Shirley

spread dim below. All she questioned responded by oracles: she heard, – she was impressed; but she could not understand. Above her head she raised her hands joined together.
    »Guidance – help – comfort – come!« was her cry.
    There was no voice, nor any that answered.
    She waited, kneeling, steadfastly looking up. Yonder sky was sealed: the solemn stars shone alien and remote.
    At last, one over-stretched chord of her agony slacked: she thought Something above relented: she felt as if Something far round drew nigher: she heard as it Silence spoke. There was no language, no word, only a tone.
    Again – a fine, full, lofty tone, a deep, soft sound, like a storm whispering, made twilight undulate.
    Once more, profounder, nearer, clearer, it rolled harmonious.
    Yet, again –– a distinct voice passed between Heaven and Earth.
    »Eva!«
    If Eva were not this woman's name, she had none. She rose.
    »Here am I.«
    »Eva!«
    »Oh, Night! (it can be but Night that speaks) I am here!«
    The voice, descending, reached Earth.
    »Eva!«
    »Lord!« she cried, »behold thine handmaid!«
    She had her religion: all tribes held some creed.
    »I come: a Comforter!«
    »Lord, come quickly!«
    The Evening flushed full of hope: the Air panted; the Moon – rising before – ascended large, but her light showed no shape.
    »Lean towards me, Eva. Enter my arms; repose thus.«
    »Thus I lean, O Invisible, but felt! And what art thou?«
    »Eva, I have brought a living draught from heaven. Daughter of Man, drink of my cup!«
    »I drink – it is as if sweetest dew visited my lips in a full current. My arid heart revives: my affliction is lightened: my strait and struggle are gone. And the night changes! the wood, the hill, the moon, the wide sky – all change!«
    »All change, and for ever. I take from thy vision, darkness: I loosen from thy faculties, fetters! I level in thy path, obstacles: I, with my presence, fill vacancy: I claim as mine the lost atom of life: I take to myself the spark of soul – burning, heretofore, forgotten!«
    »Oh, take me! Oh, claim me! This is a god.«
    »This is a Son of God: one who feels himself in the portion of life that stirs you: he is suffered to reclaim his own, and so to foster and aid that it shall not perish hopeless.«
    »A Son of God! Am I indeed chosen?«
    »Thou only in this land. I saw thee that thou wert fair: I knew thee that thou wert mine. To me it is given to rescue, to sustain, to cherish, mine own. Acknowledge in me that Seraph, on earth, named Genius.«
    »My glorious Bridegroom! True Dayspring from on high! All I would have, at last I possess. I receive a revelation. The dark hint, the obscure whisper, which have haunted me from childhood, are interpreted. Thou art He I sought. God-born, take me, thy bride!«
    »Unhumbled, I can take what is mine. Did I not give from the altar the very flame which lit Eva's being? Come again into the heaven whence thou wert sent.«
    That Presence, invisible, but mighty, gathered her in like a lamb to the fold; that voice, soft, but all pervading, vibrated through her heart like music. Her eye received no image: and yet a sense visited her vision and her brain as of the serenity of stainless air, the power of sovereign seas, the majesty of marching stars, the energy of colliding elements, the rooted endurance of hills wide based, and, above all, as of the lustre of heroic beauty rushing victorious on the Night, vanquishing its shadows like a diviner Sun.
    Such was the bridal-hour of Genius and Humanity. Who shall rehearse the tale of their after-union? Who shall depict its bliss and bale? Who shall tell how He, between whom and the Woman God put enmity, forged deadly plots to break the bond or defile its purity? Who shall record the long strife between Serpent and Seraph? How still the Father of Lies insinuated evil into good – pride into wisdom – grossness into glory – pain into bliss – poison into passion? How the ›dreadless Angel‹ defied, resisted, and repelled? How, again and again, he refined the polluted cup, exalted the debased emotion, rectified the perverted impulse, detected the lurking venom, baffled the frontless temptation – purified, justified, watched, and withstood? How, by his patience, by his strength, by that unutterable excellence he held from God – his Origin – this faithful Seraph fought for Humanity a good fight through time; and, when Time's course closed, and Death was encountered at the end, barring