a better if not a brighter
destiny did not await him in coming years. Meantime, those who would
avoid contemplating a scene of suffering like that which is to follow,
should remember with Seneca,--"He that never was acquainted with
adversity, has seen the world but on one side, and is ignorant of half
the scenes of nature."

Too many there are, even in this boasted age of benevolence, who are
thus ignorant of the scenes referred to by the ancient moralist--who
believe it a virtue to be rich, and that there is no sin but beggary.
"When fortune wraps them warm"--while their tables smoke with savory
viands, and the choicest wines distil their grateful aroma--they turn a
deaf ear to every sound of distress, exclaiming,

"----------------I am _rich_,
And wherefore should the clamorous voice of woe
Intrude upon mine ear?"

But we can forgive them, as their own worst enemies. They know nothing
of the luxury of doing good, and when they are called to make up their
last account, they will mourn that they have no investments in those
funds that never fluctuate--in that bank "where moth and rust doth not
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Let such
remember, moreover, that as they brought nothing into world, so they
can carry nothing out of it. And let it also be remembered, in the
language of another, that were there as many worlds as there are
particles of sand in our globe, and were those worlds composed of angel
gold; or were there any thing in the wide extent of the Almighty's
dominion, which is more precious than gold, and were those worlds
composed of that material, all melted into one solid mass, to fill the
coffers of a single individual, it would avail him nothing in procuring
the salvation of his soul, or in affording him happiness beyond the
brief period of his three-score years and ten!

CHAPTER XIV.

THINGS PROVE WORSE THAN WAS EXPECTED.

"And euery ioye hym is delaied,
So that within his herte affraied
A thousande tyme with one breath,
Wepende he wissheth after death,
Whan he fortune fynt aduerse."--_Gower._

"Ah, little think the gay, licentious proud,
How many pine in want, * *
* * * how many drink the cup
Of baleful grief, and eat the bitter bread
Of misery!"

Never in my life, in any place, or under any circumstances, had I
before entered a human abode of such perfect and entire destitution