Though sometimes, when the maiden yielded to Temptation, that deceitful spirit led her through the flowery paths, yet she always left her in the hands of Remorse, a withered hag, whose name was written in letters of fire on her breast, and who held an iron pen, with which she engraved black and frightful images on the tablet.
The maiden looked at them with affright and sorrow; and Penitence, a tender and pitiful nymph, tried to wash them out with her tears; but, though they became fainter, it was impossible to efface them; and the maiden, grieving that these records of her wandering with Temptation must forever and forever remain on her tablet, appealed to Virtue for aid; and Virtue pointed her to Religion, who, it seemed, could alone enable her to resist the wiles of Temptation. And now I saw, that, as her communications with Religion became more frequent, and their intercourse more intimate, though often assailed by Temptation, the maiden was always victorious in the contest, and at every step she gave more and more attention to her tablet, and felt a more intense desire that it should be impressed with beautiful and brightening images.
I know not how much farther I might have traced her course, had not my little Helen come bounding in from school—the dog barked, and I was waked. I told my dream to the little girl.
“And what did the tablet mean?” she asked.
“Oh, it was but a dream, Helen.”
“Yes, but all the rest had a meaning, and there ought to be one to the tablet.”
“Well, then, my child, let it mean Memory; and, if you like my dream, let it persuade you to store your memory with beautiful and indelible images.”—Stories for the Young, by Miss Sedgwick.
The Sun and Wind.
A FABLE.