Lo! here lie the statues of broken gods, headless divinities.  I tried to believe in Greek mythology; to fancy that the world had gone backwards, and that there were spirits of the earth and air, that took part in the life of man.  But these were poetic visions that shifted and waved with every fleeting fancy.  But now this would be a pleasant faith.  What if I could appeal to an invisible, higher spiritual being, who sympathized with my nature, to lead me out of this darkness of ignorance into a true world of light, of truth, of definite knowledge, concerning life and its origin; concerning God and His nature?  If I were only an old Greek, how I would pray to Minerva for help, and call upon Hercules to remove this Augean dirt, that pollutes and lumbers all the chambers of my mind!  But when the old Greeks called, were they answered?  Ah, there is nothing to hope for!

Yet Socrates believed in these spiritual existences; he ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Esculapius as he was drinking the hemlock.  To him, they were not mere poetic creations; he believed to the last that he was guided and guarded by his demon.  What if we all are?  What if even now, in this midnight darkness, stands a beautiful being, veiled by my ignorance, who loves me, from a world of light; sees the tangled web of my thoughts, and would draw it out into form, and order, and beauty?  If such there be, oh, bright and beautiful one! pity me, love me, and enlighten me.  Alas, no!—­all is yet dark.  What would a being revelling in light and beauty, have to do with this poor, faded life of mine?  Alas! that was a fleeting hope, that, like a pale, flickering ray, gilded the darkness for a moment.

But, here is a something which gives somewhat of joy and life to the mind.  It is a beautiful thought of Plato, that there is a great central sun in the universe, around which all other suns revolve.  What if this be an inner sun, which is the fountain of spiritual life?  That is something to believe.  Yet the thought sinks appalled from it.  The heart desires a God that it may love, and trust in, that it may speak to and be heard; and if the fountain of life be only a sun, what is there to love in it?  True, we rejoice in the light and beauty of the sun that upholds this world in its place; but what is this enjoyment compared to the bliss of human love?  A man—­a living, breathing, loving man—­is the perfection of existence; and one could be happy with a perfect man, if all the suns in the universe were blotted out.  A MAN! what is he, in his essential attributes?  What is it that gives a delight in him?  Ah!  I am full of ideal visions—­for in all history I find not one man that altogether fills my vision of what a man should be.  From the Alexanders and Caesars I turn with loathing—­their fierce, rude, outre life, their selfish, grasping ambition, suggest to me the vision of snarling wild beasts, battling over the torn and palpitating limbs