nd
not yet has he said to the year, "Do not attempt another spring--there
have been so many before, you can but repeat their beauties." Then why
should any mortal say to the poet or the author, "Do not try to
write--it has all been said before."

Proceed, my young friend, and write what is in your heart. Nothing quite
the same was ever in any heart before, and yet the greater part of it
has been in all hearts, and will be in all hearts, so long as the world
lasts.

Remember that when you write from the heart, it will go to the hearts of
your readers: and when you write from your head it will go no lower than
the head.

And if the critics score or ridicule you, consider yourself on the path
to success.

If you have a message for the world, nothing and nobody can prevent you
from delivering it.

He only fails who has nothing to say.

To Mrs. McAllister

_Concerning Her Little Girl_

How strange it seems that your daughter is ten years old.

It is such a brief hour since you wrote me you were eighteen and had
entered Vassar. Having no children of my own to stand as milestones on
life's highway, and keeping a very young heart in my breast all these
years, it seems at times little less than impertinent in the children I
have known to develop so rapidly into matrons and fathers.

I am glad for you that the doctor has reached the desirable goal where
he can rest from his laborious profession for two years, and take that
journey abroad you have so long contemplated. And I am glad that you
feel the satisfaction you say you do, in never having left him alone
for a whole season as you once thought of doing.

A satisfied conscience is a better comrade to journey along beside, than
a remembered pleasure.

But now about Genevieve.

You tell me she is to be left with your sister, and that she will, for
the first time, attend the public school.

You are right in thinking this will make her more American in spirit
than an education gained through home teaching or private schools.

The girl who attends private schools only, is almost invariably
inoculated with the serum of aristocracy.

She believes herself a little higher order of being than the children
who attend public schools, and it requires continual association with
people of broad common sense to counteract this influence. I know you
and the doctor have exerted this influence, but your sister might not
realize the necessity of making a special effor