If a man conceive himself insulted, will not his anger smite?

Thus, let a soul believe his state, his danger, destiny, redemption,

Will he not feel eager to be safe, like him that kept the prison at Phillippi:

A mother had an only son, and sent him out to sea :

She was a widow, and in penury; and he must seek his fortunes.
How often in the wintry nights, when waves and winds were howling,

Her heart was torn with sickening dread, and bled to see her boy.

And on one sunny morn, when all around was comfort,

News came, that weeks agone, the vessel had been wrecked;

Yea, wrecked, and he was dead! they had seen him perish in his agony : Oh then, what agony was like to hers, for she believed the tale!

She was bowed and broken down with sorrow, and uncomforted in

prayer;

Many nights she mourned, and pined, and had no hope but death.

But on a day, while sorely she was weeping, a stranger broke upon her

loneliness,

He had news to tell, that weather-beaten man, and must not be denied:
And what were the wonder-working words that made this mourner joyous,
That swept her heaviness away, and filled her world with praise?

Her son was saved,—is alive,—is near !—O did she stop to question ?
No, rushing in the force of faith, she met him at the door!

OF HONESTY.

ALL is vanity which is not honesty;—thus is it graven on the tomd;— And there is no wisdom but in piety;—so the dead man preacheth:

For, in a simple village church, among those classic shades

Which sylvan Evelyn loved to rear, (his praise and my delight,)

These, the words of truth, are writ upon his sepulchre

Who learnt much lore, and knew all trees from the cedar to the hyssop on the wall.

A just conjunction, godliness and honesty, ministering to both worlds,
Well wed, and ill to be divided, a pair that God hath joined together.

I touch not now the vulgar thought, as of tricks and cheateries in trade;

I speak of honest purpose, character, speech and action:

For an honest man hath special need of charity, and prudence,

Of a deep and humbling self-acquaintance, and of blessed commerce with his God,

So that the keennesses of truth may be freed from asperities of censure,
And the just but vacillating mind be not made the pendulum of argu-

ments:

For a false reason, shrewdly put, can often not be answered on the instant,

And prudence looketh unto faith, content to wait solutions:
Yea, it looketh, yea, it waiteth, still holding honesty in leash,
Lest, as a hot young hound, it track not game, but vermin.
Many a man of honest heart, but ignorant of self and God,

Hath followed the marsh-fires of pestilence, esteeming them the lights of truth:

He heard a cause, which he had not skill to solve,--and so received it

gladly,

And that cause brought its consequence, of harm to an unstable soul.
Prudence for a man's own sake, never should be separate from honesty ;
And charity, for other's good and his, must still be joined therewith ·
For the harshly chiding tongue hath neither pleasuring nor profit,
And the cold unsympathizing heart never gained a good.

Sin is a sore, and folly is a fever; touch them tenderly for healing;
The bad chirurgeon's awkward knife harmeth spite of honesty.
Still, a rough diamond is better than the polished paste,—
That courteous flattering fool, who spake of vice as virtue :
And honesty, even by itself, though making many adversaries
Whom prudence might have set aside, or charity have softened,
Evermore will prosper at the last, and gain a man great honour
By giving others many goods, to his own cost and hinderance.

FREEDOM is father of the honest, and sturdy Independence is his brother; These three, with heart and hand, dwell together in unity.

The blunt yeoman, stout and true, will speak unto princes unabashed: His mind is loyal, just and free, a crystal in its plain integrity;

What should make such an one ashamed? where courtiers kneel, he

standeth ;

I will indeed bow before the king, but knees were knit for God.
And many such there be, of a high and noble conscience,
Honourable, generous, and kind, though blessed with little light:
What should he barter for his freedom? some petty gain of gold?
Free of speech, and free in act, magnates honour him for boldness:
Long may he flourish in his peace, and a stalwart race around him,
Rooted in the soil like oaks, and hardy as the pine upon the mountains!

YET, there be others, that will truckle to a lie, selling honesty for interest:
And do they gain?—they gain but loss; a little cash, with scorn.
Behold, the sorrowful change wrought upon a fallen nature:

He hath lost his own esteem, and other men's respect;

For the buoyancy of upright faith, he is clothed in the heaviness of cring

ing;

For plain truth where none could err, he hath chosen tortuous paths;

In lieu of his majesty of countenance-the timorous glances of servility Instead of Freedom's honest pride,—the spirit of a slave.

NEVERTHELESS, there is somewhat to be pleaded, even for a necessary guile,

Whilst the world, and all that is therein, lieth deep in evil.
Who can be altogether honest,- -a champion never out of mail,
Ready to break a lance for truth with every crowding error?
Who can be altogether honest,-dragging out the secrecies of life,
And risking to be lashed and loathed for each unkind disclosure ?
Who can be altogether honest,—living in perpetual contentions,
And prying out the petty cheats that swell the social scheme?
For he must speak his instant mind,—a mind corrupt and sinful,
Exhibiting to other men's disgust its undisguised deformities;

He must utter all the hatred of his heart, and add to it the venom of his tongue;

Shall he feel, and hide his feelings? that were the meanness of a hypo

crite.

Still, O man, such hypocrisy is better than this bold honesty to sin :
Kill the feeling, or conceal it: let shame at least do the work of charity.

O charity, thou livest not in warnings, meddling among men,
Rebuking every foolish word, and censuring small sins;
This is not thy secret,-rather wilt thou hide their multitude,
And silence the condemning tongue, and wearisome exhortation,
But for thee, thy strength and zeal shine in encouragement to good,
Lifting up the lantern of ensample, that wanderers may find the way:
That lantern is not lit to gaze on all the hatefulness of evil,
But set on high for life and light, the loveliness of good.
The hard censorious mind sitteth as a keen anatomist

Tracking up the fibres in corruption, and prying on a fearful corpse :
But the charitable soul is a young lover, enamoured little wisely,
That saw no fault in her he loved, and sought to see one less,
So, in his kind and genial light, she grew more worthy of his love;
Won to good by gentle suns, and not by frowning tempest.

VERILY, infirm thyself,-be slow to chide a brother's imperfection

For many times the decent veil must hang on faults of nature,

And the rude hands, that rend it, offend against the modesty of right, While seeming zeal, and its effort to do good, is only feigned selfpraise :

Often will the meannessess of life, hidden away in corners,

Prove wisdom; and the generous is glad to leave them unregarded in the shade.

The follies none are found to praise, let them die unblamed:

Thine honest strife will only tend to make some think them wise:
And small conventional deceits, let them live uncensured:

Or if thou war with pigmies, thou shalt haply help the cranes.
Where to be blind was safety, Ovid had been wise for winking: (23)
And when a tell-tale might do harm, be sure it is prudent to be dumb:
That which is just and fit is often found combating with honesty:
In the cause of good, be wise; and in a case indifferent, keep silence.

LET honesty's unblushing face be shaded by the mantle of humility,
So shall it shine a lamp of love, and not the torch of strife:
Otherwise the lantern of Diogenes, presumptuously thrust before the

face,

If it never find an honest man, shall often make an angered.

Let honesty be companied by charity of heart, lest it walk unwelcome,
Or the mouthing censor of others and himself, soon shall sink to scorn.
Let honesty be added unto innocence of life: then a man may only be its
martyr :

But if openness of speech be found with secrecy of guilt, the martyr will be seen a malefactor.

THERE is a cunning scheme, to put on surface bluntness,

And cover still deep water, with the clamorous ripples of a shallow.

For a man, to gain his selfish ends, will make a stalking horse of

honesty;

And hide his poaching limbs behind, that he may cheat the quicker.
Such an one is loud and ostentatious, full of oaths for argument,
Boastful of honour and sincerity, and not to be put down by facts:
He is obstinate, and showeth it for firmness; he is rude, displaying it

for truth;