re existence, and to die.

What a miserable being must an old bachelor be!--he vegetates, but he
cannot be said to exist--he passes his life in one long career of
selfishness, and dies. Strange, that children, and the responsibility
attached to their welfare, should do more to bring a man into the right
path than any denunciations from holy writ or holy men! How many who
might have been lost, have been, it is to be hoped, saved, from the
feeling that they must leave their children a good name, and must
provide for their support and advancement in life! Yes, and how many
women, after a life so frivolous as to amount to wickedness, have, from
their attachment to their offspring, settled down into the redeeming
position of careful, anxious, and serious-minded mothers!

Such reflections will rise upon a birth-day, and many more of chequered
hopes and fears. How long will these flowers, now blossoming so fairly,
be permitted to remain with us? Will they be mowed down before another
birth-day, or will they be permitted to live to pass through the ordeal
of this life of temptation? How will they combat? Will they fall and
disgrace their parents, or will they be a pride and blessing? Will it
please Heaven to allow them to be not too much tempted, not overcome by
sickness, or that they shall be severely chastised? Those germs of
virtue now appearing, those tares now growing up with the corn--will the
fruit bring forth good seed? will the latter be effectually rooted up by
precept and example? How much to encourage! and how much to check!
Virtues in excess are turned to vice--liberality becomes extravagance--
prudence, avarice--courage, rashness--love, weakness--even religion may
turn to fanaticism--and superior intellect may, in its daring, mock the
power which granted it. Alas! what a responsibility is here. A man may
enjoy or suffer when he lives for himself alone; but he is doubly blest
or doubly cursed when, in his second stage, he is visited through his
children. What a blessing is our ignorance of the future! Fatal,
indeed, to all happiness in this world would be a foreknowledge of that
which is to come. We have but to do our duty and hope for the best,
acknowledging, however severe may be the dispensation, that whatever is,
or is to be, is right.

How strange, although we feel in the midst of life we are in death, that
mortals should presume to reduce it to a nice calculation, and speculate
upon it! I ca