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AND this sweet social commerce with thy children, groweth as their

growth,

Unless thou fail of duty, or have weaned them by thine absence.
Keep them near thee, rear them well, guide, correct, instruct them:
And be the playmate of their games, the judge in their complainings.
So shall the maiden and the youth love thee as their sympathizing friend,
And bring their joys to share with thee, their sorrows for consoling:
Yea, their inmost hopes shall yearn to thee for counsel,

They will not hide their very loves if thou hast won their trust;
But, even as man and woman, shall they gladly seek their father,
Feeling yet as children feel, though void of fear in honour:
And thou shalt be a Nestor in the camp, the just and good old man,
Hearty still, though full of years, and held the friend of all ;

No secret shall be kept from thee; for if ill, thy wisdom may repair it;
If well, thy praise is precious; and they would not miss that prize.
O the blessing of a home, where old and young mix kindly,
The young unawed, the old unchilled, in unreserved communion!
O that refuge from the world, when a stricken son or daughter

May seek with confidence of love, a father's hearth and heart;
Sure of a welcome, though others cast them out; of kindness, though
men scorn them;

And finding there the last to blame, the earliest to commend.
Come unto me, my son, if sin shall have tempted thee astray,
I will not chide thee like the rest, but help thee to return ;
Come unto me, my son, if men rebuke and mock thee,
There always shall be one to bless,—for I am on thy side!

ALAS,—and bitter is their loss, the parents and the children,

Who, loving up and down the world, have missed each other's friendship.
Haply, it had grown of careless life, for years go swiftly by;

Or sprang of too much carefulness, that drank up all the streams:
Haply, sullen disappointment came and quenched the fire;
Haply, sternness or misrule, crushed or warped the feelings.
Then, ill-combined in tempers, they learnt not each the other;

The growing child grew out of love, and drew the breath of fear;

The youth ill-trained renounced his fears, and made a league with

cunning;

And so those hardened men were foes, that should have been chief

friends.

Where was the cause, the mutual cause? O hunt it out to kill it:
And what the cure, the simple cure ?—A mutual flash of love.
For dull estrangement's daily air froze up those early sympathies
By cold continuance in apathy, or cutting winds of censure;
It was a slow process, which any fleeting hour could have melted;
But every hour duly came and passed without the sun.

Caution, care, and dry distrust, obscured each other's mind,

Till both those gardens rich to yield, were rank with many weeds:
And doubt, a hidden worm, gnawed at the root of their Society,
They lacked of mutual confidence, and lived in mutual dread.
Judge me, many fathers; and hearken to my counsel, many sons;

I come with good in either hand, to reconcile contentions:

For better friends can no man have, than those whom God hath given,

And he that hath despised the gift, thought ill of that he knew not.

Be ye wiser,—(I speak unto the sons)—and win paternal friendships, Cultivate their kindness, seek them out with honour, and be the screening Japheth to their failings:

And be ye wiser,—(I speak unto the fathers,)—gain those filial comrades, Cherish their reasonable converse, and look not with coldness on your children.

For the friendship of a child is the brightest gem set upon the circlet of Society,

A jewel worth a world of pains,—a jewel seldom seen.

THE third cycle on the waters, another of those rings upon the

A further definite broad zone, holdeth kith and kin:

A motley band of many tribes, and under various banners;

onyx,

The intimate and strangers, the known and loved, or only seen for

loathing:

Some, dear for their deserts, shall honour and have honour of rela

tionship,

Some, despising duties, will add to it both burden and disgrace.

A man's nearest kin are oftentimes far other than his dearest,

Yet in the season of affliction those will haste to help him.

For, note thou this, the providence of God hath bound up families

together,

To mutual aid and patient trial; yea, those ties are strong,

Friends are ever dearer in thy wealth, but relations to be trusted in thy

need,

For these are God's appointed way, and those the choice of man
There is lower warmth in kin, but smaller truth in friends,

The latter show more surface, and the first have more of depth.
Relations rally to the rescue, even in estrangement and neglect,

Where friends will have fled at thy defeat, even after promises and kindness.

For friends come and go, the whim that bound may loose them,

But none can disse ver a relationship, and Fate hath tied the knot.

WIDE, and edged with shadowy bounds, a distant boulevard to the city The common crowd of social life is buzzing round about:

That is as the outer court, with all defences levelled,

Ranged around a man's own fortress, and his father's house.
For many friends go in and out, and praise thee, finding pasture,
And some are honey-comb to-day, who turn to gall to-morrow:
And many a garrulous acquaintance with his frequent visit
Will spend his leisure to thy cost, selling dullness dearly:
For the idle call is a heavy tax, where time is counted gold,
And even in the day of relaxation, haply he may spare presence,-
He found himself alone, and came to talk,-till they that hear are tired;
Let the man bethink him of an errand, that his face be not unwelcome,

his

BUT many friends there be, both well and wisely greeted,

Gladly are they hailed upon the hills, and are chidden that they come so seldom.

Of such are the early recollections, school friendships that have thriven to gray hairs,

And veteran men are young once more, and talk of boyish pranks;
And such, yet older on the list, are those who loved thy father,
Thy father's friend, and thine, who tendereth thee tried love:
Such also, many gentle hearts, whom thou hast known too lately,
Hastening now to learn their worth, and chary of those minutes;

And such thy faithful pastor, coming to thy home with peace;—
Greet the good man heartily,—and bid thy children bless him!

MANY thoughts, many thoughts,-who can catch them all?
The best are ever swiftest-winged, the duller lag behind:

For behold, in these vast themes, my mind is as a forest of the West,
And flocking pigeons come in clouds, and bend the groaning branches;
Here for a rest, then off and away,-they have sped to other climes,
And leave me to my peace once more, a holiday from thoughts.
I dare not lure them back, for the mighty subject of Society
Would tempt to many a hackneyed note in many a weary key:
Sage warnings, stout advice, experiences ever to be learned,

The foolish floatiness of vanity, and solemn trumperies of pride,—
Economy, the poor man's mint,--extravagance, the rich man's pitfall,
Harmful copings with the better, and empty-headed apings of the worse,
Circumstance and custom, sympathies, antipathies, diverse kinds of con-
versation,

Vapid pleasures, the weariness of gaiety, the strife and bustle of the world,

Home comforts, the miseries of style, the cobweb lines of etiquette,
The hollowness of courtesies, and substance of deceits,-idleness, business,
and pastime,-

The multitude of matters to be done, the when, and where, and how,
And varying shades of characters, to do, undo, or miss them,—
All these, and many more alike, thick converging fancies,

Flit in throngs about my theme, as honey-bees at even to their hive.
Find an end, or make one: these seeds are dragon's teeth:
Sown thoughts grow to things, and fill that field, the world:
Many wise have gone before, and used the sickle well;

Who can find a corner now, where none have bound the sheaves?
So, other some may reap: I do but glean and gather:

My sorry handful hath been culled after the ripe harvest of Society.

OF SOLITUDE.

WHO hath known his brother, or found him in his freedom unrestrained!
Even he whose hidden glance hath watched his deepest Solitude.
For we walk the world in domino, putting on characters and habits,
And wear a social Janus mask, while others stand around :

I speak not of the hypocrite, nor dream of meant deceptions,

But of that quick unconscious change, whereof the best know most.
For mind hath its influence on mind; and no man is free but when alone;
Yea, let a dog be watching thee, its eye will tend to thy restraint.
Self-possession cannot be so perfect, with another intellect beside thee,
It is not as a natural result, but rather the educated produce.
The presence of a second spirit must control thine own,

And throw it off its equipoise of peace, to balance by an effort.
The common minds of common men know of this but little,

What then? they know nothing of themselves: I speak to those who know
The consciousness that some are hearing, cometh as a care,
The sense that some are watching near, bindeth thee to caution;
And the tree of tender nerves shrinketh as a touched mimosa,
Drooping like a plant in drought, with half its strength decayed.
There are antipathies warning from the many, and sympathies drawing to
the some,

But merchant-minds have crushed the first, and cannot feel the latter:
Whereas to the quickened apprehension of a keen and spiritual intellect,
Antipathies are galling, and sympathies oppress, and solitude is quiet.

He that dwelleth mainly by himself, heedeth most of others,
But they that live in crowds, think chiefly of themselves,

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