Western Literary Magazine.

THE CASTLE BUILDERS.

Original.

BY MRS. H. M. TRACY.

(See Engraving.)

CHAPTER I.

All are architects of Fate,

Builders in these walls of time;

Some, with massive deeds and great,

Some with ornaments of rhyme.-Longfellow.

"ALL castles must first be air castles," remarked a patient listener, as a young idealist paused in the midst of detailing a splendid phantasy, and deprecatingly sighed, "O this is only an air castle!"

"Build on, my young artificer, nor be disheartened, though you wait long before the immaterial and spiritual put on the tangible. All castles, I repeat, must first be air castles."

There come to every human soul, at some period of life, those bright phantoms, which we have hitherto regarded as only vain and delusive, and spurned from us with a mingled pride and contempt, because we could not touch them with our material hands. And yet, rightly heeded, rightly pursued, they may become to us the angels of destiny, whose mission is to lead us upward, not against our wills, but in harmony with them.

It was in the true spirit of castle-building, that these young friends threw themselves on the velvety sward, after a long, and somewhat adventurous ramble over the green hills and by the silvery lakes in the north of England. It was their last academic vacation, and in

one year more, they were to commence the struggle for collegiate honors. As their future destination would not be the same, they had obtained permission to spend their last boyhood holidays together, and with hearts that were ready to go forth to meet nature in all her rejoicings, they had greeted the shadowy hills and slumbering waters on that beautiful morning.

Three nobler young spirits had seldom trodden the domain of Sir Arthur Hamilton, in the mad glee of vacation life; and the first glance might have assured you that they were cast in some of nature's pattern molds. Though widely severed by the mere accident of birth, they acknowledged a high spiritual bond that set at defiance. the conventional rules of life, and refused to recognize those nice airlines, drawn by the grave seigniors of the world, and intended to form an impassible gulf after the age of twenty-one. It was enough for them that they were bound together by the strong ties of mutual friendship and similarity of taste; and no sense of superiority, or of inferiority, was ever dreamed of in the midst of their juvenile pursuits.

And yet, these lads might have been regarded as fitting represen tatives of three great classes in England; while the bonds that united them, might have furnished a clue that would have enabled the philosopher to unravel the complicated web of social life. This is at universal truth. We regard all as our equals who can fully understand us, and we acknowledge no sense of inferiority toward those whom we can fully understand.

George Hamilton was the youngest son of a peer, who, with no little dignity, filled his seat in the House of Lords. A good man, and true, was Sir Arthur, as far as his understanding had been enlightened; but his veneration for the past, and his love of the heroic, forbade the hope that he would ever be found in the van of reform.

Henry Vinton was the son of a prosperous artizan, yet “a real man." He received nothing that related to life, upon trust. All must be demonstrated, all brought to the test of reason and conscience. He regarded culture as the true social equalizer of the world, and had steadily pursued his purpose with his only son,

training both head and hands, that he might not belong to a class already numerous, who think that learning exempts men from labor. He would have him know how to use all his faculties, and that with the highest conscious dignity.

Robert Tremain was the son of a wealthy manufacturer, one of a class aspiring after nobility, and often purchasing its patent by wealth. A trivial incident had aroused them, and when they threw themselves down under the shadows of the spreading elms, they were prepared for discussing life in good earnest.

"We shall soon be men," exclaimed George Hamilton, "and then I wonder if Sir Philip Dundas' gamekeeper will dare to interrupt our sports."

"By the powers that rule!" ejaculated Robert; "when I am a man I'll know what these game laws are; and if they are the paltry things I take them to be, mind you, boys, I'll see them trampled in the dust. By the way, George, I am to be a lawyer, and who knows but I may yet be

"Lord Chancellor on the wool sack," interrupted Vinton.

A nod and a smile showed that even such had been the vision of the boy, for, at what does not the absolute sovereignty of ambition venture to grasp.

"And what are you to be, George?" demanded Robert.

"A clergyman, of course," responded young Hamilton.

why of course'?"

"Of course!" echoed Vinton : 66 "You know," returned George, "that the estates, titles, and honors of the family, descend to Arthur, my oldest brother. Jack, the second branch of the goodly family tree, chooses the navy. Victor claims a right to enter the army of our most gracious sovereign.' Hal. insists on a legal education. Dick will be a doctor; and pray! what can I be, but a clergyman?"

"I have often wondered," remarked Henry, "of what sin all the younger members of our noble families have been guilty, that, like the sons of Levi, they should have no lot in the division of the earth. I wish I could be an absolute monarch for one week. I'd have a great bonfire, and commit all the old barbarous laws of England to the flames."

"And pray, master Hal, what would you do then? Let the people live without laws?" inquired our legal champion, Tremain.

"Live without laws! Bless your stars! Didn't you know that would be impossible? Why, God made all the great laws that we need, and I could never see the use of attempting to amend his works so much as our parliament seem to be continually trying to do. And that is what father thinks, too, though he does not speak it out quite so freely. And then, George, you should have your own share in this glorious domain, instead of being forced into a profession for which you feel no vocation. I'll tell you what, boys! I will never be forced into a profession. It seems to me too partial a life, to be confined to one pursuit, feeling that I have but one great interest, and but one capacity in common with my fellow beings." "And what will you be, Master Vinton?" demanded Hamilton. "I will be God's minister to universal humanity," returned Vinton, with eloquent earnestness. "I will say to the most haughty peer, You are only my elder brother.' I will meet such as yon poor fisherman with a fraternal greeting; I will look for the poor pale children that work in dark mines, and tell them to look up at God's bright sunlight, to walk out amid God's works, and enjoy his free breezes. I will say to the prisoner in his cell, Christ is your elder brother, and he is now pleading with his Father for your forgiveness."

The clear, blue eyes of the boy seemed illuminated with a strange light, and his features, cast in a mold of singular beauty, wore an expression of intense feeling that roused his companions to an earnestness that proved an era in their young existence.

Robert drew up one of his knees and clasped his hands firmly over it, while George sank in a half-kneeling posture, with one hand resting upon Robert's shoulder, as the clear, liquid words of Vinton fell like the sudden burst of some grand organ amid the greenwood aisles. They did not seem like the utterance of a young boy's thoughts; the words were too fitly chosen, and the sentiments too grand and massive.

There are moments when our faculties seem sublimated, and we feel that the chains that bind mind to these prison-like bodies, are loosed, and we can soar upward and gaze upon the throne of Destiny.

Intuitions, far above the grasp of mere reason, come to us with the force of absolute law. To a child trained to feel his true relationship to his fellow beings loftier inspirations come, than the worldly wise ever dream; and because they are not recorded, we seldom feel the might of the spirits that encircle us. The clear intuitions of the young often put to flight the subtleties of the philosopher, and make him stand in awe before the unconscious revealings of nature's harmonies.

But the auditors of our young orator had not, as yet, learned the philosophy of the false and worldly-minded, and they drank in the strange words of Vinton, as thirsty travelers the pure waters of the gushing fountain.

When the gathering clouds forewarned them to seek a shelter, they walked toward the castle with measured steps, each surveying the spirit castle he had intended for himself. Hamilton and Tremain seemed to feel, for the first time, that what had before looked to them like lordly palaces, stood on foundations more beggarly than the peasant's hut. But when each thought of enlarging the basis to meet the magnificent scale of Vinton, he found a sad want of room; professions, honors, customs, and as they began to fear, even necessities, had so preoccupied the ground, that they must per force yield, and use what now appeared to each but a narrow shed. Ah! little dreamed these young castle builders that they were yet to be called to build in sober earnest, with mighty strokes, the new edifice that was to grow up in the social domain of England; one in the pulpit, one at the bar, and one as God's minister to universal humanity.

From that day, a new direction was given to all their recreations. They sought the shepherd on the hills, and listened to his legends, calling out all his knowledge of the framework of the past, and his dreams of the future. They met the old fisherman on the strand, and inquired of him the history of his own life, and that of his fathers. Vinton seemed desirous to know the foundations of all social distinctions, and the manner in which they were regarded by the poor. For this he could not have assigned a reason; he only felt that he must know all the secrets of the strange architecture of English life.