THE FOUNTAIN OF E G E R I A. 
 
OR, 
 
 VOICES OF THOUGHT AND COUNSEL, 
 
 THE WOODS AND WAYSIDE. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. GILMORE SIMMS, ESQ., 
 
 AUTHOR OF KATHARINE WALTON," ETC. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. 
 1853. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 
 BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE collection which follows has been the unpre 
 meditated accumulation of many years. It consti 
 tutes a body of sentiment and opinion, which, I 
 trust, will commend itself to other minds, and be 
 justified in the thought, feeling, and experience of 
 other lives. Some of it may have been derived 
 from a very excursive reading ; indeed, it is scarcely 
 possible that it should be otherwise : but I feel very 
 sure that the greater portion of it has grown out of 
 a purely individual experience, from patient as well 
 as passing observation, and forms the conviction of 
 a mind, the habits and training of which have been 
 of a kind always to nourish a proper independence. 
 Some of the opinions here expressed may startle : 
 there is no good reason, however, that they should 
 offend. You and I, gentle reader, may differ in 
 
 95961 
 
xii ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 many of our notions ; but if we do not differ, how 
 shall we expect to satisfy either mind, and by what 
 process should we discover truth ? Let our differ 
 ences be of the sort only which music justifies and 
 requires, in which a certain amount of discord is 
 admitted as one of the most necessary ingredients 
 of harmony. 
 
 W. G. S. 
 
EGERIA. 
 
 EGERIA. 
 
 EGERIA is the Muse of Counsel. She is de 
 scribed as the mysterious nymph who met Numa 
 Pompilius, and taught him how to govern. She 
 met him always in solitude, and Solitude is the 
 nurse of Thought. She met him in the groves, 
 which are places favorable to meditation. She met 
 him at twilight, when a certain calm usually over 
 spreads the soul the passions being in repose 
 and when the mind consciously hovers, as it were, 
 between the two worlds of Time and Eternity, in 
 some degree partaking of both. Egeria is a beau 
 tiful fancy of the old Tradition. Thought and 
 Study are beguiled to the solitude, where Wisdom 
 puts on the aspect of Love, for the better persuasion 
 of the pupil. Through such influences, we might 
 naturally expect that Counsel should be at once 
 grateful and easy of attainment. We should, each 
 
14 EGERIA. 
 
 of us seek for an Egeria ; for Numa, though a 
 prince, was thus honored, only because of his attri 
 butes as a man ! 
 
 AUTHORITY. 
 
 The Cumcean Sibyl, who came to Tullus Hosti- 
 lius, bringing him books for sale nine at first, and 
 afterwards reduced to three was probably the 
 same person with the Egeria of Numa Pompilius. 
 She assumed another character and a different de 
 portment, when dealing with a different person. 
 With the gentle and modest Numa, she was a 
 friend and counsellor ; but the haughty pride of 
 Tullus needed an authority, rather than an adviser. 
 To the one she spoke as a companion ; to the other, 
 she brought a book of written laws. He is un 
 doubtedly the wisest person who submits to and 
 receives counsel, but the greater portion of man 
 kind are not so easily taught. To counsel or ad 
 vise with them, is really to provoke self-esteem to 
 disputation. You must put on the aspect of an 
 oracle ; never, like Isis, permit your features to be 
 unveiled and, speaking only without suffering an 
 answer, your authority shall pass without a ques 
 tion. 
 
EG EH i A. 15 
 
 APOTHEGMS. 
 
 The apothegm is the most portable form of 
 Truth. It is fortunate for the teacher that she is 
 so ductile in her forms, in spite of the inflexibility 
 of her essentials. It is thus that the proverb an 
 swers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged 
 pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of 
 gunpowder idly expended in the air. 
 
 MORALS. 
 
 The moral of the steed is in the spur of his rider ; 
 of the slave, in the eye of his master ; of the wo 
 man, in the sense of her weakness and dependence. 
 
 CONSERVATISM. 
 
 With the weak and vulgar mind, Conservatism 
 implies nothing more than to keep things as they 
 are, no matter how wanting in propriety and sus 
 ceptible of improvement; a condition agreeable 
 only to the timid, and to those in power. But this 
 sort of conservatism is, in fact, destructiveness, 
 and has been probably the true but secret cause of 
 the overthrow of societies and commonwealths. 
 The true law of the race is progress and develop- 
 
16 EGERIA. 
 
 ment. Whenever civilization pauses in the march 
 of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian. 
 The people that cease to advance, in the notion 
 that their mission is ended, and their development 
 complete, from that moment begin to decline, and 
 must go rapidly to decay. The conservatism which 
 hopes to retard a legitimate progress, will inevita 
 bly be crushed in its march. All such efforts may 
 be likened to that of the feeble old man who at 
 tempts to arrest the speed of the locomotive, by 
 thrusting his gold-headed crutch between its wheels. 
 True Conservatism is rather the bold spirit which 
 leaps into the car of progress, and, seizing upon 
 the reins, directs its movements with a firm hand, 
 and an eye that sees the proper goal for which the 
 race should aim. 
 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 He who labors for mankind, without a care for 
 himself, has already begun his immortality. 
 
 VANITY AND SELF-ESTEEM. 
 
 We are quite too apt to confound Vanity with 
 Self-Esteem. The former is always a weakness, 
 though sometimes an amiable one. The latter is 
 
EGERIA. 17 
 
 frequently significant of strength, though its exhi 
 bition is quite too often at the expense of its neigh 
 bors. Vanity may be likened to the smooth-skin 
 ned and velvet-footed mouse, nibbling about for ever 
 in expectation of a crumb ; while Self-Esteem is too 
 apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher s dog, 
 who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as 
 he goes. 
 
 SECRETS. 
 
 It is said that he or she who admits the posses 
 sion of a secret, has already half revealed it. Cer 
 tainly, it is a great deal gained towards the acqui 
 sition of a treasure, to know exactly where it lies. 
 Curiosity needs a clue only to begin the search. 
 The misfortune is, that the key which cannot open 
 the lock, may yet suffice to spoil it. It is seldom, 
 indeed, that a secret is stolen without impairing its 
 integrity. 
 
 MARRIAGE SECRETS. 
 
 The Romans designated false keys, along with 
 
 drunkenness and adultery, as a sufficient cause of 
 
 divorce. This surely speaks for a lower degree of 
 
 delicacy and virtue in the marriage state of Rome, 
 
 2* 
 
18 EGERIA. 
 
 in the days of Plutarch, than anywhere exists 
 among the moderns ; since the existence of the law 
 implies the frequency of the offence. A secret of 
 either of the parties in the marriage state, should, 
 indeed, as a matter of mutual policy, be among the 
 most sacred of all kinds of secrets. This is essen 
 tial to the confidence which every day requires 
 that new secrets should be yielded to their mutual 
 keeping. 
 
 CENSURE. 
 
 The vulgar mind fancies that judgment is im 
 plied chiefly in the capacity to censure ; and yet 
 there is no judgment so exquisite as that which 
 knows properly how to approve. 
 
 MOTIVES OF CENSURE. 
 
 We as frequently censure through evil passions, 
 through envy, prejudice, and presumption, as be 
 cause of any undesert in the subject. Vanity is so 
 constantly solicitous of self, that, even where its 
 own claims are not interested, it indirectly seeks 
 the aliment which it loves, by showing how little is 
 deserved by others. 
 
EGERIA. 19 
 
 * 
 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 Neither praise nor blame is the object of true 
 criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to esta 
 blish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award 
 these are the true aims and duties of criticism. 
 
 WEALTH. 
 
 Our possessions are wholly in our performances. 
 He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing. 
 
 ACQUISITION. 
 
 Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities. 
 We gain only as we give. There is no beggar so 
 destitute as he who can afford nothing to his neigh 
 bor. 
 
 POSITION. 
 
 When, in our government phrase, we declare all 
 men to be equal, nothing more is meant than that 
 all have an equal claim on the protection of govern 
 ment the great object for which government is 
 conceived at all. To do justice in society to all 
 persons, is not to elevate our friends, Smith, Jones, 
 and Jenkins, to the throne of the Caesars, or to the 
 Presidency of the States, but to check the Caesars 
 
20 EGERIA. 
 
 and the Presidents from thrusting Smith, Jones, 
 and Jenkins from the security of the workbench. 
 A proper justice among men requires that we 
 should properly individualize their pretensions. 
 The man who can work in marble better than any 
 body else, must be made secure in the occupation 
 in which he is so successful. It would be a great 
 wrong to him, even if his own vanity should have 
 such cravings, to allow that he should leave his 
 quarry for the forum incurring the risk of trans 
 forming a good stonecutter into a bad orator. 
 Equally great were the wrong to the individual, as 
 well as to society, if we were to suffer the man who 
 wrought wonderfully with mallet and chisel, to 
 write villainously with a goose-quill. The only 
 correct idea of social liberty is, that each person 
 should be suffered to occupy his proper place, ac 
 cording to his natural capacities. 
 
 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, TYRANNY. 
 
 He is a freeman, whose social condition is in no 
 respect inferior to the claims of his moral and his 
 intellect. He is no slave, no matter what his con 
 dition, when that condition continues to improve in 
 intellectual and moral respects. He, alone, is the 
 
EGERIA. 21 
 
 slave, who is denied the position which is essential 
 to the exercise of his proper faculties, and the fit 
 development of his natural powers. He cannot but 
 be a tyrant, whom society has lifted into a condi 
 tion superior to his capacities. 
 
 DISTINCTION. 
 
 Our distinctions do not lie in the places which 
 we occupy, but in the grace and dignity with which 
 we fill them. It is to the few alone that place ac 
 cords distinction. Position, in the world s eye, is 
 a pillory, rather than a throne, to the thousands 
 who scramble for its attainment; and there is a 
 native baseness in the ambition which seeks beyond 
 its desert, that never shows more conspicuously 
 than when, no matter how, it temporarily gains its 
 object. The snake may reach the eminence as cer 
 tainly as the eagle, but he reaches it by crawling, 
 and he still remains a snake. 
 
 OBLIGATION. 
 
 To feel oppressed by obligation, is only to prove 
 that we are incapable of a proper sentiment of 
 gratitude. To receive favors from the unworthy, 
 is simply to admit that our selfishness is superior 
 
22 EGERIA. 
 
 to our pride. Most men remember obligations, but 
 not often to be grateful for them. The proud are 
 made sour by the remembrance, and the vain silent. 
 
 TACT. 
 
 Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the 
 absence of which is frequently fatal to the best of 
 talents. Without denying that it is a talent of 
 itself, it will suffice if we admit that it supplies the 
 place of many talents. It is chiefly discoverable 
 in society, by the facility with which it ascertains 
 in which of your toes the gout has taken lodgment, 
 and in the felicity with which it avoids trespassing 
 upon the suffering member. We cannot withhold 
 our affection from one who not only forbears our 
 failings, but never suffers us to suppose that he sus 
 pects their existence. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart de 
 clares itself in song. The affections that clothe 
 themselves with wings, are passions that have been 
 subdued to virtues. 
 
 BENEFACTION. 
 The highest glory of manhood is when it stands 
 
EGERIA. 23 
 
 irx the attitude of the benefactor. It is in this atti 
 tude that it most resembles the Deity, in whose 
 image, we are told, that man was originally made. 
 It is in this attitude that it most strikingly exhibits 
 its own sense of gratitude to God for His benefac 
 tions. 
 
 AIMS OF LIFE. 
 
 He is most secure of life who lives for his fellow. 
 One lives through all periods, who has in all periods 
 lived for his race. We must see humanity through 
 our ambition always, if we would make and per 
 petuate that life which consists in an undying repu 
 tation. 
 
 CHANCE. 
 
 There is, no doubt, such a thing as Chance, but 
 I see no reason why Providence should not make 
 use of it. 
 
 PURPOSELESS THOUGHT. 
 
 To think without a purpose, is to baffle the will, 
 which is equally the soul of purpose and performance. 
 The intellect is imbecile in execution, whose efforts 
 are objectless. That is the ablest mind, which has 
 acquired the habit of thinking during action. 
 
24 EGERIA. 
 
 THE AMIABLE. " * 
 
 The amiable is a duty most certainly, but must 
 not be exercised at the expense of any of the vir 
 tues. He who seeks to do the amiable always, can 
 only be successful at the frequent expense of his 
 manhood. The most tolerant nature in the world 
 should always discriminate in its indulgence, if it 
 would not countenance insolence, or afford a sanc 
 tion to the offender. Virtue requires that we 
 should chasten, quite as often as Humanity en 
 treats us to forbear ; and Authority must frequently 
 use the scourge, where Affection would be only too 
 happy to embrace. 
 
 GOOD SERVANTS. 
 
 If you would avoid being angry with your ser 
 vant, wait as much as possible upon yourself. 
 
 VIRTUES. 
 
 Our virtues are but too frequently exercised at 
 the expense of our charities. They should never 
 be allowed to lift us so far above our neighbors, as 
 to make us lose sight of their sorrows and neces 
 sities. 
 
EGERIA. 2f> 
 
 AMBITION. 
 
 He who would acquire fame, must not show him 
 self afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the 
 death of genius. He who falters, in apprehension 
 of the opinion of his neighbor, has already put him 
 self in the harness of a master; and the genius 
 which commands the keys of the future, is always 
 an outlawry. To put one s wings into the keeping 
 of another who has no wings, is certainly to have 
 them clipped close to the shoulders. How should 
 he approve of journeys by air, with the eagle, who 
 has always pursued his own way along the earth 
 with the snail ? That audacity, which is one of the 
 essentials of genius, has always laughed at what 
 the conventional would describe as decorum. Ge 
 nius is Discovery ! How should it submit the 
 training of its eyes to those by whom no discove 
 ries have yet been made ? 
 
 INSECURITY OF VICE. 
 
 The bond which holds the iniquitous together, is 
 one perpetually liable to rupture. The very prin 
 ciple which brings the parties to cooperate that of 
 the spoils is one which constantly prompts each of 
 them to make prey of the other. 
 I 
 
26 EGERIA. 
 
 REASON AND REVELATION. 
 
 Revelation may not need the help of reason, but 
 man does, even when in possession of Revelation. 
 Reason may be described as the candle in the 
 man s hand, to which Revelation brings the neces 
 sary flame. 
 
 THE POET. 
 
 The true poet is he who finds for the universal 
 thought and feeling, the becoming language. He 
 appeals, with an instinct peculiar to himself, to in 
 stincts which are common to the race ; and endows, 
 for the first time, with the power of expression, the 
 overburdened and struggling, but hitherto dumb 
 emotions. He finds that voice for the heart which 
 not only unseals its fountains, but opens the way to 
 sympathies which have their fountains also. 
 
 WINGS. 
 
 The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a 
 soul. The soul must work its way out of prison, 
 and, in doing so, provide itself with wings for a 
 future journey. It is for each of us to determine 
 whether our wings shall be those of an angel or a 
 grub ! 
 
EGERIA. 27 
 
 THE RACE. 
 
 The soul of a race is usually embodied in its 
 most largely appointed minds. The individual 
 greatness which we see evolved from the ranks of 
 every working people and which is always a work 
 ing greatness proves conclusively the measure of 
 the mind and moral, the virtue, in short, which 
 exists in the race at large. The safety of a people 
 will chiefly depend upon the ready recognition 
 which they yield to the claims of their most nobly 
 commissioned representatives. 
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND POETRY. 
 
 Philosophy is reason with the eyes of the soul : 
 poetry is philosophy with the wings of the spirit. 
 
 SOCIAL DESPOTISM. 
 
 The one great name, however worthy, by which 
 the whole progress of a people is dictated or di 
 rected, is necessarily a despotism. It is too apt to 
 supersede utterly the exercise of the popular intel 
 lect, and is thus destructive of all the securities of 
 the race. The great names of a country quite too 
 frequently degenerate into tyrannies, and, in living 
 upon the past, an aristocracy lives usually for the 
 
28 EGERIA. 
 
 grievous injury of the present, and the probable 
 overthrow of a people in the future. It is this fact 
 which so frequently seems to render revolution ne 
 cessary, if only to prevent stagnation. 
 
 SOLITUDE. 
 
 Solitude bears the same relation to the mind, that 
 sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary 
 opportunities for repose and recovery. In the re 
 spite thus afforded to thought by solitude, the soul 
 seems to retire within herself, to close her portals 
 against the world, shut out the garish lights of day, 
 exclude all noisy clamors of the crowd, and, in a 
 temporary withdrawal from the strife, so to recruit 
 her strength, as to go forth to a renewal of the 
 conflict, with new strength for its necessities, and 
 new hopes of its result. 
 
 SIN. 
 
 It should console us for the fact that sin has not 
 totally disappeared from the world, that the saints 
 are not wholly deprived of employment. 
 
 SUN AND SHADOW. 
 
 It is only where there is light that there is sha 
 dow. Were there no cloud, there were no sun, and 
 
EGERIA. 29 
 
 we should never see a rainbow. Our cares are the 
 mothers, not only of our charities and virtues, but 
 of our best joys and most cheering and enduring 
 pleasures. 
 
 HERESY. 
 
 In the proper exercise of the affections, we are 
 sure to lose all our heresies. Our opinions can 
 have no sort of effect in defeating our virtues. 
 How my neighbor thinks, is scarcely of so much 
 importance to me as how he feels. That he is a 
 heretic, may be a very bad thing ; but that is not 
 properly a concern of mine, so long as his faith 
 never affects his conduct. I see no heresy in the 
 bunch of flowers that he so frequently sends for my 
 toilet; and the green peas from his garden are 
 among the first of the season. 
 
 ANGEL SPOTS. 
 
 Believing, as I do, that the angels are still fre 
 quent visiters among us, I find, every now and then, 
 in the fresh and beautiful appearance of certain 
 spots of field and forest, a sufficient reason for sup 
 posing these to be the favorite places upon which 
 they prefer to alight. If the violets which spring 
 
 3* 
 
30 EGERIA. 
 
 up thick in my path, suddenly, at the close of win 
 ter, do not denote the footstep of an angel, they 
 certainly declare for the breath of one, and make 
 me fancy his presence. 
 
 FRIENDLY COUNSEL. 
 
 Many persons fancy themselves friendly, when 
 they are only officious. They counsel, not so much 
 that you should become wise, as that they should 
 be recognised as teachers of wisdom. 
 
 NATIONAL DECAY. 
 This, the true sign of ruin to a race : 
 
 It undertakes no march ; and, day by day, 
 Drowses in camp, or with the laggard s pace, 
 
 Walks sentry o er possessions that decay ; 
 
 Destined, with sensible shame, to waste away : 
 For the first secret of continued power, 
 
 Is the continued conquest : all our sway 
 Hath surety in the uses of the hour, 
 If that we lose, in vain, walled town and lofty 
 tower. 
 
 FRIENDS TO BE STUDIED. 
 
 To serve a friend judiciously, you must study 
 him. To teach him, it is essential not only to 
 
EGERIA. 31 
 
 know his condition, but his character. Unless you 
 understand him, he will scarcely ever be made to 
 understand you ; and without this understanding, 
 your lessons, educed wholly from your own nature, 
 will in no degree appeal to his. To enter into your 
 friend s necessity, and to reach the point from which 
 he looks or thinks, must be the first step towards 
 informing him with your thoughts, and moving his 
 
 mind to a just appreciation of what is wise in yours. 
 
 
 
 SECURITY OF INNOCENCE. 
 
 If we take the word "safety" in an extended 
 sense, and comprise within the province which we 
 seek to guard, the moral, as well as the physical 
 existence, there is nothing in the world so perfectly 
 secure as innocence. Apollodorus lamented to So 
 crates that he should be doomed to suffer death, 
 having been guilty of no offence. The philosopher, 
 looking beyond human limits, inquired " Would 
 you have me die guilty ? Melitus and Anytus may 
 kill, but they cannot hurt me /" Yet how common 
 it is, to hear people lamenting, with Apollodorus ! 
 as if pain and death, which arc inevitable conditions 
 of life, should be the only, or the worst evils of hu 
 manity ! 
 
32 E G E B I A. 
 
 PATIENCE. 
 
 Patience, after all, is the highest courage, since 
 it affords us time to mature all our energies. We 
 shall hardly ever lose our redress, if we keep the 
 wrong-doer in our debt, till we can fairly bring him 
 before the judgment-seat of Heaven. 
 
 HUMILITY OF LOVE. 
 
 He who loves fervently, as naturally elevates the 
 object of his admiration at his own expense. In 
 due degree as he finds perfection in the creature of 
 his passion, will he question his own success, in the 
 doubt of his own worthiness. But, to love fervently, 
 one must have set the highest estimate upon the 
 value of his own affections ; and the extent of his 
 humility is in due degree with the extravagance of 
 his desires. 
 
 PURITY OF DISTINCTION. 
 
 The moment that a man begins to rise above his 
 fellows, he becomes a mark for their missiles. The 
 already superior regard him as a probable competi 
 tor, and those below, or equal, as an impediment to 
 their own progress. They make common cause, 
 accordingly, for his destruction. But this, if he 
 
EGERIA. 33 
 
 be of the right moral stuff, will rather help than 
 hurt him. If he be truly superior, the roughening 
 process to which the strife subjects him, endows 
 him with the most beneficial hardihood; and he 
 continues to ascend, until he ceases to be within 
 the control of either. As soon as they discover 
 that their missiles no longer reach the object, they 
 gather them up and make of them a monument in 
 his honor, equally emulous in worship of the genius 
 which they failed to victimize. So far he is safe ; 
 but he is then required to be doubly circumspect, 
 and his shield must be one of the most crystalline 
 propriety. While he struggled up the ascent, they 
 would probably have preferred to see him weak and 
 vicious. But, once upon the eminence, his adamant 
 must be of more perfect proof than ever. His for 
 mer fame is now his foe, and the exactions of his 
 station are more dangerous than all the missiles of 
 his ancient enemies. Let him falter in his place 
 let him but touch the earth for an instant, and show 
 his stains and the clamor and the assault are 
 always more formidable from the superior elevation 
 of the victim. We see spots on the sun and moon, 
 which we should never regard on a house-wall or a 
 hillock. 
 
34 EGERIA. 
 
 FORGIVENESS OF FRIENDS. 
 
 It is easier to forgive an ancient enemy than the 
 friend we have offended. Our resentment grows 
 with our undesert, and we feel vindictive in due 
 degree with our own doubts of the chance of find 
 ing forgiveness. 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF SELFISHNESS. 
 
 It is perfectly delightful, the philosophy with 
 which we reconcile ourselves to the misfortunes of 
 our neighbors. That another should be hungry, 
 after we have dined, is a consideration that dis 
 tresses nobody. 
 
 NECESSITY AND TASTE. 
 
 The best of men may sometimes fall into the 
 gutter ; but it is the worst only, who is willing to 
 remain there. 
 
 SERVICE. 
 
 Good service is prompt service. It ceases to be 
 a favor, when he upon whom the service is confer 
 red, has lost in patience and hope deferred what he 
 might have bestowed in love and gratitude. 
 
E G E II I A. 35 
 
 CONSOLATION. 
 
 No man, who thinks at all, proffers consolation 
 to the sufferer with the view to soothing ; for that 
 is always idle, where the affliction is great and re 
 cent. He rather seeks to silence the complaint 
 which he knows not how to answer. 
 
 SOCIAL GRATITUDE. 
 
 Do not flatter yourself that you will be missed 
 because you are necessary. The world is very pro 
 fligate of its treasure, and does not so much feel 
 the need of him who serves it faithfully, as of him 
 who most readily contributes to its forgetfulness. 
 
 CONFIDENCE. 
 
 To confide, even though to be betrayed, is much 
 better than to learn only to conceal. In the one 
 case, your neighbor wrongs you ; but in the other 
 you are perpetually doing injustice to yourself. 
 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 The effect of character is always to command 
 consideration. We sport, and toy, and laugh, with 
 men or women who have none ; but we never con 
 fide in them. It may be added, also, that, though 
 we frequently despise such persons, we never hate 
 thorn. The case is different, where character ex- 
 
86 EG KUI A. 
 
 ists. The man of character will always have ene 
 mies among the crowd, in fair proportion to the 
 number of his friends. Decision of purpose, habi 
 tual earnestness, and readiness in the formation of 
 a leading opinion, on every suggested subject, are 
 the chief constituents of that moral quality in the 
 man which we call character. Without these, there 
 is as little virtue as strength. These are positive 
 qualities, that force themselves upon the regards of 
 others, and compel consideration that make them 
 selves felt always, whether for good or evil, and 
 cannot be avoided, and must be encountered or en 
 dured. They provoke hostile or favorable senti 
 ments among mankind, according to the applica 
 tion, for the false or the true, of their several 
 influences. If their proprietor be a good man, the 
 bad will hate him if a bad man, the good. 
 
 SLUMBER. 
 
 There is something very true, very fanciful, and 
 very sweet in the following epigram on " Slumber," 
 which I translate from the Italian. 
 
 Sweet is slumber it is life 
 
 Without its sorrow, sin, or sighing 
 
 Death, without the fearful strife, 
 The mortal agony of dying. 
 
EGERIA. 37 
 
 CONDESCENSIONS OF THE PROUD. 
 
 Button your coat to the chin, when a proud man 
 begins to natter you. His assaults upon your un 
 derstanding, betray only a further design upon 
 your pocket or your principles. 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 Who is it that called Time the avenger, yet failed 
 to see that Death was the consoler ? What mortal 
 afflictions are there, to which Death does not bring 
 full remedy ? What hurts of hope and body does 
 it not repair? "This is a sharp medicine," said 
 Raleigh, speaking of the axe, " but it cures all dis 
 orders." 
 
 ACTION. 
 
 Better that we should err in action, than wholly 
 refuse to perform. The storm is so much better 
 than the calm, as it declares the presence of a liv 
 ing principle. Stagnation is something worse than 
 death. It is corruption also. 
 
 SYMPATHY. 
 
 It is, perhaps, of no great importance to me, that 
 I should fail to secure the friendly opinion of my 
 4 
 
88 EGERIA. 
 
 neighbor. The fault, and the misfortune, may be 
 his, quite as much as mine. But it is everything 
 to me, that I should not forfeit the sympathies of 
 my race, through which I inherit the sunshine now, 
 and hope for it hereafter. 
 
 TEMPERANCE. 
 
 The temperate are the most truly luxurious. By 
 abstaining from most things, it is surprising how 
 many things we enjoy. 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 
 Justice is the great, but simple principle, and the 
 whole secret of success, in all government ; as ab 
 solutely essential to the training of an infant, as to 
 the control of a mighty nation. 
 
 POVERTY AND WEALTH. 
 
 Poverty is necessarily feeble, but it does not fol 
 low that riches afford strength. We may, if we 
 please, make wings of them, which will carry us to 
 heaven ; but we may also as certainly make them 
 oppressive burdens, which would sink the most 
 hopeful soul into the deepest perdition. 
 
E G E 11 1 A. 39 
 
 COUNSEL OUT OF SEASON. 
 
 Good counsel, when the fit is on us, is the very 
 worst sort of impertinence. " Your words are very 
 good," said the Seminole chief to the preacher ; "I 
 have heard you ; yet, after all, the pain is here, still 
 here, in the temples." 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 To be independent of your neighbor, you must 
 first have acquired a perfect mastery over yourself. 
 How should you subdue his faculties to obedience, 
 before you have trained your own to a perfect sub 
 servience to your will ? 
 
 NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 
 
 No government can be prosperous or permanent, 
 the people of which are unsuccessful in their social 
 objects. It matters not very much what these ob 
 jects are. The unimpeded prosecution of them is 
 the great guarantee for which governments are con 
 stituted. The first object of a government should 
 be to convince the people that this guarantee is per 
 manent and certain. Laws which fluctuate, are 
 fatal to popular prosperity, while such as bear 
 hardly upon any class, however small, though they 
 
40 EGERIA. 
 
 promote the absolute wishes of the rest, will be 
 unwise, and become oppressive, in the end, to the 
 whole ; for it is, in all such cases, the nature of 
 monopolies to increase in due proportion to the in 
 creasing appetites of a majority which are thus 
 pampered into forgetfulness of prudence. The boy 
 and his gold-laying goose, of which we read in our 
 JEsop, was but the disguised history of a monopoly, 
 whose desires cut its own throat. 
 
 PASSIONS. 
 
 Strong passions are the life of manly virtues. 
 But they need not necessarily be evil, because they 
 are passions and because they are strong. The 
 Passions may be likened to blooded horses, that 
 need training and the curb only, to enable him 
 whom they carry to achieve the most glorious tri 
 umphs. Even hate may be recognised as a great 
 virtue no less than love. Thus 
 
 The noblest of virtues are Love and Hate, 
 Fitted each with the other to mate, 
 To strengthen the brain, and to kindle the blood 
 Hate for the Evil, and Love for the Good ! 
 
 DECAYED POLITICIANS. 
 The shrewdest politician is he who never asserts 
 
EGERIA. 41 
 
 his popularity, nor uses it, at any time, to its fullest 
 extent. The small politician is never satisfied but 
 when his bow is bent. How slowly does he arrive 
 at the knowledge, which all others possess, of the 
 decline of that strength which could bend it so 
 readily before. What desperation seizes upon his 
 heart, when he finds that nobody now runs to see 
 where his arrow strikes. 
 
 GOD AND FORTUNE. 
 
 We must calculate not on the weather, nor on 
 Fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may 
 fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never 
 in the encounter with our exigencies. 
 
 BLIND SEEKERS. 
 
 That we do not know the virtues or the talents 
 of our neighbor, is due quite as frequently to our 
 own blindness as to his deficiencies. It is not every 
 body who carries the divining rod by which we dis 
 cover where the treasure lies, or where the waters 
 gather in secret. 
 
 CONQUEST IN ELEVATION. 
 
 The falcon pursues and destroys the heron, a bird 
 
 4* 
 
42 E GEKIA. 
 
 far superior in weight and power to himself. The 
 swallow, one of the smallest of our birds, is the 
 favorite of all our farm-yards, as he gives chase to 
 the hawk, one of the most greedy and ferocious 
 ruffians of the air. The simple secret of the power 
 which these birds possess is in their capacity to at 
 tain the highest elevations, from which they dart 
 down upon their enemies from unexpected points. 
 Moral power requires the same capacity of wing. 
 We must gain the loftiest heights before we can 
 successfully combat. This is always the secret of 
 conquest. But take the idea in verse. 
 
 If thou would st strike thy enemy to the earth, 
 And shame him to submission, let thy wing 
 Take counsel from the falcon s, as she soars, 
 Still striving to attain a reach in air, 
 That mocks the ambition of the feebler bird, 
 She singles as her victim. Make thy spring, 
 Thus, for the eminence first ; and, while thine eye 
 The spacious fields that sleep below, explores, 
 Thy courage kindles to the mountain s birth, 
 And thou wilt grow a conqueror in the sphere 
 To which thy soul finds likeness ; greatly stirred 
 By sense of new approach to heavenly height ! 
 Thus still is born the sense of newer might, 
 With meet assurance of the victory, 
 That feels its triumph ere the shriek of death 
 
EGERIA. 43 
 
 Breaks from the sharp pang of the prey beneath ! 
 The vantage-ground is in the noblest flight, 
 And the blow ever surest struck from high ! 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Governments, to be wholesome, not, in other 
 words, to become tyrannical and worse than useless, 
 must learn to accommodate themselves to the chang 
 ing conditions and advancing progress of their peo 
 ple. The inflexibility of the lawgiver, wedded only 
 to routine, is one of the most certain causes of po 
 litical convulsion. 
 
 FATE. 
 
 When we complain of fate, it is only by w r ay of 
 excusing ourselves. It is our caprice, our impa 
 tience, our cowardice, whose lapses we charge upon 
 our stars. 
 
 OFFSPRING. 
 
 Would you have noble offspring ? See that you 
 choose for them a noble mother, since she alone 
 must be their only teacher in that early period, 
 when lessons are best acquired through the sympa 
 thies, and when the heart seems rather to strive 
 against, than to obey the understanding. 
 
44 EGERIA. 
 
 VALUE OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 The first lesson which you should teach your 
 child, is the value of your affections. Let him see 
 that these are to be won only on certain conditions, 
 and that his chief good is in their acquisition. Be 
 stow them only according to his deserts, and, by 
 this simple rule, you may teach him the not always 
 obvious distinction between right and wrong. 
 
 FAITH AND WILL. 
 
 Faith and will are the two maternal birds which 
 nourish courage and performance ; the one gives us 
 confidence in ourselves, the other enables us to se 
 cure the confidence of those whom we would con 
 quer or control. 
 
 USES OF WEALTH. 
 
 It is undoubtedly a duty to acquire riches, not 
 for the condition which they make, but for the 
 power they confer. The wisdom, however, proper 
 ly to employ them, demands even more earnest 
 study and honest endeavor. 
 
 SCEPTICISM. 
 Scepticism is, in most cases, the evidence of a 
 
EGERIA. 45 
 
 hard and selfish nature, which, governed by a pam 
 pered self-esteem, believes nothing but itself, and 
 resents, as a personal indignity, the discoveries or 
 counsels of another. 
 
 PROGRESS. 
 
 Either we grow wiser as we grow older, or there 
 is no growth at all. Either we advance as we walk, 
 or we cannot well be said to stand. Humanity is 
 progress, or it is nothing. 
 
 TEARS. 
 
 Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It 
 is a law, that we should pay for all that we enjoy. 
 It is well, too, that, in snatching from Fortune an 
 unusual blessing, we should not be suffered long to 
 forget that passion is mortal, and that the very wing 
 that bears us upward, is continually shedding its 
 brightest feathers. 
 
 POPULAR MORALITY. 
 
 The popular prosperity depends very much upon 
 the popular morality. It is for a people to deter 
 mine for themselves what they shall be, and what 
 they shall become. Soil, climate, fortune, go but 
 
46 EGERIA. 
 
 a small distance, comparatively speaking, in obtain 
 ing or securing eminence, happiness, or permanence 
 to any nation. Vainly would the patriot strive, and 
 the sage counsel, and the soldier fight, if a people 
 are neither true to themselves nor active in their 
 proper purposes. In their own hearts and hands 
 lie the secret of their moral, their social, and politi 
 cal successes, and the labor which is taken for them, 
 in which they themselves do not share, is so much 
 labor thrown away. Even Hercules, a god, could 
 only assist those who were first prepared and willing 
 to put their own shoulders to the wheel. 
 
 THE PASSIONS AND AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Did we exercise our affections as sensibly as our 
 passions, we should be the more perfectly the mas 
 ters of our own hearts. But of these, in most 
 cases, we know quite as little as we do of those of 
 other people ; and it is only in the ruin of our re 
 sources, that we are informed as to their extent. 
 The heart has its own season for maturing and for 
 fruit, and in suffering that season to escape us, we 
 plant, but vainly, for the future. " Too late" is 
 the mournful conviction which reaches us at last in 
 the final response from the neglected oracle ; and 
 
EGERIA. 47 
 
 the first accents which tell us that we have a heart, 
 are heard only in its dying agonies, when despair 
 forces from it the proofs of an existence of which 
 the passions have never permitted us to know be 
 fore. We only know where a God has been by the 
 ghost that haunts the ruins of his altar-place. 
 
 " Still upward from the desert comes a voice, 
 That once, if heard, had made the heart rejoice ; 
 Delight its burden in the days of yore, 
 But now it s one sad murmur, Nevermore ! " 
 
 REMEDIES FOR GRIEF. 
 
 The only escape from grief is to employment. 
 The only resource against it is in religion ; yet it is 
 neither our policy nor our destiny to escape it alto 
 gether since it is by grief that we gather strength 
 in heart and soul, as labor endows the arms with 
 muscle and manhood. Not to sorrow freely, is 
 never to open the bosom to the sweets of the sun 
 shine. 
 
 FREEDOM OF OPINION. 
 
 There is no doctrine more dangerous than that 
 which is perpetually making hideous outcry about 
 (supposed) dangerous doctrines. No errors of opi- 
 
48 EGERIA* 
 
 nion can possibly be dangerous in a country where 
 opinion is left free to grapple with them. Un 
 doubtedly, such freedom produces the wildest freaks 
 of speculation, the crudest philosophies, and morals 
 and metaphysics, equally insisted upon and impos 
 sible. But they are of a fungous growth, have a 
 mushroom life, which the next day s sun dries up 
 and disperses. They need alarm nobody yet they 
 do. How many men, with hearts of lions, haye yet 
 been scared by shadows ! Philosophy has its bug 
 bears, as well as superstition. 
 
 NATIONAL PAUSES. 
 
 A nation, at one moment, seems to be utterly 
 debased and self-abandoned. It exhibits neither 
 great purposes, great performances, nor great men. 
 But one of the common errors of the (so-called) 
 philosophical historian, is to judge of nations at 
 passing and isolated periods periods of transition, 
 at the best, when none of its permanent phases can 
 possibly be apparent. Sleep is an element of ac 
 tion. A nation must have its period of repose, 
 quite as much as an individual. May not these pe 
 riods of unperformance be, in fact, periods of pre 
 paration ? A nation may stoop in order to spring, 
 
EGERIA. 40 
 
 as the man crouches low to earth, when he would 
 make his farthest leap. 
 
 RATIONAL LIBERTY. 
 
 The only rational liberty is that which is born of 
 subjection, reared in the fear of God and love of 
 man, and made courageous in the defence of a trust 
 and the prosecution of a duty. 
 
 MOTIVE AND PRETEXT. 
 
 Noble spirits rejoice in the consciousness of a 
 motive base ones delight only in a pretext. 
 
 DIFFUSION OF TRUTH. 
 
 In morals, as in the mere essentials of social 
 strength, the general diffusion of truth among man 
 kind, though no one individual shall have grown 
 a jot wiser than the millions who have gone before, 
 and have been great in preceding ages, is the 
 great but simple process for working out the grand 
 consummation. The universal reception of com 
 plete truth as it is possessed now, and was possi 
 bly possessed in times past, by certain individuals 
 is that coming of God s kingdom, the advent of 
 which is the sole business of prophecy, and the 
 great, but how little appreciated, hope of our race. 
 
50 EGERIA. 
 
 INEQUALITIES. 
 
 Inequalities are the great elements of harmony ; 
 and the business of art, whether the ear or the eye 
 be the medium, is in their happy reconciliation. 
 They defeat monotony, and invite contrast and 
 transition, the true means of opposition, parallel and 
 union. 
 
 GREAT NAMES. 
 
 If you would seek a place calculated to compel 
 melancholy reflections, find a wood in which the 
 overwhelming growth of great trees has prevented 
 and kept down, by their depth and breadth of sha 
 dow, the upspringing of any young ones. In old 
 aristocracies, and in communities the fortunes of 
 which are stationary, you behold this condition fre 
 quently ; and the fortunes of the land, thus shorn 
 of the strength of its youth, are perpetually under 
 blight. The great names of a people not unfre- 
 quently degenerate into tyrannies. It was not 
 without a cause that the countryman voted for the 
 banishment of Aristides. 
 
 ERROR NATURAL TO MAN. 
 
 Strange, that we should conclude a people to be 
 
EGERIA. 51 
 
 unequal to the business of their own government, 
 because they sometimes happen to go wrong; as if 
 it were any argument against a man s reason, be 
 cause, happening to dine out with his friend, he 
 drinks too much wine (a very reprehensible error, 
 to be sure), and partially (though temporarily), 
 loses the proper command of it. The man and the 
 nation may equally fall into error ; but this is one 
 of the processes of truth, as scepticism first pre 
 cedes faith. But the temporary lapse, or error, in 
 man or nation, offers no good reason why they 
 should not in the end come right. 
 
 NATIONAL PRIDE AND VANITY. 
 
 National pride is, no doubt, as Schlegel calls it, 
 "a glorious fault," but national vanity is very cer 
 tainly a grievous folly. In the possession of the 
 one, we may safely laugh at all the world, but the 
 exhibition of the other only provokes the world to 
 laugh at us. 
 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 What are the revolutions which occur in a com 
 munity, but the efforts of a people, who seek by 
 madness to recover what they have lost by blind 
 ness. 
 
52 EGERIA. 
 
 GENIUS AND TALENT. 
 
 The most striking feature, in the history of Ge 
 nius, is its courage. Talent, on the contrary, is 
 distinguished chiefly by its caution. The one goes 
 forth, totally regardless of its costume, under the 
 impulse of a glorious presage. The other never 
 suffers itself to be seen, until it has made its toilet, 
 under the guidance of a becoming taste. 
 
 SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 Making due allowance for the occasional fortu 
 nate chance, and we may always assume that suc 
 cess is due wholly to the fact that the individual 
 has properly learned the lesson, "Know thyself." 
 Of course, we must first, in order to determine the 
 degree of success, ascertain what the individual has 
 aimed at. The higher wisdom seldom looks for its 
 successes along the highway : and grows rich in a 
 condition, which the world may despise for its seem 
 ing poverty. One s wealth may consist in the pro 
 fitable use of his talent, though it never in any 
 way adds to the number of his talents. 
 
 LABOR. 
 
 It is a world of commentary upon the laws of 
 
EGERIA. 53 
 
 labor, that it is morally impossible to employ the 
 body within its strength, and in a way suited to its 
 capacities, without, at the same time, elevating the 
 intellect. Properly administered, the law of labor 
 is not merely a law of life, but a law of progress. 
 
 ATONEMENT. 
 
 To the proud man who has erred, the great diffi 
 culty is in knowing when atonement has been made. 
 
 POLITICIANS. 
 
 The politician never proves more utterly mortal, 
 than when he gives ear to his enemy. 
 
 LAWS. 
 
 If laws were made by wise and just men only, it 
 might be taken for granted that popular outbreaks 
 would be unfrequent. Unhappily, cunning and not 
 wisdom, selfishness and not justice, too frequently 
 employ the ermine as a cloak, when simple faith 
 regards it as an emblem. The poor and the igno 
 rant, who are always apt to slumber over their 
 rights, are sure to be the first, if not the only suf 
 ferers. Can we wonder that the sense of repeated 
 wrong and outrage, brings with it a sense of despe 
 ration ? There is a terrible truth, and no less terri- 
 6* 
 
54 E G E 11 1 A. 
 
 ble warning, contained in the famous justificatory 
 speech of Robespierre, who said "Is it to be 
 thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement 
 for the wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance 
 of a single day?" 
 
 EGOTISTS. 
 
 Your egotist is of three descriptions he is your 
 complacent, your complaining, or your contemptu 
 ous egotist. The first class is a sufficiently common 
 one, and needs no particular description. He is 
 your sniggering, simpering, lack-wit constant with 
 his smile who, if he will not help, cannot hurt, and 
 may escape harm on the score of his own harmless- 
 ness. The other two classes, though not equally 
 common are sufficiently so in all conscience. Con 
 temptuous egotism is always ready for a fight ; 
 complaining egotism is always ready for a bribe. 
 The former always fancies that the world is tread 
 ing on his toes ; the other is always afflicted, lest 
 the world should not see when he puts his down. 
 I have an acquaintance, who, before dinner, is the 
 first character in perfection after dinner, the last. 
 He unites the species. Meet him before he gets to 
 his chop-house, and his acknowledgment of your 
 
E G E It I A. 55 
 
 " God den" is a sort of defiance. After his steak 
 is discussed, he moves your bowels, if they be at all 
 given to compassion, to hearken to the narrative of 
 distresses which trouble his. The whole world has 
 gone wrong with him all the world are in a league 
 to persecute him, and the only assurance you have 
 that he will not throw himself into the river, is the 
 consoling conviction that you feel, all the while, 
 that, let the world treat him as it will, he is a per 
 son who can never dispense with himself. His self- 
 love, alone, keeps the world from losing that which 
 it could very well afford to lose. 
 
 SUPERIORITY. 
 
 The right to govern another is based wholly on 
 the presumption that he is not able to govern him 
 self. 
 
 PRICE AND VALUE. 
 
 All men have their price, says Sir Robert Wai- 
 pole. It were devoutly to be desired that they also 
 had their value. And yet, it is very certain that 
 men hold themselves quite as frequently too cheaply 
 as too dear. To set a just value upon one s self, is 
 the true import of the aphorism "Know thyself!" 
 
56 E G E R I A. 
 
 But most men know rather what they wish, than 
 what they are, and are far more capable to seem 
 than to be. The habit, which is taught by half of 
 the social lessons that we learn, of deceiving others, 
 naturally ends in the deceiving ourselves, and in the 
 silly belief that we can deceive God also. 
 
 IRRESOLUTION. 
 
 To show yourself irresolute, is to endow your 
 enemy with confidence. We take courage in be 
 holding a feebleness which is greater than our own. 
 
 INFERIORITY. 
 
 A conviction of one s own inferiority soon prompts 
 a thorough search into the weaknesses of the supe 
 rior. There is nothing that the slave sooner learns, 
 than the faults of the master. 
 
 REASON. 
 
 Certainly, reason was never conferred upon us, 
 that its use should be foregone in a concern so 
 vitally important as religion. Yet, how are we to 
 reason upon a condition, like that of the future 
 state, in which the use of facts is wholly denied ! 
 These are the very materiel upon which alone 
 
E G E 11 1 A. 57 
 
 reason can ground its right to interfere in the dis 
 cussion. The truth is, that reason is the human 
 faculty, to be exercised in relation to home inte 
 rests. Were there no revelation, we should be apt 
 to refer, for our religion, to our instincts, rather 
 than our logic and in spite of it : and, indeed, 
 we measurably do so now. 
 
 VOX POPULI. 
 
 " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" demands the 
 satirist ; and the question, in our country, may very 
 well be applied to the people, who are, or should 
 be, their own guards, and in whom the well-being 
 and safety of the country properly abide. How 
 shall we make them true to us, to one another, and 
 to themselves ? This is a question much more fre 
 quently asked than answered. We rely too much, 
 as the mathematicians do, upon the virtue of num 
 bers. We take for granted, as Miss Martineau 
 does, that a majority must be right forgetting, as 
 we invariably do, that, at the beginning, and for a 
 very obvious reason, the majority have been sadly 
 wrong. They come right in the end, no doubt ; but 
 the doom of Jesus Christ, of Socrates, Galileo, and 
 a host besides, sufficiently shows what the popular 
 
58 EGEKIA. 
 
 tendencies must be, in all cases of a novel character, 
 and on the subject of truths and doctrines previous 
 ly unknown or untaught. Nor is the case, in all 
 respects, much better now, than at the periods re 
 ferred to. Persecution, if not so deadly, is scarcely 
 less active to-day than it was yesterday. The ex 
 pounder of the new faith, it is true, is not put on a 
 gridiron, to test the merits of his doctrine over a 
 slow fire ; but there are a thousand other ways of 
 despatching him by what is significantly called 
 " public opinion!" as if it was not public opinion 
 that fried and flayed even in the days of Saint Bar 
 tholomew ? This public opinion is a thing to be 
 made and compounded, and it may be made good 
 or evil. In no case is it a proper tribunal, since 
 there is no sufficient reason why the tendencies of a 
 mass should be made to supersede and take the 
 place of justice, whose laws should come with equal 
 emphasis and efficacy from the lips of an individual. 
 I am unwilling to leave anything to public opinion, 
 which the resort to a less flexible court will decide ; 
 and I am disposed to think that it is in consequence 
 of so much being left to a tribunal which is as un 
 stable as water, and as variable as the winds, that 
 we make so little headway in our progress to the 
 
EGERIA. 50 
 
 * 
 
 certain and the true. We are daily congratulating 
 ourselves with our conquests and discoveries, as 
 well in morals as in philosophy ; and yet, Truth and 
 Error still keep up their ancient controversy, and 
 we do not see that the former gains much from her 
 old enemy. If Truth does sometimes go ahead, 
 Error comes close at her heels. If she gains in 
 one spot, it is wonderful how much she loses in an 
 other ; and let her but give herself a moment s in 
 dulgence let her venture to rest herself by the 
 wayside for a while and what a hard chase her 
 more restless and always ready rival will give her 
 for the goal ! 
 
 FORTUNE. 
 
 He need never despair of Fortune, who has 
 learned calmly to look her in the face ; nay, the 
 courage to do so, is frequently all that is essential 
 to compel the fondest embraces of the capricious 
 goddess. 
 
 HABITS. 
 
 Inculcate good habits in your children, and good 
 principles which are but names for good habits 
 will follow of themselves. Training, and not teach- 
 
60 EGERIA. 
 
 
 
 ing, is the word for children. You are to train 
 them in habits, which no future lessons can un- 
 teach. 
 
 WILL AND MOOD. 
 
 Our will is not always superior to our moods. 
 The heart is a fine instrument, which the atmo 
 sphere easily deranges. Ordinarily the natural in 
 stinct is to struggle fearlessly in the face of death ; 
 yet there are moments when the feeblest courage 
 feels how easy it would be to die, and resigns itself, 
 without a will, to any fortune. To struggle at all, 
 at such moments, would be something worse than 
 death. Such moments are, however, of very brief 
 duration. They are adverse to our most precious 
 instincts ; indeed, it is in the temporary sleep of 
 our instincts, that we indulge in moods of this err 
 ing and debasing character. Life is a duty, in 
 volving many strifes and embarrassments ; the fear 
 to encounter, and the effort to escape from which is 
 quite as little creditable to our manhood as our re 
 ligion. 
 
 STARS. 
 
 It is at the very moment when Earth closes her 
 eyes for sleep, that those of Heaven are unveiled. 
 
EGERIA. 61 
 
 And how readily do we resign ourselves to sleep 
 also, seeing the stars above us. How naturally do 
 we associate their pure, bright, and smiling eyes, 
 with those of so many celestial watchers guardians 
 set to keep our walls, so that the garrison may 
 sleep in safety? 
 
 PRIDE AND VANITY. 
 
 Vanity compares, Pride contrasts, itself with its 
 neighbor. The former rushes impetuously, the 
 latter moves slowly, to this scrutiny. With the 
 former, every new acquaintance prompts a feverish 
 heat ; with the latter, a contemptuous coldness. 
 The one is impatient to convince others that he is 
 the better man ; the other does not doubt that he 
 shall easily convince himself. 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 Love is the only true maturer in humanity. We 
 ripen vainly, unless with her assistance. The germ 
 and blossom of the heart ftever awaken to conscious 
 ness and bloojpa \\ncfcsy any other smiles. 
 
 PROGRESS IN AMERICA. 
 
 [Here is a speech in sonnets a novelty, certain- 
 svkch as never was delivered either in Par- 
 G 
 
62 E G E R I A. 
 
 liament or Congress. It is possible that it may be 
 quoted in both places in some future period, since 
 events perpetually bring about a renewal of the 
 strifes in respect to which it was written. These 
 were such as threatened the peace in our Oregon 
 difficulties.] 
 
 I. LYMPH. 
 
 Man wearies of the wonted ! Tis the drudge 
 
 Alone that shrinks from sweet variety, 
 And will not from his chimney-corner budge, 
 
 For promise of the best society. 
 To him the creature of a stagnant blood 
 
 All effort is but torture ; and Content 
 Comes to him ever with his daily food, 
 
 Though the wide world with uproar may be rent. 
 Is Guilt triumphant ? he but shakes his head, 
 And thanks the Lord, who gives him daily bread ; 
 Is Virtue outraged ? still another shake, 
 The certain prelude to his juicy steak ; 
 His neighbor s troubles and the world s despite 
 Do but confirm his daily appetite ! 
 
 II. BLOOD. 
 
 Thank Heaven ! there still are men how precious 
 
 few! 
 Mure precious for their scarcity with whom 
 
EGERIA. 63 
 
 This bread and beef alone will never do ! 
 
 Make not the life they hunger for, nor stay 
 The mood that prompts them dare the deadliest 
 doom, 
 
 That Virtue may have right, and Guilt give way ! 
 It is the noble spirit s discontent, 
 That will not in the ancient fold be pent ; 
 
 But breaks away, and pathways, wild and new, 
 Makes on the shore or seeks along the sea ! 
 This is the spirit, above all, for me ; 
 
 Still to the future generations true ; 
 Not to be harnessed at a grandsire s knee, 
 
 But its own master mastering others too ! 
 
 III. PROGRESS THE PURIFIER. 
 
 This is the true nobility in blood, 
 
 Established by its manhood ! It achieves ! 
 
 Goes on its mission with meet hardihood, 
 And only what it consummates believes. 
 
 Tis wild, perhaps, at first, and rude of air; 
 But watch the mountain-torrent at its source 
 How foul and turbid, as it leaps with force, 
 
 Headlong, to hurry on its strong career, 
 
 Bursting old barriers. Follow, then, its course, 
 
 And note the gradual waters, how they clear ! 
 
64 EGERIA. 
 
 Self-purified, the natural progress still, 
 As certain in the mortal as the stream, 
 
 Obeys the dictate of superior will, 
 
 That works its moral by eternal scheme ! 
 
 IV. NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 And what are nations, but the gathering streams, 
 That gush from base beginnings ? Let them flow, 
 Destined to gather tribute as they go ; 
 
 And still expanding to the sun s broad gleams, 
 To catch new brightness with increasing length ; 
 Thus grace and beauty link themselves to strength, 
 
 Until the glorious progress takes a name 
 
 Like Rome or Albion which consenting realms, 
 Whom fear or favor, love or hate o erwhelms, 
 
 Decree, in song and story, shall be Fame ! 
 
 Ours is a rash, rude people, like the rest, 
 Just at our wild beginnings glad to own 
 That mountain impulse which must bear us on, 
 
 Till Glory, born of Power, shall make our rule 
 confessed. 
 
 V. PROGRESS INEVITABLE. 
 
 And thus we cover Texas ! Thus we spell, 
 With deeds, the drowsy nations, as, of yore, 
 
EGERIA. 65 
 
 The adventurous Spaniard cracked th Atlantic s 
 
 shell- 
 Though not for him to penetrate the core. 
 
 The good old Norman stock will do as well, 
 Nay, better; a selected stock of old, 
 With blood well-tempered, resolute and bold ; 
 
 Set for a mighty work, the way to pave 
 
 For the wronged nations, and, in one great fold, 
 
 Unite them, from old tyrannies to save ! 
 
 We do but follow out our destiny, 
 
 As did the ancient Israelite and strive, 
 
 Unconscious that we work at His decree, 
 By Whom alone we triumph as we live ! 
 
 VI. STEEL-TRAPS AND SPRING-GUNS. 
 
 To say that France grows surly, and to show 
 
 That Britain builds new steamers, and looks wroth, 
 Because tis certain we must onward go, 
 
 Is scarcely to prevent us, by my troth ! 
 We cannot help the matter if we would ; 
 
 The race must have expansion we must grow 
 Though every forward footstep be withstood, 
 
 And every inch of ground presents its foe ! 
 We have, thank Heaven ! a most prolific brood ; 
 
 Look at the census, if you aim to know 
 
 G* 
 
66 EGERIA. 
 
 And then, the foreign influx, bad and good ; 
 
 All helps, new lands to clear new seeds to sow ; 
 We must obey our destiny and blood, 
 
 Though Europe show her bill, and strike her 
 blow ! 
 
 VII. OUR PEOGRESS LEGITIMATE. 
 
 And tis her policy not less than ours, 
 
 That we should have such progress ! Can she 
 hope, 
 
 With daily growth of all our national powers, 
 Here, on our soil, for our own soil, to cope ? 
 
 Why clamor in the question, "whose the right 
 By conquest or discovery ? what eye, 
 
 Briton or Apalachian, had first sight 
 
 Of the great wastes that now disputed lie ?" 
 The right depends on the propinquity, 
 
 The absolute sympathy of soil and place, 
 Needful against the foreign enemy, 
 
 And for the due expansion of our race ; 
 
 And this expansion, certain as the light, 
 
 Makes the right sure, in progress of the might ! 
 
 VIII. NATIONAL ABSORPTION INK VI TABLE. 
 
 Let the world know that in our hemisphere, 
 Europe can have no foothold. The design 
 
E G E R I A. 67 
 
 Of Providence accords it to our line ; 
 And, soon or late, the nations far and near, 
 Shall all be marshalled in one grand array 
 
 Of linke d states ; each, with peculiar race, 
 
 Sovereign and equal, in its several place, 
 Harmonious working in one common sway ; 
 Blending in one the might of all, when foes 
 
 Assail them from without ; yet each, as one, 
 True to the spot o er which its banner flows, 
 
 And jealous of the birthright, sold to none ! 
 These all-sufficient for themselves must be, 
 Sufficient, too, for all beyond the sea ! 
 
 IX. INTEGRITY OF THE UNION CERTAIN, ON 
 CONDITIONS. 
 
 Well ! Feuds will disunite us ! This may be, 
 
 But Europe gains not in our loss, for then, 
 The danger is from one great sovereignty, 
 
 Since, it is sure, the links must join again ! 
 The danger, then, is hers no less than ours, 
 Since it beholds such increase of our powers ; 
 A central strength, beheld from either sea, 
 
 The Atlantic and Pacific ; that, not vain 
 The faith that Apalachia then must be, 
 
 What Albion has been ne er to be again ! 
 
68 EGERIA. 
 
 Nay, something more than Albion ! with more 
 
 spread 
 
 Of compact empire, limitless and wide ; 
 All soils, all surfaces, by oceans fed, 
 
 And thrice her strength in sons, from her own 
 stock beside. 
 
 X. WHY THE UNITED STATES M U S T CONQUER. 
 
 To keep us from our conquests, it requires 
 
 That we be conquered ! Battles may be fought, 
 And we may lose them oft, as did our sires ; 
 
 Towns may be burnt, and frigates may be caught, 
 And navies sunk, and armies may be slain ; 
 And these may cool us till we warm again ! 
 But these are checks, not conquests to delay, 
 Not turn us, from the inevitable way ! 
 As well attempt Niagara on the leap, 
 With all her oceans, plunging o er the steep, 
 As hope to stay the torrent which moves on, 
 
 Steady, and still increasing as it flows, 
 Destined to sweep the wastes of Oregon, 
 
 And in Canadian wilds to melt their fettering 
 snows. 
 
 XI. WHAT NECESSARY FOR OUR CONQUEST. 
 
 To conquer Apalachia, you must take 
 
 Firm foothold in her centre ! you must rend 
 
EGERIA. 69 
 
 His rifle from the Kentuckian you must break 
 Old Hickory s staff that man could never bend 
 
 Must tear us from our hearths no easy toil 
 
 With th Anglo-Norman nature, which takes root, 
 And flourishes, where er it sets its foot ! 
 
 Must raze the spirit we ve planted, from the soil, 
 
 Lest, tasting ere they strike, your myrmidons grow 
 To freemen with the taste ; and, all forgot, 
 
 Except your tyrannies, turn, with fatal blow, 
 And make a "Crackskull Common" of the spot 
 
 For their own masters ! These achievements done 
 
 Then, how to keep the foothold you have won ! 
 
 XII. COUNSEL AT PARTI X Q. 
 
 Take better counsel from an enemy ! 
 
 Make us your friends ! Forego the hope to sway 
 
 Or strangle ; let the destiny have way, 
 Lest it destroy you ! Better we should buy, 
 And barter with you, for our mutual wares, 
 
 Than, like great urchins, with more bulk than 
 
 brains, 
 Still idly go together by the ears. 
 
 Let us avoid these penalties and pains ! 
 
 Open your harbors to our western grains, 
 
70 EGEHIA. 
 
 Let our commodities come duty free, 
 
 As we shall yours and be prepared to see 
 
 That all the provinces that round us lie, 
 
 Are, by the Power that everything ordains, 
 Decreed to fall at length to your posterity ! 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 The first best gift to the young is that of good 
 society. If you do not provide them with proper 
 playmates arid playthings, they will find their own ; 
 and the devil will help them in the search, rather 
 than they should go utterly neglected. 
 
 JEST. 
 
 Would you jest with the tiger, first see that his 
 teeth are drawn ; with the fool, first see that his 
 ears are cropped. With the silly and the brutal 
 you can neither jest nor reason. You must cage 
 the one, and cut the other. 
 
 OBLIGATION. 
 
 It is one satisfaction, failing to find preferment, 
 to feel that we are at least free from all indebted 
 ness. 
 
 FAT. 
 
 The melancholy of the fat beast is seldom fatal. 
 
EG Eli i A. 71 
 
 IMMORTALITY. 
 
 To the ambitious and performing nature, the ne 
 cessity of a future life is sufficiently shown, in the 
 fact that so much of our proper performance is left 
 undone in this. 
 
 SURFACE VIRTUE. 
 
 Many of our virtues are not even skin-deep : we 
 put them on and off with our clothing ; and, to pre 
 pare for God, we too often pursue the same course 
 which we employ in preparing for company. The 
 first Eve put on fig-leaves for concealment. The 
 modern Eve, for the same object, has only to keep 
 hers well washed. Soap and water, and French 
 perfumes, suffice. 
 
 She eats the fruit without alarm, 
 
 Then wipes her mouth and, where the harm ? 
 
 ERRORS OF YOUTH. 
 
 The mistakes and errors of youth are the evil 
 genii which wait upon our manhood, and the ghosts 
 that make us tremble in old age. They chill our 
 ardor when ardor would be success; oppose our 
 progress when to advance would be to conquer; 
 haunt our walks, which might otherwise be blessed 
 
72 EttERIA. 
 
 by the happiest spirits by love, by grace, by faith, 
 and beauty and arc not to be laid by all our exor 
 cisms, nor to be entreated by all our supplications. 
 We have raised them, in our folly, till they have 
 grown superior to the check of our wisdom. Our 
 very friends are useful to encourage their assaults, 
 and to keep them from perishing. They keep them 
 wakeful, when, perhaps, they would prefer to be at 
 rest, quite as much as ourselves. 
 
 AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 Something of the peculiar energies of the Ameri 
 can character, is certainly due to the fact, that our 
 country was the place of refuge for the ardent, the 
 impatient, and the adventurous, of the Old World. 
 The thoughts which they could not breathe in the 
 one region, they could speak and sing aloud in the 
 other. A dream of freedom in Europe became a 
 principle of action in America, and he who could 
 not be secure of a home in his original nest, found 
 an empire where his wing had borne him. He 
 brought with him his own wing, and the privilege 
 to use it, was itself freedom. 
 
EHERIA. 73 
 
 FOOLS. 
 
 The fool is willing to pay for anything but wis 
 dom. No man buys that of which he supposes 
 himself to have an abundance already. 
 
 HUMANITY OF LOVE. 
 
 Love is but another name for that inscrutable 
 presence by which the soul is connected with hu 
 manity. 
 
 SLEEP AND DEATH. 
 
 He who has surrendered himself to sleep, has 
 yielded to a temporary death, the awaking from 
 which does not depend upon himself. Yet he lies 
 down to the one never doubting that his eyes w r ill 
 open upon the coming day. It is the delightful office 
 of religion to assure us, among other no less happy 
 truths, that death itself is not absolute, but that the 
 sleep which it bestows has its awakening also. And 
 yet, in spite of all her assurances, with what doubts 
 do we yield ourselves to the sacred slumber ; with 
 how many fears as to the length of the night ; with 
 how many terrors as to the sort of day which is to 
 open upon us ! Perhaps, if the truth were known, our 
 dread is rather greater with regard to the sleep than 
 7 
 
74 EGERIA. 
 
 the awakening. Our fears of the latter are not so 
 lively as those which attend our thoughts in respect 
 to the duration of the former. 
 
 SELF-DECEPTION. 
 
 It is, perhaps, less immoral to deceive one s 
 neighbor than to deceive one s self. To him, atone 
 ment may be made ; but w r e never think to repair 
 our injustice to our own hearts ; and there is, then, 
 no couching that habitual blindness which inevita 
 bly results from any habit of self-deception. 
 
 AMBITION. 
 
 Ambition is frequently the only refuge which life 
 has left to the denied or mortified affections. We 
 chide at the grasping eye, the daring wing, the soul 
 that seems to thirst for sovereignty only, and know 
 not that the flight of this ambitious bird has been 
 from a bosom, or a home, that is filled with ashes. 
 
 ERROR. 
 
 Error is like that genius in the Arabian Nights, 
 who, though his bulk, when unconfined, reached 
 from earth to heaven, could yet squeeze himself 
 into the compass of a quart pot. It is surprising 
 from what small beginnings most monsters grow. 
 
EGERIA. 75 
 
 THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 You may make your affections too cheap, or too 
 dear, in dealing with your children or your friends. 
 If too cheap, none of them will value them if too 
 dear, all will despair of securing them. Affec 
 tions are so many moral objects, to be accorded to 
 justice, not to favor, and never to be withheld when 
 due, nor bestowed when undeserved. 
 
 GENIUS. 
 
 What we call Genius, may perhaps, with more 
 strict propriety, be described as the spirit of Dis 
 covery. Genius is the very eye of intellect and 
 the wing of thought. It is always in advance of its 
 time. It is the pioneer for the generation which it 
 precedes. For this reason, it is called a seer and 
 hence, its songs have been prophecies. Its prompt 
 ness of discernment, its courage for adventure, its 
 energy in pursuit, and its unselfish surrender, to 
 others, of the quarry which it strikes, are the great 
 indications of its character. Genius is largely en 
 dowed with what may be described as the imagi 
 native judgment a faculty which enables it to fly 
 to its conclusions, long in advance of the slower pro 
 cesses of reasoning. While ordinary minds attain 
 
76 EGEHIA. 
 
 their results, step by step, by laborious diligence 
 and doubtful thinking, it reaches its conclusions by 
 a flight equally swift and certain. Columbus-like, 
 it penetrates and passes those wastes which other 
 men tremble to survey. Its province is new empire 
 always, and still conquest rather than possession. 
 The way once opened, it yields the path to other 
 footsteps, and is never so much at home as when it 
 leaves the travelled thoroughfare behind it. 
 
 DEPENDENCE. 
 
 Destitution is better than dependence, since it is, 
 perhaps, easier to endure the cold, than to find one s 
 patron so. 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 The loss of youth is one of the most touching of 
 all subjects in the thought of him who has past the 
 meridian. There is an impressive anecdote given 
 by the historian of one of the monarchs of France, 
 the Superb Louis, perhaps, but I really forget 
 which, who was heard to say, while gazing upon the 
 beauties of his palace and grounds : " And I must 
 leave all these !" Could anything be more mournful ? 
 His thoughts and feelings had prepared him for no 
 better world. There were no equivalents for what 
 
EGERIA. 77 
 
 he lost ! Here is a passage on a like topic, which I 
 have paraphrased from the "Faust" of Goethe. 
 
 " Oh! give me back the days when I, myself, 
 Was growing still; when, ever freshly springing, 
 Life was a fountain of perpetual music, 
 That knew not break or discord; when the world 
 Was veiled in sacred mists in mists made glorious 
 By the endowing fancy ; when the bud 
 Still bore miraculous sweetness; when I gathered 
 From every sterile dale a wealth of flowers, 
 Which never glad me now ! How rich my stores 
 When I had nothing and how ample all 
 The nothing I possessed. Oh ! give me back 
 The instinctive passion for the hidden truth 
 The joy that brought delusion yet denied 
 That I should doubt its treasure. Give me back 
 All those wild impulses, those matchless passions, 
 Now swollen with fullest energy of hatred, 
 Now with the glory and the might of love ; 
 Oh ! give me back my youth." 
 
 HORACE ON POLITICS. 
 
 Stuff, Tom ! no more of politics, 
 I m sick of all these juggler tricks, 
 
 This strife twixt ins and outs ; 
 The knaves behind that pull the wires, 
 The fool in front that prates, nor tires, 
 
 So long as Demus shouts ! 
 
78 E G E R I A. 
 
 I ve seen, and heard for twenty years, 
 The same vile slang offend mine ears ; 
 
 And every wretched shoat, 
 Who longs for office, still declares, 
 How needful for the land s affairs, 
 
 That he should have my vote ! 
 
 He is the patriot, born to save, 
 (If you believe the barefaced knave) 
 
 The country from its fate ; 
 This is the crisis, worst of all, 
 Since Adam s, or Napoleon s fall, 
 
 That threatens most the State. 
 
 Don t you believe the rascal tale ! 
 The State, be sure, would never ail, 
 
 Were such as he at rest : 
 He is the cook that smokes the stew, 
 Rid us of him, and we should do, 
 
 As safely as the best. 
 
 Suppose the State in danger ! well, 
 Can he the threatening storm repel ? 
 
 Look on him where he stands ; 
 Pursue his progress backward trace, 
 His long career in public place, 
 
 With power for aye in hands. 
 
EGEKIA. 79 
 
 What has he done, endured or shown, 
 That he should seize the helm alone, 
 
 And claim the right to guide ? 
 He spouts and swaggers he may sway 
 The rabble with his donkey bray, 
 
 But can he aught beside ? 
 
 Tis one thing, surely, to assert 
 The danger threat ning still our hurt, 
 
 But quite another, when, 
 Jack Mainstay rises to entreat, 
 We place him in the master s seat, 
 
 And make him first of men ! 
 
 No ! no ! good Tom ! There may be strife, 
 And storm, for these still follow life ; 
 
 But for these mouths that feed, 
 Forever, off the public plate, 
 They only fatten on the State, 
 
 Not help it at its need. 
 
 For us, good Tom, tis quite enough, 
 If still, eschewing all this stuff, 
 
 When comes the time, we stand, 
 Where God first gave us breath, prepared 
 To do, as still our fathers dared, 
 
 For home and Fatherland ! 
 
80 EGERIA. 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 Poetry is the offspring of rarest beauty, begot by 
 imagination upon thought, and clad by taste and 
 fancy, in the habiliments of grace. 
 
 INVESTMENTS. 
 
 It is, after all, the person who stakes the least, 
 who loses most. In the affections, this is wholly 
 true. He who risks nothing loses everything. 
 
 BLINDNESS OF MALICE. 
 
 But for that blindness which is inseparable from 
 malice, what terrible powers of evil would it pos 
 sess. Fortunately for the world, its venom, like that 
 of the rattlesnake, when most poisonous, clouds the 
 eye of the reptile, and defeats its aim. 
 
 PERFORMANCE. 
 
 The honest, earnest determination to perform, 
 almost always suggests its own modus operandi. 
 
 CONQUEST. 
 
 The conditions of conquest are always easy. We 
 have but to toil a while, endure a while, believe 
 always, and never turn back. 
 
EGEIIIA. 81 
 
 PROGRESS. 
 
 If, in the progress of the years, we make, 
 
 Ourselves, fit progress, we make sacrifice 
 Even of the loved performance, and forsake 
 
 The well-planned purpose for some new device. 
 We burn the fruits of study to begin 
 
 Anew our edifice ; and, day by day, 
 No sooner do we well fit progress win, 
 
 Than we fling down our tools and turn away. 
 It is a prenticeship we still pursue, 
 Not doing, but just learning how to do : 
 Our progress lies in knowledge of our tools, 
 
 And a becoming liking for their use ; 
 No doubt, if we obey the master s rules, 
 We shall be summoned to some future task, 
 
 Let us but learn, he cannot well refuse, 
 And this, if well we learn, tis quite enough to ask. 
 
 PERFECTION. 
 
 We do not insist upon perfectibility, but consider 
 it best that the human heart should be thought capa 
 ble of the highest policy ; as sufficiently comprehen 
 sive in its plan, and still sufficiently firm in its 
 purpose to become all that the good desire. The 
 powers of the heart are more frequently underrated 
 
82 EGERIA. 
 
 than overrated ; and which is worse, the course of 
 education obtaining in general, is calculated rather 
 to keep the mind what it has been hitherto, than 
 what, with the daily increasing means of improve 
 ment, furnished by its own untiring exertions, it 
 might readily, and with moderate diligence, become. 
 The ages should build one above another, as we 
 w r alk above the heads of our fathers. 
 
 HUMAN FRAILTY. 
 
 It is in the conviction of our own feebleness that 
 we acquire our first and best impressions of the 
 might and majesty of God. That we still defy the 
 one and offend the other, is only a proof that we 
 are even weaker than we ourselves believe. 
 
 FAITH AND PASSION. 
 
 It is much more easy to inspire a passion than 
 a faith. Were beauty but as solicitous of the one 
 as of the other object, she need never fear that her 
 myrtles will change to willows. 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 No doubt common sense is an excellent and ser 
 viceable quality a good domestic article, which is 
 
E (J E K I A. 83 
 
 always useful, and which wo cannot easily dispense 
 with ; but it is not everything, and there are occa 
 sions when tmcommon sense becomes even more 
 valuable and important. Common sense is the prac 
 tical, every-day faculty, and that which is most asso 
 ciated with ordinary success in life. It is because of 
 its success in ordinary life, that people so mistake it 
 for a virtue. Perhaps, there are no people so really 
 vain as those who possess this quality in a large 
 degree ; and that it should produce this weakness, is 
 quite natural, when we recollect that the usual 
 mode of determining mental excellence is by refer 
 ring to success in the every-day concerns of busy 
 life. Shrewdness in business, resulting in prosperity, 
 makes common sense forget herself; and the man 
 who has made a fortune in the cotton market, is not 
 easily persuaded that he might not have been equally 
 successful as a statesman and a philosopher. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 The object of life is not life merely. Were this 
 the case, the butcher and the baker might always 
 claim to be the most proper persons in every commu 
 nity. It is not the future, for every state has its 
 own conditions. It is not the present, for that would 
 
make us improvident, like the brute, taking no care 
 of the morrow. Nor yet is it the past, for no man 
 looks behind him, walking forward. Life is a condi 
 tion of equal preparation and performance. That it 
 is a condition of preparation, proves the immortality 
 of the soul. That it is a condition of performance, 
 proves that the business of immortality is already 
 begun. Our exultation in success is legitimate, be 
 cause our present performances are in obedience to 
 present laws. Our hope is the prescience of that 
 yearning which looks naturally, with equal doubt, 
 desire, and apprehension, to those future laws which 
 are yet to operate upon us. Life is an ordeal, in 
 which our powers of endurance, and our capacities 
 of achievement, are to be tested, in order that our 
 future rank may be determined. True religion, 
 which regards it in this light, does not task us so ex 
 clusively to consider our possible future, as to make 
 us heedless and indifferent to the positive present. 
 The desire of martyrdom is mere insanity. It is 
 the needful and just performance of present duties, 
 and the humble adherence to present laws, which 
 can alone fit us certainly and beneficially for the 
 condition which is to come. What does the present 
 life the absolute day on which we are entered re- 
 
EGERIA. 85 
 
 quire at our hands ? Ascertain that, and do it, and 
 all the rest is easy. The future is the unborn child 
 of the present, whose mother was the past. 
 
 BLIND SEEKERS. APOLOGUE. 
 
 Look, wretched one, upon the stream that rolleth 
 beside the dwelling of thy old age. See st thou not 
 within its waters the very stars which have shone 
 upon thee in childhood ? 
 
 The years have gone over thee, and thou hast 
 grown gray with many changes thou hast changed 
 thy home, thy heart, thy friends but see st thou 
 any change in the bright stars which look up to 
 thee, even through the ever-changing surface of the 
 rippling waters ? 
 
 Thou dost not they cannot alter, for they are 
 the eyes which God has set upon thy path to watch 
 thee. Alas ! that thou shouldst have looked for 
 them alone in the brooklet. Why hast thou not 
 looked up for them in the heavens ? 
 
 Had they not beauty ? Gave they not a sufficient 
 and sweet light for thy guidance in the strange and 
 solemn hours ? Why hast thou striven to fly from 
 their glances ? Why didst thou refuse their light ? 
 Their voices spoke to thee in songs faint, sweet 
 8 
 
86 EGERIA. 
 
 echoes of the living music that streams ever from 
 beneath the eternal footsteps. Ah ! did no faint 
 whisper of that music fall upon thy heart in its 
 solitude ? 
 
 Alas ! for thee. Though thou hast lived apart 
 from thy fellows, his spirit still hath been with thine 
 his spirit only. Thou, like him, seekest not the 
 object which thy own mood may not shape at will. 
 Thou lovest not to look upon the things over which 
 the arm of thy power may not be extended. Thou 
 lovest the dark and the forbidden not the shining 
 and the vouchsafed. Thy thought is shrouded in the 
 darkness of thy own soul-^-so that thou seest not 
 the blessed spirits which are commissioned to give 
 thee light. Thou lookest upon vain hopes of earthly 
 substance, even at the awful moment when God is 
 looking upon thee. 
 
 Thine eyes are in the dark thine eyes of the 
 dust. These still seek and turn in lowly contem 
 plation upon the thing from which they were made. 
 But the eyes of thy soul grew blinded in this 
 survey. Alas ! for the myriad eyes that gaze down 
 ward in sweet benignity from heaven how few 
 look up in return. 
 
 The proud man builds his palace, tower upon 
 
EGERIA. 87 
 
 tower, huge of bulk and high, still aspiring to the 
 skies ; but his gaze from its terrace is bent upon the 
 city that lies below him. It is the shepherd, who, 
 along the hills, still singing a glad song of heavenly 
 rejoicing, evermore turns upward a yearning eye 
 fond looking for the sweet planet, that shall 
 counsel his doubtful footsteps. 
 
 ENEMIES. 
 
 Could our enemies only know how much we have 
 forborne towards them, how would their hatred be 
 penetrated by remorse ! 
 
 CONTEMPLATION. 
 
 l 
 
 The contemplative mood somewhat depends, for 
 its exercise, upon the exhaustion of the passionate ; 
 and constitutes a sort of moral interregnum a 
 twilight condition of the mind which fills up the 
 interval between the performances of one day and 
 another. It is in this twilight period that the 
 thought prepares itself for the wrestle of the arena 
 that the plan of the campaign is conceived, and 
 all the scheme digested of the next day s action. 
 
 SOLITUDE. 
 
 Solitude makes a contemplative mind society an 
 
88 EGERIA, 
 
 active one. The two conditions, properly alternated, 
 freshen one another. Solitude affords the proper 
 time for preparation society for performance. In 
 the one, we gaze upon the players ; in the other, we 
 enter the ring ourselves. The former teaches us by 
 the mistakes of others, and the latter by our own. 
 
 THE TRUE AMBITION. 
 Always the highest, and thy aim the white ! 
 
 Yet with a modesty that still prepares, 
 Girded with diligence to seek the fight, 
 And conscious of its trials, not its fears ! 
 
 There is no policy in small desire, 
 If that thy aim be conquest, for we still 
 Fall something short of all we hope and will ! 
 Who seeks for much, must ever aim at more, 
 As birds that haunt the mountain, dart still 
 
 higher : 
 
 And still be this the lesson in thy lore, 
 The ambitious heart all middle flight must shun, 
 
 Must, like the eagle, in superior skies, 
 Stretching his giant pinions for the sun, 
 
 Bathe in the blaze that blinds all other eyes ! 
 
 STRUGGLE. 
 
 But man is no more made for solitude than sleep. 
 
EGERIA. 89 
 
 The repose of the passions must not imply their 
 stagnation. They must rouse themselves at last 
 and go forth, though it be only to bear a burden 
 and be baffled by defeat. Successful or baffled, still 
 the same their duty is in the struggle. The strug 
 gle itself, is the life. 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is absti 
 nence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in 
 society. Give him his desire place him in the 
 remotest empires of the sea and forest and his 
 thoughts will still wander away to the crowd. He 
 will hear in his dreams, as he crouches by the sea 
 shore, or in the thick wilderness of woods, at night, 
 the sweet bells of the distant city. Yes, solitude is 
 wholesome, very wholesome, when we need a re 
 spite. 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE MIND. 
 
 Society is even more essential to our intellect than 
 to our humanity. Our affections do not rust so 
 quickly as our minds. It is easier to pervert than 
 to subdue them, while the latter is always pleased 
 to be beguiled into forgetfulness and sleep. 
 
90 EGERIA. 
 
 ATTRITION. 
 
 The attrition of rival minds is the great secret of 
 successful intellect. The genius may be born in the 
 woods, but it never takes root there. The tree that 
 has sprung up in the shade, will blossom and bring 
 forth fruit in the sunshine only. 
 
 VOLUNTARIES. 
 
 The mind has its own motions, apart from any 
 will that we bring to exercise upon it. These mental 
 voluntaries might be virtues, were they not quite as 
 far beyond our prediction as premeditation. The 
 worst dreams, says the Indian sage, are those which 
 occur when the eyes are open ; the noblest actions 
 when the eyes are shut. Did we always carry out 
 into action our waking thoughts nay, could we see 
 them sometimes enacted in our dreams what 
 dread and horror would they inspire. How many 
 of our best deeds spring from our eager impulse 
 the mind not being suffered to shape the will, and 
 working only in obedience to the blood. It is but 
 a human charity that we should ascribe the frequent 
 faults and grievous errors of our neighbor to the 
 influence of some such blind and undirected agency. 
 
EGERIA. 91 
 
 EXTERNALS. 
 
 The exhibition of national splendor, or of private 
 opulence, is seldom a sure proof of national pros 
 perity. The bankrupt makes his most extrordinary 
 displays of profligacy, just before his open failure ; 
 and there is no moral filth more shocking than that 
 which imperial trappings are employed to conceal. 
 Remarking to a pupil the various transactions which 
 had taken place within a short period, in and about 
 Athens, during the splendid career of Pericles, 
 one of the Greek sages contrasted its condition un 
 favorably with that of the period when it was mostly 
 wanting in its present magnificence. He deplored 
 the luxuries which had sprung up around him, super 
 seding the humble desires and the moderate ambi 
 tions of a virtuous simplicity among the people. 
 Mere beauty of externals could not reconcile him 
 to the rottenness which lay below ; and he predicted 
 those destinies which were inevitable from the indul 
 gence which never suffered its means to regulate 
 the extent of its desires. It is only the few, in 
 any country, who can honestly make an exhibition 
 of wealth, or can virtuously repose in that indolence 
 which even wealth cannot justify. Any struggle, 
 
92 EGERIA. 
 
 therefore, on the part of the great body of the com 
 munity, after the shows and pomps which belong to 
 riches, must be neither more nor less than a contest 
 in fraud for the honors of bankruptcy. The philoso 
 pher would always prefer to see a country thickly 
 scattered over with smiling and cultivated farms, 
 even though, at the same time, the treasury of 
 state or city remained empty, since a people pros 
 perous by means of labor can always meet the emer 
 gency, whatever form it may take, by which state 
 or city is endangered. It is not so certain that 
 state or city can help a dissolute people, who 
 have yet to learn the first rudiments of industry. 
 The noblest edifices in every country, are true 
 hearts and strong hands, souls not debased by indi 
 gence, nor enervated by luxury. These will most 
 certainly be found in every nation, where the go 
 vernment neither subjects them for its creatures, nor 
 affords them an unwholesome example by its pomps 
 a people who will always have a filial love for the 
 soil they cultivate, and for the government, which, 
 protecting them from others, does not itself seek to 
 oppress them! "I would rather," said the sage, 
 " see the national treasury for ever without a penny, 
 than know that any worthy citizen stood hopelessly 
 in need of one." 
 
EGERIA. 93 
 
 MEMORY. 
 
 Ah ! do not grieve that we forget ! 
 
 Far happier, since, when all is known, 
 Memory is but a long regret, 
 
 That only tells us we are lone ; 
 A mournful watcher, day by day, 
 
 And hour by hour, that teaches woe ; 
 Unknown, till Hope has soared away 
 
 Unloved, till Love himself is low ! 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 To make punishments efficacious, two things are 
 necessary. They must never be disproportioned to 
 the offence and they must be certain. If the penal 
 ties of crime be exaggerated beyond what the offence 
 requires, no jury will inflict them if not certain, 
 no offender will fear them. There is in every bosom 
 a natural sentiment of justice, which makes us recoil 
 at severity and the arbitrary decisions of power. 
 Humanity, therefore, refuses to second laws which 
 are not grounded according to the strictest requi 
 sitions of right ; and, however deserving of pu 
 nishment may be the offence, where the proper dis 
 crimination between crimes has not been observed 
 by the law-maker, the moral sense is perfectly justi- 
 
94 EGERIA. 
 
 fied in permitting the escape of the offender, in 
 preference to subjecting a fellow-creature to unde 
 served severities. The penalty of death, under any 
 circumstances, and for any crime, is one of doubt 
 ful propriety and equally doubtful profit ; but how 
 odious and terrible does it appear when inflicted 
 equally upon the cut-purse and the murderer. In 
 some of our States, horse-stealing, burglary, and 
 forgery are punished with death. What worse 
 could be inflicted on the highest offender ? What 
 is this but declaring the life of a man to be of no 
 more value than a bank note, a wind-broken hack 
 ney, or a silver spoon, valued at three shillings ? 
 The natural sense and the social sense equally revolt 
 at penalties so obviously hostile to humanity and 
 the laws of common sense. 
 
 DISTINCTION. 
 
 Distinction is an eminence which is attained 
 but too frequently at the expense of a fireside. 
 
 PENALTY. 
 
 Some one must always pay the piper. The jest, 
 however shallow, is never without its forfeit. Wit 
 and humor are servants which it costs much more to 
 
EGERIA. 95 
 
 work than to feed; and the more prompt and 
 spirited their service, the more dangerous to him 
 whose livery they wear. 
 
 DAY LIFE. 
 
 We should live well by day, if for no other reason 
 than that we should not have bad dreams at night. 
 
 THE MORAL OF A BLOT. 
 
 All things, small and large alike, possess their 
 moral, and no such moral is insignificant. Writing 
 a note this morning, in my haste, I threw a mon 
 strous gout of ink, upon the fair sheet of vellum. 
 Instead of writing a note, I wrote an epigram 
 the moral of a blot : thus 
 
 The hasty hand, the reckless mood, 
 
 Will thus deform the fairest spot; 
 The error of the heart or blood, 
 
 Still leave, where er it works, a blot; 
 How more secure the prudent care, 
 
 That calmly measures well its pace! 
 Thus still the prospect, ever fair, 
 
 Is marked by love, and glows with grace, 
 
 MODERATION IN PROGRESS. 
 Wax fat if you can, but beware how you kick 
 like Jeshurun. Increase of wealth requires a more 
 
96 EGERIA. 
 
 than corresponding increase of wisdom. We are 
 mortal in due degree with the extent of surface 
 which we expose to the archer. A vast territory 
 implies a corresponding difficulty of defence. Our 
 mail should expand with our bulk. He is never so 
 much in danger as he who feels himself entirely safe ; 
 never so liable to overthrow as when he has reached 
 the utmost heights of human elevation. Prosperity 
 is the close neighbor of humility, which is never 
 friendly to the vastness which covers its lowliness 
 with shade. It must never be forgotten that the 
 greatness which compels the respect of inferiority, 
 provokes its evil passions also ; and the humbleness 
 which envies, is near akin to the hostility which 
 never foregoes" an opportunity to destroy. We 
 should never forget, in our power and prosperity, 
 that no sunshine can ward off slander ; no wealth 
 protect against fire ; no luxury secure health ; no 
 authority bring repose. That we should acquire 
 power, is perhaps a duty ; but to resign ourselves to 
 its loss and prepare against it, is something more 
 it is a virtue. 
 
 SLEEP. 
 
 The Genius of Sleep, is an exquisite statue, the 
 
EGERIA. 07 
 
 work of Canova. It has drawn from the Italian 
 poet, Missirini, a beautiful sonnet, which I have 
 taken some liberties with in the translation. 
 
 Ah! see, where purer than the Alpine snows, 
 Born of the chisel of creative art, 
 The angel beauties of the creature start 
 To being, couched in delicate repose ! 
 A peace celestial wraps his flowing hair, 
 As if consenting heaven and nature there, 
 Had wrought together on the form divine, 
 To bless the sculptor, in his dreams of grace! 
 Such, and so fair, was Adam, when he first 
 Sat in the lap of innocence so pure, 
 The joy that on his countenance lay sure; 
 So full of love the smile upon his face 
 When, from his shadowing side, fair Eva burst, 
 And her first accents told him "I am thine!" 
 
 ENEMIES OF DISCOVERY. 
 
 It is probable that all the new discoveries of an 
 age, or people, are conceived and made, nearly at 
 the same moment, by many minds who have ap 
 proached them by similar processes. Truths, which 
 Crod has accorded gradually always, and in due 
 degree with the increased capacity of a race for 
 their inception, are apt to be sown broadcast upon 
 the earth. They are quite too precious to be risked 
 
 9 
 
98 EGERIA. 
 
 in single hands. Thus, failing to take root, and 
 spring up, in one region, they are yet secure of 
 growth and tendence in other quarters, more tho 
 roughly prepared to receive them, and, as is more 
 likely to be the case, more willing to give them the 
 needful care and cultivation. One community might, 
 just as well as another, produce the new truth ; 
 since, with the same race, there are, in all its tribes, 
 numbers of God-appointed men, for the purpose of 
 developing it; but the community only too often 
 refuses to hearken to its own prophet, and denies 
 him the privilege of sowing the very seed of whose 
 fruits they are to reap. It is difficult to conceive 
 the vast discoveries which communities have lost, 
 simply from a base and blind jealousy of their own 
 sons. 
 
 ART TRIBUTARY TO GENIUS. 
 
 How often is it that the man of genius, as he 
 improves in art, subjects his creative attributes to 
 its trammels. How much of his vigor will he re 
 fine away, in obedience to laws which, good enough 
 in their way, and necessary to a certain extent, 
 are yet adverse to the due development of the ima 
 gination, when it fairly clothes itself in wings. 
 
EGERIA. 99 
 
 It is highly important to refine, but it is fatal to the 
 higher works of Genius to refuse to give way to 
 thought in obedience to Art. To arrest the flight 
 of the eagle to the eminence, when the first impetus 
 to flight is fully given, is to make him settle down 
 like a common bustard, on the tottering summits of 
 an ant-hill. 
 
 CONDITIONS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 The condition and the secret of liberty are per 
 petual vigilance. But perpetual vigilance is scarcely 
 within the capacity of man. His smaller, and 
 seemingly, his more immediate interests, are always 
 pressing those out of sight, which, involving princi 
 ples of general character, are apt to appear shadowy 
 and abstract. Keeping this danger and difficulty 
 in mind, it should not be a subject of regret that 
 power is always wont, at frequent periods, to forget 
 its limitations, and trespass upon the possessions it 
 . was set to guard. Such assaults, at such periods, 
 become benefits, and recall men to first principles. 
 They convert the abstract into a practical question, 
 and arouse the people to the just appreciation of 
 the relations between themselves and their rulers. 
 This leads to the strengthening of ancient bulwarks, 
 
100 EGERIA. 
 
 and the designation anew of the landmarks of lib 
 erty. Power, when it becomes tyranny, is about to 
 commit suicide. Quern deus vult perdere, prius 
 dementat. This is no mischance. The evil is about 
 to work its own cure. There is necessary, in all 
 society, a period of purification : men, from sloth, 
 ignorance, or an overtamed confidence in their 
 fortune or their institutions, slumber over their 
 rights and duties. They are the last to believe in 
 the danger as threatening them, which they very 
 clearly behold operating against the peace of other 
 nations ; and the conduct of their affairs naturally 
 passes into the hands of those who are equally 
 vicious, weak, and irresponsible. The tyrant, then, 
 is but an instrument in the hands of that Pro 
 vidence which still 
 
 " Shapes our ends, 
 Rough hew them as we will." 
 
 He becomes necessary to waken them from their 
 slumbers, lest worse should happen ; for habitual 
 apathy in a people, is worse, a thousand times, than 
 revolution and civil war. It is only thus that they 
 rouse themselves to all the obligations of civil 
 liberty. If liberty be liberal, she must be jealous 
 
EGERIA. 101 
 
 also. To preserve her chastity, she must be armed 
 with perpetual vigilance, a far more efficient agent 
 than the secret dagger. Those who seek her em 
 braces must be taught to remember that she is only 
 to be won by the virtuous, the enlightened, and the 
 brave only to be kept in always immaculate pos 
 session, by unceasing love, true courage, and a wea 
 pon always ready and sharpened for the strife. 
 
 CUNNING OF BEAUTY. 
 
 The sarcasm, in the following epigram from the 
 Portuguese, is surely not a very malignant one. 
 
 " Within her breast, more white than snows, 
 Fair Amaryllis- plants the rose ; 
 Not that the flower should fix your eyes, 
 But the sweet garden where it lies." 
 
 BIRTH OF TRUTH. 
 
 The conception of a new truth, or a new philoso 
 phy, must, for a long time, precede its illustration 
 by open argument. Men, in fact, will feel a truth, 
 or a principle, long before they reduce it to specu 
 lation ; and will gradually grow to think upon it, 
 long before they develope their discoveries by dis 
 cussion. The earth will thus, as it were, be prepared 
 
102 EGERIA. 
 
 for the plant before the seed is sown. A sentiment 
 will thus diffuse itself among a race, before their 
 metaphysicians shall have suspected its existence, 
 or recognised its presence ; and such a sentiment, 
 thus acquired and unconsciously possessed, will 
 afford, by the very peculiar nature of its birth and 
 quiet diffusion, an d priori in behalf of its vitality. 
 It will not be the ingenious theory or conjecture of 
 a single mind, but the mute instinct of a multitude. 
 
 TRUE AND FALSE. 
 
 The True is the inevitable for ever a be-coming 
 i. e. a thing being to be. It is therefore the 
 indestructible. That you may not see, or believe it 
 when seen, only proves that you do not yet know 
 where, or how, to look for your own securities. 
 The False , on the other hand, is a thing perfect 
 from the first. Thus it is, that, with every facility 
 for the exercise of its power, it tends evermore 
 to self-destruction. The False is never long-lived. 
 It dies out with every generation. In the nature 
 of things, its danger is in due proportion to its ac 
 tivity ; and this is the remarkable respect in which 
 it differs most from Truth, which grows from exer 
 cise, and finds its bulk, and its force, from its very 
 
EGERIA. 103 
 
 diffusiveness. Error is never more safe than when 
 it is stationary Truth never more triumphant than 
 when she struggles with her adversary. 
 
 PATRIOTISM OF TRUTH. 
 
 There is the patriotism of truth, a subject which 
 seems inseparable from any consideration of its 
 intrinsic qualities. Moralists are not yet determined 
 whether instances may not occur in which falsehood 
 may not only be permitted, but would be justifiable. 
 Perhaps, if our survey in the moral world were 
 bounded only by the present hour and the pressing 
 necessity, the proposition might be answered in the 
 affirmative. But moral things, unlike all others, 
 endure for all ages extend through all nations 
 affect the destinies of all times, and form the most 
 imposing interests of eternity. We cannot, there 
 fore, reason on such a subject with a simple reference 
 to the present case and the passing moment. The 
 truth concerns our children as well as ourselves. 
 The truth belongs to our people as well as to our 
 family. It is essential to man throughout it is 
 the great essential of the human race, and on its 
 immortality depends their own their greatness, 
 happiness, and glory. A falsehood is likely to do 
 
104 EGERIA. 
 
 harm ultimately, in some way or other, and with 
 greater or less degree of hurt. It is an experiment 
 in poisoning, and it is doubtful whether our fingers, 
 having once dealt in it, will ever become free from 
 the taint. Falsehood, by itself, might be of little 
 danger ; but it is never by itself. It runs and repro 
 duces itself the moment it is born. But its attitude 
 of greatest evil is as the direct antagonist of truth. 
 It is an active principle, as subtle as light, which is 
 its opposite. A fanciful allegory of one of the 
 Orientals, very happily describes every new truth as 
 immediately marshalling itself among the children 
 of light, in the ranks of God ; while every falsehood, 
 in like manner, and by a like instinct, ranges itself 
 instantly under the sable standard of Lucifer. They 
 become, each in its place, spirits of power ; and 
 traverse the world, in behalf of their respective 
 commanders, engaging in frequent conflict when 
 they meet ; and making an eternal battle-field of 
 that province of civil discord, the poor, benighted, 
 scourged, and ravaged heart of man ! The idea 
 seems to me quite as felicitous as fanciful. The 
 question is asked, "May we not, in the last hope of 
 struggling humanity, resort to falsehood, where 
 this is obviously the only mode left of escape from 
 
EGERIA. 105 
 
 unjust torture, punishment, and death?" The ex 
 ample of the apostles might be relied on here. 
 They have answered the question. Christ, in an 
 ticipation, rebuked the feebleness of Peter, who, 
 shrinking from human penalties, denied equally the 
 truth and his Master. But the case supposed is 
 one in which, though you yourself escape, the false 
 hood may do harm ; and the truth, though you 
 perish, must ultimately be productive of good. 
 Your martyrdom, aloije, would most probably over 
 throw the tyranny, by arousing the people, whom 
 no less matter could inspirit into activity, and to a 
 just sense of the general danger. Such was the 
 martyrdom of the Saviour and the Saints ; and, for a 
 like object, the safety and circulation of the truth, 
 for the preservation of the many. I grant that 
 martyrdom is not very desirable under any circum 
 stances ; and that it is not the ordinary mind which 
 will be willing to encounter it in any behalf. 
 But, there are men, fortunately for mankind, to 
 whom the truth itself brings consolation enough ; 
 and whom glorious memories in after times, and a 
 perpetually musing gratitude, keep holy through 
 long ages, and thus reward for their sufferings under 
 the scourge and upon the rack. The pang of deatli 
 
106 EGEUIA. 
 
 is only an instant in duration, but the life which 
 follows in consequence is eternal, and as glorious 
 as eternal. 
 
 What would have been, what would be the case, 
 if there were not, and had not been, such men ? 
 Where would be our glory, our strength, our secu 
 rity, happiness, and intellectual freedom, but for 
 those daring and enduring martyrs, who, with a 
 spirit setting at defiance every weakness of the flesh, 
 have gone fearlessly into the gloomy dens of ancient 
 error, denouncing the superstition, overthrowing the 
 idol, and setting up the true God, which is truth ? 
 All innovation upon established customs is invaria 
 bly and sturdily resisted, and men are known to 
 fight for their prejudices who would never fight for 
 their country. The teacher of the hitherto unknown 
 truth, in all past times, has been stoned to death by 
 the serviles of ancient error. In this way perished 
 the long array of the "just made perfect," the 
 saint, the sage, the philosopher, and the patriot of 
 all who have ever shown an honest determination to 
 seek out and elevate the truth, in the teeth of un 
 holy prejudice and unwise passion ! Our condition 
 would be lamentable indeed, if there were not some 
 few consecrated spirits in every nation, and through 
 
EGERIA. 107 
 
 all periods, who, scorning the policy of the world 
 ling (which, for the uncertain safety of the moment, 
 would barter the glorious guarantee of permanent as 
 surance), can appreciate and assert the true nature 
 and just rights of his race, without reference to the 
 penalty or the reward ! There will be truth-loving 
 men to the last, whatever the bondage, however 
 ruthless the pursuing enemy, who, looking beyond 
 their own day and destiny, from the moral Pisgah, 
 will direct their people to the distant Promise. 
 Who, sustained and stimulated by higher and holier 
 considerations than the love of gain or aggrandize 
 ment, or the yet meaner desire of safety and obscu 
 rity, will challenge the tyrant of error and abusive 
 custom openly in the highways ; and, like the Pea 
 sant Tell, amidst the spears of his enemies, refuse, 
 though they stand alone, to bow down, in derogation 
 of the truth, before the cap of usurpation ! 
 
 BLESSED IN DENIAL. 
 
 I think the Spaniards have shown themselves quite 
 as successful with the epigram as any other modern 
 people. The following, imitated from that language, 
 is doubly pointed. It is in fact two epigrams in one. 
 The reader will excuse a slight grammatical error, 
 
108 EGERIA. 
 
 which, for the rhyme s sake, it was scarcely possible 
 to avoid. " Kings are not more imperative than 
 rhymes." 
 
 To seek his wife, with little profit, 
 The Thracian Orpheus went to Tophet ; 
 A realm of such a sad condition, 
 He could not seek on sadder mission : 
 Disposed to punish quest so human, 
 Grim Pluto gave him up the woman ; 
 Yet, as the Bard s song overcome him , 
 Grew softened, and back took her from him. 
 
 SUCCOR. 
 
 Would you have succor, do not cry for assistance, 
 so long as it is possible that your straits may be 
 seen by those who might bestow it. Better that 
 they should volunteer their service, than that you 
 should appeal to their philanthropy. In the former 
 case, their consciousness of a generous act will suf 
 ficiently reward them ; in the latter, you may expect 
 that they will frequently remind you of their succor. 
 Not to seem to want help, is greatly to insure your 
 chance of getting it. In money matters, this is 
 particularly the case. People are never more lavish 
 in their proffers of aid than when they feel satisfied 
 that they shall not be taken at the word. 
 
EGERIA. 109 
 
 GHOST-SEEING. 
 
 The moment that Philosophy conceived the idea 
 of a plurality of worlds, from that moment the faith 
 seems pretty much to have died out in spiritual 
 visitations. The discovery of new realms and re 
 gions for which occupants were yet to be furnished, 
 seems naturally to have suggested a whereabouts for 
 the habitation of the departed. That they should 
 no longer revisit the " glimpses of our moon," is to 
 be accounted for by the adequate employment which 
 they find in their own. The conjecture is, at all 
 events, quite as agreeable to us, as it ought to be 
 satisfactory to them. The idea of poor, thin, naked 
 ghosts prowling about their old homesteads at mid 
 night, is quite distressing to us but wholly on their 
 account. 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 And the Genius of Death, with his brow bound 
 about with the gloomy hemlock, and bearing in his 
 hands a living but leafless cypress, stood beside the 
 couch where Washington lay : 
 
 "I will quench this light," said the Genius "I 
 will overcome this lofty spirit, which, forgetting me, 
 mankind delights to honor." 
 10 
 
110 EG EII i A. 
 
 " Thou quench this light ! thou overcome this 
 spirit!" replied the Genius of Eternal Fame, stand 
 ing also beside the couch of the sleeping father 
 " Oh, fool that thou art ! he hath given thee immor 
 tality in dying at thy hands." 
 
 STATESMANSHIP. 
 
 To the sight of ordinary men, there is, at this 
 moment, scarcely anything desirable in the position 
 of ministers either in Europe or America. There 
 seems to be everywhere at hand, a general breaking 
 up of the waters. All the political elements are in 
 commotion, and moderate-minded men may well be 
 modest. Timidity naturally shrinks from trials be 
 yond its strength ; but it is the occasion and the 
 necessity, which are the true accoucheurs of genius. 
 It is only in the storm that the mighty spirit is 
 roused to exertion ; who, when the sky was un 
 troubled and serene, seemed to enjoy its repose 
 beyond all others, and betrayed almost as little con 
 sciousness of life as of ambition. The necessity 
 breeds the power by which it is to be controlled ; and 
 the external pressure alone informs society of the 
 energies which it keeps, as it forces into action the 
 sluggish spirit which never suspected its own strength- 
 
EGERIA. Ill 
 
 Holiday statesmen, like holiday soldiers fierce 
 people on parade are seldom the performing per 
 sons in the day of battle. On such occasions, if they 
 do not wholly keep out of sight, they very soon con 
 vict themselves of incompetence or imbecility, and 
 are summarily dismissed, by shot or scorn, to their 
 more appropriate places. Mediocrity seems to be 
 the great misfortune of present statesmanship. It 
 is doubtful where to find the leading mind equal to 
 the occasion, as it now threatens, equally, perhaps, 
 in Great Britain, America, and France. As the 
 storm advances, and the danger presses, the penalty 
 will have to be paid by each of these nations for the 
 feeble conduct into which they have suffered them 
 selves to fall. But this very penalty, terribly en 
 forced, betrays the careful concern of Providence. 
 But for the chastening we should not have the care, 
 and the penalty must precede the forgiveness. The 
 true man will succeed the imbecile the king-man, 
 born for rule and the storm will cease at the simple 
 waving of his hand. The good ship, with a good 
 pilot at the helm, will reach her harborage. A sick 
 nation, like a sick man, must be physicked, let blood, 
 perhaps, and will suffer from nausea, exhaustion and 
 other evil concomitants, before it entirely recovers. 
 
112 EGEEIA. 
 
 But, in all probability, it will recover. The greatest 
 misfortune, then, and the one that it will remember 
 longest, is the heavy bill of expenses which is to 
 
 follow. 
 
 < 
 
 PRIVILEGES OF BEES ENVIED. 
 
 The fancy, in the following epigram from the 
 Spanish, seems to me very prettily conceived. I do 
 not know how far my version will commend it to 
 other fancies. 
 
 Once when Olivia, in her mouth 
 
 A lovely flower had placed, there came 
 Seeking his beauties of the South 
 
 A bee that stung the lips to flame, 
 Confounding, as he well might do, 
 Their roses with the flow ret s hue. 
 Ah! had my lips instead of his, 
 
 Been suffered there awhile to hang, 
 Mine not alone had felt the bliss, 
 
 Nor thine, alone, the parting pang. 
 
 So it appears to me, is the following, which is 
 from the Spanish also : 
 
 " Teresa s eyes, so brilliant are and black, 
 
 That your own fail you at the first attack." 
 " Black should they be," a suffering victim spoke, 
 " If but in mourning for the hearts they ve broke." 
 
EUERIA. 
 
 PURPOSE. 
 
 To be infirm of purpose, is to be evil of purpose. 
 A strong will, if not absolutely virtue itself, is yet 
 absolutely necessary to all the virtues. He who 
 does not resolve well, will perform ill. Weakness 
 of resolve is mostly wickedness. Indecision of 
 character is laxity of principle. It leaves the mind 
 at the mercy of the passions ; and impulse, which is 
 seldom found associated with a rigid will, is quite as 
 unsteady in principle as in performance. Such a 
 character works precipitately and rashly, with the 
 purpose of concealing the deficiency of which he is 
 himself conscious. He thus frequently precipitates 
 himself in action, which he dare not subject to argu 
 ment. He may tremble at the danger which im 
 pends, but he dreads still more lest you should sus 
 pect the true nature of his fears. 
 
 TO FORTUNE. 
 
 Sylla wisely deferred to Fortune, modestly dis 
 claiming all merit in himself, and claiming to have 
 succeeded only by the succor of the Goddess of 
 Caprice. In buying a lottery ticket, I flattered 
 myself that the adoption of Sylla s moral, would 
 conduct me to success also, ft in;iy bo that the 
 16 
 
114 EGERIA. 
 
 plea which I put in was not sufficiently humble as a 
 petition ; it may be that I somewhat lacked faith 
 in my own prayers. At all events, I got nothing 
 for my pains, but the twenty-five dollars which a 
 magazine publisher paid me for my ode. 
 
 ODE TO FORTUNE ON BUYING A LOTTERY TICKET. 
 
 COY damsel ! as they call thee if in truth, 
 And if no damsel, prithee, let us know, 
 
 How we may style thee whether age or youth 
 With snows or roses decorates your brow ; 
 
 I would be proper in approach good sooth, 
 Is there not reason for my neatest bow ? 
 
 Ten thousand dollars ! To a Bard that s poor 
 
 Ten thousand Muses could not offer more. 
 
 ii. 
 
 More ! but we will not mock thee to compare 
 The gifts of Helicon and song with thine ; 
 
 Muses are well enough choice maids, most rare, 
 And, when consenting, every inch divine ; 
 
 But thou hast gifts and beauties thou art fair 
 In very different fashion from the Nine, 
 
EGERIA. 115 
 
 Ask John J. Astor, Girard, and the rest,* 
 They d n the latter, but declare thee blest ! 
 
 in. 
 
 And rightly ! Thou hast blessed them. In thy 
 face, 
 
 They saw the proper goddess, and were down, 
 Early and late, in every market place, 
 
 Flat on their marrow bones, before the town ; 
 They knew the way to work into thy grace, 
 
 Secure thy favor and escape thy frown ; 
 Though other dames reproached and damsels mut 
 tered, 
 They stuck to her by whom their bread was buttered. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Wise fellows in their season ! Witness thou, 
 Potential Gotham ! in thy halls of trade ; 
 
 And thou, fair Quaker, that by Schuylkill now, 
 Sitt st mourning though in best of silks arrayed ; 
 
 Have ye not temples, that with lordly brow, 
 Loom o er your walls, and from afar persuade, 
 
 * The millionaires, par excellence, of Philadelphia and New 
 York. 
 
116 EGERIA. 
 
 Equally well, as if upon each crest, 
 Were written, "Hither come and imvardly di 
 gest."* 
 
 I ve got by heart the moral of this lesson, 
 
 And know the goddess now should have my 
 prayer : 
 
 Thee, Fortune, thee I seek, and with best dress 
 
 on, 
 Before thy golden altars I appear ; 
 
 No muses now for me no more I press on, 
 Their garden height of Helicon my care, 
 
 Is for one mistress only ; this dividing 
 
 One s love mongst nines a bad way of providing. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Long have I sung their beauties until now, 
 Sung vainly, and deplore my wasted themes ;| 
 
 Henceforth, for thee alone, I scratch my brow, 
 Provoke my fancies and prepare my dreams ; 
 
 * A motto certainly equally appropriate to college and chop- 
 house. 
 
 f Query ; Reams ? Printer s Devil. 
 
EGEKIA. 117 
 
 Oh ! thine are charms to bid one- s numbers flow, 
 Restore one s credit in this world of schemes, 
 Enable him all doubtful paths to shun, 
 And fill with new-born faith both creditor and dun. 
 
 VII. 
 
 I am your humble servant ! Scarce acquainted, 
 I am your friend, nor wonder that tis so ; 
 
 By friend and foe alike, so brightly painted, 
 In Astor s palace seen, and Girard s Row, 
 
 I could not rest until I was presented 
 And for this pleasant introduction to, 
 
 Your premises I m still without the gate 
 
 I ve paid five dollars, money of this state.* 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Against this bargain nothing I inveigh, 
 I will not say that it had been as well, 
 
 And far more liberal to demand no pay 
 
 From one whose desk was never known to swell 
 
 With aught but tale, and song, and antique lay 
 Commodities too highly priced to sell ! 
 
 * Which state ? The question is in repudiation times, an im 
 portant one. 
 
118 EGERIA. 
 
 I do not grudge the money but my loathing 
 Will follow, if my venture comes to nothing. 
 
 Better than this to have me at thy feet, 
 Full of thy favor, joyous in thy care, 
 
 And with a song declaring of the sweet, 
 Thee sweetest still, and fairest of the fair ; 
 
 Than bitterness of angry Bard to greet, 
 
 Denounced, as thou hast been, for many a year, 
 
 Blindest of powers that be, for aye bestowing, 
 
 Thy bounties on the biggest booby going. 
 
 X. 
 
 From this would I redeem thee. I would sing 
 Thy judgment that discriminating sense, 
 
 Beyond bamboozlement of human thing, 
 Most worthily dispensing of thy pence ; 
 
 Sending thy couriers forth on tireless wing, 
 Searching out merit, worth, and excellence, 
 
 Seeking, as the recipients of thy pelf, 
 
 All clever good, young persons like myself. 
 
 XI. 
 
 I ll be your laureate each returning year, 
 
 Meet your approach with birth-day ode and lay, 
 
EGERIA. 119 
 
 And celebrate your beauties in the clear, 
 And entertain your bounties in the clay ; 
 
 Tell of your youth beside your face how fair, 
 For ever bright with eye of golden ray 
 
 Your various parts of excellence rehearse, 
 
 Your various gifts of person and of purse. 
 
 XII. 
 
 All this, for such a very paltry sum 
 
 Ten thousand dollars ! By my soul, I fear 
 
 Lest scorn of such a trifle keep you dumb : 
 
 Too low the homage, will the Goddess hear ? 
 
 Then make it twenty thirty let them come 
 The English Cross, the Mexic cavalier, 
 
 I ll meet a host of such, whate er their color 
 
 Or stamp the Spanish onze, or coarse white homely 
 dollar. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Ha ! Ha ! the happy renegades I see em, 
 In my mind s eye ; in gold and silver trim ; 
 
 The doubloon bright the lordly Joe survey em 
 Brave eagle, with an aspect awful grim ; 
 
 And what are these, with " promises to pay" 
 
 Hem! 
 In squads of five and ten, with colors dim 
 
120 EGERIA. 
 
 Bank notes, indeed, methinks I ll make the most of 
 
 em, 
 At least, you ll find I m equal to a host of em. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Oh, lady Queen of mine how bright this vision, 
 Do thou confirm it all. My calculation, 
 
 Based on thy wisdom, and this dream Elysian, 
 Has made me face a mountain of vexation 
 
 I spoke my creditors with calm decision, 
 " Meet me to-morrow at a cold collation" 
 
 And cold enough twill be for them and me too, 
 
 Unless twill please you the cold meats to see to. 
 
 XV. 
 
 A jail s a hateful thing its architecture 
 
 Is in a style I never could abide ; 
 A tailor s bill s a thing beyond conjecture, 
 
 Beyond all measure long, all breeches wide ; 
 And for the sheriff let him once detect your 
 
 Uncertain standing, he is at your side 
 A certain hold, until he finds you lodging 
 In some dark quarter, beyond debt or dodging. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 No more of this this prospect s none of ours 
 Fair Queen of Fortune, unto you I fly 
 
EGERIA. 121 
 
 Mcthinks this ticket leads me to jour bowers, 
 These mystic numbers do I hear them sigh 
 
 The "open sesame ?" are such their powers, 
 To force the vault the want to satisfy, 
 
 Silence the dun provide the fond desire ? 
 
 Else fate confound ye, Yates and Mclntire.* 
 
 WILL. 
 
 But there must be a strong will wherever a reform 
 is to be eifected. All virtue, to have any real value, 
 to be made available to any useful purpose, must be 
 coupled with a large degree of courage. Our hope 
 is in this fact, as it suggests a distinct argument to 
 the pride of the people required to perform. We 
 must be bold and resolute, even to attempt what we 
 think necessary. But the most essential courage, 
 in all reforms of a moral nature, is, first, to make 
 just confession of our own deficiencies. Could we 
 always have the daring to admit that we only are 
 what each one knows himself to be ! This, and no 
 more, as the times go, calls for a more than ordi 
 nary degree of hardihood. Few of us are willing 
 to admit that our neighbors can excel us in any re- 
 
 * Famous lottery dealers. 
 11 
 
122 EGBRIA. 
 
 spect. How seldom do we hear the confession that 
 one cannot afford to do what is done by others. 
 Who confesses his inability to do this, and to buy 
 that ? to achieve this conquest, or enjoy that luxu 
 ry ? This miserable cowardice, the progeny of 
 vanity wholly, runs through the entire circle of so 
 ciety. The miserable trinkets which decorate our 
 persons ; our riotous and lavish modes of living ; 
 the constant changes of dress and furniture ; 
 the costliness of the material employed for both ; 
 these, with a thousand other heads of expenditure, 
 have become almost universal sins among us. The 
 conceited husband operates upon the money market, 
 and fancies that, by a judicious nod of the head, or 
 bend of the finger, which he alone knows how to 
 make at the right season, he has possessed himself 
 of Aladdin s treasure. That butterfly being, his 
 wife, would persuade the world, by her gold and 
 purple exhibitions, that all his fancies are facts. 
 The son rates himself, under the same happy sys 
 tem, as a millionaire, and spends like one ; and the 
 daughter, if the boarding schools have not already 
 done all the mischief, soon proves that the task is 
 one which society cannot find it difficult to perform. 
 And what, for a season, at least, shall possibly set 
 
EGERIA. 123 
 
 a limit to the money follies, and the world follies, 
 and the head and heart follies of all these foolish 
 people ? Nothing but that blight, as inevitable as 
 the frost to the flower at the usual season, which 
 bites the precocious mushroom to the root, and con 
 signs it to a poverty for which no preparation has been 
 made. The whole life of such people is a lie, and 
 must continue a hopeless lie, until they gain sufficient 
 moral courage to act the truth boldly, and to appear 
 only in habits of the truth. But, most of these 
 evils, evils of the meanest vanity, arise from exag 
 gerations of trade ; the illusions of which, like 
 those of Oriental fable, beguile and bewilder, until 
 all the standards of comparison are utterly lost ; and 
 the poor dreamer, like some painted vessel, with 
 flags flying, and all sails spread, rushes on, uncon 
 scious, careering, proud, headlong into the dismal 
 Maelstrom, which is a real vortex, to be found in 
 every human sea. 
 
 INSTINCTS OF MEN. 
 
 One of the great but secret causes of human fail 
 ure and perversion, is the reluctance of men to 
 recognise their instincts. The pride of intellect is 
 not willing to refer to any other authority than 
 
124 EGERIA. 
 
 reason, and we begin the work of self-sophistication 
 on the very threshold of existence. Of the simplest 
 objects we contrive to fashion mysteries of the sim 
 plest arts, sciences and the very things of which 
 nature would seem to require of us the immediate 
 personal performance, we strangely enough defer to 
 a foreign authority. What more completely our 
 own providence than our own feelings and health, 
 our own rights and interests, our own spiritual na 
 ture and religion? Yet all these concerns, which 
 can be attended to by nobody half so properly as 
 by ourselves, we studiously put out of our own con 
 trol. Hence, our lawyer can give us the most com 
 plicated and admirable system of laws, but no justice ; 
 our doctor, the most variously compounded medi 
 cines, but no cure ; our priest, every variety of 
 doctrine, but no religion certainly no safety. But, 
 even the farmer, sophisticating like the rest, in his 
 ambition to make a science of his art, too frequently 
 fails in making a crop. Yet, it is very certain that 
 nothing in the world is so easy of attainment as food, 
 health, justice, and religion, if we will only, with 
 common honesty and diligence, take the matter into 
 our own hands. The things most esssential to all, 
 not only to the health and happiness, but to the 
 
EUERIA. 125 
 
 absolute safety of man, were never intended by the 
 Deity to be withdrawn from his own immediate con 
 trol ; and man will never know safety in any of his 
 interests until he resumes all the privileges he has 
 blindly parted with. It seems to be clear, that 
 among his personal duties are these : he must earn 
 his own bread learn his own bodily condition 
 what is its meat and what is its poison farm his own 
 lands, and carry on his own intercourse with heaven, 
 to the employment of as few intermediate agents as 
 possible. Individuality, and hence, individual re 
 sponsibility, is the grand feature which distinguishes 
 man from every other animal. 
 
 SAXON EPIGRAMS. 
 
 The Saxon muse is not endowed with a playful 
 wit. Her most merry moods have a spice of earnest 
 ness, that is very like ferocity. English wit does 
 not skim over the surface. It does not merely dip 
 its wing like the osprey. It dives deep. It strikes 
 hard. Its play is most generally horse-play. It 
 does not love mere witticisms. It not only breaks 
 the skin, but leaves salt behind it in the wound. 
 The place smarts long after the stroke is given. In 
 this respect it seems to differ largely from the humor 
 11* 
 
126 EGERIA. 
 
 of the Continent, which merely ruffles the surface 
 of one s good nature, and passes off with a wing as 
 light and sportive as the butterfly. The leaven of 
 Puritanism a stern keenness an acrid resentment 
 seems to distinguish most English and American 
 epigrams. Here follows a batch, marked clearly, if 
 not absolutely engendered, by this spirit. It is a 
 spirit of sarcasm and satire rather than of wit and 
 humor ; though it has more point than belongs to 
 the epigram of the classics. The first following, 
 seems to me to suggest a terrible picture of a heart 
 less, malignant man. 
 
 TOM S ASSOCIATES. 
 
 Tom s choice, in fellowship and friends 
 
 Behold his levee s silent throngs ; 
 Bad measures, meant for viler ends, 
 
 Foul thoughts and meditated wrongs: 
 All passions bow, all base desires, 
 
 And prejudices, monster-grown, 
 Crowd to the salon of his sires, 
 
 Yet Tom is in his house, alone ! 
 
 Here follows another of the same school and tem 
 per : 
 
EGERIA. 127 
 
 TOM S CHARITY. 
 
 Tom s charity, of most enormous size, 
 Is unrestrained by common laws of pelf; 
 
 He pampers that all other men despise, 
 
 The vilest of all worthless things himself! 
 
 " Poor Tom" gets it again, on the score of another 
 of his virtues. 
 
 TOM S OPINION. 
 
 Tom holds me quite unworthy of his thought, 
 But such a notion makes me nothing grim, 
 
 For, do you see, I all along have taught 
 That Tom s opinion s only worthy him. 
 
 If Tom is not perfectly satisfied with these demon 
 strations of the epigrammatist, here follows some 
 thing evidently intended to give the coup de grace. 
 
 TOM S SELF-ESTEEM. 
 
 Tom says, " on such as me, he still looks down," 
 I doubt not this, provided he can show, 
 
 That, in the moral pillory of the town, 
 The scoundrel may see anything below. 
 
 WOE. AN APOLOGUE. 
 
 A voice was heard crying from the wilderness, 
 and it came, saying : " My name is Woe ! Fain 
 
128 EUEKIA. 
 
 would I make my home among the rocks ! There 
 would I find fellowship there, by the lonely, ever- 
 sounding sea in the deep tracts of the wasted 
 desert ! But a will beyond my own, sends me 
 abroad among the habitations of men. I traverse 
 the highways I pass into the cities I must still 
 seek the dwellings of man I must dog his foot 
 steps." 
 
 And the people of the cities strove in terror when 
 they heard the accents of that hollow-sounding voice. 
 A deep fear fell upon all hearts. Some crossed the 
 seas in flight, some fled up into the mountains where 
 the gray bird, among the sharp bald cliffs, builds his 
 eyrie, and fancies himself secure. Others again 
 took shelter among the caves, where the adder hides 
 and hisses. But the voice went with them into the 
 caves, and upon the mountains, and it followed the 
 fugitives upon the great highway of the seas. 
 
 And thus, once more, the voice was heard to com 
 plain : " Sorrowful and sleepless is this toil ! Fain 
 would I return to the wilderness ; fain would I rest 
 me beside the ever-sounding shore on the sharp 
 crags of the black icy mountain hearkening to 
 mournful winds that traverse the gray desert with 
 out rest; I would dwell only in dark and silent 
 
EGERIA. 129 
 
 places ! I am of the brood of the unlovely and the 
 unloving ! I seek the cloudy and the sad ! Give 
 me voices from the storm and from the starless 
 night ! These better suit me than the crowd and 
 the laughing city !" 
 
 Then, another voice was heard, feebler and sadder 
 than his own. It rose sudden beside him, even 
 where he sat, crouching by a hearth where the fire 
 had gone out in ashes, and there was no more heat. 
 The voice was human like his own ! and she who 
 spoke rose ; a woman, gaunt and wretched : and 
 she crawled from beneath the gray folds of his 
 mantle, where she had lain unseen ; and she stood 
 up before the shape, looking him boldly in his blank 
 visage. These were her words : " And wherefore 
 shouldst thou yearn for the loneliness of the rocks 
 and seas ; the pathless desert, and the many-sound 
 ing shore ! Thou hast brought hither a deeper 
 loneliness. Thou hast made the city a likeness 
 unto them. From sea, rock, and desert, the deso 
 lation all fled when thou didst take thy departure. 
 The loneliness belongs only to thee. Wouldst thou 
 fly from thyself ! Thou canst not fly from me ! 
 Thou hast made me thine. Thou hast wedded me 
 with a fearful sign ; the earth bears proof of our 
 
130 EGERIA. 
 
 bridal ! Henceforth thou art mine for ever. Thou 
 hast left me none other than thee. Thou shalt 
 never leave me more !" 
 
 And she crawled once more beneath the gray folds 
 of his heavy mantle ; and, in silence, with his iron 
 staff, Woe stirred the dull ashes upon the hearth ; and 
 he no longer yearned for the loneliness of the sound 
 ing sea, the bald rock, and the pathless desert, for 
 he felt that a greater loneliness was there ! 
 
 VENERATION. 
 
 Shall we not give, of all the past has brought us, 
 
 A something to the future ? 
 Your father left you a most noble statue, 
 
 The chiselled work of Phidias ; 
 You have a son that one day will demand it 
 
 Twas left in trust to you. 
 Twas not alone your wealth it did belong 
 
 To all your grandsire s family. 
 He had a thought, when dying, that looked forward, 
 
 To countless heirs and ages 
 No limit stopped the wish of the immortal, 
 
 His eye, from the dim summit, 
 Had glimpses of the vast eternity 
 
 His foot was on its threshold. 
 
EUERIA. 131 
 
 Where are his noble lands, his fine old mansion, 
 
 The grounds, the garden all, 
 He took such pains to cultivate and finish, 
 
 Have passed away to strangers 
 His children wander into foreign countries, 
 
 Their toils and deeds ignoble 
 Twas you that robbed them of their heritage, 
 
 The old familiar images, 
 That, in the flight of ages, grow to teachers, 
 
 And lift the soul that listens. 
 Exiled from home and fortune, they are exiles 
 
 From places that were holy, 
 Till they have none of the old religion left, 
 
 And fly the ancient temples. 
 Traitor to trusts, that hope and love had hallowed, 
 
 And age had made most sacred, 
 Answer ! the shadows of old time demand it, 
 
 And summon for the future 
 Thou hast been false to both, hast lived for neither, 
 
 But to the selfish present hast devoted 
 The rights of time go, profligate make answer 
 
 To the eternity, and hear thy doom. 
 As thou hast lived but for thyself, go perish, 
 
 There is no need of thee, 
 Nor God, nor man, nor time, eternity, 
 
 Neither have need of thee. 
 
132 EGERIA. 
 
 APOLOGUE OF GENIUS. 
 
 " Genius," said the Eastern magian, " was from 
 the first an exile ; was born afar from his parental 
 home ; his birthplace was within the tangled maze 
 of an interminable forest ; neglect and sorrow were 
 his handmaids, and he nursed at the breast of denial. 
 Though born with wings, he was yet without hands." 
 The apologue is meant to exhibit the utter destitu 
 tion of the child, who is at the same time inspired 
 by an ambition which makes him forever restless, 
 and impatient of restraint. Without hands, he is 
 unequal to the task of providing for himself, in the 
 struggles of his fellow-men. In a forest, without a 
 guide, he is in perpetual bewilderment ; and the sole 
 object of his aim and endeavor, is the glory of that 
 blue sphere which he discovers in the brief openings 
 of the trees above him. His inspiration and his 
 native home are alike imaged by his wings. The 
 philosopher continues : " his sole endeavor is to ex 
 tricate himself from the labyrinth in w r hich he is 
 involved, and regain the dwelling for which his fate 
 had designed him, and which smiles down so attrac 
 tively upon him. Without hands, every branch and 
 vine forms an insurmountable impediment, and all 
 
EGERIA. 133 
 
 in vain does his feet seek out a beaten pathway. 
 The only means left him is to leap up into the sky, 
 and thus attain the far prospect which his inward 
 spirit prompts him to claim and consider his own. 
 But the boughs are so intimately intertwined above, 
 that all his efforts are fruitless, and he is always 
 beaten back : after a short life of protracted strug 
 gles for his freedom and enlargement, he sinks down 
 despondingly upon the earth which denied him a 
 home, but willingly furnishes a grave." Then, u as 
 the sage pursues his picture, comes autumn," whom 
 he describes as " a gentle and melancholy matron, 
 with a sadly sweet sorrow, who bending the branches 
 closely above, and strewing the sere leaves over him, 
 performs for him the offices which all other hands 
 have withheld. In course of years, men, mortified 
 by self-rebuke, gather about the frail shelter, and 
 build one of stone in its place ; but, methinks," con 
 tinued the sage, " the flowers and leaves had been 
 the more fitting memorial, since they tell of a bloom 
 and beauty which were unrivalled ; a shrinking spirit 
 which the storms crushed ; and of an odor which 
 survives, and even hallows decay." 
 12 
 
134 EGERIA. 
 
 LEARN TO FORGET. 
 
 The following is a paraphrase, rather than a 
 translation, from the Italian of Maffei. " Learn to 
 forget is the lesson it conveys, an imperfect moral, 
 perhaps, since it is scarcely possible that any expe 
 rience is decreed us only to be discarded. 
 
 Why ever thus, 0! beautiful but grieving, 
 
 Still silent in thy sorrow, drooping lone, 
 Even as that genius. Fate is still bereaving, 
 
 That broods, with hooded eyes, above the burial stone. 
 
 Ah ! should the rose, by insect tribes forsaken, 
 
 Those gay, capricious libertines of flowers, 
 Should she with grief, for such as these, o ertaken, 
 
 Lose, in her tears, the hues, bright hues which make her powers. 
 
 Sweet, sad one ! learn forgetfulness, and gladden, 
 
 In each new winglet Hope delights to bring ; 
 To brood o er cruel memories is to madden, 
 
 With snakes that round the heart still ever wind and sting. 
 
 Dear one, forget! or think that the worst anguish, 
 
 Is still a blessing sent thee by our God : 
 Either oblivion s draught, and cease to languish, 
 
 Or meekly take thy cup, and lowly kiss thy rod. 
 
 REVERIE. 
 
 To think without a purpose is quite as bad as to 
 
EGERIA. 135 
 
 act without a purpose. Reverie is no doubt very 
 pleasant, and has its uses, when indulged in after 
 the day V work is over. But reverie, which takes 
 the place of day s work, leaves the mind in a con 
 tinual state of twilight. Men who thus indulge, are 
 usually fidgetty and feeble ; filled with notions in 
 stead of thoughts : chasing shadows instead of 
 realities ; with new theories every day ; new wonders 
 every dawning ; abandoning their objects the moment 
 they conceive them, and employing themselves in 
 life with no more aim than the boy who chases but 
 terflies, or the little girl, who fills her apron with 
 shells, upon the beach, only to throw them away 
 again. 
 
 NATURAL IDEA OF GOD. 
 
 Man has always found it more easy to conceive 
 the idea of God than of a system. It is much more 
 easy to suppose that some one made the world, than 
 simply that the world was made. Our difficulty, 
 which was small in conceiving the principle, increases 
 wonderfully when we inquire into the processes. 
 
136 EGEEIA. 
 
 VIGILANCE. 
 
 A FRAGMENT OF A DRAMA. 
 
 No more of this ! So well thou playest honest, 
 That, but for painful past experience, 
 I still had trusted to thy soothing speech, 
 And been thy victim thrice. But, wronged be 
 fore, 
 
 Mine is an instinct that, forgiving wrong, 
 Loses no jot of vigilance and watch, 
 When he, the fox, that robbed me of my bird, 
 Still prowls about my threshold. We are here, 
 All wakeful, while the watch-dog on the hearth, 
 With lifted nostril, ready for the scent, 
 Shows his white teeth, and .growls at thy dis 
 course. 
 
 His instinct, like mine own experience, 
 Wakes ever, with thy coming to our home. 
 
 USES OF WEALTH. 
 
 Wealth is only legitimate because of its uses. 
 The legitimate uses of wealth depend clearly upon 
 the capacity and the aims of the person who em 
 ploys it. When you employ wealth in jewels, what 
 passion is it that you gratify ? It might be said 
 
EGERIA. 137 
 
 the love of the beautiful, if such decorations were 
 usually employed in good taste. But the jewel to 
 be beautiful need not trim the person. Used for 
 this purpose, it is clearly the passion of vanity the 
 most inordinate and the most universal of human 
 passions that we gratify, and not the taste for the 
 beautiful. 
 
 SOULS FOR TRIAL. 
 
 Our customary phrase, speaking of the Revolu 
 tion, is to describe it as " the time that tried men s 
 souls." Perhaps we should better describe it as the 
 time when men s souls were to be tried when there 
 were souls souls of might, and stern purpose, and 
 unbending courage. All times are calculated to try 
 men s souls. Life, itself, is a sort of moral revolu 
 tion ; full of transitions, strifes, exactions, trials : 
 and we only remark periods in history by the pre 
 sence of such superior souls as give character to 
 events, and make the trials of times subservient to 
 the moral purposes of man. If we look at the his 
 tory of the United States, its moral rather than its 
 political history, we shall see that the souls that 
 were tried by the American Revolution were the 
 unwonted growth of successive centuries. Such 
 12* 
 
138 EGERIA. 
 
 souls do not spring up annually, into existence, 
 under those regularly recurring laws upon which we 
 build in the production of ordinary crops. They 
 are the representatives of all that the human mind 
 has been realizing, in the struggle and toils of long 
 periods before periods in which, from the general 
 stagnation of moral purpose, there would seem to 
 have been no souls at all. They seem to be 
 the aggregation of the social strength, the social 
 intellect, the wisdom and the resolution, which, 
 scattered in small particles throughout a nation, 
 are nothing, and produce nothing, until brought 
 together for performance in the person of some one 
 strong-minded individual. It was not until some 
 four hundred years of Egyptian bondage, of brick- 
 making without straw, that the wondrous great soul, 
 which, in human language, we call Moses, came to 
 the rescue of the Hebrews. He was the genius of 
 the nation. He collected into himself its scattered 
 truths. He digested its feeble, striving, powerless, 
 and hitherto ineffective strengths ! He showed 
 himself able to govern and to lead them forth ; and, 
 from the moment of that discovery, his people could 
 no longer be enslaved. And so, with our Revolu 
 tionary souls our prophets the men-gods who 
 
EGERIA. 139 
 
 were to guide, and govern, and lead us out of bon 
 dage. The moment that the colonists could produce 
 from their own scattered population, intellects which 
 could contend with those of the oppressor even as 
 Moses contended with the Egyptian priesthood from 
 that moment they were free ! Proud are we proud 
 we should be of those stern, brave, fearless, old souls 
 our Moseses, our Aarons, our Joshuas, sons of 
 Nun ay, and our Miriams too, high-browed, dark- 
 eyed prophetesses, who could sing for us songs of 
 triumph, which were also songs, of encouragement 
 and progress when our even-tide came on, and we 
 stood, doubtful of our course, even burdened with 
 our new freedom, drinking of the bitter waters of 
 our Marah ! Times for trying souls, indeed ; but 
 better phrase were, " souls for trying times," for 
 all times ! for, docs it matter that those times are 
 past that the men themselves, the prophets, are 
 dead and gone ? The souls are still with us ; they 
 cannot pass ; we could not lose them if we would ! 
 We too have our times of trial. God send us souls 
 again souls that will meet the trial and overcome 
 it, in stern, long conflict. The conflict, itself, shall 
 be a seasoning for souls ; in which men-children suck 
 milk of might, and grow, at length, after repeated 
 
140 EGERIA. 
 
 seasonings, to be souls like those that have van 
 quished the enemy before. It is a miserable spec 
 tacle that we sometimes still see, of a weak, vast 
 nation, feeble, faint, striving crying aloud because 
 of famine in the wilderness ; having no eye to 
 guide, no soul to bring them out from bondage, to 
 show them the land of promise, to coerce them to 
 the performances by which alone it can be won ! 
 Such were, and are, the great nations of this our 
 Western Continent as we call them, the aborigi 
 nal nations ! They lived, and perished, and never 
 had a soul ! What a dreadful destiny ! And 
 Africa, w T ith her thousand scattered nations will a 
 soul ever arise for her ? will she ever see the truth, 
 and feel the truth, and work out the truth by the 
 only process work, work, work ! It is a solemn in 
 quiry, but we have one like it, that more immediately 
 concerns ourselves. Even now, America is crying 
 out for succor from some strong, God-appointed 
 soul, to come to her rescue. America, North and 
 South, though in different degree perhaps, both 
 need the succor of some necessary prophet. It is 
 the season of false prophets in both countries. 
 False prophets are numerous enough in these times, 
 who promise all things and perform nothing. There 
 
EGERIA. 141 
 
 is little hope from the toils of such souls as the 
 Santa Annas, the Bustamentes, the Guerreroes, the 
 Paredes , and but why speak of these mocks in 
 the shape of souls, which, among ourselves, are re 
 cognised as the available, if not the useful the ne 
 cessary, the God-elect, and God-appointed. When 
 we ask for the Washingtons, the Henrys, the Frank 
 lins and their associates, methinks there is a vast 
 deep blush of crimson that passes over the face of 
 our struggling country; not, indeed that there 
 are not prophets among us, but that these are not 
 what we demand. We do not ask for the souls that 
 will save, but for those that will serve us not those 
 whom we need, but those who need us. The time 
 needs its soul. Let our prayer be that a soul may 
 come in time ! 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 After all, Love is the true life. It is the spirit, 
 permeating all nature, for which, if we have a sweet 
 name, we have no definition. 
 
 Ah! life were but a work!, indeed, 
 Of sin and suffering, shame and woe, 
 
 From which the soul were haply freed, 
 The hand administ ring the blow ; 
 
142 EGERIA. 
 
 Did Love not come with angel eye, 
 
 And soothing smile, and breath of balm, 
 
 To dry the tear, to hush the sigh, 
 The guilt atone, the spirit calm. 
 
 TIME. 
 
 The best key to success is the providence of Time. 
 After all, the most valuable of our human posses 
 sions is Time, since that is always limited in dura 
 tion. It follows that he who is the best economist of 
 this possession, has the largest capital for business 
 of any of his competitors. But time, of course, im 
 plies health, strength, courage, resolution, temper 
 ance without which, perhaps, there can be no eco 
 nomy in anything. 
 
 NOTHING IN NOTHINGNESS. 
 
 Thought can no more realize the idea of nothing 
 ness than of creation. Both must depend upon re 
 velation, and this, which tells us of the one, says 
 nothing of the other. Could we regard Time as not 
 a part of Eternity, it might be easy to conceive this 
 fear. But I confess, for my own part, I think that 
 nothing dies. I am half of the opinion of the red 
 man 
 
 " Who thinks, translated to his native sky, 
 His faithful dog shall bear him company." 
 
EGERIA. 143 
 
 DOMESTIC MAGNANIMITY. 
 
 Magnanimity is, perhaps, more important as a 
 domestic virtue than in any other relation. If the 
 love, supposed to be the permeating essence pervad 
 ing the domestic circle, has not learned promptly to 
 forgive, it has failed to acquire the very first lesson 
 upon which depend the securities of household happi 
 ness. 
 
 NIL DESPERANDUM. 
 
 Man should never despair of his resources or his 
 race. He frequently does little or nothing, because 
 he does not manfully attempt enough. We are very 
 sure (and, indeed, the experience of every day adds 
 to the proof), that the true extent of his powers has 
 never yet been developed. He, himself, is quite as 
 much confounded at his own achievements, when he 
 makes them, as any of the spectators. He is 
 usually forced to his best performances by what he 
 vulgarly calls necessity. We might easily find 
 another word and origin for the impulse which he 
 obeys, at such moments, and by which he performs. 
 Though his reason trembles to advance, his blood 
 bounds to the consummation of the unusual tasks. 
 Verily, we too much underrate this instinct. What is 
 
144 EGERIA. 
 
 it but the God within him, throwing aside the shackles 
 of clay, the impediments and doubts and fears of a 
 poor earthly reason, and hurrying him onward he, 
 blind the while under the unerring guidance of an 
 immortal soul ! 
 
 MORALS OF SORROW. 
 
 But for the sorrows of the heart, where would the 
 affections find their strength ? Our virtues, like the 
 aromatic shrubs of the forest, only give out their 
 sweets when their leaves are bruised and trampled. 
 He who has not felt of sorrow, may be scarcely said 
 to have known love ; since the most precious joys of 
 the soul arise from sympathies that are seldom 
 known till they are sought, and never sought till 
 they are necessary to soothe an infirmity or satisfy 
 a need. 
 
 HORACE IN DISHABILLE. 
 
 Ode xxiii. ad Pyrrham. 
 
 TO POLLY. 
 
 You fly from me, Polly, my dear, like a fawn, 
 That trembling still at each breeze that blows, 
 
 Seeks for its dam on the mountain bawn, 
 With a terror that never allows repose : 
 
EGEHIA. 145 
 
 With feeble limbs and faltering heart, 
 
 That shrinks from the rustling of leafy spring, 
 
 And deems the green lizard, as bushes part, 
 Some fearful and terrible thing. 
 
 Believe me, Polly, no tiger wild, 
 
 No panther of Buncombe, to tear you, child ; 
 
 And now that you re quite of a marrying age, 
 And I m not the worst-looking man you see, 
 
 Turn a new leaf in your virgin page, 
 
 Quit your mamma, and take lodgings with me. 
 
 INSCRIPTION. 
 
 One sometimes pens an inscription which is never 
 inscribed, unless in the heart of the writer, in con 
 nexion with the pleasant memories of the precious 
 object who inspires it. Here is one of this sort. 
 
 O er thee we rear no lofty tomb, 
 
 No marble bust adorns the shrine, 
 Where Virtue s memory still must bloom, 
 
 Immortal, as she is divine; 
 There, in the affections thou hast won, 
 
 A single flower to thee we rear, 
 First won to life by Rapture s sun, 
 
 Thence kept in bloom by Memory s tear. 
 13 
 
140 EGEEIA. 
 
 LANDSCAPE. 
 
 One great charm in the landscape, which is 
 never spoken of, lies in the fact that our sight of 
 it embodies a discovery. We find pleasure, it is 
 true, from frequently beholding the beautiful ; but 
 when the beautiful and the new are found together, 
 the enjoyment becomes twofold, and the freshness 
 of the picture always heightens its loveliness. 
 
 THE COIF AN EMBLEM. 
 
 The Coif now used, we believe, principally by 
 old women, was once the particular indicative of 
 learned men. The sergeant s Coif was a habit of 
 exclusive privilege among that class of legal practi 
 tioners in the time of Sir Edward Coke. That 
 learned judge held it in high esteem, and after the 
 fashion of the time, found for it a sage and allegori 
 cal signification. " It is," says he, " like the helmet 
 of Minerva, who was truly the goddess of counsel," 
 making, as we see, a pun, which is pardonable 
 enough in a lawyer. He adds farther, in his 
 eulogy upon this venerable head-piece, and his 
 words may somewhat instruct us in its particular 
 shape "Its four corners impart science, experience, 
 
EGERIA. 147 
 
 observation, and recordation." Have the profession, 
 with this lucid opinion before them, done wisely in 
 discarding this notable head-piece ? May not some 
 of the virtues of the practice have been abandoned 
 with it ? We ask with apprehension and much mis 
 giving, was it right to resign it so entirely to the 
 other sex ? Could it not be worn appropriately even 
 to this day, by many who certainly could not shake 
 noddle less wise, under any head gear ? Something 
 perhaps, of the virtues of the Coif was lost in 
 changing its original shape. No one certainly ever 
 thought that, in cutting off its corners, we sacrificed 
 so many of its essential virtues science, experience, 
 observation, and recordation ! Alas ! for the Coif ! 
 it imports but little of these qualities now ! 
 
 THE IDEAL. 
 
 The ideal is necessarily significant of the indivi 
 dual. It is my, or your, conception of the highest 
 moral within our reach. It is peculiar to one, or 
 other of us, until we convey our conceptions, con 
 victions, and impressions, into other minds. As 
 soon as our discovery becomes general, it becomes 
 real, and ceases to be ideal. 
 
148 EGERIA. 
 
 INDISCRETION OF LOVE. 
 
 The natural indiscretion of Love is not badly con 
 veyed in a stanza from the French of Ma amselle 
 Deshoulieres. That Love should be indiscreet results 
 from the fact that it is Faith also. 
 
 Vainly would true love hide 
 
 The secret in her breast ; 
 By sighs that speak, by tears, 
 
 The passion is confessed: 
 Too late, when in the soul, 
 
 Love sways with power complete, 
 Would prudence then control: 
 
 Love still is indiscreet. 
 
 GLORY. 
 
 Glory is one of those moral objects for which we 
 have no precise definition. In proportion to the 
 moral elevation of our standards, it will be found to 
 signify the successful achievements of man, laboring 
 in behalf of man. Among a people neither absolute 
 ly barbarous, nor yet refined to just moral elevation, 
 it illustrates the fame of the successful conqueror, 
 the invaders of peaceful lands, the spoilers of lovely 
 cities. Even among nations whose pretensions were 
 sufficiently lofty, no matter what their real claims to 
 
EGERIA. 149 
 
 our admiration rnay have been, the import of the 
 word is exceedingly equivocal. Two remarkable 
 instances occur to us at this moment. Marcus 
 Brutus, who slew Caesar whom we ordinarily speak 
 of as the incorruptible patriot, was a selfish and 
 mercenary usurer, one of the most grasping of the 
 satraps whom Rome sent forth to govern her distant 
 provinces a man whose cupidity provoked the cen 
 sure of Cicero, and who behaved in a manner the 
 most treacherous and selfish in regard to Caesar, 
 whom he slew accepted office under him, pledged 
 himself to his support, and betrayed his trust, when 
 the treachery could avail nothing for the preserva 
 tion of the country. Another instance, equally re 
 markable, is that of Augustus Caesar, who cunningly 
 conciliating the venal poet, has been placed at the 
 very fountain of glory, where opinion servilely 
 keeps him to this very day. Yet he was but a sorry 
 scoundrel after all who betrayed and proscribed 
 his friend, the patriot Cicero, consenting to his 
 murder as one of the conditions of his own elevation 
 to the Triumvirate who behaved in a manner both 
 cruel and cowardly at Philippi ; and was base 
 enough to desire to conduct a woman, Cleopatra, in 
 chains to Rome, gracing his chariot wheels with a 
 13* 
 
150 EGERIA. 
 
 triumph, which he had not the soul to merit. His 
 refusal to fight in single combat with Mark Antony, 
 was, perhaps, proper enough, but it is quite likely 
 that it arose as much from deficient personal courage 
 as from a sense of propriety and right. We might 
 add another instance from Roman history quite as 
 remarkable in the case of Lucretia, a woman who 
 preferred the actual commission of the crime with 
 an equal to the mere imputation of it in connexion 
 with an accomplice of inferior social caste. 
 
 HUMAN NEED. 
 
 Did we pray usually for that which we need, 
 rather than that which we w r ant, the Deity would 
 find it much more easy to answer our prayers, and 
 we should prove in better condition to deserve his 
 gifts. After all, it is a God only that we need, 
 since it is through him only that we may command 
 all the possessions of eternity. 
 
 LABOR ITS VALUE. 
 
 The workingman is the only substantial citizen, 
 all other things being equal. The nation is strong 
 only in its working men. Everything which goes 
 to diminish the amount of positive performance 
 
EG EH i A. 151 
 
 among a people which goes to lessen the grand re 
 sults of human labor is of necessity evil. Such 
 are necessarily, in some degree, all stock companies, 
 which, from being agents of social industry, by the 
 accumulation and appropriation of capital, degene 
 rate into primary conditions, and divert from their 
 legitimate tasks and exercises, the minds and ener 
 gies of a population which they thenceforth render 
 superfluous. There is unhappily, in our country, a 
 very universal distaste to labor. Our labor is but 
 too much imported from abroad. We loathe and 
 despise the severer tasks of that industry which re 
 moves mountains and fills the deserts with fruits and 
 blossoms. Our people, afflicted with certain childish 
 vanities, prefer to fill the ranks of the professions 
 with useless recruits, who add nothing to their dig 
 nity or character, and lessen, by just their own 
 strength, the number of the legitimate producers of 
 the country. This is to multiply unnecessary con 
 sumers of the capital they were intended to produce. 
 Society is very much like a bee-hive ; if the drones 
 are allowed to remain, even where they do not pro 
 pagate, the contents of the hive will very soon be 
 exhausted. That dependence upon foreign labor, of 
 which I have spoken, seems to me one of the most 
 
152 EGERIA. 
 
 fearful signs of our degeneracy. It shows that a 
 morbid vanity is almost the only thing willing to work 
 among us. That society which dares not grapple 
 heartily with the essential tasks of field and highway, 
 must forbear, only with daily loss of its most whole 
 some characteristics. "With us the cry seems ever 
 more for money. The want of money is the one want 
 which we everywhere unite to deplore. The proper 
 subject of complaint is want of industry. We have 
 money enough in proportion to our need, our in 
 dustry, and our deserts. It is only lacking in pro 
 portion to our profligacy and vain pretension. Nay, 
 it is owing, in a great degree, to our having had so 
 much money, or so much that put on the semblance 
 of money, and maintained it for a time as fairy 
 gifts are said to do, that we are now suffering and 
 now complaining. Money is one of the most dan 
 gerous of all social possessions. It is a wondrous 
 power, the very use of which requires a previous 
 training of head and heart, which cannot be too 
 careful or too strict. Few people know properly 
 how to use it, keeping moral standards before their 
 eyes. Most persons not accustomed to its employ 
 ment, not trained to the use of power, become gam 
 blers with wealth, and the fancies and the appetites 
 
EGERIA. 153 
 
 take the control of that which can be used with 
 safety only by a justly judging morality and a sage 
 experience. The Americans, a young and conse 
 quently a poor people, were, of all others, the least 
 prepared to use it judiciously. In many respects, 
 at one period in the history of the world, the Spa 
 niards were the richest people in the world. But 
 they were previously among the poorest, and their 
 riches, after a brief career of recklessness, pride, lust, 
 and other passions, engendered by this very sudden 
 excess of wealth, brought them to something worse 
 than their original condition. The Spaniards are 
 now not only the poorest and feeblest, but the most 
 degraded of all the powers of Christendom. The 
 present is a fruit of their immediately previous con 
 dition. It was the discovery of Spanish America 
 and its rich possessions, to which their poverty is 
 due. They were not prepared to use judiciously 
 their own resources, and squandered wastefully what 
 they had unexpectedly acquired, but not till it had 
 taught them wants, habits, and indulgences which 
 they are no longer able to supply. As the descen 
 dants of the expelled Moors of Granada, still keep 
 the keys of the ancient homestead, still dreaming to 
 get back ; so the Spaniard still waits dreaming that 
 
154 EGERIA. 
 
 the Providence which brought him Mexico and Peru 
 will again restore them to his possession. The case 
 of a nation is not improperly illustrated by individual 
 example. Take the instance of the youthful heir 
 of the old miser one whom the sordid passion of 
 the sire has, while he lived, kept within the most 
 contracted limits of a base and slavish economy. 
 Let him, while still young, be admitted freely among 
 the hoards of which he has only dreamed before, and 
 note with what pains-taking earnestness he dissipates 
 them. It is his boast, indeed, that he does so, even 
 as expensive frivolities and meretricious life are be 
 come a boast with us. " It s gone at last !" was the 
 only half-desponding exclamation of one of these 
 profligates a few years ago, as he acknowledged his 
 ruin ; but, suddenly looking up, with a sort of ex 
 ultation in his manner, as if there had been some 
 degree of merit in the very recklessness of his 
 waste " but may be I didn t hum it while it lasted." 
 Was there ever a more perfect boy ! That his top 
 hummed while it was going, was a great consolation 
 for its loss. A whole people become thus profligate 
 at seasons, sharing the vices of the individual, for 
 such excesses arc epidemical. The American people 
 
EGERIA. 155 
 
 have presented for the last ten years* the melan 
 choly spectacle of a nation humming it, just like 
 the silly boy ; with the simple difference, in which 
 we find a hope, that their humming is no longer a 
 subject of congratulatory chuckle. For some ten 
 years longer, we shall be prudent enough to forbear 
 to hum it; but there are periodical returns for all 
 such maladies, and a return of seeming prosperity 
 for a longer period than usual, unless we learn to 
 respect money less, and industry more, will be sure 
 to bring us to our sack-cloth again. Seriously, our 
 levity of character is a great evil in our constitu 
 tion. It can scarcely be otherwise until we honor 
 labor more. She methodizes all the faculties, and 
 makes all the securities of virtue as well as fortune. 
 Mere sleight of hand will not answer. We must 
 shut up half of our shops at least, lop from the idle 
 host that throng the professions, and go back to the 
 deserted fields, making our own corn and cabbages, 
 and gathering in the harvest with our own hands. 
 How many proper farmers have the last ten years 
 converted into bankrupt tradesmen and desperate 
 men ! 
 
 * This was written in 1830. 
 
156 EG EH i A. 
 
 " GDI D UN UOM CHE MUORE." 
 
 The Gift of the Dying, is from the Italian of 
 Redaelli, and involves a sweet, sad little history. In 
 his dying moments the poet dictated it to the lady 
 of his love, to whom he returned, at the same time, 
 a withered flower, which he had plucked from her 
 bosom not long before. 
 
 Take, love, this withered flower, 
 
 It bears my dying breath ; 
 Hear, ere my lips last power 
 
 Be yielded up in death. 
 
 How precious to my breast, 
 
 Since ravished first from thine, 
 Thou knows t and canst attest 
 
 By all the truth in mine ! 
 
 Proof of my rapture then, 
 
 But rapture now no more ; 
 Ah ! take the flower again, 
 
 Which, dying, I restore. 
 
 And while thy breast, from whence 
 
 Twas ravished, feels for )ne, 
 Think how twas snatched from thence, 
 
 And how restored to thee. 
 
EG EH i A. 157 
 
 RANZ DES VACHES, 
 
 Means literally, the song of the cows ; idiomati 
 cally, the cow-herd or the shepherd s song. The 
 original, of which the following is but a paraphrase, 
 is said to possess a powerful effect on the wandering 
 Swiss an effect so powerful that it w r as forbidden to 
 be sung among the recruits of that nation in the 
 French army. Yet there is nothing in the senti 
 ment but its nature and the peculiarly touching 
 simplicity of the music. You remember the often- 
 quoted apothegm, from the essays of Fletcher of Sal- 
 toun, " Give me the making of a people s ballads, 
 and I care not who makes their laws." 
 
 When shall I, at a single glance, behold 
 
 All the uncounted objects of my love 
 The fountains that flow onward, never old 
 
 The village spire the cottage and the grove 
 The mountains high? nor these alone the sweet, 
 
 The beauty of them all? Ah! when, indeed, 
 Shall I with her beneath the rooftree meet, 
 
 And frolic to the music of the reed ? 
 
 When shall I these behold? When shall I see 
 The father and the mother whom I love 
 
 Brother and sister and the flocks so free, 
 
 Gay leaping down the mountain through the grove? 
 14 
 
158 EGERIA. 
 
 Ah ! in what happy moment shall these eyes 
 
 Grow bright with this sweet picture, and my feet 
 
 Stand in that happy valley, which supplies 
 
 All that the world contains of good and sweet ? 
 
 By way of variety, here is another version, which 
 I published some years ago anonymously, and which 
 I subsequently discovered set to music by somebody 
 whose name I forget, and dedicated to a Miss 
 Rebecca Burke. If the reader will believe me, I 
 never heard of Miss Rebecca until that moment. I 
 know nothing of Miss Burke, and have my doubts 
 if there really be any such person. But here is the 
 song. 
 
 When, in what happy moment shall I see 
 
 The thousand things that youthful memory loves 
 The happy home where still I wandered free, 
 The maiden dear, the valley and the groves, 
 The woods so fair, 
 The streams so clear, 
 Ah ! when, no more a pilgrim, shall I see 
 The things so dear, so very, very dear ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Ah ! the fond memory brings them to my eyes 
 As still they grew and gathered for my youth , 
 
EGERIA. 150 
 
 Before me, once again, the woodland lies, 
 There is the valley, there the cot, in truth j 
 And ah ! the voice 
 That says rejoice, 
 
 The voice of her who blessed my youthful eyes 
 The maid I love, the maiden of my choice. 
 
 FORBEARANCE IN FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 One of the best securities for a permanent friend 
 ship, is to be found in a forbearing to assert superi 
 ority. It is rarely that we find reverence and sym 
 pathy so associated, and so equally active, as in the 
 famous case of Boswell, in regard to Johnson ; and 
 yet nothing less than this union of sympathy 
 with reverence, in fact, a sympathy which springs 
 from reverence will establish a friendship where 
 one of the parties is vastly superior in intellect to 
 the other. The highest form of intellect is usually 
 isolation. 
 
 MAJOR NOAH S CLOAK. 
 
 [The veteran editor, Major Noah, is dead , and I 
 should be the last person in the world to say any 
 thing seriously which would hurt his character or 
 disparage his memory ; but a harmless pleasantry, 
 which I copy from my portfolio, and which was 
 written some twenty-five years ago, can scarcely 
 
160 EGERIA. 
 
 have any such effect, as it carries on its face the 
 good humor and playful spirit with which it was 
 conceived and written. The subject of the piece may 
 he briefly stated thus. It appears that when Major 
 Noah was United States Consul at Algiers, the ruling 
 Dey made him a present of a very splendid cloak, 
 which the Major, of course, valued very highly. Soon 
 after he was appointed Collector of Customs, or 
 Naval Officer in the New York Custom House, by 
 General Jackson, this cloak was stolen from his 
 office by some rascally sans culotte, and the news 
 papers lamented the event in language exceedingly 
 superlative, but quite American. It was then that 
 the following lines were written :] 
 
 Grimly, the Major paced the Custom House, 
 Lamenting his misfortune. 
 
 " That same cloak, 
 
 Apart from its own qualities" quoth he 
 " Was to me a great treasure, since it came 
 From one who in his empire, was a prince, 
 After my heart s first fancy ! A brave Prince, 
 Made up of grasping virtues ; vigorous, wide, 
 Such as meseemed a model, did he stand 
 
EGERIA. 161 
 
 Chief in my estimation ; just the man, 
 As in my judgment, I myself had chosen 
 For such a sway in Israel, or New York. 
 Though vulgar wits, in the world s vicious phrase, 
 As ignorant of the seeming as the true. 
 Had still pronounced him pirate, and declared 
 His goodly gains ill gotten ; as if goods 
 Once gotten, could be evil ! He was one 
 Whom I had ever longed to know and love 
 A royal prince by nature, who well knew 
 What best became his station, and could deal, 
 In bounties proper to his perquisites ! 
 Twas on a wintry morning that he threw 
 That cloak across my shoulders. This I know, 
 By the same token that mine own was old, 
 And scandalously threadbare. It had been 
 In service, and hard service, fifteen years ; 
 And, with the natural shrewdness of my heart, 
 I told his highness the sad truth, who then, 
 He being a gracious Prince to those he loved, 
 With sleight of hand and gracefulness unmatched, 
 Plucked this same garment from an Emir s back, 
 And cast it o er mine own. Whereat, the man 
 Who lost my gain, frowned sulkily awhile, 
 A sullen slave who knew no gratitude 
 14* 
 
162 EGERIA. 
 
 Until his highness, with a princely buffet 
 About the fellow s ears, that made them ring, 
 Settled the matter and the cloak \vas mine ! 
 Now mine no more ! 
 
 Thus ever hath it been ! 
 The prophet finds no honor in the land 
 That gave him being ; and amidst these walls 
 I walk the embodied motion of a satv, 
 On which I have swung see-saw all my days, 
 Never once suffered on the settling side. 
 Here do I dwell without security : 
 They neither yield me prophet dues, nor yet 
 Entreat me as a man. Twas a hard tug 
 To get into the Customs; now that I m here, 
 They rend from me a habit, best of all 
 That ever came from Algerine, to whom 
 I owe my best of habits, as my last. , 
 Impossible that I should match that coat 
 In all New York, try Maiden Lane, or Pearl, 
 Broadway or Bowery, Chatham Street or Broad ; 
 And but one hope remains to me, to use 
 An Algerine habit, and to smuggle one 
 By virtue of mine office, and in spite 
 Of mine own virtue ! These, I well may say, 
 Are cruel Customs, which, as Winter comes, 
 Rob me of my Kamschatka ! 
 
EGERIA. 163 
 
 FOOLS. 
 
 It is Seneca who says, "When I would solace 
 myself with a fool, I go into a secret place with my 
 self." To see a fool, we have but to seek for a 
 looking glass or a familiar a wise man, invoke God 
 for a miracle a true woman, seek a mother, who, 
 with but one son, has not made the boy her master. 
 
 RESOLVE. 
 
 He who resolves frequently, is apt to spend all 
 his energies in his resolutions. It is better to ad 
 vance upon the journey which you have purposed, 
 even though the baggage should be left behind. 
 
 WISDOM. 
 
 When, at more than a hundred years of age, 
 Theophrastus lamented that he was about to die, 
 just as he was beginning to grow wise, we see that 
 he was mistaken. The very lamentation for a pro 
 longed life, on the part of one who was " sans teeth, 
 sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything," sufficiently 
 proves that Theophrastus was quite as far from wis 
 dom as ever. 
 
164 EGEEIA. 
 
 AMBITION. 
 
 If honors are from God ambition is by no means 
 an unchristian passion. It needs only to be shown, 
 by him who is ambitious of eminence, that he will 
 become his honors, and, in the distinction, be not 
 forgetful or incapable of the duties of the place. 
 
 MORAL OBJECTS. 
 
 The knowledge to find out one s particular uses 
 the faith to believe in one s own mission the will to 
 peril all worldly considerations in its performance, 
 these constitute the proper objects of all moral 
 training and desire. 
 
 SOUL AND SOIL. 
 
 There is nothing in the soil, if it be not in the 
 soul of him who works it. The earth flourishes only 
 in the smiles of God and the intense intellectual ap 
 plication of man. A poor soil as it is the parent of 
 great necessities, will not unfrequently make a great 
 people ; but fertile lands are always a danger, since 
 the soul that leaves everything to the soil, is itself 
 likely to become barren. 
 
EGERIA. 105 
 
 HORACE TO HIS LYRE. 
 
 From ode xxxii., and which the reader may sup 
 pose to have been rendered by Morris or Willis, the 
 Castor and Pollux of American Minstrelsy and 
 Magazines. 
 
 If in the shade, in other hours, 
 
 Dear Lyre, in deathless verse we ve sung, 
 A harder duty now is ours 
 
 To carol in the Yankee tongue : 
 In Grecian strains we ve sung of yore, 
 
 By Lesbian Alca-us taught the brave, 
 Who, whether he sought the steadfast shore, 
 
 Or rocked in tempest o er the wave, 
 To Bacchus still attuned his lyre, 
 
 The muses sought with deathless strain, 
 Or for the Queen of young desire, 
 
 And Lowell, ever in her train, 
 (Boy with the coal-black eyes of fire,) 
 
 Still sang, nor often sang in vain. 
 Lyre, that Apollo loved so well, 
 
 Best charm at Jove s own banquets, be 
 But pliant now to Yankee spell, 
 
 And yield the power of Song to me. 
 
 GOD AND MAN. 
 
 God made the world in six days it takes man 
 scarcely six minutes to find fault with it. 
 
166 EGERIA. 
 
 God saw that it was good and blessed it man 
 finds it evil and curses it. 
 
 Alas ! for man that sees nothing with the eyes of 
 God, but everything with his own ! Both God and 
 man judge of the earth and its things from the na 
 ture separately within them. 
 
 It is not earth and its creatures, nor the waters, 
 nor the air, with their tribes of living things, which 
 God sees to be good, and blesses accordingly it is 
 the eternal, unchangeable spirit of life, of truth, 
 and of beauty, which, from his own, he infuses into 
 them all. 
 
 It is not the earth, nor the seas, nor the skies, 
 nor the creatures that dwell in them, that man finds 
 evil and curses accordingly it is his own blind eyes, 
 and bitter spirit, and capricious temper, through 
 whose jaundiced medium all things become evil, and 
 out of proportion with the natural and true ! 
 
 Earth, ocean, air, and life ! Let us learn to see 
 and to bless ye, even as ye have been seen and 
 blessed by the Eternal Father. 
 
 "VIVE MEMOR LETHE." 
 
 "Live," said the ancient with philosophy 
 Too narrow for the progress of our race 
 
EGERIA. 167 
 
 "Live, always with thy memory set on death!" 
 Better the Scripture thus : So keep thy thought, 
 Maugre the fear of death, that thou mayst live, 
 Not once forgetting that thou liv st for life ! 
 Care and transition are not absolute, 
 Save as they mark the steps which we declare 
 In a long progress steps from high to higher, 
 Where, what we seek is but to entertain 
 The ambition that still prompts us to aspire. 
 
 CONSCIENCE. 
 
 We should make terms with conscience, if it be 
 only to keep peace in the family. 
 
 POETS. 
 
 The Poet of Fancy compares and contrasts ; the 
 Imaginative Poet combines and personifies. The 
 Poet of Fancy decorates and adorns ; he of Imagi 
 nation creates and. endows. The one finds wings 
 and color for his thought ; the other makes of it a 
 living and a breathing soul. 
 
 PUNISHMENT. 
 
 In the punishment of death, society, in its fear 
 or selfishness, totally excludes from consideration 
 
168 EGERIA. 
 
 one of the great ends of punishment, which, in pro 
 tecting society ought never to lose sight of a regard 
 for the recovery of the offender. A citizen is a 
 child of the State, whom we should chastise for his 
 misdeeds, rebuke for his excesses, and place equally 
 out of the way of harm and mischief; but whom no 
 parent should think of cutting off entirely, while a 
 sin is yet to be repented, and a talent yet remains 
 to be made useful. 
 
 PHLEGM. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to counsel the human fa 
 mily against the phlegmatic and the sceptic. It is 
 surprising, indeed, how generally and certainly men 
 shrink from the presence of the person of habitual 
 sneer and denial. It is by an instinct, born of the 
 human necessity for sympathy, that such is the case, 
 rather than because of any process of reason which 
 teaches that such persons are toi)e avoided ; for the 
 sceptic is usually a person whose confidence in himself 
 arises, not less from his own conviction that he never 
 offends against propriety, than from his conscious 
 ness of superior endowment. He has self-esteem, 
 of course, but he has the exterior morals also. He 
 is a social Pharisee, and feels that he is no black- 
 
EGERIA. lf>9 
 
 guard like his neighbor. He never offends against 
 the vulgar virtues of the highway. But he is the 
 greater monster for all this, since he can comply 
 with all the laws of decency, without having learned 
 the first and simplest, which teaches the sympathies 
 and the affections. 
 
 WEALTH. 
 
 Our wealth does not so much consist in our acqui 
 sitions as in our performances, and he is sometimes 
 the richest man who has left himself nothing. 
 
 GERMS. 
 
 To teach the child you must study him, even as 
 we examine the secret nature of the tree before we 
 attempt its cultivation. If the acorn is the sire of 
 the oak, that does not by any means render it neces 
 sary that it should be boiled before it is planted. 
 
 MODESTY. 
 
 Modesty is policy, no less than virtue. It implies 
 security, which is never the case w T ith ambition, and 
 still less of presumption. To wait your time is to 
 win your aim ; to wait the call, is to be sure to hear 
 it in proper season ; though it must be remembered 
 15 
 
170 EGEIIIA. 
 
 that you keep your ears open. You must watch as 
 well as wait, and watching itself implies modesty. 
 
 FRAGMENTS. 
 
 Here arc a few fragments from the Italian of 
 Metastasio, which may be used as mottoes. 
 
 I. THE FIRST VOYAGER. 
 
 Bold was that gallant rover, 
 
 The first on ocean s breast, 
 Who ploughed the wide seas over, 
 
 Of unknown lands in quest; 
 But for his gallant daring, 
 
 How many realms had been, 
 With none their treasures sharing, 
 
 Unconquered as unseen ! 
 
 II. SILENCE. 
 
 Silence herself is eloquent, and he 
 
 May sometimes, in his answer, say too much, 
 
 Who suffers her to speak. 
 
 III. FAITH. 
 
 If faith be guilt, the crime upon my head! 
 Lead me to death. To die for such offence 
 Makes proud my spirit. 
 
 IV. APPROVING CONSCIENCE. 
 
 He with firmness dies, 
 
 Who, in the parting agony, looks back, 
 
EGERIA. 171 
 
 Nor blyshes to behold, of his past life. 
 The long and various history. 
 
 V. FAME. 
 
 "He who would cling to life, 
 Despising glory, merits riot to live. 
 Life is the common property but Fame, 
 Belongs to great souls only." 
 
 CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 
 
 The test for human progress in civilization is the 
 development of the constructive faculty. It is true 
 that a man shares the antagonist quality with the 
 brute, and is destructive in quite the same degree ; 
 but he has the corrective, in the opposite endowment 
 of constructiveness, and his labor is quite legitimate 
 when he destroys to build. Dcstructiveness, indeed, 
 is absolutely essential to the proper exercise of in 
 genuity in art. 
 
 FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 It is frequently the case that you lose your friend 
 in the sagacity which perceives his imperfections. 
 True friendship implies the privilege of sorrowing 
 over the infirmities of your favorite, and curing 
 them whenever you can. Yet, though we know our 
 danger, and believe in the skill of the surgeon, it 
 
172 EGERIA. 
 
 seems to be very rational that we should recoil from 
 his instrument. To be properly susceptible of friend 
 ship, in its highest capabilities, it is necessary that we 
 should not only love confidingly, but that we should 
 have strength to suffer reproach without misgiving 
 or resentment. 
 
 SELF-ESTEEM IN FRIENDS. 
 
 Fly in all haste from the friend who will suffer you 
 to teach him nothing. 
 
 RARITY OF FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 Friendship, with half the world, means little more 
 than the utter subordination of one of the parties 
 to all the humors and caprices of the other. In 
 other words, to be your friend, I must be your pa 
 tron. There is little real friendship in the world. 
 It is a rarer quality than love is too passionless a 
 virtue for most people. Regarded as the thing it 
 is, we hold the maxim of Polonius to be worth its 
 weight in gold : 
 
 " To thy own self be true, 
 And it must follow as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
EGERIA. 173 
 
 SOLITUDE AND SELF-ESTEEM. 
 
 He will never suffer from solitude who has never 
 quarrelled with himself. 
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 Definitions, in relation to indeterminate subjects, 
 such as poetry, the forms and combinations of 
 which are endless, can seldom contemplate more 
 than a single characteristic. You can only describe 
 such topics by histories, and a new phase in the 
 progress of either will still call for a new history. 
 
 WOMAN. 
 
 The woman knows something too much, who too 
 readily discovers where her sex is weak, and yet 
 the general consciousness of her weakness, by incul 
 cating caution and humility, is the best security for 
 her virtues. 
 
 WAYSIDE THORNS. 
 
 The wayside is set with thorns, in all probability 
 that we should not forget our errands while we 
 loiter. 
 
 SEARCH. 
 
 No one need srck who does not believe in the 
 
174 EGERIA. 
 
 object of his search, and who has not first resolved 
 to find. Faith and resolution are the two eyes 
 which alone conduct to discovery and conquest. 
 
 FIRST LOVES. 
 
 The reason why boys, at first, fall in love with 
 women who are so much older than themselves, is 
 because of their consciousness that they have so 
 much to learn. When they themselves grow old 
 enough to teach, they seek pupils in their sweet 
 hearts. It is thus that sixty, forgetting the pre 
 cocity of the sex, feels a passion for sixteen. 
 
 WOMAN S FAVOR. 
 
 To win the favor of a woman is not so necessary 
 that you should make her pleased with you as with 
 herself. The one conviction follows the other. The 
 mirror that shows beauty her own image, is one that 
 she will seldom break. Men of the world soon learn 
 this lesson : vanity never. 
 
 FLATTERY. 
 
 Flattery, to be successful, must be always indirect, 
 unless when you are dealing with a fool. Flattery, 
 primd facie, is an offence to the understanding, which 
 
EGERIA. 175 
 
 persons of any delicacy always resent. It assumes 
 that the shallowness of your mind is quite as great 
 as the depth of your vanity, and proposes to deal 
 with you as Narcissus dealt with himself. In such 
 cases, while the dish is grateful, one curses the awk 
 ward waiter who serves it up. 
 
 PRIMITIVE FREEDOM. 
 Look to the lovely past, where Liberty 
 
 Scatters her liberal gifts in plenty round, 
 Makes all delight before the grateful eye, 
 
 And gives to honest joy the viol s sound. 
 See where, in simple dance, with festive glee, 
 They tread the native carpet of the free ; 
 They dream not of the smiling sad deceit 
 That lurks in other lands, beneath the sweet ;-^ 
 But Peace, with rural viands crowns the soil, 
 And Love presents the grateful bowl to Toil ; 
 Beauty, from virgin neck of whitest snow, 
 Lifts the long tress to wipe hard Labor s brow ; 
 Mirth leads the frolic from his rustic throne, 
 And Freedom joys in joys she well may call her 
 own. 
 
 FEMININE DELICACY. 
 The woman who has sense enough to detect the 
 
176 EGEEIA. 
 
 purpose of the flatterer, will have spirit enough to 
 show resentment. If not, any solicitude in regard 
 to her favors may safely be dispensed with. The 
 virtue of such a person will prove as worthless as 
 her delicacy. 
 
 THE SOUL S VISION. 
 
 In astronomy, as the body rises it becomes lumi 
 nous, until passing out of the sphere of vision, it 
 sinks into darkness as before. But the darkness is 
 our own, and not that of the object whose obscura 
 tion we deplore. That has only passed into a yet 
 profounder light, becoming, though lost to us, a yet 
 more truly " illuminated body." We have seen it 
 veiled in darkness, but the veil was upon our own 
 eyes ; and to share in the illumination, or to pierce 
 that veil, it is necessary that we should rise also. 
 Hope and Fear will provide the wings for this pur 
 pose, and Faith and Labor are the sources of our 
 illumination. 
 
 PENALTIES OF EMINENCE. 
 
 The price of immortality is death ; the penalty of 
 superiority is pain. We must wrestle for every vic 
 tory, without always being sure that we shall have 
 
EGERIA. 177 
 
 fair play. There are thousands in the world who 
 would pluck the plumage from another without ever 
 dreaming of wearing it themselves. To rise into 
 command or triumph is equally beyond their imagi 
 nation and their hope ; but there is a pleasure un 
 speakable which they enjoy in pulling down their 
 neighbors to their own level. 
 
 MEN OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The best books are those which are written by 
 men of the world, who are yet no worldlings. They 
 have gathered the fruits of all human experience, 
 without having lost the blossoms of their own 
 humanity. 
 
 BOOKS. 
 
 The only two classes of books which are really 
 useful beyond all others, are those which are writ 
 ten for the head, and those which are written from 
 the heart. Yet, to write either well, requires a just 
 knowledge of both head and heart ; requires, in 
 deed, that while each shall be recognised, as absorb 
 ing always its own province, they shall both be con 
 sidered under a common sway. 
 
178 EGERIA. 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 The teacher who loathes his vocation is totally 
 unfit for it. We must love the labor in which we 
 would thoroughly succeed. We must honor the 
 pupil if we would hope to train him to honor. 
 
 CHRISTIAN HUMANITY. 
 
 Humanity still conquers, even through suffering. 
 Be careful not to lose that, and you lose nothing. 
 
 His eye was tearless, but his cheeks were wan : 
 
 There sorrow long had set her heavy hand ; 
 
 Yet was his spirit noble, and a bland 
 And sweet expression o er his features ran! 
 Care had not tutored him to sullenness, 
 
 The world s scorn not subdued the natural man, 
 The sweet milk of his nurture was not less, 
 
 Because the world had met him with its bun : 
 He is above revenges, though he drinks 
 
 The bitter draught of malice and of hate ; 
 And still, though in the weary strife he sinks, 
 
 They cannot make him murmur at his fate 
 He suffers, and he feels the pang, but proves 
 The conqueror, though he falls, for still he loves. 
 
 GREAT NAMES. 
 
 No doubt a nation suffers quite as much from the 
 prescriptive superiority of certain great names 
 
EGERIA. 179 
 
 among its people as from any defects of character 
 or infirmities of the people themselves; and yet, 
 but for this general inferiority of the whole, the 
 rank or distinction of the individual could never 
 have become so overshadowing as to have wrought 
 the nation any mischief. 
 
 CENSURE. 
 
 We complain that the censure of our neighbor 
 does us injustice. How much greater should be our 
 grief were his judgment just ! 
 
 HOW TO ENJOY. 
 
 I am honored in what I spare. The rose which 
 I leave upon the bush affords me a pleasure which I 
 should not enjoy were it plucked and buried within 
 my bosom. That is a wretched selfishness which 
 destroys when it would enjoy. 
 
 CREDULITY. 
 
 It is only an ignorant that is a credulous people. 
 But not to believe readily, may be quite as much a 
 proof of arrogance and presumption as of wisdom. 
 A people, like an individual, may know a great deal, 
 yet be ignorant of the one thing needful. A certain 
 
180 EGERIA. 
 
 amount of acquisition, mingled with a large quantity 
 of selfishness, invariably results in destroying all 
 faith in our fellow. People, thus distinguished, end 
 in believing nothing but themselves. 
 
 DRAMATIC PICTURES. 
 
 Grouping, in a picture, implies action ; yet how 
 commonly do painters attempt dramatic subjects, 
 and give us groups who seem to have no object. 
 Why should men come together unless there is some 
 thing to be done ? Dramatic pictures require all 
 the higher qualities of the artist ; but the design is 
 the vital requisite, which, to a certain degree, may 
 dispense with all the rest. At least, the story may 
 be told in chalk ; and the first object of the drama 
 tic painter is to tell his story. 
 
 RELATIONS IN A GROUP. 
 
 The action in a group should be always single, 
 and the figures should tend to a common centre. 
 The eye of the spectator should never be suffered 
 to wander off to the mere auxiliaries. These are 
 required to be there, as dependencies of the hero ; 
 we should only not be made conscious of their ab 
 sence ; but it will not do, if Thersites is allowed to 
 
EGERIA. 181 
 
 conflict with Agamemnon or Achilles in our regards. 
 For such an offence, the painter would deserve to 
 share in the chastisement of the buffoon. 
 
 REASON. 
 
 To be a reasoning animal, does not necessarily 
 imply a capacity to reason. This faculty is really 
 held by very few among the many. It is an origi 
 nal possession, and, though improvable, like any 
 other faculty, by training, is yet one with which no 
 course of education can endow the individual to 
 whom it has been denied by nature. It is a gift 
 implying powers of invention and combination 
 qualities which, united to imagination and fancy, 
 make the poet and the painter. The reasoner, like 
 the poet, is born, not made. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM AND EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Enthusiasm, without experience and study, may 
 be likened to a ship with great sails spread but 
 without ballast, and topheavy by its own lightness. 
 But as all the cargo in the world, however valuable, 
 and all the seamanship, however skilful, would do 
 nothing for the progress of the ship without her 
 sails, so all knowledge and experience are equally 
 16 
 
182 EGERIA. 
 
 dead and valueless, crammed away in the brain that 
 lacks enthusiasm. 
 
 TRUTH AND ERROR. 
 
 Looking at the huge libraries, the vast collec 
 tions, the folios, quartos, and octavos, which, at this 
 abundant day of letters, you find in every third 
 dwelling, and the wonder is natural that we should 
 be no wiser and no better than we are. Bead the 
 golden inscriptions which they bear, and half of them 
 are the labors of the devout moralist, who loved 
 laborious exercise for its own sake, and found no 
 pleasure save when he was doing battle for the 
 truth. Every third volume is one of a divine mora 
 lity. All of them are stuffed with wise saws and 
 senatorial maxims, which promise the amplest tri 
 umphs and the most complete immunities, in return 
 for implicit reverence and obedience. How is it 
 then that Error, in spite of all this, should still con 
 tinue to exist ? Nay, she not only exists, but has 
 her followers, her allies, her worshippers, and is as 
 insolent and audacious as she was before the flood. 
 She has more lives than the proverbial cat. By 
 what seven-fold shield does she keep herself un 
 harmed ? What is the subtle tenure of that exis- 
 
EGERIA. 183 
 
 tcnco that makes her so stubborn an antagonist so 
 bold in the assault, so stubborn in defence, so swift 
 of flight, so adroit in seizing new positions the mo 
 ment she is driven from the old, and crowning her 
 shoulders with new heads as fast as we lop the old 
 away ? Hers is a strange vitality : we cannot brain 
 her effectually with all our volumes. But here lies 
 the mystery. The big books themselves help some 
 what to explain it. This is the secret of their inef 
 fectiveness ; they are big, too big ! Error is a 
 subtle existence, small, compact and infmitesimally 
 divisible. It is not necessary for her destruction 
 that we should employ such forces as might have 
 served Gabriel against the infernal angels. Who 
 thinks to bring out field pieces in shooting sparrows ? 
 Before we can apply the torch, the bird is off, and 
 even did it wait the bombardment, a mustard seed 
 would do more execution than the bullet. A big 
 book in the moral, is not unlike a big gun in the 
 military world. It makes a great noise, and, if it 
 happens to hit, does a great deal of execution. 
 But, an hundred to one, in the computation of 
 chances, it never does hit, and so, for the good that 
 comes of it, it consumes quite too much of our time, 
 labor, and ammunition. Not so with the little books, 
 
184 E G E R I A. 
 
 the musketry and grape of literature. Some of 
 these must tell, since they are so numerous. Here 
 Truth divides herself as infinitesimally as Error, 
 accommodates herself to the humblest forms, and 
 leaps about as nimbly as her adroit enemy, where- 
 ever she may hope to find an antagonist. Her light 
 armed troops skirmish away on all hands, tell at 
 every point, in flank and rear, and have smitten the 
 enemy hip and thigh, while it is only now and then 
 that you hear the roar of her great artillery, slow, 
 solemn, and ever in the same place Error actually 
 dashing up under the smaller of her guns, and seiz 
 ing upon and spiking them, in the very teeth of the 
 corpulent matrosses. But, no longer to pursue one 
 figure, the small books better meet the exigency of 
 the case, are better adapted to the sort of enemy 
 they deal with, are more prompt, more portable, 
 more numerous, far less expensive, and much more 
 efficacious. In this comparison, it is not meant to 
 disparage the venerable folios. They are a sort of 
 depot a great store-house from whence the flying 
 artillery, the cavalry, the infantry, the scouts and 
 riflemen, may procure their missiles as they are 
 wanted. Doubtless, they contain immense quarries 
 of very precious materials. They should be prized 
 
EGERIA. 185 
 
 as something very sacred, and watched and examined 
 periodically with a religious scrutiny. Good men 
 and sage should be chosen to have them in careful 
 keeping, and on days of solemn state and cere 
 monial, they might be brought forth in sight of all 
 the citizens, in order that they should be sure that 
 the moth has not found its way to their treasure. 
 But for ordinary people and ordinary purposes, we 
 need a more active military. 
 
 CROSS PURPOSES. 
 
 Louisa has the sharpest, wittiest-looking 
 
 eyes in the world, but you lose sight of her eyes en 
 tirely when she begins to talk. The tongue par 
 takes of none of this sharpness. Hear what a for 
 mer lover says on this incongruous subject : 
 
 How different from Louisa s tongue, is fair Louisa s eye, 
 
 The latter never opes, but forth a thousand arrows fly, 
 
 While from the former tinkling thing, though ever on the stretch, 
 
 Your ears may carry all the day, but nothing pointed fetch. 
 
 THE CERTAIN EXECUTIONER. 
 
 Medical men, as well as lawyers, have been, at all 
 times, very fair game for the satirist. The follow 
 ing is rendered from Boileau. The Epigrammatist, 
 
 16* 
 
186 EGERIA. 
 
 who thus congratulates himself, in the language 
 of equal defiance and indignation, is not the only- 
 one whose security from danger has arisen solely 
 from his excessive caution against all risk : 
 
 " Your uncle," said you ? That assassin 
 
 Ne er prescribed for me, when ill 5 
 I never took his medicine ! 
 
 Behold the proof I m living still. 
 
 BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Something more may be said in regard to the 
 bulk of books intended for the use of mankind. 
 The subject is really of far more importance than 
 one would imagine, and to be rated with correctness 
 only by a recognition of the inevitable progress of 
 democracy. No doubt that, in big books there is 
 much philosophy perhaps, much philosophy could 
 not well be put into a smaller compass. But, for 
 the people for man as he is a creature of continual 
 hurry stricken with sudden necessities hastily 
 and perpetually called off by the exigencies of life, 
 much philosophy would be mostly evil. For these 
 your philosophy must be in broken doses. Your 
 books must be small, your sentences short, your 
 doctrines in a nutshell. The laboring man, who is 
 
EGERIA. 157 
 
 yet equally a reading and a thinking man, must have 
 books that will lie snugly in his pocket, that he can 
 draw forth, as he does his tobacco, and chew upon 
 as he traverses the highways to his tasks. The 
 man who depends for his daily dinner upon his daily 
 toil, cannot lug a monstrous volume where he goes ; 
 yet we must not leave him without the sort of ali 
 ment which big books profess to bestow. To whom 
 are the lessons of a true philosophy and a pure 
 morality more vitally important ? For whom, in 
 deed, are they written, if not for him ? It is he who 
 has fewest friends to teach and to forewarn fewest 
 resources of wealth, fewest attractions in society, 
 fewest means of consolation and comfort in the 
 hours of exhaustion and suffering. He is most open 
 to temptations, particularly those which more cer 
 tainly follow upon the footsteps of want and desti 
 tution, than in the wake of luxury and dissipation. 
 It is he who is most exposed to the presence of low 
 vices, to the evils of situation and contaminating 
 associations. These are the dangers which, coming 
 with humble pursuits and degrading necessities, are 
 well calculated, by insensible degrees, to divest him 
 of the necessary restraints of and respect for society. 
 Society must be at some pains to prevent this, if she 
 
188 EGERIA. 
 
 values her own safety. She must let him see that 
 she considers him her son, and quite as legitimate 
 as any of his better brothers. She must open his 
 eyes upon all the attractions and rewards which 
 belong to that better condition in which virtue is 
 nothing more than habit. She must persuade him 
 that to this condition there is really no reason why 
 he should not aspire with the rest. There must be 
 books made for him, with a due regard to his igno 
 rance, his wants, his poverty, and his daily exigen 
 cies. It appears to us the most monstrous absurdity 
 to put forth great volumes, at great prices, and to 
 call upon poverty and labor not only to read, but to 
 pay for them ; and, as they fail to do so, then de 
 nounce them for their ignorance, and turn away 
 with loathing from the inferior humanity to which 
 we offer a stone in place of bread. We must do 
 things differently if we hope to do anything. We 
 must put up our philosophies in small parcels, at 
 small prices, and mark them for the people ; only 
 taking care that Error does not contrive, disguising 
 herself like truth, to find her way into the parcel, 
 and thus defeat our charity. The errors of small 
 books would be of more pernicious effect than those 
 of large ones. In the latter case, they would sleep 
 
I 
 
 EGERIA. 189 
 
 in immemorial dust upon the shelves of the library ; 
 in the former, they would glide everywhere into the 
 heart of living man. 
 
 WHAT FOR DINNER! 
 
 [Some lessons in domestic philosophy may be 
 found in the doggrel which follows, something which, 
 while it shows off a hungry husband, may be of good 
 service to a prudent wife. We can assure all young 
 women that the counsel in the last two verses is of 
 the last importance to a quiet household.] 
 
 Let them prate of love who will, 
 
 Talk of sweet romance and song, 
 Tis the dinner bell that still 
 
 Sets all right that late was wrong ; 
 Here is logic, law, and love, 
 
 Deep st that man has ever known ; 
 And for marriage best they prove, 
 
 Who these blessed doctrines own ! 
 " What for dinner, prythee say, 
 
 Good wife, is it fish or flesh ; 
 Roast or fricassee to day, 
 
 Pickled pork, or cutlet fresh?" 
 
190 EGERIA. 
 
 ii. 
 "Hey the clatter, hi the clatter, 
 
 Plate and pitcher, knife and fork ; 
 Tis a sacred, solemn matter, 
 
 Serious business, mighty work ! 
 Chair ! you rascal ; don t stand grinning, 
 
 What the d 1 do you there? 
 Not now, good wife, cease that dinning, 
 
 It is too annoying, dear. 
 
 What for dinner, &c. 
 in. 
 Click ! that plate was nearly gone, 
 
 Fingers are all thumbs, I think : 
 Hand the bottle, Cuffee, John, 
 
 Nerves are steadied by a drink. 
 Here, you rascal, won t you move ? 
 
 Shall I break your skull in two ? 
 Don t be frightened now, my love, 
 
 It is what I shall not do. 
 
 What for dinner, &c. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Hey what s that still mutter, mutter ! 
 
 Pray, my dear, be quiet now; 
 I d rather hear you squeal or stutter, 
 
 Than that perpetual bow, wow, wow. 
 
EGERIA. 191 
 
 At some other time twill do, 
 
 Haply will I listen then ; 
 But when hungry, there are few 
 
 Listening husbands among men. 
 
 What for dinner, &c. 
 
 v. 
 
 Till the first attack is o er, 
 
 And the edge of appetite, 
 Feeling all, is felt no more, 
 
 Losing scent and sense and sight 
 Never growl of house affairs, 
 
 Young wife, keep your chronicle, 
 Hungry husbands have no ears, 
 
 None but for the dinner bell. 
 
 What for dinner, &c. 
 
 THE PERVERSE. 
 
 We are apt to be as maliciously hostile to our 
 selves, to our own peace and happiness, as to our 
 neighbors, and this too, not in ignorance, but through 
 pride, vanity, and mere perversity. The perverse 
 is one of the most mischievous forms of human 
 weakness : 
 
192 EGERIA. 
 
 Life s affluence still around us, how we scorn 
 The flower she brings us, grasping still the thorn ; 
 We seek for foreign pleasures, loth to see, 
 What fruits and blossoms bless our garden tree ; 
 How rich the light our evening sun bestows, 
 With what soft virgin smile our moonlight glows; 
 What music times our fountain, as it showers 
 A thousand droplets o er our sunny bowers ; 
 How sweet the bird that by our lattice sings ; 
 How soft the breeze that soothes us with its wings : 
 What hopes may brighten if their smiles we woo ; 
 What joys make captive, if we but pursue ; 
 If but the will and purpose prompt the toil, 
 What conquests crown, how exquisite the spoil! 
 But with what blindness do we mock the prize 
 Within our grasp, imploring still our eyes : 
 Deny the loveliest beauties of the year, 
 Reject the breeze, the song that comes to cheer, 
 And with strange passion and perverseness fed, 
 Create the very monsters that we dread! 
 
 ROYAL GREAT ONES. 
 
 Francis the First and Charles the Fifth have both 
 received the surname of the Great, and with some jus 
 tice we may recognise the application, though in a 
 different sense from that in which it was made. 
 Francis the First might have been a great scoundrel 
 had he not been too great a fool ; and Charles the 
 Fifth was too great a scoundrel to be held a fool. 
 
EGERIA. 103 
 
 Of what quality were the people and the courtiers 
 to whom these weak, base monarchs were the gods ? 
 
 WHOLENESS OF TRUTH. 
 
 But we must not forget the sacred wholeness of 
 Truth. In putting her into small parcels, we must 
 be careful to diminish none of her proportions. It 
 is one important element of her character, the proof 
 of her spirituality, that she may contract herself to 
 any dimensions, yet preserve her entircness and 
 symmetry. She must be symmetrical, or we cannot 
 love her she must be perfect, or we shall not re 
 cognise her. No writer of a book need set out with 
 the design to make a moral. If he does, his book 
 will be very apt to fail. His great object is to 
 make his narrative be it history or fiction and 
 there is philosophy in both entirely truthful ; and 
 truthfulness, even in the delineation of a vice or a 
 crime, always carries with it its own and a valuable 
 moral. The most moral authors that the world has 
 ever known, are those who have been most true to 
 nature : to nature in her completeness in all her 
 essentials and not in partial glimpses of her per 
 son. When, therefore, an author proves immoral 
 in his results even supposing that he sets out with 
 17 
 
194 EGERIA. 
 
 no evil intentions the inference is fair that he is 
 not true in his details. He may give you glimpses 
 of the truth, but they are glimpses only. The 
 whole truth is the only testimony which the superior 
 genius indulges, and the only testimony which can 
 properly avail for his case before the awful tribu 
 nals of posterity. It is the lack of this entireness, 
 this universal singleness, this individual essential, 
 absorbing all the rest, that has surrendered to de 
 feat, and given up to oblivion, many a noble mind 
 and grasping imagination. The world has known 
 very few writers who have deliberately set out to 
 pervert the truth, to misrepresent man, to deform 
 nature, and to debase society ! The Ethereges and 
 the Rochesters, were vicious men, it is true, but 
 they were abandoned, rather in consequence of 
 their inferior intellectual nature, than because of 
 any wilful desire to do wrong. They yielded them 
 selves, without examination, to the habitual vices 
 and tastes of their period. Genius, it must be re 
 membered, is a Seer who is apt to see false visions 
 as well as true. " One-sidedness" of survey is that 
 which frequently perverts the intellect, which would 
 otherwise honestly pursue the truth. The truth 
 naturally eludes such visions. She has a thousand 
 aspects, and they see but one. She lies, it is true, 
 
EGERIA. 195 
 
 upon the surface, but who shall say how much of 
 her there is below it ? It will not do to content 
 ourselves with the surface. We must dig, we must 
 dig below it, we must explore. Truth has breadth, 
 depth, length, and weight ; and we shall fail to say 
 what she is till we learn what these are. What she 
 requires, follows as another lesson. Some writers 
 of great genius succeed wonderfully in giving her 
 surface. They show one of her aspects, with most 
 singular force and felicity ; but as they themselves 
 see but her surface only, they show no more ; and 
 they are immoral writers, because they are untrue. 
 There is a general incoherence in the tone and 
 temper of their works an inconsistency between 
 the character and the doings of their agents which 
 the natural world never presents to us. To write 
 morally, it is necessary that truth in the general, 
 and truth in the detail, should be equally attended 
 to ; if not, we have the old monster of character, 
 the half woman, the half fish, described by the Poet, 
 in reference to a similar topic : 
 
 " The beauteous maid, 
 
 Proud of each charm above the waist displayed ; 
 Below a loathsome fish : 
 
 Such is the book, that like a sick man s dreams, 
 Deforms all shapes and mingles all extremes. 
 
196 EGERIA. 
 
 LOVING WISELY. 
 
 To love wisely is not so easy as to love well ; yet 
 to love well, it is necessary that we should first love 
 
 wisely. 
 
 VOLTAIRE. 
 
 There is an eloquent sketch of Voltaire, by Mrs. 
 Shelley, supposed to be as great an infidel as him 
 self, which apologizes for him, very ingeniously, at 
 the expense of the Roman Catholic Church. But 
 this is a sort of plea which is wholly English. Vol 
 taire, we suspect, did not care a straw for any 
 church, of any sect; and simply assailed that of 
 which he knew most, and which he deemed to be 
 most vulnerable. Voltaire s infirmities were wit 
 and vanity ; a compound that usually produces 
 incredulity, and sometimes infidelity. His faith in 
 himself was too profound to have admitted much 
 faith in God ; and this is the evil, we are inclined 
 to think, which is the source of most of the revolu 
 tions of France. 
 
 DEVOTION OF PURPOSE. 
 
 Thrice satisfied he, 
 
 Who, in the immeasurable might of Love, 
 Still ready for all sacrifice, devotes 
 His manhood, and the promise of his days, 
 To the one object. 
 
EGERIA. 197 
 
 ATTACHMENTS. 
 
 Our capacity to form judicious attachments, docs 
 not so much depend upon our capacity to think and 
 to observe, as upon the vigilance and activity of 
 rare instincts which have been tutored by necessi 
 ties and trials. 
 
 JUDGMENT. 
 
 It were no unchristian mode of judging others, 
 were we as willing to suppose, in them, the merits 
 which we all fancy in ourselves. 
 
 SELF-MIRRORS. 
 
 The instinct which discerns the evil motive in our 
 neighbor, proves the vice in question to be active at 
 the core of our own hearts. 
 
 FEMALE VIRTUE. 
 
 The delicacy of female virtue consists wholly in 
 its unconsciousness. She to whom you can teach 
 nothing, has already learned the worst knowledge 
 of the human heart. 
 
 OLD AND YOUNG. 
 To the young the past is an abyss ; to the old an 
 
198 EGERIA. 
 
 eminence. It is before the latter that the abyss 
 presents itself, from the edge of which they mourn 
 fully look back to the sunny heights which they 
 never more shall tread. 
 
 DULL WEATHER. 
 
 Now close the door and bolt the shutter fast, 
 Make sunshine in the circle, while the blast 
 Shrieks at the shutter ; light the fires within, 
 
 While coldly the dim sunset in the sky 
 Fails, as of wont, the upward gaze to win, 
 
 And glooms the spirit gazing through the eye. 
 We are but creatures of the exterior world, 
 With all our soul and seeking ; and the sphere 
 
 Perforce, that we inhabit, still must share 
 
 Our sympathies, and touch us with its hues, 
 Unless with will, like that of erst, which hurled 
 Our sire from thrones he knew not how to sway, 
 
 With the endeavor resolute, we shall choose 
 Our own dominion, peopling as we may. 
 Tis with us still, when outward sways the gloom, 
 Within, with smiles and love, our homes to reillume. 
 
 GOOD ADVICE FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY. 
 It is warm weather, my friends. You too are ex- 
 
EGERIA. 199 
 
 pected to be warm, and caloric will be proper, as a 
 first element on the national anniversary. The sun 
 will shine upon the troops with emulation of the 
 brightness of the stars, buttons, and epaulettes. 
 Burnished helmets will reflect back all his glories, 
 and polished sabres stream like comets in his glance. 
 It will try the eyes to look upon the spectacle. 
 Keep therefore, as much in the shade as possible. 
 Valor does not require you to expose yourself. 
 Nor will it need that, before you sally forth at day 
 light, you should resort to any " Dutch courage," in 
 the shape of strong drink, to inspire you with the 
 necessary enthusiasm. In delivering the feu-de- 
 joic, beware that the lock of your brother soldier s 
 musket is not too familiar with your left whisker. 
 To be compelled to despatch your right, in a search 
 after its companion, is a sad thing to be thought of 
 in these piping times of war. If you attend any of 
 the orators, don t let them excite you to any extrava- 
 gcnt act of patriotism. Go home peaceably if you 
 can follow the shady side of the street, and drink, 
 by the way of no mineral waters having in them 
 sulphur and carbon. Get quietly to your chamber, 
 strip, bathe, and take a siesta of eleven minutes 
 no more then dress for dinner with your Society. 
 
200 EGEBIA. 
 
 When delivering yourself of your toast take care 
 that you say only what you intend, and, above all 
 things, do not let your ambition promise more than 
 your heart will enable you to perform. If you 
 would pun at table use red pepper in your soup. If, 
 at the close of the feast, you are doubtful of the 
 prudence which should direct your footsteps, drop in 
 at the police office and request a companion. Do 
 not linger under any of the lamp-posts by the way, 
 for most gases are inflammable, and acting on each 
 other, the chances are that you or the lamp may 
 suffer by it. Retire to bed at an early hour, and if 
 you have any feeling of that sort, there is no reason 
 that you should not mingle " Hail Columbia" with 
 your prayers. 
 
 VICE SHORT-LIVED. 
 
 How much easier would our virtues be of attain 
 ment, if we could only remember always how short 
 lived are all the enjoyments of vice. Give them 
 the whole seventy years of our allotment, and how 
 infinitely nothing is the whole sum of being upon 
 which even the most selfish worldling would insist. 
 
EGERIA. 201 
 
 CHTLD-ANGELS. 
 
 Why should there not be child-angels dear and 
 infant forms with wings as well as those which can 
 tutor and direct us even while they serve ? It does 
 not follow that a perfect condition of happiness im 
 plies a monotonous equality of strength and stature 
 in the realms and principalities assigned to the 
 abodes of the blessed. 
 
 THE FUTURE. 
 
 It is strange that, knowing nothing of the future 
 ourselves, we should still be unwilling to trust our 
 selves implicitly to that guidance which has already 
 carried us so far in safety. 
 
 COMMUNITIES. 
 
 Ancient communities which, at the same time, 
 remain stationary, making no progress, are apt 
 always to refine at their own expense. In such, 
 the tastes ripen at the expense of the energies ; and 
 refinement, when it becomes fastidiousness, is fatal 
 to performance. The dangerous point to which 
 such a community can arrive, is when it becomes 
 habitually critical. When the Athenian mob could 
 teach an actor the right reading, Athens was no 
 
202 EGERIA. 
 
 longer a power. It was ready for overthrow. A 
 community of critics will lack the courage to do 
 anything but criticise. They will dread to incur, 
 by performance, the severities which it has been 
 their pleasure to pass upon their neighbors. Such 
 a community will tell you of the burr in the voice, 
 the grammatical slip, of the uncouth expression of 
 the great orator, while all the world hangs with 
 tears and tumultuous delight upon the magnificent 
 flow of his thought the glorious sweep of his ima 
 gination. They are quite too nice to be wise too 
 correct to be courageous too solicitous of their 
 own utterance to hear the words of wisdom or 
 genius, or to gather truth or inspiration from the 
 lips of others. 
 
 MORAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Patriotism declaims a great deal about our moral 
 progress, but is it so sure that we are making any ? 
 Novelties of invention do not establish the fact of 
 moral superiority. They simply confirm an old 
 truth, that the worldly capacities of man are always 
 equal to his necessities and actual condition. Our 
 discoveries merely seem to keep pace with our en 
 larging empire and the wants that a new condition 
 
EGERIA. 203 
 
 will naturally exhibit. These necessities are really 
 not of a kind to bring out into more ample exercise 
 the moral energies of which our nature is suscepti 
 ble. They address themselves to our economies, 
 rather than to our genius, except where the latter 
 is inspired by the ambition to gratify animal passions 
 or to overcome physical impediments. Our progress 
 seems to be mechanical and animal, rather than 
 moral. In morals, I suspect that the age is pretty 
 much where it was a thousand years ago. In what 
 is the morality of the British conquest over the 
 Chinese, superior to that of the Norman sea-chivalry 
 in the time of Charlemagne ? How is the Christianity 
 of French conquest in Algeria, superior to the 
 ordinary moral exhibitions of the British, French, 
 Spanish, and Italian, during the reigns of Louis the 
 Twelfth, Henry the Eighth, Charles the Bold, Fer 
 dinand the Catholic, and Pope Julius II. or any 
 reigns in Europe for three hundred years before ? 
 And the moral progress depends upon just such 
 comparison. Does the question show other results 
 when it relates to purely intellectual matters ? The 
 exact sciences move in natural progression we may 
 venture to say this, though with some hesitation, 
 since it is difficult to say how much of the ancient 
 
204 E a KHI A. 
 
 inheritance our own barbarous progenitors destroyed. 
 But for the inexact, which are the truly moral por 
 tions of the mental nature those which we may 
 not group in a square or reckon by figures those 
 which involve the attributes of taste, and appeal to 
 the agency of the imagination these are, if not 
 absolutely retrograde, scarcely more advanced than 
 they were in the days of Homer. The centuries 
 seem to move in a circle rather than to advance, 
 and we do little more than retrace their ancient 
 movements. Our discoveries are such as we fre 
 quently find to have been used three thousand years 
 ago. The ages seem to propose to themselves no 
 goal to which they advance with steadfast direction. 
 We set off, every now and then, with a fresh impulse, 
 as if the ground was new and the pathway yet to be 
 laid open, but find ourselves, after a while, at the 
 well known starting-place. We meet at every step, 
 the traces of some former progress, if not of our 
 own. Old records freshen at every step, and, like 
 the traveller in the Arabian legend, we find the 
 barriers recede as we advance, but still enough re 
 main to show that they at least are impassable. 
 Time will not suffer us to escape him. He travels 
 still in our company, and our defeats only declare 
 
EGERIA. 205 
 
 his limitations no less than our own. Our stages 
 are his also ; though our seasons vary, and we have 
 still a hope, which he does not pretend to share. 
 Indeed, Human Life, it must not be forgotten, is 
 nothing more than human life. That we are not 
 all human, is a fact which does not seem much to 
 interfere with our merely human progress. Here 
 are our metes and bounds here rise our Alps. 
 Thus far may we go and no farther. Life makes 
 but little progress out of the path of time. The 
 1 Everlasting-to-be which hath been, is the destiny 
 more inflexible in the eye of mortal ambition than 
 any of the rest. It does not seem to forbid improve 
 ment, but it prevents advance. In vain do we enu 
 merate our achievements. We share them only with 
 the past. Our books, our arts, our sciences, our 
 skill, our valor, our songs, our seers they are those 
 of the buried ages. The giants who have gone be 
 fore us in point of time, have gone before us, 
 in achievements also. We have superseded them 
 with others, but are we sure that we have sur 
 passed them in their inventions ? If we have found 
 some things of our own, we have lost some of theirs, 
 which were probably quite as valuable, anci certainly 
 quite as much suited to their wantg as the present 
 18 
 
206 EGERIA. 
 
 are to ours. And who shall pretend to say that 
 our very discoveries have not simply arisen because 
 of our ill success in retracing theirs. What, in 
 fact, have we to brag of? Nothing, perhaps, unless 
 in some vague conviction in our times, not of recep 
 tion in theirs, of a universal humanity. To have 
 discovered man, as an estate, is something. Yet 
 this, by the way, was the great revelation brought 
 to us by Christ ! Otherwise the ancients are still 
 our tutors, our models, and our masters. We copy 
 their labors, while we clamor for their immortality. 
 We strive for the eminence, and lo ! we find old 
 names written on our monuments. We are like the 
 pioneer, who, exploring what he deems an unknown 
 wilderness, finds, suddenly, to his horror and sur 
 prise, the gashes in the tree, of the very axe which 
 he carries upon his shoulder. 
 
 ATTRIBUTES OF LOVE. 
 
 If Love had not an understanding eye, 
 
 If Love s eye had not comprehensive speech, 
 
 If Love were not a thing of memory, 
 
 Or if to aught but Love, Love aught could teach, 
 
 How much, sweet heart, have I said fruitlessly, 
 How much fond speech were thrown away on 
 thee : 
 
EGERIA. 207 
 
 How much have both remembered bootlessly, 
 How much have others seen, who should not see ; 
 
 How profligate our hearts of moments wasted ; 
 How vain the fond expectancies that led ; 
 
 How wild the dreams whose raptures sleep untasted ; 
 How sad the sweet delusions which have fed ; 
 
 The heart s whole being from this danger shrinks ! 
 
 Yet Love is no such profligate, methinks ! 
 
 PASSIONS AND VIRTUES. 
 
 To survive the passions, without having matured 
 the virtues, is to expend our capital without taking 
 the customary securities. 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 Better love in vain than leave the heart unem 
 ployed. 
 
 CONVERSATION. 
 
 The high and proper signification of the word 
 "conversation," seems now to be lost from society. 
 A fine strain of dilation, such as came from that 
 old man, eloquent Coleridge, is voted declamation 
 and impertinence, by that vulgar vanity, which, in 
 its own perpetual hunger to be heard, is angry, 
 
208 EGERIA. 
 
 though a God should speak. Instead of conversa 
 tion, nowadays, what have we ? The " wishy- 
 washy everlasting flood" of drivel an idiot s tale 
 signifying nothing, not even sound and fury. 
 
 CONSOLATIONS OF BEGGARY. 
 
 I suppose that the beggar finds some consolation 
 in the thought that he shall one day cease to starve. 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 After all, how grateful is the certainty of death ! 
 What a world of consolation is contained in the as 
 surance of the Scriptures, that there shall come a 
 season, and be a place of refuge, when and where 
 the wicked shall cease from troubling and the weary 
 shall find rest. True virtue consists in the struggle, 
 I admit ; but it does not cease to be virtue, that we 
 
 should seek repose after the victory is won. 
 
 
 
 ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 Enthusiasm is unquestionably a virtue, the wing 
 and impulse to all other virtues. But, in the absence 
 of virtue itself, the most sovereign impertinence. 
 Habitual enthusiasm is a child of the blood, and not 
 of the principles. But it is not the less to be enter- 
 
EGERIA. 209 
 
 tained or valued on this account ; since the blood is 
 the life of the passions, and where there are no pas 
 sions, there can be no virtues. Enthusiasm in the 
 young, coupled with reverence and faith, proves all 
 right. Bui, lacking the latter, it makes a tyranny 
 of the mind which feels its impulses, and in the dis 
 eased growth of self-esteem, which it occasions, it 
 defeats all usefulness. 
 
 HABITUAL IMPULSE. 
 
 Habitually enthusiastic people are never so happy 
 as when they are endeavoring to save you from 
 yourself. It is, however, fortunate that the passion 
 which informs such persons, is one of peculiar in 
 stability and caprice. Their ambition is to be doing, 
 no matter what, so that the blood be exercised ; and 
 uninformed by principle, and without any special 
 object in their ministry, they so divide their industry 
 among the many, as to render endurable the suffer 
 ings of each. A firm show of resistance soon ba 
 nishes the tormentor, who does not feel any defeat or 
 disappointment in being compelled to transfer his 
 dispensations from Jack to Jonathan. 
 
210 EGERIA. 
 
 SINCERITY. 
 
 Our loves are but the mirrors of our lives. Our 
 affections go with our virtues. We do not truly 
 honor the beauty which we do not seek. No one 
 acknowledges the Deity to whom he does not some 
 where construct an altar. 
 
 ZEAL. 
 
 Zeal too frequently commits the error of cupidity, 
 in its eagerness to realize its fruits. The history of 
 the Jesuits would furnish the most admirable ex 
 ample for the training of the zealot, so that his hand 
 shall never close upon his bird a moment before the 
 time. To plant the seed and wait patiently for the 
 growth, is one of the loveliest studies of religion. 
 It is faith alone that is ever suffered to behold the 
 dead staff blossom full of leaves. 
 
 CRUDE VIRTUES. 
 
 What we call vice in our neighbor may be nothing 
 less than a crude virtue. To him who knows 
 nothing more of precious stones than he can learn 
 from a daily contemplation of his breast-pin, a dia 
 mond in the mine must be a very unpromising sort 
 of stone. 
 
EGERIA. 211 
 
 VERSE. 
 
 It is thought strange that poets should write verse 
 before prose ; but verse is the natural language of 
 the poet. His freedom, spirit and grace of expres 
 sion, come to him in metrical compositions, much 
 sooner than in the ordinary forms of speech. Rhythm 
 is his vernacular, and it requires some effort and 
 much practice, even when he would write prose, to 
 avoid running into the regular cadences of verse. 
 
 USES OF TOMTITS. 
 
 I really cannot see why a fop should not be con 
 sidered quite as necessary to the human family as a 
 philosopher. He has his uses, if only to be laughed 
 at. He may not be useful to many, but he is apt 
 to be agreeable to more ; and he who pleases, is 
 quite as dear as he who serves us. Nobody quarrels 
 with the jay, because you cannot devour him with the 
 same satisfaction which a partridge gives on table ; 
 and the silly tomtit, if not so venerable a bird as 
 the owl, is less destructive to the chickens. I sup 
 pose that fops and dandies bear just about the same 
 relation to the human family as jays, parrots, and 
 such like, to the feathered tribes. Wits, and mimics, 
 
212 EGERIA. 
 
 and satirists, may be likened to mocking-birds ; 
 statesmen and philosophers, to owls and other birds 
 that see by night ; politicians to bats and sparrow- 
 hawks ; and warriors to vultures, eagles, and other 
 voracious feeders, carrying great beaks, big beards 
 and brows, and awfully long teeth and talons. 
 
 PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 The present is always an eminence, yet who that 
 stands upon it is ever quite satisfied with the pro 
 vinces within his vision ? In due degree with our 
 years, we look forward or backward, upward or 
 around. To the old, the heights most precious are 
 those upon which the sunshine rests, the mellow 
 lights of evening, gleaming faintly upon the moun 
 tain tops behind : to the young, they are those of 
 morning, shining gaily upon the purple summits 
 that stretch away before. Neither is satisfied with 
 the eminences gained, the one at the cost of a life, 
 the other of a hope, and both at the peril of equal 
 life and hope. 
 
 GOOD AND EVIL GENII. 
 
 The Indians fable, that there is always one hour 
 in the twenty-four when the good genius of a man 
 
EGERIA. 213 
 
 deserts him, being compelled in that time to fly to 
 Heaven for instructions. In that hour, should his 
 evil genius happen to find it out, he can ruin him 
 with all imaginable ease. It is the misfortune of 
 some men, that the good genius deserts them most 
 of the time, and it is the evil principle that only 
 leaves them for an hour. This brief space of time 
 affords the better genius but little opportunity. 
 With such persons, self strives ever against self 
 the right hand against the left and each day brings 
 its own suicide of soul. They need no enemy for 
 their destruction, and, with a strange and mistaken 
 charity for the devil, anticipate his efforts and 
 lighten his labors. 
 
 PERFORMANCE. 
 
 To suppose that nothing remains to be done, is to 
 assume that W T C are perfect. If life consist in self- 
 development, the labor cannot cease except with 
 life itself. Each day brings its own duty, and every 
 step, forwards and upwards, but shows us new plains 
 to cross and new heights to overcome. 
 
 PACUVIUS. 
 They tell a scandalous story of Pacuvius, the 
 
214 EGERIA. 
 
 Roman dramatist. He had three wives, all of 
 whom hanged themselves ; a remarkable felicity 
 of fortune, it was said by the Stoics but not more 
 remarkable than the additional circumstance, that 
 they all hanged themselves on the very same tree. 
 Pacuvius one day lamented this fortune to his 
 friend Attius, another poet, who had never had but 
 the one wife ; and she, it seems, had never shown 
 the slightest disposition to hang herself anywhere, 
 unless around the neck of her husband. Attius 
 confounded the complaining bard by earnestly beg 
 ging for a slip of the same tree, that he might set it 
 out in his own garden. The story is more com 
 pactly versified by our satirist. 
 
 Pacuvius thus lamented to his friend: 
 
 " On the same tree my three wives made their end ; 
 
 His wedded friend had ready sympathy 
 
 "Ah! to my garden pray transplant that tree!" 
 
 ROMAN HIGHWAYS. 
 
 The highest proofs remaining to the world of 
 Roman genius and strength, are in the magnificence 
 of their highways. Milton has given us a bird s- 
 eye view of their extent, and the wondrous regions 
 to which they conducted. But it should not be 
 denied to a humbler muse to bear testimony also. 
 
EGERIA. 215 
 
 We cannot see the end, which yet we know, 
 The wondrous end ! Thither our footsteps seek 
 The Northern countries, by the Emilian way 
 Even to the British West. The Appian road 
 Could the eye follow, would conduct its flight 
 Where the East opens the broad gates of day! 
 And this is Conquest to ascend the peak, 
 To pierce stern rocks, and bid wild waters flow, 
 Lay bare the forest paths, and send abroad 
 Swift messengers, it may be with the scourge, 
 Needful the fiery savage to subdue. 
 Ere from the barren of his mental night, 
 To the great consciousness, he may emerge, 
 Of what in nature and himself is true ! 
 
 SOLITUDE. 
 
 He who goes into the Solitude^ seeking its secu 
 rities, goes into his own heart and entreats God to 
 its examination. Let such persons lay it honestly 
 bare, without reservation or concealment, and no 
 doubt all its hurts will be made whole. But the 
 security which one seeks must be in the nature of a 
 surrender and a sacrifice ; and in laying his heart 
 thus bare, he must be prepared to fling away the 
 worser part as a burnt offering, to "live the purer 
 with the better half." 
 
216 EGERIA. 
 
 SEVERITY OF JUDGMENT. 
 
 The indignation which we proclaim at the faults 
 and errors of our neighbor, is always loud in due 
 degree with our anxiety to conceal our own defi 
 ciencies of the same description. We would all of 
 us seem desirous to avoid the danger of suspicion 
 and detection, by showing that we at least have no 
 reluctance to hurl the first stone. It would be the 
 most terrible misfortune to the wrong-doer, were he 
 always yielded up to the tender mercies of those 
 who are themselves guilty. 
 
 WITNESSES AGAINST US. 
 
 Have I any reason to doubt that the bird which 
 chirrups in my evening walk, as if thus decreed to 
 be the minister to my happiness, is also conscious 
 that I enjoy his attentions, and that his antics and 
 his song are not in vain ? If thus decreed to minis 
 ter, he is probably not ignorant of his uses, and 
 knows my duties as he does his own. Alas ! if this 
 be true, what thousand witnesses exist against us, 
 whom we have never feared, who can testify to our 
 improvidence, our hardness of heart, our profligacy 
 and wantonness our selfish enjoyment of the bless- 
 
EGBRIA. 217 
 
 ing, without making the acknowledgment our 
 thoughtless indifference to the humble servant who 
 has served without favor, and has perished without 
 reward. 
 
 THE WORST ENEMIES. 
 
 Our worst enemies are those who have wronged 
 us and whom we have forgiven. Their continued 
 hostility is only a proof that they have not yet for 
 given themselves. 
 
 WANTS AND NECESSITIES. 
 
 Our absolute necessity is one thing which we need 
 not here consider. But the numerous wants of man 
 are due quite as much to his social condition as to 
 his nature. It is not inconsistent with a proper 
 humility that he should desire to sustain himself in 
 the estimation of his caste and family ; nor is there 
 any reproach to his religion, if, while he neglects no 
 becoming duty or relation, he seeks still to rise 
 above the social condition in which he finds himself. 
 
 IMPOLICY OF INFERIOR STANDARDS. 
 
 There can be no greater error in the policy of 
 society, than in placing too humble an estimate upon 
 19 
 
218 EGEIIIA. 
 
 humanity. To suppose men base is to make them 
 so. It is in proportion to the exactions and expec 
 tations of society that they rise or fall. We endow 
 the individual to whom we open the moral vista ; we 
 drive him to utter despair if we show the gates 
 shut against him. To insist upon his susceptibilities 
 for excellence, is in most cases to make him excel. 
 We may punish a fault, but not by exposure. To 
 disgrace the offender is to destroy him. Eugene 
 Sue makes a case of this sort in the instance of 
 Chourineur, who is rescued from the stews of Paris, 
 by being simply taught that, whatever his vices and 
 degradation, Tie has not lost his honor ; has not sunk 
 into obtuseness in regard to his condition, and is 
 not beyond regeneration and redemption. Would 
 you have your beast become a man, do not forget 
 your own humanity would you have him a gentle 
 man, treat him as if you thought it easy for him to 
 become one ! 
 
 VANITY. 
 
 Vanity is, perhaps, one of the most perfect 
 sources of the amiable. Those who live upon the 
 praises of their neighbors, must expect to pay for 
 them. They are amiable and solicitous, indulgent 
 
EGERIA. 219 
 
 \ 
 
 and agreeable, for a consideration. Deny these 
 persons the aliment they seek only suggest a 
 doubt of their perfection and the shock you give 
 to self-esteem endangers the whole fabric of its 
 virtues. To be truly amiable, one must show that 
 he does not lose his temper in the mortification of 
 his vanity a painful test which very amiable people 
 find it difficult to undergo. 
 
 PROGRESS IN RELIGION. 
 
 "Why should religion not be as susceptible of pro 
 gress as any other of our human interests ? Every 
 day brings with it a new revelation, which needs to 
 be incorporated with the faith which we profess. 
 Should not the Church accommodate herself to the 
 intellectual advances of the race, if only to meet 
 the demands of a higher condition of the mental 
 nature ? It was thus, step by step, in ancient times, 
 as the Jews made progress, that new prophets ap 
 peared to gather up the proofs, and work them into 
 the common law of doctrine. A certain condition 
 reached, and God vouchsafed them the Saviour, 
 bringing with him the proofs of the immortality of 
 the soul, and the necessity, as well as the means, of 
 salvation. In the abundance of present doctrine, 
 
220 EGERIA. 
 
 there seems no progress. This is one of the great 
 sources of lukewarmness in a flock. The mind is 
 taught a progress in all other matters. The intel 
 lect has gone beyond the heart. The faith keeps 
 no pace with the thought of man, which, it seems 
 to me, it might do. It certainly would not impair 
 the future destinies of the individual, if, through 
 superior sagacity, or a more fortunate inspiration, 
 he should become conscious, while in his mortal 
 state, of some few more of those spiritual truths 
 which he is fated to realize in the future. 
 
 HOPES OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 What, less than the hope of meeting them again, 
 could console us in this life for the loss of relations 
 and friends. The desire which we feel, is perhaps 
 the best evidence which we can have, that such will 
 be the case. This is the consolation, too, that waits 
 upon death, disarming many of the terrors that 
 throng about the anxious spirit, on the verge of its 
 own departure. We look with eager hope to the 
 crowd that we expect to welcome us, and thus cheer 
 fully resign ourselves to the separation from the 
 crowd to whom we bid farewell. On either hand 
 there is a hope as well as a tie. 
 
EGERIA. 221 
 
 THE LIFE JOURNEY. 
 
 , It is an open path that we are all travelling, though 
 it closes in a forest. To all, the path is more or 
 less agreeable ; for few, it seems, are anxious that 
 it should terminate. The forest, and the sights and 
 scenes that we may there encounter, may well occa 
 sion us to pause. How doubtful, how terrible is 
 the doubt ! Happy he, who, looking forward with 
 hope and inward assurance, can see glimpses of the 
 green fields opening beyond in the sunlight ! 
 
 TEARS OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 The tears of childhood invigorate the affections, 
 even as the tempest clears a pathway for the sun in 
 heaven. They disperse the clouds which settle about 
 the head and heart, and bring back the morning even 
 in the closing of the day. 
 
 ORIGIN. 
 
 No doubt, if one looks back sufficiently far, he 
 will find a base beginning for his stock. But one 
 whom we find always looking back to the original 
 puddle, would prove to us that his peril lay in hav 
 ing a base conclusion also. 
 19* 
 
222 EGERIA. 
 
 PETTY CARES. 
 
 Petty cares make one selfish and querulous. He 
 can only rise above them, with an equable mood, 
 who can keep his passions in subjection to his intel 
 lect. 
 
 EFFECT OF TROUBLES. 
 
 Small necessities and inferior trials affect the 
 temper rather than the heart. It is the great 
 trouble only that, seizing the heart by the roots, and 
 riving it in all its arteries, as the tempest rends and 
 rives the oak, informs the mortal nature with a 
 sweet humanity. 
 
 TEACHING AND TRAINING. 
 
 Events, however small, in the lives of children, 
 are things of more vast importance to the race, than 
 those leading occurrences which make the nations 
 anxious. The occurrences of childhood, more or 
 less, involve principles ; and these are never insig 
 nificant matters, though they take place in trifles, 
 and relate to sports and toys. A principle is never 
 a small matter. A principle may be regarded as 
 the parent of a thousand dependencies, which, like 
 
EGERIA. 223 
 
 other subordinates, would be unruly, were not the 
 governing power there to keep them in order. A 
 fixed principle guides the subordinate thoughts of 
 the mind, or they rob it of all sanity. Thus, the 
 power which propels the steamboat and the stage 
 which provides a city with bread, or consumes it 
 is a single power, and only works in these different 
 ways, and for these different objects, however dis 
 tinct, in obedience to the solitary agency to which 
 they are subject. A principle impressed upon the 
 child, through the medium of those trifling events 
 of which his early life is commonly made up, be 
 comes a habit as much so as the washing his face 
 and hands of a morning. It forms for his govern 
 ment, what we call, a standard of the mind. By 
 this standard of the mind, which, as a habit, is 
 familiar, and at his fingers ends at all times, he is 
 enabled to determine upon his proper conduct, and 
 what he should do, however novel or unusual may 
 be his situation. If, for example, his father has 
 made it a point with him to speak the truth at all 
 times, and under every circumstance as every 
 father should do if he has tutored him to look upon 
 falsehood as odious and mean, and upon every form 
 of evasion as not only immoral, but unbecoming to 
 
224 EGEKIA. 
 
 manhood the boy so taught, in after life may be 
 trusted safely. I care not in what situation you 
 place him, he will never go aside from the standards 
 of mind which have been given, however far he may 
 be removed from the eye of the parent, and how 
 ever far beyond the reach of parental favor or re 
 proof. Solomon, a very respectable authority in 
 ancient times, was never more correct than when he 
 said, "train up a child in the way he should go, and 
 when he is old he will not depart therefrom." Mark 
 me, he does not say teach, but train. There is a 
 world-wide difference in the meaning of these two 
 words. The world now teaches all and trains none 
 at all. 
 
 MANHOOD. 
 
 To be conscious of all the peril, toil, and defeat, 
 and yet resolutely press on to the encounter, in the 
 hope of the ultimate triumph, that is the most con 
 summate manhood, the highest proof of moral 
 endowment, faith and courage. I give the maxim 
 a portable form in a sonnet. 
 
 I know that I rmist struggle, and I know 
 That sorrow in that struggle must be mine, 
 
E G E R I A. 225 
 
 And with denial I must chafe and pine ! 
 My nature and the world decree it so! 
 But shall I from the progress backward go ? 
 My hand upon the ploughshare, shall my heart 
 Shrink from the toil because the toil be great, 
 And there are those who, striving, cry " Depart! 
 Lest you provoke our ridicule and hate !" 
 This were to fight with fortune against fate ; 
 A harder conflict than to struggle on, 
 Still falling, and arising but to fall, 
 But stiil to rise and struggle, firm through all, 
 Growing stronger with each foot of progress won! 
 
 SPRINGS OF THE HEART. 
 
 The heart, like some exhaustless reservoir, is so 
 happily supplied by secret springs, that its fulness 
 keeps even pace with the draughts which are made 
 upon it. It always possesses in due proportion as 
 it imparts. It is one of the most wonderful quali 
 ties in nature, that she bestows nothing where it is 
 not needed; and so jealous does she show herself, 
 in the midst of all her bounty, of all unbecoming 
 waste, that the faculty left unexercised, is soon with 
 drawn from the improvident possessor. Not to lose, 
 therefore, we must be prompt to use. 
 
 POLITICIANS AND PEOPLE. 
 Politicians are apt to think that the best argument 
 
226 EGERIA. 
 
 for the people is not that which is true, or that which 
 should be taught, but that only which they are most 
 anxious to believe. 
 
 OCCASION AND PRINCIPLE. 
 
 He shall go wrong who goes not with the occasion, 
 and steer at random who steers not by the polar 
 star of truth and principle. 
 
 PITY. 
 
 Punishment is by no means inconsistent with pity. 
 They know not what they do, is no reason why they 
 should not be made to know. 
 
 ORIENTAL POETRY. 
 
 Excluding that of the Bible, though we need not 
 make any exception in regard to the Songs of Solo 
 mon, the poetry of the East is marked by Fancy in 
 extreme degree, and never by Imagination, which 
 equally implies depth of search and audacity of 
 wing. Here is a sample, from the Arabic, of a poet 
 who mingles no little logic with his love. 
 
 Leila, thou fly st me like a dove, 
 
 When I pursue thee with my love ; 
 
 I give thy speed of wings to thee, 
 
 Then wherefore shouldst thou fly from me? 
 
EGERIA. 227 
 
 Whene er thou meet st me, in thy cheeks 
 The rose s blush thy fear bespeaks 
 Beneath my glance that rose-blush grows, 
 And he should reap, alone, who sows. 
 
 Sweet Leila, sporting in the shade, 
 I watch thee long, beloved maid 
 Ah ! set mine eyes thy prisoners free, 
 Or make thine own my jailers be. 
 
 And wherefore kiss yon budding flow r ? 
 To kiss thee back it hath no power! 
 Shouldst thou bestow such kiss on me, 
 I should not thus ungrateful be. 
 
 Deep in the fountain, clad in grace, 
 Thy white arms plash with fond embrace; 
 The fountain clasps thee not again 
 Thou shouldst not clasp me thus in vain. 
 
 SIGH NO MORE, LADIES. 
 
 A BALLAD. 
 
 The first four lines of this little song, forms the 
 burden to an old English melody, which was quite 
 popular in its season and may be again. 
 
 i. 
 
 " Sigh no more, ladies sigh no more, 
 
 Men were deceivers, ever; 
 One foot on sea, and one on shore, 
 
 To one thing constant never ;" 
 
228 EGERIA. 
 
 They rove, they range, from Sal to Sue, 
 
 And offer vows in plenty, 
 But nothing bound by aught they do. 
 
 There s not one true in twenty. 
 
 Sigh no more, ladies. 
 
 II. 
 
 Tis but a common game they play, 
 
 And love itself s a pastime; 
 They win your stakes, and speed away, 
 
 But never for the last time ; 
 Would you be safe, adopt, like us, 
 
 The roving lover s maxim; 
 First win, then sing your lover thus, 
 
 No matter how it racks him 
 
 Sigh no more, &c. 
 
 in. 
 
 To sigh and whine will never do, 
 
 He mocks while you are grieving 
 To find the damsel s heart is true, 
 
 But makes his own deceiving. 
 His passion s but a practised part, 
 
 And you in turn must act yours; 
 Lest, flying off, with perfect heart, 
 
 He boasts that he has sacked yours. 
 
 IGNORANCE OF GREATNESS. 
 
 It is the erroneous belief and doctrine of many of 
 our statesmen and philosophers, that the world is, 
 
EGERIA. 229 
 
 at all times, in profound ignorance of its own re 
 sources. " The world," says Mr. Taylor, in his 
 Philip Van Artevilde 
 
 " The world has never known its greatest men. ; 
 
 This is a very consoling philosophy for that innu 
 merable crowd of illustrious obscures, who would be 
 thought great, without acting greatness who would 
 receive the wages without doing the work. Now, 
 there could be nothing so startling perhaps no 
 thing so untrue, in the line, were it written 
 
 ; The time has seldom known its greatest men." 
 
 A great man is one who, in some sense or other, 
 adds to the world s possessions ; be it in government, 
 in poetry, or in philosophy, he is a bringer into life 
 a builder, a creator, a planter, an inventor in 
 some sort, a doer of that which nobody else has done 
 before him, and which nobody, then, besides himself, 
 seemed willing or prepared to do. Now, it is very 
 certain that the world really loses none of its posses 
 sions. A truth once known, is known for ever. It 
 is an immortality, as well as a property ; and he 
 who makes it known, is known with that which he 
 discovers and because of his discovery, lie possibly 
 
 20 
 
230 EG EH i A. 
 
 gives it his name ! It does not alter the case very 
 materially, to show that the name is sometimes mis 
 taken, misapplied, confounded with another. The 
 supposed discoverer receives the prize of the dis 
 covery, and whether we call him Columbus or 
 Americus, it matters little in affecting the universal 
 acknowledgment that it is obviously the intention of 
 the world to make to his memory. But it is very 
 seldom, indeed, that the mere time is ignorant of the 
 merits of its great men. These may be baffled, de 
 nied, not successful in what would seem to be the 
 aim in their endeavor ; but the very fact that their 
 lives are struggles that there is opposition ear 
 nest, angry opposition, perhaps persecution, and a 
 bloody death these are sufficient proofs that the 
 world acknowledges the greatness which provokes 
 its fear, its jealousy, its various passions of envy, or 
 hostility, or suspicious apprehension. No truth ever 
 yet failed because of the martyrdom of its teacher ; 
 and the life of the teacher, and his glory, lie in the 
 ultimate success of the truth which he taught, and 
 not within the miserable limit of his seventy years 
 of earthly allotment. It is one quality of true 
 greatness, to be always at work ; pushing its truth 
 forward ; never sleeping ; never doubting ; always 
 
EGERIA. 231 
 
 pressing on to the consummation of its final object ! 
 A man may die before his work is utterly done ! 
 Some truths require the lives of successive genera 
 tions of great men, before they are perfected, so as 
 to become clear and useful in the inferior under 
 standing of the million. Each of these workers has 
 his share in the glory ; not, perhaps, when the struc 
 ture is completed, but during the several stages of its 
 progress though that glory be, itself, nothing 
 greater, and nothing less, than the opposition and 
 reproach, the persecution and misrepresentation, 
 which he encounters in the world-fight for ever 
 going on between the subjects of routine-tyranny 
 and the prophets of the better faith. The world 
 knows all these great men, preserves their labors, 
 and consecrates their fame. The time, itself, though 
 unbelieving, is never improvident ; for it preserves 
 the history of its own unbelief ; the penalties which 
 it inflicted ; and the constancy, firm faith, and un 
 flagging resolution of the martyr ; and from these 
 come the human glory in other generations. There 
 is in man an inherent sentiment of justice. This 
 will work out its way. I conscientiously believe 
 that man never yet toiled for man, that he did not 
 ultimately receive his acknowledgments; and this 
 
232 EGERIA. 
 
 working for our race, constitutes the only sure claim 
 upon which we may reasonably expect the gratitude 
 either of our fellows or of the future ! 
 
 STYLE. 
 
 You hear a great deal said about the detection of 
 a writer by his style ; but this is sheer nonsense. 
 An author of any skill and experience can make his 
 style what he pleases, and impose on whom he will. 
 No doubt, when he has no motive for concealment, 
 and when the plan of his work is one with which he 
 has made his public familiar, you may read him then 
 as easily as his book. But, the truth is, that every 
 species of composition calls for its own language. 
 There is a style proper to the book itself, to the ob 
 ject which the writer has in view, and to the tone 
 which he determines to employ and artistical ne 
 cessity requires that he should acknowledge all of 
 these, in the peculiar mode in which he gives them 
 form. His style must vary with his subject, and 
 with the particular mood in which his conception 
 has been obtained. In other words, every book 
 must have its own style, peculiar to its character, 
 rather than to that of the writer, and the author 
 may show just as much, or just as little of himself, 
 as he thinks proper. 
 
EGERIA. 233 
 
 EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Habitual earnestness is necessary to a successful 
 prosecution of the business of life, no matter of 
 what character. But to be exceedingly, or even 
 moderately earnest, in trifles, is apt to make the 
 person unamiable. Pursued beyond a certain point 
 in society, and earnestness becomes asperity. We 
 should never forget that an argument urged to 
 a conclusion where we are to gain nothing but a 
 triumph over the pride or the ignorance of another, 
 is a victory won at the expense of a virtue. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 Pleasure is one of those commodities which are 
 sold at a thousand shops, and bought by a thousand 
 customers, but of which nobody ever fairly finds 
 possession. Either they know not well how to use, 
 or the commodity will not keep, for no one has ever 
 yet appeared to be satisfied with his bargain. It is 
 too subtle for transition, though sufficiently solid 
 for sale. 
 
 FITNESS OF THINGS. 
 
 I suppose that many persons would envy the bird 
 20* 
 
234 EGERIA. 
 
 his song, his wing, and his freedom, were it not that 
 grubs are by no means a favorite dish. It were to 
 be wished that where the uses of the man were 
 wanting, we could prompt him to those of the bird, 
 or even of the grub. 
 
 INFIRMITY OF PURPOSE. 
 
 There are some people in the world who, still 
 thinking what they shall do, do nothing because of 
 their thinking. They act, it may be, on the return 
 of the great comets. Ordinarily, their sole employ 
 ment seems to consist in beating against every star 
 in the heavens. 
 
 DEAD WEIGHTS. 
 
 The wonder is, not that the world is so easily 
 governed, but that so small a number of persons 
 will suffice for the purpose. There are dead weights 
 in political and legislative bodies as in clocks, and 
 hundreds answer as pulleys who would never do for 
 politicians. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 A people never fairly begins to prosper till neces 
 sity is treading on its heels. The growing want of 
 
EGERIA. 235 
 
 > 
 
 room is one of the sources of civilization. Popula 
 tion is power, but it must be a population that, in 
 growing, is made daily apprehensive of the morrow. 
 
 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 The only true source of politeness is considera 
 tion that vigilant moral sense which never loses 
 sight of the rights, the claims, and the sensibilities 
 of others. This is the one quality, over all others, 
 necessary to make the gentleman. 
 
 GRATITUDE. 
 
 A proper gratitude assumes that you will give 
 the shell to him who has furnished you with the 
 oyster. 
 
 CONSOLATION OF MERIT. 
 
 It may console us, and it was probably intended 
 that it should, that our merit, if not duly appreciated 
 by our associates, seldom escapes our own penetra 
 tion. 
 
 PARAGRAPHS. 
 
 Great men are monstrously afraid of little para 
 graphs, as the noblest steed may be goaded into 
 madness by the insects that fasten on his rear. 
 
236 EGERIA. 
 
 EQUANIMITY. 
 
 Keep your mind, as Seneca counsels, always 
 above the moon, and you will never suffer from the 
 rising or falling of the tides. 
 
 PRAYERS TO FORTUNE. 
 
 What man would be fortunate or happy if Jupiter 
 listened to all his prayers. 
 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 There are in the world at least two sorts of pa 
 triotism, and though they occupy opposite extremes 
 in morals, it is yet very hard for ordinary men to 
 distinguish between them. The one is true, the 
 other false. The one may be seen, the other is al 
 ways to be heard. The one carries his public love 
 in his heart and shows it in his actions ; the other 
 upon his tongue and discovers it in his speech. The 
 one is solid, and strives without ceasing ; the other 
 is shadowy, and is always too busy to work. The 
 one is unpromising, the other full of promise. The 
 one thinks, the other talks. The one has no family 
 but his country; the other no country but his fa 
 mily. The one sits late in council ; the other gets late 
 
EGERIA. 237 
 
 to council. The one appropriates the public money 
 for the public good, the other for his own. The one 
 waits the necessity to spend it ; the other makes the 
 necessity. The one leaves the public service a beggar ; 
 the other beggars it. But the false patriot is a dex 
 terous imitator of the true. He speaks justly the 
 principles which the other practises. Everybody 
 will allow that he knows what is right fchat he is 
 a famous orator and that, if not a patriot, it is 
 only because his own ideal is too admirable for any 
 common mortal to approach. 
 
 CONSERVATISM AND PROGRESS. 
 
 In politics, that sort of conservatism which op 
 poses progress, is only a patriotic sort of suicide. 
 Fancy the venerable gray-beard, with tottering limbs 
 and crutch extended, feebly striving to arrest the 
 wheels of the locomotive under full head of steam. 
 It is a miserable selfishness, as well as blindness, 
 that would arrest the movement which, having 
 served our generation, we decree should enure to the 
 benefit of none succeeding. There is only one sort 
 of political conservatism that has any value. It is 
 one that will recognise the movement, and leaping 
 into the seat of the driver, will take part in guiding 
 
238 EGERIA. 
 
 it with skill and courage. To attempt to arrest it 
 wholly, is only to perish under the wheels. 
 
 PROOF OF SENATORIAL WISDOM. 
 
 Here is a premise worked out to its just conclu 
 sion : 
 
 A maxim owned without demur 
 
 Who speaks but little, wise we call : 
 How very wise our Senator, 
 He s never heard to speak at all. 
 
 This forbearance of " our Senator" may be, in the 
 present condition of the country, a sufficient proof 
 of wisdom, to justify us in construing the epigram 
 into literal language, and making it a tribute rather 
 than a satire. There are few senators, either in our 
 State or National Legislatures, to whom this verse 
 would apply ; and when we consider what is said by 
 those who do speak, it is by no means a strained 
 conjecture that the silent member is the wisest. The 
 great proofs of wisdom in an orator are in knowing 
 the "when," and "where," and "how much." These 
 proofs are seldom shown by our senators. The 
 senator, therefore, who knows the " how little," is 
 clearly not deficient in wisdom. We move to amend. 
 
EGERIA. 230 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 Poetry so far adopts the vague as to studiously 
 forbear the literal. The more literal the poet, the 
 more common-place, and of consequence the less 
 poetical. Original ideas necessarily imply an ori 
 ginal phraseology. But Poetry loses nothing of her 
 force of speech by her indirectness. It is the won 
 drous property of the imagination to seize upon the 
 most imposing forms of the subject by the least 
 notorious processes. She first rises, like the eagle, 
 or the vulture, above the prey upon whom she de 
 signs to descend. 
 
 WILL. 
 
 We believe very much as AVC will, in spite of the 
 philosophers. This is certainly the case where the 
 subject is the merits of our neighbor. Perhaps the 
 very best test of the feeling which we have for him, 
 is to note in what degree the mention of his good 
 fortune makes us angry and dissatisfied, or pleased. 
 
 DEPTH OF A PHILOSOPHER. 
 
 How deep was that quaint philosopher, Gregory 
 Nazianzen, who drowned himself in the Euripus to 
 ascertain the cause of its frequent rising through 
 
240 EGEEIA. 
 
 the day ? Over his head beyond his depth cer 
 tainly. 
 
 AIM. 
 
 The ambition which aims too moderately, is quite 
 as liable to defeat as that which aims too low. The 
 eagle finds the sheep a better mark than he would 
 the moth. 
 
 COMFORT. 
 
 It is only in the decline of a nation s energies that 
 comfort becomes its prevailing passion. Strength 
 of any kind is sure to disdain comfort. 
 
 IDLENESS. 
 
 Habitual and utter idleness can only result in 
 idiocy ; but we should err in always assuming him to 
 be idle whom we never see at work. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 It is quite curious to know that few poets know 
 anything of music or appreciate it very highly. It is 
 seldom that they understand it, and quite as seldom 
 that they compose or perform it. Milton and Moore 
 are almost the only exceptions in the whole circle of 
 the British Parnassus. The vulgar idea is that 
 
EGERIA. 241 
 
 poetry and music arc much of the same nature, and 
 that the individual possessing one must necessarily 
 possess the other ; but this is rarely the case. 
 Poets know little or nothing of music, and musicians 
 are most generally very ignorant of, and indifferent 
 to, poetry. The truth is, they assimilate in but one 
 respect that of harmony ; and while poetry appeals 
 chiefly to the intellectual, spiritual, and moral na 
 ture, the persuasions of music are addressed almost 
 wholly to the sensuous. Music as it tempers the 
 passions and produces a calm of the mood and the 
 will, soothes and prepares the way for the moral 
 agencies. In this respect it assimilates with the 
 mathematical. Mathematics and music are, in 
 deed, very frequently found in alliance. 
 
 SUKEY ABROAD AND AT HOME. 
 
 Sukey is certainly pretty, 
 
 With just such a figure and air, 
 As prompt, in the streets of the city, 
 
 The gallant to turn round and stare ; 
 She has eyes which in mischief can lighten, 
 
 And lips, that, when parting, would seem, 
 As if chiefly intended to brighten, 
 
 And warm up an anchorite s dream. 
 21 
 
242 EGERIA. 
 
 But Sukey, when walking the city/ 
 
 And Sukey at home, let me say, 
 Seldom shows herself equally pretty 
 
 Seldom hooks while beguiling the prey. 
 When she gazes, you feel her most charming, 
 
 And are ready to fall at her feet ; 
 But she speaks, and the shock is alarming, 
 
 And you only feel safe in the street. 
 
 SUSCEPTIBILITIES OF THOUGHTS AND THINGS. 
 
 To discover what are the susceptibilities of things, 
 is the business of science. It is in susceptibilities 
 of thoughts, as well as things, that the poet and the 
 philosopher find their proper vocation. 
 
 JUSTICE TO CHILDREN. 
 
 The child, conscious of no ill intention, and erring 
 in judgment only, at once withdraws his sympathies 
 from, and his confidence in, the parent, as well as 
 the tutor, who, in their treatment of his fault, will 
 not discriminate justly, and recognise this moral 
 distinction in his conduct. We are not only re 
 quired to teach justice to children, but to teach it in 
 the most impressive manner, by always dealing with 
 them justly. 
 
EGERIA. 243 
 
 KIND WORDS IN SEASON. 
 
 So that they be in season, it matters not how 
 simple are the flowers that one gathers from the 
 wayside. A kind word, when the heart needs it, is 
 always grateful, though the grammar be very bad 
 of him who speaks it. 
 
 EGOTISM. 
 
 It is in the conceit and selfishness of philosophy 
 that the condition of poverty is ever preferred. 
 Timon was simply a monster of egotism, and, in his 
 way, quite as worthless and immoral as his syco 
 phants. Philanthropy loses half the value of its 
 virtue denied the means of fully exercising it. 
 
 WEAPON. 
 
 As long as the wit will suffice, you should hide 
 the weapon. The blow is the brute argument, pro 
 per only when the brains fail. It is the ass only 
 whose first salutation is made by his heels. 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER. 
 
 Gold and silver are metals quite too heavy for us 
 to carry to heaven ; but, in good hands, they can be 
 made to pave the way to it. 
 
244 EGERIA. 
 
 NEIGHBORLY HELP. 
 
 He is the best help to his neighbor who shows 
 him the way to help himself. 
 
 HOSTILITY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The delight with which the British press hails 
 everything which is hostile to, or abusive of this 
 country, deserves its comment. It is to be remarked 
 that this hostility is shown in due degree with the 
 progress which we make to power. It justifies our 
 apostrophe. 
 
 It argues evil for thy future deeds, 
 And present glory, England, to behold 
 The joy it gives thee to believe thy sons 
 Degenerate, and the American grown base, 
 Sprung from thy stocks, and sharing with thyself 
 The patrimonial honors. When we see 
 The broad grin on thy visage, at the tale 
 Of thy own hirelings, happy to dilate, 
 In the salacious narrative, that speaks 
 As often for their falsehood as our shame. 
 Oh! these but mock thy wretched appetite, 
 Cannot sustain, will cumber, sink thee down 
 In double weight of infamy, though now 
 They triumph in thy sad encouragement ; 
 The exulting sneer, and the applauding smile 
 That compensates the pensioned profligate, 
 For his poor jest and miserable lie. 
 
EGERIA. 245 
 
 THE ILIAD. 
 
 AN EPIGRAM FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER. 
 
 Tearing the crown from old Homer, and counting 
 
 the long list of sires, 
 From his Poem eternal and true, 
 Still, in its traits they discover the features of one 
 
 mother only, 
 Oh ! Nature, eternal in thee. 
 
 BCEOTIA. 
 
 Boeotia s luxuries wrought Boeotia s shame,* 
 And dulled the genius that was horn to Fame. 
 
 THE FOOL S FUTURE. 
 
 EPIGRAM FROM THE ITALIAN OF MACCHIAVELLI. 
 
 Pierre Soderini died ; that very night, 
 
 At Hell s wide mouth, he showed his silly face ; 
 
 "Hence," Pluto cried, disgusted at the sight, 
 " To the fool s limbo that s thy proper place." 
 
 BEAUTY AND JOY. 
 
 AN EPIGRAM FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER. 
 
 If thou hast never seen Beauty, in moments of 
 
 anguish and sorrow, 
 
 Then hast thou never the Beautiful seen ! 
 21* 
 
246 EGERIA. 
 
 If thou hast never seen Joy as it shines in the face 
 
 of the Beautiful, 
 
 Then is the Joyous a presence most strange to 
 thine eyes ! 
 
 THE GOOD WIFE. 
 
 VERSIFIED FROM PROVERBS. 
 
 The Lord hath many daughters, 
 
 That virtuously achieve, 
 But thou excellest all, for thou 
 
 Dost labor and believe. 
 
 Thou know st how vain is beauty, 
 
 How false the charms of sense, 
 And serving God with truth, thou hast 
 
 His praise and recompense. 
 
 Thy husband s praises shall be thine ; 
 
 The children of thy breast, 
 Thus taught, shall in their love arise, 
 
 And fondly call thee blessed. 
 
 DOLCE FAR NIENTE. 
 
 We are advocates, at such a season as Jlie present, 
 for the Italian luxury, described in the language of 
 
EGERIA. 247 
 
 their people, as the "sweet of doing nothing." Our 
 lives are really inconsistent with our climate. That 
 counsels us, just now, to a life like the lilies. " They 
 toil not, neither do they spin." Are we to toil al 
 ways ? Is there to he no season of repose, when we 
 may drink in the fragrance of orange groves, and 
 yield ourselves to the embraces of the breeze, and 
 take no concern about anything besides ? We are 
 of opinion that a climate is rendered oppressive at 
 certain periods, only that we should be compelled to 
 forbear exertion, and simply submit ourselves to life, 
 snatching up its passing blessings as fast as we can. 
 We are aware that this is not the usual morality 
 which is taught us by the schools, the books, the 
 fathers, and our masters generally. But we would 
 simply guard against extremes in our more indulgent 
 teachings. We may work and toil too much, quite 
 as certainly as we may trifle and play too much ; 
 until the brain and body both grow weary with ex 
 haustion, and the sense of weariness becomes a sick 
 ness, and the work of recuperation becomes impos 
 sible. There never, perhaps, was a people in the 
 world, so steadfast to its daily toils as the American. 
 Repose from toil is reluctantly accorded to the 
 fainting frame, and the listless, languid spirit. We 
 
248 EGERIA. 
 
 give ourselves no respite, and day in and day out, 
 our hammer sounds upon the rock and anvil, and 
 our fingers work with the knife, or adze, or pen, or 
 pencil, until all aches in head and heart, and a 
 gloomy leaden sky seems to weigh us down, pressing 
 us prematurely into the earth. We toil thus that 
 we may live, as if anybody, with his wits about 
 him, should call this life ! We should be more in 
 dulgent to ourselves and one another ; take and give 
 more leisure ; that we may, in an idleness like that 
 of the lily, array ourselves somewhat in its beauty 
 also. English and American might both borrow 
 valuable counsels of this sort, from the precept and 
 practice of the livelier races on the Continent of 
 Europe. There is surely a time for the " Dolce far 
 niente," and, if so, what season so appropriate as 
 the present, when the breeze comes to us grudging 
 ly, and the sun flames over us like the angel carry 
 ing the sword at the gates of Eden ; and the shade 
 woos us to repose, and the solitude alone is sweet 
 ened with the song of peace. 
 
 HORACE ON BEVERAGES. 
 
 For the original, of which this is a very free 
 paraphrase, see Ode xviii., ad Varum. The transla- 
 
EGERIA. 249 
 
 tion was originally addressed to Mr. Junius Smith 
 (recently deceased), who had introduced the tea 
 culture into South Carolina. The Reedy River runs 
 through the beautiful village of Greenville, a lovely 
 mountain stream, worthy of a poet. Paris is the 
 name of a mountain near it. 
 
 TO JUNIUS SMITH, TEA PLANTER, GREENTILLE, S. C. 
 
 Oh! Junius, though you plant the tea, 
 The vine is still the plant for me ; 
 And, by the Reedy s banks and near 
 The Mount of Paris may you rear 
 The Scuppernong, more gladly quaffed, 
 By thousands, than your Chinese draught. 
 
 For Jove hath wisely well decreed, 
 That he who loves not rosy wine, 
 
 Shall still lack comfort in his need, 
 And with a constant cross repine. 
 Tis still the grape s rich juice that brings 
 Oblivion of life s vexing things. 
 Who, with his wine beside him, thinks 
 Of want and war? He bravely drinks, 
 Toasts Bacchus, and to Venus lifts 
 His cup, with thanks for other gifts. 
 Thus, your philosopher, who still 
 Restrains himself, nor drinks his fill, 
 Content as man, and not as beast, 
 To joy, not wallow, in his feast, 
 To Centaur and Lapithse leaves 
 
 Base drunkenness and brutal strife, 
 
250 EGERIA. 
 
 Nor in the extreme indulgence grieves, 
 
 Which shames the soul and shorts the life! 
 Bacchus, himself, still chides th excess, 
 
 That knows not when, in time, to pause, 
 Restrain the lusts that still would press, 
 
 And Passion keep neath proper laws. 
 But not for me, O! Bacchus! now, 
 To move thee to an angry brow, 
 Or chafe thee into wrath with those, 
 
 Who wrong thy rights, who know not thee, 
 
 Wallow in wine, or drink but tea, 
 Both fools, and equally thy foes ! 
 Yet do thou lesson Junius Smith, 
 
 Make him discard his Chinese horn; 
 Show him thyself, no ancient myth, 
 
 As brave a prince as e er was born ; 
 And, for these Temperance folks, misnamed, 
 Make them of arrogance ashamed, 
 
 And gross injustice done thy rites : 
 Show them, how much more wisely, they 
 Might quaff thy bowl, and love thy sway, 
 
 Yet. sober go to bed o nights ! 
 That Temperance teaches still the use, 
 Forbears the excess, and all abuse, 
 
 Yet nought denies that cheers the blood ; 
 Takes all the gifts that heaven provides, 
 Tries all things, and with sense decides, 
 
 To stick to what it still finds good 
 Whether Gunpowder or Souchong, 
 Soda, or juice of Scuppernong ! 
 
E G E R I A. 251 
 
 GOVERNMENT TINKERS. 
 
 The world is full of tinkers in government, as if 
 the manufacture of laws and institutions were a less 
 difficult matter, requiring less genius and thought, 
 than the invention of machinery. Philosophers 
 so called in their closets, and politicians along 
 the highways, are continually concocting ; and yet 
 there is no success no stability ! But here lies the 
 grand point of difficulty. The statesman who ex 
 pects stability in his forms of government, while 
 the people themselves are daily advancing to new 
 conquests in mind, morals, and machinery, might as 
 well be an antediluvian. He certainly is no states 
 man for his day. Hence the absurdity, which we 
 daily witness, of self-complacent politicians, who are 
 continually insisting upon their superior pretensions 
 to govern the present, because of their superior 
 familiarity with the past. The true governor for 
 the present is one who has gone beyond it in its 
 own tendencies. The essential properties of a 
 government are those which accord with the habits, 
 the necessities, and the conditions of the people 
 which refer not to the stock from which they sprung, 
 nor to the labors which they have already achieved, 
 
252 EGERIA. 
 
 but to those, which, under the stimulating presence 
 of their peculiar genius, they are still capable of 
 achieving. It is because of the stationary charac 
 ter of their governments that nations decline and 
 finally perish. It is a law of nature that we should 
 retrograde the moment we cease to go forward. We 
 should always beware of that fatal delusion which 
 makes us fancy we are perfect. There is no pro 
 gress, no improvement after that ! There is, or 
 should be, a daily revolution going on in all human 
 affairs, or the wheels of a nation become choked, 
 and the body politic stagnates ; at the same time, 
 caution must be taken that, in avoiding one, we do 
 not fall into the other extreme. There is such a 
 thing as firing one s vehicle by the too rapid motion 
 of its wheels. 
 
 IMPUTATION OF MOTIVES. 
 
 He who in any affair assumes an unworthy motive 
 for the action of his neighbor, w r ould probably, un 
 der like conditions, have felt the same motive as 
 the only impelling cause for his own performance. 
 It is only when called upon to accord credit to our 
 neighbors that we are apt to deny them the benefit 
 of our own standards. 
 
EGERIA. 253 
 
 
 
 BLANK VERSE. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that very few of the 
 poets most distinguished by their smoothness, have 
 ever written in blank verse. Pope, Goldsmith, 
 Moore, are striking examples. Campbell is another, 
 with a slight exception. He lias written tivo small 
 poems without rhyme, the "Lines on the View 
 from St. Leonard s," and the apostrophe to "The 
 Dead Eagle at Oran," but these are very inferior, 
 and prove his difficult execution in the unwonted 
 department. Blank verse, more than any other 
 species of poetry, as it discards wholly the adventi 
 tious aid of the rhyme, requires the nicest perfection 
 of ear. Every line must be perfect in itself, or a 
 painful discord runs through the whole sentence, and 
 frequently affects the virtue of an entire paragraph. 
 It is accordingly easier to write in any measure than 
 in blank verse. Rhyme, itself, is rather a help than 
 an obstacle, since the regularly recurring termina 
 tion operates as a sort of rudder, which guides the 
 ear to the euphonious conclusion. The master of 
 blank verse can manage any sort of verse. 
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 We say many things to ourselves that we do not 
 22 
 
254 EG EH i A. 
 
 ourselves believe. Who, for example, praying daily 
 that his life may be still farther spared, ever seri 
 ously apprehends that he may die before the dawn? 
 The very frequency with which a regular form of 
 prayer is repeated, tends measurably to diminish 
 the just impression which it should make upon our 
 minds. We pray, unfortunately, rather from habit 
 than from will or thought, while the very idea of 
 prayer presupposes a present and earnest interest 
 in the act which we perform. We obey a law and 
 custom rather than declare a wish or a fear. No 
 doubt this is evil, yet it is not altogether evil. 
 Better we should pray habitually than curse habi 
 tually. There is a farther advantage in the prac 
 tice. The habitual utterance of a sentiment, in 
 our own ears only, makes it a law unto ourselves. 
 What the memory adopts, is apt to become a prin 
 ciple. This we habitually recognise whenever the 
 exigency comes home to us. Sometimes, even, it 
 may occur to us while we pray, that we have invited 
 God himself to an audience. 
 
 HOME. 
 
 The native place is not where the man is born, 
 but where he takes root and flourishes. Thousands 
 
EGERIA. 255 
 
 in every land are compelled by the foreign influences 
 of home to go abroad seeking a native place among 
 strangers. 
 
 SYMPATHY. 
 
 The sympathy which professes to love the master, 
 will never forget to feed his dog. 
 
 PRESUMPTION. 
 
 We may forgive ignorance, but not presumption. 
 He who has nothing to say, should say nothing. 
 
 HELP HURTFUL. 
 
 Many sink because of the number who strive to 
 save them. 
 
 DELIBERATION. 
 
 Deliberation is a virtue, but not after the battle 
 is begun. 
 
 CHOICE BETWEEN TWO LIVES, 
 
 There are two lives, and one alone is ours, 
 
 And chosen, we must choose : the one is fair, 
 
 A world of summer skies, and smiles, and flowers, 
 The other, dark with tempests and with care : 
 
 Our will, in choice of these, declares our powers. 
 
256 EGERIA. 
 
 Is it tlrp pleasure, o er the summer sea 
 
 To glide with noiseless power and easy sail, 
 Reluctant at the nobler sov reignty 
 
 Of wind and wave, and the triumphant gale ? 
 Then we part company, for I should quail 
 At unperformance, and my course must be, 
 Where the strife thickens, where the meaner pale, 
 And back recoil, and nought but danger see, 
 Where Glory waves her flag, and Victory waits for 
 me. 
 
 FITNESS OF LAWS. 
 
 The laws and institutions of a people, while they 
 contemplate the probable destinies of that people, 
 and the performances of which they are capable, 
 must, at the same time, suit and address themselves 
 to their existing condition. No government can be 
 durable, the people of which are not prosperous. We 
 hold this to be inevitable. It does not absolutely 
 need, in order that this result should be reached, 
 that the government, per se, should be in any re 
 spect defective. It may be, in all respects, a very 
 perfect and symmetrical machine. Its grand defect 
 lies in its want of fitness. It is enough that it does 
 not suit the people. A benevolent government may 
 
EGERIA. 4 J57 
 
 be a curse, while a tyranny in turn may be a bless 
 ing. These terms are simply conditional. In a 
 certain condition of the Hebrews, God gave them 
 rulers who scourged their vices by the exercise of 
 others more atrocious. The sins of many were 
 chastised by the superior despotism of the one. At 
 another period, when they were better prepared for 
 the advent of a higher truth, and a more lovely 
 civilization, he vouchsafed them Christ. I suspect 
 that Cornelius Sylla knew, much better than the 
 historians, what sort of laws suited the Roman peo 
 ple in the turbulent days of the Marian faction. In 
 those days, Tarquin would be a more suitable ruler 
 than Numa Pompilius. Such a man as Caius Marius 
 would have been spurned from the Comitia in the 
 primitive times of the Republic when the public 
 virtues were yet in full vigor of their youth, and the 
 popular mind had not been corrupted by the intro 
 duction of foreign luxuries and the capricious des 
 potism of standing armies. Yet, Marius and Sylla, 
 monsters of cruelty though they were, had, respec 
 tively, their beneficial uses. Tyranny, in fact, 
 wherever it successfully establishes itself, is the ne 
 cessary growth of a rank moral condition of the 
 people ; and, even where it does not establish itself, 
 22* 
 
258 EGERIA. 
 
 but merely starts up at periods to provoke uproar 
 and to be cut down without struggle, it is yet bene 
 ficently provided, that it may keep the people con 
 stantly watchful of their virtues and constantly 
 solicitous in their protection. The rank weeds that 
 poison the fields of the farmer, having no obvious 
 uses, may be, in like manner, put there, in order 
 that he may be compelled to industry, and kept from 
 flagging over his daily tasks. The cases are strict 
 moral parallels, and of most valuable counsel. The 
 histories of nations present us with the same cor 
 responding truths ; and we must conclude, therefore, 
 among other things, that we make our own tyrannies 
 we are, substantially, our own tyrants. 
 
 "Thus are we slaves and victims. Thus we make 
 The tyrant who overcomes us. He is but 
 The creature of our want growing at need 
 The scourge that whips us for decaying virtue, 
 And chastens to reform us." 
 
 It will be difficult to find, in the history of any 
 nation, where the people are moved by the virtues 
 of thrift and industry, the case of a successful ty 
 ranny, even for the briefest period. If this be the 
 fact, what follows from it ? Many things, indeed, 
 each valuable in its place to know but one thing 
 
EGERIA. 259 
 
 in particular which ig, that the overthrow of the 
 individual tyrant, does, by no means, imply the over 
 throw of the tyranny. There is a succession, as 
 regular as it is certain, so long as the people them 
 selves remain the same. The tyrant is but the 
 representative form of tyranny an embodiment to 
 the eye of that rank despotism which was foul and 
 festering in each man s heart. Until that be 
 purged out, the tyranny runs on and must prevail. 
 We hear a great deal of the patriotism of Brutus in 
 the murder of Caesar. Yet, of what avail to Roman 
 freedom was the death-blow which Brutus struck in 
 the Capitol ? a death-blow, not to the oppression, 
 but to its simple and natural agent ! The answer 
 to this question is a wholesome commentary. It is 
 furnished by the long and ghastly line of the Caesars 
 none half so noble as the original whom they had 
 slain which followed, with the certainty of upward- 
 flying sparks an armed and bloody host, more 
 awful than that which gloomed and glared upon the 
 scared eyeballs of Macbeth ! That very blow of 
 Brutus helped to perpetuate the tyranny. The work 
 had to be done anew, and by meaner workmen 
 mere butchers bad men men of straw stocks 
 and stones only but with just enough of will and 
 
260 EGERIA. 
 
 passion of their own as to keep them busy. The 
 death of Julius Csesar facilitated the progress of the 
 tyranny, by putting off the day when, by the recu 
 perative morals of the people, not yet exhausted, 
 they might have availed themselves of the crisis 
 brought about by their own indifference or sensuality. 
 It certainly deprived the tyranny which scourged 
 of all its grace, its nobleness, and the redeeming 
 something of an educated humanity. 
 
 MATERNAL INFLUENCES. 
 
 It was Madame Campan, who, in reply to an in 
 quiry of Napoleon, proposed the establishment of an 
 institute for the education of mothers. The mother 
 is, in most cases, and for obvious reasons, the only 
 teacher of the morals of the young. The vital mis 
 fortune is, that she herself has never been taught, 
 or has been taught erroneously. She is thus em 
 ployed to perpetuate error to the future generations, 
 and to sow and renew the future growth of evil, as 
 Eve did at first. Many a fond parent has ignorant- 
 ly brought her son to the gallows. The boy who 
 bit off his mother s ear beneath the fatal tree, con 
 veyed a terrible lesson to society, which, unhappily 
 for the young, it will not learn. 
 
EGEKIA. 2G1 
 
 LOVE OF SELF. 
 
 There is always one grand passion of the heart, 
 in which every man is without a rival. 
 
 DIFFIDENCE OF TRUE MERIT. 
 
 People who possess the most, speak least of their 
 virtues. It is he who distrusts himself that shows 
 most anxiety to persuade others of his possessions. 
 
 EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Experience is the stile and stone in the highways, 
 over which we bruise our shins, and endanger our 
 necks. It is not until we have pained and perilled 
 our limbs in this encounter with her obstructions, 
 that we are prepared to traverse in safety the com 
 mon roadstead. 
 
 SECRET OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 
 
 Lord Bacon puts the secret of national prosperity 
 into a brief compass. He says : " There are three 
 things which one nation selleth to another : the com 
 modity as it is yielded by nature, the manufacture, 
 and the vecture or carriage. So," says he, " if the 
 three wheels go, wealth will flow in like a spring 
 tide." We show up the same idea in our colloca- 
 
262 EGERIA. 
 
 tion, "Agriculture, Commerce, and Manufactures ;" 
 and the old doggrel puts the philosophy into a form 
 scarcely less portable : 
 
 " Let the earth have cultivation, 
 Let the seas give circulation, 
 Art bestow manipulation, 
 And you build the mighty nation." 
 
 Mighty, perhaps, but not absolutely great or 
 glorious or permanent, until 
 
 " You give your people education ;" 
 
 and I thus presume to add a line which I conceive 
 to be absolutely necessary to the philosophy, if not 
 the poetry. 
 
 IMPROMPTU. 
 
 The following impromptu, to a little girl, now a 
 fair and fine woman, has been lying in my portfolio 
 nearly twenty years. 
 
 Were I on Ashley s banks, my dear, 
 
 In that sweet land no longer mine, 
 A flower, the freshest, proudest there, 
 
 Should in thy virgin bosom shine; 
 But what the exile may impart, 
 
 The all that fortune leaves to care, 
 He gives, in blessings from his heart, 
 
 For all the hopes in thine, my dear. 
 
EGERIA. 263 
 
 FEMININENESS OF GENIUS. 
 
 It is the feminine feature in the constitution of 
 genius, that it argues by intuition as if the mind 
 enjoyed impulses totally independent of the body 
 rather than by the ordinary reasoning faculty ; and 
 arrives at its conclusions rather by a consentaneous 
 action of the thought and feeling, than by the slow 
 processes of induction. There is certainly a very 
 curious harmony between the thoughts and the 
 sympathies, in the constitution of genius ; and this 
 is perhaps the sufficient reason why its utterances 
 are usually so full of equal energy and beauty 
 why it speaks with such confidence and power its 
 voice being like the flight upward of a great bird, 
 conscious of strength, confident of wing, glory 
 ing in the sunlight, and with its great, clear eye, 
 always singling out the eminence it would reach, 
 before it darts, for its attainment, into the wide blue 
 deeps of air. 
 
 REMORSE. 
 
 Remorse is but too frequently felt, not so much 
 for past errors and offences, as for the loss of those 
 opportunities and powers by which we might still 
 continue to offend. We lament rather the decline 
 
261 EGERIA. 
 
 of the passions than their misdirection ; and weep, 
 not so much for the sins we have committed, as for 
 the sins we can commit no longer. 
 
 SATISFACTION IN DISCOVERY. 
 
 I see no reason why the person who has been so 
 fortunate as to find a mare s nest, should not be 
 suffered to cackle over the eggs. 
 
 FORTUNE. 
 
 Happy accidents are the parents of a thousand 
 great designs ; but the same person who charges all 
 his miscarriages upon Fortune, never makes the 
 least acknowledgment to the same Goddess, in the 
 day of his success. Sylla, among great men, is 
 almost the only exception to the rule, on record. 
 He conciliated the favors of the Goddess, as we may 
 do most of the sex, by waiving, with a becoming 
 humility, his own claims in deference to hers. 
 
 INGENUOUSNESS OF INNOCENCE. 
 
 In the ingenuous nature, the heart is continually 
 looking out from the eyes, as a young girl from the 
 window. It is only the knoiving damsel who peeps 
 from behind the curtain or the lattice. 
 
EGERIA. 2(f> 
 
 TEARS. 
 
 To tell us, by way of consolation, that the object 
 for whom we mourn was mortal, is to offer the very 
 reason for our tears. Tears are the undoubted lan 
 guage of mortality. Were the case not remediless, 
 consolation would be easy ; and we should weep, if 
 only at the lesson which reminds us that we are 
 mortal also. Besides, how should we forbear our 
 sorrows, when we discover that one who was a per 
 petual source of joy, can also prove a perpetual 
 source of privation ? 
 
 THE HEART. 
 
 Alas ! how should we doubt of the fortunes of the 
 heart, when it was in the shape of Love that Ahri- 
 manes first found his way into the egg of Ormusd ? 
 
 CHARITY. 
 
 It is charity, I suppose, that sometimes puts out 
 a poor man s candle, and reproaches him for going 
 in the dark. We are apt to disparage the educa 
 tion of the poor, and to oppose all legislation in its 
 favor ; but nobody allows us to forget that poverty 
 is very ignorant, very immoral, and of the most un 
 becoming tastes and propensities. 
 23 
 
266 EGERIA. 
 
 SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
 No people can be esteemed equal to the duties 
 of self-government, whose ignorance or cupidity 
 is such that they dare not look the cost of their 
 liberties in the face. 
 
 A COMPLIMENT TO HUMILITY. 
 
 It must be very grateful to the man who humbly 
 estimates his own claims, that the world always 
 heartily approves his judgment. 
 
 GREAT MEN. 
 
 Great men are a common property. They form 
 the solar system for the world of mind, and shine 
 more or less brightly upon all the nations. 
 
 FALL AND SPRING. 
 
 The English describe as a provincialism of Ame 
 rica, the use of the term " Fall," to indicate our au 
 tumn ; but how properly is this word the antagonist 
 to " Spring," as the indication of the opposite sea 
 son. The Spring of the leaf and the Fall of the 
 leaf find their sources in a common figure; are 
 equally pleasing and equally proper. 
 
EGERIA. 267 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Never argue with a fool. The probability is that 
 he will never understand you, and if you understand 
 him, you are apt to gain nothing by it. In all pro 
 bability you will misunderstand each other. The 
 very attempt of a fool to argue, shows the posses 
 sion of an ominous self-esteem. This will always 
 make him suspicious of a superior. Your very 
 generalities will vex him as so many personalities, 
 and he will be apt to resent his own emptiness of 
 head by testing physically the strength of yours. 
 Risk nothing with this class of persons. You can 
 not find a fit antagonist in their heads, and should 
 beware of their heels. 
 
 CONVENTIONAL VIRTUE. 
 
 Conventional virtue is only an outer barrier to that 
 which is intrinsic ; but it is a barrier never over 
 thrown until the citadel is prepared to surrender. 
 
 FASHIONS. 
 
 A light and frivolous people may do a thousand 
 things with impunity, that it will not be safe for an 
 earnest and impassioned race to think of. When 
 fashions, borrowed from foreign nations, persuade a 
 
268 EGERIA. 
 
 departure from the customs of a people, there is al 
 ways some danger of a loss of purity from the adop 
 tion of the new. 
 
 PASSION. 
 
 What may be mere folly to you, might be my 
 madness. Your safety lies in the rapidity with 
 which you pass from passion to passion. With me, 
 the passion must burn out first before it passes. 
 My lamp is of naphtha. I must beware how it 
 meets the flame. 
 
 POLITICS IN THE DOG DAYS. 
 We perceive some slight disposition among our 
 younger politicians, always to wax warm as the sea 
 son advances, and to spice their discussions with 
 acrid and ascetic condiments. But we trust that 
 the temper with which the thing is done will be lia 
 ble to no misconstruction. Experienced politicians, 
 particularly if they have objects in view which they 
 profess to regard as patriotic, are not apt to employ 
 such a seasoning for their argumentative dishes ; 
 and taking into consideration the always notorious 
 wisdom which belongs to youth, and making due 
 allowance for its superior zeal and enthusiasm, we 
 are bound to assume, when they say sharp and 
 
EGERIA. 269 
 
 spicy things to one another, that they employ them 
 in a sense purely Pickwickian. In this way, a rea 
 sonable stomach may stand a great deal, and the 
 sufferer will always employ a retort in the same 
 fashion and spirit. A good lesson is afforded 
 among the anecdotes of the Continent. A young 
 Prince, warmed by wine and wassail, and living on 
 the best possible terms with himself, on one occasion 
 threw the drops of wine remaining in the bottom of 
 his glass into the face of one of his father s generals. 
 " My Prince," replied the General, quietly filling 
 his glass the while, " you are not experienced in 
 this sort of thing ; let me show you how it should 
 be done." Thus saying, he flung the contents of 
 the full glass into the face of the young philoso 
 pher ;* and all this was done, we are to suppose, in 
 the best possible temper. There was no indignity 
 designed on either hand. An error a mistake 
 shall we call it was committed by the promising 
 youth, which the senior gently rebuked after a 
 purely Pickwickian manner, as it should be. In 
 sharp discussion you are permitted the retort cour 
 teous, which is the grace in discussion; the retort 
 abrupt, which is the sublime of discussion ; the quip 
 
 * The anecdote is told of General Oglethorpe. 
 23* 
 
270 EGERIA. 
 
 valiant, which is the excruciating of discussion ; but 
 when you pass these bounds, which the Law Pick 
 wick sanctions, and indulge in the argument conclu 
 sive, which is vulgarly styled the " knockdown" ar 
 gument, or the " Sockdolager" which Mrs. Par- 
 tington confounds with " Doxologie" you are 
 guilty of an outrage upon good manners, which can 
 not be too severely reprehended. Now, at this junc 
 ture, when it is essential to the common cause that 
 we should be civil to each other, we must beware 
 how we err in this fashion. You may beard your 
 neighbor in patriotic discussion, but beware how 
 you take him by the beard. You are respect 
 fully exhorted to keep in remembrance the gentle 
 counsel, so recently heard in your nursery ballads, 
 not to suffer "your angry passions" at any time 
 
 Your little hands were never made, 
 To tear each other s eyes!" 
 
 You will have sufficient uses for your hands and 
 eyes, hereafter ; for, if you cannot see together, it 
 will yet be necessary that you should pull together, 
 if you would keep the good ship that carries you all, 
 safe from the breakers, the rocks, and a gloomy lee- 
 shore ! 
 
EGERIA. 271 
 
 INSECTS. 
 
 There are certain insects which we seek to brush 
 away, but never to destroy. If they perish in the 
 operation, it is due rather to their^ inferior vitality, 
 than to the purpose of the destroyer. They have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that, in incurring their 
 fate, they have provoked no bad feeling in the 
 breast of him who has been unwillingly their exe 
 cutioner. 
 
 EXECUTIONER. 
 
 I can readily understand how certain people 
 merit the gallows, but I am slow to perceive why 
 I should be Jack Ketch on the occasion. 
 
 WEAPONS. 
 
 The man s plan of warfare is always in corre 
 spondence with his own nature. Filth is the natu 
 ral weapon of the hand that flings it. 
 
 ETERNITY. 
 
 The very vagueness of the opening of Genesis is 
 full of significance. "In the Beginning," is preg 
 nant with mystery and meaning. "In the Begin 
 ning." "Yes, but when?" Still "In the Begin- 
 
272 EGBBIA. 
 
 ning." The mind fails to grasp anything farther, 
 though conscious of a wonderful history in reserve. 
 The idea of a beginning is quite as difficult as that 
 of a close, so far as concerns the question of crea 
 tion. The difficulty with us lies in the simple fact 
 that all our standards of judgment are based upon 
 things and objects of Time. Now, Time had a 
 beginning, and will have an ending; while Eternity 
 is now, always was, and always will be. Time is 
 only an episode in the drama, which was never 
 begun, never will end, and is always in progress. 
 Eternity is a circle gradually widening for us, and 
 which we can only penetrate when we escape from 
 Time a circle complete from the beginning, always 
 a beginning to us a be-coming (to employ a foreign 
 idiom), and which we shall probably understand 
 only when we come to Be ! 
 
 BOWS AND BEAUX. 
 Emmeline boasts two strings to her bow: 
 
 Might I teach her a happier thing 
 Then should the thoughtless damsel know 
 
 Better to carry two beaux to her string. 
 
 Susan, with luckier judgment led, 
 Wisely and silently shapes her lot ; 
 
EGEHIA. 273 
 
 And never with vain delusions fed, 
 
 Soon turns her one beau (bow) into a knot. 
 
 HEAT AND HEALTH. 
 
 We suspect that the summer is now fully and 
 fairly upon us. Were you alive yesterday, gentle 
 reader ? If so, another question are you alive 
 to-day ? We congratulate you if you are quite able 
 to answer the question. The thermometer at 94 in 
 the shade, is no favorable sign of a cool, comforta 
 ble condition of the atmosphere. Under such a 
 pressure of heat, it is mere impertinence to counsel 
 you to keep cool. But, we believe, that we can 
 safely counsel you to keep ivell, without offending 
 your self-esteem, or the usual placidity of your 
 temper. Your policy will be to recognise the con 
 viction prevailing among certain people of the East. 
 There, the solicitude, when one meets his friend in 
 very hot weather, is expressed in a query which is 
 sufficiently homely for the commonest understand 
 ing. You meet your friend each day, and as you 
 encounter, the question is put by both voices, each 
 taking his neighbor s hand, and looking into his 
 eyes with most tender solicitude : u How do you 
 sweat to-day?" The inquiry is a coarse one, no 
 
274 EGERIA. 
 
 doubt, but it is full of meaning. If it cannot be 
 answered satisfactorily if the skin of either, that 
 day, is dry and sluggish if the pores have not 
 done their duty in the case of either the other 
 hurries off, and, as an act of friendship, calls in the 
 undertaker, who measures his friend for his coffin. 
 He is supposed to need it in the next twenty-four 
 hours. Politeness requires that, if we ask the same 
 question, we use a different phraseology. We may 
 even put it into rhyme : 
 
 " Do your pores 
 Keep open doors ?" 
 
 If they do not, see to it directly; move briskly, 
 and get into a perspiration with all possible speed, 
 that you may answer your friend s question to his 
 satisfaction and your own. 
 
 THE NONPAREIL. 
 
 It is said of the Nonpareil, a tiny and beautiful 
 bird of the South, which sings very sweetly when 
 at home, that, when carried abroad, he loses entirely 
 his voice. Whether this be fact or fable, I am not 
 prepared to say. On one occasion, however, in a 
 northern city, he was pointed out to me as an ex- 
 
EGERIA. 275 
 
 ample of this musical loss, and the subject was sug 
 gested as highly suited to poetry. But I, too, was 
 in exile, and vmy right hand had lost its cunning 
 also. This will account for the baldness and cold 
 ness of the following impromptu. 
 
 Tis our own bird, the Nonpareil, whose sorrow, 
 
 When ye have borne him from his native home, 
 Speaks for the Poet s grief, who may not borrow 
 
 One voice from Song thus doomed afar to roam. 
 Vain all his toilsome strains ; the fond endeavor 
 
 Still fruitless trembles on his tuneless lips : 
 Like that sad bird, the exiled Bard must ever 
 
 Deplore his Muse s soul in dark eclipse. 
 
 RIGHT AND JUSTICE. 
 
 It is much easier to get money than to get justice. 
 The world is apt to resent, as a wrong done to its 
 self-esteem, that you should claim anything as a 
 right. It prefers to bestow, as a charity, that 
 which you, properly, perhaps, can regard only as a 
 
 debt. 
 
 WEALTH A DANGER. 
 
 The degree of criminality, under all tyrannies, 
 ancient and modern, was always proportioned to 
 the equal wealth and weakness of the offender. The 
 fat sheep is always most full of provocation. 
 
276 EGERIA. 
 
 INDEPENDENCE OF CHARACTER. 
 
 Most people value us in proportion to the quality 
 of independence in our characters. We must com 
 pel, and cannot conciliate, respect; we may find 
 favor, and secure friendship nay, disarm hostility, 
 by conciliation ; but the deference of men is gra 
 duated in just degree with their convictions of your 
 individuality, the sense of independence which you 
 feel, and the coercive influence which you thence 
 enjoy, and by which you force the same convictions 
 upon them. 
 
 ENTREATY. 
 
 How often do we entreat the favor which it makes 
 us shudder to think may be granted to our entreaties. 
 Politeness thus frequently sacrifices to vulgarity and 
 courtesy will do the honors, where both taste and 
 feeling may recoil from their object. 
 
 GREATNESS. 
 
 One s greatness does not depend upon his posi 
 tion, but upon his ability to use it fully. Yet the 
 ape, scrambling into the purple, will have his wor 
 shippers. It is the consolation of humanity, in such 
 
EGERIA. 277 
 
 cases, that the God is not unworthy of the priest 
 hood. 
 
 AUDACITY OF EVIL. 
 
 How wilful is that judgment which shuts the door 
 against Love, and opens it to his rival. The affec 
 tions tap modestly, as always distrusting themselves, 
 and fearing to obtrude. But hypocrisy is never 
 without pretension, and we too frequently yield to 
 audacity what is only due to prayer. Love may be 
 likened to the humble mendicant, who looks his un- 
 worthiness while he entreats your bounty. It is 
 passion and selfishness only, which, assuming his 
 name, assail you on the highway, with their " Stand 
 and deliver!" claiming as their right, the boon, 
 which is only precious as a charity. 
 
 WEALTH. 
 
 Beauty may be without a single jewel, yet not 
 without riches, if the world will involuntarily ex 
 claim, how worthy she is to. wear the brightest. 
 Better that men should ask why she does not, than 
 why she does. 
 
 WRONG AND RIGHT. 
 
 To stop doing wrong is the simple process with 
 24 
 
278 EGERIA. 
 
 which to begin the work of doing right ; but vanity 
 commonly perseveres in the path of error, for no 
 better reason than a reluctance to make to others 
 that confession which it has already made to itself. 
 In the case of weak persons how strong will be the 
 tenacious obstinacy with which they cling to errors, 
 simply because their neighbors are looking on. 
 
 AMATEURS. 
 
 These amateurs, were they only content with 
 the praise, without seeking to deserve it, might 
 easily secure satisfaction for all their claims, with 
 out perilling them by unnecessary discussion of their 
 merit. Would they only, like the beggar on the 
 highway, be satisfied to take the obolus, without 
 distressing the giver by their painful stories, which 
 we know to be lies, we should feel the duties of 
 charity less burdensome upon us, and they would 
 retire with a less humiliating consciousness of the 
 extent of the bounty they receive. 
 
 FRUIT AND FOOD. 
 
 Fruits, as fruits, arc good things, as food, evil, 
 Beware of confounding the dinner with the dessert. 
 He who makes a meal of his pudding, will soon find 
 his pudding only meal 
 
EGERIA. 270 
 
 FORTUNE DUE TO COURAGE. 
 
 Fortune is usually most perverse where the ad 
 venturer is most feeble. Will always masters op 
 portunity. " My son," said the priestess of Apollo, 
 as Alexander of Macedon, preparing for his expedi 
 tion, forced her towards^the tripod^ " My son, thou 
 art irresistible." He immediately released her, as 
 sured that no more agreeable response could issue 
 from the oracle. 
 
 THE BASE. 
 
 The alliances of the base and mean are seldom 
 of long duration. Lacking principle, which is the 
 only secret of a permanent connexion of any kind, 
 they find it more easy to peril their profits, than to 
 yield their faith to one another. 
 
 DEFORMITY. 
 
 I can more easily understand why deformity of 
 person should make one wretched, than why beauty 
 should make one vain. The weakness which desires 
 to please is an amiable one, and there is no good 
 reason why the recipient of God s bounty should be 
 vain of, rather than grateful for it. 
 
280 EGERIA. 
 
 GHOSTS. 
 
 I suppose that, but for a purgatory, we should be 
 permitted to see more ghosts. The process of puri 
 fication must render the world which they have left, 
 exceedingly distasteful to those who are about to be 
 made perfect ; and if the danger did not exactly 
 arise from this cause, it might from the difficulty of 
 urging forwards the process with sufficient rapidity, 
 with so many familiar temptations for ever present 
 to their eyes. The old wallow frequently invites 
 the yearning of him whom Fortune has enabled to 
 pass into a palace. 
 
 NATIVE SOIL. 
 
 - That only is the native soil of Genius in which it 
 takes root and flourishes. At all events, a nation 
 must show that it has been the nursery of its great 
 man, or it takes no credit from his growth. The 
 care and cultivation of a people can alone establish 
 their just right to the productions of the soil. 
 
 POETRY AND THE ARTS. 
 
 Poetry and the fine arts generally, are pursuits, 
 which usually disparage their professors in the re 
 gards of vulgar people. They are supposed by the 
 
EGERIA. 281 
 
 ignorant to be incompatible with the useful, as they 
 wear a less material aspect than all other occupa 
 tions. Beggary and genius have become the pro 
 verbial synonyines among the vulgar of almost 
 every nation ; and nothing is more distressing to the 
 green grocer or the butter merchant, than the dread 
 ful apprehension that his favorite son, Jacky, may 
 yet turn out to be a genius. 
 
 THE POOR. 
 
 The poor, it is written, shall never cease out of 
 the land, and for this reason, perhaps, if no other, 
 that charity is too precious a virtue to be foregone 
 in the exercise of those by which the proud heart 
 is to be kept modest and in subjection. 
 
 SOCIAL INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 The secret of social independence lies in ascer 
 taining exactly upon how little it is possible to live, 
 and in accommodating our expenditure to this stan 
 dard. When this condition is attained, there is no 
 wealth sufficiently great to persuade you to the bar 
 ter of a principle or feeling. 
 
 POPULAR POETRY. 
 
 The great majority of men have no sympathy 
 24* 
 
282 EGERIA. 
 
 with poetry or the fine arts. It is mostly an affec 
 tation when they assert their sympathy. The poetry 
 which ordinarily pleases, and enters into the general 
 sense, is rather the expression of a familiar senti 
 ment, which they can understand and appreciate in 
 common use, than the utterance and embodiment of 
 any ideal. Rhyme commends to them, in a portable 
 form, a commonplace which they acknowledge ; and 
 appeals, in this way, rather to their memories than 
 their tastes. The original poet has a phraseology 
 of his own, which offends the unfamiliar ear. This 
 accounts for much of the hostility of contemporary 
 criticism. Many of the passages of Milton and 
 Shakspeare, which we now find so precious and 
 happy, were discussed as offensive novelties, when 
 uttered first, and censured in due degree with their 
 freshness. 
 
 POLICY. 
 
 It is not so sure that he who hurrahs for nothing 
 will not gain something by any hurrah. Where 
 there is no enthusiasm there is apt to be cunning, 
 and he who lacks the impulses of a Scipio, may yet 
 be familiar with the most subtle policies of a Tal 
 leyrand. 
 
EGERIA. 283 
 
 DESERT. 
 
 We shall always find in our secret consciousness, 
 a sufficient justification for all the severities of for 
 tune under which we suffer. 
 
 MENTAL VISION. 
 
 The snail is not less a traveller, because his circuit 
 is small and his pace slow. The world always ac 
 commodates itself to the capacities of the creature. 
 He who has noted all within the compass of the 
 vision, is worthy to have circumnavigated the globe. 
 
 MORAL DEFENCE. 
 
 Of all defences, there is none comparable to 
 habitual insignificance. Obscurity is the seven-fold 
 shield of bull-hides, tougher than that of Ajax. If 
 anywhere assailable, it is only, like Achilles, in the 
 heel. 
 
 THE CRIMINAL. 
 
 Pliny, in one of his celebrated letters, says, that 
 though there may be some use in setting the mark 
 upon the criminal by way of example, there will be 
 more in sparing him for the sake of humanity. It 
 is not unfrequently the case that justice gains at the 
 
284 EGERIA. 
 
 expense of humanity. It does not unfrequently 
 happen that the laws, in the operation of penalties, 
 make great out of small criminals, by putting the 
 offender so entirely without the pale of civilization 
 and society as to render it impossible that he should 
 ever again be able to enter within it. The great 
 difficulty in the way of criminal justice, is so to pro 
 portion the punishment to the offence, as to make 
 the subject of its operations, himself, admit its pro 
 priety. By overstepping this limit, justice becomes 
 harsh and unnatural, and compels the criminal, not 
 uncommonly, into acts, proportioned in their extent 
 to the penalty he has been compelled already to 
 abide. Schiller has an admirable story, the German 
 title of which is " The Criminal, because of the 
 Operation of the Laws," that is to say, one, who, 
 though in the first instance an offender, has been 
 made, subsequently, a criminal, by the very laws 
 which have been enacted as a preventive of his 
 crime. In imitation of the Draco-like system of 
 Great Britain, our criminal laws not unfrequently 
 denounce the penalty of Cain upon the offence of 
 Jacob ; and the brand, which should be applied for 
 the taking of a brother s blood, is also oftentimes 
 the punishment for -partaking of a brother s pottage. 
 
EGEKIA. 285 
 
 SONG OF MARGARET. 
 
 The simple, but very touching story of Margaret, 
 in the "Faust" of Goethe, has been often admired, 
 and as often has the attempt been made at its trans 
 lation. The following effort to clothe it in English 
 verse, preserving all its rustic simplicity, is, I fear, 
 as little successful as any previously made. A per 
 formance, so lavish of feeling, yet so lacking in 
 thought, cannot be translated with advantage ; and 
 the attempt at a paraphrase would be wholly unjus 
 tifiable. 
 
 My peace is gone, 
 
 My heart is sore, 
 I shall never more find it, 
 
 Oh ! never more. 
 
 
 
 Where I see him not, 
 
 Is a charnel tomb, 
 And the whole wide world, 
 
 But a grief and gloom. 
 
 My poor, poor head, 
 
 Grows wild with thought, 
 My feeble senses, 
 
 Are all distraught. 
 
286 EGEEIA. 
 
 For my peace is gone, 
 And my heart is sore ; 
 
 I shall never more find it, 
 Oh ! never more. 
 
 I look from the window, 
 In search of one, 
 
 From the dwelling I wander, 
 For him alone. 
 
 His noble port, 
 His manly size, 
 
 His mouth s sweet smile, 
 And his searching eyes. 
 
 And then, of his voice, 
 The piercing bliss, 
 
 His hand s fond pressure, 
 And ! his kiss. 
 
 My peace is gone, 
 My heart is sore, 
 
 I shall find it never, 
 Oh ! never more. 
 
 How my heart struggles, 
 To clasp him here, 
 
 How could I fold him, 
 And hold him near. 
 
 And kissing him fondly, 
 
 I feel that I, 
 Clinging and kissing, 
 
 Could die, could die. 
 
EGERIA. 287 
 
 THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Did we exercise our affections as sensibly as our 
 passions, we should be the more perfectly masters, 
 not only of our happiness, but of our hearts. Of 
 these, however, we really know quite as little as we 
 do of those of other people, and it is only in the 
 ruin of our resources that we are informed of their 
 extent. 
 
 THE HEART. 
 
 The heart has its own season for maturing and for 
 fruit. In suffering that season to escape us, we 
 plant but vainly for the future. 
 
 OCCASION. 
 
 Occasion is the accoucheur of genius; but he 
 surely is no genius who is content to wait for the 
 occasion. 
 
 PATIENCE. 
 
 Are you slandered ? Be patient ; the viper will 
 sooner tire than the file. 
 
 TOO LATE. 
 
 " Too late" and "no more" are the mournful 
 sisters, children of a sire whose age they never 
 console. 
 
283 EGERIA. 
 
 CHARITY. 
 
 Men are always pleased to entertain the worst 
 opinion of their neighbors. The world will never 
 believe a man to be unfortunate, or a sufferer, so 
 long as it is possible to insist that he is a scoundrel. 
 
 PURPOSE. 
 
 There are some men whose purposes are so very 
 magnificent that it may be permitted them to at 
 tempt nothing. 
 
 MORAL COMPROMISE. 
 
 The compromises which conscience suffers between 
 vice and virtue, deny them both the advantages for 
 which they are entered into ; vice, never wholly in 
 possession of the enjoyment of the present life, as 
 certainly baffles virtue in its possession of the 
 future. But man is so essentially of two natures, 
 that it may be permitted him to hope that the sti 
 pulations of the one, may not be suffered always to 
 impair the conditions of the other. 
 
 EXCUSE. 
 
 Our individual philosophies are commonly nothing 
 more than the ingenious excuses which pride offers 
 for the wilfulness of all the other passions. 
 
EGERIA. 259 
 
 DREAMS. 
 
 Dreams seem to me to prove that the mind is 
 always awake and at work, and that it never par 
 takes of the sleep of the body. Our convictions, 
 which come to us like instincts, are thoughts which 
 we have reached in our meditations during sleep. 
 That we are conscious of our dreaming thoughts, 
 and that they are usually disjointed, only proves an 
 imperfect condition of physical repose. 
 
 YOUTH AND AGE. 
 
 The eyes of youth look into the heart of its 
 neighbor, while those of age must be content with 
 the melancholy survey of its own. The former 
 contemplates a palace, the latter a ruin. The one 
 sings like the mocking-bird at the dawn, the other 
 shrieks with the owl at the sunset. The one may 
 be likened to a river when first breaking away 
 through the fettering rocks, and leaping gladly and 
 triumphantly down the heights in foam and sun 
 shine. The other to the same river hundreds of 
 miles away from its place of birth, sluggishly creep 
 ing through marshy plains to subside finally in the 
 
 drear abysses of the morass. 
 25 
 
290 EGERIA. 
 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 He cares but little for the defence of the city 
 whose goods are yet in the forest and the field. 
 
 EQUALITY. 
 
 God may have made all men free and equal, but 
 I know not that he has ever promised to keep them 
 so. 
 
 APPLAUSE. 
 
 No doubt it were very grateful always to make 
 our exit with applause the awkward doubt com 
 monly is whether the applause is intended for our 
 playing or our departure. 
 
 BENEFITS. 
 
 That boon is the most precious which comes to 
 us in the moment of privation. The seasonableness 
 of the gift compensates for its poverty. 
 
 GRIEFS. 
 
 Great griefs consecrate their victim in the sight 
 of men ; even as the lightning, which was supposed, 
 in ancient times, to render sacred the tree which it 
 destroyed. 
 
EGERIA. 291 
 
 TEARS. 
 
 Were it not for the tears that fill our eyes, what 
 an ocean would flood our hearts. Were it not for 
 the clouds that cover our landscape, how insolent 
 would be our sunshine. 
 
 FOLLY. 
 
 The success which increases the fortunes of the 
 fool, brings due increase to his folly also ; and an 
 noyance makes that offensive which before was 
 only ridiculous. There is no animal so imperti 
 nent, as that which shakes its head loftily, totally 
 unconscious of its monstrous length of ears. 
 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 There never was a people yet who, having built 
 the temple, stood long in waiting for the priest. 
 The conscious wants of the people will always pro 
 duce the endowment. 
 
 NATURE. 
 
 The pictures of Nature are done in water colors 
 only, but how they mock that art which exults in oil. 
 
 WOMAN. 
 The woman who goes out from her sex is always 
 
292 EGERIA. 
 
 in danger. The true secret by which Virtue is kept 
 in safety, is never to be forgetful of its weakness. 
 The devil watches, with the eager interest of a pro 
 prietor, all that class of persons who confidently 
 say "I dare!" 
 
 RUINS. 
 
 It is but too frequently the case that we know 
 where a God has been, only by the ruins of his 
 altar. 
 
 ORACLES. 
 
 We apply to the oracle only in the failure of our 
 hope. Why call in the physician, when it is the 
 undertaker only who can be useful ? How sad are 
 the accents of that heart, of which we had no con 
 sciousness, until awakened to the truth by its dying 
 agonies ! How mournful that voice of counsel, 
 which rebukes us for having sought for it in vain ! 
 
 COUNSEL. 
 
 The world, which still cavils at the fortunate, as 
 certainly counsels the defeated. Exhortation is 
 quite as spontaneous and prompt as envy. The 
 vanity which breeds the one is equally fruitful of 
 the other. The same lips that denounce success 
 
EGERIA. 293 
 
 for its audacity, as confidently teach failure in what 
 its error has lain. Oh ! excellent, wise world, that 
 equally well understands how to censure both tri 
 umph and defeat triumph as it offends pride, and 
 defeat as it furnishes provocation to vanity. 
 
 GUILT. 
 
 The guilt that feels not its own shame is wholly 
 incurable. It was the redeeming promise in the 
 fault of Adam, that, with the commission of his 
 crime, came the sense of his nakedness. 
 
 VIRTUE. 
 
 How sublime is the virtue that still plants without 
 any expectation that it shall ever reap. He most 
 emulates the Deity who plants for future genera 
 tions. 
 
 FATE. 
 
 The same people who appeal to Fortune every 
 day, would suppose their religion monstrously out 
 raged, if you should insist also upon a Fate. Yet 
 Fortune, to be of any use to the supplicant, must 
 be Fate also. It is a very common infirmity among 
 men, to confound both of these with the Deity. 
 
294 EGERIA. 
 
 EXTRAVAGANCE OF HUMAN EXPECTATIONS. 
 
 The extravagance of our demands is continually 
 mocked by our necessities. How absurd that he 
 who lacks even his daily bread, and is at no time 
 sure of it for three days together, will yet indulge 
 in dreams of quails showered from the heavens ! 
 and yet, the very virtue of Hope, is to be found in 
 this very sort of illusion ; and poverty is solaced, 
 feeding upon a dream, in the absence of any more 
 solid viands. 
 
 MORALS AND PASSION. 
 
 No man writes, or feels, good morals who has not 
 had wicked thoughts. It is only by a knowledge of 
 the evil, that we can understand or appreciate the 
 good. Vice is the natural antagonist of Virtue, 
 through which she achieves her own superiority. 
 Were there no vice there would be no virtue ; and a 
 mere eulogy upon virtue in any volume, would be 
 excessively tedious. You must show the two in 
 contrast and opposition, if you would illustrate 
 justly the beauties of the one and the deformities of 
 the other. That inane existence, which has no 
 secret consciousness of evil which never suffers 
 
EGERIA. 295 
 
 from temptation never suffers from any goadings 
 of the secret adversary in our nature is perfectly 
 incapable of conceiving the high nature and the 
 necessities of virtue. Such persons only escape sin 
 from their deficient impulses of every sort. They 
 are persons who stagnate, rather than forbear 
 with whom apathy is the sole security against pas 
 sion. Their serenity is not in the superiority of 
 their virtue, but in the sluggishness of their blood. 
 It is in the absence of animation, not in the triumph 
 of conscience, that they find repose. Stagnation 
 is never purity; and it is a sad blindness of heart 
 that fancies, because of the sterility of its passions, 
 that its chastity is positive. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 A. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Acquisition, . . . . . .19 
 
 Action, ....... 37 
 
 Affections, The, ..... 75, 287 
 
 and the Passions, . . . 4G 
 
 Value of the, . . . . .44 
 
 Age and Youth, ..... 2S9 
 
 Aim, ....... 240 
 
 Aims of Life, ...... 23 
 
 Amateurs, ....... 278 
 
 Ambition, ..... 25, 74, 104 
 
 True, ...... 88 
 
 Amiable, The, ...... 24 
 
 America, Progress in, . . . . .01 
 
 American Character, ..... 12 
 
 Angel Spots, . . . . . .29 
 
 Angels, Child, ...... 201 
 
 Apologue Blind Seekers, . . . . .85 
 
 of Genius, . . . . . 13:2 
 
298 INDEX, 
 
 IMCE 
 
 Apothegms, . . . . . .15 
 
 Applause, ...... 290 
 
 Argument, .... . . . .207 
 
 Art tributary to Genius, . . . . 98 
 
 Atonement, . . . . . .... 53 
 
 Attachments, . . . . , ,197 
 
 Attributes of Love, . , . . V . 200 
 
 Attrition, ...... 90 
 
 Audacity of Evil, ...... 277 
 
 Authority, . . . . . . 14 
 
 B. 
 
 Base, The, . .. -V ; " . . . 279 
 
 Beauty and Joy, . . . . 245 
 
 Cunning of, . . . . .101 
 
 Bees, Privileges of, envied, . . . . 112 
 
 Beggary, Consolations of, . . . . . 208 
 
 Benefaction, . . . . . . 22 
 
 Benefits, . . . . . . .290 
 
 Beverages, Horace on, . . . . . 248 
 
 Birth of Truth, . . . . . .101 
 
 Blank Verse, . . . . . . 253 
 
 Blessed in Denial, . . . . . .107 
 
 Blind Seekers, . . . . . . 41, 85 
 
 Blindness of Malice, . . . . .80 
 
 Boeotia, . . . . . . 245 
 
 Books, . . . ".% , . .177 
 
 for the People, . . . . . 180 
 
 Bows and Beaux, . .... 272 
 
INDEX. 299 
 
 c. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cares, Petty, ...... 22:.} 
 
 Censure, . . . . . . IS, 179 
 
 Motives of, ..... 18 
 
 Certain Executioner, The, . . . . 185 
 
 Chance, ....... 23 
 
 Character, ...... 35 
 
 American, . . . . .72 
 
 Independence of, .... 27G 
 
 Charity, . .... 265, 288 
 
 Child Angels, ...... 201 
 
 Childhood, Tears of, 221 
 
 Children, Justice to, . . . . . 242 
 
 Choice between two Lives, .... 255 
 
 Christian Humanity, . . . . . 178 
 
 Coif, The, An Emblem, . . . . .1-40 
 
 Comfort, . . . . . . 240 
 
 Common Sense, ...... 82 
 
 Communities, . . . . . . 201 
 
 Compliment, A, to Humility, . . . . 260 
 
 Condescensions of the Proud, .... 37 
 
 Conditions of Liberty, . . . . .99 
 
 Confidence, ...... 35 
 
 Conquest, ........ 80 
 
 in Elevation, . . . . 41 
 
 Conscience, . . . . . .167 
 
 Conservatism, . . . . . . 15 
 
 and Progress, .... 237 
 
 Consideration, . . . . . 235 
 
800 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Consolation, 
 
 of Merit, . 
 
 Consolations of Beggary, 
 Constructiveness, 
 Contemplation, 
 Conventional Virtue, 
 Conversation, 
 Counsel, 
 
 Friendly, . 
 
 Out of Season, 
 Courage, Fortune due to. 
 Credulity, 
 Criminal, The, 
 Criticism, 
 Cross Purposes, 
 Crude Virtues, . 
 Cunning of Beauty, 
 
 Day Life, . 
 Dead Weights, 
 Death, 
 
 and Sleep, 
 Decay, National, 
 Decayed Politicians, 
 Deception, Self, 
 Definitions, 
 Deformity, 
 Deliberation, 
 
 D. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 35 
 235 
 208 
 171 
 
 87 
 267 
 207 
 292 
 
 30 
 
 39 
 279 
 179 
 283 
 
 19 
 185 
 210 
 101 
 
 95 
 
 234 
 
 37, 208 
 
 73 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 74 
 
 173 
 
 . 279 
 255 
 
INDEX. 301 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Delicacy, Feminine, . . . . .175 
 
 Denied, Blessed in, ..... 107 
 
 Dependence, ...... 7G 
 
 Depth of a Philosopher, .... 239 
 
 Desert, . . . . . . .283 
 
 Dcsperandum, Nil, ..... 143 
 
 Despotism, Social, . . . . . .27 
 
 Devotion of Purpose, . . . . . 196 
 
 Diffidence of True Merit, . . . . .261 
 
 Diffusion of Truth, ..... 49 
 
 Dinner, What for, ...... 189 
 
 Discovery, Enemies of, .... 97 
 
 Satisfaction in, ...... 2G4 
 
 Distinction, . . . . . . 21, 94 
 
 Purity of, ..... 32 
 
 Dog-Days, Politics in the, .... 268 
 
 Dolce Far Niente, ...... 246 
 
 Domestic Magnanimity, .... 143 
 
 Dramatic Pictures, ...... 180 
 
 Dreams, ...... 289 
 
 Dull Weather, . ... 198 
 
 Earnestness, ...... 233 
 
 Effect of Troubles, . 222 
 
 Egeria, ....... 13 
 
 Egotism, . . . . . . 243 
 
 Egotists, . ..... 54 
 
 Eminence, Penalties of, ... 170 
 

304 INDEX. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Friend?, Forgiveness of, 
 
 34 
 
 Self-esteem in, . . . . 
 
 172 
 
 Friendship, ..... 
 
 . 171 
 
 Forbearance in, . . 
 
 159 
 
 Rarity of, 
 
 . 17:2 
 
 Future, The, ...... 
 
 201 
 
 Hopes of the, .... 
 
 . 220 
 
 G. 
 
 
 Genius, ...... 
 
 . 75. 
 
 and Talent, ..... 
 
 52 
 
 Art tributary to, 
 
 98 
 
 Apologue of, 
 
 132 
 
 Fehninineness of, 
 
 . 203 
 
 Germs, ....... 
 
 1G9 
 
 Ghost?, ...... 
 
 . 280 
 
 Ghost-seeing, ...... 
 
 109 
 
 Glory, ...... 
 
 . 148 
 
 God and Fortune, ..... 
 
 41 
 
 Natural Idea of, .... 
 
 . 135 
 
 and Man, ...... 
 
 165 
 
 Gold and Silver, ..... 
 
 . 243 
 
 Good Servants, ...... 
 
 24 
 
 Advice, for the Fourth of July, 
 
 . 188 
 
 and Evil Genii, ..... 
 
 212 
 
 Government, ..... 
 
 43 
 
 Tinker?, ..... 
 
 251 
 
 Self, 
 
 . 2GG 
 
 Gratitude, . ... 
 
 235 
 
INDEX, 
 
 305 
 
 Gratitude, Social, 
 Great Names, . 
 
 Men, . 
 Greatness, 
 
 Ignorance of, 
 Grief, Remedies for, 
 Griefs, 
 
 Group, Relations in a, . 
 Guilt, 
 
 PACE 
 
 35 
 
 00, 178 
 
 . 2G6 
 
 270 
 
 228 
 
 47 
 
 . 290 
 180 
 293 
 
 Habits, 
 
 Habitual Impulse, 
 
 Heart, The, 
 
 Springs of the, 
 
 Heat and Health, 
 
 Help, Hurtful, . 
 
 Neighborly, . 
 
 Heresy, . 
 
 Highways, Roman, . 
 
 Home, . 
 
 Hopes of the Future, 
 
 Horace on Politics, 
 
 in Dishabille, 
 to his Lyre, 
 on Beverages, 
 
 Hostility of England, 
 
 How to Enjoy, 
 
 59 
 209 
 
 2G5-287 
 
 225 
 
 . 273 
 
 255 
 
 . 244 
 29 
 
 . 214 
 
 254 
 
 220 
 
 77 
 
 . 144 
 105 
 
 . 248 
 244 
 179 
 
30G INDEX. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Human Expectations, Extravagance of, . . 294 
 
 Frailty, ...... 82 
 
 Need, 150 
 
 Humanity of Love, ...... 73 
 
 Christian, ..... 178 
 
 Humility of Love, . . . . . . 32 
 
 A Compliment to, . . . 200 
 
 I. 
 
 Ideal, The, . . . . .- . 147 
 
 Idleness, . . . - ; . . 240 
 
 Ignorance of Greatness, . , . . . . 228 
 
 Iliad, The, . .. >. v . . . 245 
 Immortality, . -. . . . .71 
 
 Impolicy of Inferior Standards, . . . 217 
 
 Impromptu, . . . . . . 202 
 
 Impulse, Habitual, ..... 209 
 
 Imputation of Motives, ..... 252 
 
 Independence, ...... 39 
 
 of Character, .... 270 
 
 Social, ..... 281 
 
 Inequalities, ...... 50 
 
 Inferiority, ...... 50 
 
 Infirmity of Purpose, . . . . .234 
 
 Influence, Maternal, ..... 200 
 
 Innocence, Ingenuousness of, .... 204 
 
 Security of, . . . . . 31 
 
 Inscription, ....... 145 
 
 Indiscretion of Love, ..... 148 
 
INDIIX. 807 
 
 Insects, ....... 211 
 
 Insecurity of Vice, ..... 25 
 
 Instincts of Men, . . . . . .123 
 
 Investments, ...... 80 
 
 Irresolution, ...... 5G 
 
 J. 
 
 Jest, ....... 70 
 
 Journey, The Life, . . . . . .221 
 
 Joy and Beauty, ..... 245 
 
 Judgment, . . . . . . .197 
 
 Severity of, . . . . . 216 
 
 Justice, . ..... 08 
 
 to Children, ..... 242 
 
 and Right, . . . . . .275 
 
 K. 
 
 Kind Words in Season, . . . . 243 
 
 Knowledge, Self-, ...... 52 
 
 Labor, .... .52 
 
 its Value, . . . . . .150 
 
 Ladies, Sigh no More, ..... 227 
 
 Landscape, ....... 14G 
 
 Late, Too, 287 
 
 Laws, ....... 53 
 
 Fitness of, , . . . . 25G 
 
 Learn to Forget, . . . . . .134 
 
303 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Liberty, Rational, ..... 49 
 
 Conditions of, ..... 99 
 
 Life, ....... 83 
 
 Aims of, . >. . . . . .23 
 
 Kay, 95 
 
 Journey, The, . . . . . .221 
 
 Love, . . . . . .01, 141,207 
 
 Attributes of, . . . . . . 200 
 
 Humanity of, ..... 73 
 
 Humility of, . . . . . .32 
 
 Indiscretion of, . . . . 148 
 
 of Self, ..... . . . . 201 
 
 Loves, First, . . . . . . 174 
 
 Loving Wisely, . . . . . .190 
 
 M. 
 
 Magnanimity, Domestic, ..... 143 
 
 Major Noah s Cloak, . . . . 159 
 
 Malice, Blindness of, . . . . .80 
 
 Man, Elrror natural to, . . . . . 50 
 
 Manhood, ....... 224 
 
 Margaret, Song of, . . . . 285 
 
 Marriage Secrets, . . . . 17 
 
 Maternal Influences, . . . . . 2 GO 
 
 Memory, ....... 93 
 
 Men, Great, ...... 200 
 
 Instincts of, . . . . . . 123 
 
 of the World, . . 177 
 
INDEX. 309 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mental Vision, ...... 283 
 
 Merit, Consolation of, . . . . . 235 
 
 Diffidence of True, . . . . .201 
 
 Moderation in Progress, , 95 
 
 Modesty, 169 
 
 Mood and Will, ..... 60 
 
 Moral Compromise, ..... 288 
 
 Defence, . . . . . 283 
 
 Objects, 104 
 
 Progress, 202 
 
 The, of a Blot, . . . ... 95 
 
 Morals, . .... 15 
 
 and Passion, . . . . .294 
 
 of Sorrow, ..... 144 
 
 Morality, Popular, . . . . . .45 
 
 Motive and Pretext, ..... 49 
 
 Motives, Imputation of, . . . . .252 
 
 Motives of Censure, ..... IS 
 
 Music, 240 
 
 N. 
 
 Names, Great, - . . . . . 50, 178 
 
 National Decay, ..... 30 
 
 Pauses, . . . . . .48 
 
 Pride and Vanity, . . . . 51 
 
 Prosperity, . . . . .39 
 
 Native Soil, ...... 280 
 
 Natural Ideas of God, . . . . .135 
 
 Nature, . . . . , . 291 
 
 27 
 
310 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Necessities and Wants, . . . . .217 
 
 Necessity and Taste, ..... 34 
 
 Need, Human, . . . . . .150 
 
 Neighborly Help, . . . . . 244 
 
 Nil Desperandum, . ... . . . 143 
 
 Noah s, Major, Cloak, . . . . . 159 
 
 Nonpareil, The, . . . . . .274 
 
 Nothing in Nothingness, .... 142 
 
 O. 
 
 Obligation, . . . . . . . 21, 70 
 
 Occasion, . , . . . . 2S7 
 
 and Principle, ..... 220 
 
 " Odi d un Uom che Muore," .... 15G 
 
 Offspring, ....... 43 
 
 Old and Young, . . . . . 197 
 
 Opinion, Freedom of, ..... 47 
 
 Oracles, . . . . . . 292 
 
 Oriental Poetry, ...... 220 
 
 Origin, ....... 221 
 
 P. 
 
 Pacuvius, . . . . .- . .213 
 
 Paragraphs, . . . ., . . 235 
 
 Passion, ....... 208 
 
 and Morals, . . . . . 294 
 
 Faith, ...... 82 
 
 Passions, ...... 40 
 
INDEX. 311 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Passions, The, and Affections, . . . .40 
 
 and Virtues, ..... 207 
 
 Past and Present, ... .212 
 
 Patience, . . . .32, 287 
 
 Patriotism, 16,236,290 
 
 of Truth, 103 
 
 Pauses, National, . . . . .48 
 
 Penalties of Eminence, .... 176 
 
 Penalty, ....... 94 
 
 People, Books for the, .... 186 
 
 and Politicians, . . . . .225 
 
 Perfection, . . . . . . 81 
 
 Performance, 80,213 
 
 Perverse, The, ...... 191 
 
 Petty Cares, . . . . . .222 
 
 Philosopher, Depth of a . . . . 239 
 
 Philosophy of Selfishness, . . . . .34 
 
 and Poetry, . . . . 27 
 
 Phlegm, 168 
 
 Pictures, Dramatic, . . . . . 180 
 
 Pity, 226 
 
 Pleasure, 233 
 
 Poet, The, 26 
 
 Poetry, 80, 239 
 
 Oriental, 226 
 
 Popular, 281 
 
 and the Arts, 280 
 
 Poets, 1(57 
 
 Policy, 282 
 
312 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Politicians, ... 53 
 
 Decayed, . . . . .40 
 
 and People, . . 225 
 
 Politics, Horace on, .... 77 
 
 in the Dog-days, . . 268 
 
 Poor, The, . . . 281 
 
 Popular Morality, . . 45 
 
 Population, . . .. 034 
 
 Position, .., ^9 
 
 Poverty and Wealth, ... .. 38 
 
 Prayer, . .. ... t , ^ m _ 253 
 
 Prayers to Fortune, .. .. \. 23G 
 
 Presumption, . .. tm - ... 255 
 
 Pretext and Motive, .. ";. .. 49 
 
 Pride and Vanity, ... 01 
 
 National, . .. . . 51 
 
 Primitive Freedom, .... . 175 
 
 Principle and Occasion, . .. 226 
 
 Privileges of Bees Envied, .. ,. . . no 
 
 ^ogress, 45?81 
 
 and Conservatism, . . . 237 
 
 in America. . . . . 01 
 
 in Religion, . . . . 219 
 
 Moderation in, . . . . 95 
 
 Moral, . . . 202 
 
 Proof of Senatorial Wisdom, . 238 
 
 Prosperity, National, ..... 39 
 
 Secret of, . . . .261 
 
 Proud, Condescensions of the, . 37 
 
INDEX. 
 
 313 
 
 Punishment, 
 
 Punishments, 
 
 Purity of Distinction, 
 
 Purpose, 
 
 Devotion of, 
 Infirmity of, 
 
 Purposeless Thought, 
 
 Purposes, Cross, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 167 
 93 
 32 
 
 113,288 
 
 . 196 
 
 234 
 
 23 
 
 185 
 
 R. 
 
 Race, The, 
 
 Ranz Des Vaches, 
 
 Rarity of Friendship, 
 
 Rational Liberty, 
 
 Reason, 
 
 and Revelation, 
 Relations in a Group, 
 Religion, Progress in, 
 Remedies for Grief, 
 Remorse, 
 Resolve, 
 Reverie, 
 Revolution, . 
 Right and Justice, 
 
 Wrong, . 
 Roman Highways, 
 Royal Great Ones, . 
 Ruins, . 
 
 27 
 157 
 
 . 172 
 49 
 
 56, 181 
 26 
 
 . ISO 
 
 219 
 
 47 
 
 263 
 
 . 163 
 
 134 
 
 51 
 
 275 
 
 . 277 
 214 
 
 . 192 
 292 
 
 27* 
 
314 INDEX. 
 
 s. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Satisfaction in Discovery, ..... 264 
 
 Saxon Epigrams, . . . . . 125 
 
 Scepticism, . . . . . .44 
 
 Search, . . . . . . 173 
 
 Secret of National Prosperity, . . . .261 
 
 Secrets, . . . . . . 17 
 
 Marriage, . . . . . .17 
 
 Security of Innocence, . . . . . 31 
 
 Seekers, Blind, . . . . . 41, 85 
 
 Self-Deception, ^ . . . . 74 
 
 Esteem and Vanity, . ... 16 
 
 and Solitude, .... 173 
 
 in Friends, . . . . .172 
 
 Government, . . . . 266 
 
 Knowledge, ...... 52 
 
 Love of, . . . . . 261 
 
 Mirrors, . . . . . .197 
 
 Selfishness, Philosophy of, .... 34 
 
 Senatorial Wisdom, Proof of, .... 238 
 
 Sense, Common, ..... 82 
 
 Servants, Good, . . . . . .24 
 
 Service, ...... 34 
 
 Severity of Judgment, . . . . .216 
 
 Sigh no more, Ladies, . . . " . . 227 
 
 Sin, ....... 28 
 
 Sincerity, . . . . . . 210 
 
 Slavery, .... .20 
 
INDEX. 315 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sleep, ....... 96 
 
 and Death, ...... 73 
 
 Slumber, ...... 3G 
 
 Social Despotism, ...... 27 
 
 Gratitude, ..... 35 
 
 Independence, . . . . .281 
 
 Society, . . . . . 70, 89 
 
 for the Mind, . . . . .89 
 
 Soil, Native, ...... 280 
 
 Solitude, . . . . . . 28, 87, 215 
 
 and Self-Esteem, . . . 173 
 
 Song, 22 
 
 Sorrow, Morals of, ..... 144 
 
 Soul and Soil, . . . . . .164 
 
 Souls for Trial, . . . . . 137 
 
 Soul s Vision, The, . . . . .176 
 
 Spring and Fall, ..... 266 
 
 Springs of the Heart, ..... 225 
 
 Standards, Impolicy of Inferior, . . . 217 
 
 Stars, ....... 60 
 
 Statesmanship, . . . . . . 110 
 
 Struggle, ....... 88 
 
 Style, 232 
 
 Succor, ....... 108 
 
 Sukey Abroad and at Home, . . . . 241 
 
 Sun and Shadow, ...... 28 
 
 Superiority, ...... 55 
 
 Surface Virtue, . .... 71 
 
316 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Susceptibilities of Thoughts and Things, ** . . 242 
 
 Sympathy, ..... 37, 255 
 
 T. 
 
 Tact, 22 
 
 Talent and Genius, ..... 52 
 
 Taste and Necessity, . . . . .34 
 
 Teachers, ...... 178 
 
 Teaching and Training, ..... 222 
 
 Tears, . . . . . 45,265,291 
 
 of Childhood, . ^ . . . .221 
 
 Temperance, ...... 38 
 
 Things, Fitness of, . . . . , .233 
 
 Thorns, Wayside, . . . . - 173 
 
 Thought, Purposeless, . . . . .23 
 
 Time, ....... 142 
 
 Tinkers, Government, ..... 251 
 
 Tomtits, Uses of, . . . . . 211 
 
 Trial, Souls for, . . - . .137 
 
 Troubles, Effect of, ..... 222 
 
 True Ambition, . . . . .88 
 
 and False, ..... 102 
 
 Truth and Error, . . . . . .182 
 
 Diffusion of, . . . . 49 
 
 Patriotism of, ..... 103 
 
 Birth of, . . . . . . 101 
 
 Wholeness of, ..... 193 
 
 Two Lives, Choice between, .... 255 
 
 Tyranny, ....... 20 
 
INDEX. 317 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Uses of Wealth, . . . . . 44, ] 30 
 
 Tomtits, . . . . . .211 
 
 V. 
 
 Value and Price, ...... 55 
 
 of the Affections, .... 44 
 
 Vanity, . . . . . . .218 
 
 ^ and Self-Esteern, .... 1G 
 
 Pride, ...... 01 
 
 Veneration, . . . . . . 130 
 
 Verse, . . . . . . .211 
 
 Blank, . . . . . . 253 
 
 Vice, Insecurity of, ..... 25 
 
 Short-lived, ..... 200 
 
 Vigilance, . . . . . . .130 
 
 Virtue, . . . . . . . 293 
 
 Conventional, ..... 207 
 
 Female, ..... 197 
 
 Surface, . . . . . . 71 
 
 Virtues, ...... 24 
 
 and Passions, ..... 207 
 
 Crude, ...... 210 
 
 Vision, the Soul s, . . . . . .170 
 
 "Vive memor Lethe," ..... 1GG 
 
 Voltaire, . . . . . . . l ( Ju 
 
 Voluntaries, ...... 90 
 
 Vox Populi, ...... 07 
 
318 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 w. 
 
 Wants and Necessities, 
 Washington, . 
 
 Wayside Thorns, 
 Wealth, . . 
 
 a Danger, . 
 
 and Poverty, . 
 
 Uses of, 
 Weapon, 
 Weapons, . 
 Weather, Dull, . 
 Weights, Dead, 
 What for Dinner 1 ? 
 Wholeness of Truth, 
 Wife, The Good, 
 Will, 
 
 and Faith, 
 and Mood, 
 Wings, . 
 Wisdom, 
 
 Proof of Senatorial, 
 Witnesses against us, 
 Woe, . 
 Woman, 
 Woman s Favor, 
 World, Men of the, 
 Worship, 
 Wrong and Right, . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 217 
 
 109 
 
 . 173 
 
 19, 169, 277 
 
 . 275 
 
 38 
 
 44, 13G 
 
 243 
 
 . 271 
 
 198 
 
 . 234 
 189 
 
 . 193 
 240 
 
 121, 239 
 44 
 GO 
 26 
 
 . 163 
 238 
 
 . 216 
 127 
 
 173, 291 
 174 
 
 . 177 
 
 , 291 
 
 277 
 
Young and Old, 
 
 Youth, . 
 
 and Age, 
 Errors of, 
 
 INDEX. 
 Y. 
 
 319 
 
 PAGE 
 197 
 
 76 
 289 
 
 71 
 
 Zeal, 
 
 210 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C. SHERMAN, PRINTER. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 LIBRARY USE 
 
 SEP 5 1952 
 
 SEP 5^ W 
 
 MAR 17 
 
 Z003 
 
 LD 21-95?w~ll, 50(2877sl6)476