Youth is kind, manhood cold, and age returneth unto kindness. But soon as the top-stone hath been set to the well-proved goodly pyramid, The scaffold is torn down, and well-timed trust taketh its long leave of suspicion. A thousand volumes in a thousand tongues, enshrine the lessons of Expe rience, Yet a man shall read them all, and go forth none the wiser: The torrid sons of Guinea think scorn of icy seas, And the frost-bitten Greenlander disbelieveth suns too hot. But thou, student of Wisdom, feed on the marrow of the matter; If thou wilt suspect, let it be thyself; if thou wilt expect, let it not be gladness. of Estimating Character. Rashly, nor ofttimes truly, doth man pass judgment on his brother; For he seeth not the springs of the heart, nor heareth the reasons of the mind. And the world is not wiser than of old, when justice was meted by the sword, When the spear avenged the wrong, and the lot decided the right, When the footsteps of blinded innocence were tracked by burning ploughshares, 30 And the still condemning water delivered up the wizard to the stake: But pain and chastisement the rather show the wise Father's love. Behold that daughter of the world: she is full of gaiety and gladness; The diadem of rank is on her brow, uncounted wealth is in her coffers: She tricketh out her beauty like Jezebel," and is welcome in the courts of kings; She is queen of the fools of fashion, and ruleth the revels of luxury: And though she sitteth not as Tamar, nor standeth in the ways as Rahab, Yet in the secret of her chamber, she shrinketh not from dalliance and guilt. She careth not if there be a God, or a soul, or a time of retribution, Pleasure is the idol of her heart: she thirsteth for no purer heaven. And she laugheth with light good humour, and all men praise her gentleness; They are glad in her lovely smile, and the river of her bounty filleth them. · (45) 6 So she prospered in the world: the worship and desire of thousands; And she died even as she had lived, careless, and courteous, and liberal. The grave swallowed up her pomp, the marble proclaimed her virtues, For men esteemed her excellent, and charities sounded forth her praise; But elsewhere far other judgment setteth her—with infidels and harlots! She abused the trust of her splendour: and the wages of her sin shall be hereafter. Look again on this fair girl, the orphan of a village pastor Who is dead, and hath left her his all,—his blessing, and a name unstained. And friends, with busy zeal, that their purses be not taxed, Place the sad mourner in a home, poor substitute for that she hath lost. A stranger among strange faces, she drinketh the wormwood of de pendence; She is marked as a child of want: and the world hateth poverty. And the villain hath wronged her trust, and mocked, and flung her from him, And men point at her and laugh; and women hate her as an outcast: But elsewhere, far other judgment seateth her among the martyrs! And the Lord, who seemed to forsake, giveth double glory to the fallen. Once more, in the matter of wealth; if thou throw thine all on a chance, folly: And the world will be gladly excused, nor will reach out a finger to help; For why should this speculative dullard be a whirlpool to all around him? Go to, let him sink by himself: we knew what the end of it would be:For the man hath missed his mark, and his fellows look no further. Also, touching guilt and innocence: a man shall walk in his uprightness Shall track him, and tempt him, and hem him,-till he knoweth not whither to fly. Perchance his famishing little ones shall scream in his ears for bread, To that of unsuffering thousands, who look with complacence on his fall. Or perchance the continual dropping of the venomed words of spite, saven: Till, in some weaker moment, tempted beyond endurance, He striketh, more in anger than in hate; and, alas! for his heavy chance, man; And though his guilt was grievous when he struck that heavy bitter blow, To the weight of that man's wickedness, whose slow relentless hatred It is vain, it is vain, saith the preacher; there be none but the righteous and the wicked, Base rebels, and staunch allies, the true knight, and the traitor: And he beareth strong witness among men, There is no neutral ground, The broad highway and narrow path map out the whole domain; Sit here among the saints, these holy chosen few, Or grovel there a wretch condemned, to die among the million. Heaven hath no dusky twilight; hell is not gladdened with a dawn. Yea, and with all man's boast, so little real freedom of his will,— But there be many more besides, in the yacht and the trader and the fishing-boat, In the feathered war-canoe, and the quick mysterious gondola : Of mingled characters and kinds goeth forth the countless host; For all are His inheritance, of all He taketh tithe : And the church, his mercy's ark, hath some of every sort. In some the dayspring from on high breaketh in all its praise. Wrecked on the shoals of passion, and numbered of the lost; |