The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1869-02-12

uouDt! De CTOWub his CTllueS Win tHe
worship of Satan" Now / know thee,
Satan," criod I, raving. "I see now
that not touch of the sympathy which
dwells in the human heart has place
in your iron breast. / want no sympa-
thy from thee. Thou feelest nothing
but malicious scorn. ! would have
purchased thy favor, purchased 1t with
my soul. But my soul will do better.
1t will find the way to repentance and
mercy. 1t will escape you yet, and
when you fancy yourself most sure OF
it.n
Scowling grimly. he replied, mo,
sir, am not the devil as you suppose
am man like you. You have been
a criminal ; now you are are madman.
But he who has once broken with his
better faith, is soon done with reason
too. / despise yeu, Truly I would
not help you il could. do not want
your soul. 1t is all ripe for hell, and
Satan need not offer brass farthing for
It,"
HOPE.
For few moments ! stood before
him doubtful aud embarrassed. Shame
ard rage, remorse, and readiness for
any crime that could save me, for the
moment struggled within me. l can.
not described what felt for the histo-
ry of that single moment would grow
into volume under my pen, and yet /
could not do it justice. ..
"If you are not he for whom 1 take
you," said 4 b, at last, III cannot help
wishing you were he. Save me, or l
am lost. Save me, for you alone are to
blame for my horrible fate."
"That's the way with man." said he,
grinning; "he always makes himself
out perfectly innocent, even when
stained with brothers. blood"
"Yes; you, sir, were the first cause of
all my terrible sufferings. Why did
you come in the night to my summer
house, where 1 was sleeping harmless
and quiet, awaiting the break of day?
Had you not awakened me, all this
never would happened"
"But did / awake you to conjugal in
fidelity and to arson? That's just the
way with man. When he has assassi-
mated some thousands, he would lay all
the blame on the miner who has dug
the steel out of the earth. Your breath
sir, is the cause of your crimes, because
if you could not breathe, you never
would have committed them but with
out breath you could have had no life."
"But why did you play the part of
the devil with me in the garden, and
say so significantly that whoever lets
the devil have hold of hair, it will be
the string by which he will get his
| whole head"
"True that! Did / tell you lie ?
Who Gan testify more fearfuily to that
truth than yourself? Have I asked 8
hair of you? or did you offe 1t to me
But, sir, when you saw Julia, YOU
first love, you ought to have remem
bered Fanny. You trusted too mucl
to your virtue, or rather you die
not think of virtue at all. Religion
and virtue would have told you, File,
home to the summcr-house. Sir, tn,
instant temptation appears, man mus
take care how he permits himself in tn
slightest thought that favors sin; 70
the first little thought of evil, whicl
one allows himself to entertain, is tn
| of hait. IN, bn al 10 ,f fhn HaxytI
"Right! oh, right but could hav'
forseen that ?"
"To be sure you could"
at was impossible. Think only o
the horrible coincidence of circumstan
COS ."
"Of that, as a possibility, you ough
to have thought. Could you have tho
of the count, when you held his wifi
in your arms? of the conflagraton
when you threw the candle in the hay
of fratricide, when you drove the horse
over their own4r ?-for, whether he o
another, every man is your brother"
100 true But drive me not to great
er despair. You must at least grant tina
the first fault might have happened
without all the horrors, if there had no
been the most terrible combination o
circumstances"
"You are mistaken What was ther
so terrible in the counts coming to hi
wife? What was there 80 very terribl
in there being hay in the barn, as in al
other barns? What so strange in you
brothers. happening to pass that way
No, sir; what you call horrible coin
cidence, might have been for you, hat
you kept in the right path, most hap
py. The world is good it is the min'
that turns it into hell. 1t is the maj
that first makes the dagger and the poi
son, which else would have been TIL
peaceful ploughshare or the healing
medicine. Do not pretend to vindicat
yourself"
Here l could not help crying out Il
utter despair when l saw the full exten
of my cnormities. "Oh !" cried j, "u
to this night have been innocent:
good father, Il faithful husband, with
out reproach-now am | without rest
without honor, without consolation ~
mo, sir there too, l must contradic
you. You have not become what yo
are in one night, but you became it Ion
ago. One cannot change from an ang'
TO devil in an hour, unless he posscsst
already every disposition to become
devil. Opportunity is only waiting io
the inner man to become the QUITE
You only needed to see Julia alon
The fire sleeps in the steel and flint, a
thought we see II not-strlke them t
gether and the sparks fly. The spar
falls into a powder-cask near by, al
half city, with all its prosperity,
, thrown into the sky. Commend me
your pious people who attend the po
, sinner to the gallows that many mo
, do not hang there is merely tho fav