180
WEST SHORE.
HUMAN SYMPATHY.
BoraetiBwa whan om knaala, on t loealf aiabU
And crlM " 0 Qui ! "and thai ia domb for tew
That top op, ebokins, do jon think He baara ?
Do job not think Ha tndaratand aright
What would ba plaad bj thoaa lip dumb aid wbita ?
Do roo not think Ba haara tha iobt that Imp
From that won boaom aran aftar alaap
Haa aloiad tha area with pramra kind and lifht ?
Ah ! oftM ban I knalt in aidnJihta nit.
And triad " 0 Ood I "-so othar word oould ipask,
Bot knalt ia dumb daipajr, until at but
I fait Hia paaoi in awaat taan on mjr obatk.
0, poor haart ! think of ma that bituc dar
WbM rot ainat knaal alcna, too lad to prnr.
A discontented youth make t horrible old age.
K men but kept hall their good resolution! and lived op to but half of
their higher ideali, what beautiful world would tbli be.
Lip that laugh frequently and cheerily may have deep wrinkles about
them io time, but 0, they let the whole house to vibrating with light-heart-edneai
and song.
Hope la a flower that Uvea and flouriilies In the moet desert noil, with
out water, without prop, without care; It imilei when the ekies are o black
and to heavy that they teem ready to fall-yei, it illll lives when every
other flower that grew in the aoul ii dead.
Home women are like diamond! ; they fiaih brilliantly with wit and
beauty, they daiile with their radiance but they are cold cold and bard
ai ileal. Give me the opal ; It fiaihes more loftly, it la true, but It baa llpi
of Are and a heart of gold ; and its violet eyes are pure as the eyes of a 111 tie
child.
A man may have honor, and wealth, and power; women may imlle up
on him, and men may flatter him; his slightest wish may be law, and his
very word a command that must be obeyed ; the whole world may envy
aim the gift that the godi have given hlm-yet, with all these, he may not
have one real friend, and he may grudge the commoneit laborer the kiss of
pure affection which can not be bought.
I saw her at the eiposition. Kb was slender and sweet and young;
Imply clad, but with an unmistakable air ol elegance about her. Hhe was
carrying an old, shabby umbrtlla and a heavy, faded shawl, while close to
her pressed a ruity-lcoking Irish woman heavily laden with children of all
ages and description!; on vu crying loudly and lustily, and the young
women was smiling down at him. Huddenly some one exclaimed In a
shocked ton, " Why, Bertha, who on earth have you with you?" Hhe
tumed and answered limply, and without heiltation, " I don't know; It is
soma poor woman I am helping to find a seat." And of all the beautiful
tilings that I saw at the l'orllend exposition, I thought that young woman
the most beautllul and the most desirable.
A saint with a vlllalnwii temper and a villain with a saintly temper
which would yon rather dwell with? Dy all odds I should take the villain.
0, the mentally bilious ones of the earth I yon may physic them with kind
words, and bath them with cheerfulness, and Ionic them with smiles and
caresses, but you can not fleet a cure. It is impossible to live with some
people and retain the leait particle of your own mind. You must merge
your Individuality Into their If you would know a minute's peace; other
wise they will go aliout trawling, livid, banging doors, clattering dishes,
and setting chain down so hard that their lege rattle. You must, meta
phorically, get down on your knees before them, and say, " 0, yea, lord I "
and"0, yea, maaler I" to every thing they sungeet, If you would seethe
ghost of a smile on their face. Ho long as yon do usl as they wish, and go
Just where Uiey suggest and behave precisely a they desire, they are happy
and nil it over you royally ; but venture to assert your right and out
trot the scowl and the snarl, and the clatter and the bang. Give me the vil
lain with the sweet temper!
There is a gift which, bestowed upon the poorest of God' children, make
bim rich-th gift of seeing beauty in the things about him and of taking
pleasure in the little everyday duties of life. It is better to be able to feel
a keen, exquisite pleasure, that Is almost pain, in watching a broad band of
sunset gold tremble across blue waters to your very door; to find your heart
beating glad time to tbe tramp of many feet, or thrilling to the strain! of
wild, sweet music, or sinking to slow, solemn throbbing with the long,
lonely momenta of tbe night; to feel a low, joyous ripple of song bant from
your lips each time that yon bend over a sunlit bank of clover wherein the
bees dream bappy hours away; to be unable to turn your eyes from torn
roughly garbed man who turns from bis coarse ast ociates to guide some lit
tle innocent child or stretch out a strong, honest band to some woman in
widow's weeds ; to be not only pleased, but happy, because some one sends
you a flower, or speaks a good word to yon, or doe yoa kindness In a
word to have your son! attuned to the simple, beautiful things of nature and
life-then to dwell In marble halls and sup from golden cups; because the
marble bills and golden cups are things that wealth can buy, but keen ap
preciation of beauty, music and art, and the power to find something sweet
in the commonest weed that grows are gift from God's own hand, and no
gold on earth can buy them.
An old bachelor is to be pitied, whether he likes It or not; and indeed,
In spit of his lofty and independent bearing, his mild sneers at married
men and marriage, and his cynicism in general, I will tell yoa quite confi
dentially that I am firmly convinced that he strongly pities himself. He is
free and unfettered ? Oh, yes ; there is no question about that ; the truth I
he la altogether too free. He is not compelled to give an account of any of
bis deeds, (or misdeeds) a are the married men at whom ha sneers; he
goes to bed when be pleases, and gets np when he please ; comes and goes
a he likes, and nobody cares-ah, that is where the sting come in I That
is the cruel thorn nnder tbe bachelor' rose, and wherever he torn and
whatever be does that thorn pricks sharply into his heart hi heart, mind
you, and thorn link deeper and rankle longer In hearts than In fingers; do
not ever forget, or doubt, that I There is no one on all the earth to care
where he goes, how he lives, whether he doe right or wrong, whether he
is 111 or well be is quite, quit alone; and I tell yon, though yoa may be
free tnd Independent, though yoa may have gold and honor and fame, It 1
a bitter thing to be alone. If yoa who read these word are disposed to
smile at them wait I Tbe time may yet come when yoa will be all alone,
and then yoa will remember them. Do not be arrogant in your perfect
happiness, for I bave seen the proudest happiness cut low in an hour and
followed by inch Ufa-long desolation that tbe hardest heart wept for it.
Tbe old bachelor may be able to buy comfort and peace and a " good time "
with his money, but there are three things that money will not buy : a true
home, a heart of gold, and a cool, soft band that loves him pressed upon his
feverish brow when he I ill and suffering. He la alone In bis dark hour as
well a hi light
The Idea of cremation i a horrible on to me. Common tens is a de
sirable quality, but there is such a thing a deadly common sense, and cre
mation illustrate it. Why, kind heaven I To imagine a world this world
without any grave In itl To think of no cool, dark place where grasses
grow and birds sing and new flowers spill their perfume every year, and
where our beloved He dreaming all the summer hour away. To not be
able to crouch down lower In our chair ty a glowing hearth on a cold winter
night and think bow the snows are falling on her grave to-night I Instead,
only a handful of ashe on the mantel shelf I Never to 11 with closed eye,
on some dim twilight, lost In a bappy dream of past delight, and then to
suddenly start and remember with keen pain that lonely, wind-swept
churchyard and tbe sweet, white form and folded hands lying therein 1 In
stead, to glance with a little ghostly shiver at the urn that holda our dear
one's cremated particles. Why, I should break Into loud, horrible laughter
In the very midst of my grief to think of all that I had loved the dear face,
the lovely form, the beating pulse, the eyes that had looked into mine, the
strong, tender hand that had never failed, the tireless feet that had come so
gladly at my call, the heart, dear God I the heart that had been mine, and
mine alone to think of all that being reduced to a handful of flaky aaheal
Why, It would be better to drown, and to He year In and year out, rising and
falling with the cool ebb and flow of the tide. Take away all our other old
fashioned fancies and customs, but leave us-O, do leave n! our low
graves and simple headstones ; leave us the green grass and the whispering
tree and the sweet-throated bird of our churchyard ; leave as those quiet,
lonely places where our thought may go when we think of oar dead, and
we may think of them lying In that great calm just as they looked when
we last saw them.