th, whereon was none so joyless, so
sleepless as he. For his grave stood open near him; it was covered
only with the snows of age, not decked with the green of youth; and
he brought with him, from a long and rich life, nothing save errors,
crimes, and sickness--a wasted body, a desolate soul, a breast
filled with poison, and an old age heavy with repentance and sorrow.
The fair days of his youth at this hour, arose like spectres before
his mind, and carried him back to the bright morning, when his
father had first planted him at the starting-point of life; whence,
to the right, the way conducts along the sunny path of virtue, to a
wide and peaceful land, a land of light, rich in the harvest of good
deeds, and full of the joy of angels; whilst, to the left, the road
descends to the molehills of vice, toward a dark cavern, full of
poisonous droppings, stinging serpents, and dank and steaming mists.

"The serpents clung around his breast, and the drops of poison lay
upon his tongue, and he knew not where he was.

"Senseless and in unutterable anguish, his cry went forth to heaven:
'Grant me but youth again! O, father, place me but once again upon
the starting-point of life, that I may choose otherwise!'

"But his father and his youth were far away. He beheld wandering
lights dance upon the marshes, and disappear upon the graveyards;
and he exclaimed, 'These are my days of folly!'

"He beheld a star shoot through the heaven, and vanish: it glimmered
as it fell, and disappeared upon the earth. 'Such, too, am I!'
whispered his bleeding heart; and the serpent-tooth of remorse
struck afresh into its wounds.

"His heated fancy pictured to him night-wandering forms slow-creeping
upon the house-tops; the windmill raised its arm, and threatened to
fell him to the earth; and in the tenantless house of death, the
only remaining mask assumed imperceptibly his own features.

"At once, in the midst of this delirium, the sounds from the
steeple, welcoming the new year, fell upon his ear, like distant
church music.

"He was moved, but to a gentler mood. He gazed around, unto the
horizon, and looked forth upon the wide earth; and he thought of the
friends of his youth, who, happier and better than he, were now
teachers upon the earth, fathers of happy children, and blessed each
in his condition.

"'Alas! and I, too, like ye, might now be sleeping peacefully and
tearless through this first night of the year, had I willed so! I
to