A yellow primrose is to him,
And it is nothing more.”
The vital element that pervades all nature, uniting it in a chain of harmonious progression, the eternal laws of which even his stolid spirit cannot ultimately avoid, however much he now seeks to bury it beneath the grosser particles of matter, escapes his perception. Guided only by his finite, perishable sensorium, in vain attempt to grasp at once the entire treasure, he often plunges his suicidal knife into the ovary which daily laid him a golden egg. Thus man destroys his own birthright through brutal ignorance and sensual impatience. The truly wise count all things at their right worth, and find a sympathy in every natural object, in varied degree, according as it speaks to them the thought of a common Creator, and connects them in one common end. They have, therefore, a double enjoyment. First, that which springs from the right material use of every object or sense; secondly, the language which both speak to them of hope and faith in more refined enjoyments and more perfect conditions of existence. The very trials and incompleteness of present experiences are so many testimonies of future and nobler realizations. Thus God speaks as kindly through the so-called evils and disappointments of life, as through the more readily distinguished blessings; for if they see in the latter hope and happiness, so in the former they distinguish that chastening which, through paternal discipline, seeks to guide and strengthen.
Few situations could be more trying to moral firmness than the circumstances under which we left Olmedo and Beatriz. Free from all external restraint of church discipline, with no censorship beyond their own consciences; reason and passion both pleading their right to be united; their past by its friendship casting a bright light upon their future and closer union; doomed to pass their lives, while still in the flush of life, away from all that had made other homes dear; twin exiles, each sustaining the other and now alone, amid a joyous seductive nature, every motion and aspect of which was pleading for love;—was there not in all this sufficient temptation to have overcome them? Neither were ascetic by nature nor principle. No two human beings, by organization, were better fitted to enjoy lawfully all the indulgences wholesome instincts and the tenderness of united hearts craved. The very restraint which former circumstances and the absence of love had produced, now that both were removed, but made them more susceptible to the reaction. We must not, therefore, judge that kiss too harshly. Less passion would have removed them from our sympathies. Now they have vindicated their humanity, will they be able to vindicate their duty? Duty as their religion taught them!
Olmedo’s heart beat wildly. His face was flushed and fevered. He would have repeated the embrace, but something instinctively alarmed Beatriz, and she sadly whispered, putting her hand on his forehead, and looking directly at him, with an expression of affection and alarm, “You do not love me, Olmedo!”
Had the voice of the Almighty called to him, as it did to Adam in the garden, a greater change could not have come over Olmedo. It was the voice of the Almighty in the pure soul of Beatriz, and it spoke to an answering conscience. He became breathless, pale, and faint, as the full meaning of those soft words pierced through his soul. They spoke volumes. His passion was quenched, and true wisdom descended upon him. In an instant he was another being, loving not less, but less selfishly—able to sacrifice indulgence to Duty, to her and to his faith; for he would not peril her soul through the entreaties of passion, or the pleadings of what might be selfish reason.
Holding her hand tenderly as might a father, he said, “Beatriz, my daughter in faith, thou art my saviour in action. Love thee! let me prove how I do love thee. I dare not think of what we might be to each other, were not I wedded to the Holy Church. No blessing will follow vows broken, because circumstances tempt. Help me to be true to my religion and to thee! Forgive my passion thou wilt, because thou knowest the strength of passion. Be to me sister, spirit-bride—all of woman in tenderness, love and friendship thou canst, and as I am true to thy confiding faith, so God deal with me. In his own wise providence and good time will he recompense our faith in Him and our love to each other. Had my passions overpowered us both, however much our union might have brought us pleasure, we should have sought to hide our heads in shame and confusion, as the conviction that we had purchased it by the violated faith of a soul, consecrated to heaven, grew upon us. Heaven spoke through thee, Beatriz; angel woman hast thou ever proved to me.”
Kneeling upon the ground, with Beatriz besides him, every passion harmonized by gratitude and hope and faith, Olmedo lifted up his head and said, “Father, I thank thee, that thou hast spared me this crime. Thine be the praise, and not to my own feeble will, which without thee, in the hour of temptation, thou hast permitted me to see is as a broken reed. I praise thee, I thank thee, Father, that thou hast pitied thy servant, and in saving him from error hast given him further opportunity for thy service and of getting wisdom. In creating man, thou has bestowed upon him affections for wise purposes, and I now see that thou delightest no more in their sacrifice than in innocent blood. I thank thee that I am a man; that I possess from thee the desires and aspirations for love eternal as the heavens, and that thou hast permitted me to find, even in my solitary profession, a heart which makes mine beat warmer, truer and better. May it ever be a strength and a support, and this love, which I now confess before thee, our Father, be a bond of stricter service and accountability for every thought and action, and finally unite us in spirit among the just made perfect.”
Thus plead the Man with his Maker. In his aroused emotions, the formal language of priestly prayer was forgotten, and the genuine, sincere thought of the heart ascended freely and welcome to God, with nature’s true eloquence. Does the Great Heart not hear such prayers? Heart to heart and soul to soul make answer! When man conquers himself and ascends in spirit to his eternal home in the heavens, asking from God direct, life and light to guide and keep him through his earthly trials, the sympathetic voice of the entire heavens echoes his prayer, and repeats to him the assurance of aid. Prayer is to the soul what the plough is to the soil. It opens it to vivifying rays. As the disturbed water sends circle after circle, wider and wider over its surface, so in the moral world, each thought or action for good or evil, spreads likewise, and awakes throughout its infinity its circle of affinities. Angels rejoice with man in his rise, and fiends exult in his fall. Be cautious, therefore, fellow-man, for thou canst not calculate the extent of thy influence in either life.
Beatriz felt her power and her responsibility, and was troubled. Silently, but with deep earnestness, she followed Olmedo in his prayer. Both rose from that forest sanctuary dearer to each other, because there was now no secret thought between them. Each felt that the salvation of the other was a solemn charge from heaven.