vanished dream,
and he bends toward his child, he takes his wife's hand and presses it.
He seems to invite these two to share his burden. Seeing tears in the
eyes of those he loves, his own seem diminished to that extent. It would
seem that moral suffering has the same effect as physical pain. The
drowning wretch clutches at straws; in the same way, the man whose heart
is breaking clasps his wife and children to him. He asks in turn for
help, protection, and comfort, and it is a touching thing to see the
strong shelter himself in the arms of the weak and recover courage in
their kiss. Children have the instinct of all this; and the liveliest
emotion they are capable of feeling is that which they experience on
seeing their father weep.

Recall, dear reader, your most remote recollections, seek in that past
which seems to you all the clearer the farther you are removed from it.
Have you ever seen your father come home and sit down by the fire with a
tear in his eye? Then you dared not draw near him at first, so deeply did
you feel his grief. How unhappy he must be for his eyes to be wet. Then
you felt that a tie attached you to this poor man, that his misfortune
struck you too, that a part of it was yours, and that you were smitten
because your father was. And no one understands better than the child
this joint responsibility of the family to which he owes everything. You
have felt all this; your heart has swollen as you stood silent in the
corner, and sobs have broken forth as, without knowing why, you have held
out your arms toward him. He has turned, he has understood all, he has
not been able to restrain his grief any further, and you have remained
clasped in one another's arms, father, mother, and child, without saying
anything, but gazing at and understanding one another. Did you, however,
know the cause of the poor man's grief?

Not at all.

This is why filial love and paternal love have been poetized, why the
family is styled holy. It is because one finds therein the very source of
that need of loving, helping and sustaining one another, which from time
to time spreads over the whole of society, but in the shape of a weakened
echo. It is only from time to time in history that we see a whole nation
gather together, retire within itself and experience the same thrill.

A frightful convulsion is needed to make a million men hold out their
hands to one another and understand one another at a glance; it needs a
su