just above the surface—just high enough to be breathed by those who move along the by-lanes of Vanity Fair: and the Soul took a key from its girdle, and therewith unlocked the door which alone had prevented its ascension to the upper story of the Temple; and it saw the steps leading toward the Dome—and they were broad, inviting, well carpeted and lighted. Up the steps it went, and presently reached a lofty apartment, within which there fell a flood of glorious effulgence; and this light was clear, and pure, and pearly white; and it streamed into the apartment,—this upper chamber of the soul,—through a glorious arched window, toward which it drew near, and lo! all the world looked different, as did the stars that hung out upon the night, and the beautiful pale moon, and God's rockets—the meteors—so beautiful!
There was an occupant of that chamber, one who had been slumbering on a couch therein for many, many years; but the grating of the door upon its rusted hinges and the rattle of the keys disturbed this sleeper, and woke it up. The being was a female—so very beautiful that I loved her from the first, for she was very beautiful, and came to me, threw her fair white arms about my neck, kissed my forehead tenderly, told me that she had slept too long, pent up in that chamber all alone.
And I loved her dearly, because she was so very pure, so virginal, so fresh and innocent, and withal so very beautiful! I asked her name. "It is Devotion," she replied. Then folding me to her bosom, her tender, loving bosom, she gently drew me nearer to the window, pointed down toward the ground, and said: "The air is thick, and dank, and dark, and dense, and very
