Watch his native capacities; nourish that which suiteth him the

readiest;

And cultivate early those good inclinations wherein thou fearest he is most lacking:

Is he phlegmatic and desponding? let small successes comfort his hope:

Is he obstinate and sanguine? let petty crosses accustom him to

life:

Showeth he a sordid spirit? be quick, and teach him generosity : Inclineth he to liberal excess? prove to him how hard it is to earn. Gather to thy hearth such friends as are worthy of honor and attention,

For the company a man chooseth is a visible index of his heart; But let not the pastor whom thou hearest be too much a familiar in thy house,

For thy children may see his infirmities, and learn to cavil at his teaching.

It is well to take hold on occasions, and render indirect instruction; It is better to teach upon a system, and reap the wisdom of books: The history of nations yieldeth grand outlines; of persons, minute

details;

Poetry is polish to the mind, and high abstractions cleanse it. Consider the station of thy son, and breed him to his fortune with judgment:

The rich may profit in much which would bring small advantage to the poor.

But with all thy care for thy son, with all thy strivings for his welfare,

Expect disappointment, and look for pain; for he is of an evil stock, and will grieve thee.

OF TOLERANCE.

A WISE man in a crowded street winneth his way with gentleness,
Nor rudely pusheth aside the stranger that standeth in his path;
He knoweth that blind hurry will but hinder, stirring up contention
against him,

Yet holdeth he steadily right on, with his face to the scope of his

pursuit ;

Even so, in the congress of opinions, the bustling highway of intel

ligence,

Each man should ask of his neighbor, and yield to him again con

cession.

Terms ill defined, and forms misunderstood, and customs, where their reasons are unknown,

Have stirred up many zealous souls to fight against imaginary giants;

But wisdom will hear the matter out, and often, by keenness of per

ception,

Will find in strange disguise the precious truth he seeketh;

So he leaveth unto prejudice or taste the garb and the manner of

her presence,

Content to see so nigh the mistress of his love.

There is no similitude in nature that owneth not also to a difference, Yea, no two berries are alike, though twins upon one stem;

No drop in the ocean, no pebble on the beach, no leaf in the forest, hath its counterpart,

No mind in its dwelling of mortality, no spirit in the world unseen;
And therefore, since capacity and essence differ alike with accident,
None but a bigot partisan will hope for impossible unity.

Wilt thou ensue peace, nor buffet with the waters of contention,
Wilt thou be counted wise, and gain the love of men,
Let unobtruded error escape the frown of censure,
Nor lift the glass of truth alway before thy fellows.

I say not, compromise the right; I would not have thee countenance

the wrong;

But hear with charitable heart the reasons of an honest judgment:

For thou also hast erred, and knowest not when thou art most

right;

Nor whether to-morrow's wisdom may not prove thee simple to-day :
Perchance thou art chiding in another what once thou wast thyself;
Perchance thou sharply reprovest what thou wilt be hereafter.
A man that can render a reason, is a man worthy of an answer;
But he that argueth for victory, deserveth not the tenderness of
Truth.

WHILES a man liveth, he may mend: count not thy brother repro

bate;

When he is dead, his chance is gone: remember not his faults in bitterness.

A man, till he dieth, is immortal in thy sight; and then he is as nothing.

Make not the living thy foe, nor take weak vengeance of the dead;
For life is as a game of chess, where least causeth greatest,
And an ill move bringeth loss, and a pawn may insure victory.
Dost thou suspect? seek out certainty; for now, by self-inflicted
pain,

Or ill-directed wrath, thou wrongest thyself or thy neighbor:
Suspicion is an early lesson, taught in the school of experience,
Neither shalt thou easily unlearn it, though Charity ply thee with
her preaching;

Yet look thou well for reasons, or ever mistrust hath marred thee, Or fear curdled thy blood, or jealousy goaded thee to madness; For a look, or a word, or an act, may be taken well or ill,

As construed by the latitude of love, or the closeness of cold suspicion.

BETTER is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with false

hood;

And a prudent man will not lay siege to the stronghold of ignorant

bigotry.

To unsettle a weak mind were an easy, inglorious triumph,

And a strong cause taketh little count of the worthless suffrage of a

fool;

Lightly he held to the wrong, loosely will he cling to the right; Weakness is the essence of his mind, and the reed cannot yield an

acorn.

Dogged obstinacy is oftentimes the buttress that proppeth an unstable spirit,

But a candid man blusheth not to own he is wiser to-day than

yesterday.

A man of a little wisdom is a sage among fools;

But himself is chief among the fools, if he look for admiration from them.

A heresy is an evil thing, for its shame is its pride:

Its necessary difference of error is the character it most esteemeth; Give a man all things short of liberty, thou shalt have no thanks, And little wilt thou speed with thine opponent, by proving points he will concede.

The tost sand darkeneth the waves; and clear had been the pages

of truth,

Had not the glosses of men obscured the simplicity of faith.

In all things consider thine own ignorance, and gladly take occasion to be taught;

But suffer not excess of liberality to neutralize thy mental inde

pendence.

The faults and follies of most men make their deaths a gain;

But thou also art a man, full of faults and follies;

Therefore sorrow for the dead, or none shall weep for thee,

For the measure of charity thou dealest shall be poured into thine own bosom.

That which vexeth thee now, provoking thee to hate thy brother, Bear with it; the annoyance passeth, and may not return forever: The same combinations and results which aggravate thy soul to-day, May not meet again for centuries in the kaleidoscope of circumstance;

For men and matters change, new elements mixing in continually,
And, as with chemical magic, the sour is transmuted into sweetness;
A little explained, a little endured, a little passed over as a foible,
And, lo, the jagged atoms fit like smooth mosaic.

Thou canst not shape another's mind to suit thine own body;
Think not, then, to be furnishing his brain with thy special notions.
Charity walketh with a high step, and stumbleth not at a trifle:
Charity hath keen eyes, but the lashes half conceal them:
Charity is praised of all, and fear not thou that praise;

.. God will not love thee less because men love thee more. (28)

12

OF SORROW.

I SAID, I will seek out Sorrow, and minister the balm of pity: So I sought her in the house of mourning; but Peace followed in her train.

Then I marked her brooding silently in the gloomy cavern of

Regret;

But a sunbeam of heavenly hope gleamed on her folded wing.

So I turned to the cabin of the poor, where Famine dwelt with

Disease;

But the bed of the sick was smoothed, and the ploughman whistled at his labor.

So I stopped, and mused within myself, to remember where Sorrow

dwelt,

For I sought to see her alone, uncomforted, uncompanioned.

I went to the prison, but penitence was there, and promise of better

times;

I listened at the madman's cell, but it echoed with deluded laughter. Then I turned me to the rich and noble; I noted the sons of

fashion:

A smile was on the languid cheek, that had no commerce with the

heart;

Unhallowed thoughts, like fires, gleamed from the window of the

eye,

And Sorrow lived with those whose pleasures add unto their sins.

His infancy wanted not guilt; his life was continued evil:

He drew in pride with his mother's milk, and a father's lips taught

him cursing.

I marked him as the wayward boy: I traced the dissolute youth:
I saw him betray the innocent, and sacrifice affection to his lust.
I saw him the companion of knaves, and a squanderer of ill-got gain;
I heard him curse his own misery, while he hugged the chains that
galled him;

For well had experience declared the bitterness of guilty pleasure,
But habit, with its iron net, involved him in its folds.