ring himself, cheering or
reproving others, all facts are of the first importance to his conduct;
and even if a fact shall discourage or corrupt him, it is still best
that he should know it; for it is in this world as it is, and not in a
world made easy by educational suppression, that he must win his way to
shame or glory.

*****

A generous prayer is never presented in vain; the petition may be
refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, rewarded by some
gracious visitation.

*****

EVENSONG

The embers of the day are red
Beyond the murky hill.
The kitchen smokes: the bed
In the darkling house is spread:
The great sky darkens overhead,
And the great woods are shrill.
So far have I been led,
Lord, by Thy will:
So far I have followed, Lord, and wondered still.

The breeze from the enbalmed land
Blows sudden toward the shore,
And claps my cottage door.
I hear the signal, Lord--I understand.
The night at Thy command
Comes. I will eat and sleep and will not question more.

*****

It is not at all a strong thing to put one's reliance upon logic; and
our own logic particularly, for it is generally wrong. We never know
where we are to end if once we begin following words or doctors. There
is an upright stock in a man's own heart that is trustier than any
syllogism; and the eyes, and the sympathies, and appetites know a thing
or two that have never yet been stated in controversy. Reasons are as
plentiful as blackberries; and, like fisticuffs, they serve impartially
with all sides. Doctrines do not stand or fall by their proofs, and
are only logical in so far as they are cleverly put. An able
controversialist no more than an able general demonstrates the justice
of his cause.

*****

To any man there may come at times a consciousness that there blows,
through all the articulations of his body, the wind of a spirit not
wholly his; that his mind rebels; that another girds him and carries him
whither he would not.

*****

The child, the seed, the grain of corn,
The acorn on the hill,
Each for some separate end is born
In season fit, and still
Each must in strength arise to work the almighty will.

So from the hearth the children flee,
By that almighty hand
Austerely led; so one by sea
Goes forth, and one by land;
Nor aught of all man's sons escapes from that command.