His eye benign o'erlooks the crowd, The little ones!-the child, with feet Small infants, in their helplessness, No monarch in his glittering crown As one who seeks his kingdom mild, He loves of life the morning hour,- Art thou a "branch" of him, "the Vine ?" XIV. THE POWER OF PREJUDICE.-CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES. THERE is a creature walking among men, disclaimed and maligned by all, but who, notwithstanding, has a place in every family, a home in every heart. She goes here and there, and wherever she plants a small seed, it quickly becomes a great tree. She touches the strong man, and he yields his strength to her; she visits the ignorant and the imbecile, and they worship her. She once walked among the hills of Judea, and at her bidding the priest passed by on the other side, leaving his wounded brother to suffer and to die by the wayside. She went to the council of the rulers of the nation, and as she pointed to the meek man of sorrows, it was easy for her to persuade them to mock him, to persecute him, to hang him on the tree. She governed every one in the smallest affairs of life, and so controlled the nation that they dared not eat after having come from the market-place, without having first washed, lest they had become defiled by contact with some heathen or polluted Jew. So tyrannically did she sway her sceptre over men, that they became self-torturers. Rabbi Akiba being kept a close prisoner, having water sent him, both to wash his hands with, and to drink with his food, the greatest part being accidentally spilt, he washed his hands with the remainder, though he left himself none to drink, saying he would rather die than transgress the tradition of the elders. him and his claims to Messiahship, that they could not perceive marks of divine power in his healing the sick, giving hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, eyes to the blind, life to the dead. No! it was all the work of magic, or all done by aid from the powers of darkness. They could believe that evil would do good, that sin would teach righteousness, and that Satan would fight against his own kingdom, but they could not believe that any good thing could come out of Nazareth. These were the men whom our Saviour now rebuked so severely, not in the presence of the people-for it will be observed that the multitude were afterwards called-and reproved them for rejecting the commandment of God, that they might keep the traditions of men. He ever felt unmeasured sympathy with sorrow and woe, but none for hypocrisy; he had yearnings of tenderness towards the penitent; O prejudice! thy reign seems destined to he listened to the first sigh of the contrite; have no limit or termination! The Pharisees could come up over the hills of Judea, eighty or a hundred miles, to see and hear the Prophet of Nazareth; but when they found him, they were so prejudiced against "but the proud he knew afar off." All ages will know of his commendation of the widow offering her two mites, while the vain, ostentatious Pharisee returned from the temple unpraised by his words, unblessed by his love. NORTHERN LOVES AND LEGENDS. No. II. MY FRIEND'S LOVE STORY. BY FREDRIKA BREMER. How I overcame that first unhappy love I do not well remember, but I remember very well how, a few years afterwards-I think at thirteen-I suddenly felt as if an arrow were pierc beautiful and charming young girl, about twenty, who came to visit my parents. She was betrothed, she was out of my reach in every way. the point of the arrow sticking in my heart for about fourteen days after that evening. After that time it fell off; but I still retain the impression of having had a vision of the celestial Hebe, and remember the intoxication her looks and words caused me. I HAVE, (says my friend,) all my days, been | and—my brother, and had not sent one single haunted and sometimes possessed by a kind word to me! Upon hearing this I turned to of people commonly call them amours, the wall, said that I would sleep, but watered cupids, or little gods, but I will call them my pillow with some of the bitterest tears pink-coloured devils, for they have caused me that well can fall from childish eyes. an immense deal of trouble. I suppose that they took hold of me already at the hour of my birth, and haunted me in my cradle, as I have heard it said that I was passionately fond of my nurse; but this I do not remember.ing through my heart, upon beholding a very My first love, that I am aware of, came upon me in my ninth year of earthly pilgrimage. My little flame was a sweet girl of about the same age, blue-eyed, light-haired, and, as II saw her only during one evening, yet I felt thought, the most perfect being that walked the earth. We met at school and at dancing lessons, and I paid her every attention I could possibly think of. But, alas! she liked my elder brother more than me, and I had early to experience the pangs of jealousy. I remember having once made the very great sacrifice to spare for her sake some bonbons which had been given to me, and of which I was, like all boys of my age, extremely fond, and though they afforded me many a sore temptation through the long duration of half a week, I adhered stoically in self-denial, all for her sake whom I should meet at the next dancing lesson, when I should make my offering, and receive in recompense a smile, perhaps a kiss. The evening came, but adverse fate made me sick that day, so that I was not allowed to leave my room, and had to send through my sister my gift of sweets. How I anticipated her return! How I longed to hear how my bonbons had been received, how she looked, what she said. I anticipated her thanks, I saw her smile and look pleased, I almost tasted the bonbons in her mouth, and smiled myself, and tossed restless, but not unhappy, upon my bed. During my passage from boyhood to majority, I remember getting in love and getting out again several times. But these illuminations of the heart were as passing fire-flies compared to the flame which was kindled in my bosom by the charming Miss Rose, of Green Castle. Her image besieged me night and day during my course at the military academy;-it disturbed my studies-it danced about in every circle I drew and made it run out into ellipses, and the only line that I could clearly make out was the way which led to her house and home. That home was in the country, in one of the beautiful islands of the Malar sen. I managed to spend there every holyday and a great part of my vacation. Then the old lady, the mother of Rose, was a friend to my father, and did not see the connexion with displeasure, as their estates were near, and both had fortunes. So, when the old lady, in her somewhat stiff and stately, though kind manner, said to me, "My young friend, I want you to consider my home as your home, and to be with my sons and daughters just as a brother!" I said, “Oh, certainly, to be sure I will!" and I was there just as at home, and with the young people just as a brother, and with Miss 89 Rose-as something more. And she was charm-, wound it had received; and I promised myself ing, you have no idea! She was no regular beauty-far from it—but how I despised regularity! Her little upturned nose was to me worth all the Roman and Grecian noses in the world, and her mouth and its pretty poutings or smiles must, I thought, influence the sun itself. When she talked, she was so lively, so amusing, that you could only listen, and wish she may go on for ever. And when she sang, sitting at her harp, oh! you never saw such a thing! And then she had such a way to turn to you and ask, "Was it not number five that you liked?" "Yes, ma'am !" And then she sang number five so that your heart burned and melted within you at the same time. And then her dance! Her dance was so graceful, so airy, so enchanting, that one had difficulty to stand on one's feet before her, and refrain from dropping down and adoring! Oh! it was dreadful, how charming she was. And I was most dreadfully in love. I wrote sonnets to her, talked with the moon and the stars of her, and I remember once having stolen out of the stable my honest father's riding-horse, to ride thirty miles off, only to get a pot of moss roses, which I carried in my arms to my beloved one, riding all the night, and half dead with fatigue. | But then she smiled at me, and she laughed and sighed too, and I saw my roses at her breast, and was called upon by her for a thousand little services, that I was but too happy to render. I had just decided that she and no other was to be the mistress of my life, when lo! there comes a certain Mr. P—, a kind of city dandy, playing tolerably the piano, singing, prating French, bragging and bowing, and to my utter astonishment, to my almost petrification, I see my enchantress turning to him, talking to him, listening to him only, singing to him some damned "number seven" that he "fancied," and treating him, in fact, as if he was everything, and me as nothing at all. I was a distracted man; I went out in the fields, looked black as Othello, did not see ditches or fences, meditated daggers and murders; all this during three days and three nights, after which Mr. P- chose to depart, and Miss Rose suddenly chose to turn to me again, and treat me and call upon me as before. But too late! My eyes were opened, my dream of love gone, and shortly after Mr. P's departure, I took mine. And when my excellent father somewhat maliciously said, "How comes it, Constantine, that you return so soon from Green Castle, when your intention was to stay there a long while?" "Yes," answered I coolly, biting into a large sandwich, "so I intended, but I have bethought myself otherwise!" And I was cured of passion, but felt a good while my heart smarting from the that my head should never be turned by upturned noses and pretty smiles again. Some time after that, and pretty well recovered from my anger and sorrow, I was introduced by one of my friends into a family of his acquaintance. Almost the very moment that I entered the saloon, my eye fixed upon a young lady standing at the end of the room by the tea-table, and occupied in pouring out that nectar of our earthly saloons. Certainly, the Olympian Hebe must have been more blooming, but she could hardly have had a more regular profile, especially not a nose more straight and perfectly formed, according to the classic Grecian type. I almost was in love with that profile, which also was in perfect accord with the whole appearance of my teatable goddess. She was tall and erect in figure, perhaps a little stiff, but well-formed; her dress was of the most perfect neatness and strictness. Her face was pale and placid, her eyes blue and clear, rather cold in expression, her manner simple and earnest. I was absorbed in contemplation and even in admiration of that masterpiece of regularity, when I saw her turn her head, and a voice of deep barytone, which should have graced the commander of an army, called out, "Lundstrom!" I felt stunned as by a bullet, and repelled. Then, there was no mistaking it, it was the very voice of my deity, and that she was calling to a livery-clad servant, who immediately came up to her. "Well," I began to soliloquize, after the first surprise, "if nature has given her such a voice, is it not noble, is it not admirable in her not to disguise it, not to compromise or dissemble, but just let it go as nature will? and when she has to call on Lundstrom,' just to call out 'Lundstrom!' so that neither Lundstrom nor anybody else can make any mistake about it? Certainly! Oh, I love such sincerity, such truthfulness of expression; every word in bold relief. With such a character one knows what one is about. Oh! she must be a noble creature! Her heart and her understanding are as straight as her nose. Here's a mind in whom one might confide! I shall come again—I shall know more of her!" I came again and again, and every time I grew more taken in by the regular profile and the regular character and manners of Miss Bridget Boltingbridge, which were in perfect opposition with the charms that had bewitched me in the lovely but false Miss Rose, of Green Castle. Miss Bridget spoke very little, confined herself chiefly to yes or no, and seemed much devoted to embroidery work and household duties. She appeared to me as the very incarnation of duty and truthfulness, and I determined to make her my compass, my guide, on the stormy way of life, provided she would consent to undertake such a task. And I felt very humble before that beautiful Alp of snow-clad womanhood. But I proposed bravely, and she bravely answered, "Yes!" And this time I thought that the barytone voice was delightful. We were formally betrothed, to be married within a year. I thought myself a very happy fellow, and it was some time before I allowed myself to allow to myself that I was not. In fact, I began soon after my engagement to feel very uncomfortable. My beautiful Alp was not only as erect as the Jungfrau of Berner Oberland, but she was almost as frigid and unconquerable. She would never condescend to follow another advice or another wish than her own. And when my thoughts were not exactly her thoughts, she made it a point to contradict me openly and unmercifully, and, as I thought, in her very loudest barytone. I tried to bear and better. But then I took my turn, wanting her in turn to bend a little; but that would not do. Twice or thrice I remonstrated seriously, and even tenderly with her, but was answered: "That is my way. This is my manner. I am So. And I want not to appear otherwise than I am." With this I was but indifferently edified. By little and little, we came up to a state of almost continual warfare, which gave but little prospect for a happy and peaceful union. We had quarrel upon quarrel, and every day we became both more obstinate. One day, walking in the streets together, we came to a place where I wanted to turn to the left hand, she to turn to the right hand. I felt that we were coming to a parting point, and thought, "now or never!" I stopped, and asked her seriously, for once, "to concede to me, for the love of me!" But she said "she wanted to do as she wanted!" I said, "If you never will do as I want, you do not love me, and I cannot love you!" She answered, "If you cannot love me as I am, you had better leave me!" "And so I shall!" said I, roused. "Adieu!" and I turned to the left hand. "Adien!" she repeated coldly, and turned to the right hand; and so we marched off; and so we parted and never returned again; and with every step I felt my heart more easy, my step more elastic, than I had since the time that I began to feel dreadfully. I retired to solitude, glad that my chain was broken, but in anger with the whole female sex; which I thought was made up of deception. I resolved never to suffer myself to run in love any more, never to marry, but to devote myself to agriculture and reading, become a philosopher, and write epigrams on womankind. So I lived solitary and sour for two or three years, when I received a hearty invitation from a college friend to come and see him, his wife and family, and his new parsonage, situated in one of the beautiful valleys of Dulurna. I went, just to look about and refresh myself a little. But I did not return, so soon as I expected, to my books and my solitude. I found myself uncommonly comfortable in my friend's home; where a certain cheering, sunlit, sunwarm, fresh and gay influence was felt as an invisible atmosphere, which made the heart beat more gaily, the blood run lightly, and the time run away also, as a calm, full river. My friend had ten children; and I certainly never saw children less troublesome, nor a house more undisturbed. "How is that?" said I. "It's all my wife's doing!" said my friend. "How came you to such a wife?" asked I. Thus I had soon discovered that my friend was a most fortunate man in marriage. "How came you to be such a fortunate man?" "Oh!" answered he, smiling, "that is owing to a peculiar trick I have employed!" "A trick? I should be very happy to know somewhat of such a trick. Pray, impart it to your college friend!" "It is," he answered, "that I, always since the days of my youth, have prayed to God for a good wife!" "Alas!" said I, "your trick will not do for me. I have never thought of such a prayer, nor can I think our Lord enough interested in my marriage, to ask him for a wife." My friend laughed good-humouredly, and said, "that though I was such an unbeliever, he thought there still was hope for me, and that I should be cared for if I chose to consider the subject properly." And he vouchsafed to give me a little sermon, extempore, about looking only on "carnal things," about being taken in by "upturned noses," or "straight noses," and taking my bodily eyes instead of the spiritual ones for chief counsellors. He advised me not so much to look out in a wife for a charming mistress as for a companion in life, a society for both heart and head. Though I rather dislike sermons, especially when they are intended for my own particular benefit, I could not but allow that my friend was perfectly in the right, and that I had hitherto, in all my love affairs, been ruled rather by the eyes of my senses, than by those of my understanding. And I accordingly began to look about me with the latter ones. And it happened so that I had not very far to look. The wife of my friend (that excellent wife), had a younger sister living in the house, and a help there with the household, with the children, in fact with everything. She was not very handsome, nor talented, nor showy in any way, and I had hitherto almost overlooked her. No danger for me to fall in love with her; but as I began to look more at her, I found that |