astern wind, and his motion made irregular
and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest,
than it could recover by the liberation and frequent weighing of
his wings; till the little creature was forced to sit down and
pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a
prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned
music and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the
air, about his ministries here below; so is the prayer of a good
man."

Again:--

"I am fallen into the hands of publicans and sequestrators, and
they have taken all from me; what now? Let me look about me. They
have left me the sun and moon, fire and water, a loving wife, and
many friends to pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still
discourse; and unless I list, they have not taken away my merry
countenance and my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they
still have left me the Providence of God, and all the promises of
the Gospel, and my religion, and my hopes of heaven, and my
charity to them too; and still I sleep and digest, I eat and
drink, I read and meditate; I can walk in my neighbor's pleasant
fields, and see the varieties of natural beauties, and delight in
all that in which God delights, that is, in virtue and wisdom, in
the whole creation, and in God Himself."

Here, Antony, is true wisdom. True, indeed, is it that no one can take
away from you your merry countenance, your cheerful spirit, and your
good conscience unless you choose; keep all three, Antony, throughout
your life, and you will be happy yourself and make everyone about you
happy, and that is to make a little heaven of your earthly home.

Your loving old
G.P.

9

MY DEAR ANTONY,

Some day, no doubt, you will read some of the celebrated diaries that
have come down to us. The best known of such books is _Pepys's
Diary_ which was written in a kind of shorthand, and so lay
undeciphered from his death in 1703 for more than a century. One of
its merits is its absolute self-revelation; for Pepys exposes to us his
character without a shadow of reserve in all its vanity; and the other is
the faithful picture it gives us of the time of the Restoration.

But, though less popular, _Evelyn's Diary_ is, I think, in many ways
superior to that of Pepys.[1]

There is a quiet, unostentatious dignity about Evelyn which is
altogether abs