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    " I must put a stop to this , " continued the Baron impatiently , " or else the old canters will crow over your conversion as a victory . To think of a boy of sense believing such twaddle ! " He paced the room greatly incensed , and still more perplexed . At length , having satisfied himself that a little firmness was all that was necessary , he told his nephew to follow him into the library . Left alone , the Baronne threw herself upon her knees , and , with tears of joy trickling down her cheek , offered up a prayer of gratitude to the Almighty for having been pleased to open the eyes of her darling to the light .

    The Baronne folded her grandchild to her bosom , and after a long embrace , accompanied by hysterical sobbing , she sat him down beside her , and , holding one hand in both of hers , made him tell her the whole history of his conversion . She rose as he finished , and said : "Be firm , my darling child ; never forsake the truth ; the Lord will protect his own ! You have a life before you : it may be happy , and if it is your faith will make it happier ; if it be unhappy , your faith will save you from despair /' The next morning Armand was on his road to Paris .

    She then reseated herself in her huge chair , looking at the blazing logs in a reverie of the most charming kind . The simple heart of the good creature had recovered all its wonted serenity ; and her imagination carried her away till she found herself fondly hoping that Armand would convert both his father and his uncle . She had arranged this scheme very comfortably in her mind , when the confused sound of raised voices , followed by that of a heavy fall , aroused her from the reverie . Alarmed , she rushed out of the room , and ere she reached the library , the well-known voice of her son , hoarse with passion , struck upon her ear , and told her that her worst fears were true .

    On quitting the saloon the Baron had forgotten to take a light with him ; but on the staircase he met a servant holding in her hand one of those dark brown candles , made , I believe , of some composition of rosin , which are to be seen only in Brittany , where they bear the name of oribus . The Baron snatched this oribus from her , and with hasty strides continued his way . Armand followed , not without serious uneasiness . On entering the library the Baron placed the oribus on the mantelpiece , against which he leaned , pointing at the same time to a chair , in which his nephew seated himself , with a vague terror .

    The library struck a chill into his very bones : it was as cold as a well . No one had entered it for half a century , except to seek for some book , or hurriedly to replace one on its shelves . The combined influence of cold and of terror made Arrnand ' s teeth chatter . His uncle noticed it . Leaning with one arm on the mantelpiece , in this cold gloomy library , his dark shadow thrown along the wall , the flickering dismal light of the oribus just strong enough to make the darkness of the place more sensible , he really was in a position to exercise considerable influence over the imagination of a boy .

    But he soon lost the advantage of his position by the awkwardness of his attack . He was violent and contemptuous ; above all , he committed the enormous mistake of treating his adversary as a boy . This fault was irreparable , and would have ruined even a good cause ; and Armand had been too much accustomed to reason with men to have his capacity questione 4

    now . It was a painful scene . The Baron was impetuous , imperious , unreasoning his nephew was timid , mild , but logical . The longer the discussion lasted theworse became the Baron ' s position . He felt it to be so . Exasperated , he swore an oath that , if the boy did not at once give up all his folly , he would beat it out of him 1 Armand ' s spirit , which had been roused by the discussion , could not brook this , and he warned the Baron not to lay a finger on him , or he would not answer for himself . This gave his uncle savage delight ! This was the sort of opposition he fclfc himself best able to cope with ; and , springing forward , he overthrew the table which stood in his way , and attempted to seize Armand , who eluded his

    grasp . " Uncle , uncle ! " shrieked the boy , " remember a Fayol never yet brooked a blow from any man . Don't come near me 1 " But his uncle had grasped him , and in another instant had thrown him on l . hc ground . His uplifted arm was arrested . ere it fell , and , looking round , he beheld the figure of his mother standing erect in an attitude of command . " Touch him not , Henri . " " Don ' t interfere , mother . " " Henri , touch that boy , and your mother quits this house for ever . " " Leave the . boy to me , I say : I will not be interfered with . "

    " Henri , what you would do is wicked ! The dear child has turned unto the light . I will not have him illtreated . Reason with him if you please ; convince him if you can ; but no violence , no threats , above all , no ill usage . I will not suffer it . Do not stamp or frown : remember it is your mother who speaks . " ' * I do remember it or 1 would not have borne this so long . " ' * Henri , 1 have never exercised a mother ' s authority ; I have always found yon willing enough to trust in a mother ' s love : to that love I now appeal—I

    ippcal to your tenderness—t appeal to your better nature" " What would you have me do ?" " ( iod ' s will be done ! attempt not thou to alter it 1 " This was said in a low thrilling tone that shook even the Baron . Armand gazed with strange admiration on the majestic figure of the aged voman , seen in the feeble trembling light , her tall form erect , her arm jxtended with a queenly gesture , her face lighted with an expression of esolution he hud never seen before .

    " The brat shall go back to his father , then , " brusquely exclaimed the laron , thus backing out of the position . 4 t I will have nothing more to do v \ l \\ him ; see what . Ins father says to it . * And he left the room .

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    The first Episode in Armand ' s life , which we close here , was not so unlike that of most ardent earnest souls , as it may hastily be judged . True , that whereas youth commonly begins with faith to struggle slowly into doubt , and the first stage of such a life is usually closed by scepticism , and therefore Armand ' s career seems an inversion of the order ; yet , deeply considered , what is it in both cases that the youthful soul attains ? Is it not simply the inheritance of its birthright—the enjoyment of its own individual powersthe formation of its own creed ? In childhood—as is proper—we are led by the convictions of others ; in manhood —( and there is no true manhood but

    that)—we lead ourselves by convictions of our own . The first epoch in life , therefore , is that in which , having shaken aside the leading strings , we walk boldly by ourselves . Whether we walk with our fathers , or away from them , matters not : the essential point is that we can walk alone . The restless scepticism of youth will soon subside , for no true soul can be content to dwell amid ruins ; and it will subside as the germs of new convictions slowly expand and take the place of old prejudgments . I call them prejudgments , because the word prejudices has ugly associations , not properly operating in this argument , for these prejudgments may be eternal truths , yet are prejudgments to the soul which has accepted them from others without

    thinking them out for itself . To explain my meaning decisively I would say , the orthodox Christian , who has thought for himself and formed his convictions , has replaced prejudgments by convictions , though in point of doctrine he remains precisely where he was before ; in like manner the heterodox thinker departing from the doctrine has also replaced prejudgments by convictions . As Milton says , " A man may be a heretic in the truth ; and if he believes things only because his pastor says so , without knowing other reasons , though because his belief be true , yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy . " In one word I would say , what is given us in Childhood as Truth Decided we have to replace in our Manhood by Truth Believed ; and thus is the first grand episode in a life rightly named The Initiation of Faith .

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    THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS . A MYTHIC PARAIiLEL . The coming election for the metropolis of France seems likely to cause that fair city as much perplexity as his judgment between the rival goddesses did its namesake in days of classic recollection . The gamin of Montmartre is as sore beset as ever was the shepherd of Mount Ida ; and it is well if the waters of the Seine blush not through the consequences of this contest as ruddily as through those of the ancient one blushed the waters of the Scamander .

    The curious in personification may , perhaps , discern parallels in the three emulous deities , for each of the parties by which Paris is at present courted . The stately ox-eyed Juno , beautiful as despotic , may represent the Legitimists with their chivalrous traditions and maintenance of the "Right Divine . " The staid and sage Minerva is recalled by the Orleanists with their doctrinaire theories of government and unimaginative utilitarianism and routine ; while none but the Goddess of Love and Freedom can represent the young Republic , with its ^ promises of happiness and fraternity , wooing not only the approval but the affections of the Judge .

    The offered guerdons also have their parallels . The Monarchy of the Legitimists may fairly stand for the kingdom offered by Juno ; and even if the military glory of the Orleanists is confined to the exploits at the Caves of Duhva , and the achievements which won the protectorate of Otaheite , still that , for want of a nobler , may represent the warlike fame which Minerva made the inducement for her election ; while the peerless beauty promised by Venus may answer to Liberty , which , in all its attractiveness , is offered by the Republic . It is probable that the Republic , as Venus did , may gain the day ; and all that we hope is that the seat awarded to its representative may not also find its parallel in the golden apple of discord which was adjudged to Venus .

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    THE BEAUTY OF MARRIED MEN . I \ ak \ u Fredcrika Bremer , but I must remonstrate against the miserable sophism which she puts forth in her Easier Offering on the superior attractiveness of married men . I am a bachelor myself , and mean to remain so . It outrages my feelings to hear her basely flattering the Benedicts as she does in this passage : — " I confess then , that I never find , and never have found a man more lovable , more captivating than when he is a married man ; that is to say , a good married man . A nii « n is never so handsome , never so perfect in my eyes as when he is married , as when he is a husband , and the father of a family , supporting , in his manly arms , wife and children , and tho whole domestic circle , which , in his entrance into the married state , closes arouml him and constitutes a part of his home and his world . He is not merely ennobled by this position , but lie is actually beautified by it . Then he appears to me

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    68 ffit l * ¦ £ ' eU&et * [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 13, 1850, page 68, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1840/page/20/