THE BROTHERS.

AN ALLEGORY.

DEDICATION, TO ONE WHO WILL UNDERSTAND IT:


'I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, us they turn from praise
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith;
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee dearer after death.'


The Creator still loved and guarded the earth, although its children had
departed from their early obedience. In evidence of His care, He sent,
from time to time, gifted spirits among men to aid them in developing
and elevating the souls so fallen from their primal innocence. These
spirits He clad in sensuous bodies, that they might be prepared to enter
the far country of Human Life. Earth was rapidly falling under the
merciless rule of a hopeless and crushing materialism, when He
determined upon sending among men, Anselm, the saint; Angelo, the tone
artist; Zophiel, the poet; and Jemschid, the painter. The spirits
murmured not, although they knew they were to relinquish their heaven