Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/149

Rh much concentered in that one phasis of her heing. Well for her, in the meantime, who went hence with her heart's fulness of love, and went with those whom she loved most.

August 12th.—All continues to be delicious and good! The sea, the heavens and their grand show, the warlike games of Valhalla which take place every evening, in which heroes and heroic maidens hurl their flaming spears; the embraces of the sea during the day; the song of the sea at night; freedom, peace in the open air—ah! how glorious is all this!

Professor Hart enjoys the bathing and the life here as much as I do, and little Morgan flits about like a seagull, now on the shore and now in the water, bare-legged and brown, and as happy as a free lad can possibly be on the sea-shore. But poor Mrs. Hart derives benefit neither from bathing nor yet from the sea air, and becomes every day paler and paler, and can hardly eat anything but a little boiled rice; I believe that she lives principally, and is sustained by her husband's and her son's enjoyment of life, and will not leave this place for their sakes.

I have derived pleasure from my acquaintance with an amiable family, or rather two brother-families from Philadelphia, who live in a cottage near here, for the benefit of sea-bathing. Mr. F., the elder, is the minister of an Unitarian congregation in Philadelphia, one of the noblest, purest human beings whom God ever created, true, fervent, and full of love, but so absorbed by his Anti-slavery feelings that his life and his mind suffer in consequence, and I believe that he would, with the greatest pleasure, suffer death if, by that means, slavery could be abolished. And his lovely daughter would gladly suffer with him, a Valkyria in soul and bearing, a glorious young girl who is her father's happiness as he is hers. This grief for slavery would have made an end of the noble minister's life had not his daughter enlivened him every