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    In the course of a few moons , Leah had often met Akiba , as he was driving her father ' s herds out to pasture , or homeward to the fold . She had spoken to him kindly , and made many inquiries as to his life in the valley ; and he had told her without reserve all his little history . He had told her also of the seasons and their produce ; of the plants and flowers , their putting forth , and their decay ; of the rise of the stars , and their declination ;

    and of what all these things betokened to those whose bed was the green field , and whose roof the heavens . And Leah listened to him with more pleasure than 3 he had yet found in the voice of any other man . Whether the great sun , bending his effulgent countenance over Egypt , looked creative power upon her breast ; whether the evening- twilight in sweet sadness , walked with her meditative

    passion through the dim pathetic glades ; or the clear morning star grew pale in the altitude of his silent fields ; Akiba ' s watchful soul held but one thought , and his heart grew sick in his bosom with deep relapse from too great expansion . Akiba loved Leah , yet he dared not breathe the words into her ear ; not for that she was the daughter of the rich man Zahoran , but by reason of his intense feelings and the pure respect of sacred love .

    At length they both knew the love that was in each other's , hearts , and there was no disguise of that feeling . And Akiba said , I will arise in the strength of my devotion , and it shall give me words to say unto thy father more than I can say to thee . And 1 will ask thee of him in marriage , and Zahoran shall not answer my prayer with punishment , nor drive me from his presence with scorn . ' And Leah wept .

    Akiba went forthwith before Zahoran , and if his knees trembled under the weight of his heart , it was not through fear , but the feelings that filled him . And he spoke thus to his master , with a manly modesty and a reverential air . ' I come before Zahoran , not to speak to him of the welfare and the increase , the sickness or the health , of his flocks and

    herds ; but of that which in the comparison maketh them poor in price and of little worth . Is not thy daughter Leah fairer than pure silver ; is not her happiness more precious than fine gold and jewels , which adorn the " outer form only , and shed no lasting ra ys within ; and doth not her innocent beauty strike deeper into the soul than that of all thy flocks , shining like the driven snow that passeth over the hills ancj valleys ? Behold now , O father ° f Leah ; the herdsman Akiba , thy servant , hath come to tell * hee that he hath dared to love thy daughter , even unto seekingher for his wife ? And be not thou wratn with her when Akiba

    Wleth thee , that thy daughter hath not despised his heart , nor looked upon him us a beast of the field whose countenance is torned earthward because of his lowJy station . Let , then , the Boble feelings of thy child Leah plead somewhat with thee for

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    Akiba . 647

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 647, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/43/