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Amy Prentice - "The Gray Goose's Story"

Oscar D. Skelton - "The Canadian Dominion, a Chronicle of our Northern Neighbor"

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Benedict de Spinoza - "The Ethics"

The Good Time Coming

T >> T.S. Arthur >> The Good Time Coming




Mr. Willet sat for an hour, during which time he conversed in the
most agreeable and intelligent manner; and, on retiring, left behind
him a very favourable impression.

"I like that man," said Aunt Grace, with an emphasis that caused
Mrs. Markland to look toward her and smile.

"That's a little remarkable. You are not very apt to like men at
first sight."

"I like him, for he's a true man and a gentleman," returned Aunt
Grace. "And true men, I think, are scarce articles."

"Ever hasty in your conclusions, whether favourable or
unfavourable," said Mrs. Markland.

"And rarely in error. You may add that," replied the sister-in-law,
confidently. "When Mr. Lyon darkened our doors,"--Fanny was passing
from the room, and Aunt Grace spoke in a guarded voice--"I said he
would leave a shadow behind him, and so he has. Was my judgment
hasty, so far as he was concerned? I think you will hardly say so.
But, my word for it, the presence of Mr. Willet will ever bring a
gleam of sunshine. I am glad he has come into our neighbourhood. If
his mother and sisters are like him, they are a company of choice
spirits."






CHAPTER XXIV.





TO the opinion of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Markland made no dissent.
She was, also, favourably impressed with Mr. Willet, and looked
forward with pleasure to making the acquaintance of his mother and
sisters.

On the following morning the carriage was ordered, and about eleven
o'clock Mrs. Markland, Aunt Grace, and Fanny, were driven over to
"Sweetbrier," the fanciful name which Mr. Ashton, the former owner,
had given to the beautiful seat, now the property of Mr. Willet.

The day was cloudless, the air cool and transparent, the sky of the
deepest cerulean. These mirrored themselves in the spirits of our
little party. Mrs. Markland looked calm and cheerful; Fanny's
thoughts were drawn out of herself, and her heart responded to the
visible beauty around her. Even Aunt Grace talked of the sky, the
trees, and the flowers, and saw a new charm in every thing.

"I presume we shall not meet Mr. Willet," she remarked, as the
carriage drove within the elegant grounds of their neighbour.

"He probably goes to the city every day," said Mrs. Markland. "I
believe he is engaged in business."

"Yes; I think I heard Edward say that he was."

"Our visit might be a pleasant one in some respects," observed Mrs.
Markland, "if he were at home. To him, we are not entire strangers."

"I see him in the portico," said Fanny, leaning toward the carriage
window. They were now in sight of the house.

"Yes, there he is," added Aunt Grace, in a pleased tone of voice.

In a few minutes the carriage drew up at the beautiful mansion, in
the portico of which were Mr. Willet and his mother and sisters,
waiting to receive them. The welcome was most cordial, and the
ladies soon felt at home with each other.

Flora, the youngest sister of Mr. Willet, was a lovely girl about
Fanny's age. It did not take them long to know and appreciate each
other. The mind of Flora was naturally stronger than that of Fanny,
partaking slightly of the masculine type; but only sufficient to
give it firmness and self-reliance. Her school education had
progressed farther, and she had read, and thought, and seen more of
the world than Fanny. Yet the world had left no stain upon her
garments, for, in entering it, she had been lovingly guarded. To her
brother she looked up with much of a child's unwavering confidence.
He was a few years her senior, and she could not remember the time
when she had not regarded him as a man whose counsels were full of
wisdom.

"Where have you been for the last hour?" Mr. Willet inquired of the
young maidens, as they entered, arm-in-arm, their light forms gently
inclined to each other.

"Wandering over your beautiful grounds," replied Fanny.

"I hardly thought you would see them as beautiful," said Mr. Willet.

"Do you think that I have no eye for the beautiful?" returned Fanny,
with a smile.

"Not so," quickly answered Mr. Willet. "Woodbine Lodge is so near
perfection that you must see defects in Sweetbrier."

"I never saw half the beauty in nature that has been revealed to my
eyes this morning," said Fanny. "It seemed as if I had come upon
enchanted ground. Ah, sir, your sister has opened a new book for me
to read in--the book of nature."

Mr. Willet glanced, half-inquiringly, toward Flora.

"Fanny speaks with enthusiasm," said the sister.

"What have you been talking about? What new leaf has Flora turned
for you, Miss Markland?"

"A leaf on which there is much written that I already yearn to
understand. All things visible, your sister said to me, are but the
bodying forth in nature of things invisible, yet in harmony with
immutable laws of order."

"Reason will tell you that this is true," remarked Mr. Willet.

"Yes; I see that it must be so. Yet what a world of new ideas it
opens to the mind! The flower I hold in my hand, Flora says, is but
the outbirth, or bodily form, of a spiritual flower. How strange the
thought!"

"Did she not speak truly?" asked Mr. Willet, in a low, earnest
voice.

"What is that?" inquired Mrs. Markland, who was not sure that she
had heard her daughter correctly.

"Flora say that this flower is only the bodily form of a spiritual
flower; and that, without the latter, the former would have no
existence."

Mrs. Markland let her eyes fall to the floor, and mused for some
moments.

"A new thought to me," she at length said, looking up. "Where did
you find it, Flora?"

"I have believed this ever since I could remember any thing,"
replied Flora.

"You have?"

"Yes, ma'am. It was among the first lessons that I learned from my
mother."

"Then you believe that every flower has a spirit," said Mrs.
Markland.

"Every flower has life," was calmly answered.

"True."

"And every different flower a different life. How different, may be
seen when we think of the flower which graces the deadly nightshade,
and of that which comes the fragrant herald of the juicy orange. We
call this life the spiritual flower."

"A spiritual flower! Singular thought!" Mrs. Markland mused for some
time.

"There is a spiritual world," said Mr. Willet, in his gentle, yet
earnest way.

"Oh, yes. We all believe that." Mrs. Markland fixed her eyes on the
face of Mr. Willet with a look of interest.

"What do we mean by a world?"

Mrs. Markland felt a rush of new ideas, though seen but dimly,
crowding into her mind.

"We cannot think of a world," said Mr. Willet, "except as filled
with objects, whether that world be spiritual or natural. The poet,
in singing of the heavenly land, fails not to mention its fields of
'living green,' and 'rivers of delight.' And what are fields without
grass, and flowers, and tender herb? If, then, there be flowers in
the spiritual world, they must be spiritual flowers."

"And that is what Flora meant?" said Mrs. Markland.

"Nothing more," said Flora; "unless I add, that all flowers in the
natural world derive their life from flowers in the spiritual world;
as all other objects in nature have a like correspondent origin."

"This comes to me as an entirely new idea," said Mrs. Markland, in a
thoughtful way. "Yet how beautiful! It seems to bring my feet to the
verge of a new world, and my hand trembles with an impulse to
stretch itself forth and lift the vail."

"Do not repress the impulse," said Mrs. Willet, laying a hand gently
upon one of Mrs. Markland's.

"Ah! But I grope in the dark."

"We see but dimly here, for we live in the outward world, and only
faint yet truthful images of the inner world are revealed to us. No
effort of the mind is so difficult as that of lifting itself above
the natural and the visible into the spiritual and
invisible--invisible, I mean, to the bodily eyes. So bound down by
mere sensual things are all our ideas, that it is impossible, when
the effort is first made, to see any thing clear in spiritual light.
Yet soon, if the effort be made, will the straining vision have
faint glimpses of a world whose rare beauties have never been seen
by natural eyes. There is the natural, and there is the spiritual;
but they are so distinct from each other, that the one by
sublimation, increase, or decrease, never becomes the other. Yet are
they most intimately connected; so intimately that, without the
latter, the former could have no existence. The relation is, in
fact, that of cause and effect."

"I fear this subject is too grave a one for our visitors," said Mr.
Willet, as his mother ceased speaking.

"It may be," remarked the lady, with a gentle smile that softened
her features and gave them a touch of heavenly beauty. "And Mrs.
Markland will forgive its intrusion upon her. We must not expect
that others will always be attracted by themes in which we feel a
special interest."

"You could not interest me more," said Mrs. Markland. "I am
listening with the deepest attention."

"Have you ever thought much of the relation between your soul and
body; or, as I would say, between your spiritual body and your
natural body?" asked Mrs. Willet.

"Often; but with a vagueness that left the mind wearied and
dissatisfied."

"I had a long talk with Mr. Allison on that subject," said Fanny.

"Ah!" Mrs. Willet looked toward Fanny with a brightening face. "And
what did he say?"

"Oh! a great deal--more than I can remember."

"You can recollect something?"

"Oh yes. He said that our spiritual bodies were as perfectly
organized as our material bodies, and that they could see, and hear,
and feel."

"He said truly. That our spirits have vision every one admits, when
he uses the words, on presenting some idea or principle to
another--'Can't you see it?' The architect sees the palace or temple
before he embodies it in marble, and thus makes it visible to
natural eyes. So does the painter see his picture; and the sculptor
his statue in the unhewn stone. You see the form of your absent
father with a distinctness of vision that makes every feature
visible; but not with the eyes of your body."

"No, not with my bodily eyes," said Fanny. "I have thought a great
deal about this since I talked with Mr. Allison; and the more I
think of it, the more clearly do I perceive that we have spiritual
bodies as well as natural bodies."

"And the inevitable conclusion is, that the spiritual body must
live, breathe, and act in a world above or within the natural world,
where all things are adapted to its functions and quality."

"In this world are the spiritual flowers we were speaking about?"
said Mrs. Markland, smiling.

"Yes, ma'am; in this world of _causes_, where originate all
_effects_ seen in the world of nature," answered Mrs. Willet;--"the
world from which flowers as well as men are born."

"I am bewildered," said Mrs. Markland, "by these suggestions. That a
volume of truth lies hidden from common eyes in this direction, I
can well believe. As yet my vision is too feeble to penetrate the
vail."

"If you look steadily in this direction, your eyes will, in time,
get accustomed to the light, and gradually see clearer and clearer,"
said Mrs. Willet.






CHAPTER XXV.





SOME incidents interrupted the conversation at this point, and when
it flowed on again, it was in a slightly varied channel, and
gradually changed from the abstract into matters of more personal
interest.

"What a mystery is life!" exclaimed Mrs. Markland, the words
following an observation that fell from the lips of Mr. Willet.

"Is it a mystery to you?" was asked, with something of surprise in
the questioner's tone.

"There are times," replied Mrs. Markland, "when I can see a harmony,
an order, a beauty in every thing; but my vision does not always
remain clear. Ah! if we could ever be content to do our duty in the
present, and leave results to Him who cares for us with an infinite
love!"

"A love," added Mrs. Willet, "that acts by infinite wisdom. Can we
not trust these fully? Infinite love and infinite wisdom?"

"Yes!--yes!--reason makes unhesitating response. But when dark days
come, how the poor heart sinks! Our faith is strong when the sky is
bright. We can trust the love and wisdom of our Maker when broad
gleams of sunshine lie all along our pathway."

"True; and therefore the dark days come to us as much in mercy as
the bright ones, for they show us that our confidence in Heaven is
not a living faith. 'There grows much bread in the winter night,' is
a proverb full of a beautiful significance. Wheat, or bread, is, in
the outer world of nature, what good is in the, inner world of
spirit. And as well in the winter night of trial and adversity is
bread grown, as in the winter of external nature. The bright wine of
truth we crush from purple clusters in genial autumn; but bread
grows even while the vine slumbers."

"I know," said Mrs. Markland, "that, in the language of another,
'sweet are the uses of adversity.' I know it to be true, that good
gains strength and roots itself deeply in the winter of affliction
and adversity, that it may grow up stronger, and produce a better
harvest in the end. As an abstract truth, how clear this is! But, at
the first chilling blast, how the spirit sinks; and when the sky
grows dull and leaden, how the heart shivers!"

"It is because we rest in mere natural and external things as the
highest good."

"Yes--how often do we hear that remarked! It is the preacher's theme
on each recurring Sabbath," said Mrs. Markland, in an abstracted
way. "How often have words of similar import passed my own lips,
when I spoke as a mentor, and vainly thought my own heart was not
wedded to the world and the good things it offers for our
enjoyment!"

"If we are so wedded," said Mrs. Willet, in her earnest, gentle way,
"is not that a loving Providence which helps us to a knowledge of
the truth, even though the lesson prove a hard one to learn--nay,
even if it be acquired under the rod of a stern master?"

"Oh, yes, yes!" said Mrs. Markland, unhesitatingly.

"It is undoubtedly true," said Mrs. Willet, "that all things of
natural life are arranged, under Providence, with a special view to
the formation and development within us of spiritual life, or the
orderly and true lives of our spirits. We are not born into this
world merely to eat, drink, and enjoy sensual and corporeal
pleasures alone. This is clear to any mind on the slightest
reflection. The pleasures of a refined taste, as that of music and
art, are of a higher and more enduring character than these; and of
science and knowledge, still more enduring. Yet not for these, as
the highest development of our lives, were we born. Taste, science,
knowledge, even intelligence, to which science and knowledge open
the door, leave us still short of our high destiny. The Temple of
Wisdom is yet to be penetrated."

"Science, knowledge, intelligence, wisdom!" said Mrs. Markland,
speaking slowly and thoughtfully. "What a beautiful and orderly
series! First we must learn the dead formulas."

"Yes, the lifeless scientifics, if they may so be called, must first
be grounded in the memory. Arrangement and discrimination follow.
One fact or truth is compared with another, and the mind thus comes
to know, or has knowledge. Mere facts in the mind are lifeless
without thought. Thought broods over dead science in the external
memory, and knowledge is born."

"How clear! How beautiful!" ejaculated Mrs. Markland.

"But knowledge is little more than a collection of materials, well
arranged; intelligence builds the house."

"And wisdom is the inhabitant," said Mrs. Markland, whose quick
perceptions were running in advance.

"Yes--all that preceded was for the sake of the inhabitant. Science
is first; then knowledge, then intelligence--but all is for the sake
of wisdom."

"Wisdom--wisdom." Mrs. Markland mused again.

"What is wisdom?"

"Angelic life," said Mrs. Willet. "One who has thought and written
much on heavenly themes, says, 'Intelligence and wisdom make an
angel.'"

Mrs. Markland sighed, but did not answer. Some flitting thought
seemed momentarily to have shadowed her spirit.

"To be truly wise is to be truly good," said Mrs. Willet. "We think
of angels as the wisest and best of beings, do we not?"

"Oh, yes."

"The highest life, then, toward which we can aspire, is angelic
life. Their life is a life of goodness, bodying itself in wisdom."

"How far below angelic life is the natural life that we are leading
here!" said Mrs. Markland.

"And therefore is it that a new life is prescribed,--a life that
begins in learning heavenly truths first, as mere external formulas
of religion. These are to be elevated into knowledge, intelligence,
and afterward wisdom. And it is because we are so unwilling to lead
this heavenly life that our way in the world is often made rough and
thorny, and our sky dark with cloud and tempest."

Mr. Willet now interrupted the conversation by a remark that turned
the thoughts of all from a subject which he felt to be too grave for
the occasion, and soon succeeded in restoring a brighter hue to the
mind of Mrs. Markland. Soon after, the visitors returned home, all
parties feeling happier for the new acquaintance which had been
formed, and holding in their hearts a cheerful promise of many
pleasant interchanges of thought and feeling.

Many things said by Mr. Willet, and by his mother and sisters, made
a strong impression on the mind of Mrs. Markland and her daughter.
They perceived some things in a new and clearer light that had been
to them vailed in obscurity before.

"Flora is a lovely girl," said Fanny, "and so wise beyond her years.
Many times I found myself looking into her face and wondering not to
see the matron there. We are fortunate in such neighbours."

"Very fortunate, I think," replied her mother. "I regard them as
having minds of a superior order."

"Flora is certainly a superior girl. And she seems to me as good as
she is wise. Her thought appears ever lifting itself upward, and
there is a world of new ideas in her mind. I never heard any one
talk just as she does."

"What struck me in every member of the family," said Mrs. Markland,
"was a profound religious trust; a full confidence in that Infinite
Wisdom which cannot err, nor be unkind. Ah! my daughter, to possess
that were worth more than all this world can offer."

A servant who had been despatched for letters, brought, late in the
day, one for Mrs. Markland from her husband, and one for Fanny from
Mr. Lyon. This was the first communication the latter had sent to
Fanny direct by post. The maiden turned pale as she received the
letter, and saw, by the superscription, from whom it came. Almost
crushing it in her hand, she hurried away, and when alone, broke the
seal, and with unsteady hands unfolded it, yet scarcely daring to
let her eyes rest upon the first words:--

"MY EVER DEAR FANNY."--[How her heart leaped as she read these
words!]--"I write to you direct by post, for there remains no longer
any reason why our correspondence should be a concealed one. I have
also written to your father, and shall await his response with the
deepest anxiety. Let his decision in the matter be what it may, I
shall forever bear your image in my heart as a most sacred
possession. Will you not write immediately? Conceal nothing of the
effect produced on your father's mind. Send your letter as addressed
before, and it will be forwarded to my hands. May heaven bless you,
dear Fanny! In haste, suspense, and deep anxiety.
LEE LYON."

Mrs. Markland's letter from her husband was very brief, and rather
vague as to his purposes:

"I will be home, if possible, this week; but may be kept here, by
important business, over Sunday. If so, I will write again. Every
thing is progressing to my fullest satisfaction. Little danger, I
think, of my dying from _ennui_ in the next twelve months. Head and
hands will both be pretty well occupied for that period, if not
longer. There is too much vitality about me for the life of a drone.
I was growing restless and unhappy from sheer idleness and want of
purpose. How does our dear Fanny seem? I feel no little concern
about her. Mr. Lyon makes no direct proposition for her hand, but it
is evidently his purpose to do so. I wish I knew him better, and
that I had, just now, a freer mind to consider the subject. Weigh it
well in your thoughts, Agnes; and by all means observe Fanny very
closely. Dear child! She is far too young for this experience. Ah,
me! The more I think of this matter, the more I feel troubled.

"But good-by, for a little while. I am writing in haste, and cannot
say half that is in my thoughts."






CHAPTER XXVI.





IT was not until the middle of the succeeding week that Mr. Markland
returned from New York. He had a look of care that did not escape
the observation of his wife. To her inquiries as to the cause of his
prolonged absence, he replied vaguely, yet with reference to some
business of vast magnitude, in which he had become interested. Two
days passed without allusion, on either side, to the subject of
their daughter's relation to Mr. Lyon, and then, to some question of
Mrs. Markland, her husband replied in so absent a way, that she did
not press the matter on his attention. Fanny was reserved and
embarrassed in the presence of her father, and evidently avoided
him.

More than a week went by in this unsatisfactory manner, when, on
returning one day from the city, Mr. Markland showed an unusual
elation of spirits. As soon as there was an opportunity to be alone
with his wife, he said--

"I may have to be absent several weeks."

"Why so?" she asked, quickly, as a shadow fell over her face.

"Business," was briefly answered.

Mrs. Markland sighed, and her eyes fell to the floor.

"I have been a drone in the world's busy hive long enough, Agnes;
and now I must go to work again, and that in right good earnest. The
business that took me to New York is growing daily in importance,
and will require my best thought and effort. The more thoroughly I
comprehend it, the more clearly do I see its vast capabilities. I
have already embarked considerable money in the enterprise, and
shall probably see it to my interest to embark more. To do this,
without becoming an active worker and director, would neither be
wise nor like your husband, who is not a man to trust himself on the
ocean of business without studying well the charts, and, at times,
taking fast hold upon the rudder."

"You might have been so happy here, Edward," said Mrs. Markland,
looking into his face and smiling feebly.

"A happy idler? Impossible!"

"You have been no idler, my husband, since our retirement from the
city. Look around, and say whose intelligence, whose taste, are
visible wherever the eye falls?"

"A poor, vain life, for a man of thought and energy, has been mine,
Agnes, during the last few years. The world has claims on me beyond
that of mere landscape-gardening! In a cultivation of the beautiful
alone no man of vigorous mind can or ought to rest satisfied. There
is a goal beyond, and it is already dimly revealed, in the far
distance, to my straining vision."

"I greatly fear, Edward," replied his wife, speaking in her gentle,
yet impressive way, "that when the goal you now appear so eager to
reach, is gained, you will see still another beyond."

"It may be so, Agnes," was answered, in a slightly depressed voice;
"yet the impulse to bear onward to the goal now in view is not the
less ardent for the suggestion. I can no more pause than the
avalanche once in motion. I must onward in the race I have entered."

"To gain what, Edward?"

"I shall gain large wealth."

"Have we not all things here that heart can desire, my husband?"

"No, Agnes," was replied with emphasis.

"What is lacking?"

"Contentment."

"Edward!" There came a quick flush to the brow of Mrs. Markland.

"I cannot help the fact, Agnes," said Mr. Markland. "For months I
have suffered from a growing dissatisfaction with the fruitless life
I am leading."

"And yet with what a fond desire we looked forward to the time when
we could call a spot like this our own! The world had for us no more
tempting offer."

"While struggling up from the valley, we cannot know how wide the
landscape will spread beneath our enchanted vision. We fix our eyes
on the point to be gained. That reached, we are, for a time, content
with our elevation. But just enough of valley and mountain,
stretching far off in the dim distance, is revealed, to quicken our
desire for a more extended vision, and soon, with renewed strength,
we lift our gaze upward, and the word 'excelsior!' comes almost
unbidden to our lips. There is a higher and a highest place to be
gained, and I feel, Agnes, that there will be no rest for my feet
until I reach the highest."

"Pray heaven your too eager feet stumble not!" almost sobbed Mrs.
Markland, with something of a prophetic impulse.

The tone and manner of his wife, more than her words, disturbed Mr.
Markland.

"Why should the fact of my re-entering business so trouble you?" he
asked. "An active, useful life is man's truest life, and the only
one in which he can hope for contentment."

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