THE UNIVERSAL HEARTS. 251 



of happiness, which with Caesar and his fortunes on deck, rocks with 

 treble thrill upon the waves, a life boat to which ocean danger is a 

 game. This sends the soul to heroism, as its mark and print upon 

 earth, and by contemplation to the starry vault, as the second glass 

 of its endurance. In a word, the love of life, its own permanence, 

 brings the soul to the earth, because it is God's footstool, and bids 

 it go to heaven, because it is his throne. In these errands it runs 

 through every other love; passes every scene, action, affection, 

 through its fires, and gives it the immortal enamel; and crowns 

 itself in death, for the soul that erewhile only loved life, then loves 

 life beyond life. 



And as ancient chiefs traced their lineage to the Gods, we follow 

 their figure, and track up the heart loves until they claim parentage 

 from the God of love. There is another heart, which is the love of 

 God, and which by faith, life, and all faculty not heartless, propels 

 us to the home of many mansions, where the father dwells. But 

 we love God because He first loved us ; and the force and pulse of 

 his love is felt in his Commandments. His " Thou shalt" seizes 

 our " I will," carries it forth, and commands for it the blessing, even 

 life for evermore. The Christian heart is the Word: "Thou shalt 

 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 

 with all thy strength; and thy neighbor as thyself." This is the 

 first and great Commandment. 



