Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled. "Hester," said the clergyman, “farewell!” "Shall we not meet again?" whispered she, bending her face down close to his. "Shall we not spend our immortal life together? Surely, surely, we have ransomed one another, with all this woe! Thou lookest far into eternity, with those bright dying eyes! Then tell me what thou seest.' "Hush, Hester, hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. “The law we broke! - the sin here so awfully revealed! let these alone be thy thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be that, when we forgot our God,-when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul, it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red heat! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever! Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell!" That final word came forth with the minister's expiring breath. The multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice of awe and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance, save in this murmur that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit. TWO WOMEN. BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. [NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS, an American editor and author, was born at Portland, Me., January 20, 1806. He founded and conducted the American Monthly Magazine until it was merged in the New York Mirror, of which he became associate editor in 1831. He traveled extensively in Europe and the East, and as attaché of the American legation had favorable opportunities for observing European society. During the latter part of his life he was editor of the Home Journal in conjunction with George P. Morris, and after the latter's death assumed entire charge of the paper. Willis was a brilliant and popular magazinist, and the author of numerous stories, sketches of travel, miscellaneous papers of social observation, and verses. His publications include: "Pencilings by the Way," "Inklings of Adventure," "Letters from Under a Bridge," "People I Have Met," "Hurry-graphs," "Famous Persons and Places." He died at his beautiful estate, "Idlewild," Newburg, N.Y., in 1867.] THE shadows lay along Broadway, 'Twas near the twilight tide, Alone walked she; but viewlessly Peace charmed the street beneath her feet, And called her good as fair: For all God ever gave to her She kept with care her beauties rare Now walking there was One more fair, A slight Girl, lily pale; And she had unseen company 'Twixt Want and Scorn she walked forlorn, No mercy now can clear her brow For this world's peace to pray : For as love's wild prayer dissolved in air, But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven COMPENSATION. BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON. [RALPH WALDO EMERSON, the eminent American poet, essayist, and lecturer, was born in Boston, May 25, 1803. He came of a long line of ministers; and after graduating from Harvard, taught for a few years, and in 1829 was ordained pastor of the Second Unitarian Church. This office, however, he resigned in 1832, on account of the gradually increasing differences between his own modes of thought and those of his hearers. He then made a brief trip to Europe, during which he became acquainted with Carlyle, and on his return commenced his career as lecturer, meeting with continued success in the United States and England. In 1840, on the establishment of the Dial, the organ of the Transcendentalists, he became a contributor, and from 1842 to 1844 its editor. He died at his home in Concord, Mass., April 27, 1882. His collected works include: 66 Nature,' ," "Essays" (two series), "Representative Men," " English Traits," "Society and Solitude,” “Letters and Social Aims,” “Poems."] EVER since I was a boy I have wished to write a discourse on Compensation; for it seemed to me when very young that on this subject Life was ahead of theology and the people knew more than the preachers taught. The documents too from which the doctrine is to be drawn charmed my fancy by their endless variety, and lay always before me, even in sleep; for they are the tools in our hands, the bread in our basket, the transactions of the street, the farm, and the dwelling house; the greetings, the relations, the debts and credits, the influence of character, the nature and endowment of all men. It seemed to me also that in it might be shown men a ray of divinity, the present action of the Soul of this world, clean from all vestige of tradition; and so the heart of man might be bathed by an inundation of eternal love, conversing with that which he knows was always and always must be, because it really is now. It appeared moreover that if this doctrine could be stated in terms with any resemblance to those bright intuitions in which this truth is sometimes revealed to us, it would be a star in many dark hours and crooked passages in our journey, that would not suffer us to lose our way. I was lately confirmed in these desires by hearing a sermon at church. The preacher, a man esteemed for his orthodoxy, unfolded in the ordinary manner the doctrine of the Last Judgment. He assumed that judgment is not executed in this world; that the wicked are successful; that the good are miserable; and then urged from reason and from Scripture a com |