38 I GO A -FISHING. 



abroad to travel, and indoctrinated thoroughly into the re- 

 ligious faith of my ancestors. 



" I was not given to associating with others of my age 

 and station, and I passed with such as a somewhat mo- 

 rose boy. Yet with books and paintings I made life pass 

 on quietly enough, and so I might have lived perhaps till 

 I grew old had I not seen and loved a woman. 



" You will not care to know where or how I first saw 



Edith . Some of you remember her. It was the 



one grand secret of my life. I was a young man of ar- 

 dent affections, hopeful, cheerful, and I believe I could 

 have made her a happy wife. She was very beautiful, and 

 they said very gentle and good, and I saw her and I loved 

 her. 



"But I never knew her for years. You start. Was it 

 strange that I, a Jew, of the race of the despised, should 

 have shrunk from exposing myself to her contempt ? Xo. 

 I never approached her — never spoke a word to her. 

 Why should I lose the glory of my dream by subjecting 

 myself to her pity or her scorn. Why should I risk losing 

 the blessedness of loving her by hearing that she had 

 called me Alexander the Jew? 



" She was the daughter of wealthy parents. Her posi- 

 tion was undoubted. Her circle was not mine, though 

 my father's wealth was tenfold that of hers. Though we 

 were admitted into all the houses of the wealthy and aris- 

 tocratic in America, still we were Jews; and I would not 

 have approached that fair girl and subjected myself to 

 the glance of her pitying eye for all the wealth of Solomon. 

 She was very young, not eighteen, but a perfect woman ; 

 and I worshiped her at a distance — how sincerely ! with 

 what depth of devotion ! Once, and but once, I was near 

 her; for, passing down a Xew York street one dark 



