ay;
And some sad morn may gild thy bier,
Long, long before another year!

'Another year! another year!
Oh! who shall see another year?
Shall you, ye young? or you, ye fair?
Ah! the presumptuous thought forbear!
Beside this church-yard's peaceful bounds,
Pause ye, and ponder o'er the mounds:
Here beauty sleeps; that verdant length
Of grave contains what once was strength;
The child, the boy, the man are here--
Ye may not see another year!'

While however we give to emotions like these their appropriate vent, we
are not called upon to forget that there is much that is inspiring and
delightful in the commencement of the year. The time-honored custom of our
metropolis has made it a point of peculiar radiance; a halcyon period,
when heart's-ease would seem to be the general feeling, and smiles the
social insignia. Then the visit is exchanged between friends whom perhaps
the departed year had somewhat alienated; old associations are revived,
and cordialities that had well nigh been forgotten are strengthened and
renewed. As the lip is wetted with friendly wine, the bosom expands in the
generous warmth of honest enjoyment; the cold formalities of factitious
station give place to undisguised welcome and open-handed cheer. The rich
and the poor meet together, and the spirit of pleasure is with all. As the
parties go their rounds, and familiar forms and faces appear to greeting
eyes, the _necessity_ of friendship and the desolation of its absence come
home to the mind. It is felt that comfort is lost when allied to
selfishness, and that it is good to be respected or beloved. And as those
meet between whom the year has passed in sullen estrangement; upon whose
anger many an evening sun has descended; a relenting spirit obeys the
mingled voices of Memory and Friendship: the kind resolve is made and
followed; so that instead of the thorn to goad and wound, there springs up
in the pathway of the Reconciled the olive or the myrtle. How sweet is the
sight of human goodness, struggling to surmount the petty passions which
discolor its beauty, and bending to the benign suggestions of that pure
and gentle principle, _peace with man_! Doubtless there are many severe
strivings with natural pride, before these ends can be reached; but the
new year awakens such throngs of conciliatory sentiments, that it is
impossible to resist them. The call is made; the oversight or neglect
explained; the breach is closed; and f