.Hi 3b 
 
 
 iji i Jliji i r 
 
 
 i mfintOTH'mml i KWiW »; . it i -w ff , irMtff/.'j iWKtiffl'.iHbj^:: 
 
 tmmmmrmt Hitmm mt i m i t* Mm)urxmn)i !i»i$»K:ii>r^t,-tvfAn^>-ss 
 
 
 S;■5i^•^■SSSi^^>S;¥J^,^J^^;^^- 
 
 \r\iM 
 
 
 LDRICH De KrOYFT 
 
 
 JW^WHi 
 
 ^x<«tt!iS!«X«Mli«t«8Si»il»if)^^ 
 
 itMiilMiMNte 
 
 
 ^pi»>tiitij#»i » i i i i' ii ]>iif»fw>>\>n ny ■ : 
 
^:^>m^^.■t,'M,.:i' 
 
 
 l^^--*&^ 
 
 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
Mrs. Helen Aldkich DeKroyft 
 at Eujhlv I (lur 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. HELEN ALDRICH De KROYFT 
 
 AUTHOR OF "MORTARA," "THE FORESHADOWED WAT," 
 "A PLACE IN THT MEMORY," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 1904 
 

 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 AUG 6 1904 
 
 ^ Cooyrfght Entry 
 CLASS Ct XXc. Na 
 
 y a / r / 
 
 COPY B 
 
 /fo^ 
 
 Copyright, 1903, bt 
 Mrs. HELEN ALDRICH De KEOYFT 
 
©etiication 
 
 Part One to this eke of a book was 
 originally very much longer than now; 
 and when in the winter of '71 I gave it 
 at Steinway as a recitation or lecture, 
 up out of the audience came a lovely 
 Miss Dana who, after placing a kiss on 
 my lips, said : "I have been twelve 
 years Paris correspondent for my broth- 
 er's paper ; but in all that time I have 
 never seen or heard anything one-half 
 as beautiful as your creation of Eve in 
 Paradise; and I could not go away 
 without coming to thank you for it. " 
 
 Hand plaudits had not been wanting, 
 but those few words of praise, in the 
 voice of a cultured stranger, were things 
 for my heart to break smiles upon. 
 And after these many days I make re- 
 turn as best 1 may by dedicating " The 
 Soul of Eve " to the lovely 
 
 ^i^0 2Dana 
 
 who, passing, paused to enrich my life 
 with a moment of her own — a little 
 legacy for memory to keep. 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 PART I 
 
 When we remember how really grand 
 and beautiful a being man is, it does 
 seem a little like effecting a sort of 
 flank movement upon his greatness 
 even to so much as remind him that 
 science and revelation both have ac- 
 corded to his father Adam an outside, 
 open land, common earth origin. Moses 
 says : " Formed of the dust of the 
 ground." However significant or how- 
 ever comprehensive the word "dust" 
 may have been in the original of that 
 Cyclopean statement, from the time of 
 Ezra, the scribe, down to the nine- 
 teenth century, it was understood to 
 mean simply the minute particles of 
 matter that we tread upon. Then sci- 
 ence, like a rebuking angel, came to 
 
8 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 hold over that httle word " dust " the 
 resolving torch of her wisdom, when it 
 was straightway found to cover in its 
 meaning all the indivisible, impercept- 
 ible properties, quantities, qualities, in- 
 stincts, faculties, propensities, crafts, 
 cunnings, intelligences, passions, and 
 aspirations, harvested through the ages 
 to the growing needs of forming or 
 developing man from the face of the 
 entire globe. 
 
 Although " learned in all the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians," it was not without 
 some touches of inspiration that Moses 
 came to understand the sublime cor- 
 relation of spirit forces by which the 
 myriad embryo mentalities of the ani- 
 mal world were drawn to, and by dint 
 of development sublimated into tliat 
 mightiest, subtlest, and most ponderous 
 piece of enginery this side of Heaven, 
 the mind or brain of man ; so small as to 
 be covered with a palm, and yet so com- 
 plex in its machinery, so tremendous 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 in its force, so incomprehensible in its 
 workings, and so eternal in its results, 
 that only God himself should be forever 
 adequate to its control. 
 
 The mightiest of the world's myste- 
 ries, and yet, such even, according to 
 the highest wisdom of the age, was Nat- 
 ure's own wondrous endowment of 
 him who six thousand years ago stood 
 forth upon the unfinished scenes of the 
 earth as the grand epitome or lofty 
 embodiment of all that law-governed 
 material could produce, namely : an 
 upright human intelligence, possessed 
 of body and of mind, possessed of pas- 
 sion and of intellect, but as void of all 
 the heart or soul-endowing qualities of 
 love as were the millions of contem- 
 poraries around him; among whom 
 must have been the sons of " Nod," to 
 whose land the outcast Cain fled, and 
 whose daughters he of the branded 
 brow subsequently honored with mar- 
 riage ; the peoples for whom Cain built 
 
10 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 a city and named it to his son ; the peo- 
 ples for whom Abel kept his herds and 
 tended his flocks; the peoples named 
 in The Pre- Adamite : "sons of Ish — 
 (men of low degree)." 
 
 As soulless as were all these, we say ; 
 when as by a backward turn of the hor- 
 oscope divine, it was given the inspired 
 Moses to behold the first earth-man 
 who had climbed so far up the spiral 
 staircase of being as to reach the, so to 
 speak, affinitizing fitness for that union 
 of soul with mind for which the tran- 
 scribers of INloses hundreds of years 
 later could find no better expression 
 than " a breath " of the Supreme 
 " breathed into the nostrils of man." 
 
 Too divine to contact matter, a soul 
 identity from out the realm of souls 
 could only blend with the mental spirit 
 of mortal, which harmonious fusion of 
 being was to the natural man, or to the 
 frosted cells of his natural being, pre- 
 cisely what the awakening spring-time is 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE U 
 
 to the world: a serene unlocking of all 
 his senses to the light and heat of 
 love; whereby his cold methodic reason 
 warmed to the wisdom of understandmg, 
 his bare belief rose to far-seeing faith 
 his dull expectancy put on white-wmged 
 hope, while all the pulses and passions 
 of his natural, unawakened, unenUv- 
 ened, unregenerate heart purpled to the 
 graces and qualities of goodness— good- 
 ness that, consecrating his thoughts, 
 warming in his words, shining in his 
 deeds, and melting into beautiful be- 
 nignities in his smile, changed him liter- 
 ally from a subtle mental spirit to a 
 livin^^ or acting soul, drawing life and 
 light from the Divine, and treading the 
 world amenable alike to the Celestial 
 as to the Terrestrial, with only a step 
 between. L.ofC. 
 
PART II 
 
 And God took the man and put him into the garden of 
 Eden, garden of the Lord, or Paradise of God, to dress it 
 and to keep it. 
 
 But how God took the man or how 
 he jjuf him to within the boundary of 
 the iuiseen,\\e are not told ; and doubt- 
 less Adam himself never could say ex- 
 actly how or why it was that he went 
 treading the shining avenues that opened 
 up before him, even to the gates of 
 Paradise ; himself gravitating, as it 
 were, from the material to the imma- 
 terial, from the mortal to the immortal, 
 as in abeyance to the heaven-tending 
 laws of soul gravitation. 
 
 But however taken, or however borne 
 across those shining portals, it were 
 none the less by edict divine, albeit 
 thither led simply by the force of that 
 charmed attraction which forever draws 
 one twin soul to its other dearer self, 
 
14 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 though separated wide as heaven, and 
 liigh as the stars that shine above it. 
 High privilege though, that of primal 
 innocence, thus to part the veils tliat 
 shut away the beautiful birthland of 
 the soul, and without dread or pain of 
 death go to breathe the expansive airs 
 and revel amid the white scenes and 
 ecstatic joys of spirit being, the while 
 moving amid seraphic throngs, fanned 
 by breezes wafted from afar, balmy with 
 perfumes and exhilarant with love. 
 
 But although a paradisiacal or spirit 
 world, Eden was to Adam still a real 
 world with grounds beneath his feet, full 
 enough suggestive of tilling. Fields, 
 too, real as erst his eyes had looked on, 
 were everywhere rising to his view, clad 
 in verdure perennial and bordered by 
 majestic rivers, gemmed with bubbling 
 fountains and knotted over with bowers 
 of celestial amaranth, whence sweet ely- 
 siums invited him forth, intersected by 
 flowery lanes, ambrosia bordered, and 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 15 
 
 overhung with vines, purple chistered, 
 but all wayward enough to profit by his 
 dresmig. Trees, too, everywhere tow- 
 ered above and around him, heavily 
 pendant with luscious fruits ; and when 
 the sun had risen high enough above 
 the heaven-lighted hill-tops to awaken 
 appetite, albeit in Eden, Adam, as fate 
 would have it, bent his steps toward 
 the centremost tree of the garden ; 
 when lo ! one met him there with face 
 like unto an flaming fire, bold of speech 
 and mighty, crying : 
 
 Know, O ! Adam, " In the day thou 
 eatest thereof thou wilt surely die," dis- 
 appear or go hence. Then, as by some 
 inner sense, new lighted, Adam saw and 
 understood that although an inhabitant 
 of the blissful Eden, and the while re- 
 strained by all its holy influences, lie 
 was nevertheless of the earth earthy, 
 and yet far too near the animal plane 
 to eat of a tree from whose subtle juices 
 archangels even had quaffed and grown 
 
16 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 dazed with dreams of ambitious rule. 
 Furthermore, Adam saw and under- 
 stood that while the natural mental 
 spirit in him had been clothed upon by 
 all the heart or soul-endowing qualities 
 of love, volition in him was still left 
 untrammelled, as, less than that, he 
 were less than man ; and therefore xv'ill 
 in him would be forever the mighty 
 umpire to his three-fold being, at whose 
 high behest he could slay his body, 
 strangle or choke away remorse from 
 his soul, silence its faintest whisper, and 
 at will, impoverish his mind, or at will 
 gormand it with that kind of knowledge 
 that pufFeth up the senses to an irrev- 
 erent, demoniac lust for greatness — 
 greatness that dreameth of power de- 
 fiant to God even ; and thus, dying to 
 love, fall from love's Paradise. Then, 
 satisfied and grateful to have escaped 
 so dire a calamity, Adam went other- 
 where and gathered for his noonday 
 repast. 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 17 
 
 But sitting by the door of his celes- 
 tial bower, alone and kingly, Adam 
 could not stay the soul in him from 
 taking on reflections not altogether con- 
 ducive to happiness : 
 
 " Even the birds of the air have their 
 mates " — quoth he to himself — " and all 
 the animals when I named them, I did 
 observe me, came marching past in 
 twain. And thus voice answereth to 
 voice, and all nature hath harmony with 
 itself, while this soul in me crieth and 
 there is none to answer. I stretch out 
 mine arms, and lo ! from out the two 
 w^orlds I have lived in I may fold noth- 
 ing to my breast, all, all mine own. 
 Even these spirits and angels, as they 
 come and go, bent on errands swift 
 twixt eartli and heaven, do greet me 
 with shows of fraternity, and then flee 
 mine embrace like the shadows of air. 
 They have not flesh and bones as I 
 have, and would to God I were some- 
 thing less or something more ! " 
 
PART III 
 
 Not good that man should he alone. 
 
 If the words : " In the image and after 
 the hkeness of God," admit of one con- 
 struction more palpable to finite compre- 
 hension than another, it is that souls 
 are twained or twinned born "in the 
 image and after the likeness of God ;" 
 and since Adam became only a soul or 
 one soul, it follows that the soul of 
 Eve was an inhabitant of the Paradise 
 of Eden at the time of Adam's entrance 
 into it. Indeed, the very name assigned 
 to her, Eve, life, spirit or soul, is of 
 itself enough to establish the fact of her 
 prior existence. 
 
 Then, considering the high spiritual 
 state to which Adam had been lifted, 
 and knowing, moreover, as we do, that 
 in the soul life thought nears the object 
 
20 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 of thought, and they are ever nearest 
 us or most with us of whom we most 
 think, nothing becomes more rational 
 than to suppose that often, often, bend- 
 ing over the mossy rims to the nectar 
 fountains everywhere bubbhng around 
 him, Adam saw, anon, reflected in the 
 placid waters before him, the image of a 
 face beside his, as of one long since loved 
 and lost, so famihar each lineament and 
 so welcome seemed to him the sweet 
 presence withal. But, when lifting his 
 eager, love-lighted eyes for the original, 
 the physical in him grown dominant 
 again, naturaUy the vision seemed to 
 him flown and he left alone as before ; 
 when, being only a man after all, me- 
 thinks I hear him exclaiming, half under 
 his breath: 
 
 " Ha ! an angel was with me here but 
 now, like unto mine own soul's otJier 
 dearer self; but alas ! mine o'erlieated 
 gaze hath robbed me of what mine eyes 
 would give the world to look on again ! " 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 21 
 
 And then straightway down the flow- 
 ery aisles rushed he, making quick 
 survey of each angel form as she passed, 
 something as one stems an hurrying 
 crowd, eager of coming soon upon one 
 face familiar whereon to break the smiles 
 of recognition ; until finding search 
 fruitless and calmer grown, Adam, 
 maylike, retraced his steps slowly to 
 the fountain, or, reluctant, turned him 
 aside wending his way thoughtfully to 
 his tasks again. 
 
 And how long Adam may have thus 
 sojourned in the Garden or Paradise of 
 Eden, vexed with like apparitions of the 
 longed-for mate to his soul ; sleeping 
 and dreaming of her, and awaking but 
 to dream of her still, meeting her smile 
 now in the mirroring waters, as if for- 
 ever twained to his side, even as com- 
 panioned to him ever in the dial of 
 his thoughts ; or, in still more fortuitous 
 mood, brightening for a moment full to 
 his view and then melting shadowily 
 
22 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 afar, the same angelic presence seeming 
 to him thus ever either friglitened away 
 by his fierceness, or purposely eluding 
 his grasp — how long, we say, Adam 
 may liave thus sojourned in the Para- 
 dise of Eden brightening and refining 
 to the will and for the purposes of God, 
 no one can know; for 
 
 "A day with God is as an thousand 
 years, and an thousand years as one 
 day." Long enough thougli, we know, 
 for the entire animal world to be 
 brought from the outer plains of Eden 
 and made to pass there slowly in his 
 spiritualized review and be named, the 
 while, by names fitting from his lips. 
 Long enough, too, for keeping and dress- 
 ing the garden with its shining river 
 meandering scores of leagues away. 
 Long enough, too, for the great Heart 
 of Heaven to be finally moved with 
 pity for his sighs of loneliness ; when 
 lifting up His voice, (lod proclaimed, 
 not only to the mighty who stood 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 23 
 
 in His presence, but sent it echoing 
 down through all the Hstening ages : 
 
 Behold : " It is not good that man 
 should be alone.'" 
 
 Then was there silence in the 
 heavens and silence on the earth, while 
 the shades of night crept softly upon 
 the weary world, and over the reposing 
 form of earth's forthcoming lord passed 
 the all-magnetizing hand of God ; mov- 
 ing him to a sleep so deep and so pro- 
 found, that his side, even, might be 
 sundered, and the place healed again 
 ere he should awaken. 
 
PART IV 
 
 The Soul of Eve. 
 
 Will, with God, is mandate uttered ; 
 and now all creation felt the signs of 
 its approaching completion. From the 
 highest heaven to the remotest limit of 
 space the very airs throbbed with its 
 mighty meaning ; and as at the lofty 
 endowment of man everything in earth 
 and air was drawn upon for its highest 
 instinct of embryo mentality, so now 
 all the elementary existences of the 
 Edenic or Paradisiacal world felt them- 
 selves drawn upon for the more heav- 
 enly endowment of woman, last crown- 
 ing work of the great Creator, the rich 
 casket of whose being had been pur- 
 posely set in the Paradise of Eden that 
 all the occult graces of Paradisiacal ex- 
 istence might flow thereto ; and thus, 
 through her, not only put her offspring 
 
26 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 forev^er linked hands with the angels, 
 but pave the way for the coming of 
 Him who should, ere long, open up to 
 the world life and immortality beyond 
 the grave. 
 
 AVliat is to be, angels, like mortals, 
 have a tendency to ; and so now, from 
 up out all the seraphic throng, as if 
 seeking or waiting on her destiny, moved 
 the angel soul of Eve, all beautiful and 
 non-incarnate, and stood in the pres- 
 ence of her Creator, God, close wrapped 
 in the white of spirit radiance that an- 
 swereth at will to wings, and at will to 
 mantles of light ; while native in her 
 pure mind, reason sat enthroned, mem- 
 ory unrolled her thought-kaleiding pan- 
 oramas, ambition lighted her quench- 
 less fires, and from the heaven-piercing 
 pinnacles of thought, imagination 
 plumed her love-lighted wings. Be- 
 sides, as the emotions of one mind may 
 ever, at will, be infused into the mind of 
 another, or as the beautiful departing 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 27 
 
 always bear away from us, as a part 
 of tliemselves, whatsoever of good they 
 have won from our love, so now the 
 angel soul of Eve, swift gravitating 
 to the state we name mortal, drew 
 to herself, or to the charmed repos- 
 itory of her sentient being, not only 
 all that was to her inherent of Para- 
 dise, but also all that was kindred in 
 heaven. 
 
 And first to lead the long celestial 
 train, the sum of whose endowing graces 
 were to make up the sum of woman's 
 being — first of all came Tenderness and 
 as primal to her nature, laid down the 
 rich opals of Feeling that should for- 
 ever blush in the soul of woman as 
 though all her thoughts had taken on 
 the tints of the roses at morn. Then 
 next came sweet Forbearance, and cast 
 thereto the grace of her spirit that suf- 
 fereth long and is kind. 
 
 Then next. Patience that outwatch- 
 eth the stars; and Hope that hopeth 
 
28 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 still when the day is over and all is lost. 
 Then the angel most beautiful in heav- 
 en, Compassion, drawing near and stoop- 
 ing as if to heal, added that Christliest 
 of all the womanly graces, Pity, w^hich 
 hath in't the trick of heart that moveth 
 to tears ere sorrow is ; while, close 
 upon her steps followed one, without 
 the hght of whose presence heaven it- 
 self were dark, the angel of I^ove — Love 
 that believeth the impossible, braveth 
 all things, and is mighty to endure; 
 Love that teacheth to forgive, helps to 
 forget and whitens the memory of all 
 things; Love that, lacking all, hath 
 yet itself wherewith to bless; and, 
 smiling laid down for the chiefest 
 adornment of woman that pearl of 
 greatest price, Love-unselfish, that 
 maketh beautiful whatsoe'er it shines 
 on. 
 
 Then approached one more majestic 
 than the rest, and slower of step and 
 haughtier of mien, and proudly made 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 29 
 
 offering of Endurance, that mightiest 
 of the virtues; while, close upon her 
 train, as nearest of kin, followed the 
 sorrowing - most angel of the soul, 
 Wounded-love,and quick eclipsed every 
 other gift with that jewel which most 
 likeneth to heaven, Forgiveness, all 
 pearly with tears that, trembling on the 
 sliffhted cheek of woman, should seem 
 ever waiting but the look of penitence 
 to melt them into smiles. 
 
 Then, last of all, came Beauty, of 
 gentle mien and softly tread ; and with 
 hand no whit grudging, quick spread 
 over all the charms of her queenly 
 grace, adding thereto sweet amenities 
 of voice that the angels, even, might 
 pause a little on their harps to listen 
 for ; the while, braiding from the magic 
 of her smile a sceptre that should win 
 for woman kingdoms, lift her to 
 thrones and place crowns at her feet. 
 Then, parting her ruby lips, whose 
 honeyed accents " the sons of God," 
 
30 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 even, should one day come down to 
 wait on, Beauty whispered to the yet 
 non-incarnate soul of woman : 
 
 " My tears give I unto thee also, that 
 though all tlie world should forsake, 
 and heaven itself seem too far away to 
 pity or to save, Beauty's tears shall fail 
 thee not ; but, pearling down thy silk- 
 en lashes, melt away the potency of 
 kings, raise sieges, disperse belligerent 
 hosts, level walls and unbar to thee 
 prison doors that well-nigh shut away 
 the impossible ! " 
 
 Thus, at the ornate endowment of 
 woman's prescient being, in lieu of 
 myriad animal instinct, gates to fields 
 felicitous were unbarred ; and down 
 through all the pulsing avenues of 
 thought and feeling flowed the sweet 
 protoplasts of spirit-being that, borne 
 by angel hands, shone like unto bridal 
 gifts ordained to the rich dower of her 
 whom, naming, they named Love-angel 
 of the Garden, twinned soul to the soul 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 31 
 
 in Adam, by whose starry magnetism 
 alone he had been drawn up out of the 
 world into the Paradise of Eden, thus 
 symbolizing forever woman's first mis- 
 sion to man : his elevation through her 
 love. 
 
 Thus, we say, upon the snowy tablets 
 of woman's prescient being, Paradisiacal 
 protoplasts were cast ; until it would 
 seem that heaven itself had been well- 
 nigh robbed poor for the richer endow- 
 ment of her, in the coronated bliss of 
 whose nature, but " a little lower than 
 the angels," was thus fashioned a temple 
 possible for the Divine Himself to dwell 
 in, as in her flesh the very God of gods 
 should one day be made manifest, and 
 close wrapped in the chaste endurance 
 of its might, the Prince of Peace go 
 forth to chain His demoniac foes, con- 
 quer death and ransom the world. 
 Then, whitening and immortalizing it 
 with His own exceeding glory, go to 
 reign in it in heaven, and at last come 
 
32 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 to reign in it on earth, with every knee 
 bent to His worship, every tongue con- 
 fessing His goodness, and every heart 
 attuned to His praise. 
 
PART V 
 
 Tliough angel still. 
 
 Destiny keeps no dial, but is a time 
 unto herself, and now from the great 
 watch-tower of fate was echoed through 
 all the vaults of space the hour for the 
 earth-crowning, creation-finishing work 
 of God ; when straightway the windows 
 to heaven were opened, and over all its 
 glittering battlements leant myriad 
 hosts, with all eyes as the eye of one 
 face intent upon Him whom, aforetime, 
 they saw bend His divine head to 
 breathe into the nostrils of man " the 
 breath of life." And just so now, they 
 saw Him stooping again, but this time 
 to lift the physical up to its kindred 
 spiritual ; and softly, tenderly, from the 
 side of sleeping Adam drew He one 
 snowy rib, a little from the all that was 
 His own ; and while yet warm and 
 quivering witli sensation and all aglow 
 
34 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 with affinitizing, magnetic life, He has- 
 tened and fast belted down with it the 
 wings to the soul of Eve ; while quick 
 over all her fair proportions spread 
 from it a thin veil of mortality, so thin 
 indeed, that the Divine should still for- 
 ever shine from out her, love's one bea- 
 con light in the world, and forever and 
 forever " the glory of man ! " 
 
 Thus the beautiful, smooth, white- 
 faced, Edenic, Adamite, Caucasian, 
 soul-endowed woman first came into 
 being; when, mantled in the golden 
 radiance of her own silken tresses, that 
 trailing, seemed to kiss the dews from 
 the leaves and the flowers, leaning upon 
 tlie unseen Arm of her Creator and es- 
 corted by bands of angels, she moved 
 softly down the flowery aisles of Eden, 
 while the lilies, pale nuns of the flowers, 
 drooped their heads as she passed, nev^er 
 to lift them again in the presence of so 
 much loveliness ; the queens of the 
 roses blushed scarlet, and the violets 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 35 
 
 purpled beneath the pressure of her 
 tender feet ; and lo ! doth Adam sleep ? 
 What! sleep, when seraphic choirs wait 
 to touch chords yet unheard in heaven, 
 and Gabriel himself is moved to turn 
 his face, albeit for one brief glance, half 
 to admire and half to envy ? Sleep ! 
 when the great God of gods, even, is 
 stayed from entering Him upon the 
 eternal Sabbath of His rest, and over 
 all the thought wires of the Universe is 
 flashing the news of creation finished ? 
 Sleep ! when the beautiful impersona- 
 tion of all that his lonely heart had 
 longed for, ached for, and wept for, but 
 never dared to hope for, draweth so near 
 as to mingle her shadow with the visions 
 of his dreams ! 
 
 Ah ! no. AA^ere his heart the lost 
 Pleiade, such presence had brought it 
 back ; and look ! he hath arisen, and 
 hasteneth to make him obeisance as be- 
 cometh him alway. Words, though, 
 and sentences fit-framed for salutation 
 
36 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 lie hatli not. Strange fatality, that 
 when the heart feels most it should 
 ever speak so httle! His feet, too, 
 seemed riveted to the spot ; and then, 
 anon, he advanced, and, anon, drew 
 back, whispering to himself : 
 
 " Maylike wings do still lurk beneath 
 those fair shoulders, and I be mocked 
 with a vision again as erst I was." 
 
 Then suspense grew terrible, past en- 
 durance; and risking all in one mad 
 rush, Adam, for one brief second, 
 clasped the lovely form before him in 
 his arms. Then, half affrighted at his 
 audacity, but more than satisfied, the 
 first of husbands and the first of fathers 
 stood apart; and spreading wide those 
 great protecting arms of his, so mighty 
 to shield, so tender to caress, and whose 
 shelter a weary angel, even, might 
 covet, the while with the new great 
 love burning in his heart and melting 
 into rainbow smiles through his tears, 
 Adam lifted up his voice and gave loud 
 
THE SOUL OF EVE 37 
 
 utterance to that first strain of grati- 
 tude that ever rose to the ear of God 
 from human Ups : 
 
 Lo ! " this is now bone of my bones, 
 and flesh of my flesh ; " which was as if 
 he had said to his hstener fair : 
 
 Though angel still, yet mortal art 
 thou noiv like unto myself! 
 
 Such transformation wondrous and 
 such miracle sublime needed none other 
 heralding in Eden; and scarcely had 
 these words fallen from the lips of the 
 enraptured Adam, ere the tongues, as 
 of an mighty concourse, took them up 
 in glad hallelujahs, until it seemed that 
 the very winds did repeat them, se- 
 raphic choirs chanted them, orchestral 
 bands hymned them, and on harps too 
 golden for aught but seraphic touch 
 cherubs wove them into swelling har- 
 monies. Angels sang them as the glad 
 omega and beautiful crowning to all 
 God's works. The stars also sang to- 
 gether, the sweet Pleiades lifting their 
 
38 THE SOUL OF EVE 
 
 lofty soprano to the highest heaven; 
 wliile Jupiter rolled in his mighty bass, 
 and down through all the vaulted skies 
 of space Arcturus thundered his trum- 
 pet accompaniment to great creation's 
 hymn of jubilant praise and thanksgiv- 
 ing to great creation's God. 
 
 Little, though, to Him, whose throne 
 is set in the heavens, and whose do- 
 minion is from everlasting to everlast- 
 ing — little to Him were the trumpet- 
 ings of stars, the chanting of spheres, 
 or the jubilant chorus of angels com- 
 pared to the joy He had in the twained 
 pair who stood in His presence ; the 
 one, mighty and majestic in His image, 
 as the other lofty and beautiful in His 
 likeness, the twain twained one in flesh 
 as erst they had together twained hung 
 upon the tree of life ; thence twinned 
 born in soul, as now dual hearted and 
 love-bound to all eternity, even as the 
 image and the likeness of God are twain- 
 ed one in Heaven. 
 
All communications to the author, orders for 
 her books, etc., may be addressed : Mrs. Helen 
 A. De Krovft, Aldrich Place, Dansville, N. Y. 
 
 " The Soul of Eve," by registered mail, $1.00 
 
 " The Foreshadowed Way,". . " " " 1-00 
 
 "The Story of Little Jakey," " " " l-O^ 
 
 " Mortara," full gilt " " " ^.00 
 
 (Money Order preferred-) 
 
AUG 6 1904 
 

 
 mmmif'':^ 
 
 
 jMf^ 
 
 M 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 iiiiiri'iiii , 
 
 016 112 369 9 », 
 
 ^^\.^^xi