per- 
 petua; " for Tibertius and Angela desire us to go with 
 them on a visit to a cei-tain studio in the metropolis to- 
 morrow. Now I hope you are disengaged, and can 
 accompany them." 
 
 Mrs. Jay and Peter both said they were at liberty, 
 and would gladly go with Angela and Tibertius. " How 
 pleased I am to see Angela so happy here," said Mrs. 
 Jay. 
 
 "Angela," replied Perpetua, "is fast regaining her 
 soul's freedom, and I am under obligations to Tibertius 
 for his devotion to her happiness. It is wonderful how 
 perfectly their tastes assimilate. He is never weary of 
 the task I have assigned him, and Angela is a delighted 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 273 
 
 and docile pu})!!. To-morrow, then, we will go in com- 
 pany to the city ?" 
 
 Mrs. Jay and Peter having assented to this engage- 
 ment, Perpetua took leave of them to ascend into the 
 air, and meet some friends of hers who beckoned to her 
 to join them, while Peter and Mrs. Jay walked home- 
 ward to the Palace cf Beauty. 
 
 12* 
 
274 THE GATES WIDE OPEN: OR, 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Visit to the Studio of the Metropolis — Controversy between two Doctors, an Allo- 
 pathist and Homeopathist, as to their several Systems and Modes of Practice — 
 Visit to the Studio of a young Artist — Mrs. Jay makes a Discovery — Peter meets 
 Lucia sitting on a Cloud — Their Colloquy — Of the recent Meeting of Savons in 
 Montreal for the Advancement of Science — Lucia tells the Story of her Life— Of 
 her Interview with Lady Alice De Vere, just from St. Barnabas, in Pimlico — Story 
 of a Koman Saint. 
 
 The dawn broke with a cloudless sky. Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter met on the grand portico to welcome the coming 
 day. The early hours are everywhere beautiful, but no 
 words can convey the loveliness of that hour of prime — 
 the freshness of the breeze, the fragi-ance of the morn, 
 the music of birds ; and looking up into heaven, the zone, 
 which at night turned toward the planet its broadside, 
 was now shelving its edge, lessening in width, until at 
 noon when it appeared but as a narrow belt of cloud 
 across the sky ; and now moons of various magnitude, 
 and wearing different phases, were pahng before the 
 rising sun. 
 
 " To-day, Peter," said Mrs. Jay, " we are to visit the 
 studios of the metropolis. I wonder I have never yet 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIEE WORLD. 275 
 
 walked into tlicni wlien we have been sight-seeing in the 
 capital, for unlike our world, living artists are here held 
 in highest regard." 
 
 " And for a very good reason, madam. In our world 
 we look back to the days of Pericles for the highest 
 development of art. Not so here, where artists of the 
 present day are expected to reach to a new grace of 
 form, or some unexpressed loveliness of the human 
 face." 
 
 " Yes, that is so. "With us, living artists are generally 
 mere copyists, and their works are valued according to 
 the success of their imitations. Now if a torso could 
 be dug up at Athens, which could be recognized as the 
 work of Phidias, how would the cognoscenti of the fash- 
 ionable world — tourists of all lands — wonder after it? 
 Men and women of recent fuU-blo^\Ti fortunes, whose 
 taste is in tlie bud, would stand in crowds at gaze 
 before it ; as if by the simple act of staring they could 
 see anythiug else than a bruised and battered mass of 
 marble. Do you not think so, Peter ?" 
 
 " No doubt," replied Peter, amused at the thought as 
 presented by his lady friend. 
 
 " But here," continued Mrs. Jay, " the ancient works 
 are preserved to show the stages of progress from the 
 infancy of art to the perfectibility of the skill of the 
 present age. Now why is this not the case with the Fine 
 Arts in our day ?" 
 
 " Oh, because God never made for man sucli a climate 
 
276 THE GATES WIDE OPEX; OR, 
 
 as that of Greece — never formed such a race as those of 
 Attica, and never built such a city as Athens : that is the 
 reason. One of these days — I should rather say when 
 many centuries have passed away — the race of man, ele- 
 vated by Christianity, may reach a symmetrical develop- 
 ment, when sculpture and painting shall attain a higher 
 perfection than in the days of Pericles." 
 
 "There is one thing in which we of earth have a 
 decided advantage over the races of all other worlds, 
 Peter, and it is this, that Ave arc sinners saved. This 
 gives a power to the conceptions of our artists, and sup- 
 plies subjects for the chisel and the pencil to which 
 these pure beings never can reach. Look at the works 
 of their great masters in the galleries of this palace, and 
 in the collections of the city, and compare them with the 
 Avorks of the students from earth, and see what a world- 
 wide difference there is between the conceptions of these 
 different races." 
 
 " Certainly it is so, though I have not been aware of 
 this difference before. It is the difference between 
 beauty and passion ; and now you have spoken of this 
 contrast, I think there is something of this to be seen in 
 the forms of the ancient and modern school of art. 
 Compare the Venus de Medici yviih. the Greek slave. 
 The Venus is nothing but a pretty animal rising out of 
 the ocean awakening to existence ; while the Greek slave 
 is a woman, conscious of her degradation, and despising 
 those who have bound her in fetters." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 277 
 
 " Yes, Peter ; it is sin and suiFering that heightens our 
 ideas of the grand and the beautiful. It is our pre- 
 existent state which supplies our artists with splendid 
 subjects for their genius — subjects which can never be 
 fully understood and appreciated by the natives here, to 
 Avhom sin is unknown ; and Avho can have no adequate 
 conceptions of what it is to be saved from sin and made 
 one with God as Clirist and God are one." 
 
 " No ! my lady ; nor have we, though redeemed and 
 disenthralled. We know of our adoption ; but Avhat the 
 privileges of adoption into the family of God may be, 
 are mysteries forever revealing new and inconceivable 
 wonders ; for so soon as one mystery is solved, we meet 
 with mysteries more Avonderful and inexplicable, which 
 in some sort are shadoAved forth by those magical dis- 
 solving lights which change as one screen is removed 
 and a new one takes its place. We can never find out 
 God to perfection. But to return to our topic — the 
 forms of beauty, grace and goodness we see here, are so 
 lovely that I have not felt the need of any of the con- 
 trasts you speak of to heighten my appreciation of the 
 works of native artists." 
 
 Angela now came out upon the terrace, and was wel- 
 comed Avith aU affection. 
 
 " How glorious in this world !" exclaimed Angela, 
 clasping her hands over her breast and looking up into 
 the beautiful sky: " When I look about me, Mrs. Jay, 
 and see what loveliness there is in all God's Avorks — Avhat 
 
278 THE GATES WIDE OPE\; Oil, 
 
 beauty there is in his creatures around me, and go back 
 in memory to earth, and recall the gloomy hours of my 
 past life, and my fears that because I was so miserable 
 God did not love me, my soul leaps up for joy that I am 
 here ; free from sin and sorrow forever." 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say so, Angela ; for nay friend 
 Peter sometimes talks to me of our past life in a way to 
 make one think he is sorry not to be still on the earth." 
 
 " Indeed !" said Angela, turning wdth a look of sur- 
 prise to Peter who replied to this silent inquiry of hers, 
 thus : 
 
 " I sympathize with you, Angela, in the joy of being 
 free from sin and sorrow. I am right glad that the 
 enigma of life with me is solved ; and that I have safely 
 waded through all the sloughs of despond in the course 
 of my pilgiimage, and have seen the Celestial City. 
 What I said to Mrs. Jay yesterday, was this — that I 
 regarded my life on earth as a great privilege ; and that 
 those who are in possession of life, whatever may be the 
 depth of their grief, ought to thank God for life to suffer ; 
 and I ask you, Angela, what you have to say to this ?" 
 
 Angela replied, with enthusiasm : " I would not have 
 had one day of trial — one pang of sorrow less than I was 
 permitted to meet. Indeed, I could not have had one 
 less ; for all were needed to wean me from the world, and 
 to compel me to set my affections on heaven. Yes ! ^ 
 bless God for all my afilictions as well as for all the many 
 mercies which were mine. My pathway in childhood 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 279 
 
 was full of hope and joyful anticipations ; but it was grief 
 which fitted me for an early departure from time, and 
 oj)ened to me eternal life." 
 
 The silver tones of the morning chimes now called 
 them to the temple, and hastening down the stairway 
 into the vestibule of the grand entrance, they walked 
 out upon the green turf in company with himdreds of 
 others; all with joyous and elastic steps, hastening to join 
 in the glorious choral morning worship in the temple. 
 
 In this service all the congregation of the Redeemed 
 Joined in singmg the song of Moses and the Lamb, with 
 which the morning ritual opened ; then followed anthems 
 and hymns of praise, and an oration by some one of the 
 Redeemed whose eloquence fitted him to address the 
 assembly ; nor Avas there ever a lack of gifted and glo- 
 rious minds to discharge this duty to the delight of the 
 audience. When the services were ended, the morning 
 repast followed, and then the occupations of the day 
 .were entered upon. 
 
 In company with many others, Tibertius, Angela, Per- 
 petua, Laurens, Mrs. Jay and Peter — ascended fi'om the 
 grand balcony of the palace mto the air. Some were 
 about to visit distant spheres, others remote regions of 
 this world ; and others agahi, to prosecute their studies 
 at the libraries or studios of metropolitan cities, of 
 which there were some thousands scattered in various 
 countries on this globe, as large as that to which our 
 friends were now going. 
 
280 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 As they slowly ascended, it was a pleasant tiling to 
 those below to gaze upon them in theii- flight. Some- 
 times one would descend to pick up a flower, or to kiss 
 a child in the arms of its mother. There was a constant 
 change in these haj)py beings, and a playful conversa- 
 tion was kept up as they soared away. The most bril- 
 hant sallies were indulged in, and a war of wit finally 
 arose between two doctors of medicine — a homeopathist 
 and an allopathist, which kept the entire company in 
 close order, and was a source of long-continued merri- 
 ment. 
 
 The contest was concerning the fallacies of medical 
 science as exhibited in their several modes of practice ; 
 and so much truth was told on tliis occasion, that it is to 
 be regretted this colloquy cannot be here recovered for 
 the benefit of those who are hving, and are destined 
 hereafter to become the victims of medical science 
 whichever method is followed ; as was most satis- 
 factorily shown to our voyagers^ As they were noAV. 
 over the metropolis, Perpetua and her comjjany here 
 staid their flight ; and all clustered around her and her 
 friends, taking leave with loving regrets ; some of whom 
 expected to be absent for weeks or months, and perhaps 
 years. 
 
 " Before we separate," said one of the doctors who 
 had been maintaining this amusing controversy, "wall 
 you not, St. Perpetua, give us your judgment of our 
 argument so fiir as you an 1 your friends have heard it ?" 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIEK WoKLP. 281 
 
 Perpetua looked arouud to see whom she should call 
 upon for the verdict sought for, and bowing to Mrs. Jay, 
 she said : " Perhaps that lady Avill do you this service ;" 
 hut she declined and referred the query to her friend 
 Schlemilil, who, after some hesitation, and with great 
 modesty stated his views. So far as he could see into 
 the discussion, medical science was of all sciences the 
 most dubious and uncertain ; and the question had been, 
 and Avould be for ages to come, whether nature alone 
 was the more reliable, or nature aided by the doctor. 
 Mr. Schlemihl said, between doctors Do-much, Do-little 
 and Do-nothing, he should certainly rely on the skill and 
 science of Doctor Do-little. This doubtful decision gave 
 new grovmds for controversy to these doctors, who went 
 forward earnestly discussing the vexed questions of their 
 fxvorite science, while Perpetua descended with her 
 friends and alighted on the portico of the gallery of 
 Art. 
 
 On entering this vast hall, they were received by the 
 attendants, artists of eminence, to whom is confided the 
 supervision of this treasure-house of sculpture and paint- 
 ing. Tibertius and Angela led the way as they slowly 
 Avalked forward stopping at groups of statuary, which 
 were explained by their attendants, who gave the name 
 of the artist and the age in which he lived, and other 
 interesting facts; all which added greatly to the interest 
 of their sight-seeing. It was a matter of remark made 
 by Mrs, Jay and others, how wonderful it was, where all 
 
2S2 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 seemed faultless, that there was so palpable a difference 
 in the works before them ; and it surprised Angela and 
 Mrs. Jay and Peter that their eyes even were so soon 
 able to discriminate variations so very slight. And this 
 feeling was increased when they came to a series of 
 works where the same subject was represented by great 
 artists of different schools, and of Avidely-separated 
 ages; men who spent years striving to supply some 
 defect or to heighten the power of expression of what 
 had before been regarded perfect. 
 
 Peter remarked to Mrs. Jay, that such contests of 
 art would never be known on earth ; for though the form 
 of woman had been and would be recast and sculptured 
 by thousands, yet the LaocoOn would probably remain 
 alone ; no modern sculptor Mould be likely to have suf- 
 ficient rewards offered to induce him to venture to 
 present that subject in a new aspect; though no one 
 doubts the great artist who conceived that work, had in 
 his mind other concejitions which another and superior 
 genius might have made yet more eloquent of agony. 
 
 " Come," said Angela, when they had finished walk- 
 ing through one of the halls of sculpture ; " now let us 
 go and look into the studios. Tibertius has a work in 
 hand which we must all admire." 
 
 In compliance with this invitation, after having made 
 their acknowledgments to their couileous attendants, 
 they left for the studios. Mrs. Jay thought they were ■ 
 very unwise in not going to the workshops first, and 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 283 
 
 then to have visited this museum of the great masters. 
 But Angela and Tibertius, who acted as leaders, said 
 they had good reasons for the course adopted. Angela 
 whispered to Peter, that in the studio they shoidd visit, 
 was to be seen the work of a young artist of earth— a 
 mother and her firstborn son— who had thus recalled his 
 recollections of his mfoncy and of his young mother. 
 " It is such a sweet thought, reaUzed in marble !" ex- 
 clauned Angela ; " he was but a child when he was taken 
 away, and when sent here to be perfected in the schools 
 of sculpture, he determined his first labor should be to 
 recover the looks of his mother ; and he has thus at- 
 tained to his highest hopes, and it is to him a crowning 
 joy to have given life to marble and with such wonder- 
 fid power that it is already regarded as a miracle of art ; 
 a work of inspiration and love." 
 
 "It is certamly," replied Peter, "a most beautiful 
 expression of love ; pray, why do you whisper this to 
 me, Angela?" 
 
 Angela laid her finger upon her lip and turned away. 
 Tibertius led them to his studio, where they all ex- 
 pressed their earnest admiration of his group of Jesus 
 and the two Marys, which was his last labor of love and 
 worship. They sat dowm on stools and benches, and 
 remained for an hour in conversation concerning Christ 
 and his affection for Lazarus and his sisters, of Avhich 
 Tibertius gave them many examples ; which, had they 
 too been written down with all the words and acts of 
 
284 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 our God and Saviour, the world could not have con- 
 tained the books that would have been written. 
 
 Leaving his studio, Tibertius next led them to another, 
 hid from sight by the shrubbery of the garden. The 
 solitary artist was in the dew of youth, verging to man- 
 hood. He held a file in his hand and stood with hia 
 back to the entrance, gazing with a fixedness which 
 absorbed his whole being and rendered him unconscious 
 of the presence of visitors. Throwing down the file, the 
 aitist stretched forth his hands towards his work and 
 cried out with a voice full of emotion : " It is done ! my 
 mother !" 
 
 " How like Mrs. Jay !" whispered Peter to Angela. 
 This whisper reached the ears of the artist, and with a 
 h)ok of wild intensity he glanced from face to face, when 
 Mrs. Jay, who had been stooping down to the figure of 
 the boy, looked up at the artist and with a flash of per- 
 ception, she rose and exclaimed : " My son !".... 
 " My mother !" 
 
 This reunion of souls filled all present with delight. 
 Perpetua leading the way, the mother and son were 
 left alone. Objects of interest were on all sides ; but so 
 entirely did they sympathize with Mrs. Jay, that every- 
 thing lost its power to charm, and it was concluded to 
 return to the studio of the new-found son. Here they 
 met the happy son and mother. All the longings of his 
 soul were now satisfied, and to Mrs. Jay he was a lost 
 treasure unexpectedly restored, whose value had been 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 285 
 
 enhanced beyond all expression. This was her son, and 
 this work of art Avas from his chisel. 
 
 It was a pleasing and a salutary change for Mrs. Jay 
 to receive the loving congratulations of her friends, and 
 in these the son shared with his mother. Then it was 
 that Tibertius and Angela told of their visit to this 
 studio, and Angela's discovery of the resemblance to 
 Mrs. Jay, and of their plans to bring about this happy 
 meeting. 
 
 The party now separated. Tibertius, Angela and Per- 
 petua left to make some visits in the city, Mrs. Jay 
 gladly accompanied her son to his residence ; and Peter, 
 haAdng nothing to do, rose mto the au* without any defi- 
 nite purpose, and m doubt whether he should wing his 
 flight to some one of the worlds above him, or enjoy the 
 loveliness of the landscape over which he was quietly 
 floating, and the delicious atmosphere of the day. He 
 fell into state of reverie, and so continued till he heard 
 a voice calling to him. Rousmg himself, he saw upon a 
 cloud near him, Lucia, wife of Philo Publius, a bright 
 and charming lady with whom he had met at the jialace. 
 With the instant vohtion prompted by her presence, 
 Peter transferred himself to the silver cloud upon 
 which this lady was seated, and was graciously "wel- 
 comed to a seat on her air-cushioned sofa. 
 
 "I must seem very idle here, Mr. Schlemihl," said 
 Lady Lucia ; " but you see I have been aiding my hus- 
 band in some observations on electrical currents ;" and 
 
286 THE GATES WIDE OPEN^ OK, 
 
 SO saying, she held up an electrometer which lay in her 
 lap. 
 
 " I am fearful I may interrupt you," said Peter. 
 
 " No, not so. I have made my last observation, and 
 was about to descend ; but since you have joined me, 
 and I have some one to talk vrith, I will remain and 
 enjoy with you this lovely day, and the pleasure of sail- 
 ing over so beautiful a country." 
 
 " What observations have you been making, madam ?" 
 
 "My husband," she replied, "was recently on our 
 earth, and attended a meeting of savans at Montreal, in 
 Canada, for the Advancement of Science, and heard a 
 paper read which was written by a lady, upon tidal cur- 
 rents of electricity ; and since his return he has been test- 
 ing its universality in various worlds; and he teUs me 
 that the law she has discovered stands related to the 
 most important phenomena yet to be resolved." 
 
 " Indeed ; a lady ! and a living lady ! How glad I am 
 to know the fact ! And what does your husband say of 
 the condition of science in America ?" 
 
 " He was not gratified with what he saw and heard ; 
 for, in his judgment, there exists a clique who assume to 
 be the arbiters of scientific reputation in North America. 
 They possess commanding positions, and do what is pos- 
 sible to dwarf the development of scientific scholarship 
 to their own proportions. He tells me that they have so 
 little confidence in themselves, that no discovery is re- 
 ceived until it has been indorsed by European savans." 
 
SCENES IN AJJJOTHER WORLD. 287 
 
 " May I ask if tlie laws of magnetism and electricity 
 on this globe give the same phenomena as on ours ?" 
 
 " Precisely, sir ; my husband holds that electricity 
 represents the deity in all systems and firmaments in 
 its life-giving, diffusive and controlling power. He says, 
 ' It is true of all worlds as of oui's, that the experi- 
 ment performed in a watch-glass, or before a blow-jiipe, 
 succeeds alike, in a great manufactory, on tons of matter, 
 or m the bosom of a volcano, upon millions of cubic 
 fathoms of lava.' " 
 
 "And the same law which globes a tear stealing 
 down the cheek of infancy, governs and controls the 
 ocean ?" 
 
 " Certainly, sir. The student of natural i)hilosophy 
 encounters numberless cases in which this transfer of 
 ideas from one extreme of magnitude to the other will 
 be called for ; as for example, Mr. Schlemihl, when you 
 are asked why you cannot conceive the atoms of a grain 
 of sand to be as remote from each other (proportionally 
 to their sizes) as the stars of the firmament ; and why 
 there may not be gomg on in that little microcosm jiro- 
 cesses as complicated and wonderful as those of the great 
 world around us.* The tremors of a stretched Mare and 
 
 * So says Sir J. F. W. Ilerschell's "Intro, to the Study of Natural Philosophy," 
 p. 130. The ingenious and unknown author of " The Stars and the Earth," a little 
 tract puhlished in England in 18-16, gives this illustration : " Let us suppose, for 
 example, that, from the present moment, all the measurements of the universe 
 were reduced to the half of their size and th<it all distances were equally shortened, 
 It would be impossible for us to perceive, or indued to believe if it were told us, thai 
 
288 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 the upheavals of an earthquake differ only in intensity 
 of electrical action, and God's wisdom is both illustrated 
 and glorified by the oneness of manifestations of almighty 
 power," 
 
 This topic was discoursed upon for some time, when the 
 lady requested Peter to tell her the history of his life ; a re- 
 quest constantly made hi the society of the Redeemed, as 
 directly leading to the wonder- workmg providence of God 
 in the salvation of the soul. When this was completed 
 to the satisfaction of Lucia, Peter asked her as to the 
 age and country to which she belonged. Lady Lucia 
 replied that she was a Roman by birth, and had lived in 
 the early part of the second century. This led to some 
 remarks as to the character of those times, and as to 
 what was then regarded essential to a true faith. In 
 answer to Peter's inquiry, Lucia said she was the 
 daughter of a Christian named Carpophorus, who kept 
 what is now called a Savings bank in the Piscina Publica 
 
 :»ny change had happened to us, or to the world around ; and we might, like Gul- 
 liver's Liliputians, fairly consider ourselves perfectly grown men. But if every- 
 thing was lessened a million or a billion times, it would be as little noticed by us 
 as when the reduction of all measurements to one half of their size took place; 
 and if our system of fixed stars, with all that it contains, was suddenly contracted 
 to the size of a grain of sand, we should move and exist with the same freedom 
 of restraint, and with the same convenience, in that little world, as we now do in 
 this which seems so large to us." Coleridge has made a similar statement, thus: 
 " It is surely not impossible that to some infinitely superior being the whole uni- 
 verse may be as one plain— the distance between planet and planet being only as 
 the pores in a grain of sand, and the spaces between system and system no greater 
 than the intervals between one grain and a grain adjacent." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 289 
 
 of Rome, and that liei- faith and that of others around 
 her was smiply this : " Jesus Christ, the Sou of God, the 
 Saviour of sinners." * Peter then compHmented her as 
 belonging to the age of martyrs, and spoke of his high 
 veneration for the courage and faith of Christians in 
 those days, when Lucia interrupted him, saying, " Oh 
 yes, Mr. Schlemilil, I know all about it, and let me tell 
 you, as an incitement to your love and gratitude to God, 
 that he cast your life in pleasant places, and in a golden 
 age ; in a land of Sabbaths and Sabbath schools, of 
 Bibles and a Christian literature. And I tell you, my 
 brother, that there never was a truer faith — a faith so 
 widely diffused and fittmgly received into the hearts of 
 men ; never so near conformity to Christ ; never so 
 much true godliness and good will among men, as exists 
 m our M^orld at the present day. And how any person 
 possessed of the epistles written by Cyj)rian, and others 
 in later days, can talk of the jDristine purity of the church 
 in the second and third centuries, astonishes me. I 
 assure you, my good brother, I am not surpi'ised when I 
 meet with it in young ladies just arrived from the 
 
 * The symbol of the early Christians, as yet to be seen in the catacombs, was, 
 what is sometimes called by the Church of Rome, " the monogram of Christ," 
 and is the figure of a fish. The Greek term 'IX6TS, or fish, is composed of the 
 initial lettera of the sacred name and titles as written in the Greek language of our 
 Divine Redeemer ; in English thus, " Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour." 
 This symbol of a fish St. Clement (a.d. 194) recommends to be worn as a ring, say- 
 ing, "Such a sign will prevent thera from forgetting tlieir origin— ' buried with 
 Christ by baptism.' " This symbol is now becoming fashionable with high church* 
 men, and is wrought on altar cloths, etc. 
 
 13 
 
290 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Church of St. Barnabas, in Pimlicp, London ; but such 
 language from you, Mr. Schlemihl, I did not exj)ect." 
 
 Peter apologized for his ignorance as best he could, 
 saying that aU writers and preachers of the present day, 
 spoke of the early ages as being full of the grace of God 
 and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. And having 
 said this, wishing to change the discourse, he asked of 
 whom did she speak in alluding to ladies recently from 
 St. Barnabas in Pimlico. She replied : 
 
 " You must first know, that my husband and I have 
 been residents in West-end, London, with one of our 
 children, who belongs to the nobility of England ; and his 
 sweet wife is a most eminent pietist of the Puseyite 
 school. In this way we became personally acquainted 
 with Pusey, Newman and the leaders of this attempt to 
 restore to the English Church the dogmas of the Nicene 
 age. My son and his lovely lady were distinguished for 
 their piety and liberahty to the poor, and frequently 
 they drove to St. Barnabas, in Pimhco, on a Lord's day. 
 In this church is to be seen the nearest possible approach 
 to the ceremonial of the Papal Church.* I was accus- 
 tomed to go mth them, constrained by a fond desire to 
 save them from being satisfied with the husks of religion. 
 It is wonderful to me that such high and holy aspirations 
 
 * Father Gavazzi has lately addressed a letter to a friend of his in Dublin, in 
 which he thus expresses himself: — " Last Sunday I was in St. Barnabas, Pimlico. 
 Horrible ! horrible ! ! horrible ! ! ! All Popery transubstantiated into a so-called 
 English service. It is a great shame for the bishops who support or tolerate it." 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 291 
 
 can be so mixed Avith such will-M'orship and human con- 
 trivance ; but God is great and liis ways are jjast finding 
 out. So much, Mr. Schlemihl, by way of preface — 
 and to show you my acquaintance with English manners, 
 and to assure you of my high appreciation of Enghsh 
 worth. 
 
 " Last evenmg, I was standing near one of the doors of 
 entrance, when a lady whose air and bearing showed her to 
 be a lady of fashion from England, made her appearance 
 in company with an angel with whom I was acquainted. 
 The lady, with English instinct of aversion to a crowd, 
 paused as she saw the throng of the Redeemed and our 
 invited guests, as if she hesitated to enter. Whereupon 
 I advanced with the frank courtesy of our present life to 
 meet her. The lady slightly withdrew and made a low 
 courtesy, which I returned with one more elaborate and 
 formal. Thus we stood, when her angel, with a smiling 
 air. at this reproduction of the manners of West-end in 
 heavenly worlds, led her towards me, and with greatest 
 possible reverence to me, said, ' Permit me. Lady Alice 
 De Vere, to present you to Lucia, one of Christ's con- 
 fessors and martyrs of the second century.' Lady Alice 
 advanced and took my hand, and bowing over it very 
 low, kissed it. We were soon enlisted in conversation. 
 She asked me many questions not altogether unlike those 
 of your own just now, about the purity of the Holy 
 Catholic Church of the second century ; and begged me 
 to present her at my convenience to St. Zephyrinus and 
 
292 THE GATES WIDE 0PK:S; Oil, 
 
 St. Callistus, ' the sainted bishops of Rome ' of my o^\ti 
 OAFn age — just as if such men were to be seen in a 
 heaven of holiness because they had been poj^es ! She 
 left me somewhat wiser than when she came ; and I shall 
 strive to labor with her, and without violence to her feel- 
 ings, will save her from the idols of her imagination." 
 
 " Pray tell me who these saints of the church were, 
 Lady Lucia, for I, being a ' dissenter,' never heard before 
 of St. Zephyrinus and St. CaUistus ?" 
 
 " Oh, they are persons of no particular interest, except 
 to saints, ' scarcely saved,' of the Oxford school." 
 
 " But what abou.t these saints ?" asked Peter, pertina- 
 ciously. 
 
 " Which saints, the ancient or the modern ?" 
 
 " Those saints of the Roman calendar which are held 
 in such request now-a-days by modern pietists." 
 
 " Well, my dear sir, they are saints in the calendar 
 of the Church of Rome, and nowhere else. And as 
 you are ignorant of their liistory, I will tell you of it. 
 When Victor was diocesan of Rome, and he was a 
 godly man, though his name is not on the calendar, 
 Zephyrinus was one of his assistants, and on the decease 
 of the patriarch Victor, Zephyrinus became bishop. He 
 was a man who loved bribes, and w^as the first to com- 
 pound church censures for money. This business de- 
 manded skiU and a go-between, and Callistus was the per- 
 son selected by him, and a most fitting person he was for 
 that base occupation. He had been a trusted slave of 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WOELD. 
 
 my dear fatlicr, and acted as liis casliier iii the bank of 
 the Fish Market, and was thus the holder of the earnings 
 of the poor. Callistus absconded while my father was 
 a'way, and taking with him as much gold as he could 
 well carry, he fled from Rome. He Avas hotly pursued 
 to Portus, where he had embarked in a ship about to 
 sail, and which was moored in the middle of the harbor. 
 When Callistus saw that he was about to be taken, see- 
 ing no way of escape, he threw himself overboard, and it 
 was Avith difficulty he was saved and delivered up to my 
 father with his treasure. He was taken home where ho 
 served an apprenticeship to a domestic tread-mill of that 
 day. Not liking this service, he sought to get rid of his 
 life, and a most ingenious way he took to accomplish his 
 end ; and this was by raising a riot in a Jewish syna- 
 gogue, for which he was transjDorted to the sickly parts 
 of Sardinia. After the lapse of some time, Marcia, the 
 mistress of Commodus, the emperor, wishing to be kind 
 to the Christians, sent for Victor and asked what Christ- 
 ians had been transported to Sardinia, saying that she 
 Avould beg the emperor to release them. Dear old Vic- 
 tor was -delighted, and made out a list of them, but 
 omitted the name of Callistus, well knowing his charac- 
 ter and the crimes he had committed. Marcia obtained 
 the letter of pardon, and Hyacinthus, a euuuch of the 
 palace, and also a presbyter of the church, was dispatched 
 to Sardinia to bring back the confessors. Hyacinthus 
 deUvered his list, and when Callistus found that his name 
 
204 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 was not on it, he made the governor believe it was an 
 accidental omission ; for that of all on the island, no one 
 was personally acquainted with Marcia but himself, and 
 that he was the only person in whom she was interested. 
 So successful was he that Hyacinthus was at last induced 
 to demand his liberation, to which the governor, glad of 
 this show of authority, readily acceded, and Callistus 
 made his appearance once more at Kome. When Victor 
 was informed of it, to save himself from censure (for my 
 father was still alive), he was seilt off to Antium. There 
 he remained until after the death of my father, when 
 Zephyrinus, who succeeded Victor, sent for him and 
 made him his co-adjutor, and as such he soon became a 
 ruling spirit in the church ; for, as Zephyrinus was both 
 stupid and ignorant, he did what he pleased, and when 
 his master died he became, as we now say. Pope of 
 Rome. Such, Mr. Schlemihl, were some of the saints of 
 my day, to whom the sauits of your day are so ready to 
 kneel for their blessing." 
 
 " I am extremely obliged to you for this interesting 
 fact of the history of your times. It would serve to 
 open the eyes of some blind folks if it were repeated 
 on earth." 
 
 " No sir, no ! Men and women love their delusions 
 and would not believe it though it were told to them by 
 Hippolytus himself." 
 
 ''• Hippolytus ! may I ask, Who was he ?" 
 
 " He was the great man of my age in the church — 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WORLD. 295 
 
 the bishop of the port of Rome ; and all I have told you 
 is recorded in a work of his ' On Heresies.' " * 
 
 The further discussion of this subject was suspended 
 by the coming of Publius, with whom they descended 
 and separated upon the steps of the palace. Here they 
 were met by Calliste and Angela. When Publius and 
 Lucia had taken leave, Calliste, addressing Peter re- 
 l^roachfuUy, asked hun how he could have left Faustinus 
 and herself behind, and so deprived them of the pleas- 
 ure of Avitnessmg the reunion of Mrs. Jay and her son. 
 Peter professed his ignorance of the purpose of their 
 visit; and that when he entered the studio of the young 
 artist, and while Mrs. Jay was stooping to see the child 
 in the lap of the young mother, then it was he first saw 
 the resemblance, and said to Angela : " ' Plow like Mrs. 
 Jay !' At that instant the son and mother, with a flash 
 of recognition, embraced each other." 
 
 "It must have been delightful, and I wish I had 
 shared in your joy ; but here I have been," said Calliste, 
 " all the day occupied with an English lady of rank who 
 needs the society of Perpetua more than our Angela." 
 
 Angela smiled lovingly, and said: "Lady Alice will 
 soon give up her idols, now that she is away from all the 
 influences which have chained her soul to ritualism." 
 
 Upon this, Peter repeated what he had just heard of 
 Lady AUce from Lucia, saying : " how hard it is for us 
 
 * This work was found in 1S52 in MS., taken from monasteries of Mount Athos 
 and was first republished as a work by Origen. 
 
296 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 to leave ourselves behind ! Do you not think so, An- 
 gela ?" 
 
 " No, for I have had no such experience ; for so soon 
 as I was enlightened, I was a willing convert to all the 
 unspeakably precious revelations made to me by St. Per- 
 petua, as weU as all which have come to me from all I 
 have seen and all I have heard." 
 
 " You are young and docile, Angela," replied Peter. 
 
 Calliste, now taking Angela by the hand, proposed 
 to Peter that they should go and repeat to Faustinus 
 the adventures of the day. 
 
SCENES m ANOTUER WOKLD. 297 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mrs. Jay is recalled to Earth by Flavianus, her Angel, to be present at the Mar- 
 riage of her Daughter — She is accompanied by Faustinus and Calliste, Peter 
 and her Son — Sights seen on the Journey — The Records of Eternity — A World 
 on Fire — On reaching the Milky-way they have a Vision of Paradise before the 
 Creation of Adam — Scenes passing before them to the Ascension of Christ — 
 Flavianus explains how the Air holds a Record of all Events from the beginning 
 of Creation — They alight at the Home of Mrs. Jay. 
 
 Days and weeks aucl months flew by and found Mrs. 
 Jay and her friend Peter absorbed by the pleasures of 
 their life in this world of loveliness. Their studies were 
 pursued with delight ; and in every new discovery, the 
 harmonies of creation filled them with unspeakable joy, 
 as they caught the clue leading them through labyrinths 
 of wonders into the light of a higher law — one of 
 greater simplicity, all ahke tending to that one voHtion 
 — the great decree in which the wisdom and power of 
 tlie Creator is concentrated. 
 
 This perilous task, as it would have been to them 
 once, was now a labor of love, full of gladness, revei'- 
 ence and devotion ; shared by all holy beings, who, while 
 they are forever approaching, never reach the infinitude 
 of God's perfectability. 
 
 13* 
 
298 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Their first study was, with Perpetua for a teacher, to 
 reach the philosophy of the Sublime and the Beautiful ; 
 and they rose gradually to a true sympathy with Art, 
 so that pictures they had once passed by unheeded, now 
 riveted their attention in earnest study to obtain the 
 full conceptions of the artist. 
 
 After a day devoted to the architecture of the temple, 
 St. Perpetua and our friends returned to the palace and 
 joined the happy groups sitting upon the balcony, talk- 
 ing over various topics of interest ; and of these there is 
 never any lack : for some work of art has reached its 
 comj)letion, some poem has been published, some new 
 world has been visited, some eminent man of the early 
 ages has arrived ; and thus m these homes of the happy, 
 topics of pleasant converse are forever occurring to give 
 zest to their social life. 
 
 Persis now came with a message from Calliste, to Mrs. 
 Jay and Mr. Schlemihl, requesting them to come to her. 
 To this they at once assented, and insisted on taking 
 their loved Perpetua with them. On entering the par- 
 lor of Faustinus and Calliste, what was the joyful sur- 
 prise of Mrs. Jay to see her own angel, Flavianus, 
 standing with her son in expectation of her coming. 
 With a cry of joy, Mrs. Jay embraced her guardian 
 angel, and then presented hhn to Perpetua and Peter. 
 
 " I have come to take you back to earth," said the 
 angel. 
 
 Mrs. Jay started — " Take me back to earth ! pray, 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHEK WORLD. 299 
 
 what liave I doue to be banished from this paradise of 
 God?" 
 
 " Nothing, dear lady ; but I have a mission to take 
 you home that you may be present at the marriage of 
 your and my beloved Augusta." 
 
 " Married ! my child to be married, and so soon ! Oh, 
 what inflxtuation and folly ! She is only seventeen, Cal- 
 liste ; and she is to be married, all because I was not 
 there to save her from making the wretched exchange 
 of the pleasures of girlhood for the cares of married 
 life. O, it is pitiable !" 
 
 " I see nothing so very dreadful," replied Calliste ; " I 
 think your dear child shows excellent judgment." 
 
 " To me it is madness. What folly to give up such a 
 home as hers has been, and the love of her father, for 
 this stranger, whom a year since she did not so much as 
 know !" 
 
 "Mother," said her spn, archly, "what is there so 
 fearful m marriage ?" 
 
 "You are a child of heaven, Willy, and h;vi»ji!y, you 
 know nothing of life." 
 
 " Are you not unlike all the rest of the world, my sis- 
 ter ?" asked Perpetua. " I was charmed to be present 
 at my son's wedding, and I think you Avill come back 
 delighted with all you see and hear. Think, my dear 
 Mrs. Jay, of mixing once more in the circle of your 
 friends ; seeing them and hearing them talk." 
 
 " It may, perhaps, be pleasant ; but how can I but be 
 
300 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 sorry that my husband is so soon to lose the society of 
 his only child ; and, indeed, that she can love any one so 
 well as her father." 
 
 " God will provide !" said Perpetua, with a smile, and 
 this encouraged Faustinus to say something about the 
 leadings of the affections and the will of God. Even 
 old Pindar, two thousand three hundred years ago, thus 
 sung of the decrees of heaven : 
 
 " When the Gods lead 
 
 Short is the road, and swift the deed." 
 
 " I thmk," continued Faustinus, " your Augusta is but 
 following in the footsteps of aU her parents, from Eve 
 down to Mrs. Jay herself. And who should marry but 
 the young ? It is as God wills it, and wills it wisely and 
 well." 
 
 " Sufficient !" said Mrs. Jay. " I see I have neither 
 countenance nor sympathy from any one of you. When 
 do we leave, Flavianus ?" 
 
 " To-morrow before sun-rising we depart, in order 
 that we may reach your house as early as nine o'clock in 
 the evening ; and I doubt not I can make this voyage 
 across the abysm a source of instruction, if not of 
 pleasure. There are sights worth seeing as we go." 
 
 " You will let me take my son wath me ?" asked Mrs. 
 Jay. 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " And aUow me to foUow," said Mr. Schlemihl. 
 
I 
 
 SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 301 
 
 " Not to please me, friend Peter," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " Then let me go to please myself ; for I have a deep 
 interest in the future of Augusta, and have no higher 
 wish for her happiness on earth than to see her married 
 to one worthy of such an angel." 
 
 " Thank you, Peter," said Mrs. Jay. " You have not 
 forgotten the language of compliment." 
 
 " What else could he have said, madam ?" asked 
 Faustinus. "In what better phrase could love and 
 friendship and high esteem be expressed ?" 
 
 Mrs. Jay consented to receive the compliments of her 
 friend Peter to oblige her friends, at their full value. 
 
 " Will you not go with us, Faustinus and Calliste ?" 
 asked Mrs. Jay. " You have not seen Rome for so many 
 centuries, I should think you would revisit it with great 
 interest." 
 
 " I should like to go very much, Mrs. Jay ; and why 
 not Faustinus ?" asked Calliste. 
 
 " I will go, dearest, with all pleasure, if it pleases you ; 
 but we have few attractions to earth now." 
 
 " Yes, Faustinus, but we can never cease to be inte- 
 rested in the battle-field of the universe of God. Shall 
 we go ?" and Faustinus, with a smile, consented, to the 
 great joy of Mrs. Jay and Peter. Then they asked Per- 
 petua to go along, but she had duties which kept her at 
 the palace. 
 
 Peter took his leave of the company to go and seek 
 out Laurens, if, perhaps, he too would return to earth 
 
302 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 for a short stay ; and it was agreed to meet on the bal- 
 cony of the east front before sunrise next morning. 
 
 The day broke with a clear sky. Our travellers 
 stood admiring the beauty of the morning, when St. 
 Perpetua and Laurens joined them to see them take 
 their flight, and to bid them God-speed. Laurens 
 wished Peter to visit his wife, and Perpetua had 
 like requests of Faustinus and Calhste concerning her 
 descendants residing in Italy. While thus occupied, 
 quite a group of the Redeemed gathered around them, 
 and each had some graceful word of parting. It was a 
 matter of congratulation with aU to be assured by Mrs. 
 Jay that it was her irreversible purpose to return to the 
 palace without loss of tune. 
 
 " Come," said Flavianus, " the morning star is paling 
 before the coming day ; let us go." 
 
 With a last kiss, Perpetua and Mrs. Jay separated, and 
 in an instant the i^arty rose with the swiftness of angels 
 into the air. Having far surmounted the atmosphere of 
 the world of Art and Beauty, Flavianus indicated the 
 direction they were to take. To the eyes of Mrs. Jay 
 .and Peter, all was dark about them, while at immeasur- 
 able distances, above, below and around, lay firmaments, 
 scattered like autumnal leaves, whose nebulous light wore 
 every variety of form and intensity. The souls of aU 
 were alike hushed into silence in presence of such Om- 
 nipotence. It was an emotion too deep for words. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 303 
 
 Thus they flew onwards, when, nearmg a nebula, clus- 
 tering with suns, Flavianus rested, while Faustinus and. 
 Calliste, who were some distance behind, came up ; he 
 then pointed out, in a vast system into which they were 
 about to enter, a spot intensely bright. 
 
 " There," said he, " is a world on fire. In passing 
 through this firmament, I shall lead you near that confla- 
 gration, which will show you the closing scene of your 
 o^vn earth." * 
 
 Soon they reached the verge of this system of suns, 
 which lay scattered aromid and formed the broken edge 
 of the nebula. Next, they were in the denser sections, 
 and suns with their planets lay so near that the ellipses 
 described by planets of one sun ranged within the 
 planetary circles of another ; and here it was that the 
 central sun of a magnificent planetary system was being 
 destroyed by fire, the flames of which, reaching high 
 beyond its atmosphere, were kindling into flame the 
 nearer planets and their satellites — so threatening the 
 destruction of that entire planetary system. 
 
 The blaze of that vast conflagration shone far into 
 space, with a baleful glare, on all sides. 
 
 " 'Tis fearfully grand !" exclaimed Calliste ; a senti- 
 ment echoed by o^Tr travellers. 
 
 " How inexplicable, that this should ever happen !" 
 said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 * Tyche Brahe, 1597, discovered in the constellation of the Ship, a world on fire, 
 
304 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " I suppose, my sister," said Flaviauus, smiling as he 
 spoke, " no such, contingency wou^ld have occurred had 
 you been the creator. Hereafter you will learn that 
 these are but parts of his ways ; but how little a portion 
 is heard of him ? and the thunder of his power, who can 
 understand ?" 
 
 " I am silenced, Flavianus," replied Mrs. Jay, sub- 
 missively. 
 
 As they passed beyond the last star of this cluster of 
 suns, Faustinus said to Calliste : " Here is one of the 
 wonders of creation lying before us, and when we reach 
 its verge of history, we will run down the line of its 
 development." 
 
 This they did ; and in doing so they spoke of seeing its 
 various stages of progress, when great deeps were 
 broken up, and mountains rising out of the beds of 
 oceans, pierced high the heavens ; and all this in the 
 sjoace of a half hour. Faustinus and Calliste, as well as 
 Flavianus, were all absorbed, leaving Mrs. Jay and Peter 
 to listen to what they were telling, without the least 
 glimpse of the objects, vast and wonderful, which seemed 
 within the scojie of their vision. 
 
 " Do I go too rapidly, Calliste ?" asked Flavianus. 
 
 "At times objects and events run so close together 
 that I have no very clear apprehension of what I 
 see." 
 
 " Pray, what events and objects do you speak of, Cal- 
 liste ?" asked Mrs. Jay ; " for I see nothing but nebulae, 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 305 
 
 whose light is drawn out into streamers across the depths 
 of sj^ace by the rapidity of our flight," 
 
 Flavianus answered Mrs. Jay by telling her that she 
 was yet to be educated into the powers of her spiritual 
 nature ; and that he would this day give her her first les- 
 son in reading the stories of creation and the histories of 
 worlds ; but as it was necessary to reach her house by 
 nine o'clock, he must defer this pleasure till they had 
 come within the nebula in which her sun would be seen 
 but as one of the stars with Avhich the skies are paved. 
 " The scenes which are present to my mind," said Flavi- 
 anus, " Avith the distinctness of reality, and which Faus- 
 tinus and Calliste discern hnperfectly, pass too rajDidly 
 for you to take cognizance of I purpose you shall soon 
 make your first essay in the development of this latent 
 poAver ; one of many which lie in your bosoms as yet un- 
 known, waiting for development to confer delight." * 
 
 * Dante (Canto ii. Paradise) enters the moon under the guidance of hig loved 
 Beatrice, and like Mrs. Jay and Peter, his vision is dull : 
 
 " Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair 
 1 Beatrice spake : ' Gratefully direct thy mind 
 
 To God, through whom to this first star we come.' " 
 
 Dante describes his sensations after landing : 
 
 " Me seemed as if a cloud had covered us ;" 
 
 And asks Beatrice to explain the scenes- about them. Beatrice "somewhat 
 smiled," he saj's, as she replied, 
 
 " Mortals err 
 
 In their opinion, when the key of sense 
 
 Unlocks not." 
 
306 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 After this, Mrs. Jay and Peter followed on in silence, 
 wondering what new sense was about to he revealed in 
 them. System on system first glowed in the depths of 
 space, then filled the heavens with radiance as they took 
 their way through the densest centres of magnificence ; 
 and by and by they looked back, and saw a firmament, 
 but as filmy a cloudlet as any of the millions they had 
 seen along their pathway. 
 
 Flavianus paused. " We are now nearing your home, 
 and with all pleasure I shall redeem my promise, and 
 show you the enduring records made in accordance 
 with the laws of God, by which every look and action is 
 j)erpetuated to all eternity. Do you not see that nebula, 
 in form resembling a serrated leaf,* lying on the abyss 
 of darkness ?" 
 
 " That little flake of light 1" cried Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " Yes, madam ; and when we shall have reached the 
 stars, only seen from earth by mortal eye when aided by 
 the Rosse telescope, we shall there meet the rays of fight 
 
 She compares his then condition of soul, to the ground covered over with snow, 
 which when dissolved by the warm rays of the sun, is revealed ; she says : 
 
 -" So thee, 
 
 Dismantled in thy mind, I will inform 
 
 With light so lively, that the tremulous beam 
 
 Shall quiver where it falls." 
 
 The word dismantled is here used, to throw open, to divest, to disrobe. 
 * So described and mapped by Sir W. Herschell. See " Nichors Architecture of 
 the Heavens," London edition, p. 21. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 307 
 
 which left the earth on the day that Adam woke into 
 life."* 
 
 " Will you please explain this mystery," asked Mrs. 
 Jay. 
 
 " It will he best explained by what you will see ;" 
 and so saying, Flavianus set forward with such ra- 
 pidity, that the stray stars of their own firmament, into 
 which they were now penetrating, once more became 
 mere streamers of hazy light to the sight of our travel- 
 lers. 
 
 Flavianus now called \ipon his companions to halt. 
 "We are now," he said, "in the highest spot of the 
 Milky-way, near the Scorpion. The suns in sight were 
 oncd to your vision the diamond dust of the skies. I wiU 
 leave you for a moment, in order to find the line of 
 reflected light from earth." 
 
 Flavianus soon rejoined them, saying, " I have found 
 the line of rays." Taking Mrs. Jay and Peter by the 
 hand, he cried out, " See, yonder is Eden !" 
 
 It was long before either Peter or Mrs. Jay could, so 
 to speak, get the focus of vision ; when they did, what 
 was their delightful surprise to look down upon Paradise 
 instantly before them in all its beauty ! Receding with 
 exact conformity to the laws of light, the objects in view 
 
 * Struve concludes, from the dimensions of his telescope, etc., that the smallest 
 stars visible to him are at a distance of twenty-three thousand billions of miles, and 
 require a period of time for the travelling of light to the earth as great as four 
 thousand years.— r/w Stars of the Earth, p. 14. 
 
308 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Stood before them, and so near, that the wing of a hum- 
 ming-bird, instead of being viewless from the rapidity of 
 its vibrations, could be examined, and its beauties all 
 seen. 
 
 " This is magical !" cried Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " This is real," replied Calliste, who, with Faustinus, 
 obeying the same laws of movement, in receding, saw 
 objects with like distinctness.* 
 
 " Where are Adam and Eve ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " They are not yet created," replied Faustinus ; " but 
 
 * The author of " The Stars of the Earth " first developed these ideas of the 
 optical reactions of light. He says ; " The pictures of every occurrence propagate 
 themselves into the distant ether, upon the wings of a ray of light ; and although 
 they become weaker and smaller, yet, in the immeasurable distance, they still have 
 form and color ; and as everything possessing color and form is visible, so must 
 these pictures also be said to be visible, however impo^ible it may be for the human 
 eye to perceive it with the hitherto discovered optical instruments." Again he 
 eays : " Thus the universe incloses the pictures of the past, like an indestructible 
 and incoiTuptible record containing the purest and the clearest truth. And as sound 
 propagates itself in the air, wave after wave, and the stroke of the bell, or the roar 
 of the cannon, is heard only by those who stand nearest in the same moment when 
 the clapper strikes the bell, or the powder explodes ; but each more distant spec- 
 tator remarks a still greater interval between the light and the sound, until the 
 human ear is no longer able to perceive the sound on account of the distance, 
 
 so in like manner, according to our ideas, the pictures of every 
 
 occurrence propagate themselves into the distant ether, upon the wings of a ray 
 of light," page 31. " Let us imagine an observer, with infinite powers of vision, in 
 a star of the twelfth magnitude. He would see the earth at this moment aa it 
 e.\istod in the time of Abraham," p. 38. 
 
 " Man is mortal, he thinks and he feels. These are three separate and different 
 truths, according to our ordinary ideas. But the difiference only depends upon the 
 fact, that our mind is not able at once and completely to grasp the idea of man, 
 with all its consequences," p. 62. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 309 
 
 I will advance and show you them as they were seen by 
 their Creator on their wedding-day." 
 
 " That vi-ill be delightful," said Mrs. Jay. 
 
 When they next paiised, there stood before them 
 Adam and his Eve. She had just been led to her hus- 
 band, and all that Milton by inspiration has pictured was 
 present before them. 
 
 Mrs. Jay remonstrated against being hurried out of 
 Paradise ; but Flavianus advanced, and when he paused, 
 the garden was no more. The rude homes of Adam 
 and his families were seen scattered over a mountainous 
 landscape, covered with flocks and herds. They saw 
 Cain and Abel building their altars of stone on the brow 
 of a steep hill which rose in sight of the dwelling-place 
 of Adam. The offerings having been made, God an- 
 swered Abel by fire upon the altar of his burnt offering.* 
 " Come nearer," said Flavianus, and they beheld with 
 terror, the look of horror which flashed over the face of 
 Abel as he received his death-blow. They stood next 
 before the ai-k. Astonishment and anxiety sat upon 
 the faces of the multitude of those who had built it 
 for Noah, and whom they had regarded as demented, 
 now that they saw the strange mai'ch of wild and tame 
 animals up the staging leading into it. Wlien next 
 they halted, all was a watery waste, and the ark was 
 seen floating in the far distance. 
 
 Renewing their flight, Flavianus paused to show them 
 
 * So David was honored by God.— 1 Cliron., xxi. 26. 
 
310 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 Abraham, with his only son Isaac, in the act of disbur- 
 dening his ass of the wood at the foot of Mount Moriah, 
 and placing it upon Isaac, while he took fire and his sacri- 
 ficial knife ; when Isaac, as if the thought had first pre- 
 sented itself to his mind, said : " my father, here is the 
 fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt 
 ofiering," The words they did not hear; but they 
 knew by intuitive knowledge the thought spoken ; and 
 Abraham, with grief in every feature, re^^lied : " My 
 Bon, God will provide himself a lamb." 
 
 Reaching the top of the hill, Abraham, assisted 
 by Isaac, built an altar of stones and laid the wood in 
 order. Then it was, the father told his son the will of 
 heaven concerning him ; words which drove the blood 
 from the cheeks of his boy, who, without a struggle, 
 submitted to be bound and laid upon the altar. This 
 childlike acquiescence, so instant and sudden, extending 
 even to giving up life itself, seemed to our travellers not 
 surpassed by the obedience of the father to the will of 
 Jehovah. They saw (for in effect they stood beside that 
 altar), the agonies of soul in Abraham as he lifted up his 
 arm ; and Isaac, shrinking and shuddering, closing his 
 eyes in terror of the knife impending over him. Then 
 it was the divine glory shone down upon the type of 
 the Lamb of God, who was crucified two thousand years 
 after, uj^on that very spot. Leaving that wonderftil 
 scene, they now paused to look doA\Ti upon David with 
 his sling advancing to slay Goliah. This was an event of 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD, 311 
 
 singular interest to Mrs. Jay, "^ lio wanted to see more 
 of David's life ; but Flavianus moved rapidly on, saying : 
 "We have the Son of Da\'id yet to see ;" and when they 
 next paused, they stood uj)on the plains of Betlilehem, 
 beside the shepherds with their flocks ; and lo, the angel 
 of the Lord came down out of heaven and the glory of 
 the Lord shone round about them. When the good 
 tidings were told, a multitude of the heavenly hosts 
 descending, sang the anthem of joy to all people and 
 recedmg into heaven were seen no more. With joy 
 they accompanied the shepherds and saw the babe lying 
 in a manger. It was of all thmgs, lovely to gather 
 aroimd the cradle of their Lord and Saviour, and catch 
 his smile of innocency, and watch the face of the virgin 
 mother gazing upon her firstborn son, with love mingled 
 with awe. Calliste and Mrs. Jay were reluctant to leave 
 a scene alike beautifid to all, but to Calliste and Mrs. 
 Jay it was divine. Then followed in fast succession the 
 adoration of the magi and the flight into Egypt, the 
 baptism in Jordan, and the mysterious temptation in the 
 wilderness, and the public ministry of their great God 
 and Saviour to the day of his ascension. 
 
 Flavianus told them they must not linger on their 
 way, at which both Peter and Mrs. Jay remonstrated. 
 Flaiianus answered : " We must proceed. You can at 
 any time, and to all eternity, thus live over the life of 
 your glorious Saviour from his cradle to his ascension ; 
 and not of his life only, but of your own and of all that 
 
312 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 have lived in all time and in all worlds. Do you not 
 think, my sweet lady," said he, tm'ning to Mrs. Jay, 
 " that you ^voll find full occupation m all the cycles of 
 eternity ? You once thought you would some time or 
 other become weary — ennuyed of heaven itself." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! but I was on earth then, and I had been 
 taught to entertain repulsive ideas of. a future state, in 
 which (so I was led to believe) all the relationships 
 of earth ceased ; that I should never again recognize my 
 friends, or if I did, I should not feel any more of friend- 
 ship for one than for another ; and then, I was to live in 
 a state of beatific vision of God, and so be forever chang- 
 ing into his likeness ; forever thirsting after God ; which 
 Dante describes as 
 
 " ' The increate perpetual thirst, that draws 
 Toward the reahn of God's own form.' * 
 
 But I was a child then, and I spake as a child ; but 
 
 * Dante : " Paradise," canto ii. 
 
 "It is not, indeed, expressly asserted, but seems rattier to be supposed and 
 implied, in the expression and thoughts of most persons on this subject, that the 
 heavenly life will be one of inactivity, and perfectly stationary ; that there will 
 be nothing to be done, nothing to be learnt, no advances to be made ; nothing 
 to be hoped for ; nothing to look forward to, except a continuance in the very 
 state in which the blest will be placed at once. Now, this is far from being an 
 alluring view to minds constituted as ours are. It is impossible for us to contem- 
 plate such a state— even with the most perfect assent of the understanding to the 
 assertion, that it will be exquisitely happy— still, I say, it is impossible for such 
 minds as oiirs to contemplate such a state, without an idea of tediousness and 
 wearisomeuess forcing itself upon them." — Archbishop Whately's Future State, 
 p. 210. 
 
 4 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOELD. 313 
 
 now, I have put away such childish thouglits of God's 
 plans for man's future development," 
 
 As they proceeded on their way, Mrs. Jay and Peter 
 discoursed with their companions in travel of the wonder- 
 ful laAv by which the actions of the past were recovered ; 
 and which had been revealed to them so unexpectedly 
 since their entrance into theii' own firmament. With 
 one consent, Peter and Mrs. Jay agreed to live along 
 the Unes of reflected rays of the life of Christ and of 
 the great apostles, before they returned to their 
 studies. 
 
 Flavianus spoke : " Not only has God, the Creator, 
 constituted ether an imperishable record of the past by 
 the reflection of light ; but he has in like manner written 
 our actions upon earth, air and ocean, which are the 
 eternal witnesses of the acts done in each." 
 
 Peter, addressing Flavianus, asked : " Is the air itself 
 one vast library on whose pages are forever written all 
 that man has said or woman whispered ?" 
 
 " Stop, Flavianus ! pray do not reply to my friend 
 Peter till he takes back his ofifensive words ; ' men have 
 said and woman whispered !' as if all the whispering and 
 gossiping on earth were done by us women. Is that 
 polite and kind, Peter ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " I beg Mrs. Jay's and Calliste's pardon, but I only 
 made that arrangement of words because of their allite- 
 ration. I meant nothing more, dear Mrs. Jay," address- 
 ing that lady. 
 
 14 
 
314 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 " Go on, Flavianus. I accept Peter's explanation as 
 sufficient." 
 
 " The figure our friend Peter has called up, that the 
 air is a vast library, I regard as happy, and as such I 
 adopt it ; for there, in unerring characters, is written the 
 actions of all men for all time. There stands recorded 
 the earliest as well as the latest sighs of mortality, with 
 vows vmredeemed, promises unfulfilled, perpetuating in 
 their united movements of each particle the testimony 
 of man's changeful will." 
 
 " What a thought it is, Flavianus," said Calliste, " that 
 our actions, however secret, are thus made visible to the 
 universe of God ! And if this idea could but be brought 
 home to the business and bosoms of men, what a change 
 would come over the world !" 
 
 " How is it, Flavianus ?" asked Faustinus ; " can such 
 ideas be brought within the scope of the mind of man ?" 
 
 " Yes ; it has been done by Mr. Charles Babbage, the 
 eminent mathematician, in a tract which he has entitled, 
 ' The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise ;' one of the remark- 
 able works of the present century. Mr. Babbage has 
 been the first to present this great truth to the world, 
 and he has shown how the principle of equality of action 
 and reaction opens this vast treasure house of private 
 and public history to the inspection of all intelligences." 
 
 " Will you please explain yourself so that I may appre- 
 hend how this can be, Flavianus ?" asked Mrs, Jay. " I 
 desire to know how Mr. Babbage has made this most 
 
I 
 
 SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 315 
 
 occult of all questions plain to the aj)prelieusion of com- 
 mon people." 
 
 " With all pleasure, Mrs. Jay," replied her angel. 
 " Mr. Babbage begins by saying, ' The pulsations of the 
 air, once set in motion by the human voice, cease not to 
 exist with the sounds to which they gave rise. Strong 
 and audible as they may be in the iimnediate neighbor- 
 hood of the speaker, and at the moment of their utterance, 
 their quickly attenuated force soon becomes inaudible to 
 human ears. The motions they have impressed on the 
 particles of one ^^ortion of the atmosphere are communi- 
 cated to constantly increasing numbers, but the total 
 quantity of motion measured in the same direction re- 
 ceives no addition. Each atom loses as much as it gives, 
 and regains again from other atoms a portion of those 
 motions which they in turn turn up. The Avaves of air thus 
 raised, perambulate the earth's and ocean's sui'face, and in 
 less than twenty-four hours, every atom of its atmosphere 
 takes up the altered movement due to that mfinitesimal 
 portion of the primitive motion, which has been conveyed 
 to it through countless channels, and which must continue 
 to influence its path throughout its future existence.' " 
 
 ' N"oAv, Flavianus, how can Mr. Babbage make such 
 statements as these palpable ? How are these aerial pul- 
 ses, unseen by the keenest eye, unheard by the acutest 
 ear, unperceived by the human senses, yet demonstrated 
 to exist to the reason of mankind ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " In some few and limited instances they are shown to 
 
316 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 exist by calling to our aid the most refined and compre- 
 hensive instrmnent of human thought; their courses 
 have been traced and their intensities measured. Let 
 us unagine a beiiig whose knowledge of mathematical 
 science in the apprehension of Newton, with all his 
 enlarged powers, is boundless ; such a mind could trace 
 even the minutest consequence of every primary im- 
 pulse ; and if the slightest deviation was discovered, he 
 would read ui its existence the action of a new cause ; 
 and, through the aid of the same analysis, tracing this 
 discordance back to its source, he would become aware 
 of the time of its commencement, and the point of space 
 at which it originated." 
 
 " I have no doubt, Flavianus, all you say is perfectly 
 plain to the intellect of Calliste and Faustinus, and it 
 may be of my friend Peter ; but for myself," said Mrs. 
 Jay, " I confess I want some familiar illustration within 
 my comprehension." 
 
 " The waves of the air," replied the angel, " although 
 in many instances perceptible to the organs of hearing, 
 are only rendered visible to the eye by peculiar con- 
 trivances ; but those of the water, dear Mrs. Jay, ofier 
 the illustration of transmitted motion you ask for. 
 Every one who has thrown a pebble into the still waters 
 of a sheltered pool, has seen the cii'cles it has raised 
 gradually expanding in size, and as uniformly diminish- 
 ing in distinctness. He may also have noticed the per- 
 fect distinctness with which two, three or more series of 
 
SCENES m ANOTIIEK WORLD. 317 
 
 waves each pursues its own unimpeded course, when 
 diverging from the two, three or more centres of dis- 
 turbance. He may have seen, tliat in such cases the 
 particles of water where the waves intersect each other, 
 partake of the movements due to each series." 
 
 " And from these premises what is your conckision, 
 my Flavianus ?" asked Mrs. Jay. 
 
 " It is this : No motion impressed by natural causes, 
 or by human agency, is ever obliterated. If the Al- 
 mighty stamped on the brow of the earliest murderer 
 the indelible and visible mark of his guilt, he has also 
 established laws by which every succeeding criminal is 
 *not less irrevocably chained to the testimony of his 
 crime ; for every atom of his mortal frame, through 
 whatever changes its severed particles may migrate, will 
 still retain, adhering to it through every combmation, 
 some movement derived from that very muscular effort, 
 by which the crime itself was perpetrated. 
 
 " Let me give you a further illustration. The soul of 
 the negro whose fettered body surviving the charnel- 
 house of his infected prison, was thrown into the sea, 
 that his Christian master might escape the limited justice 
 assigned by civilized man to crimes whose profit had 
 long gilded their atrocity, will need, at the last great 
 day of human account, no living witness of his earthly 
 agony. When man and all his race shall have dis- 
 appeared from the face of the planet, ask every particle 
 of air still floating over the unpeopled earth, and it will 
 
318 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 record the cruel mandate of the tyrant. Interrogate 
 every wave which breaks unimpeded on ten thousand 
 desolate shores, and it will give evidence of the last gur- 
 gle which closed over the head of his dying victim. 
 Confront the murderer with every corporeal atom of 
 his immolated slave, and in its still quivering movements 
 he will read God's denunciation : ' Thou art the man!' " * 
 They had now reached the orbit of the moon, at that 
 moment rising in the eastern skies, over the home of Mrs. 
 Jay. At the request of CaUiste, they all landed to see 
 that orb near, which had been so often looked upon by 
 her with delightful admiration. It was a visit of interest 
 to aU our travelling party. Each had entertained his ok 
 her own fancies of the surface of the moon. It was a 
 waste indeed, whose deep caverns and sugar-loaf moun- 
 tains were alike desolate. Mrs. Jay searched in vain for 
 those lovely beings described by Dante — 
 
 " Hither through failure of their vow exiled." f 
 
 As they were about to descend to earth, Mrs. Jay 
 most earnestly entreated Calliste and Faustinus to go 
 home with her and witness her child's marriage, but they 
 thought at such a time she would be embarrassed by 
 their presence, and with many expressions of love, they 
 
 * The words of Babbage have been carefully copied without any other change 
 than was required to retain the shape of a dialogue. The author has used the se- 
 cond London edition, printed 1838. 
 
 t Canto iii. " Paradise," line 29, Carey's translation. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 319 
 
 declined. After long lingering, they separated, Faustinas 
 and Calliste winging their way to Rome, and Flavianus 
 and his party to the United States. 
 
 It was a clear, cold December night, and the stars 
 shone with diamond brightness. The city now lay just 
 below them, and its avenues and streets marked out in 
 lines of light, and so near that they heard the bells strik- 
 ing the hour of nine. 
 
 " We have reached our place of destination in good 
 time, my fi-iends, and we will now alight ;" so saying, 
 Flavianus descended to the pavement in front of the 
 well-known residence of Mrs. Jay. 
 
320 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Wedding Party at Mr. Jay's — The Marriage Guests enter — Miss Judith Grey — 
 Mrs. Fairfield— Mrs. George Thomson — Mrs. Thomson's Critique on " Old 
 Masters " — Mrs. Gen. Wentworth and Mrs. Thomson discuss the late Mrs. Jay — 
 Colloquy between Mrs. Thomison, Mrs. Butler, and Mrs. Griswold, as to the 
 presence of the Departed — Mrs. Thomson's Opinion of the World she lives in — The 
 Story of a Night — Mrs. Howard and Miss Fairfield — Mrs. Jay takes leave of hei 
 Husband and Daughter — Peter remains behind — Discovers the Curtains of an 
 Upper Room on Fire — Fails to arouse Mr. Jay — He rushes into the Ball-room 
 and shouts, Fire ! 
 
 As our invisible guests entered the spacious hall of Mrs. 
 Jay, they paused ; for at that instant Augusta and her 
 groom, with their attendants, were in the act of descend- 
 ing the grand staircase. 
 
 " How nke an angel of light !" exclaimed Peter. 
 
 " Oh, that she were indeed an angel !" replied Mrs. 
 Jay. 
 
 William started forward to meet his sister, but Mrs. 
 Jay held him back ; and when the bridal party had 
 entei'ed the splendid saloon, Mrs. Jay and her party 
 followed. 
 
 There stood the minister ui his robes, and beside him 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 321 
 
 the father, wh>5e face was beaming with benevolence, 
 without one thought of himself, and that he was about 
 to give aw«y the chief of all liis earthly treasures. The 
 ceremony proceeded, and Mrs. Jay expressed to her 
 angel her pleasure in lookmg upon the yonng man, 
 whose bright eye was full of intelligence, while his fea- 
 tures bore the marks of culture and refinement. The 
 radiant eye of Augusta fell upon the floor, and her long 
 eyelashes frmged her cheek, while she repeated m a low, 
 clear tone her vow of love and fidelity. 
 
 When the ceremony was concluded, and the bride- 
 maids clustered around the bride, Mrs. Jay and William 
 impressed then- kisses with fervent love, unobserved. 
 Indeed, Augusta at this moment was not able to perceive 
 any difference in the kisses she received. 
 
 While the ceremony was in progress, the rush of car- 
 riages was heard, and as soon as it was over, a stream of 
 guests flowed into the rooms, eager to be presented to 
 the bride, and share in the gladness of the hour. 
 
 Mrs. Jay stood beside Augusta, listening with dehght 
 while her numerous friends presented their congratula 
 tions. As her son had many questions to ask, his 
 mother's attention was fully occupied by him, until call- 
 ing Flavianus, Mrs. Jay begged him to supply her lack 
 of service to William, as she wanted to be at liberty to 
 move among the crowd that now filled the house. 
 
 As for Peter Schleraihl, he was everywhere and inter- 
 ested in all that was said and done by those about him. 
 
 U* 
 
322 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 He was especially attracted by a beautiful young lady, 
 splendidly attired, who, with her husband, having made 
 their bows to the bride, now came to the spot where he 
 was standing. Those about Peter presented to them 
 their congratulations, and thus he was advised that they 
 were now in their honeymoon. As they passed onwards, a 
 maiden lady, whose diamonds bespoke a high rank in the 
 circles of fashionable Hfe, turned to a lady next to Peter, 
 and said in a whispered tone, " There goes a foolish girl, 
 who claims to have married for love, and counts the 
 sacrifice she has made of splendid offers as not worth a 
 moment's thought, I wonder that her father should 
 have thrown away his chUd upon a man of no fortune ; 
 one who has nothing but his head to depend upon." In 
 reply to this depreciating remark, the lady replied she 
 thought if Mr. Morgan had no fortune of bis own, his 
 talents would create one all in good time. 
 
 " You are so kind and so hopeful, dear Mrs. Fairfield," 
 replied Miss Judith Grey ; " but I think I know some 
 fathers who would not give up an only daughter without 
 surer hopes of success." 
 
 " That life does not consist in the abundance of things 
 possessed, we have the highest authority for saying, and 
 the surest hopes are built on integrity, intelligence 
 and industry." So saying, Mrs. Faii-field bowed and 
 passed. 
 
 At this moment, a lady of forty, wdth a handsome face 
 and a bright look, richly dressed, illuminated with 
 
SCENES m ANOTHEK WOKLD. 323 
 
 • 
 
 diamonds came along, as Miss Judith stood w-ith her 
 Hps compressed, a little vexed with the reproof conveyed 
 in the reply of Mrs, Fairfield. 
 
 " What a pity, Mrs. Thomson, you had not come iip a 
 minute sooner, and you would have heard Mrs. Faii-field 
 preach to me about the vast superiority of worth over 
 wealth." 
 
 " Pray what was her text ?" asked Mrs. George Thom- 
 son. 
 
 " Henry Morgan and his bride ;" and then she repeated 
 what had been said. 
 
 " What folly !" exclaimed Mrs. George Thomson ; 
 "and does Mrs. Fairfield think to blind us with such 
 common-places ? She can afford to be sentimental, but 
 let a poor young man approach her beautiful daughter, 
 and then we shall see the worth of all such pietistic 
 preaching." 
 
 " I am sure it does not go for much anywhere, unless 
 it be at the board of brokers ; but in the circles of good 
 society up town, it is in very bad repute." So said Mrs. 
 Jonas Moreland, a lady of thirty, who had married an 
 old banker, and had recently entered the upper circles, 
 of which she was now forever talking. 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Moreland," replied Mrs. George 
 Thomson, " I assure you it goes for nothing. Do I not 
 know ? Have I not sounded all the shallows and depths 
 of fortune ? Born under no kind auspices, I made the 
 most of all the distinctions within my reach. I could 
 
- 324 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 not wait for wealth, and I therefore became a pietist, 
 and reached the slippery pinnacle of i^erfection. This 
 was a pin's-point to stand upon, but I held it with honor 
 until fortune began to smile upon us ; and then it was I 
 fell from grace, just when I was pluming my flight into 
 these third heavens." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Thomson, you are such a funny person ; 
 and you say things of yourself no one else would ever 
 think of saying." 
 
 " No, Miss Judith, I understand myself and the peo- 
 ple by whom I am surrounded. If we were all in hea- 
 ven the course I take would not be in good taste ; but 
 neither Mrs. Fairfield, nor any of our up-town Christians, 
 have any desire to reach a higher position than that they 
 now occupy for a good Avhile to come. I imagine we 
 ■all tliink this world of ours good enough for us for the 
 next twenty-five years." 
 
 " Tell me, Mrs. Thomson, what did you think of our 
 late hostess ; was she not a very proud person ?" asked 
 Miss Judith. 
 
 " Mrs. Jay was proud. Miss Judith, but not haughty. 
 It was nature-born with her. That she was a proud 
 woman you could see by the glance of her eye, and her 
 bearing at all times and everywhere. Poor dear lady ! 
 She was very clever, and I always admired her. But 
 she, too, had her weak points ; and there is the evidence 
 of what I say. Look at that broad canvas covered all 
 over with brown paint. That was her pet treasure — a 
 
SCENES IN ANOTDER WORLD. 325 
 
 real Rembrandt and no mistake. She confessed to me 
 it could only be seen in the strong light in Avhich it had 
 been painted ; and by the way, I can say that very many 
 of the pictures in our parlors are in the same bad fix. 
 Now to see that picture, our dear friend must have had 
 a hole cut m the wall of the house to let daylight down 
 upon it, and so have made the beauties of her gem visi- 
 ble to mortal eyes. Where it now hangs, by no possi- 
 bility can it be told from hundreds of smoke-dried 
 Dutch-made Rembrandts, and other masters which 
 adorn the walls of the palaces of our picture-mad mer- 
 chants, who are death on all ' old masters.' " 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Thomson ! how can you talk so against 
 pictures, when you have as many hanging in your par- 
 lors as there are here ?" said Mrs. Moreland, with a tone 
 of astonishment. 
 
 " I pray your pardon, madam ; I have pictures, and 
 many of them, but there is not one which needs a hole 
 in the waU of my house to let in a j^encil of rays to make 
 it visible ; and there is not an ' old master ' among them. 
 I like pictures, Mrs. Moreland, but they must be paint- 
 ings always pleasing to look upon. I have not a Madonna, 
 nor a virgin of any sort in my house, nor a saint mth his 
 wrinkled face to stare down upon me, holding up a skull 
 and crossbones for a perpetual memento mori ; no, nor 
 will I ever mix up incongruous ideas, in words or colors, 
 in any parlor of mine ; but, then, I am a parvenu — not 
 trained to appreciate the Fine Arts ! It may be I nin all 
 
326 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 wrong as to my taste in pictures ; but in diamonds I 
 rather think I surpass some eminent persons who cannot 
 tell the difference between the true and the false, be- 
 tween the paste and the gem. I can tell the difference 
 blind-fold." 
 
 " Pray, how ! do explain this mystery." 
 
 " It is no mystery ; I simply touch my tongue with the 
 so-called diamonds, and my tongue tells me the difference 
 as surely as my eye discovers the cheats I see all about 
 me ;" and so saymg, Mrs. Thomson gave a look at a dia- 
 dem crowning a lady passing at the moment. 
 
 " I love to hear you talk, Mrs. Thomson ; you are so 
 brave." 
 
 " Yes, and I love to hear myself I am always excited 
 pleasurably when I find myself surrounded by good 
 society. And yet, alas ! what is it ? ' Vanity of vanities,' 
 as Solomon said of his own age. Here we have for leaders, 
 pei'sons of both sexes, sadly ignorant of what they most 
 affect. I love to hear them talk superfine. No one 
 wears a more admiring look than I. When these oracles 
 speak I am dumb ; no courtier can bow so low as I ; 
 none assume a more deferential air, and, Miss Judith, 
 like all the rest of the world, they love to be admired. 
 These dowager dames laugh at me and talk of my aping 
 their style. Yes, I do so, and they think the better of 
 their style because I copy it ; and excel most of them in 
 their own way of manifesting the possession of wealth." 
 
 Peter stood listening with all his might, when Mrs. 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 327 
 
 Jay laid licr hand on his shoulder, and roused his 
 attention. 
 
 " Tell me, Peter, what do you think of all you have 
 heard ? Was not that a just critique upon my poor 
 Rembrandt ?" 
 
 " She is a bright woman, and I like her," answered 
 Peter. 
 
 At this instant Mrs. General Wentworth came up, and 
 bowing to Miss Jiadith and Mrs. Thomson, and after the 
 usual compliments, said : " This is a very nice party, and 
 Mrs. Jay would have enjoyed it, I am certain. How 
 much we miss her bright beaming eye, her silver tones 
 and sweet smiles !" 
 
 Mrs. George Thomson replied : " Yes, madam, her 
 smile was beautiftil, brightened as it was by the adorn- 
 ments of exquisite taste, and reflected from all these 
 plate mirrors ; and I think she appreciated all this." 
 
 " Oh, no, Mrs. Thomson ! Mrs. Jay was superior to 
 such things, and always preferred worth before wealth." 
 
 " My dear madam," replied Mrs. Thomson, " you do 
 not know the value of money. You were born to wealth, 
 married wealth, and have all your life long had every 
 wish gratified ; but I may speak what everybody knows, 
 that my good husband has aided me to my present posi- 
 tion. And let who will talk lightly of the worth of money, 
 it won't be me. And why should it be discredited ? It 
 buys everything, shelters me in a home like this, with all 
 its appliances of comfort — supplies me Avith a carriage 
 
328 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OK, 
 
 and horses and servants — I am welcomed at Stewart's 
 with smiles, and the looms of the world are at work for 
 my adornment ; and last, not least by any means, money 
 pays for one of the best pews in the broad aisles of our 
 best churches up-town, and aids me to keep a conscience 
 void of offence. I can afford to be charitable, and have 
 my name as manager of any number of societies ; and 
 when death comes at last, I shall have the consolations 
 of religion and the benefit of clergy ; and when buried, 
 my disconsolate husband, before he marries again, will 
 take good care to erect at Greenwood a tall obelisk or a 
 broken shaft with a well written inscription, to keep alive 
 my many virtues in the memory of the future Mrs. 
 George Thomson, to whom my epitaph will stand as a 
 perpetual exhortation, and my monument be forever a 
 rock of offence. In one word, money secures to us all 
 the best things of this life and the fairest hopes for the 
 life to come." 
 
 " You are positively shocking, Mrs. Thomson," cried 
 Mrs. General Wentworth as she passed on, vdih a pleased 
 look and a tap of her fan. 
 
 Peter, who was interested in Mrs. George Thomson, 
 followed her, listenmg to her clever sayings. She passed 
 many ladies who ignored her presence, or who were un- 
 known to her. Two matrons, whose bearing showed the 
 tmmistakeable marks of high culture and position, bowed 
 to Mrs. Thomson; and the three paused, when Mrs. 
 Thomson addressing the younger of the two, said : " This 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 329 
 
 mansion, so magnificent and thronged with the talent, 
 intelligence and beauty of our city, is like the palace in 
 the fairy tale ; it is incomplete, and why ?" 
 
 Mrs. Butler answered : " It is so long since I was 
 familiar with my nursery tales that I do not recall the 
 story you have alluded to ; but I presume my reply 
 ought to be, what we all feel to be the great lack in this 
 home — the absence of our beloved friend, Mrs. Jay." 
 
 " Do you not tliink she is here unseen ?" asked Mrs. 
 Thomson. " The two worlds may be much nearer than is 
 dreamed of in the philosophy and theology of our times." 
 
 " It is possible our dear Mrs. Jay may be here. What 
 do you say, Mrs. Griswold ?" replied Mrs. Butler. 
 
 " I have believed, that at death we are at once trans- 
 ported outside of all our present states of feeling and 
 thinking ; and in transcendental blessedness cease to in- 
 quire after the concerns of this life." 
 
 "That cannot be, Mrs. Griswold," replied Mrs. Thom- 
 son. " Our identity is one, and our ' prevailing love ' is 
 forever predominant. All the theologies from Paul to 
 Swedenborg teach us that. Now if you knew the ' pre- 
 vailing love ' of Mrs. Jay, you can tell us the emotions of 
 her heart had she entered this room." 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Thomson, I am not competent to look 
 beyond the present. I am no Seeress, nor do I wish to 
 be. It is my desire that her dear child may follow in 
 the footsteps of her mother, and become another Mrs. 
 Fry, and that we may thus have the mother restored to 
 
330 . TUE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 US. Her visits to our city-prison wfere like angel visits, 
 only in this : they were neither few nor far between." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! so I have heard, Mrs. Griswold. Remember, 
 madam, that Mrs. Fry and Mrs. Jay were both lovely 
 women of fine presence, and who always dressed with 
 richness and a beautiful simplicity ; and when they en- 
 tered the dimly-lighted wards of our prisons, they wore 
 the appearance of angels of light. And I have no 
 doubt it was a source of pleasurable satisfaction to 
 them to have done so. Indeed, what a sense of joy 
 must have flowed into their souls, when returning to 
 their mansions, the wretchedness they had just left 
 behind them was contrasted with home comforts." 
 
 "You judge hardly of human nature, Mrs. Thom- 
 son," said Mrs. Butler. 
 
 Mrs. Thompson replied, " Self-love and social are the 
 same. In this I am sustained by the brightest and wisest 
 of men." 
 
 Mrs. Griswold asked: "And do you regard Pope 
 and Rochefoucauld safe judges of Christian conduct ?" 
 
 " I could have cited St. Paul, ladies ; but somehow 
 Paul is now regarded as a little passe for our times." 
 
 " You are very severe upon us, Mrs. Thomson," said 
 Mrs, Butler. 
 
 Mrs. Thomson made a low courtesy and said : • " If I 
 may be permitted so distinguished an honor, I will add : 
 * and upon myself.' " 
 
 " You certainly have a right to make the application," 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOEi.D. . 331 
 
 said Mrs, Butler ; " but it would hardly have been polite 
 for us to have said : ' Physician, heal thyself.' " 
 
 " To you, ladies," replied Mrs. Thomson, " I dare 
 speak. It is only to those ' to the manner-born,' I ven- 
 ture to hold up life as it is, and not as it fashions itself. 
 The hollowness of our globe those know best who best 
 ring it." 
 
 Mrs. Butler, mth a smile, said : " You certainly have 
 your share of the most beautiful rings, dear Mrs. Thom- 
 son." 
 
 Mrs. Thomson, with a laugh, playfully held up her 
 hand and flashed the Ught from her diamonds, saying : 
 " Yes, ladies, I have had my ruigs, and every new ring 
 has helped me to realize the hollowness of the world in 
 which I live and move and have my being." So saying, 
 Mrs. Thompson bowed and was lost in the crowded 
 room. 
 
 " That is a bright person," said Mrs. Butler to her 
 friend, " and is destined to become a leader among us ; 
 and I think society will be likely to advance under such 
 guidance. I met her at Saratoga last summer and found 
 her a most agreeable person. She loves to surprise you, 
 and afiects to despise what most she covets ; but she is a 
 woman of tact and talent. We must make her feel her- 
 self at home in our social circles, and then she will cease 
 to be satirical." 
 
 "I will call upon her next week," said Mrs. Gris- 
 wold, " and wUl send her cards for my next party." 
 
332 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 The ball having been opened by the bride, she took 
 the arm of Mr. George Howard, one of the groomsmen, 
 and returned to the saloons, where she continued to re- 
 ceive with grace and frankness the congratulations of 
 her guests. This young gentleman took the first mo- 
 ment he could secure to say in a low tone to the bride : 
 " This night shall be made memorable to me by a decla- 
 ration of my love for your friend Amelia. Can you so 
 far obhge me as to detach her from Mr. Livingston, w^ho 
 has been her shadow all this evening. I purpose to 
 have more hope or none before I leave this house. 
 What do you advise, ray dear madam .^" emphasizing 
 her new title to the ear of the bride. 
 
 "Action, action, action! Your admiration of my 
 beautiful friend is not imknown to her lovely self, 
 though it has been so silent and deferential. This is 
 pleasing to us ladies to a certain point of time; and 
 whether this be the hour of decision m your love affairs, 
 you must determine for yourself I will aid you as you 
 desire." 
 
 Taking the arm of Mr. Howard, the bride was led up 
 to the spot where Mr. Livingston and Ameha stood. 
 This Mr. Livingston was regarded as ' a great catch ;' but 
 in despite of all well-concocted plans, had as yet refused 
 to be noosed, and was now approaching thirty-five, hav- 
 ing changed the object of his admiration mth every 
 season. This winter he had shown a most decided 
 preference for Miss Amelia Fairfield, a lovely girl of 
 
BCENE8 m ANOTHliR WOKLD. 333 
 
 eighteen, whose dark eyes shone with starry brightness, 
 and her happy, bright laugh revealed the most beautiful 
 teeth m all the w.orld. She was tall and graceful, and 
 her appearance on this evening was singularly attractive ; 
 for she was dressed with exquisite beauty and yet severe 
 simplicity. After mutual expressions of kind regards, 
 the bride said to Amelia : " Forgive me, if I claim Mr. 
 Livingston as a truant from the ball-room; and I am 
 now about to enlist him for Miss Jones, my beautiful 
 bridesmaid for the next quadrUle, and I will leave you, 
 Amelia, in charge of Mr. Howard." 
 
 Mr. Livmgston was not pleased, but he affected to be 
 so, and was led away to the ball-room, while Mr. How- 
 ard with profound deference asked permission to lead 
 Miss Amelia into the conservatory which opened into 
 the parlors. With a consenting smile Amelia took the 
 offered arm and was soon hid from sight amid fragrant 
 flowers blooming in mid-winter, lighted up by shaded 
 lamps which made a mimic moonlight. 
 
 It was a brief absence, when Peter who had been 
 observant of all that had passed, saw Amelia and her 
 lover return into the rooms. But what important 
 events are crowded into a few minutes ! The eyes of 
 Amelia shone with a dimmed lustre, her cheeks wore a 
 brighter color, and her air was changed. The manners 
 of Mr. Howard were no less deferential ; but there was 
 a loving tenderness in his glance which he had never 
 dared before. As it was true to nature, it did not 
 
334 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 oiSend, though the eyes of Amelia fell beneath his gaze. 
 This sweet embarrassment was ended at once by the 
 appearance of her pretty cousin Kate, who ran up to 
 her, saymg : " Come, Amelia, hasten to the ball-room in 
 
 time for the next quadrille. Mr. Livingston, who is now 
 
 on the floor with Miss Jones, sent me after you, and I 
 
 promised to bring you as soon as I could find you. 
 
 Where have you been hid ?" 
 
 " I do not wish to dance to-night, Kate." 
 
 " Do not wish to dance, Amelia! Did you not intend 
 
 to dance ? In the carriage on our way here, you said you 
 
 would." 
 
 " Yes, I did so ; but I have changed my mind." 
 
 " Pray, cousin, tell me, ai"e you indisposed ?" 
 
 " Indisposed to dance, Cousin Kate." 
 
 " This is odd ! What has happened, cousin ?" 
 
 " Pray am I not a woman ?" asked Amelia, with an 
 
 air of mock earnestness; "-and have I not a right to 
 
 change my mind ?" 
 
 " Certainly, cousin ; but you are not changeable ; and 
 
 you have either had a quarrel of some sort with Mr. 
 
 Livingstone, or you are iU." 
 
 " Mr. Livingston and I parted just now, on good terms ; 
 
 and I assure you I am perfectly well." 
 
 At this moment, Mr, Livingston came up in haste, 
 
 and with the air of one who had a claim to the hand 
 
 which he took on the instant, saying, " Let us hurry, 
 
 Amelia, or we shall be one moment too late." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WORLD. 335 
 
 "I shall not dance to-night, Mr. Livingston," said 
 Amelia. " I have this moment declined Mr, Howard's 
 kind invitation to dance with him." 
 
 " I presmiie Mr. Howard wiU mthdraw his invita- 
 tion in my favor. Miss Amelia," said Mr. Livingston, 
 M'ith the air of a man who demanded it as a right not to 
 be denied him. 
 
 Amelia, Avith a tone of decision which anticipated any 
 reply from Mr. Howard, said to Mr. Livingston, "I 
 shall not dance, sir." 
 
 " That being a decree ' which changeth not,' I am re- 
 leased fi'om all further attendance in the ball-room. 
 Will you please make my excuse, Mr. Howard, and give 
 the bride the reasons for my absence ?" 
 
 This was said with an air of one who wished to be left 
 alone with Amelia, and accordingly her cousin accom- 
 panied Mr. Howard to the ball-room. 
 
 Mr. Livingston was evidently not a little flattered by 
 this decision made by Miss Amelia ; for as she well knew 
 his aversion to dancing, he regarded her declining of Mr, 
 Howard's invitation and his own as a gage d'amour 
 which he was in a happy mood to take up. And this he 
 did vrith all the skill he could command, and at the end 
 of half an hour or more he found himself greatly em- 
 barrassed what next to say. He had made the most of 
 an offer of himself that he had ever before ventured 
 upon, and Amelia had sho^^Ti not the slightest comprt-- 
 heusiou of his purpose. " Did she need him to be jnore 
 
336 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 explicit, and should he be so ?" These were question- 
 ings hard to be answered in a saloon where he was every 
 moment or two interrupted by some teasing young lady 
 or far-sighted matron, saying, " Good evening, Amelia ; 
 how cosy you are in this snug corner ;" or, " Mr, Livings- 
 ton you absorb Miss Amelia, to the infinite misery of her 
 despairing lovers." Weary of such impertinence, Mr. 
 Livingston, losing his patience, said, " I wish all these 
 people were " — AmeUa's inquiring look was upon him, 
 and quailing under it, he added — "at the antipodes, 
 Miss Amelia," 
 
 " I am most grateful for their . attentions," replied 
 Amelia, quietly. Nor did she fail to detain aU such 
 friends in pleasant chat, until Mr. Livingston could 
 with difficulty command Ms temper ; so vexed was 
 he that the exclusiveness of attention, young ladies 
 especially, had always conceded to him, was now 
 denied. 
 
 Men of known wealth are apt to have an imperious 
 bearing of which they may be all the while unconscious. 
 From boyhood they have been accustomed to rule over 
 superior minds, who, with bare-headed debasement, bow 
 down before such golden calves, Mr, Livingston was 
 among the idolized of " good society," and it was all new 
 to him to have his attentions disregarded. It had been 
 the study of his life to pay only such civilities, as, how- 
 ever flattering to the lady of the hour, were perfectly 
 non-committal. And now, when he was himself reck- 
 
SCENES IN ANOTirER WORLD. 337 
 
 less how far he went, or what foiiii of phrase he adopted, 
 he found Miss Amelia unaffected and utterly unappre- 
 ciative. Having exhausted his patience, he rose to leave 
 Amelia as Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield approached them, and 
 after making his bows of recognition, he said to Mrs. 
 Fairfield, " I am sorry to find Miss Amelia so much 
 indisjioscd ; she will neither dance, talk, nor listen ;" so 
 saying, he made a bow to Amelia and her parents, and 
 addressed himself to a young widow near by, who, having 
 laid aside her long black veil, had just reappeared in 
 society. This lady was delighted with the warmth of 
 Mr. Livingston's adcCress, who expressed his pleasure at 
 seeing her once more, and thus it Avas he exploded 
 his resentment, hopmg to pique Amelia ; but she stood 
 beside her parents with a look of pre-occupation and 
 imconscioiisness that was truly provoking. 
 
 Mr. Howard returnmg Avith Miss Kate to the parlors, 
 led her up to the bride ; and after some pleasant conver- 
 sation, Augusta requested her husband to take care of 
 Margaret while she went into the conservatory with 
 Mr. Howard. 
 
 " Shall I offer you my congratulations ?" asked Augus- 
 ta, as she took a seat. 
 
 " Oh, I dare not tell you all I hope for, dear madam. 
 I had some minutes with Amelia, who occu})ied the same 
 seat you now do — it might be fifteen or twenty minutes. 
 
 15 
 
338 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 I cannot say how long, but I told Amelia all that was in 
 my heart. The fountains of the great deep were broken 
 up, and words came full and fast. All that had been 
 treasured up in my soul for months and years now found 
 utterance, and though I felt my flight was Icarus-like, 
 I was without fear." 
 
 " Grand !" exclaimed Augusta ; " and what reply did 
 she make ?" 
 
 " Not one word, but she listened without one sign of 
 weariness, and what could I hope for more ?" 
 
 " Nothing ! and you have shown your true apprecia- 
 tion of a woman's nature to be content with this silent 
 acquiescence of her soul. And is this all you have to 
 tell me ? Have you not spoken with her since ? That 
 was near two hours ago." 
 
 " No, for Mr. Livingston has had her all to himself on 
 a sofa in a corner. I have been in and out and around 
 to catch a glance at Ameha. She has remained listening 
 listlessly and rarely smiled. He has grown red in the 
 face in talking earnestly to her, but what it is he has 
 been saying I have no guess even. No young gentleman 
 has dared approach Amelia, and you know Livingston 
 claims the entire attention of the lady he is talking to, 
 and is rude as a bear to any one who dares to interrupt 
 his conversation." 
 
 " How skillful and wise love has made you, Mr. How- 
 ard ? Let me lead you to Amelia, for this bear will not 
 dare to growl in my presence." 
 
SCENES IN ANOTIIEK WOELD. 339 
 
 " Thank you, deai- Mrs. Heury, for such thoughtful 
 kindness as you have manifested to me this evening." 
 
 " Oh, I have a wish that AmeUa shall have this day 
 as conspicuous ui her calendar as it is m mine." 
 
 " How glad you make me ! and how grateful shall I 
 be if your hopes and my "wishes are ever realized." — So 
 saying, they left the conservatory and sought out 
 AmeHa. 
 
 They found her with her parents, who were about to 
 go, and were happy thus to take leave of the bride. 
 Augusta kept Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield occupied, giving 
 opportunity to Mr. Howard to converse with Ameha. 
 She had supplied him with a beautiful moss-rose bud, 
 which he presented to Amelia, who admired it and hid it 
 in her bosom. Mr. Howard was delighted, and eagerly 
 sought for one glance, but none was given. 
 
 The parents took leave, and Peter, who had been an 
 interested " looker-on in Vienna," saw Mr. Howard hand 
 Amelia into the carriage. Returning to the entry, Mr. 
 Howard held in his hand a lady's glove, accidentally 
 dropped, which he hid away carefully in his vest pocket. 
 This love affiiir helped to w^hile away the evening to 
 Peter, 
 
 Mr. Henry and his bride were now receiving and 
 returning the salutations of departing guests. While 
 Peter was standing near the bride, gazing on the 
 scene before him, Mrs. Jay came up to him and an- 
 nounced her purpose to leave. Peter begged her to 
 
340 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 stay until the last guest was gone, but she was impera- 
 tive, as was her wont, and William 'had not a word to 
 say, and as for Peter she told him he was at liberty to do 
 as he pleased. 
 
 " See, my beloved husband, Peter ! Look at him ! "Was 
 ever such self-forgetfulness seen before ! Can any filial 
 love and duty repay him such devotedness? Oh, that 
 he may find like nobiUty of nature in his new-found son ! 
 and Augusta too, vnll she ever forget to love her father ? 
 If he could but go T\dth us ; but alas ! he must travel on- 
 wards to the tomb unaided and aJone." 
 
 " You are too distrustful, dear madam. I \^dll venture 
 everything on the truthfulness and devotion of your 
 child." 
 
 " Oh, Peter, this is all moonshine. In the body, cus- 
 tom, habit, cares, losses, changes of place and pursuits, 
 little by little, steal away our afifections, and we are 
 changed. There's nothing but a constant Christian faith 
 can enable Augusta and her husband to fulfill the de- 
 mands of duty and self-sacrifice ; and how imperfectly, 
 our own lives will bear us witness." 
 
 " I have all faith in Augusta, and I shall have to the 
 end of life. Pardon me, Mrs. Jay, but do you leave be- 
 cause you have been piqued by what you have heard 
 said of you this evening ?" 
 
 "No, Peter, not so. I have been most lovingly 
 remembered by my friends, whose commendations I do 
 not deserve ; and even my faults have found their ad- 
 
SCENES IN ANOTHER WOKLD. 34:1 
 
 mirers. Mrs. George Thomson's admii-able critique uj)ou 
 my pet picture was so true, that I wonder it never 
 occurred to me. I hope God, in his infinite mercy, will 
 bring each and all of these, my dear friends, neighbors 
 and acquaintance, to the knowledge of the truth as it is 
 in Christ Jesus. That they may all repent of their sins, 
 and live by faith of the Son of God — the only Saviour of 
 sinners, and the only Way to Heaven." 
 
 " So may it be." answered Peter. 
 
 " I am about to impress my last kisses, and to tear 
 myself away. You, Peter, prefer to stay awhile longer, 
 and on your return you will find me somewhere along 
 the pathway of light, which renews to us the life of our 
 glorious God and Saviour. "William and I intend to 
 dwell upon his every look and action, and to make them 
 our most precious inheritance. I am sure you wiU feel 
 yourself in haste to join us in this blissful study of the 
 life of Christ." 
 
 So saying, Mrs. Jay, with lingering tenderness, took 
 leave of her husband and daughter. Again and again 
 did she renew her unfelt caresses. Flavianus made his 
 appearance in the saloon, and taking the hand of Wil- 
 liam, said to Mrs. Jay, " I obey your will, madam." 
 
 " Flavianus, I am grateful to God that your love to 
 me is to be continued to my child. May I soon be 
 restored to my husband and my child, and then will be 
 added one more to the company of happy families, united 
 in the love of Christ, to be separated no more forever." 
 
342 THE GATES WIDE OPEN; OR, 
 
 With " longing, lingering looks behind," Mrs. Jay and 
 Peter followed Flavianus and William into the haU, and 
 thence into the street, Tlie moon had risen and was 
 walking in brightness above them. The long row of 
 carriages showed that many guests were stiU enjoying 
 the pleasures of an evening party in December. They 
 walked slowly down the pavement, their minds full of 
 the recollections of the past and with anticipations of the 
 future, tin Flavianus stopped on the crossing of the next 
 street. 
 
 " Here we separate," said Flavianue, and after kind 
 adieux, Mrs. Jay and her son and their angel rose, 
 and soon became a mere point of light, even to Peter's 
 space-penetrating vision, " as far as angel's ken," and were 
 seen no more. 
 
 On his return to the house, and as he was about to go 
 up the steps, Peter chanced to look up, and saw the cur- 
 tains of an upper room on fire. Rising to the height of 
 the windows, he saw the sash had been drawn down 
 from the top, and that the curtains had blown free from 
 their fastening and had caught fire from the gas-burners. 
 
 Descending in a fright, Peter rushed into the saloons, 
 and going up to Mr. Jay, he whispered in his ear that 
 his house was on fire, in the front room of the third 
 story. Mrs. Woolsey and son were at the moment 
 taking leave of Mr. Jay and Augusta, and he was so 
 absorbed, that he paid not the least attention to what 
 had been told him. So soon as this lady and her son 
 
SCENES m ANOTHER WORLD. 343 
 
 had Avilhdra^\ai, Peter Avitli all earnestness again tokl 
 Mr. Jay his house was on fire ; but in vain. Mad with 
 excitement, Peter ran up the stairs into the ball-room, 
 which was still thronged with the bright and the beauti 
 ful, who were waltzing with the bouyancy of midnight 
 hours. N"o sooner did one couple make a vacancy than 
 others were ready to sweep across the floor. As it was 
 the last dance, its close had been thus indefinitely pro- 
 longed by Munck and his band, so that it had become 
 a contest which should give out, the band or the dancers. 
 Nothing could exceed the joyousness and excitement of 
 the ball-room as Peter rushed in, and reckless of conse- 
 quences, having reached the very centre of the room, he 
 cried out with all his might — Fire I 
 
 It was all a dream ! no sooner Avas the word spoken 
 than Peter awoke and foimd himself solitary and alone ; 
 the naked, barren, and wintry waste of life, shrouded in 
 clouds and darkness, still lay untravelled before him. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 15* 
 
 MB 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The following article is taken from the " Boston Even- 
 ing Transcript," June, 1858 : 
 
 THE H0MAN RACE, 
 
 When Mr. Miller was exhorting our people to be prepared for the 
 end of the world, and gave it as his deliberate opinion that " the day 
 of judgment would be a thousand years," I published the follow- 
 ing estimate in the " Boston Courier " (1843), first published in 
 the " Quarterly Journal of Agriculture," London, and copied by 
 the "Albion," New York, 1830. It maybe an interesting chapter 
 for the study of your correspondent, " A," and not an uninteresting 
 one for your readers : 
 
 " Increase of the Number op Mankind. — On the supposition that 
 the human race has power to double its numbers four times in a cen- 
 tury, or once in each succeeding ppriod of twenty-five years, as some 
 philosophers have computed, and that nothing prevented the exercise 
 of this increase, the descendants of Noah and his family would have 
 now increased (1830) to the following number : 
 
 1,496, 511, 696, 626, 844, 588, 240, 573, 268, '701,4'73,812,12'7,6'74,924,- 
 
 007,424. 
 
 847 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 The surface of the earth contains of square 
 
 miles 196,663,355 
 
 Mercury and the planets contain about. . . . 46,'790,511,000 
 The sun contains 2,442,900,000,000 
 
 2,489,887,174,355 
 
 " Hence, upon the supposition of such a rate of increase of man« 
 kind as has been assumed, the number of human beings now living 
 would be equal to the following number for each square mile upon 
 the surface of the earth, sun, and all the planets, — 61,362,000,000,000,- 
 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ; or to the following number to each 
 square inch, 149,720,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000." 
 
 This last number alone is infinite with relation to human concep- 
 tion. Merely to count it would require an incredible period. Sup- 
 posing the whole number of inhabitants now upon the surface of the 
 globe to be one thousand millions — which is believed to somewhat 
 exceed the actual number — and supposing that this multitude, infants 
 and adults, were to be employed in nothing else but counting — that 
 each working 365 days in the year, and ten hours in the day, and to 
 count one hundred per minute, it would require, in order to count 
 the number in question, 6,536,500,000,000 of years. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 CRINOLINE THE CAUSE OP THE COMMERCIAL CRISIS OP 1857. 
 MALE AND FEMALE LUXURIES. 
 
 During the past year the ladies of the United States have spent for 
 silk $28,699,681, for embroideries $4,443,176, for trimmings and 
 laces $1,129,754, for shawls $9,246,361, for bonnets and hats 
 $2,246,928 ; while the men have wasted their substance in brandies 
 and hquors, $3,963,725, in wines $2,381,252, and in cigars and 
 
APPENDIX. 349 
 
 tobacco $5,579,931. Total spent by ladies, $36,619,538 ; by gentle, 
 men, $11,924,908. 
 
 A GREAT LEAK. 
 
 Nothing can afford at a glance a clearer insight into the universal 
 prevalence of luxury in the United States, than the fact that during 
 the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1856, we imported silk piece goods to 
 the amount of $25,000,000, other silk goods to the value of $6,017,115^ 
 laces $1,601,610, embroideries $4,664,353, making altogether over 
 thirty-seven millions of dollars. These are the things which run 
 away with the wealth of the country. 
 
 ENGLISH VIEW OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS. 
 
 The London " Times " makes the following comments upon the 
 condition of things in the United States : 
 
 " The commercial panic across the Atlantic is beginning to lead to 
 a very rigid economic inquiry^ The money is gone, and who has 
 spent it all ? That is the question. We need not add that the ques- 
 tion is asked with considerable irritation and sharpness of tone, suffi- 
 cient to account for any amount of reluctance in the culprit to come 
 forward and confess. Who has spent all the money ? The hue and 
 cry of New York offers an almost unlimited reward for his or her 
 apprehension. Whoever discovers the criminal will receive not only 
 a pension of several thousand dollars for life, but also a civic crown ; 
 he will be clothed in splendid apparel, and led on horseback through 
 the streets of the city. All New York is at present busy in searching 
 for the gigantic spendthrift. Where has he gone ? What has be- 
 come of him ? Who saw him last ? What train did he leave by ? 
 Has he fled to the Dismal Swamp, or to California, or to Nicaragua ? 
 Is he still in the city, evading pursuit ? Everybody is looking into 
 cupboards, behind doors, uuder beds, and in all holes and corners 
 of upper and lower stories to see if he is there. 
 
350 APPEiroix. 
 
 " When a man becomes a bankrupt, and cannot find out who is to 
 blame for it ; when he has decided that, of course, he himself has 
 had nothing to do with it ; that none of his clerks are in fault, or the 
 post office, or the government, or the custom house — ^in lack of 
 every other cause of the smash, he turns round upon his wife — ' Yes : 
 now I have got it. I always thought it would come to this. Now I 
 see the consequence of having married an expensive woman.' 
 
 " This our contemporary, the ' New York Times,' tells us is the 
 general explanation given in New York of the recent convulsion of 
 the money market. Women are the burden of conversation, and the 
 whole community is agreed that it has married a most expensive wife. 
 All the New York merchants are turning round fiercely upon their 
 domestic partners ; the extravagant wives have done it all — it is the 
 French silks, the crinoline and moire, the gloves and feathers, fans 
 and furbelows, that have ruined them ; these have taken the money 
 out of the country. 
 
 " The American merchant's wife m«st return to rigid republican 
 simplicity. One would imagine that there was a Jonah preaching 
 repentance, and that the great American Tyre was going literally to 
 clothe herself with sackcloth. There will be allowed Quaker bonnets 
 alone, gowns of the plainest drab stuff, shawls of the same ; those 
 wives of the most opulent citizens who are permitted to use silk, will 
 have it measured out to them by the mayor and corporation. The 
 Legislative Assembly of the State will debate in the next session upon 
 the subject of female dress, and, as soon as a committee has sat, 
 examined witnesses, and made a report on the annual quantity of 
 clothing and ornament which the commercial welfare of the com- 
 munity can spare, the ladies will proceed to lay down permanent 
 restrictions, which will be a model of sumptuary wisdom, and supply 
 an example for the legislation of other countries that may find them- 
 selves falling into mercantile confusion. 
 
 " Such is the repentance, not of Nineveh, but of New York, and 
 
APPENDIX. 351 
 
 certainly it is an instance of the same sword that wounded healing. 
 Money is the corrupter, and bankruptcy is the converter. 
 
 " New York now finds that it has gone astray, that it has departed 
 from the rigid simplicity of its Puritan founders, and it is anxious to 
 return to drab again, in order that it may get rich again. This motive 
 to national penitence would not indeed have satisfied the prophets, 
 and the penance itself appears rather too vicarious a one." 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 The follo^Fing narrative is one of many wliich could 
 be given. It is taken from the writings of the Rev. 
 James B. Finley, an eminent minister in North Carolina, 
 who was born in North Carolina, in the year 1781, and 
 became one of the most -zealous and efficient pioneers in 
 the missionary cause during the early settlement of Ken- 
 tucky and Ohio. He died but a few years since, at an 
 advanced age. He was held in high estimation by 
 all denominations of Christians, and was long known to 
 the Christian world by the endearing name of Father 
 Finley. In his Autobiography, page 375, we find the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 " During my labors on the Dayton district, an incident occurred 
 which I must relate, because it is due to the many to whom I pro- 
 mised an account of it, that it should be published in my biography. 
 
 " It was in the summer of 1842, Worn down with fatigue, I was 
 completing my last round of quarterly meetings, and winding up the 
 labors of a very toilsome year. I had scarcely finished my work till 
 
352 APPENDIX. 
 
 I was most violently attacled with bilious fever, and it was with great 
 difficulty I reached home. The disease had taken so violent a hold on 
 my system that I sank rapidly under its power. Everything that kind 
 attention and medical skill could impart was resorted to, to correct 
 its ravages ; but all was in vain, and my life was despaired of. On 
 the seventh night, in a state of entire insensibility to all around me, 
 when the last ray of hope had departed, and my weeping family and 
 friends were standing around my couch waiting to see me breathe my 
 last, it seemed to me that a heavenly visitant entered my room. It 
 came to my side, and in the softest and most silvery tones, which fell 
 like rich music on my ear, it said, ' I have come to conduct you to 
 another state and place of existence.' In an instant I seemed to rise, 
 and gently borne by angel guides, I floated out upon the ambient 
 air. Soon earth was lost in the distance, and around us, on every side, 
 were worlds of light and glory. On, on, away, away from this world 
 to luminous worlds afar, we sped with the velocity of thought. At 
 length we reached the gates of Paradise ; and oh ! the transporting 
 scenes that fell upon my vision, as the emerald portals, wide and high, 
 rolled back upon their golden hinges ! Then, in its fullest extent, 
 did I realize the invocation of the poet : 
 
 " ' Burst ye emerald gates and bring 
 To my raptured vision 
 All tlie estatic joys that spring 
 Round the bright Elysian." 
 
 "Language, however, is inadequate to describe what then, with 
 unveiled eyes, I saw. The vision is indelibly pictured upon my heart. 
 Before me, spread out in beauty, was a broad sheet of water, clear as 
 a crystal, not a single ripple on its surface, and its purity and clear- 
 ness indescribable. On each side of this lake, or river, rose up the 
 most tall and beautiful trees, covered with all manner of fruits and 
 flowers, the brilliant hues of which were reflected in the bosom of 
 the placid river. 
 
APPENDIX. 863 
 
 "While 1 stood gazing with joy and rapture at the scene, a convoy 
 of angels was seen floating in the pure ether of that world. They 
 had all long wings, and although they went with tl^ greatest rapidity, 
 yet their wings were folded close to their sides. While I gazed, I 
 asked my guide who they were, and what their mission ? To this he 
 responded, ' They are angels dispatched to the world from whence 
 you came, on errands of mercy.' I could hear strains of the most 
 entrancing melody all around me, but no one was discoverable but 
 my guide. At length I said, ' Will it be possible for me to have a 
 sight of some of the just made perfect in glory ?' Just then there came 
 before us three persons. One had the appearance of a male, the 
 other a female, and the third an infant. The appearance of the first 
 two was somewhat similar to the angels I saw, with the exception 
 that they had crowns upon their heads of the purest yellow, and 
 harps in their hands. Their robes, which were full and-flowing, were 
 of the purest white. Their countenances were lighted up with a hea- 
 venly radiance, and they smiled upon me with ineffable sweetness. 
 
 «' There was nothing with which the blessed babe or child could be 
 compared. It seemed to be about three feet high. Its wings, which 
 were long and most beautiful, were tinged with all the colors of the 
 rainbow. Its dress seemed to be of the whitest silk, covered with 
 the softest white down. The driven snow could not exceed it for 
 whiteness or purity. Its face was all radiant with glory ; its very 
 smile now plays around my heart. I gazed and gazed with wonder 
 upon this heavenly child. At length I said, 'If I have to return to 
 earth, from whence I came, I should love to take this child with me, 
 and show it to weeping mothers of earth. Methinks when they see 
 it, they will never shed another tear over their children when they 
 die.' So anxious was I to carry out the desire of my heart, that I 
 made a grasp at the bright and beautiful one, desiring to clasp it in 
 my arms, but it eluded my grasp, and plunged into the river of life. 
 Soon it rose up from the waters, and as the drops feU from its expand- 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing wings, they seemed like diamonds, so brightly did they sparkle. 
 Directing its course to the other shore, it flew up to one of the top- 
 most branches of .one of life's fair trees. With a look of most 
 seraphic sweetness, it gazed upon me, and then commenced singing in 
 heaven's own strains, ' To him that hath loved me, and washed me 
 from my sins in his own blood, to him be glory both now and forever. 
 Amen." 
 
 " At that moment the power of the Eternal God came upon me, 
 and I began to shout, and clapping my hands, I sprang from my bed, 
 and was healed as instantly as the lame man in the beautiful porch of 
 the temple, who * went walking, and leaping and praising God.' 
 Overwhelmed with the glory I saw and felt, I could not cease praising 
 God. The next Sabbath I went to camp meeting, filled with the 
 love and power of God. There I told the listening thousands what I 
 saw and felt, and what God had done for me, and loud were the 
 shouts of glory that reverberated though the forest." 
 

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