222 THE RANUNCULUS. 



am now fully convinced that, out of this compara- 

 tively most innocent enjoyment, Satan wove a 

 powerful snare for my after-life. Imagination 

 took the rein, and carried me out, far beyond the 

 boundaries of reality and sober thought. A world 

 that I could people entirely after my own unfet- 

 tered fancy, was doubly attractive when I began 

 to experience the hollowness and instability of 

 sublunary things. My heart was never cold ; 

 neither, as regards my fellow-creatures, was it 

 ever treacherous. A very little kindness, the mere 

 semblance of love in others, drew forth an abun- 

 dant return of unfeigned affection ; and this, of 

 course, exposed me, even in childhood, to frequent 

 disappointments, on the discovery that I was re- 

 ceiving only base coin in exchange for my best 

 gold. One would suppose that the affections of an 

 immortal creature, repulsed on earth, would natu- 

 rally rise with greater vigour heavenward ; — that 

 when thus checked in their tendency to shoot, as it 

 were horizontally, they would assume the perpen- 

 dicular, and rise towards God. But, alas ! corrupt 

 nature has no desire after that which alone is 

 worthy to be desired; and I transferred every 

 slighted affection to that ideal region which my 

 own fancy had created, by combining the images 

 of whatsoever was lovely and loveable in this 

 dying world — thus using the gifts of my Creator 

 as so many implements wherewith to effect the 



